Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:51:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 11130.pdf: 14304463 bytes, checksum: 273c21b7633910d5e722f76e468344e2 (MD5) / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:47:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:08:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 08285.pdf: 5294618 bytes, checksum: 54177af21437f509ff2b3826c6ca78b8 (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:43:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:10:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 06778.pdf: 10838321 bytes, checksum: da09e815b4eb68ff38370a4f1987faaa (MD5) / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

O espinélio MgAl2O4 é utilizado prioritariamente na indústria de refratários. Atualmente há várias técnicas de síntese, visto que não é encontrado na natureza. A técnica de sais fundidos apresenta grande potencial para otimização e redução do custo energético na produção deste óxido. Este trabalho teve como objetivo o desenvolvimento da técnica de síntese via sais fundidos para obtenção do espinélio MgAl2O4, e a caracterização do pó produzido via diferentes técnicas. A dissertação explora as variáveis da produção do espinélio a partir de Al2O3 e MgO em KCl, e também alternando o sal para MgCl2 e o eutético KCl-MgCl2. As seguintes alterações foram testadas para verificar o resultado no pó produzido: redução da temperatura para 1150°C, aumento do MgO nos precursores em 10% e 30%, redução da granulometria da Al2O3 precursores para 0,60 μm, variação da razão sal/precursor (S/P) para 1:1 e 9:1. Foi testado o sal MgCl2 nas proporções de precursores estequiométrica, -50% de MgO e -100% de MgO. Por fim, o sal KCl-MgCl2 na razão eutética foi testado. Para caracterização do pó foram utilizadas as técnica de análise cristalográfica por difração de raios X (DRX) e pela técnica de RAMAN, granulometria por dispersão a laser (GDL), microestrutura por microscopia eletrônica por varredura (MEV) e análise de cristalitos por mircroscopia eletrônica de transmissão (MET). Os pós produzidos apresentaram as fases MgAl2O4, Al2O3 e MgO. A redução de temperatura reduziu a quantidade de espinélio em pequena proporção, a alteração de estequiometria dos precursores no sal KCl reduziu a quantidade de Al2O3 em um primeiro momento e também sobrou MgO na reação para um aumento maior de MgO. A redução de granulometria da Al2O3 propiciou aumento da proporção de espinélio na reação. A proporção S/P 1:1 não mostrou alteração, contudo para 9:1 houve sedimentação e um efeito de diluição/precipitação. Para o sal MgCl2, houve precipitação de MgO a partir do sal, alterando o perfil granulométrico dos pós e as fases obtidas: MgO e MgAl2O4. A redução de MgO aumentou a conversão para MgAl2O4, reduzindo também a granulometria. O sal na proporção eutética apresentou boa conversão de espinélio e pouco aumento de granulometria. / The MgAl2O4 spinel is mainly applied at the refractory industry. There are many techniques to produce that oxide, since it is not found in the nature. The molten salts technique shows potencial energy savings and cost reduction to produce spinel. This work aimed at the development of the molten salts synthesis technique to obtain the MgAl2O4 spinel, and characterization of the powder produced via different techniques. The dissertation explores the variables of production of spinel from Al2O3 and MgO in KCl, and also alternating salt to MgCl2 and KCl-MgCl2 eutectic. The following changes were tested to verify the result of the powder produced: reducing the temperature to 1150 ° C, an increase in the MgO precursor at 10% and 30% reduction in particle size of the Al2O3 precursor to 0.60 micrometres variation ratio of salt / precursor (S / P) to 1: 1 and 9: 1. MgCl2 salt was tested in the stoichiometric proportion of precursors, -50% of MgO and -100% MgO. Finally, the KCl-MgCl2 salt eutectic ratio was tested. For characterization of the powder was used the crystallographic analysis technique of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and RAMAN technique, laser scattering for particle size analisys, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and crystallite analysis by transmission electron mircroscopy (TEM). The powders produced presented the MgAl2O4 phase, Al2O3 and MgO. The reduction in temperature reduced the amount of spinel in small proportion, the stoichiometry change of the precursors in the KCl salt reduced the amount of Al2O3 at first and also left MgO in reaction to a greater increase of MgO. The reduction of the Al2O3 particle size resulted in an increase in the proportion of the spinel reaction. The ratio S/P 1: 1 showed no change, however to 9: 1 was sedimentation and dilution / precipitation effect. To MgCl2 salt, there was precipitation of MgO from the salt, changing the physical profile of the powder and the obtained phases: MgO and MgAl2O4. The reduction of MgO increased the conversion MgAl2O4, by reducing the grain size. The salt in the proportion eutectic showed good conversion spinel and little increase in particle size.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:51:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 11130.pdf: 14304463 bytes, checksum: 273c21b7633910d5e722f76e468344e2 (MD5) / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:47:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:08:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 08285.pdf: 5294618 bytes, checksum: 54177af21437f509ff2b3826c6ca78b8 (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:43:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:10:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 06778.pdf: 10838321 bytes, checksum: da09e815b4eb68ff38370a4f1987faaa (MD5) / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Le CO2 est un gaz à effet de serre qui peut être valorisé par réduction électrochimique en CO dans les carbonates alcalins fondus. Les objectifs principaux de ma thèse sont la détermination théorique des conditions favorables à cette réduction électrochimique dans les carbonates alcalins fondus et l'étude de la faisabilité de cette réduction électrochimique dans des eutectiques binaires et ternaire en conditions expérimentales. La solubilité du CO2 dans Li2CO3-K2CO3 a été déterminée par mesure manométrique et augmente avec la température. La faisabilité expérimentale de la réduction électrochimique du CO2 en CO dans les eutectiques sur électrode d'or et de carbone graphite a été prouvée expérimentalement à des températures supérieures à 550 °C par voltampérométrie cyclique (système quasi-rapide à lent), à la fois sans prétraitement de l'électrode d'or et à l'aide d'un traitement de l'électrode d'or par pré-électrolyse à un potentiel légèrement plus négatif que celui dû à la réduction de CO2. Une approche globale des mécanismes réactionnels impliqués dans la réduction de CO2 a été proposée. / Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse which can be valorised by means of electrochemical valorisation into carbon monoxide. The main goals of the thesis consist in the theoretical determination of the conductive conditions leading to this electrochemical valorisation in alkali molten carbonates along with the study of the feasability of this electrochemical reduction in binary and ternary eutectics under experimental condition. CO2 solubility has been determined by manometric measure and increase along with the temperature. CO2 electrochemical experimental feasibility into CO in eutectics on gold plate electrode and graphite carbon has been prooved by cyclic voltamperometry for temperatures exceeding 550°C , without gold plate electrode preatreatement and with gold plate preatreatement by an pre-electrolysis at potential sligthly negative as the CO2 reduction potential. A global approach of reactional mecanisms implied in CO2 reduction is proposed.

Purifying silicon to a certain degree is needed in the photovoltaic industry. In the metallurgical route, phosphorus is removed from molten silicon in an induction vacuum refining furnace.This study presents the simulation of the silicon dephosphorization process that takes into account a neglected factor thus far, namely the residual oxygen amount.A thermodynamic assessment is performed for the Si - P system, and the phosphorus solubility in silicon is determined. Resulting activity coefficients are incorporated in an algorithm created to simulate this phenomenon. By also using other literature data, this program predicts the distillation time of a n-type silicon sample as well as its weight loss as a function of the oxygen pressure in the enclosure.The experimental validation of those results is intended with an electromagnetic levitation device. It enables to melt a silicon sample without any contaminant crucible and under a controlled atmosphere. / La purification du silicium à un certain degré est requis pour l'industrie photovoltaïque. Par voie métallurgique, le phosphore est éliminé du silicium fondu dans un four à induction sous vide.Cette étude présente la simulation du processus de déphosphoration du silicium en prenant en compte un facteur jusqu'alors négligé, à savoir la présence d'oxygène résiduel.Un travail d'optimisation thermodynamique du système Si - P est effectué, où la solubilité du phosphore dans le silicium est notamment déterminée. Les coefficients d'activité qui découlent de celle-ci sont incorporés dans un algorithme créé pour simuler ce phénomène. En s'appuyant également sur des données issues de la littérature, ce programme prédit le temps de distillation d'un échantillon de silicium de type n ainsi que sa perte de masse en fonction de la pression d'oxygène dans l'enceinte.La validation expérimentale de ces résultats est envisagée en utilisant un dispositif de lévitation électromagnétique. Il permet de faire fondre un échantillon de silicium sans creuset contaminant et avec une atmosphère contrôlée.

5-Aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS) catalyzes the pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent condensation between glycine and succinyl-CoA to generate coenzyme A (CoA), CO2, and 5-aminolevulinate (ALA). The chemical mechanism of this reaction, which represents the first and regulated step of heme biosynthesis in mammals, involves the formation of a short-lived glycine quinonoid intermediate and an unstable 2-amino-3-ketoadipate intermediate. Using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry to analyze the products from the reaction of murine erythroid ALAS (mALAS2) with O-methylglycine and succinyl-CoA, we directly identified the chemical nature of the inherently unstable 2-amino-3-ketoadipate intermediate, which predicates the glycine quinonoid species as its precursor. With stopped-flow absorption spectroscopy, we detected and confirmed the formation of the quinonoid intermediate upon reacting glycine with ALAS. Significantly, in the absence of the succinyl-CoA substrate, the external aldimine predominates over the glycine quinonoid intermediate. When instead of glycine, L-serine was reacted with ALAS, a lag phase was observed in the progress curve for the L-serine external aldimine formation, indicating a hysteretic behavior in ALAS. Hysteresis was not detected in the T148A-catalyzed L-serine external aldimine formation. These results with T148A, a mALAS2 variant, which, in contrast to the wild-type enzyme, is active with L-serine, suggest that the active site T148 modulates the strict amino acid substrate specificity of ALAS. The rate of ALA release is also controlled by a hysteretic kinetic mechanism (observed as a lag in the ALA external aldimine formation progress curve), consistent with conformational changes governing the dissociation of ALA from ALAS. In Rhodobacter capsulatus ALAS, apart from coordinating the positioning of succinyl-CoA, N85 has an important role in regulating the opening of an active site channel. Here, we have mutated the analogous asparagine of murine erythroid ALAS to a histidine (N150H) and assessed its effects on catalysis through steady-state and pre-steady-state kinetic studies. Quinonoid intermediate formation occurred with a significantly reduced rate for the N150H-catalyzed condensation of glycine with succinyl-CoA during a single turnover. When the same forward reaction was examined under multiple turnovers, the progress curve of the N150H reaction displayed a prolonged decay of the quinonoid intermediate into the steady-state, distinct from the steep decay in the wild-type ALAS reaction. This prolonged decay results from an accelerated transformation of the product, ALA, into the quinonoid intermediate during the reverse N150H-catalyzed reaction. In fact, while wild-type ALAS catalyzes the conversion of ALA into the quinonoid intermediate at a rate 6.3-fold lower than the formation of the same quinonoid intermediate from glycine and succinyl-CoA, the rate for the N150H-catalyzed reverse reaction is 1.7-fold higher than that of the forward reaction. We conclude that N150 is important in establishing a catalytic balance between the forward and reverse reactions, by favoring ALA synthesis over its non-productive transformation into the quinonoid intermediate. Mutations at this position could perturb the delicate heme biosynthetic equilibrium. Circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence spectroscopies were used to examine the effects of pH (1.0-3.0 and 7.5-10.5) and temperature (20 and 37 °C) on the structural integrity of ALAS. The secondary structure, as deduced from far-UV CD, is mostly resilient to pH and temperature changes. Partial unfolding was observed at pH 2.0, but further decreasing pH resulted in acid-induced refolding of the secondary structure to nearly native levels. The tertiary structure rigidity, monitored by near-UV CD, is lost under acidic and specific alkaline conditions (pH 10.5 and pH 9.5/37 °C), where ALAS populates a molten globule state. As the enzyme becomes less structured with increased alkalinity, the chiral environment of the internal aldimine is also modified, with a shift from a 420 nm to 330 nm dichroic band. Under acidic conditions, the PLP cofactor dissociates from ALAS. Reaction with 8-anilino-1-naphtalenesulfonic acid corroborates increased exposure of hydrophobic clusters in the alkaline and acidic molten globules, although the reaction is more pronounced with the latter. Furthermore, quenching the intrinsic fluorescence of ALAS with acrylamide at pH 1.0 and 9.5 yielded subtly different dynamic quenching constants. The alkaline molten globule state of ALAS is catalytically active (pH 9.5/37 °C), although the kcat value is significantly decreased. Finally, the binding of 5-aminolevulinate restricts conformational fluctuations in the alkaline molten globule. Overall, our findings prove how the structural plasticity of ALAS contributes to reaching a functional enzyme.