Biomorphic silicon carbide stands as a new class of materials fabricated by reactive infiltration of molten silicon in carbonaceous preforms obtained from wood pyrolysis [1]. The basic material is a Si/SiC composite, in which the SiC forms a skeleton that replicates the wood microstructure and the unreacted Si fills the pores. Silicon can be removed from the composite creating a highly porous S...

A novel method is proposed to study the behavior and phase formation of a Si+C compacted pellet under centrifugal acceleration in a hybrid reaction. Si+C as elemental mixture in the form of a pellet is embedded in a centrifugal tube. The pellet assembly and tube are exposed to the sudden thermal energy of a thermite reaction resulted in a hybrid reaction. The hybrid reaction of thermite and Si+...

Molten salt CO 2 capture and electrochemical transformation (MSCC-ET) has been proposed as a sustainable synthetic method for Mn nanocrystalline inclusions in graphitic matrix, which paves the way to new methods produce composite materials.

Molten salt electrolysis is a proven technology for the extraction of metals -all the world's primary aluminum is produced in this manner. The unique properties of molten salts also make them excellent media in which to treat a variety of forms of waste. Of special note in this regard is electrolysis in molten oxides, a concept put forward by the author, initially as a "clean technology" for pr...

Novel boric ester-type molten salt was prepared using 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium chloride as a key starting material. After an ion exchange reaction of 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium chloride with lithium (bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide) (LiNTf2), the resulting 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium NTf2 was reacted with 9-borabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane (9-BBN) to give the d...

We studied the morphology of borosilicate glass surface machined by femtosecond laser pulses. Our observations show that a thin rim is formed around ablated craters after a single laser pulse. When multiple laser pulses are overlapped, the crater rims also overlap and produce a surface roughness. The rim appears to be a resolidified splash from a molten layer generated during the ablation proce...

Our recent experiments on the molten globule state and other protein folding intermediates lead to following conclusions: (i) the molten globule is separated by intramolecular first-order phase transitions from the native and unfolded states and therefore is a specific thermodynamic state of protein molecules; (ii) the novel equilibrium folding intermediate (the 'pre-molten globule' state) exis...

When were they discovered? As early as the 1960s, there was evidence that under certain conditions protein molecules might have properties intermediate between the rigid native and fully unfolded states. The concept of such a protein as an intermediate in protein folding was suggested by the late Oleg Ptitsyn in the 1970s. A compact, partly folded protein was first observed experimentally in th...

Currently no rapid immunoassays are developed to identify the species content of fat tissue in mixtures. We report a simple protocol enabling the effective detection of bovine fat in highly processed materials using a lateral flow (LF) immunoassay which targets a ruminant-specific muscle protein. A portion (50 gm) of muscle-free fat samples was rendered to separate the molten fat from the prote...

The concept of protein folding is directly related with the process of reversible disorder-toorder transitions, by which an unfolded polypeptide chain folds into a specific functional native structure (Eaton et al., 2000; Rose et al., 2006). For folding into a native state, unfolded polypeptide chains require the intervention of weak interactions. Driven by hydrophobic interactions, a polypepti...