Synthesis of microcapsules containing different extractant agents.

Mercury is one of the most toxic pollutants, with high capacity of accumulation in living organism, causing important human health problems. Therefore, the mercury removal from water is an important research goal. In a previous work, an extractant agent [di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid] was microencapsulated in poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) by means of suspension polymerisation using toluene as diluent.

Scale-up of a suspension-like polymerization process for the microencapsulation of phase change materials.

Microcapsules of polystyrene with a high level of encapsulated paraffin wax and a narrow size distribution were prepared by a suspension-like polymerization process. The scale-up of this microencapsulation process was carried out by designing a pilot plant that was geometrically proportional to that used on the laboratory scale with the aim of preparing microcapsules with a similar particle size and with the same phase change material (PCM) content as those obtained in the laboratory. In order to verify the effectiveness of the scale-up procedure, a number of experiments on the pilot plant were carried out using the optimal formulation found on the laboratory scale.

Influence of the nature of the metal hydroxide in the porosity development of carbon nanofibers.

In this study, highly porous carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were prepared by chemical activation in order to develop promising energy storage materials. The activation was performed at a temperature of 850 degrees C by using different metal hydroxides as the activating agents. Pore structures of the CNFs were analyzed using N(2)/77K adsorption isotherms.

Study of the solubility and stability of polystyrene wastes in a dissolution recycling process.

Dissolution with suitable solvents is one of the cheapest and more efficient processes for polystyrene waste management. In this work the solubility of polystyrene foams in several solvents benzene, toluene, xylene, tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, 1,3-butanediol, 2-butanol, linalool, geraniol, d-limonene, p-cymene, terpinene, phellandrene, terpineol, menthol, eucalyptol, cinnamaldheyde, nitrobenzene, N,N-dimethylformamide and water has been determined. Experimental results have shown that to develop a "green process" the constituents of essential oils, d-limonene, p-cymene, terpinene, phellandrene, are the most appropriate solvents.

Copolymerization of D,L-lactide and glycolide in supercritical carbon dioxide with zinc octoate as catalyst.

The objective of the study is the development of a new technique based on supercritical technology for the production of bioabsorbable polymeric microparticles containing pharmaceutical principles, for their use in the controlled release of medicines. For this purpose, the ring-opening copolymerization of D,L-lactide and glycolide in supercritical carbon dioxide, using zinc(II) 2-ethylhexanoate (ZnOct2) as catalyst, was studied. The polymer obtained with ZnOct2 has similar characteristics to that obtained with stannous octoate (SnOct2), the conventional catalyst used up to now for this kind of polymerization process.