What's in drugs freely used by Brazilian truck drivers - "Rebites"? Determination of target and nontarget compounds by high-resolution mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance.

Highways, the lifeline of the Brazilian economy, transport approximately 75% of the country's economic activity, highlighting its importance. However, professional drivers, accustomed to long daily journeys, make use of tablets widely available in Gas Station, which are known as "Rebites," which could contain a mixture of legal and illegal compounds. Thus, this study aims at the chemical characterization of these through different analytical methods.

On the physicochemical origin of nanoscale friction: the polarizability and electronegativity relationship tailoring nanotribology.

Friction is a ubiquitous manifestation of nature, and when it is studied at the nanoscale, complex and interesting effects arise from fundamental physical and chemical surface properties. Surprisingly, and probably due to the complexity of nanofriction studies, this aspect has not been completely discussed in prior studies. To fully consider the physicochemical influence in nanoscale friction, amorphous carbon films with different amounts of hydrogen and fluorine were prepared, chemically characterized, and evaluated via lateral force microscopy.

Ultrasonication-promoted synthesis of Ni/mayenite for catalytic reforming of biomass tar.

Ultrasound-assisted approach was successfully applied for the synthesis of mayenite from calcium and aluminum hydroxides and then subsequently impregnated with Ni by the wet impregnation method. The synthesis was performed with a 13 mm probe-type ultrasound, operating under an acoustic power of 30.5 W and a frequency of 20 kHz.