Influence of ammonium nitrate on the crystallisation of ammonium sulfate.

This study aims to explore the influence mechanism of ammonium nitrate produced by ozone denitrification on the crystallisation of ammonium sulfate, a by-product of ammonia desulfurisation. The laser method was used to study the influence of ammonium nitrate on the solubility and metastable zone width of ammonium sulfate. An experiment on the influence of ammonium nitrate on the particle size of ammonium sulfate was designed, and the influence mechanism was explored through scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The findings showed that the addition of ammonium nitrate increased the size and aspect ratio of ammonium sulfate crystals. The addition of ammonium nitrate inhibited the dissolution of ammonium sulfate and widened its metastable zone. The addition of ammonium nitrate covered the active sites of crystal nucleus growth, which inhibited the formation of crystal nuclei to a certain extent, and crystal growth dominated the crystallisation process. Moreover, the addition of ammonium nitrate induced the preferred orientation of the specific crystal plane of ammonium sulfate, and the addition of a small concentration of ammonium nitrate decreased the crystallinity of ammonium sulfate. The research results can provide a reference for crystallisation optimisation and quality improvement of ammonium sulfate in the ammonia desulfurisation process.

CO + NH3 coupling denitration at low temperatures over manganese/activated carbon catalysts.

To explore the mechanism of low-temperature carbon monoxide and ammonia (CO + NH3) coupling denitration of manganese/activated carbon (Mn/AC) catalysts, Mn/AC series catalysts were prepared using the impregnation method with AC activated by nitric acid as a precursor and manganese nitrate as a precursor. We characterized the surface morphology, pore structure, active component phase, functional group, and active component valence change law of the Mn/AC catalyst. The denitration rate order with different Mn loadings is 7Mn/AC > 9Mn/AC > 5Mn/AC. When the Mn loading was 7%, the catalyst's surface was smooth, with a good pore structure and uniform surface distribution of metal particles. These features increased the reacting gas's contact area, improving the denitration rate. The reason for this was oxygen chemisorption on the catalyst's surface. The Mn4+ and the number of oxygen-containing functional groups on the catalyst surface increase after Mn loading increases; this provides more active sites for denitration and promotes the reaction's conversion to fast selective catalytic reduction. The low-temperature CO + NH3 coupling denitration of Mn/AC catalysts conforms to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism when the temperature is lower than 230 °C and the Eley-Rideal mechanism when the temperature is higher than 230 °C. The research results can provide new ideas for low-temperature flue gas denitration.

Mechanism of Zn salt-induced deactivation of a Cu/activated carbon catalyst for low-temperature denitration via CO-SCR.

In the process of industrial flue gas denitration, the presence of heavy metals, especially Zn salts, is known to lead to the deactivation of the denitration catalysts. However, the specific mechanism of the catalyst deactivation remains unclear. In this paper, the mechanism of the ZnCl2- and ZnSO4-induced deactivation of low-temperature denitration catalysts in the carbon oxide (CO) selective catalytic reduction (CO-SCR) reaction was investigated using a Cu/activated carbon (AC) catalyst, in which HNO3/AC was used as the carrier. Cu/AC, ZnCl2-Cu/AC, and ZnSO4-Cu/AC catalysts were prepared by the incipient wetness impregnation method. The physicochemical properties of the catalyst were examined via the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses, which proved the mechanism of catalyst denitrification and enabled the elucidation of the toxicity mechanism of the Zn salts on the Cu/AC catalyst for CO-SCR denitration at low temperatures. The results show that Zn doping reduces the physical adsorption of CO and NO and decreases the concentration of Cu2+ and chemisorbed oxygen (Oß), leading to the reduction of active sites and oxygen vacancies, thus inhibiting the denitration reaction. Moreover, ZnCl2 is more toxic than ZnSO4 because Cl- not only occupies oxygen vacancies but also inhibits Oß migration. In contrast, SO4 2- increases the surface acidity and promotes Oß supplementation. This study can provide a reference for the development of CO-SCR denitration catalysts with high resistance to Zn salt poisoning.

A Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Cellular Biopolymers on Leaf Blight-Infected Tea Plants Using Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy.

The objective of the present study was to characterize the temporal and spatial variation of biopolymers in cells infected by the tea leaf blight using confocal Raman microspectroscopy. We investigated the biopolymers on serial sections of the infection part, and four sections corresponding to different stages of infection were obtained for analysis. Raman spectra extracted from four selected regions (circumscribing the vascular bundle) were analyzed in detail to enable a semi-quantitative comparison of biopolymers on a micron-scale. As the infection progressed, lignin and other phenolic compounds decreased in the vascular bundle, while they increased in both the walls of the bundle sheath cells as well as their intracellular components. The amount of cellulose and other polysaccharides increased in all parts as the infection developed. The variations in the content of lignin and cellulose in different tissues of an individual plant may be part of the reason for the plant's disease resistance. Through wavelet-based data mining, two-dimensional chemical images of lignin, cellulose and all biopolymers were quantified by integrating the characteristic spectral bands ranging from 1,589 to 1,607 cm-1, 1,087 to 1,100 cm-1, and 2,980 to 2,995 cm-1, respectively. The chemical images were consistent with the results of the semi-quantitative analysis, which indicated that the distribution of lignin in vascular bundle became irregular in sections with severe infection, and a substantial quantity of lignin was detected in the cell wall and inside the bundle sheath cell. In serious infected sections, cellulose was accumulated in vascular bundles and distributed within bundle sheath cells. In addition, the distribution of all biopolymers showed that there was a tylose substance produced within the vascular bundles to prevent the further development of pathogens. Therefore, confocal Raman microspectroscopy can be used as a powerful approach for investigating the temporal and spatial variation of biopolymers within cells. Through this method, we can gain knowledge about a plant's defense mechanisms against fungal pathogens.

[In Vivo Study of Chitin in Fungal Hyphae Based on Confocal Raman Microscopy].

Chitin is an important structural polysaccharide of fungal cell wall. In this paper, aerial hyphae of Colletotrichum camelliae Massee was first studied by confocal Raman microscopy in vivo. Firstly, the optimal experimental parameters of hyphae for collecting the Raman spectra were determined, and the typical Raman spectra of hyphae, chitin standard and background were acquired. By comparing analysis, characteristic peaks of chitin were found in hyphae. Then, a region of interesting on hyphae was selected for Raman scanning. Through principal component analysis, the Raman signal of hyphae and background in the scanning area can be separated clearly. Combined with loading weight plot, two main characteristic peaks of hyphae were obtained, 1 622 cm(-1) was belong to chitin and 1 368 cm(-1) was assigned to pectic polysaccharide. Finally, two and three dimension chemical images of fungal hyphae were realized based on Raman fingerprint spectra of chitin in a nondestructive way.

Nondestructive detection of lead chrome green in tea by Raman spectroscopy.

Raman spectroscopy was first adopted for rapid detecting a hazardous substance of lead chrome green in tea, which was illegally added to tea to disguise as high-quality. 160 samples of tea infusion with different concentrations of lead chrome green were prepared for Raman spectra acquirement in the range of 2804 cm(-1)-230 cm(-1) and the spectral intensities were calibrated with relative intensity standards. Then wavelet transformation (WT) was adopted to extract information in different time and frequency domains from Raman spectra, and the low-frequency approximation signal (ca4) was proved as the most important information for establishment of lead chrome green measurement model, and the corresponding partial least squares (PLS) regression model obtained good performance in prediction with Rp and RMSEP of 0.936 and 0.803, respectively. To further explore the important wavenumbers closely related to lead chrome green, successive projections algorithm (SPA) was proposed. Finally, 8 characteristic wavenumbers closely related to lead chrome green were obtained and a more convenient and fast model was also developed. These results proved the feasibility of Raman spectroscopy for nondestructive detection of lead chrome green in tea quality control.

[Studies on Effect of Alkali Pretreatment on Anaerobic Digestion of Rice Straw with Confocal Raman Microscopy].

NaOH pretreatment is a convenient and effective method which is widely used in rice straw anaerobic digestion. But the mechanism of the alkaline (NaOH) hydrolysis of biopolymers compositions and polymeric cross-linked network structures of rice straw cell wall need further study. This paper firstly studied the effect and mechanism of alkali pretreatment on anaerobic digestion and biogas production of rice straw by using a combination of confocal Raman microscopy and transmission electron microscope. First, the original rice straw and the rice straw pretreated by NaOH were taken for mapping scanning by confocal Raman microscopy with micron-scale spatial resolution. Then principal component analysis was adopted to extract main information of Raman spectra, it could be found that the two types of samples were respectively presented with ray-like distribution in the first two principal component space, which were with cumulative contribution of 99%. And there was a clear boundary between the two types of samples without any overlapping, indicating that there was a significant difference of Raman spectral characteristic between original rice leaf and rice leaf pretreated by NaOH. Further analysis of the loading weights of the first two principal components showed that the Raman peaks at 1 739, 1 508 and 1 094 cm(-1) were the important bands, and these three Raman peaks were attributed to the scattering of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin respectively. Following, chemical imaging analysis of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin were achieved by combining these Raman peaks and microscopic image information. It could be found that the NaOH pretreatment resulted in a loss of dense spatial uniformity structure of tissue and great decreases of the contents of these three ingredients, particularly lignin. It can be concluded that it is feasible to non-destructively measure hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose in rice straw tissue by confocal Raman microscopy, and to achieve chemical imaging analysis of the three ingredients in tissue, and this research will be much help for revealing the promotion mechanism of NaOH pretreatment for the rice straw fermentation and biogas production.

[Revealing the chemical changes of tea cell wall induced by anthracnose with confocal Raman microscopy].

Healthy tea and tea infected by anthracnose were first studied by confocal Raman microscopy to illustrate chemical changes of cell wall in the present paper. Firstly, Raman spectra of both healthy and infected sample tissues were collected with spatial resolution at micron-level, and ultrastructure of healthy and infected tea cells was got from scanning electron microscope. These results showed that there were significant changes in Raman shift and Raman intensity between healthy and infected cell walls, indicating that great differences occurred in chemical compositions of cell walls between healthy and infected samples. In details, intensities at many Raman bands which were closely associated with cellulose, pectin, esters were reduced after infection, revealing that the content of chemical compounds such as cellulose, pectin, esters was decreased after infection. Subsequently, chemical imaging of both healthy and infected tea cell walls were realized based on Raman fingerprint spectra of cellulose and microscopic spatial structure. It was found that not only the content of cellulose was reduced greatly after infection, but also the ordered structure of cellulose was destroyed by anthracnose infection. Thus, confocal Raman microscopy was shown to be a powerful tool to detect the chemical changes in cell wall of tea caused by anthracnose without any chemical treatment or staining. This research firstly applied confocal Raman microscopy in phytopathology for the study of interactive relationship between host and pathogen, and it will also open a new way for intensive study of host-pathogen at cellular level.