Esteban A. Franceschini

High-Activity Mesoporous Pt/Ru Catalysts for Methanol Oxidation

High activity mesoporous Pt/Ru catalysts with 2D-hexagonal structure were synthesized using a triblock poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(propylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) copolymer (Pluronic F127) template. The normalized mass activities for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) of the Pt/Ru catalysts with a regular array of pores is higher than those reported for nanoparticulated Pt/Ru catalysts. Different kinetic parameters, as Tafel slope and activation energy, were obtained for the MOR on the mesoporous catalysts. Results indicated that catalysts performance depends on pore size. Mass activities and the CO2 conversion efficiency for large pore size mesoporous catalysts (10 nm) are greater than those reported for smaller pore size mesoporous catalysts with similar composition. The effect of pore size on catalysts performance is related to the greater accessibility of methanol to the active areas inside large pores. Consequently, the overall residence time of methanol increases as compared with mesoporous catalyst with small pores.

Xanthan chain length is modulated by increasing the availability of the polysaccharide copolymerase protein GumC and the outer membrane polysaccharide export protein GumB.

Xanthan is a polysaccharide secreted by Xanthomonas campestris that contains pentameric repeat units. The biosynthesis of xanthan involves an operon composed of 12 genes (gumB to gumM). In this study, we analyzed the proteins encoded by gumB and gumC. Membrane fractionation showed that GumB was mainly associated with the outer membrane, whereas GumC was an inner membrane protein. By in silico analysis and specific globomycin inhibition, GumB was characterized as a lipoprotein. By reporter enzyme assays, GumC was shown to contain two transmembrane segments flanking a large periplasmic domain. We confirmed that gumB and gumC mutant strains uncoupled the synthesis of the lipid-linked repeat unit from the polymerization process. We studied the effects of gumB and gumC gene amplification on the production, composition and viscosity of xanthan. Overexpression of GumB, GumC or GumB and GumC simultaneously did not affect the total amount or the chemical composition of the polymer. GumB overexpression did not affect xanthan viscosity; however, a moderate increase in xanthan viscosity was achieved when GumC protein levels were increased 5-fold. Partial degradation of GumC was observed when only that protein was overexpressed; but co-expression of GumB and GumC diminished GumC degradation and resulted in higher xanthan viscosity than individual GumB or GumC overexpression. Compared with xanthan from the wild-type strain, longer polymer chains from the strain that simultaneously overexpressed GumB and GumC were observed by atomic force microscopy. Our results suggest that GumB-GumC protein levels modulate xanthan chain length, which results in altered polymer viscosity.

Applications and Durability of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Many companies are making significant efforts in the development of prototypes of DAFC (mainly DMFC) for replace batteries (battery charge and auxiliary power units) in portable devices. Some of the most relevant prototypes are summarized; however, most of these devices are not ready to be commercialized due to the high cost and low power reached. Furthermore, for the massive application of the DAFC technologies is necessary solve some of the drawbacks (as miniaturization, products balance, cost reduction, etc.). The cost of the prototypes is analyzed as well as the degradation of the components that affects the durability of the devices.