Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Cellulose with Different Crystallinities Studied by Means of SEC-MALLS

The reactions of exo-cellulase （cellobiohydrolase, CBH） and endo-cellulase （endoglucanase, EG） were investigated by analyzing the insoluble residues of microcrystalline cellulose （MCC） and filter paper cellulose （FPC） during enzymatic hydrolysis. Molecular parameters including molecular weight and its distribution, degree of polymerization, and radii of gyration were measured by size exclusion chromatography coupled with multi-angle laser light scattering. No significant change in MCC chains was found during the whole reaction period, indicating that CBH digestion follows a layer-by-layer solubilization manner. This reaction mode might be the major reason for slow enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. On the other hand, the degree of polymerization of FPC chains decreases rapidly in the initial reaction, indicating that EG digestion follows a random scission manner, which may create new ends for CBH easily. The slopes of the conformation plots for MCC and FPC increase gradually, indicating stronger chain stiffness of cellulose during hvdrolvsis

Effects of organic acids on heavy metal release or immobilization in contaminated soil

In order to explicit the environmental activity of heavy metals affected by different organic acids in soil,a batch incubation experiment was explored to investigate the influence of high relative molecular mass organic acid(HMWOA)(humic acid and fulvic acid)and low relative molecular mass organic acid(LMWOA)(threonic acid and oxalic acid)on the release or immobilization of Pb,Cu and Cd in soils.Results showed that LMWOA,especially threonic acid,had a good performance in the release of Pb,Cu and Cd from soils,and decrease in the fractions of HOAc-extractable,reducible and oxidable Pb,Cu and Cd.Conversely,HMWOA,especially humic acid,decreased the release of Pb,Cu and Cd,while it increased the fractions of HOAc-extractable,reducible and oxidable Pb,Cu and Cd,indicating that HMWOA can immobilize heavy metals.The release of Pb,Cu and Cd caused by LMWOA was attributed to the dissociation of soil organic matter and amorphous iron oxides since the total organic carbon and the water-soluble iron increased.The immobilization of Pb,Cu and Cd by HMWOA was attributed to the adsorption onto HMWOA followed by amorphous iron since HMWOA resulted in a significant decrease of zeta potential and an increase of amorphous iron oxide.It can be concluded that LMWOA has a potential application in soil washing remediation,while HMWOA can be used in the immobilization remediation for heavy metals contaminated soils.

Relative Molecular Mass Distribution of BG Resins

Benzoguanamine formaldehyde (BG F) resins are a class of amino resins, which are important cross linking agents for epoxy, alkyol and acrylic resins, etc. The cross linking performance is the best one when the polymerization degree is 2 4. This paper discusses the effects of the pH value for polycondensation and the formaldehyde to benzoguanamine mole ratio in a methanol system, and compares the relative molecular mass distribution using the Flory statistics method.