Ionic strength- and pH-dependence of calcium binding by terrestrial humic acids

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iso Christl

Environmental contextIn terrestrial environments, humic substances act as major sorbents for calcium, which is an essential nutrient for organisms. This study shows that calcium binding by terrestrial humic acids is strongly dependent on pH and ionic strength. The results indicate that calcium binding by humic acids is primarily controlled by electrostatic forces and specific binding to carboxylic groups. AbstractCalcium binding by two terrestrial humic acids was investigated at 25 °C as a function of pH, ionic strength and Ca2+ activity with calcium titration experiments. A Ca2+-selective electrode was used for Ca2+ measurements to cover a wide range of Ca2+ activities (10–8.5–10–2.5). Experimental data were quantitatively described with the NICA–Donnan model accounting for electrostatic and specific calcium binding. The results showed that calcium binding as a function of Ca2+ activity was strongly affected by variations of pH and ionic strength indicating that electrostatic binding is an important mechanism for calcium binding by humic acids. Data modelling providing a good description of experimental data for both humic acids suggested that electrostatic binding was the dominant calcium binding mechanisms at high Ca2+ activities often observed in terrestrial environments. Specific calcium binding being quantitatively predominant only at low Ca2+ activities was exclusively attributed to binding sites exhibiting a weak affinity for protons considered to represent mainly carboxylic groups. Since the negative charge of the humic acids being prerequisite for electrostatic calcium binding was found to be mainly due to deprotonation of carboxylic groups except under alkaline conditions, carboxylic groups were identified to primarily control calcium binding of humic acids.

2014 ◽  
Vol 1665 ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Puigdomènech ◽  
E. Colàs ◽  
M. Grivé ◽  
I. Campos ◽  
D. García

ABSTRACTA set of computer programs has been developed to draw chemical-equilibrium diagrams. This new software is the Java-language equivalent to the Medusa/Hydra software (developed some time ago in Visual basic at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden). The main program, now named “Spana” calls Java programs based on the HaltaFall algorithm. The equilibrium constants that are needed for the calculations may be retrieved from a database included in the software package (“Database” program). This new software is intended for undergraduate students as well as researchers and professionals.The “Spana” code can be easily applied to perform radionuclide speciation and solubility calculations of minerals, including solubility calculations relevant for the performance assessment of a nuclear waste repository. In order to handle ionic strength corrections in such calculations several approaches can be applied. The “Spana” code is able to perform calculations based on three models: the Davies equation; an approximation to the model by Helgeson et al. (HKF); and the Specific Ion-Interaction Theory (SIT). Default SIT-coefficients may be used, which widens the applicability of SIT significantly.A comparison is made here among the different ionic strength approaches used by “Spana” (Davies, HKF, SIT) when modelling the chemistry of radionuclides and minerals of interest under the conditions of a geological repository for nuclear waste. For this purpose, amorphous hydrous Thorium(IV) oxide (ThO2(am)), Gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) and Portlandite (Ca(OH)2) solubility at high ionic strengths have been modelled and compared to experimental data from the literature. Results show a good fitting between the calculated values and the experimental data especially for the SIT approach in a wide range of ionic strengths (0-4 M).


1971 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. A. MacGregor ◽  
J. M. Bowness

Equilibrium dialysis was used to study the distribution of calcium or phosphate ions at equilibrium in dialysis cells containing proteoglycan or chondroitin sulfate in one compartment. A higher concentration of calcium or lower concentration of phosphate was found in the cell compartment containing the polymer than in the compartment separated from it by a semipermeable membrane. The difference in calcium concentration across the boundary represents bound calcium. The formation constant (K) for the complex of bound calcium with chondroitin sulfate was investigated and found to be affected by two main factors: ionic strength and calcium/glucuronate ratio. K decreased rapidly with increasing ionic strength up to 0.15. At low ionic strength and high Ca2+/glucuronate ratios, evidence has been obtained that more calcium is bound by the polymers than can be accounted for by the simple equilibrium system, involving the combination of one calcium per disaccharide unit period, whose operation is consistent with the K values found at low Ca/glucuronate ratios over a wide range of ionic strengths. Infrared spectra obtained at high and low Ca2+/glucuronate ratios also indicate the existence of two calcium forms of proteoglycans. Viscosity and ultracentrifugal data show that differences exist between proteoglycans in calcium and sodium solutions. The data for disaggregated proteoglycan preparations indicate that their calcium-binding properties are very similar to those of chondroitin 4-sulfate and are determined by the same factors. One aggregated puppy rib proteoglycan, however, showed significantly greater K values than chondroitin 4-sulfate; these decreased after disaggregation.


Author(s):  
N. S. Aryaeva ◽  
E. V. Koptev-Dvornikov ◽  
D. A. Bychkov

A system of equations of thermobarometer for magnetite-silicate melt equilibrium was obtained by method of multidimensional statistics of 93 experimental data of a magnetite solubility in basaltic melts. Equations reproduce experimental data in a wide range of basalt compositions, temperatures and pressures with small errors. Verification of thermobarometers showed the maximum error in liquidus temperature reproducing does not exceed ±7 °C. The level of cumulative magnetite appearance in the vertical structure of Tsypringa, Kivakka, Burakovsky intrusions predicted with errors from ±10 to ±50 m.


Open Physics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 968-980
Author(s):  
Xueping Du ◽  
Zhijie Chen ◽  
Qi Meng ◽  
Yang Song

Abstract A high accuracy of experimental correlations on the heat transfer and flow friction is always expected to calculate the unknown cases according to the limited experimental data from a heat exchanger experiment. However, certain errors will occur during the data processing by the traditional methods to obtain the experimental correlations for the heat transfer and friction. A dimensionless experimental correlation equation including angles is proposed to make the correlation have a wide range of applicability. Then, the artificial neural networks (ANNs) are used to predict the heat transfer and flow friction performances of a finned oval-tube heat exchanger under four different air inlet angles with limited experimental data. The comparison results of ANN prediction with experimental correlations show that the errors from the ANN prediction are smaller than those from the classical correlations. The data of the four air inlet angles fitted separately have higher precisions than those fitted together. It is demonstrated that the ANN approach is more useful than experimental correlations to predict the heat transfer and flow resistance characteristics for unknown cases of heat exchangers. The results can provide theoretical support for the application of the ANN used in the finned oval-tube heat exchanger performance prediction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1036
Author(s):  
Dongmei Lyu ◽  
Levini A. Msimbira ◽  
Mahtab Nazari ◽  
Mohammed Antar ◽  
Antoine Pagé ◽  
...  

Terrestrial plants evolution occurred in the presence of microbes, the phytomicrobiome. The rhizosphere microbial community is the most abundant and diverse subset of the phytomicrobiome and can include both beneficial and parasitic/pathogenic microbes. Prokaryotes of the phytomicrobiome have evolved relationships with plants that range from non-dependent interactions to dependent endosymbionts. The most extreme endosymbiotic examples are the chloroplasts and mitochondria, which have become organelles and integral parts of the plant, leading to some similarity in DNA sequence between plant tissues and cyanobacteria, the prokaryotic symbiont of ancestral plants. Microbes were associated with the precursors of land plants, green algae, and helped algae transition from aquatic to terrestrial environments. In the terrestrial setting the phytomicrobiome contributes to plant growth and development by (1) establishing symbiotic relationships between plant growth-promoting microbes, including rhizobacteria and mycorrhizal fungi, (2) conferring biotic stress resistance by producing antibiotic compounds, and (3) secreting microbe-to-plant signal compounds, such as phytohormones or their analogues, that regulate aspects of plant physiology, including stress resistance. As plants have evolved, they recruited microbes to assist in the adaptation to available growing environments. Microbes serve themselves by promoting plant growth, which in turn provides microbes with nutrition (root exudates, a source of reduced carbon) and a desirable habitat (the rhizosphere or within plant tissues). The outcome of this coevolution is the diverse and metabolically rich microbial community that now exists in the rhizosphere of terrestrial plants. The holobiont, the unit made up of the phytomicrobiome and the plant host, results from this wide range of coevolved relationships. We are just beginning to appreciate the many ways in which this complex and subtle coevolution acts in agricultural systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 677
Author(s):  
Tausif Altamash ◽  
Wesam Ahmed ◽  
Saad Rasool ◽  
Kabir H. Biswas

Intracellular ionic strength regulates myriad cellular processes that are fundamental to cellular survival and proliferation, including protein activity, aggregation, phase separation, and cell volume. It could be altered by changes in the activity of cellular signaling pathways, such as those that impact the activity of membrane-localized ion channels or by alterations in the microenvironmental osmolarity. Therefore, there is a demand for the development of sensitive tools for real-time monitoring of intracellular ionic strength. Here, we developed a bioluminescence-based intracellular ionic strength sensing strategy using the Nano Luciferase (NanoLuc) protein that has gained tremendous utility due to its high, long-lived bioluminescence output and thermal stability. Biochemical experiments using a recombinantly purified protein showed that NanoLuc bioluminescence is dependent on the ionic strength of the reaction buffer for a wide range of ionic strength conditions. Importantly, the decrease in the NanoLuc activity observed at higher ionic strengths could be reversed by decreasing the ionic strength of the reaction, thus making it suitable for sensing intracellular ionic strength alterations. Finally, we used an mNeonGreen–NanoLuc fusion protein to successfully monitor ionic strength alterations in a ratiometric manner through independent fluorescence and bioluminescence measurements in cell lysates and live cells. We envisage that the biosensing strategy developed here for detecting alterations in intracellular ionic strength will be applicable in a wide range of experiments, including high throughput cellular signaling, ion channel functional genomics, and drug discovery.


Author(s):  
Afshin Anssari-Benam ◽  
Andrea Bucchi ◽  
Giuseppe Saccomandi

AbstractThe application of a newly proposed generalised neo-Hookean strain energy function to the inflation of incompressible rubber-like spherical and cylindrical shells is demonstrated in this paper. The pressure ($P$ P ) – inflation ($\lambda $ λ or $v$ v ) relationships are derived and presented for four shells: thin- and thick-walled spherical balloons, and thin- and thick-walled cylindrical tubes. Characteristics of the inflation curves predicted by the model for the four considered shells are analysed and the critical values of the model parameters for exhibiting the limit-point instability are established. The application of the model to extant experimental datasets procured from studies across 19th to 21st century will be demonstrated, showing favourable agreement between the model and the experimental data. The capability of the model to capture the two characteristic instability phenomena in the inflation of rubber-like materials, namely the limit-point and inflation-jump instabilities, will be made evident from both the theoretical analysis and curve-fitting approaches presented in this study. A comparison with the predictions of the Gent model for the considered data is also demonstrated and is shown that our presented model provides improved fits. Given the simplicity of the model, its ability to fit a wide range of experimental data and capture both limit-point and inflation-jump instabilities, we propose the application of our model to the inflation of rubber-like materials.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1525
Author(s):  
Sergey Vorobyev ◽  
Elena Vishnyakova ◽  
Maxim Likhatski ◽  
Alexander Romanchenko ◽  
Ivan Nemtsev ◽  
...  

Carey Lea silver hydrosol is a rare example of very concentrated colloidal solutions produced with citrate as only protective ligands, and prospective for a wide range of applications, whose properties have been insufficiently studied up to now. Herein, the reactivity of the immobilized silver nanoparticles toward oxidation, sulfidation, and sintering upon their interaction with hydrogen peroxide, sulfide ions, and chlorocomplexes of Au(III), Pd(II), and Pt(IV) was investigated using SEM and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The reactions decreased the number of carboxylic groups of the citrate-derived capping and promoted coalescence of 7 nm Ag NPs into about 40 nm ones, excluding the interaction with hydrogen peroxide. The increased nanoparticles form loose submicrometer aggregates in the case of sulfide treatment, raspberry-like micrometer porous particles in the media containing Pd(II) chloride, and densely sintered particles in the reaction with inert H2PtCl6 complexes, probably via the formation of surface Ag-Pt alloys. The exposure of Ag NPs to HAuCl4 solution produced compact Ag films along with nanocrystals of Au metal and minor Ag and AgCl. The results are promising for chemical ambient temperature sintering and rendering silver-based nanomaterials, for example, for flexible electronics, catalysis, and other applications.


1962 ◽  
Vol 99 (6) ◽  
pp. 558-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Wyllie

AbstractBowen's petrogenetic grid is a PT projection containing univariant curves for decarbonation, dehydration, and solid-solid reactions, with vapour pressure (Pf) equal to total pressure (Ps). Analysis of experimental data in the system MgO–CO2–H2O leads to an expansion of this grid. Three of the important variables in metamorphism when Pf = Ps are P, T, and variation of the pore fluid composition between H2O and CO2. These can be illustrated in a three-dimensional petrogenetic model; one face is a PT plane for reactions occurring with pure H2O, and the opposite face is a similar plane for reactions with pure CO2; these are separated by an axis for pore fluid composition varying between H2O and CO2. Superposition of the PT faces of the model provides the petrogenetic grid. The reactions within the model are represented by divariant surfaces, which may meet along univariant lines. For dissociation reactions, the surfaces curve towards lower temperatures as the proportion of non-reacting volatile increases, and solid-solid reaction surfaces are parallel to the vapour composition axis and perpendicular to the PT axes. The relative temperatures of reactions and the lines of intersections of the surfaces can be illustrated in isobaric sections. Isobaric sections are used to illustrate reactions proceeding at constant pressure with (1) pore fluid composition remaining constant during the reaction, with temperature increasing (2) pore fluid composition changing during the reaction, with temperature increasing, and (3) pore fluid changing composition at constant temperature. The petrogenetic model provides a convenient framework for a wide range of experimental data.


Author(s):  
Yongli Zhang ◽  
Brenton S. McLaury ◽  
Siamack A. Shirzai

Erosion equations are usually obtained from experiments by impacting solid particles entrained in a gas or liquid on a target material. The erosion equations are utilized in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) models to predict erosion damage caused by solid particle impingements. Many erosion equations are provided in terms of an erosion ratio. By definition, the erosion ratio is the mass loss of target material divided by the mass of impacting particles. The mass of impacting particles is the summation of (particle mass × number of impacts) of each particle. In erosion experiments conducted to determine erosion equations, some particles may impact the target wall many times and some other particles may not impact the target at all. Therefore, the experimental data may not reflect the actual erosion ratio because the mass of the sand that is used to run the experiments is assumed to be the mass of the impacting particles. CFD and particle trajectory simulations are applied in the present work to study effects of multiple impacts on developing erosion ratio equations. The erosion equation as well as the CFD-based erosion modeling procedure is validated against a variety of experimental data. The results show that the effect of multiple impacts is negligible in air cases. In water cases, however, this effect needs to be accounted for especially for small particles. This makes it impractical to develop erosion ratio equations from experimental data obtained for tests with sand in water or dense gases. Many factors affecting erosion damage are accounted for in various erosion equations. In addition to some well-studied parameters such as particle impacting speed and impacting angle, particle size also plays a significant role in the erosion process. An average particle size is usually used in analyzing experimental data or estimating erosion damage cases of practical interest. In petroleum production applications, however, the size of sand particles that are entrained in produced fluids can vary over a fairly broad range. CFD simulations are also performed to study the effect of particle size distribution. In CFD simulations, particle sizes are normally distributed with the mean equaling the average size of interest and the standard deviation varying over a wide range. Based on CFD simulations, an equation is developed and can be applied to account for the effect of the particle size distribution on erosion prediction for gases and liquids.


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