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The products of 2-heptanone conversion by dielectric barrier discharge plasma are analyzed under different conditions: alternating current (ac) or pulsed mode of excitation, variable energy, variable composition of the carrier gas. The efficiency of the conversion is higher using a pulse excitation mode than an ac mode. With a small oxygen percentage (about 2-3%) added to nitrogen, 2-heptanone is about 30% more efficiently removed than in pure nitrogen, while the 2-heptanone removal decreases with an oxygen percentage higher than 3%. A new analysis method, based on chemical ionization mass spectrometry, is used for volatile organic compound detection along with chromatography. Several products issued from 2-heptanone conversion with ac excitation are identified in nitrogen and in air, and a chemical scheme is proposed to explain their formation and their treatment by the discharge. It appears that byproducts are issued not only from oxidation reactions, but also from C-C bond cleavage by collisions with electrons or nitrogen excited states.

Bioreduction of the well-crystallized ferric oxyhydroxide gamma-FeOOH lepidocrocite was investigated in batch cultures using Shewanella putrefaciens bacterium (strain CIP 8040) at initial pH 7.5 in bicarbonate buffer. The cultures were performed with formate as electron donor without phosphate, in the presence or absence of anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDS) as electron shuttle. During lepidocrocite reduction, the iron(II,III) hydroxycarbonate green rust GR(CO32-) was characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy. The AQDS accelerated the kinetics of GR formation. GR was the major end product when bacterial reduction was not stopped by lack of electron donor, and between 55 and 86% of the iron from gamma-FeOOH precipitated in GR(CO32-). However, when the bacterial reduction was stopped by freezing/thawing or the electron donor was exhausted, the large quantity of remaining lepidocrocite induced a transformation of GR into magnetite. This confirms that GR is metastable with respect to magnetite in the presence of gamma-FeOOH.