@article{freeman_santos_chen_vendemiatti_oliveira_vacchi_vinueza_umbuzeiro_2021, title={Molecular characterization and ecotoxicological evaluation of the natural dye madder and its chlorinated products}, volume={11}, ISSN={["1614-7499"]}, DOI={10.1007/s11356-021-17388-4}, abstractNote={There has been increased interest in the use of natural dyes for textile coloration as alternatives to synthetic dyes, due to the general belief that natural dyes are more environmentally friendly. However, natural dyes have poor affinity for textiles, which can lead to high dye levels in the resultant wastewater. While chlorine treatment has proven to be effective for dye wastewater disinfection and decolorization, this process can also lead to the formation of more toxic degradation products for certain synthetic dyes. On the other hand, little information is available regarding the ecotoxicity of natural dyes and their chlorination products. To advance knowledge in this area, madder was selected due to its historical importance and wide application in the textile industry. Specifically, we sought to characterize the chlorine-induced degradation products of an aqueous madder solution and to assess their ecotoxicity. The main component of the present madder sample was Alizarin (89.8%). Chlorination led to complete decolorization, and 2-hydroxynaphthalene-1,4-dione and phthalic anhydride were identified as key degradation products. Chlorination of madder decreased toxicity to Daphnia similis (microcrustacean) 10-fold and removed the toxicity to Raphidocellis subcapitata (algae), when compared to the parent dye.}, journal={ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH}, author={Freeman, Harold S. and Santos, Tuane C. and Chen, Yufei and Vendemiatti, Josiane A. S. and Oliveira, Adria C. and Vacchi, Francine I. and Vinueza, Nelson R. and Umbuzeiro, Gisela A.}, year={2021}, month={Nov} }
 @article{boes_narron_chen_park_vinueza_2017, title={Characterization of biofuel refinery byproduct via selective electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry}, volume={188}, ISSN={["1873-7153"]}, DOI={10.1016/j.fuel.2016.10.016}, abstractNote={To achieve economic viability, biorefineries need to increase efficiency through characterization of byproducts for the purpose of valorization. One such byproduct is the liquid stream produced after autohydrolysis pretreatment, autohydrolyzate liquor, which contains valuable organic derivatives of hemicellulose and lignin from biomass. To characterize the autohydrolysis liquor, we employed a novel method for such liquor analysis that uses electrospray ionization and ion dopants in combination with tandem mass spectrometry using a quadrupole–time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Electrospray expands current analysis of such liquors through softer ionization. Ion dopants provide for differentiation of the complex mixture components without requiring derivatization or preliminary separation. The dopants—ammonium chloride and sodium hydroxide—primarily target and enhance ionization of hemicellulosic or lignin derivative species, respectively, based on the species’ differing functionalities. Valuable structural information can be gleaned from these enhanced species by ion isolation and collision-activated dissociation (CAD), which reveals the presence of hemicellulosic or lignin derivative functionalities. These ionization techniques coupled with CAD enabled us to not only confirm the presence of low molecular weight ions, such as vanillin, as previously seen with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry but also expand the characterization to high molecular weight species. This expanded knowledge of the composition of autohydrolyzate liquor opens up the potential to develop lucrative co-products from this stream in a commercial biorefinery.}, journal={FUEL}, author={Boes, Kelsey S. and Narron, Robert H. and Chen, Yufei and Park, Sunkyu and Vinueza, Nelson R.}, year={2017}, month={Jan}, pages={190–196} }
 @article{kuenemann_szymczyk_chen_sultana_hinks_freeman_williams_fourches_vinueza_2017, title={Weaver's historic accessible collection of synthetic dyes: a cheminformatics analysis}, volume={8}, ISSN={["2041-6539"]}, DOI={10.1039/c7sc00567a}, abstractNote={The Max Weaver Dye Library is presented to the scientific community with a cheminformatics approach to enhance research opportunities with this unique collection of ∼98 000 vials of custom-made dyes.}, number={6}, journal={CHEMICAL SCIENCE}, author={Kuenemann, Melaine A. and Szymczyk, Malgorzata and Chen, Yufei and Sultana, Nadia and Hinks, David and Freeman, Harold S. and Williams, Antony J. and Fourches, Denis and Vinueza, Nelson R.}, year={2017}, month={Jun}, pages={4334–4339} }