• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.101-111
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• 1999

Sedimentary organic matter, exposed to continental surficial environment, reacts with oxygen supplied from the atmosphee and forms carbon-containing oxidation products. Knowledge of the rate and mechanisms of sedimentary organic matter weathering is important because it is one of the major controls on atmospheric oxygen level through geologic time. Under the abiological conditions, the oxidation rate of coal organic matter by molecular oxygen is enhanced by the increase of oxygen concentration and temperature. At ambient temperature and pressure, aqueous coal oxidation results in the formation of dissolved $CO_2$ dissolved organic carbon and solid oxidation products which are all quantitatively significant reaction products. The effects of pH, ultraviolet light, and microbial activity on the weathering of sedimentary organic matter are poorly contrained. Based on the results of geochmical and environmental studies, it is believed that the photochemical reaction should play an important role in the decomposition and oxidation of sedimentary organic matter removed from the weathering profile. At higher pH conditions, the production rate of DOC can be accelerated due to base catalysis. These high molecular weight oranic matter can react with man-made pollutants such as heavy metal ions via adsorption/desorption or ion exchange reactions. The effect of microbial activity on the oxidative weathering of sedimentary organic matter is poorly understood and remains to be studied.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.1132-1138
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• 2006

Three types of xylanases (EC 3.2.1.8) were detected in the strain Aspergillus niger A-25, one of which, designated as XynIII, also displayed ${\beta}-(l,3-1,4)-glucanase$ (EC 3.2.1.73) activity, as determined by a zymogram analysis. XynIII was purified by ultrafiltration and ion-exchange chromatography methods. Its apparent molecular weight was about 27.9 kDa, as estimated by SDS-PAGE. The purified XynIII could hydrolyze birchwood xylan, oat spelt xylan, lichenin, and barley ${\beta}-glucan$, but not CMC, avicel cellulose, or soluble starch under the assay conditions in this study. The xylanase and ${\beta}-(l,3-1,4)-glucanase$ activities of XynIII both had a similar optimal pH and pH stability, as well as a similar optimal temperature and temperature stability. Moreover, the effects of metal ions on the two enzymatic activities were also similar. The overall hydrolytic rates of XynIII in different mixtures of xylan and lichenin coincided with those calculated using the Michaelis-Menten model when assuming the two substrates were competing for the same active site in the enzyme. Accordingly, the results indicated that XynIII is a novel bifunctional enzyme and its xylanase and ${\beta}-(l,3-1,4)-glucanase$ activities are catalyzed by the same active center.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.603-608
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• 2001

$MO-SiO_2$ (M = Zn, Sn, In, Ag, Ni) binary silica gels were synthesized by sol-gel method and their structural change with the kind of metal ions was characterized by XRD, FT- IR and $^{29}$Si-NMR. Although X-ray analysis showed partial recrystallization of $AgNO_3$ in $Ag-SiO_2$gel, crystalline phase formed by the bonding between metal ion and the silica matrix didn't appear in all $MO-SiO_2$ gels. The FT-IR analysis showed that Zn, Sn and in partially formed Si-O-M bonding in silica matrix and made an shift of absorption peak to by Si-O-Si symmetrical vibration. In addition, $^{29}Si-NMR$ studies showed that Zn, Sn and In didn't affect sol-gel process of silica and were linked with non-bridging oxygen of the linear silica structure, which formed imperfect network because of low temperature sol-gel process. Ag and Ni make a role of catalysis on sol-gel process, resulting in densifying the silica network structure.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.206-214
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• 2005

Heterogeneously-catalyzed oxidation of aqueous phase trichloroethylene (TCE) over supported metal oxides has been conducted to establish an approach to eliminate ppm levels of organic compounds in water. A continuous flow reactor system was designed to effect predominant reaction parameters in determining catalytic activity of the catalysts for wet TCE decomposition as a model reaction. 5 wt.% $CoO_x/TiO_2$ catalyst exhibited a transient period in activity vs. on-stream time behavior, suggesting that the surface structure of the $CoO_x$ might be altered with on-stream hours; regardless, it is probable to be the most promising catalyst. Not only could the bare support be inactive for the wet decomposition reaction at $36^{\circ}C$, but no TCE removal also occurred by the process of adsorption on $TiO_2$ surface. The catalytic activity was independent of all particle sizes used, thereby representing no mass transfer limitation in intraparticle diffusion. Very low TCE conversion appeared for $TiO_2$-supported $NiO_x$ and $CrO_x$ catalysts. Wet oxidation performance of supported Cu and Fe catalysts, obtained through an incipient wetness and ion exchange technique, was dependent primarily on the kinds of the metal oxides, in addition to the acidic solid supports and the preparation routes. 5 wt.% $FeO_x/TiO_2$ catalyst gave no activity in the oxidation reaction at $36^{\circ}C$, while 1.2 wt.% Fe-MFI was active for the wet decomposition depending on time on-stream. The noticeable difference in activity of the both catalysts suggests that the Fe oxidation states involved to catalytic redox cycle during the course of reaction play a significant role in catalyzing the wet decomposition as well as in maintaining the time on-stream activity. Based on the results of different $CoO_x$ loadings and reaction temperatures for the decomposition reaction at $36^{\circ}C$ with $CoO_x/TiO_2$, the catalyst possessed an optimal $CoO_x$ amount at which higher reaction temperatures facilitated the catalytic TCE conversion. Small amounts of the active ingredient could be dissolved by acidic leaching but such a process gave no appreciable activity loss of the $CoO_x$ catalyst.