Investigation on viscosity and non-isothermal crystallization behavior of P-bearing steelmaking slags with varying TiO2 content

The viscous flow and crystallization behavior of CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3-FetO-P2O5-TiO2 steelmaking slags have been investigated over a wide range of temperatures under Ar (High purity, >99.999 pct) atmosphere, and the relationship between viscosity and structure was determined. The results indicated that the viscosity of the slags slightly decreased with increasing TiO2 content. The constructed nonisothermal continuous cooling transformation (CCT) diagrams revealed that the addition of TiO2 lowered the crystallization temperature. This can mainly be ascribed to that addition of TiO2 promotes the formation of [TiO6]-octahedra units and, consequently, the formation of MgFe2O4-Mg2TiO4 solid solution. Moreover, the decreasing viscosity has a significant effect on enhancing the diffusion of ion units, such as Ca2+ and [TiO4]-tetrahedra, from bulk melts to the crystal–melt interface. The crystallization of CaTiO3 and CaSiTiO5 was consequently accelerated, which can improve the phosphorus content in P-enriched phase (n2CaO·SiO2-3CaO·P2O5). Finally, the nonisothermal crystallization kinetics was characterized and the activation energy for the primary crystal growth was derived such that the activation energy increases from −265.93 to −185.41 KJ·mol−1 with the addition of TiO2 content, suggesting that TiO2 lowered the tendency for the slags to crystallize

Response to temperature stress of reactive oxygen species scavenging enzymes in the cross-tolerance of barley seed germination*

A number of studies have shown the existence of cross-tolerance in plants, but the physiological mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, we used the germination of barley seeds as a system to investigate the cross-tolerance of low-temperature pretreatment to high-temperature stress and the possible involvement of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging enzymes in the cross-tolerance. After pretreatment at 0 °C for different periods of time, barley seeds were germinated at 35 °C, and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activities of ROS scavenging enzymes were measured by a spectrophotometer analysis. The results showed that barley seed germinated very poorly at 35 °C, and this inhibitive effect could be overcome by pretreatment at 0 °C. The MDA content varied, depending on the temperature at which seeds germinated, while barley seeds pretreated at 0 °C did not change the MDA content. Compared with seeds germinated directly at 35 °C, the seeds pretreated first at 0 °C and then germinated at 35 °C had markedly increased activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), and glutathione reductase (GR). The SOD and APX activities of seeds germinated at 35 °C after 0 °C-pretreatment were even substantially higher than those at 25 °C, and GR activity was similar to that at 25 °C, at which the highest germination performance of barley seeds was achieved. These results indicate that low-temperature pretreatment can markedly increase the tolerance of barley seed to high temperature during germination, this being related to the increase in ROS scavenging enzyme activity. This may provide a new method for increasing seed germination under stress environments, and may be an excellent model system for the study of cross-tolerance