Dans ce travail de recherche, des oxydes mixtes dopés par des métaux nobles ont été préparés et mis en œuvre dans la réaction d'oxydation catalytique du chlorure de vinyle (VC). Les catalyseurs d'oxyde composite de Co-Ce ont été préparés par des procédés sol-gel et testés pour l'activité d'oxydation du VC. L'analyse XPS a certifié que l'introduction de Ce favorisait la présence d'espèces de Co2 + et de Ce3 +, ce qui modifie l'environnement de coordination du réseau d'oxygène et génère plus de vacations d'oxygène. Les oxydes de cobalt modifiés par Ru ont été préparés et étudiés pour l'oxydation du VC. L'analyse XPS montre que le Ru4 + et le Co2 + modifie la concentration des espèces oxygènes sur la surface. Une proportion relative élevée de Co2+ et de Ru4+ perturbe également les lacunes en oxygène. Cela impacte l'activité catalytique et diminue la quantité de sous-produits chlorés. Des mousses cellulaires mésostructurées de phosphate de cobalt-SiO2 (CoPO-MCFs) ont été synthétisées avec succès par la méthode de croissance in situ. Les analyses XPS confirment une augmentation d'espèces d'oxygène de surface pour ce système catalytique. L'énergie apparente d'activation confirme cette tendance. L'influence de la morphologie des particules de Co3O4, sur l'activité catalytique du méthyl benzène et du chlorure de vinyle a été étudiée. Le Co3O4 cubique a montré une meilleure activité et une meilleure stabilité que celle de Co3O4 sphérique. La structure cubique, avec Co2 + exposée à la surface, est le site actif de l'oxydation / In this research works, composite oxides, noble metal supported oxides and noble supported MCFs were prepared, and their catalytic performances were investigated for the catalytic oxidation of vinyl chloride (VC). The Co-Ce composite oxide catalysts were prepared by citrate sol-gel methods, and tested for the activity of VC oxidation. The catalyst with high performance is the molar ratio of Co/Ce=7:3. The XPS analyse certified that the Ce introduction favored the presence of Co2+ and Ce3+ species, which changed the coordination environment of the oxygen lattice and generated more oxygen vacancies. At last, this catalyst exhibited a good performance and stability during 110 h of time on stream at 300 oC. Ru-modified cobalt oxides were prepared and studied for the VC oxidation. The XPS analyse certified that the Ru4+ will be in synergy with Co2+ concentration and this would also change the chemical coordination of oxygen on the surface. High relative proportion of Co2+ and Ru4+ will also devote to oxygen defects or vacancies. This would increased the catalytic activity and decrease the amount of chlorinated by-products.A novel heterostructured material, cobalt phosphate-SiO2 mesostructured cellular foams (CoPO-MCFs), was successfully synthesized by the in-situ growth method. The XPS confirmed a higher amount of surface oxygen species. The activation energy calculated from Arrhenius plots showed a lower value for VC oxidation. The influence of Co3O4 morphology, including cube and sphere, on catalytic activity of methylbenzene and vinyl chloride was studied. The Co3O4 cube had shown better activity and stability than that of the Co3O4 sphere. The cube structure, with Co2+ exposed on the surface, acted as the active site of the oxidation

Vinyl chloride (VC) is a human carcinogen and common groundwater contaminant in the United States. Some of the indigenous bacteria can utilize VC for their growth, which is important for bioremediation. As previous studies have been majorly focused on VC-degrading bacteria in pure cultures, we initiated the study to investigate the microbial community structure and interactions in more complicated systems, such as mixed-pure cultures and groundwater enrichment cultures. Finally, we extended our study into the field by investigating the diversity and abundance of functional genes in VC-assimilating pathways at six contaminated sites. In our first study, Nocardioides was found to be the most dominant genus in Carver groundwater enrichment cultures via stable-isotope probing and 16S rRNA gene amplicon Illumina sequencing. As cross-feeding was observed, in the second study, mixed-pure culture experiment was conducted to explore the potential effects of VC-assimilating Nocardioides on other bacteria, which showed VC cometabolizer Mycobacterium strain JS622 would take up carbon from VC to sustain their growth when mixed with VC-assimilating Nocardioides sp. strain JS614. The third study was conducted with a different groundwater source from Fairbanks, AK, which again showed Nocardioides is dominant in the microbial community. A novel VC-assimilating Nocardioides sp. bacteria was isolated, named XL1. The putative genome of XL1 extracted from enrichment culture metagenome was 99% to 100% identical to strain JS614, with a plasmid genome bin similar to strain JS614 plasmid pNOCA01, though the morphology of strain XL1 was distinct from strain JS614. About 90% of the plasmid contigs could be mapped onto Nocardioides sp. strain JS614 plasmid with 100% identity, containing known aerobic ethene and VC degradation pathway genes encoding alkene monooxygenase and epoxyalkane: coenzyme M transferase (EaCoMT). Glutathione synthase and glutathione S-transferase genes, possibly involved in epoxide detoxification, were found in Polaromonas, Mesorhizobium and Pseudomonas-affiliated genome bins. The study also showed cultures adapted to VC faster after amended with ethene. The in-situ study (the fourth study) revealed 192 different EaCoMT T-RFs from six chlorinated ethene contamination sites via T-RFLP analysis, implicating higher EaCoMT diversity than previously known. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that a majority of the 139 cloned sequences (78.4%) grouped with EaCoMT genes found in VC- and ethene-assimilating Mycobacterium strains and Nocardioides sp. strain JS614. EaCoMT gene abundance was positively correlated with VC and ethene concentrations at the sites studied.

The thermal stability, fire retardancy and basic mechanical properties, as a function of the mass fractions of the poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) compound ingredients, can be modelled using 2nd order Scheffé polynomials. The empirical models for each response variable can be determined using statistical experimental design. The particular models for each response variable, which are selected for predictive ability using k-fold cross validation, can be interpreted using statistical analysis of the model terms. The statistical analysis of the model terms can reveal the synergistic or antagonistic interactions between ingredients, some of which have not been reported in literature. The interaction terms in the models also mean that the effect of a certain ingredient is dependent on the mass fractions of the other ingredients. Sensitivity analysis can be used to examine the overall effect of a change in a particular formulation on the response variables. The empirical models can be used to minimise the cost of the PVC compound by varying the formulation. The optimum formulation is a function of the costs of the various ingredients and the limits which are placed on the response variables. To analyse the system as a whole, parametric analysis can be used. The number of different parametric analyses which can be done is very large and depends on the specific questions which need to be answered. Parametric analysis can be used to gain insight into the complex behaviour of the system with changing requirements, as a decision making tool in a commercial environment or to determine the completeness of the different measuring techniques used to describe the thermal stability and fire retardancy of the PVC compound. Statistical experimental design allows for the above methods to be used which leads to significant time and labour savings over attempting to reach the same conclusions using the traditional one-factor-at-a-time experiments with changes in the phr of an ingredient. It is recommended that the data generated for this investigation is analysed in more detail using the methods outlined for this investigation. This can be facilitated by making the analysis of the data (and therefore the data itself) more accessible through a usable interface. The data set itself can also be expanded to include new ingredients requiring very few additional experiments. If a PVC compound that contains none of the ingredients that were used in this investigation is of interest a new separate data set needs to be generated. This can be done by following the same procedure used in this investigation. In fact the method that is used in this investigation can be generalised to optimise the proportions of the ingredients of any mixture. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Chemical Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

No description available.

Glucose, as the most plentiful sugar in nature, is a renewable resource and possesses excellent record in health safety. Levulinic acid is a platform chemical which plays an important role  in  biomass transformation and reactive intermediates. Both glucose and levulinic acid can be produced by biomass conversion with green processing techno logies. Due to the rising needs for bio-based, eco-friendly and non-toxic plasticizers, glucose levulinates as bio­ plasticizers were synthesized from glucose and levulinic acid, by utilizing microwave radiation or conventional condensation reaction (direct-heating method ). Acid number for the reaction liquor was measured by acid-base titration to follow the decrease of acid groups due to the reaction and the trend in  the acid number within reaction time displayed the process of esterification and possible sensitivity of the reaction rate to reaction scale. It showed that microwave radiation had superior ability in  enhancing reaction speed but it was also more sensitive to reaction scale and generated more diverse prod ucts  than the direct-heating method. Besides, the process of reaction and formation  of ester  bonds was  followed  and confirmed by FT IR. The achieved levulinate products were extracted by 2-pro panol and ethyl acetate. The practices showed several serio us problems in 2-propanol extraction, including high dosage required  for  NaCl and solvent and difficulties in purification. The ethyl acetate proved to be a suitable solvent for this study and the  extrac ted  product s  from  the Con-24hrs  and Micro-3/4/5/6/7hrs  were  characterized  by  1H  NMR,  13C N :tvlR. and LDI-MS. The results from spectrum suggested the presence of GL,. and G J .'l. type of levulinates. That means the glucose levulinates were  successfully  synthesized  although  the  dehydration side reaction of glucose was inevitable leading to the generation of glucosidic bonds. In addition, BG (mixture of glucose and glycosidic levulinates) was evaluated by so lution casting of starch and PVC. In order to minimize the microbial contaminations in solution casting of  starch, a  modified  method  was raised and applied. The results showed that 40% BG had goo d miscibility with starch and the conclusion was further proved by DSC measurements, while the BG performed poor miscibility with  PVC.

No description available.

Plasticizers are a commonly used additive used in the polymer industry to make the plastic more pliable by reducing the glass transition temperature, Tg and Young's modulus, Y. As the plasticizer aids in polymer process-ability and making it suitable for applications from industrial cables to sensitive medical equipment, the mechanism of plasticization is not fully understood. There are three theories used to explain plasticization: lubricity theory, gel theory, and free volume theory. The latter is a fundamental concept of polymer science that is used to calculate many polymer properties, but they all do not give a clear picture on plasticization. With molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, a coarse-grained (CG) model - which consist of a simple bead-spring model that generalizes particles as a bead and connects them via a finite spring – is used to explore the impact of plasticizer size throughout the polymer system. The interaction characteristics of the plasticizer is explored by representing the plasticizer molecules as a single bead of varying size. This gives better control on the variability of the mixture and pinpoint the significant contributions to plasticization. A path to understanding the the mechanism of plasticization will give insight in glass formation, and can later be used to find an optimal plasticizer architecture to minimize the migration of the additive by tuning the compatibility. Current results show a decoupling between the Tg and Y of the polymer-additive system. The overall understanding of finite-size effects shows: as additive of increasing size is added, the polymer free volume increases which in-turn would decrease the Y, but Tg is shown to increase because the polymer and additive are not as mobile to reduce caging effect of monomeric units. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Linear and branched poly(butylene adipate) polyesters with number-average molecular weights ranging from 700 to 10 000 g/mol, and degrees of branching ranging from very low to hyperbranched were solution cast with PVC to study the effects of chemical structure, molecular weight, end-group functionality, and chain architecture on plasticizing efficiency and durability. Miscibility was evaluated by the existence of a single glass transition temperature and a shift of the carbonyl group absorption band. Desirable mechanical properties were achieved in flexible PVC films containing 40 weight-% of polyester plasticizer. Methyl-ester-terminated polyesters with a low degree of branching and an intermediate molecular weight enhanced the plasticizing efficiency, as shown by greater elongation, good miscibility, and reduced surface segregation. A solid-phase extraction method was developed to extract the low molecular weight products that migrated from pure poly(butylene adipate) and PVC/ poly(butylene adipate) films during aging in water. The effects of branching, molecular weight, end-group functionality, and polydispersity on plasticizer permanence were evaluated by quantification of low molecular weight hydrolysis products, weight loss, surface segregation, and the preservation of material properties during aging. A more migration-resistant polymeric plasticizer was obtained by combining a low degree of branching, hydrolysis-protecting end-groups, and higher molecular weight of the polyester. Films plasticized with a slightly branched polyester showed the best durability and preservation of material and mechanical properties during aging. A high degree of branching resulted in partial miscibility with PVC, poor mechanical properties, and low migration resistance. The thermal stability of polyester-plasticized films was higher than that of films containing a low molecular weight plasticizer, and the stabilizing effect increased with increasing plasticizer concentration. / QC 20100805

Asymmetric polymeric materials can be formed by either top-down or bottom-up methods. Bottom-up methods involve assembling the atoms and molecules to form small nanostructures by carefully controlled synthesis, which results in a reduction of some of the top-down limitations. In this dissertation, thermal, tribological and antireflective properties of polymeric materials have been enhanced by introducing structural asymmetry. The overall performance of commercial polymeric coatings, e.g. epoxy and polyvinyl chloride, has been improved by conducting the blending methods, specifically, chemical modification (α,ω-dihydroxydimethyl(methyl-vinyl)oligoorganosiloxane), cross-linking (triallyl isocyanurate), and antioxidant (tris(nonylphenyl) phosphite) incorporation. The nonequilibrium polymeric structures (moth-eye and square array) have been developed for the ultrahigh molecular weight block copolymers via the short-term solvent vapor annealing self-assembly. The large domain size of the moth eye structure allows for improvement of the light transmittance particularly in the visible and near infrared ranges, while the square arrangement of the block copolymer opens the possibility of magnetic data storage application by the large magnetic nanoparticles' embedment or masking of the superconductors.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Nesse trabalho foram realizadas reações de substituição nucleofílica (SN2), utilizando aquecimento térmico convencional e por irradiação de micro-ondas (MO), de alguns átomos cloro em amostras comerciais de poli(cloreto de vinila) (PVC), por grupos nitrila e também por grupos azida. Os grupos nitrila e azida foram substituidos na matriz em diferentes teores (10% e 20%). As reações do PVC com azida foram eficazes, apresentado percentuais de derivatização muito próximos dos valores desejados. Já no estudo com a nitrila não foi obtido o resultado esperado. Os copolímeros PVC azido substituídos foram modificados com propargilato de etila, sob catálise de iodeto de cuproso (CuI), para a obtenção de heterocíclicos do tipo triazólicos. Todos os copolímeros obtidos foram caracterizados por espectroscopia na região do infravermelho (FTIR) e os teores de nitrogênio incorporado foram determinados por análise elementar (AE). Através da análise dos dados obtidos, foi comprovado que a utilização da irradiação micro-ondas, quando comparada ao aquecimento convencional, é um processo mais seletivo e diminui, significativamente, os tempos de reação / In this work we had performed nucleophilic substitution reactions (Sn2) of some chlorine atoms in commercial samples of poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC), nitrile groups and also by azide groups, using both conventional thermal heating and microwave irradiation (MW).Nitrile and azide groups were replaced in the matrix at diverse levels (10% and 20%). The reactions of PVC with azide were effective, reaching a percentage derivatization very near to the desired values. In the study with the nitrile although we have not obtained the expected results. The substituted azido copolymers were modified with propargilato acetate, under catalysis of copper iodide (CuI) to obtain triazole heterocyclic type. All copolymers were labeled by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nitrogen contents were determined by corporate elemental analysis (EA). Through analysis of the data obtained, it was verified that the use of microwave irradiation in comparison to conventional heating is a more selective process and reduces significantly reaction times