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[pt] Alguns óleos crus brasileiros formam emulsões estáveis, mesmo contendo baixo teor de asfaltenos, os quais são reconhecidos como os principais surfactantes naturais do petróleo. Este trabalho visou compreender os fatores que contribuem na formação e estabilização dessas emulsões através da caracterização de frações com atividade interfacial: os materiais interfaciais (IM) e os ácidos naftênicos (NA). Para isso, tais frações foram extraídas de três óleos crus brasileiros com API entre 21 e 30 graus, permitindo a caracterização da sua composição química e estrutura coloidal. Além disso, estas frações e os óleos residuais de suas extrações foram usados para preparar emulsões água-em-óleo (A/O). A caracterização química realizada por análise elementar, espectroscopia de infravermelho, ressonância magnética nuclear e espectrometria de massas, mostrou que os IM podem ser compostos por saturados, aromáticos, resinas e asfaltenos e NA por saturados e aromáticos. Porém, são enriquecidos em compostos aromáticos e com grupos polares, como ácidos carboxílicos, aminas, sulfóxidos e sulfônicos, em relação aos seus óleos de origem. Ainda assim, a fração de NA não apresentou um papel relevante nas emulsões. Já os compostos anfifílicos presentes nos IM são capazes de formar agregados coloidais caracterizados pela técnica de espalhamento de raios X a baixos ângulos (SAXS) e promover a formação de emulsões, mas não são suficientes para garantir sua estabilização. A remoção dos IM aumentou a auto-organização dos agregados no óleo cru residual e a estabilidade das emulsões, o que parece ter mais relação com propriedades reológicas do que com a atividade interfacial dos compostos. / [en] Some Brazilian crude oils form stable emulsions, even containing alow content of asphaltenes, recognized as the main natural surfactants in petroleum. This work aimed to understand the factors contributing to theformation and stabilization of these emulsions through the characterization of fractions with possible interfacial activity: interfacial materials (IM) and naphthenic acids (NA). For this, these fractions were extracted from three Brazilian crude oils with API between 21 and 30 degrees, allowing the characterization of their chemical composition and colloidal structure. Furthermore, these fractions and the residual oils from their extractions were used to prepare water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions. Chemical characterization carried out by elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and mass spectrometry, showed that IM can be composed of saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes and NA by saturates and aromatics. However, they are enriched in aromatic compounds and polar groups, such as carboxylic acids, amines, sulfoxides,and sulfonic acids, concerning their original oils. Nevertheless, the NAfraction did not play a relevant role in emulsions. The amphiphilic compounds present in IM can form colloidal aggregates characterized by the small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) technique and promote the formation of emulsions. Still, they are not sufficient to guarantee their stabilization. The removal of IM increased the self-organization of aggregates in the residual crude oil and the stability of emulsions, which seems to be more related to rheological properties than to the interfacial activity of the compounds.

The thesis concerns the mathematical study of the calculus of variations and its application to liquid crystals. In the first chapter we examine vectorial problems in the calculus of variations with an additional pointwise constraint so that any admissible function <strong>n</strong> ε W^1,1(ΩM), and M is a manifold of suitable regularity. We formulate necessary and sufficient conditions for any given state <strong>n</strong> to be a strong or weak local minimiser of I. This is achieved using a nearest point projection mapping in order to use the more classical results which apply in the absence of a constraint. In the subsequent chapters we study various static continuum theories of liquid crystals. More specifically we look to explain a particular cholesteric fingerprint pattern observed by HP Labs. We begin in Chapter 2 by focusing on a specific cholesteric liquid crystal problem using the theory originally derived by Oseen and Frank. We find the global minimisers for general elastic constants amongst admissible functions which only depend on a single variable. Using the one-constant approximation for the Oseen-Frank free energy, we then show that these states are global minimisers of the three-dimensional problem if the pitch of the cholesteric liquid crystal is sufficiently long. Chapter 3 concerns the application of the results from the first chapter to the situations investigated in the second. The local stability of the one-dimensional states are quantified, analytically and numerically, and in doing so we unearth potential shortcomings of the classical Oseen-Frank theory. In Chapter 4, we ascertain some equivalence results between the continuum theories of Oseen and Frank, Ericksen, and Landau and de Gennes. We do so by proving lifting results, building on the work of Ball and Zarnescu, which relate the regularity of line and vector fields. The results prove to be interesting as they show that for a director theory to respect the head to tail symmetry of the liquid crystal molecules, the appropriate function space for the director field is S BV² (Ω,S<sup>2,/sup>). We take this idea and in the final chapter we propose a mathematical model of liquid crystals based upon the Oseen-Frank free energy but using special functions of bounded variation. We establish the existence of a minimiser, forms of the Euler-Lagrange equation, and find solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equation in some simple cases. Finally we use our proposed model to re-examine the same problems from Chapter 2. By doing so we extend the analysis we were able to achieve using Sobolev spaces and predict the existence of multi-dimensional minimisers consistent with the known experimental properties of high-chirality cholesteric liquid crystals.

Dans ce travail nous étudions l’élaboration, la caractérisation et les applications de différents matériaux poreux. L’étude est organisée en trois parties majeures: la synthèse de zéolithes micro/mesoporeux et leur application potentielle dans l’industrie pétrochimique, l’étude théorique de mécanismes réactionnels sur des zeolites microporeux, et le design de métaux mesoporeux avec une chiralité intrinsèque de leur surface interne. Ces matériaux poreux montrent des propriétés excellentes, notamment pour des applications potentielles en catalyse et comme interfaces chirales. / In the present work, the elaboration, characterisation and applications of differentporous materials have been studied. Porous materials are divided into three categoriesdepending on the porous cavity size, namely microporous materials (pore diameter < 2nm), mesoporous materials (2 nm < pore diameter < 50 nm) and macroporous materials(pore diameter > 50 nm). The thesis work is organized in three major parts: the synthesisof hierarchical micro/mesoporous zeolites and their potential application for thepetrochemical industry, the theoretical study of reaction mechanisms on microporouszeolite and the design of mesoporous metals with intrinsic chirality at their inner surface.The hierarchical micro/mesoporous zeolite, composed of microporous andmesoporous features, has been prepared using carbon-silica (C/SiO2) composites derivedfrom a pyrolysis of hydrocarbon gas on silica gel. Our findings demonstrate that not onlythe presence of a high surface area and porosity, but also an improved efficiency of thesematerials for many petrochemical processes such as n-butene isomerization, nhexadecanecatalytic cracking and hydrocracking. The novel synthetic method is expectedto be generalized for other types of zeolites, and is considered to be a promising methodfor creating hierarchical micro/mesoporous zeolites for potential catalytic applications,especially in the petrochemical industry.In addition to the study of practical catalytic aspects, a theoretical approach hasbeen used to investigate potential reaction mechanisms such as the selective isomerizationof 1-butene into isobutene. More specifically, the monomolecular skeletal isomerizationof 1-butene into isobutene on H-FER zeolite was theoretically studied by using theONIOM approach. This process was found to involve the transformation of adsorbed 1-butene through 2-butoxide, isobutoxide, and tert-butyl cation intermediates. The ratedeterminingstep is the conversion of isobutoxide into isobutene, in which the reactionhas to proceed through the primary isobutyl cation transition state. The shape selectivitydue to the “nano-confinement” effect of the zeolite framework strongly affects theadsorption, the stability of alkoxide species and carbenium ion, as well as the skeletalisomerization mechanism of 1-butene.Moreover, the microporous and mesoporous zeolite, the generation of chiralmesoporous metal and its enantioselective recognition properties have been studied.Molecular imprinting (MI) is a major approach for generating materials withenantioselective properties. In this work, a chiral imprinted mesoporous platinum hasbeen obtained by the electrochemical reduction of platinum salts in the simultaneouspresence of a lyotropic liquid crystal phase and chiral template molecules. The resultingmaterials exhibit not only a dramatic increase in active surface area due to theirmesoporosity, but also a significant discrimination between two enantiomers of a chiralprobe, confirmed by both electrochemical and enantioselective adsorption experiments.Most importantly the porous platinum retains its chiral character even after removal of thechiral template molecule. Our findings could lead to the development of new materials,which are of potential interest for applications in areas such as chiral synthesis, sensors,separation, purification and drug development.