Nowadays the knowledge of thermodynamic properties for amino acid ionic liquids (AAILs) has been paramount for the design of many chemical processes. In this present work, a series of cholinium-based AAILs ([Ch][AA]) were synthesized by neutralization of choline hydroxide solution with five amino acids and then were characterized by 1 H NMR, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), elemental analysis, thermogravimetry, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. Physico-chemical properties such as density, viscosity, refractive index, and conductivity were measured and correlated with the empirical equations in a wide temperature range. The thermal expansion coefficient values were also calculated from the acquired experimental density values. From the experimental data, it was found that the density, viscosity, and refractive index decreased while conductivity increased with the increase of temperature. The correlation results were proposed to be in good agreement with the experimental data, and optimal fitting parameters were presented. In addition, the coefficient of thermal expansion was considered to be independent of temperature in the range of (298.15 to 353.15) K.

BackgroundChloroplast genomes supply valuable genetic information for evolutionary and functional studies in plants. The past five years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of completely sequenced chloroplast genomes with the application of second-generation sequencing technology in plastid genome sequencing projects. However, cost-effective high-throughput chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) extraction becomes a major bottleneck restricting the application, as conventional methods are difficult to make a balance between the quality and yield of cpDNAs.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe first tested two traditional methods to isolate cpDNA from the three species, Oryza brachyantha, Leersia japonica and Prinsepia utihis. Both of them failed to obtain properly defined cpDNA bands. However, we developed a simple but efficient method based on sucrose gradients and found that the modified protocol worked efficiently to isolate the cpDNA from the same three plant species. We sequenced the isolated DNA samples with Illumina (Solexa) sequencing technology to test cpDNA purity according to aligning sequence reads to the reference chloroplast genomes, showing that the reference genome was properly covered. We show that 40–50% cpDNA purity is achieved with our method.ConclusionHere we provide an improved method used to isolate cpDNA from angiosperms. The Illumina sequencing results suggest that the isolated cpDNA has reached enough yield and sufficient purity to perform subsequent genome assembly. The cpDNA isolation protocol thus will be widely applicable to the plant chloroplast genome sequencing projects.

Bimetallic iron–nickel sulfide nanowall arrays supported on nickel foam (Fe11.1%–Ni3S2/Ni foam) could efficiently drive both the overall water and urea electrolysis.

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