Blog

Charles the Bald paid 7,000 French livres in gold and silver to get the Viking army to life their siege of this French city in 845 AD

Marcus Crassus, Pompey Magnus, and Julius Caesar – the richest men in Rome at the time – created this power-sharing scheme to be able to do what they wanted through the system of the Roman Senate

After defeating Pompey and becoming Dictator for life, Julius Caesar was stabbed and killed by who in Rome?

Cellulose undergoes peeling reaction in alkaline conditions whereby a glucose molecule is cleaved off at a time. a. Is glucose cleaved off from the reducing end or nonreducing end of a cellulose chain? b. After peeling reaction, could glucose be isolated from the alkaline solution as a fermentation feedstock for ethanol production? Please explain. 

The double bonds in natural unsaturated plant fatty acids are always [choice1] and have [choice2] number of carbons.    

The two  lactic acid molecules on the left are starting a polymerization reaction with the goal to produce long chain PLA. What is missing in that box on top of the arrows? What problem would you expect for this reaction and how would you adress it?

Based on the table below, how much glucomannan would you be expect in this pine wood sample (report dry g glucomannan in 100g dry biomass). Please use a Glu:Man ratio of 1:3 for pine glucomannan. Glucose MW = 180, Water MW = 18.   g sugar released per100 g DRY Pine wood Glucose 44.00 Mannose 12.00 Xylose 6.19 Arabinose 0 Galactose 0 Klason lignin 28.1

 Below is the reaction for conversion of cellulose to Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMS).i.)    Why the 1st step is treatment with NaOH. ii.)    What property did we introduce by adding the CH2COO- group to the cellulose? Think about why we did this reaction and what CMC is used for.   

This molecule will undergo mutarotation in aqueous neutral systems. What does it mean? What other possible structure(s) would this molecule be converted to?  

During the transesterification of triglycerides to biodiesel (methyl esters) with methanol and NaOH, what is the active species attacking the  C=O bond in the triglycerides?