Element mobility related to rock weathering and soil formation at the westward side of the southernmost Patagonian Andes.

Rock weathering and pedogenesis are fundamental processes for element mobility in terrestrial bio-geochemical cycles and for the regulation of primary productivity in adjacent coastal marine ecosystems. Here, soils developed from volcanic ash under extreme climate conditions could play a particular role. We therefore investigated rock weathering, soil formation and the associated mobilization of trace elements and micronutrients in a pristine South Patagonian ecosystem.

Macroporous Polymer⁻Protein Hybrid Materials for Antibody Purification by Combination of Reactive Gelation and Click-Chemistry.

Clickable core-shell nanoparticles based on poly(styrene-divinylbenzene-vinylbenzylazide) have been synthesized via emulsion polymerization. The 38 nm sized particles have been swollen by divinyl benzene (DVB) and 2,2'-azobis(2-methylpropionitrile) (AIBN) and subsequently processed under high shear rates in a Z-shaped microchannel giving macroporous microclusters (100 µm), through the reactive gelation process. The obtained clusters were post-functionalized by "click-chemistry" with propargyl-PEG-NHS-ester and propargylglicidyl ether, yielding epoxide or NHS-ester activated polymer supports for bioconjugation.

Cellulose nanocrystals by acid vapour: towards more effortless isolation of cellulose nanocrystals.

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are topical in materials science but their full potential is yet to be fulfilled because of bottlenecks in the production: the process consumes huge amounts of water, recycling the strong acid catalyst is difficult, and purification steps are cumbersome, particularly with lengthy dialysis. Production of CNCs with HCl vapour overcomes many of these difficulties but the dispersion of CNCs from the already hydrolysed fibre matrix is a formidable challenge. This study is a fundamental effort to explore very basic means to facilitate CNC dispersion from cotton linter fibres (filter paper), hydrolysed to levelling off degree of polymerization by HCl vapour.