THE REMOVAL OF ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS, ESPECIALLY TRIMETHYLAMINE (TMA), HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY ACHIEVED USING CARBON ACTIVATE. IN THIS ARTICLE, WE REPORT THE FORMATION OF CARBON ACTIVATE (CA-SM) ISOLATED FROM SUB-BITUMINOUS COAL IN SMALL MANTLES (SM) AT THE MINE ?MANTOS NEGROS? (LEBU, CHILE). THIS COAL WAS SUBJECTED TO THERMAL OXIDATION WITH CO2 AT 950 °C AND THEIR TMA ADSORPTION CAPACITY EVALUATED. SM AND CA-SM WERE PHYSICALLY AND CHEMICALLY CHARACTERIZED SHOWING THAT THE ACTIVATED CARBON INCREASED THE SURFACE POROSITY AS WELL AS THE IODINE INDEX FROM 2.5 MG I2/G TO 434 MG I2/G COAL. THE PROXIMAL AND ELEMENTARY ANALYSES OF CASM SHOWED A SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION OF SULFUR, NITROGEN AND HYDROGEN, AND INCREASED COMPOSITION OF CARBON AND OXYGEN. THESE RESULTS TOGETHER WITH FTIR AND BOEHM TITRATION SUGGEST THAT THE SURFACE COMPOSITION OF THE ACTIVATED CARBON IS ACIDIC IN NATURE. THE ADSORPTION OF TMA BY CA-SM WAS EVALUATED IN DISSOLUTION AT DIFFERENT PH AND EXPOSURE TIME CONDITIONS. WE FOUND THAT TMA CAN BE FULLY ABSORBED (50 ML TMA AT 4 MG/L AND 0.2000G OF CA-SM) UNDER NEUTRAL AND BASIC PH AFTER 60 MINUTES OF EXPOSURE. THE FEASIBILITY OF PRODUCING ACTIVATED CARBON FROM SUB-BITUMINOUS COAL FROM PROVINCE OF ARAUCO, CHILE, IS A PROMISING ALTERNATIVE TO DEVELOP COAL-BASED PRODUCTS DISPLAYING ADSORBENT PROPERTIES USEFUL TO CONTROL AMINE-DERIVED CONTAMINANTS PRODUCED IN THE FISHING INDUSTRY.

IN THIS WORK, THE CHANGES CAUSED BY A CHEMICAL MODIFICATION OF THE PROPERTIES AND CHEMICAL STRUCTURES OF LIGNIN ARE STUDIED. LIGNIN FROM A MIXTURE OF EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS AND EUCALYPTUS NITENS OBTAINED THROUGH THE KRAFT PULPING PROCESS WAS USED. THE LIGNIN WAS ISOLATED BY ACID PRECIPITATION AND MODIFIED BY A REACTION WITH MALEIC ANHYDRIDE. MALEATED LIGNIN (ML) WAS INCORPORATED TO RECYCLED POLYSTYRENE (RPS) AT 2, 5, AND 10 WT-% BY A MELT-BLENDING PROCESS. FOURIER TRANSFORMED INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (FT-IR) WAS USED TO DETERMINE THE ML STRUCTURE, AND THE MORPHOLOGY OF RPS/ ML COMPOSITES WAS STUDIED BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM). DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING CALORIMETRY (DSC) AND THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS (TGA) WERE USED TO STUDY THE GLASS-TRANSITION TEMPERATURE (TG) AND THE THERMAL STABILITY OF RPS AND RPS/ ML COMPOSITES AND WERE COMPARED WITH VIRGIN PS. THE TG VALUES OF RPS AND THEIR COMPOSITES WERE HIGHER THAN THOSE OF THE VIRGIN PS. TGA REVEALED THAT THE THERMAL STABILITY OF RPS WITH 2 AND 5% OF ML WAS SLIGHTLY GREATER THAN THAT OF THE VIRGIN PS. THESE RESULTS SUGGEST THAT POSTCONSUMER PS CAN BE USED TO OBTAIN COMPOSITE MATERIALS WITH GOOD THERMAL PROPERTIES.

POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES WITH 5 TO 10% OF SIO2, AL2O3 Y TIO2 NANOPARTICLES WERE SYNTHESIZED. THE OXIDES WERE OBTAINED USING THE SOL-GEL TECHNIQUE AND WERE ADDED TO THE MOLTEN POLYPROPYLENE. THE MORPHOLOGY OF NANOPARTICLES WAS OBSERVED BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY AND SHOWED THAT THE INCORPORATION OF TIO2 AND SIO2 GELS PRODUCES HIGH DISPERSION OF THE FILLER, WHILE THE USE OF AL2O3 RESULTS IN AGGREGATES OF THESE NANOPARTICLES IN THE POLYMER MATRIX. THE X-RAY DIFFRACTOGRAM OF THE COMPOSITES REVEALED A DISPLACEMENT OF CHARACTERISTICS LINES OF POLYPROPYLENE AND AN INCREMENT OF THE INTERPLANAR SPACES, INDICATING SOME INTERACTION BETWEEN THE COMPONENTS AND THE PREDOMINANCE INTERCALATION OF OXIDES. THROUGH FT-IR IT WAS NOTICED THE PRESENCE OF FUNCTIONAL GROUPS ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE FILLER NANOPARTICLES. THE CRYSTALLIZATION, THE FUSION BEHAVIOUR AND THE THERMAL STABILITY OF THE COMPOSITES WAS STUDIED USING DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING CALORIMETRY AND THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS IT WAS FOUND A REDUCTION IN THE CRYSTALLIZATION TEMPERATURE AND INCREMENT IN THE THERMAL STABILITY OF THE POLYPROPYLENE MATRIX DUE TO THE ACTION OF THE SILICA, ALUMINA AN TITANIA NANOPARTICLES.