Sodium carbonate

During solar salt production, large quantities of bittern, a liquid by-product containing high inorganic substance concentrations, are produced. The purpose of this research was to examine the utilization of waste bittern generated from salterns as a source for Mg production and as an absorbent for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture. The study was conducted in a sequential two-step process. At NaOH/Mg molar ratios of 2.70-2.75 and pH 9.5-10.0, > 99% Mg precipitation from the bittern was achieved. After washing with water, 100-120 g/L of precipitate containing 94% Mg(OH)2 was recovered from the bittern...

We present an experimental study on the formation and dissociation characteristics of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas hydrates using Raman spectroscopy. The CO2 hydrates were formed from sodium-chloride/water solutions with salinities of 0-10 wt-%, which were pressurized with liquid CO2 in a stirred vessel at 6 MPa and a subcooling of 9.5 K. The formation of the CO2 hydrate resulted in a hydrate gel where the solid hydrate can be considered as the continuous phase that includes small amounts of a dispersed liquid water-rich phase that has not been converted to hydrate...

A microporous hydrogel was developed using sodium alginate (alg) and 4-aminosalicylic acid (4-ASA). The synthesized hydrogel was characterized using various analytical techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance ((13)C-NMR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Additonal carboxyl and hydroxyl functional groups of 4-ASA provided significant lubrication and stress-triggered sol-gel transition to the conjugated hydrogel...

Chinese medicine residues contain abundant cellulose and hemicellulose, which are potential renewable carbon sources for ethanol production. The aim of the present study was to develop a rapid and reliable method to evaluate the cellulose and hemicellulose utilization in Chinese medicine residues. In the present study, key hydrolysates (arabinose, galactose, glucose, xylose, and cellobiose) of the cellulose and hemicellulose in fermentation liquor of Astragalus residues were simultaneously quantified by ion chromatography using an integrated pulsed amperometric detector (IPAD)...

Transition metal catalyzed C(sp3)-H bond activation in aliphatic compounds are of current interest. Lack of mechanistic insights on Ni-catalyzed C(sp3)-H activation using 8-aminoquinoline as a directing group motivated us to examine an interesting direct arylation of an aliphatic tertiary amide by using density functional theory. The catalysis employed Ni(II) pre-catalyst, 4-iodoanisole as an arylating agent, sodium carbonate and mesitylenic acid as additives in DMF solvent. Examination of a comprehensive set of mechanistic pathways helped us learn that the most preferred route begins with a bidentate chelate binding of deprotonated substrate to the Ni...

To promote the practical application of electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems, nonprecious electrocatalysts of low cost and with highly efficient performance in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are highly desired. In this work, a cubic sodium chloride (NaCl) crystal-templated strategy is proposed for coupling Co9S8 nanoparticles to nitrogen- and sulfur-doped carbon nanosheets (Co9S8/N,S-CNS) by facile pyrolysis. The nitrogen and sulfur dual-doped carbon nanosheets can effectively prevent the aggregation of Co9S8 nanoparticles and greatly improve the conductivity of the hybrid structure...

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) show great potential as alternative energy storage devices for next generation energy storage systems due to the deficiency of lithium resources. MoS2 is a promising anode material for SIBs due to its high theoretical sodium storage capability and large interspace for accommodating sodium ions with a larger ionic radius than lithium ions. However, bulk MoS2 exhibits a sluggish kinetics for the intercalation-deintercalation of sodium ions and large volume expansion, which result in poor cyclability and rate performance...

Sodium thiosulphate (Na2S2O3) films were synthesized on carbon steel substrates through solution deposition, and a film formation growth mechanism is delineated in detail herein. Dislocation-driven film formation took place at the lower concentration of Na2S2O3 (0.1 M) studied, where screw dislocation loops were identified. Interestingly, we observed the co-existence of screw dislocation spiral loops and hierarchically-ordered molecular assembly in the film, and showed the importance of hierarchical morphology in the origin of screw dislocation...

Treatment of the fungal meroterpenoid dhilirolide A (1) with either sodium azide or perchloric acid results in conversion of the dhilirane carbon skeleton of 1 to the 14,15-dinordhilirane carbon skeleton of the products 5-7, with and without concomitant transfer of an acetyl residue to form a C-9 acetate ester. The discovery of these transformations, which are vinylogous retro-Claisen-type condensations, suggests an efficient biogenetic route to 14,15-dinordhiliranes such as dhilirolide K (3).

It has been reported that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) serve as nucleation sites for the deposition of bone matrix and cell proliferation. Here, we evaluated the effects of multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) on bone repair of rat tibiae. Furthermore, because sodium hyaluronate (HY) accelerates bone restoration, we associated CNTs with HY (HY-MWCNTs) in an attempt to boost bone repair. The bone defect was created by a 1.6-mm-diameter drill. After 7 and 14 days, tibiae were processed for histological and morphometric analyses...

This study assessed a novel technique for removing nitrogen from digested organic waste based on a slow release of ammonia that was promoted by continuous mixing of the digestate and delivering a continuous air stream across the surface of the liquid. Three 10-day experiments were conducted using two 50-L reactors. In the first two, nitrogen removal efficiencies were evaluated from identical digestates maintained at different temperatures (30°C and 40°C). At the start of the first experiment, the digestates were adjusted to pH 9 using sodium hydroxide, while in the second experiment pH was not adjusted...

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide, with a wide spectrum of biologic behavior ranging from indolent low-risk disease to highly aggressive castration-resistant prostate cancer. Conventional imaging with computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and bone scintigraphy is limited for the detection of nodal disease and distant bone metastases. In addition, advances in the available therapeutic options, both localized and systemic, drive the requirement for precise diagnostic and prognostic tools to refine the individual therapeutic approach at various times in the management of patients with prostate cancer...

Inspired by the excellent absorption capability of spongelike bacterial cellulose (BC), three-dimensional hierarchical porous carbon fibers doped with an ultrahigh content of N (21.2 atom %) (i.e., nitrogen-doped carbon fibers, NDCFs) were synthesized by an adsorption-swelling strategy using BC as the carbonaceous material. When used as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, the NDCFs deliver a high reversible capacity of 86.2 mAh g(-1) even after 2000 cycles at a high current density of 10.0 A g(-1). It is proposed that the excellent Na(+) storage performance is mainly due to the defective surface of the NDCFs created by the high content of N dopant...

Sulfonated tire-derived carbons have been demonstrated to be high value-added carbon products of tire recycling in several energy storage system applications including lithium, sodium, potassium ion batteries and supercapacitors. In this communication, we compared different temperature pyrolyzed sulfonated tire-derived carbons with commercial graphite and unmodified/non-functionalized tire-derived carbon by studying the surface chemistry and properties, vibrational spectroscopy of the molecular structure, chemical bonding such as C-H bonding, and intermolecular interactions of the carbon materials...

The cofactor tetrahydrofolate (THF) is used to reduce, oxidize, and transfer one-carbon (1C) units required for the synthesis of nucleotides, glycine, and methionine. Measurement of intracellular THF species is complicated by their chemical instability, signal dilution caused by variable polyglutamation, and the potential for interconversion among these species. Here, we describe a method using negative mode liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to measure intracellular folate species from mammalian cells...

Vicinal diamines are a common structural motif in bioactive natural products, therapeutic agents, and molecular catalysts, motivating the continuing development of efficient, selective, and sustainable technologies for their preparation. We report an operationally simple and environmentally friendly protocol that converts alkenes and sodium azide-both readily available feedstocks-to 1,2-diazides. Powered by electricity and catalyzed by Earth-abundant manganese, this transformation proceeds under mild conditions and exhibits exceptional substrate generality and functional group compatibility...

Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GBFS) was used as a replacement material in marginal lateritic soil (LS) while class C Fly Ash (FA) was used as a precursor for the geopolymerization process to develop a low-carbon pavement base material at ambient temperature. Unconfined Compression Strength (UCS) tests were performed to investigate the strength development of geopolymer stabilized LS/GBFS blends. Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction analysis were undertaken to examine the role of the various influencing factors on UCS development...

A composite material (ZnO@MC) was synthesized successfully with one-dimensional Zn based coordination polymer as precursor through calcination. In ZnO@MC, ZnO particles with the size about 5 to 8 nm disperse evenly in mesoporous carbon matrix. Adsorption experiments illustrate, at pH 6.8, with 2 mg ZnO@MC as adsorbent, adsorption efficiency reaches 92.3 % in 5 mL hemoglobin (Hb) solution with concentration 100 mg*L-1. On the contrary, for bovine serum albumin (BSA) its adsorption can almost be ignored under the same condition...

Increasing population has posed insurmountable challenges to agriculture in the provision of future food security, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where biophysical conditions are not well-suited for agriculture. Iran, as a major agricultural country in the MENA region, has long been in the quest for food self-sufficiency, however, the capability of its land and water resources to realize this goal is largely unknown. Using very high-resolution spatial data sets, we evaluated the capacity of Iran's land for sustainable crop production based on the soil properties, topography, and climate conditions...

Attaining aqueous solutions of individual, long single-walled carbon nanotubes is a critical first step for harnessing the extraordinary properties of these materials. However, the widely used ultrasonication-ultracentrifugation approach and its variants inadvertently cut the nanotubes into short pieces. The process is also time-consuming and difficult to scale. Here we present an unexpectedly simple solution to this decade-old challenge by directly neutralizing a nanotube-chlorosulfonic acid solution in the presence of sodium deoxycholate...