Novel Vesicular Aqueous Two-Phase Systems

The interesting phenopmena of two aqueous phases coexisting in dilute aqueous solutions of sodium undecenoate-dodecyltrimethylammo brodride ndxture and sodium laurate-dodecyltrimethylammonium brondde mixture were investigated. Vesicles existing in both phases were shown by TEM images. The vesicles are dispersed in lower phase and flocculated in upper phase. Multilamellar structure of vesicles was found in the upper phase of sodium laurate-dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide system.

Adsorption of Toluene on Film Membranes of Chitosan/Nа-CMC

The sorption properties of films on bases of chitosan and sodium carboxyl methylcellulose (Na-CMC) with toluene have been checked. The sorption rate, sorption thermodynamics and isothermal properties of toluene molecules in chitosan/Na-CMC films are analyzed by adsorption-calorimetric method. Thus, it was found that toluene is adsorbed on the chitosan/Na-CMC film by the same patterns of sorption of aromatic compounds, due to the process of penetration of toluene molecules into the network of chitosan macromolecules and this is preceded by the absorption process by the surface of the chitosan/Na-CMC film.

A general synthetic strategy to monolayer graphene

The emergence and establishment of new techniques for material fabrication are of fundamental importance in the development of materials science. Thus, we herein report a general synthetic strategy for the preparation of monolayer graphene. This novel synthetic method is based on the direct solid-state pyrolytic conversion of a sodium carboxylate, such as sodium gluconate or sodium citrate, into monolayer graphene in the presence of Na2CO3. In addition, gram-scale quantities of the graphene product can be readily prepared in several minutes. Analysis using Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy clearly demonstrates that the pyrolytic graphene is composed of a monolayer with an average thickness of - 0.50 nm. Thus, the present pyrolytic conversion can overcome the issue of the low monolayer contents （i.e., 1 wt.%-12 wt.%） obtained using exfoliation methods in addition to the low yields of chemical vapor deposition methods. We expect that this novel technique may be suitable for application in the preparation of monolayer graphene materials for batteries, supercapacitors, catalysts, and sensors.