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Cover illustration Targeting at the conflict between growth and production, a dual temperature control system is developed for yeast engineering based on the expression and activity control of the transcriptional activator Gal4, which acts as a switch to regulate the direction of carbon flux. Temperature change serves as an input signal to trigger the expression of the Gal4 mutant under a heat-shock promoter, and meanwhile to activate it due to its cold-sensitive featur [Detail] ...
Ethylene is an important feedstock for various industrial processes, particularly in the polymer industry. Unfortunately, during naphtha cracking to produce ethylene, there are instances of acetylene presence in the product stream, which poisons the Ziegler–Natta polymerization catalysts. Thus, appropriate process modification, optimization, and in particular, catalyst design are essential to ensure the production of highly pure ethylene that is suitable as a feedstock in polymerization reactions. Accordingly, carefully selected process parameters and the application of various catalyst systems have been optimized for this purpose. This review provides a holistic view of the recent reports on the selective hydrogenation of acetylene. Previously published reviews were limited to Pd catalysts. However, effective new metal and non-metal catalysts have been explored for selective acetylene hydrogenation. Updates on this recent progress and more comprehensive computational studies that are now available for the reaction are described herein. In addition to the favored Pd catalysts, other catalyst systems including mono, bimetallic, trimetallic, and ionic catalysts are presented. The specific role(s) that each process parameter plays to achieve high acetylene conversion and ethylene selectivity is discussed. Attempts have been made to elucidate the possible catalyst deactivation mechanisms involved in the reaction. Extensive reports suggest that acetylene adsorption occurs through an active single-site mechanism rather than via dual active sites. An increase in the reaction temperature affords high acetylene conversion and ethylene selectivity to obtain reactant streams free of ethylene. Conflicting findings to this trend have reported the presence of ethylene in the feed stream. This review will serve as a useful resource of condensed information for researchers in the field of acetylene-selective hydrogenation.
Novel near-infrared sensitizers with different anchoring groups aiming toward improved stability and efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells were synthesized. Adsorption of these dyes on the mesoporous TiO2 surface revealed the dye adsorption rate of –CH=CH–COOH (SQ-139)>–CH=C(CN)COOH (SQ-140)>–PO3H2 (SQ-143)>–CH=C(CN)PO3H2 (SQ-148)>–CH=C(CN)PO3H–C2H5 (SQ-157)>–PO3H–C2H5 (SQ-151)> –CH=CH–COOH(–PO3H2) (SQ-162). The binding strength of these dyes on mesoporous TiO2 as investigated by dye desorption studies follows SQ-162>SQ-143>SQ-148>SQ-139≫SQ-157~SQ-151≫SQ-140 order. The acrylic acid anchoring group was demonstrated to be an optimum functional group owing to its fast dye adsorption rate and better binding strength on TiO2 along with good photoconversion efficiency. Results of dye binding on TiO2 surface demonstrated that SQ-162 bearing double anchoring groups of phosphonic and acrylic acid exhibited>550 times stronger binding as compared to dye SQ-140 having cyanoacrylic acid anchoring group. SQ-140 exhibited the best photovoltaic performance with photon harvesting mainly in the far-red to near-infrared wavelength region having short circuit current density, open-circuit voltage and fill factor of 14.28 mA·cm–2, 0.64 V and 0.65, respectively, giving the power conversion efficiency of 5.95%. Thus, dye SQ-162 not only solved the problem of very poor efficiency of dye bearing only phosphonic acid while maintaining the extremely high binding strength opening the path for the design and development of novel near-infrared dyes with improved efficiency and stability by further increasing the π-conjugation.
Conflict between cell growth and product accumulation is frequently encountered in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. To address the growth-production conflict in yeast strains harboring the isoprene synthetic pathway in the mitochondria, the dynamic control of isoprene biosynthesis was explored. A dual temperature regulation system was developed through engineering and expression regulation of the transcriptional activator Gal4p. A cold-sensitive mutant, Gal4ep19, was created by directed evolution of Gal4p based on an internally developed growth-based high-throughput screening method and expressed under the heat-shock promoter PSSA4 to control the expression of PGAL-driven pathway genes in the mitochondria. Compared to the control strain with constitutively expressed wild-type Gal4p, the dual temperature regulation strategy led to 34.5% and 72% improvements in cell growth and isoprene production, respectively. This study reports the creation of the first cold-sensitive variants of Gal4p by directed evolution and provides a dual temperature control system for yeast engineering that may also be conducive to the biosynthesis of other high-value natural products.
Twenty six novel pyrimidin-4-amine derivatives containing the 1,2,4-oxadiazole motif were synthesized. Their chemical structures were confirmed by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), 13C NMR, and high-resolution mass spectrography. The insecticidal activity results indicated that some of them possessed excellent insecticidal activity (100%) against Mythimna separate, especially for compounds 6d, 6f, 6o, 6w, 6y and 6z. These compounds exhibited no activity against the insects Aphis medicagini and Tetranychus cinnabarinus. The structure- insecticidal activity relationships are discussed. Density functional theory analysis can potentially be used to design more active compounds. These results provide useful insecticide design information for further optimization.
Nanoparticles with high surface energy and chemical activity have drawn substantial attention in petroleum industry. Recently, Janus nanoparticles exhibited tremendous potential in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) due to their asymmetric structures and properties. In this study, a series of amphiphilic pseudo-Janus@OTAB (PJ@C18) nanoparticles with different concentrations of stearyltrimethylammoium bromide (OTAB) were successfully fabricated. The structures and properties of PJ@C18 were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and ζ-potential measurements. Based on the emulsification experimental results, the interaction models and the self-assembly behavior between hydrophilic nanoparticles (SiO2@NH2) and OTAB molecules at the oil/water interface were proposed, which was further confirmed via the measurements of the contact angle and dynamic interfacial tension. Interestingly, it was found that the change of pH value from 7.5 to 4.0 caused the type reversal of the PJ@C18-1000 stabilized Pickering emulsions. Furthermore, the PJ@C18-1000 stabilized Pickering emulsion system with excellent salt and temperature tolerances (10000 mg∙L–1, 90 °C) significantly improved the oil recovery in the single-tube (more than 17%) and double-tube (more than 25%) sand pack model flooding tests. The findings of this study could help to better understand the construction mechanism of pseudo-Janus silica/surfactant assembly and the potential application of PJ@C18-1000 stabilized Pickering emulsions for EOR.
Improvement of the low-cost transition metal electrocatalyst used in sluggish oxygen evolution reaction is a significant but challenging problem. In this study, ultrafine Fe-modulated Ni nanoparticles embedded in a porous Ni-doped carbon matrix were produced by the pyrolysis of zirconium metal–organic–frameworks, in which 2,2′-bipyridine-5,5′-dicarboxylate operating as a ligand can coordinate with Ni2+ and Fe3+. This strategy allows formation of Fe-modulated Ni nanoparticles with a uniform dimension of about 2 nm which can be ascribed to the spatial blocking effect of ZrO2. This unique catalyst displays an efficient oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalytic activity with a low overpotential of 372 mV at 10 mA·cm–2 and a small Tafel slope of 84.4 mV·dec–1 in alkaline media. More importantly, it shows superior durability and structural stability after 43 h in a chronoamperometry test. Meanwhile, it shows excellent cycling stability during 4000 cyclic voltammetry cycles. This research offers a new insight into the construction of uniform nanoscale transition metals and their alloys as highly efficient and durable electrocatalysts.
Crystalline materials with specific facet atomic arrangements and crystal facet structures exhibit unique functions according to their facet effects, quantum size effects and physical and chemical properties. In this study, a novel high-exposure (110) facet of bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) was prepared (denoted as BiOI-110), and designed as nanosheets rich in oxygen vacancies by crystal facet design and regulation. Graphitic carbon nitride was designed as curved carbon nitride with dibromopyrazine, denoted as DCN, which contributed to a significant structural distortion in plane symmetry and improved the separation of charge carriers. Novel heterostructured BiOI-110/DCN nanosheets with a high-exposure (110) facet and abundant oxygen vacancies were successfully designed to enhance the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. It was demonstrated that complete and tight contact between BiOI-110 and DCN was achieved by changing the size and crystal facet of BiOI. Oxytetracycline (OTC) and methyl blue dyes were used as targets for pollutant degradation, and 85.6% and 96.5% photocatalytic degradation efficiencies, respectively, were observed in the optimal proportion of 7% BiOI-110/DCN. The experimental results and electron spin resonance analysis showed that •O2– and h+ played a major role in the process of pollutant degradation. Additionally, high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrography was used to identify the reaction intermediates of OTC, and the possible degradation pathway of this pollutant was proposed. Finally, the excellent reusability of BiOI-110/DCN nanomaterials was confirmed, providing a new approach for the removal of antibiotics that are difficult to biodegrade. Overall, crystal facet design has been proven to have broad prospects in improving the water environment.
The solubility of Pd(NO3)2 in water is moderate whereas it is completely soluble in diluted HNO3 solution. Pd/MIL-101(Cr) and Pd/MIL-101-NH2(Cr) were synthesized by aqueous solution of Pd(NO3)2 and Pd(NO3)2 solution in dilute HNO3 and used for CO oxidation reaction. The catalysts synthesized with Pd(NO3)2 solution in dilute HNO3 showed lower activity. The aqueous solution of Pd(NO3)2 was used for synthesis of mono-metal Ni, Pd and bimetallic PdNi nanoparticles with various molar ratios supported on MOF. Pd70Ni30/MIL-101(Cr) catalyst showed higher activity than monometallic counterparts and Pd+ Ni physical mixture due to the strong synergistic effect of PdNi nanoparticles, high distribution of PdNi nanoparticles, and lower dissociation and desorption barriers. Comparison of the catalysts synthesized by MIL-101(Cr) and MIL-101-NH2(Cr) as the supports of metals showed that Pd/MIL-101-NH2(Cr) outperforms Pd/MIL-101-(Cr) because of the higher electron density of Pd resulting from the electron donor ability of the NH2 functional group. However, the same activities were observed for Pd70Ni30/MIL-101(Cr) and Pd70Ni30/MIL-101-NH2(Cr), which is due to a less uniform distribution of Pd nanoparticles in Pd70Ni30/MIL-101-NH2(Cr) originated from amorphization of MIL-101-NH2(Cr) structure during the reduction process. In contrast, Pd70Ni30/MIL-101(Cr) revealed the stable structure and activity during reduction and CO oxidation for a long time.
The production of solar fuels via the photoreduction of carbon dioxide to methane by titanium oxide is a promising process to control greenhouse gas emissions and provide alternative renewable fuels. Although several reaction mechanisms have been proposed, the detailed steps are still ambiguous, and the limiting factors are not well defined. To improve our understanding of the mechanisms of carbon dioxide photoreduction, a multiphysics model was developed using COMSOL. The novelty of this work is the computational fluid dynamic model combined with the novel carbon dioxide photoreduction intrinsic reaction kinetic model, which was built based on three-steps, namely gas adsorption, surface reactions and desorption, while the ultraviolet light intensity distribution was simulated by the Gaussian distribution model and Beer-Lambert model. The carbon dioxide photoreduction process conducted in a laboratory-scale reactor under different carbon dioxide and water moisture partial pressures was then modeled based on the intrinsic kinetic model. It was found that the simulation results for methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen yield match the experiments in the concentration range of 10−4 mol·m–3 at the low carbon dioxide and water moisture partial pressure. Finally, the factors of adsorption site concentration, adsorption equilibrium constant, ultraviolet light intensity and temperature were evaluated.
