An integrated strategy was followed to valorise rice straw, one of the most relevant biomass feedstocks available worldwide, to selectively recover solubilised hemicelluloses and lignin. The pathway encompassed the use of autohydrolysis to hydrolyse the hemicelluloses and an ethanol-based organosolv process to solubilise lignin. Several autohydrolysis conditions were assayed with the best resul...

Microemulsions are dispersions of water and oil stabilized by one or mixtures of surfactants. The key differentiators from other dispersions are: (i) domain size of the dispersed phase is of the order of 5-100 nm in size (Schulmann et al., 1959); (ii) thermodynamically stable (Zana, 1994), and (iii) optically isotropic (Danielsson and Lindman, 1981). Commonly observed structures are: oil in wat...

Biofilms are recognised as an important contributor to bacterial resistance towards traditional antimicrobial treatments. Assessment of biofilm formation currently relies on a 96 well microtitre plate assay, which usually involves the colourimetric detection of stain (typically crystal violet) removed from previously stained biofilm. The amount of crystal violet released is then used as a quant...

NiTi alloys used for orthodontic applications need to show superelastic characteristics at room and oral temperatures. The ideal scenario is that where the material has a final austenitic phase transformation value below the room temperature. This study aims at understanding the influence of the ageing treatments in the austenitic structure at room temperature on a wire of a Ni-rich NiTi alloy ...

We have investigated whether jejunal hyperacidity leads to bile acid precipitation and thus limits lipid solubilisation in patients with pancreatic steatorrhoea. Jejunal contents from 12 adults with steatorrhoea due to cystic fibrosis were aspirated for three hours after a liquid test meal, and pooled according to their pH. Thirty eight per cent of the total aspirate was collected at pH less th...

Alkali treated Citrus limetta peels were used for recovery of Ga(III) from its aqueous solution. The raw and alkali treated peels were characterized for functional groups. The efficiency of adsorption increased from 47.62 mg/g for raw peels to 83.33 mg/g for alkali treated peels. Between pH 1 and 3, the adsorption increased and thereafter decreased drastically. The adsorption followed pseudosec...

Sugarcane bagasse was delignified with alkali and peracetic acid in a two-stage process to obtain pulps with high yield and low kappa number. The experimental results indicated that alkali pretreatment prior to peracetic acid (PAA) delignification could significantly reduce PAA loading by partially removing lignin and swelling the fibers. An optimum condition for the two-stage delignification w...

The effects of excess electronic charges transferred from alkali metals to Se atoms on the chain structure in liquid RbxSe1−x for x 0.5 are investigated by means of ab initio molecular-dynamics simulations. It is found that the interaction between Se chains is enhanced by the transferred electrons, and that the average length of Se chains becomes shorter with increasing alkali-metal concentrati...

The efficient citral hydrogenation was achieved in aqueous media using Pd/CMS and alkali additives like K2CO3. The alkali concentrations, reaction temperature and the Pd metal content were optimized to enhance the citral hydrogenation under aqueous media. In the absence of alkali, citral hydrogenation was low and addition of alkali promoted to ~92% hydrogenation without reduction in the selecti...