Phenol adsorption and desorption with physically and chemically tailored porous polymers: Mechanistic variability associated with hyper-cross-linking and amination.

Understanding phenol adsorption-desorption mechanisms allows adsorbent tailoring to improve capacity and adsorbent reuse. Amberlite™ XAD4, a commercial styrenic polymer that is convenient to physically and chemically modify, was functionalized with dimethylamine (DMA) or trimethylamine (TMA) and/or hyper-cross-linked with 1,2-dichloroethane. These modifications were applied to enhance individual and/or synergistic phenol adsorption mechanisms, including hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, and π-π dispersion forces. While XAD4-DMA adsorbs more phenol at pH = 6, XAD4-TMA has 23% higher capacity at pH = 11 due to adsorbate deprotonation that increases electrostatic interactions. Combining hyper-cross-linking with amination maximizes adsorption capacity due to synergistic impacts associated with increased micropore volume and surface affinity. Amine groups reduce desorption efficiency by 6-94% due to stronger adsorbate-adsorbent interactions compared to π-π dispersion forces. Isobutanol, which forms hydrogen bonds, is the most efficient desorption solvent, followed by chloroform, which has the same polarity index but does not hydrogen bond. n-Hexane only desorbs phenol removed with π-π dispersion forces and is not appropriate to regenerate aminated polymers. 0.1 N NaOH is an environmentally benign solvent for regenerating as-received XAD4 and XAD4-DMA, but not XAD4-TMA. Understanding phenol adsorption mechanisms allows development of physiochemically modified polymers with increased phenol adsorption capacity and regeneration efficiency.

Impact of styrenic polymer one-step hyper-cross-linking on volatile organic compound adsorption and desorption performance.

A novel one-step hyper-cross-linking method, using 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) and 1,6-dichlorohexane (DCH) cross-linkers, expands the micropore volume of commercial styrenic polymers. Performance of virgin and modified polymers was evaluated by measuring hexane, toluene, and methyl-ethyl-ketone (MEK) adsorption capacity, adsorption/desorption kinetics, and desorption efficiency. Hyper-cross-linked polymers have up to 128% higher adsorption capacity than virgin polymers at P/P0 = 0.05 due to micropore volume increases up to 330%. Improvements are most pronounced with the DCE cross-linker. Hyper-cross-linking has minimal impact on hexane adsorption kinetics, but adsorption rates for toluene and MEK decrease by 6-41%. Desorption rates decreased (3-36%) for all materials after hyper-cross-linking, with larger decreases for DCE hyper-cross-linked polymers due to smaller average pore widths. For room temperature desorption, 20-220% more adsorbate remains in hyper-cross-linked polymers after regeneration compared to virgin materials. DCE hyper-cross-linked polymers have 13-92% more residual adsorbate than DCH counterparts. Higher temperatures were required for DCE hyper-cross-linked polymers to completely desorb VOCs compared to the DCH hyper-cross-linked and virgin counterparts. Results show that the one-step hyper-cross-linking method for modifying styrenic polymers improves adsorption capacity because of added micropores, but decreases adsorption/desorption kinetics and desorption efficiency for large VOCs due to a decrease in average pore width.

Catalytic NO Oxidation in the Presence of Moisture Using Porous Polymers and Activated Carbon.

NO oxidation catalyzed by porous materials is difficult to implement under industrial conditions because moisture in combustion exhaust streams blocks oxidation sites, decreasing NO conversion. In this work, hydrophobic cross-linked polymers are tested as NO oxidation catalysts to overcome these negative impacts associated with moisture. Although activated carbons (ACs) outperform hyper-cross-linked polymers by >88% and low-cross-linked polymers by >463% under dry conditions, their NO conversion drops to 0% when 50% relative humidity is added. Performance of hyper-cross-linked and low-cross-linked polymers, however, decreases by only 19-35% and <6%, respectively, for NO conversion in the presence of moisture. NO conversion differences between materials are attributed to differences in the catalysts' initial hydrophilicity and their proclivity to react with generated NO2, which also increases hydrophilicity. While the initial hydrophobicity of the polymers contributes to their consistent performance, it is their intrinsic ability to resist NO2 reduction reactions, compared to AC, that makes them the more viable catalyst for industrial application. Results suggest that the polymer hyper-cross-linking process improves steady-state NO conversion but increases NO2 surface reactivity and hydrophilicity.

Resistance-Gene Cassettes Associated With Salmonella enterica Genotypes.

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of salmonellosis is complex because of the diversity and different serotypes of Salmonella enterica (S. enterica) that occur in different reservoirs and geographic incidences. OBJECTIVES: To determine the genotype distribution and resistance-gene content of 2 classes of integron among S. enterica isolates. METHODS: Thirty-six S. enterica species were isolated and tested for their serological distribution and the resistance-gene contents of 2 classes of integron, as well as for their genetic diversity, using the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) genotyping method. RESULTS: Serogroups E (36.1%) and D (30.5%) were dominant among the isolates. All of the isolates in serogroup D belonged to the serovar enteritidis. The aadA1 gene was found within all resistance-gene cassettes. We observed 4 common and 26 single pulsotypes among the isolates, which indicated a high degree of genetic diversity among the isolates. Using the PulseNet International standard protocol, it was found that these isolates were different from those reported previously in Iran. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of a few common and new pulsotypes among the isolates suggests the emergence and spread of new clones of S. enterica in Iran.