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The cost-effectively biomass-derived porous carbon is highly promising for usage in electrochemical energy storage as the electrode materials. Herein, a series of hierarchically porous carbons with biomass Chingma Abutilon Seeds as the renewable precursor were synthesized via KOH activation and high-temperature carbonization technique. The resulting carbon material possessed an interconnected structure, high specific surface area (120–3566 m2 g−1), hierarchical pores as well as the heteroatom-substituted functional groups. Based on the synergistic effect of the above-mentioned merits, the optimized material exhibited the remarkably electrochemical performance with high specific capacitance (389 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1) and excellent rate stability (72% capacitance retention at 20 A g−1) in the three-electrode configuration. More significantly, the symmetric two-electrode device assembled in 6 M KOH delivered a high energy density of 39.2 Wh kg−1 and excellent chemical stability (90% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles at 5 A g−1). Such prominent results might provide a new perspective on the value-added application of the renewable biomass resources in the electrochemical field.

Cellulose sponge was proposed to an attractive bio-absorbent owing to its highly efficient, low-cost, biodegradable, and renewable sourcing. In this work, the wasted cotton linter as raw materials, the highly porous and lightweight cellulose sponges were synthesized via a facile chemical crosslinking and freeze-drying process. The resultant cellulose sponge (CA) exhibited an interconnected three-dimensional porous structure through crosslinked with N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA), which was beneficial to remove organic dyestuffs. The effects of various factors including solution pH, contact time, initial dye concentration, and ionic strength on the adsorption behavior were investigated in detail. Herein, Langmuir isotherm models were selected to determine the adsorption capacity, and the maximum theoretical adsorption capacity for Methylene blue (MB) and Crystal violet (CV) was 123.46 and 76.63 mg/g, respectively. Particularly, the results of kinetic and thermodynamic tests showed that the adsorption performance was a spontaneous endothermic reaction and the adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic. Furthermore, cellulose sponges could maintain maximum adsorption capacity even after twelve cycles. Therefore, the eco-friendly cellulose sponge would be a promising adsorbent for effective wastewater treatment.

A Ni/Ce0.8Zr0.2O2 catalyst (NiCeZr-N) was synthesized by a facile co-nanocasting technique for syngas production from ethanol dry reforming. In addition, a series of characterization techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductive coupled plasma Emission Spectrometer (ICP), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman and hydrogen temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR) were selected to evaluate the physicochemical features of the as-prepared catalysts. Indeed, the results indicated that NiCeZr-N catalyst prepared by co-nanocasting method had a smaller particle size (

An innovative pre-competitive virtual screening collaboration was engaged to validate and subsequently explore an imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine screening hit for visceral leishmaniasis. In silico probing of five proprietary pharmaceutical company libraries enabled rapid expansion of the hit chemotype, alleviating initial concerns about the core chemical structure while simultaneously improving antiparasitic activity and selectivity index relative to the background cell line. Subsequent hit optimization informed by the structure–activity relationship enabled by this virtual screening allowed thorough investigation of the pharmacophore, opening avenues for further improvement and optimization of the chemical series.

This work mainly focused on the preparation of a low-cost, ultralight absorbent from renewable corn straw and filter paper via a facile and environmental-friendly approach containing high-shear blending and freeze-drying operation. The physicochemical properties of aerogel were thoroughly examined by several characterization techniques. The satisfactory hydrophobicity of the spongy aerogel was attributed to the formation of polysiloxane on the surface of methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) by the silanization reaction. Owing to its superior features, such as ultralow density, high porosity, desirable hydrophobicity, the corn straw based spongy aerogel exhibited a remarkable absorption capacity for both crude oil (36 g/g) and common organic solvents including carbon tetrachloride (CCl4, 45 g/g), dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO, 24 g/g), N, N-dumethylformamide (DMF, 45 g/g). This might shed light on the design of efficient adsorbent for oil spills and organic pollutants to meet with the sustainable development.

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Oil/water separation is a field of high significance as it might efficiently resolve the contamination of industrial oily wastewater and other oil/water pollution. In this paper, an environmentally-friendly hydrophobic aerogel with high porosity and low density was successfully synthesized with renewable pomelo peels (PPs) as precursors. Typically, a series of sponge aerogels (HPSA-0, HPSA-1 and HPSA-2) were facilely prepared via high-speed dispersion, freeze-drying and silanization with methyltrimethoxysilane. Indeed, the physical properties of aerogel such as density and pore diameter could be tailored by different additives (filter paper fibre and polyvinyl alcohol). Hence, their physico-chemical properties including internal morphology and chemical structure were characterized in detail by Fourier transform infrared, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, Thermal gravimetric analyzer (TG) etc. Moreover, the adsorption capacity was further determined and the results revealed that the PP-based aerogels presented excellent adsorption performance for a wide range of oil products and/or organic solvents (crude oil 49.8 g g −1 , soya bean oil 62.3 g g −1 , chloroform 71.3 g g −1 etc.). The corresponding cyclic tests showed the absorption capacity decreased slightly from 94.66% to 93.82% after 10 consecutive cycles, indicating a high recyclability.

edible starch sodium octenyl succinate (ssos) films, with or without glycerol as plasticizer, were prepared by solution-casting method. the effect of ssos concentration, degree of substitution (ds) of octenyl group, as well as glycerol content, on the properties of ssos films was studied including tensile strength, water vapor permeability (wvp), and oil permeability (op). the results indicated that the tensile strength of ssos film was up to 39.4 +/- 1.9 mpa when the concentration of ssos was 0.05 g/ml and ds was 0.05. the increase of glycerol content resulted in a decrease of film tensile strength. wvp of ssos films was relatively low. meanwhile, study in op showed that ssos films were oilproof. (c) 2012 wiley periodicals, inc. j. appl. polym. sci. 127: 2922-2927, 2013

The molecular aggregation state of a porphyrin-perylenediimide dyad can be changed by treating with trifluoroacetic acid. Transmittance electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that lamella microstructures were formed when the dyad precipitated from neutral solvent, but spherical nano-particles were obtained when precipitating from acidic solution. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the lamella microstructures and the nanoparticles were polycrystalline and amorphous solids, respectively. By using rational perylenediimide and porphyrin as reference compounds, careful analyses on the UV-visible spectra of the dyad and the references under different conditions were conducted and the results demonstrated that both the porphyrin and perylendiimide subunits of the dyad took J-aggregation in neutral solvent, but after being treated with trifluoroacetic acid and chloroform solution, the perylenediimide subunit changed to an H-aggregation while the porphyrin subunits changed to a random packing mode.

Visceral leishmaniasis is a severe parasitic disease that is one of the most neglected tropical diseases. Treatment options are limited and there is an urgent need for new therapeutic agents. Following an HTS campaign and hit optimization, a novel series of amino-pyrazole ureas has been identified with potent in vitro antileishmanial activity. Furthermore, compound 26 shows high levels of in vivo efficacy (>90%) against Leishmania infantum, thus demonstrating proof of concept for this series

The explicit-solvent molecular dynamic (MD) simulation and adaptive biased forces (ABF) methods were employed to systemically study the structural and thermodynamic nature of the beta-cyclodextrin (beta CD) monomer, phenanthrene (Phe) monomer, and their inclusion complexes in both the aqueous and membrane environments, aiming at clarifying the atomic-level mechanisms underlying in the CD-enhanced degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by bacteria. Simulations showed that beta CD and Phe monomers could associate together to construct two distinctive assemblies, i.e, beta CD1-Phe(1) and beta CD2-Phe(1), respectively. The membrane-involved equilibrium simulations and the data of potential of mean forces (PMFs) further confirmed that Phe monomer was capable of penetrating through the membranes without confronting any large energy barrier, whereas, the single beta CD and beta CD-involved assemblies were unable to pass across the membranes. These observations clearly suggested that beta CD only served as the carrier to enhance the bioavailability of Phe rather than the co-substrate in the Phe biodegradation process. The Phe-separation PMF profiles indicated that the maximum of the Phe uptake by bacteria would be achieved by the "optimal" beta CD:Phe molar ratio, which facilitated the maximal formation of beta CD1-Phe(1) inclusion and the minimal construction of beta CD2-Phe(1) complex. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.