Melt electrospinning is an environmentally-friendly technique for the fabrication of nanofibers in the absence of solvent, which can be used in areas such as high performance non-woven materials, biomedicine and high efficiency filtration. This paper reviews recent research in this area, including processing characteristics, the latest processing techniques, materials, and devices, and applications of melt electrospinning. The melt differential electrospinning technique developed by our group is introduced. Ideas for future research on melt electrospinning are proposed in the hope of promoting new theoretical understanding, and the development of new techniques and new devices for the green preparation of ultrafine fibers.

Through monitoring the change in conductivity during the hydrolysis of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (KH550) and using FT-IR spectroscopy, the optimum conditions for the hydrolysis of KH550 were investigated. Wet silica gel from which the physisorbed water was removed by azeotropic distillation or rapid solvent replacement was treated with KH550. The products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), di-n-butylphthalate (DBP) oil absorption, laser particle size analysis and contact angle measurements in order to investigate the effect of modification. The results showed that the contact angle of the modified silica increased, and the DBP absorption value significantly increased by more than 70% compared to the unmodified products. The pore volume was twice that of the unmodified silica. The amount of products in the organic phase also increased significantly. The azeotropic distillation method for wet gel modification afforded more hydrophobic silica than the solvent replacement method, and the contact angle between modified silica and water reached as high as 140°. The optimal conditions for silica modification involved a modifier mass fraction of 17.5% of the weight of silica and the use of azeotropic distillation. 

Many natural products are active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines and have good pharmacological activities. Glycosides, a class of biological molecules derived from the glycosylation of natural products, have attracted significant attention due to their ability to enhance the stability, solubility or bioavailability of natural products. In the past, glycosides have been generally synthesized by chemical synthesis or extracted from plants. In recent years, the utilization of glycosyltransferases to synthesize glycosides has become a major area of research. Glycosyltransferases are key enzymes in the synthesis of glycosides. This review summarizes recent advances in the use of glycosyltransferases in glycoside synthesis, and is expected to provide some guidelines for the future industrialization of glycoside synthesis using glycosyltransferase.

Gas-involved electrochemical reactions, including gas evolution reactions and gas consumption reactions, are essential components of energy conversion processes and are attracting increasing attention from researchers. Alongside the development of highly active catalysts, gas management during gas-involved electrochemical reactions is equally critical if industrial applications are to achieve high reaction rates (hundreds of milliamperes per square centimeter) under practical operation voltages. Although a series of nanoarray-based structured electrodes have been constructed and shown to have excellent performance in gas-involved electrochemical reactions, our understanding of bubble wetting behavior remains rudimentary. Starting from the definition of superaerophobic and superaerophilic, this paper focuses on methods of optimizing the electrode structure to prepare super-gassing and super-aerobic electrode surfaces and applications of the resulting electrodes in various energy conversion systems. Finally, we discuss the future development of super-wetting electrodes and their applications in electrocatalysis.

Solid-liquid suspensions in stirred reactors are widely used in many processing industries. Numerical simulations of solid-liquid suspensions are usually confronted with complications and challenges due to the complex flow characteristics of these systems, such as two-phase turbulence and interphase interactions. This paper reviews methods of simulating the rotating impeller and models dealing with the continuous and discrete phases of solid-liquid suspensions, and summarizes their recent applications in simulating related flow phenomena including velocity and turbulence components, solid concentration, just-suspended speed, cloud height, optimization of geometrical parameters, and particle shape and type. Perspectives regarding different modeling approaches are presented, and the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach with resolved particles is emphasized in order to address the underlying suspension mechanisms in stirred reactors.

The development of low-frequency detection technology has brought new challenges in respect of the stealth performance of underwater vehicles. In order to improve the survivability of underwater vehicles, underwater sound-absorbing materials are usually laid on their surfaces to absorb the sound waves emitted by sonar. In this paper, recent progress in the fabrication of underwater sound-absorbing materials and sound-absorbing structures is reviewed. The modification of matrix materials, the influence of different sound-absorbing structures on sound-absorbing properties and the application of acoustic metamaterials in the field of underwater acoustic absorption are introduced. The problems and shortcomings in current sound-absorbing materials and sound-absorbing structures are summarized.

Sodium aluminate was carbonated by CO₂ in a stirred tank reactor to form aluminium hydroxide, which was subsequently chemically modified with a special non halogen modifier under a high temperature and pressure to yield a substance X. By means of TG, TEM, XRD and FTIR, it is found that the substance X is a new flat rhombic substance whose decomposition temperature is higher than 340℃, weight loss approximately 50%,and enthalpy of thermal decomposition 2352.5kJ/kg. The main mechanism of the modification is coordination effect of aluminium atom with empty p oribit and oxygen atom with isolated pairs of electrons in the modifier.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an established technology to realize treatment and recycling of organic waste, which has great social, environmental and economic benefits. However, the excessive accumulation of volatile fatty acids and ammonia nitrogen during the AD process results in inhibition of microbial activity, which leads to problems such as incomplete substrate digestion, unstable system operation and low biogas production efficiency. Biochar is a low-cost and renewable carbon material with high specific surface area, varied elemental composition, abundant surface functional groups and good conductivity which has the capability to effectively enhance AD. However, the mechanism of biochar-enhanced AD processes—especially the relationship between the mechanism and the physicochemical properties of the biochar—is not well understood and this limits the application of biochar in practical engineering. This review summarizes the effects of biochar on AD, the strengthening pathways and the influence of different preparation conditions on its physicochemical properties. This not only provides theoretical guidelines for future mechanistic studies of biochar, but should also promote the large-scale engineering application of biochar-enhanced AD technology.

Poly(D, L-lactide)(PLA) and poly(D, L-lactide)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG, M_n= 2000) were synthesized from D, L-lactide(LA) and PEG with stannous octoate as the catalyst in the presence of N₂ under the normal pressure. The effect of temperature of polymerization and catalyst content on the relative molecular weights of PLA, and the regularity of degradation at different media and for different molecular weights of polymers were discussed in detail. The polylactide and its copolymer were characterized by infared spectroscopy(IR), nuclear magnetic resonance(¹H-NMR) and gel permeation chromatography(GPC). The media used for testing of degradation were distilled water, 0.01mol/L HCl solution, pH=7.4 phosphate buffer solution and 0.01mol/L NaOH solution. The results show that the M_v of PLA which was polymerized in 5h, at the lactide/PEG mole feed ratio of 5000, at 160℃ under the nomal pressure is 6.3×10⁴ and PLA is degraded more rapidly in NaOH solution. the lower relative molecular weight of PLA is degraded more rapidly in the same medium. Compared with PLA, degradetion of the copolymer is more rapidly.

Phase equilibrium is the theoretical foundation of chemical engineering separation, and it is of great importance in the development and engineering application of separation processes. After a brief introduction to the thermodynamic model of vapor-liquid equilibria and the methods of determining solid-liquid equilibria, recent progress in the study of vapor-liquid equilibria with ionic liquids, as well as the study of solid-liquid equilibria using the laser dynamic method are reviewed. The current status of research for some typical systems is briefly introduced and future directions of progress in this area are also suggested.

The pyrolysis characteristics of three main components of biomass, namely cellulose, xylan hemicellulose and lignin have been investigated by means of thermogravimetric analysis. Models of their pyrolysis kinetics were derived using the Coats-Redfern integral method. The results show that differences in the pyrolysis of the three components result mainly from differences in their molecular structures. The observed mass losses of cellulose, xylan hemicellulose and lignin wereapproximately 86%, 69%, and 51% respectively within the experimental temperature range (room temperature to 900℃), indicating that the extent of decomposition varies in the order cellulose >xylan hemicellulose >lignin. In each case two distinct temperature regions were observed. The pyrolysis of both lignin and xylan can be described by secondorder kinetics equations in both temperature regions. The best description of the pyrolysis of cellulose, however, involves a first-order reaction in the low temperature region and a second-order reaction inthe high temperature region. 

Isothiocyanates are phytochemical constituents of cruciferous vegetables and have been widely studied in recent years as potential chemopreventive compounds. This review summarizes and compares different isolation and purification methods employed in isothiocyanate research. The major chemopreventive properties of isothiocyanates are also reviewed and discussed. The potential applications of isothiocyanates, and the metabolism, stability and formulation of isothiocyanates are discussed. New research opportunities are identified based on the review of existing studies of isothiocyanates, and these may lead to new methods of chemopreventive therapy.

The mechanism of the thermal decomposition of azodicarbonamide and the influence of zinc oxide on the decomposition process have been investigated by characterizing its thermal decomposition by TG-MS and IR. The results showed that azodicarbonamide undergoes a three-stage decomposition process: the first stage decomposition gaseous products are N₂, CO, and HNCO and biurea is present in the residue; the second stage decomposition gaseous products are NH₃and HNCO; the third stage decomposition gaseous products are NH₃ and CO₂ and urazole is present in the residue. The first stage of azodicarbonamide thermal decomposition was initiated at lower temperature and the second and third stages were delayed by addition of zinc oxide. 

Software quality evaluation with quantitative method can help the managers' deci sionmaking, and reduces the unilateralism caused by qualitative evaluation or subjective evaluation. After analyzing quantitative index of software quality wi th quantitative method, the paper discusses quantitative methods for software qu ality evaluation, and improves the combined character of software quality and th e metric model of quantitative index based on the software quality standard ISO/ IEC9126. 

Electrical conductivity data for ionic liquids (ILs) and potassium acetate in water, ethanol and mixtures thereof at 298.15 K were determined using a digital conductivity meter. The ionic liquids studied include 1-methyl-3-ethyl imidazolium bromide ([Emim]Br), 1-methyl-3-butyl imidazolium bromide ([Bmim]Br),1-methyl-3-butyl imidazolium chloride ([Bmim]Cl), 1-methyl-3-butyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([Emim][BF4]), 1-methyl-3-ethyl imidazolium dimethyl phosphate ([Mmim][DMP]), 1-methyl-3-ethyl imidazolium diethyl phosphate ([Emim][DEP]) and 1-methyl-3-buyl imidazolium dibutyl phosphate ([Bmim][DBP]). The results show that the conductivity of ILs in water follows the order [Emim]Br>[Bmim]Cl[Bmim]Br[Bmim][BF4]>[Mmim][DMP]>[Emim][DEP]>[Bmim][DBP], which is inversely proportional to their viscosity. The conductivity initially increased and then decreased as the concentration of ILs increased. For a given ionic liquid, the conductivity in water is higher than that in ethanol. However, compared to potassium acetate, the variation in conductivity of ILs with change of solvent is much smaller. Furthermore, alkylimidazolium phosphate ILs can increase the volatility of ethanol relative to that of water in ethanol-water mixture. The salting-out effect of ILs in ethanol-water systems follows the order [Mmim][DMP]> [Emim][DEP], which is consistent with their relative conductivities in this solvent system.

PVA was repetitively extruded in four different temperatures. The processing parameters and apparent characteristics of the extruded samples were studied in details. The thermal aging and degradation mechanisms were studied by the thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier-transformation infrared spectroscopy and UV-visible spectrophotometer which characterized the changes of the structures of PVA in a melting extrusion process. It would be helpful in solving the problems in the melt processing and deterioration in physical properties as a result of the thermal aging and degradation.

The production of hydrogen, methane, organic acid and organic alcohol using syngas are introduced and discussed. Mechanisms, microorganisms and the principles of bioconversion reactions of syngas are described, and suggestions are also given to indicate areas where advances can be made.

Copolymerization of butadiene (Bd) and styrene (St) were carried out by using a rare earth catalyst system. The microstructure, composition, and morphology of the copolymer were characterized by FTIR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³ C-NMR and TEM. The molecular weight, molecular weight distribution and the composition distribution of the copolymer were determined by GPC with RI and UV detectors. The results show that the copolymer is a block copolymer of butadiene and styrene with high cis-1,4 content. The cis-1,4 content of butadiene unit is 97.0%(mol),and the styrene content is 21.8%(mol).The phase-separated morphology is formed by polybutadiene(PB) and polystyrene(PS) sequences.

Using phenol and dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) as raw materials, DCPD-containing phenolic resin (DPR) was prepared via Friedel-Crafts alkylation and DCPD-containing epoxy resin (DER) was prepared via epoxidation of DPR with epichlorohydrin. Their reaction conditions and mode were optimized. The epoxy value of DER is 0.31~0.35. The content of organic chloride is less 0.02 mol/100g. MeHHPA as curing agent, the curing was carried out and the rate of curing was evaluated by FT-IR. When the curing temperature is 180 ℃, the yield of the opening of epoxy group was more than 92% after 3.5 h. DSC analyses found that the Tg of cured epoxy resin DER+E51(1:1) is higher than that of resin E51.

This review briefly introduces the working principles of lead acid batteries and the current status of research in different areas, including additives to the plates, concentration of the electrolyte, design of the grid and structure of the batteries. Furthermore, the currently used methods of lead recovery are reviewed, particularly hydrometallergical lead recovery involving both the classical method and new methods for the recovery of lead and lead oxide. Future directions in the study and recovery of lead acid batteries are also suggested.