Dividing cells

Manufacture and Economics. Nitrogen tritiuoride can be formed from a wide variety of chemical reactions. Only two processes have been technically and economically feasible for large-scale production the electrolysis of molten ammonium acid fluoride and the direct fluorination of the ammonia in the presence of molten ammonium fluoride. In the electrolytic process, NF is produced at the anode and H2 is produced at the cathode. In a divided cell of 4 kA having nickel anodes, extensive dilution of the gas streams with N2 was used to prevent explosive reactions between NF and H2 (17). 

For a profitable electrochemical process some general factors for success might be Hsted as high product yield and selectivity current efficiency >50%, electrolysis energy <8 kWh/kg product electrode, and membrane ia divided cells, lifetime >1000 hours simple recycle of electrolyte having >10% concentration of product simple isolation of end product and the product should be a key material and/or the company should be comfortable with the electroorganic method. 

Two-Dimensional Electrode Flow Cells. The simplest and least expensive cell design is the undivided parallel plate cell with electrolyte flow by some form of manifold. Electrical power is monopolar to the cell pack (72). An exploded view of the Foreman and Veatch cell is shown in Figure 7. Note that electrolyte flow is in series and that it is not easily adapted for divided cell operation. 

A possible problem of sealing the electrolyte path is found in the Foreman and Veatch cell. This can be avoided by placing the cells in a vessel. The best known example of this is the Beck and Guthke cell shown in Figure 8 (74). The cell consists of a stack of circular bipolar electrodes in which the electrolyte is fed to the center and flows radially out. Synthesis experience using this cell at BASF has been described (76). This cell exhibits problems of current by-pass at the inner and outer edge of the disk cells. Where this has become a serious problem, insulator edges have been fitted. The cell stack has parallel electrolyte flow however, it is not readily adaptable to divided cell operation. 

The divided cells often foUow the plate and frame construction. An example of a cell used at Monsanto can be found in Reference 81. Plate and frame cells have also been used by other workers, including BASF (76). In addition, there are commercially available cells. 

Fig. 13. Economic optimization of conversion costs for a plate and frame cell where A is total divided cell, B is electricity, C is capital, and D is membranes,...

It is clear from Table 7 that the undivided cell has considerable power usage savings over the divided cell operation. Also, there are no membrane costs, and cell fabrication is much cheaper. In addition, it was possible to simplify the product recovery in the undivided cell process. 

A.sahi Chemical EHD Processes. In the late 1960s, Asahi Chemical Industries in Japan developed an alternative electrolyte system for the electroreductive coupling of acrylonitrile. The catholyte in the Asahi divided cell process consisted of an emulsion of acrylonitrile and electrolysis products in a 10% aqueous solution of tetraethyl ammonium sulfate. The concentration of acrylonitrile in the aqueous phase for the original Monsanto process was 15—20 wt %, but the Asahi process uses only about 2 wt %. Asahi claims simpler separation and purification of the adiponitrile from the catholyte. A cation-exchange membrane is employed with dilute sulfuric acid in the anode compartment. The cathode is lead containing 6% antimony, and the anode is the same alloy but also contains 0.7% silver (45). The current efficiency is of 88—89%, with an adiponitrile selectivity of 91%. This process, started by Asahi in 1971, at Nobeoka City, Japan, is also operated by the RhcJ)ne Poulenc subsidiary, Rhodia, in Bra2il under Hcense from Asahi. 

Cancer is a serious malfunction of normal cell growth. In the years from 1950 through 1970, the major approach to treating this disease had been to target DNA and DNA precursors according to the hypothesis that rapidly dividing cells (cancer cells) are more susceptible to DNA toxicity... 

Conversions carried out by immobilised cells give higher yields than those carried out by growing and dividing cells. 

True Growing and dividing cells need to use substrate to provide energy and materials for growth, maintenance and product formation. In immobilised (non-growing) systems the energy and materials are only required for cell maintenance and product formation. 

Decitabine (5-aza-deoxycytosine) is an analog of the nucleoside 2 -deoxycytidine. It is believed to exert its antineoplastic effects after phosphorylation and direct incorporation into DNA and by inhibition of the enzyme DNA methyltransferase, causing hypomethylation of DNA and cellular differentiation or apoptosis. DNA hypomethylation is achieved at concentrations below those required to significantly inhibit DNA synthesis, which may promote restoration of function to genes associated with control of cellular differentiation and proliferation. Cytotoxicity in rapidly dividing cells may also result from covalent adducts between DNA methyltransferase and decitabine. 

The eukaryotic somatic cell cycle is defined by a sequential order of tasks a dividing cell has to complete it must replicate its DNA, segregate its chromosomes, grow, and divide. The cell cycle can be divided into four discrete phases. DNA replication is restricted to S phase (DNA synthesis phase), which is preceded by a gap phase called G1 and followed by a gap phase called G2. During mitosis (M phase) the sister chromatids are segregated into two new daughter nuclei and mitosis is completed by the division of the cytoplasm termed cytokinesis (Fig. 1). 

A major drawback of vectors derived from prototypic retroviruses is that they can only transduce dividing cells. Therefore, these vectors cannot be used for gene transfer in many nondividing cells (e.g., muscle and brain cells). 

All mature blood cells arise from primitive hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow, the pluripotent stem cells. Approximately 0.1% of the nucleated cells of the bone marrow are pluripotent stem cells and approximately 5% of these cells may be actively cycling at any one time. The stem cell pool maintains itself through a process of asymmetrical cell division when a stem cell divides, one daughter cell remains a stem cell and the other becomes a committed colony-forming cell (CFC). The proliferation and differentiation of CFCs are controlled by hematopoietic growth factors. The hematopoietic growth factors stimulate cell division, differentiation and maturation, and convert the dividing cells into a population of terminally differentiated functional cells. 

However, the normal cells that line the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract, and cells of the gonads, bone marrow, hair follicles, and lymph tissue are also rapidly dividing cells and are usually affected by these drugs. Thus, antineoplastic drugs may affect normal as well as malignant (cancerous) cells. 

Vincristine and vinblastine (vinca alkaloids) comprise another class of drugs that inhibit the polymerization of microtubules but do so by binding to the tubulin molecule at a site different from the colchicine site. Cultured cells exposed to high concentrations of vinca alkaloids develop intracytoplasmic paracrystalline aggregates of tubulin. These drugs are employed clinically in cancer chemotherapy to inhibit the growth of tumors composed of rapidly dividing cells. 

Another drug is taxol, which is extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, Taxus brevijolia. Unlike colchicine and the vinca alkaloids, taxol binds tightly to microtubules and stabilizes them against depolymerization by Ca. It also enhances the rate and yield of microtubule assembly, thereby decreasing the amount of soluble tubulin in the cytosol pool. Again, the overall effect of taxol is to arrest dividing cells in mitosis. Taxol is used in cancer chemotherapy. 

Hg cathode, undivided cell MeOH solvent + LiC104 Pt cathode, divided cell... 

J. Bloem, M. Veningra, and J. Shepherd, Fully automatic determination of soil bacterium numbers, cell volumes, and frequencies of dividing cells by confocal laser-scanning microscopy and image-analysis, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61 926... 

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