Outstanding processing capability

Environmental requirements are assuming great importance, since there is an increased interest in the industrial use of renewable resources such as starch and chitin. Considerable efforts are now being made in the research and development of polysaccharide derivatives as the basic materials for new applications. In particular, the increasing cost of conventional adsorbents undoubtedly makes chitin and chitosan-based materials one of the most attractive biosorbent for wastewater treatment. Chitin and chitosan biopolymers have demonstrated outstanding removal capabilities for certain pollutants such as dyes and metal ions as compared to other low-cost sorbents and commercial-activated carbons. Biopolymer adsorbents are efficient and can be used for the decontamination of effluents (removal of pollutants) and for separation processes (recovery of valuable metals). 

On a different note, after some 50 years of intensive research on high-pressure shock compression, there are still many outstanding problems that cannot be solved. For example, it is not possible to predict ab initio the time scales of the shock-transition process or the thermophysical and mechanical properties of condensed media under shock compression. For the most part, these properties must presently be evaluated experimentally for incorporation into semiempirical theories. To realize the potential of truly predictive capabilities, it will be necessary to develop first-principles theories that have robust predictive capability. This will require critical examination of the fundamental postulates and assumptions used to interpret shock-compression processes. For example, it is usually assumed that a steady state is achieved immediately after the shock-transition process. However, due to the fact that... 

One of the outstanding virtues of photochemical studies is that in many cases there is independent evidence for the nature of the reaction following light absorption by a molecule, so that the primary process is understood. Under such conditions a comparison of the photochemical and thermal reactions is capable of yielding considerable information on the secondary reactions involved. Thus the absorption of light by CI2, Br2, and I2 is known to lead to the formation of free atoms, and the photochemical reactions of these halogens have been in many cases the key to understanding their thermal reactions. 

While pure electrospray nebulization is only capable of flow rates up to 20 nl/min, the development of pneumatically assisted electrospray is compatible with flow rates exceeding 200 pl/min (9). In order to successfully ionize a compound by the electrospray process the analyte should dissociate in solution to form solvated ions prior to nebulization. Ion formation from species that are not ions themselves always requires the presence of a polar atom or flmctional group to which solute cations or anions can be attached by ion-dipole forces. Biopolymers carrying multiple functional groups will form multiple charged ions, an observation that has had an outstanding impact on the analysis of peptides, proteins and oligonucleotides (7). 

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