The effect of zinc on human taste perception

Zinc salts are added as a nutritional or functional ingredient in food and oral care products. The 1st experiment in this study investigated the taste and somatosensory effect of zinc salts (chloride, iodide, sulfate, bromide, acetate). The zinc salts had very little taste (bitter, salty, savory, sour, sweet), and the taste that was present was easily washed away with water rinses. The major oral quality of zinc was astringency, and the astringency lingered beyond expectoration. The 2nd experiment combined zinc salts with prototypical stimuli eliciting basic tastes. Zinc was a potent inhibitor of sweetness and bitterness (&gt;70% reduction in taste) but did not affect salt, savory, or sour taste.<br /

Catalysis over zinc-incorporated berlinite (ZnAlPO4) of the methoxycarbonylation of 1,6-hexanediamine with dimethyl carbonate to form dimethylhexane-1,6-dicarbamate

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The alkoxycarbonylation of diamines with dialkyl carbonates presents promising route for the synthesis of dicarbamates, one that is potentially 'greener' owing to the lack of a reliance on phosgene. While a few homogeneous catalysts have been reported, no heterogeneous catalyst could be found in the literature for use in the synthesis of dicarbamates from diamines and dialkyl carbonates. Because heterogeneous catalysts are more manageable than homogeneous catalysts as regards separation and recycling, in our study, we hydrothermally synthesized and used pure berlinite (AlPO₄) and zinc-incorporated berlinite (ZnAlPO₄) as heterogeneous catalysts in the production of dimethylhexane-1,6-dicarbamate from 1,6-hexanediamine (HDA) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The catalysts were characterized by means of XRD, FT-IR and XPS. Various influencing factors, such as the HDA/DMC molar ratio, reaction temperature, reaction time, and ZnAlPO₄/HDA ratio, were investigated systematically.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The XRD characterization identified a berlinite structure associated with both the AlPO₄and ZnAlPO₄catalysts. The FT-IR result confirmed the incorporation of zinc into the berlinite framework for ZnAlPO₄. The XPS measurement revealed that the zinc ions in the ZnAlPO₄structure possessed a higher binding energy than those in ZnO, and as a result, a greater electron-attracting ability. It was found that ZnAlPO₄catalyzed the formation of dimethylhexane-1,6-dicarbamate from the methoxycarbonylation of HDA with DMC, while no activity was detected on using AlPO₄. Under optimum reaction conditions (i.e. a DMC/HDA molar ratio of 8:1, reaction temperature of 349 K, reaction time of 8 h, and ZnAlPO₄/HDA ratio of 5 (mg/mmol)), a yield of up to 92.5% of dimethylhexane-1,6-dicarbamate (with almost 100% conversion of HDA) was obtained. Based on these results, a possible mechanism for the methoxycarbonylation over ZnAlPO₄was also proposed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>As a heterogeneous catalyst ZnAlPO₄berlinite is highly active and selective for the methoxycarbonylation of HDA with DMC. We propose that dimethylhexane-1,6-dicarbamate is formed <it>via </it>a catalytic cycle, which involves activation of the DMC by a key active intermediate species, formed from the coordination of the carbonyl oxygen with Zn(II), as well as a reaction intermediate formed from the nucleophilic attack of the amino group on the carbonyl carbon.</p

Shape-Selective Fabrication of Zinc Phosphate Hexagonal Bipyramids via a Disodium Phosphate-Assisted Sonochemical Route

Via a simple and facile disodium phosphate-assisted sonochemical route, highly uniform zinc phosphate hexagonal bipyramid crystals were selectively synthesized under ambient conditions. All the facets of hexagonal bipyramids are smooth. The average size (from pole to pole) and the standard deviation were 1.437 mu m and 562 nm, respectively. The concentration of HpO(4)(2-) in the aqueous precursor solution is thought to be a key factor in getting hexagonal bipyramidal morphology. This method is simple, fast, economical, and environmentally benign. It is expected that this sonochemical technique call be readily adopted in realizing other forms of various micro/nanostructured materials