Non-isothermal kinetic analysis of thermal dehydration of La_2(CO_3)_3·3.4H_2O in air

The single phase La2（CO3）3·3.4H2 O was synthesized by hydrothermal method. The thermal decomposition and intermediates and final solid products of La2（CO3）3·3.4H2O from 30 to 1000 °C were characterized by XRD, FTIR and DTA-TG. The kinetics of dehydration of La2（CO3）3·3.4H2O in the temperature range of 30-366 °C was investigated under non-isothermal conditions. Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Friedman isoconversion methods were used to calculate the activation energy and analyze the reaction steps; multivariate non-linear regression program was applied to determine the most probable mechanism and the kinetic parameters. The results show that the thermal dehydration of La2（CO3）3·3.4H2O is a kind of three-step competitive reaction, and controlled by an n-order initial reaction followed by n-order competitive reaction（FnFnFn model）. The activation energy matching with the most probable model is close to value obtained by Friedman method. The fitting curves match the original TG-DTG curves very well.

Biomass-based production of trimellitic and trimesic acids

The production of industrial chemicals with renewable biomass feedstock holds potential to aid the world in pursuing a carbon-neutral society.Trimellitic and trimesic acids are important commodity chemicals in industry that are prepared by the oxidation of petroleum-derived trimethylbenzene.To reduce the dependence on the limited oil source,we develop a potential sustainable alternative towards trimellitic and trimesic acids using biomass-based 2-methyl-2,4-pentandiol(MPD),acrylate and crotonaldehyde as starting materials.The process for trimellitic acid includes dehydration/D-A reaction of MPD and acrylate,flow aromatization over Pd/C catalyst,hydrolysis and catalytic aerobic oxidation(60%overall yield).The challenging regioselectivity issue of D-A reaction is tackled by a matched combination of temperature and deep eutectic solvent ChCl/HCO_(2)H.Crotonaldehyde can also participate in the reaction,followed by Pd/C-catalyzed decarbonylation/dehydrogenation and oxidation to provide trimesic acid in 54%overall yield.Life cycle assessment implies that compared to conventional fossil process,our biomass-based routes present a potential in reducing carbon emissions.

Preparation of New Cementitious System using Fly Ash and Dehydrated Autoclaved Aerated Concrete

We experimentally studied the interaction between pozzolanic material（fly ash） and dehydrated autoclaved aerated concrete（DAAC）. The DAAC powder was obtained by grinding aerated concrete waste to particles fi ner than 75μm and was then heated to temperatures up to 900 ℃. New cementitious material was prepared by proportioning fly ash and DAAC, named as AF. X-ray diffraction（XRD） was employed to identify the crystalline phases of DAAC before and after rehydration. The hydration process of AF was analyzed by the heat of hydration and non-evaporable water content（Wn）. The experimental results show that the highest reactivity of DAAC can be obtained by calcining the powder at 700 ℃ and the dehydrated products are mainly β-C2 S and CaO. The cumulative heat of hydration and Wn was found to be strongly dependent on the replacement level of fl y ash, increasing the replacement level of fl y ash lowered them in AF. The strength contribution rates on pozzolanic effect of fl y ash in AF are always negative, showing a contrary tendency of that of cement-fl y ash system.

FexC enhancing the catalytic activity of FeNx in oxidative dehydration of N-heterocycles

To enhance the catalytic activity by designing metal particles combined with atomically dispersed non-noble metal catalyst is a huge challenge,which yet has not been studied widely in organic reactions.Herein,we describe a simple and efficient method to synthesize FexC combined with Fe single atoms anchored on the Ndoped porous carbon by regulating pyrolysis temperature.Aberration-corrected high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy(HAADF-STEM)and extended X-ray absorption fine structure(EXAFS)spectroscopy corroborate the existence of atomically dispersed Fe and the coordination number between Fe and N atoms.The Fe-N-C-800 catalyst exhibits the highest catalytic activity giving the 97%yield of quinoline in dehydration of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline(THQ)reaction at a mild condition(60C,O_(2)balloon),and it shows good stability with 80%isolated yield after five consecutive dehydration reactions.Moreover,density functional theory(DFT)calculations reveal that coexistence of Fe_(x)C and FeN_(x)structure exhibits high activity owing to the lowest adsorption energy of co-adsorbed O_(2)and THQ and the longest N-H bond length of THQ,that is because the existence of FexC induces the charges transfer.Our work may open a new route to design metal particles combined with atomically dispersed non-noble metal catalysts with high activity in organic synthesis.

Mechanistic Investigations into the Catalytic Mode of a Dehydratase Complex Involved in the Biosynthesis of Lantibiotic Cacaoidin

Dehydration of serine/threonine residues necessitates the activity of a dehydratase enzyme(domain)during the biosynthesis of RiPP.Recently,it was reported that dehydration in the thioviridamide pathway relies on a distinct dehydratase complex that showcases the activities of a phosphotransferase TvaC for serine/threonine phosphorylation and a lyase TvaD for subsequent phosphate elimination.Herein,we report that dehydration reactions in the pathway of lantibiotic cacaoidin involves a similar dehydratase complex,CaoK/CaoY.Remarkably,this dehydratase complex exhibits flexible enzymatic activity and tolerates significant variations in its substrate peptide sequence.By binding with the leader peptide(LP)sequence of precursor peptide CaoA,the dehydration reactions proceed in a directional manner from the C-terminus of the core peptide(CP)to the N-terminus,and C-terminally truncated variants of CP are acceptable.We show that fusing CaoK to CaoY in a 1:1 molar ratio enables the resulting enzyme CaoYK to exert enhanced dehydration activity.CaoK binds with the LP to improve its own solubility and to ensure the phosphate transfer activity,while CaoY functions in a manner independently of LP.This work advances our understanding of the dehydration process during cacaoidin formation,and provides useful enzymes and methods for the studies of the rapidly emerging RiPPs.