This paper argues that Information Technology (IT) needs to be demystified, through critical consciousness, for educators to focus on IT as a means to enhance learning. It goes on to define the technical, sociohistorical and political-ideological levels of IT and to identify four theoretical constructs: tutorial, machine-as-human, tool kit and catalyst. Pervading these constructs is the underst...

Impregnated mesoporous carbon aerogels serve as novel catalysts for the first time with respect to low-temperature oxidation of H(2)S to elemental sulfur, and exhibit particularly high activity (up to 3 g sulfur per gram of catalyst) and high selectivity.

The present work describes a reactor that allows in situ measurements of spatially resolved kinetic data in heterogeneous catalysis. The reactor design allows measurements up to temperatures of 1300 degrees C and 45 bar pressure, i.e., conditions of industrial relevance. The reactor involves reactants flowing through a solid catalyst bed containing a sampling capillary with a side sampling orif...

Methanol has become a widely used and globally distributed product. Methanol is very important due to the current depletion of fossil fuels. Industrially, methanol was produced from the catalytic reaction of synthetic gas composed of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Methanol production has brought great attention due to the carbon dioxide as the main source of greenhouse gas emiss...

The growth of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWNTs) on flat substrates is essential for the application of SWNTs in electronic and optoelectronic devices. We developed a flexible strategy to selectively grow s-SWNTs on silicon substrates using a ceria-supported iron or cobalt catalysts. Ceria, which stores active oxygen, plays a crucial role in the selective growth process by ...

Introduction During catalytic hydrogenation of vegetable oils, some of the naturally occurring cis double bonds are isomerized to trans fatty acids (TFA). High levels of trans fats in the diet are linked to higher occurrence of coronary health diseases [1]. However, all trans fatty acids are not harmful, some conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers are reported to have anticarcinogenic, -atherog...

This work outlines a synthetic strategy inducing the microwave-assisted synthesis of palladium (Pd) nanocrystals on a graphite sphere (GS) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) supports, forming the Pd catalysts for non-enzymatic glucose oxidation reaction (GOR). The pulse microwave approach takes a short period (i.e., 10 min) to fast synthesize Pd nanocrystals onto a carbon support at 150 °C. The s...

The enantioselective fluorination of readily available cyclic allylic chlorides with AgF has been accomplished using a Pd(0) catalyst and Trost bisphosphine ligand. The reactions proceed with unprecedented ease of operation for Pd-mediated nucleophilic fluorination, allowing access to highly enantioenriched cyclic allylic fluorides that bear diverse functional groups. Evidence that supports a m...

A facile synthesis of rose-like Pd-Fe3O4 nanocomposites via controlled thermal decomposition of Fe(CO)5 and reduction of Pd(OAc)2, followed by the immobilization of Au nanoparticles (NPs) onto the Pd-Fe3O4 supports, is reported. The morphology of these hybrid nanostructures could be easily controlled by varying the amount of Fe(CO)5 and the reaction temperature. Moreover, the synthesized Au/Pd-...

The heterogeneously catalyzed selective-hydrogenation of citral is one of the more feasible ways for obtaining its appreciated unsaturated-alcohols, nerol and geraniol, which are present in over 250 essential oils. Thus, citral has very recently come to be produced petro-chemically in very large quantities, and so partial hydrogenation of citral has become a very economical route for the produc...