The present disclosure provides methods for controlling swelling of a clay when in contact with an aqueous medium. The methods may include contacting clay with a content of an ionic liquid sufficient to modify one or more transport properties of water through the clay. In particular, in some embodiments, the present disclosure provides clay-based animal litter compositions having controlled flow and clump shape, and a related method. The animal litter can include a clay-based liquid absorbing material and at least one ionic liquid.

A method for producing a modified sawdust sorbent. The method involves sulfonating sawdust with sulfuric acid and oxidizing the sulfonated sawdust with hydrogen peroxide. The method yields a modified sawdust sorbent containing sulfonated and oxidized cellulose. The modified sawdust sorbent has a higher surface area, higher organic dye adsorption capacity, and more rapid organic dye adsorption rate than unmodified sawdust. A method of using the modified sawdust sorbent for organic dye removal from water is included.

The present invention provides novel chromatographic materials, e.g., for chromatographic separations, processes for their preparation and separations devices containing the chromatographic materials. The preparation of the inorganic/organic hybrid materials of the invention wherein a surrounding material is condensed on a superficially porous hybrid core material will allow for families of different hybrid packing materials to be prepared from a single core hybrid material. Differences in hydrophobicity, ion-exchange capacity, chemical stability, surface charge or silanol activity of the surrounding material may be used for unique chromatographic separations of small molecules, carbohydrates, antibodies, whole proteins, peptides, and/or DNA.

There is provided a gas trapping material and vacuum heat insulation equipment where the gas trapping material can be activated in a sealing step of the vacuum heat insulation equipment, and production efficiency can be enhanced by maintaining a high gas trapping characteristic even when a gas is released in a baking step or in a sealing step under an air atmosphere. The gas trapping material contains porous metal oxide and silver particles having an average particle size of 0.5 nm to 100 nm inclusive.

The present disclosure relates to a cucurbituril-polyethylenimine-silica complex, a method for preparing the same and a carbon dioxide absorbent containing the same. According to the present disclosure, a cucurbituril-polyethylenimine-silica complex may be prepared by forming a complex wherein a cucurbituril is bound to polyethylenimine and including the same inside silica, and it may be used as a carbon dioxide absorbent with superior thermal stability and prevented formation of urea.

A sheet-shaped member is provided and includes a porous carbon material including a material obtained from carbonization of a raw material including rice husk, the raw material having a silicon content of at least 5 wt %, the raw material is heat treated before carbonization, and the raw material is treated by an alkali treatment after carbonization to reduce the silicon content, the porous carbon material having a specific surface area of at least 10 m2/g as measured by the nitrogen BET method, a pore volume of at least 0.1 cm3/g as measured by the BJH method and MP method, and an R value of 1.5 or greater, wherein the porous carbon material includes mesopores having pore sizes from 2 nm to 50 nm and obtained from the alkali treatment of the raw material after carbonization, the porous carbon material further includes macropores and micropores, the R value is expressed as R=B/A, the A referring to an intensity at an intersection between the baseline of a diffraction peak of the (002) plane as obtained based on powdery X-ray diffractometry of the porous carbon material and a perpendicular line downwardly drawn from the diffraction peak of the (002) plane, and the B referring to the intensity of the diffraction peak of the (002) plane.

Crosslinked polymers made up of polymerized units of cyclic diaminoalkane, aldehyde and bisphenol-S or melamine. A method for removing heavy metals, such as Pb(II) from an aqueous solution or an industrial wastewater sample with these crosslinked polymers is introduced. A process of synthesizing the crosslinked polymers is also described.

An aminated siliceous adsorbent, which is the reaction product of dried acidified rice husk ash having disordered mesopores and an amino silane, wherein amine functional groups are present on an external surface and within the mesopores of the dried acidified rice husk ash, and wherein the aminated siliceous adsorbent has a carbon content of 24 to 30 wt. %, based on a total weight of the aminated siliceous adsorbent. A method of making the aminated siliceous adsorbent and a method of capturing CO.sub.2 from a gas mixture with the aminated siliceous adsorbent.

A composite material of polyurethane foam having a layer of reduced graphene oxide and polystyrene is described. This composite material may be made by contacting a polyurethane foam with a suspension of reduced graphene oxide, drying, and then irradiating in the presence of styrene vapor. The composite material has a hydrophobic surface that may be exploited for separating a nonpolar phase, such as oil, from an aqueous solution.

A method of treating water to reduce or prevent bacterial infection in an aquatic organism may include administering a particulate kaolin clay to the water in a dosage sufficient to reduce the presence of at least one undesirable bacterial species present in the water, wherein the particulate kaolin clay has at least one property selected from: (a) a BET surface area of at least about 25 m.sup.2/g; (b) a particle size distribution such that at least about 80% by weight of the particles of kaolin clay have an equivalent spherical diameter of less than 2 microns as measured by Sedigraph; and (c) a particle size distribution such that at least about 25% by weight of the particles of kaolin clay have an equivalent spherical diameter of less than 0.25 microns as measured by Sedigraph. The method may further include contacting an aquatic organism with the treated water.