Urea is a compound widely used as a feed additive for ruminants; however, when used profusely, it can lead animals to intoxication. Another factor that affects the effectiveness of urea is the lack of synchronization between the nitrogen and the availability of carbohydrates, necessary for better development of the ruminal microbiota. In order to circumvent these problems and improve the efficiency in urea use, the present study developed two new nutritional additives (F16 and F17) with different carbohydrate sources. One of the products developed (F16) used sugarcane molasses as a carbohydrate source, while the other (F17) used cassava starch. In addition to the carbohydrate source, both products contained the same amounts of urea, sulfur, calcium carbonate and were coated with carnauba wax. The supplements developed and two other commercial products based on extruded urea (UE) and polymer-coated urea (UP) were tested for solubility and cumulative gas production. The wax used in the coating process of the developed products (F16 and F17) proved to be efficient in reducing the solubility of the ingredients used. During chemical composition analysis it was verified that both supplements developed contained protein equivalent above 150% of crude protein. The cumulative gas production showed a higher production related to the product F17 (p < 0.05). Through thermogravimetric analysis, it was found the chemical integrity of the ingredients that make up the supplements developed. Therefore, is possible to reduce the solubility of urea using carnauba wax as a coating material. The formula with cassava starch associated with urea (F17) had a better synchronization during the degradation of its ingredients.
The anatase phase of titanium dioxide ceramic material plays important rule in heterogeneous photocatalysis, beside the global phase amount and powder morphology. Some of structural parameters are useful to predict several properties, including the crystallization process and mechanism of the irreversible anatase-to-rutile phase transition. The photocatalytic process is based on charge transference from electron-hole pair to material surface, starting some redox reactions in aqueous media. The stable positive defects harm the recombination event and improve the final properties of that material. Modifiers with lower oxidation state than titanium (IV) is applicable for this purpose, what idea becomes the objective of this work. The Sol-Gel method was used to prepare bare and zinc doped-titanium dioxide powder samples reaching good compositional homogeneity for both samples calcined at 500 oC for 4 hours. Rietveld refinement carried out from raw x-ray diffraction patterns was used to demonstrate the formation of solid solution between zinc and titanium oxides. Besides that result, the determination of bandgap energy and SEM images corroborated the structural changes caused by zinc insertion in anatase phase and important difference in powder morphology was observed for zinc doped powder samples in order to reduce the agglomeration degree for better performance for heterogeneous photocatalysis applications.
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