An efficient and cost-effective method for the synthesis of 3-glycidoxypropyltriethoxysilane from the hydrosilylation reaction of allyl glycidyl ether with triethoxysilane using a silica-supported chitosan-platinum complex as catalyst is described for the first time. By an orthogonal experimental design method, the optimum parameters for the process were determined. The product yield can reach 78.9%, and the catalyst can be recovered and reused six times without noticeable loss of activity.

Silica-supported chitosan-platinum complex was prepared and characterized by ICP-AES, FT-IR, and XPS, respectively. The complex as catalyst was found to display high catalytic activity in the hydrosilylation reaction of allyl glycidyl ether with triethoxysilane for the first time. It can be recovered by simple filtration and reused for six times without significant loss of activity.

Eighty eight tobacco samples from six provinces in China, of which the contents of rare earth elements (REEs) were determined by microwave digestion-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry method. A fuzzy clustering method, fuzzy cmeans (FCM), was used for classification of the different kinds of tobaccos based on their contents of REEs. The results show that FCM clustering analysis is a valid method for classification of tobaccos to some extent. The relationship between the contents of REEs in tobaccos and the geographical origins is also confirmed.