Evaluating the potential of a novel hardwood biomass using a superbase ionic liquid.

Lignocellulosic biomass, being ubiquitous and easily accessible, bears a huge potential for sustainable energy and other products. Fractionation, delignification, and subsequent utilization of hardwood biomass has been ever challenging for a bio-based refinery. Acacia nilotica (kikar in local language) is a hardwood tree commonly found in Pakistan, where its abundance owes to favorable and benign environmental conditions. Ionic liquids based on superbase "tetramethylguanidine (TMG)" are green solvents that are found to be good cellulose processing agents. Previously, TMG-based protic ionic liquids (PILs) have been used for cellulose processing and transformation into value-added products. In this study, an ionic liquid comprising a tetramethylguanidinium cation and a hydrogen sulfate anion was employed for the evaluation of the potential of acacia for fermentable sugars and lignin. Pretreatment was carried out at 100, 120, and 140 °C for 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 hours. The results indicate that [TMG][HSO4] is an efficient delignifying agent affording 81% lignin removal and 76% sugar yield by subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. The evaluation of the efficiency of IL and the biomass was verified by compositional analysis, FT-IR, HSQC, and SEM analyses.

Enhancing catalytic potential of gold nanoparticles by linear and cross-linked polyurethane blending.

This work describes the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and their subsequent stabilization using a water-borne polyurethane matrix of micro-particles (Au/PU) by a heating method. Composites were prepared both from linear and cross-linked polyurethane (LPU and CPU). Catalytic activities of synthesized composites exhibiting 226.4 nm size were evaluated for reduction of Congo red dye. More than 90% Congo red degradation was achieved in just 6 minutes with Au/LPU. Under similar conditions, 30% of dye was degraded with Au/CPU composite in 5 minutes. The effects of different variables such as concentration of dye, catalyst dose and concentration of reagents have been optimized. The degradation process followed first order kinetics. The most efficient composite (Au/LPU) was characterized using UV/Vis, FTIR, SEM, XRD and DLS techniques. The excellent catalytic activity can be attributed to the polyurethane matrix making the dye available to catalytic sites (AuNPs).

Extraction of basil seed mucilage using ionic liquid and preparation of AuNps/mucilage nanocomposite for catalytic degradation of dye.

Basil seeds are widely cultivated throughout the world because of their extensive applications in various fields of life. The Basil seeds mucilage (BSM) exhibits remarkable physical and chemical properties like high water absorbing capacity, emulsifying, and stabilizing properties. The extraction of this mucilage from the seed surface has always been done by physical and chemical methods, which has certain drawbacks. Here, we report for the first time a chemical method for the effective extraction of this mucilage using ionic liquids (ILs); the green solvents. Pyridinium chloride based ILs were investigated for the effective extraction of mucilage and the process was optimized for various variables i.e. time, temperature, basil seed loading, co-solvents, anti-solvents. The extraction yield (up to 25% w/w of mucilage per basil seeds dry weight) was obtained at optimum conditions. Extracted mucilage was characterized by analytical techniques. The extracted BSM was used to prepare AuNps/BSM nanocomposite by stabilizing the gold nanoparticles. The AuNps/BSM nanocomposite was applied for the catalytic degradation of dyes (congo red; 12 min, methyl orange; 4 min, whereas 4-nitrophenol; 6 min).