Dr Justin Hargreaves

Department of Chemistry
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
Scotland

Telephone: +44 (0) 141 330 5947
FAX: +44 (0) 330 4888
email: justinh@chem.gla.ac.uk



Research Interests

My research interests are primarily centred around heterogeneous catalysis and, in particular, the elucidation of structure-activity relationships in oxidation reactions catalysed by metal oxide catalysts. Methane activation has been a long - standing interest with recent efforts being directed towards the application of "superacidic" metal oxide catalysts to selective oxidation to produce methanol (sulfated iron oxide systems) and combustion (molybdated zirconia). Other recent research projects have investigated the isotopic oxygen exchange reactions with magnesium oxide (to probe the influence of crystallite morphology and particle size on the reactivity of lattice oxide ions), the purification of nitrogen containing feed-streams (to develop adsorbents to selectively scavenge nitrogen containing molecules from a model naphtha feed-stream, thereby preventing poisoning of down-stream catalytic processes) and an investigation of the heterogeneous catalysts for the halide-free carbonylation of methanol (potentially of interest as an alternative to the industrially operated homogeneously catalysed processes which require methyl iodide). I also have an interest in the development and application of line profile analysis in powder x-ray diffraction studies of catalysts, simple preparation routes to mesoporous oxides, the application of hypervalent iron reagents for oxidation reactions, and novel methane activation processes. Current projects are investigating novel catalytic routes to hydrogen production from methane, the catalytic activation of nitrogen and reactivity of lattice nitrogen species, the development of ambient pressure ammonia synthesis catalysts, phosphide, nitride and carbide catalysis, "superbase" catalysis, photocatalysis and the application of novel polyoxometallates as acylation catalysts .

To date, I have supervised 7 PhD projects and 1MSc project to completion:

"Isotopic exchange reactions on magnesium oxide" I. M. Mellor, PhD awarded 1999
"The application of superacidic materials for the oxidation of methane" A. S. C. Brown, PhD awarded 2000
"Purification of nitrogen containing feedstreams" M. L. Gerrard, PhD awarded 2001
"Methanol carbonylation with metal/zeolite catalysts" G. P. Fuller, PhD awarded 2002
“Direct conversion of methane under non-oxidative conditions” S. Burns, PhD awarded 2007
“A structural and reactivity study of lithium molybdenum nitride” S. M. Hunter, MSc awarded 2007
“Catalysis over molybdenum containing nitride materials” D. Mckay, PhD awarded 2008
“A methanol only route to acetic acid and methyl acetate” G. Ormsby, PhD awarded 2008

Currently, my group consists of:

Khalaf Al Ghamdi - PhD student 2005-
Stuart M Hunter, PhD student 2007-
Anne-Marie Alexander, PhD student 2007-
Liam France, PhD student 2007-
Azlan Kamari, PhD student 2007-
Alexander Munnoch, PhD student 2009-
Abbas Lafta, PhD student 2009-
Abdulrahman Al Harthi, PhD student 2010-
Matar Al Shalwi, MSc student 2010-
Matthew Hughes, PhD student 2010-

Recent international visitors to my group have included:

P. Pal, Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehra Dun , India (3 months 2005)
X. Sun, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai , China (3 months 2006)
S. Sushil, TERI, New Delhi , India (3 months 2008)
J. L. Rico, Morelia , Mexico (12 months 2008)
K. M. Parida, IMMT Bhubaneswar, India (3 months 2004 and 3 months 2008)
A. M. Alabdulrahman, PAPRI, Saudi Arabia (2 months 2009)
Z. Li, Taiyuan University of Technology, China (3 months 2009)


I welcome contact from anybody with interests related to any of the above, or associated areas of interest. I am always interested in the possibility of national or international collaboration and currently have active collaborations with researchers from Italy, Norway, Mexico and India, as well as from within the UK.

Biography.

Following my undergraduate studies (BSc(Hons) 1987), I remained at the University of Liverpool , becoming the first PhD student at the Leverhulme Centre for Innovative Catalysis, working on a British Gas CASE project investigating structure-activity relationships in magnesium oxide catalysed oxidative coupling of methane under the supervision of Professors Richard Joyner and Graham Hutchings. Following the award of my PhD in 1990, I spent a year at the Technisch Chemisches Laboratorium, ETH Zurich in the group of Professor Dr Roel Prins investigating CoMoS hydrodesulfurisation catalysis, before moving back to Liverpool for a further three years as a postdoctoral research associate. In 1994, I was appointed Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University where I spent the following six years working in a range of areas, before moving back, once again, to the Leverhulme Centre for Innovative Catalysis as Principal Scientist.

In November 2002, I was appointed as a lecturer in the Chemistry Department, University of Glasgow , becoming a senior lecturer from June 2006. I was Class Head of Chemistry 2 from 2005-2008, am an Adviser of Studies and am the Departmental Disability Officer. Since 2008, I have been Faculty of Physical Sciences Erasmus Co-ordinator. I served as Honorary Treasurer for the Glasgow and West of Scotland Local Section of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 2004-2007 and am currently (2008-) Vice-Chairman. From 1998 until 2002, I served as Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Surface Reactivity and Catalysis Subject Group (SURCAT) and was a member of the Faraday Council between 2000 and 2004. From 2004, I have been one of two UK representatives on the International Association of Catalysis Societies (IACS). Since 1996, I have served on the organising committees of a range of national and international conferences and was a member of the International Advisory Board for the 14th International Congress on Catalysis which was held in Seoul in July 2008. Since 2007, I have been a committee member of the RSC Thermal Methods Group. I am a member of the current EPSRC College and joined the editorial board of Catalysis Communications in 2008.

PUBLICATIONS.

  1. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings and R. W. Joyner, "Structural Aspects of the Oxidative Coupling of Methane", Catalysis Today, 6, 4, 481 - 488 (1990).

  2. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings and R. W. Joyner, "Control of Product Selectivity in Methane Partial Oxidation", Nature, 348, 428 - 429 (1990).

  3. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings and R. W. Joyner, "Hydrogen Production in Methane Coupling over Magnesium Oxide", Natural Gas Conversion, Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, 61, Eds. A. Holmen et al., Elsevier, 155 - 159 (1991).

  4. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and C. J. Kiely, " Structural Aspects of Magnesium Oxide Catalysts for the Oxidative Coupling of Methane", Catalysis Today, 10, 259 - 265 (1991).

  5. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings and R. W. Joyner, " Yield, Catalysis and the Meaning of Life", Applied Catalysis, 77, N18 - N19 (1991).

  6. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and C. J. Kiely, "The Relationship between Morphology and Catalyst Performance of Lithium and Gold Doped Magnesium Oxide Catalysts", Catalysis Today, 13, 401 - 407 (1992).

  7. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and C. J. Kiely, "The Relationship between Catalyst Morphology and Performance in the Oxidative Coupling of Methane", Journal of Catalysis, 135, 576 -595 (1992).

  8. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and S. H. Taylor, " Methanol Oxidation over Oxide Catalysts", Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society, 207, 2, 44 - (1994 ) , full paper also published - Methane and Alkane Conversion Chemistry, 36, 339-345 (1995).

  9. S. Betteridge, C. R. A. Catlow, D. H. Gay, R. W. Grimes, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner, Q. Pankhurst, M. Rutherford, R. M. H. Siddiqui, and S. H. Taylor, "Characterization and Acitivity of Iron Sodalite Catalysts for the Oxidation of Methane to Methanol", Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society, 207, 2, 40 - (1994), full paper also published - Methane and Alkane Conversion Chemistry, 36, 187-193 (1995).

  10. S. Betteridge, C. R. A. Catlow, D. H. Gay, R. W. Grimes, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner, Q. A. Pankhurst and S. H. Taylor, "Preparation, Characterisation and Activity of an Iron Sodalite Catalyst for the Oxidation of Methane to Methanol", Topics in Catalysis, 1, 103 - 110 (1994).

  11. A. Burrows, C. J. Kiely, R. W. Devenish, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and M. Yu. Sinev, " Structure - Reactivity Studies of Neodymia/Magnesia and Magnesia/Neodymia Catalysts used in Methane Coupling", Poceedings of the Materials Research Society Symposia, 344, 39- 44 (1994).

  12. G. J. Hutchings, J. S. J. Hargreaves, R. W. Joyner and C. J. Kiely, "Toward Understanding Methane Coupling", Chemtech, 24, 11, 25 - 29 (1994).

  13. S. H. Taylor, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings and R. W. Joyner, "An Initial Strategy for the Design of Improved Catalysts for Methane Partial Oxidation", Applied Catalysis A: General, 126, 287 - 296 (1995).

  14. T. J. Hall, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and S. H. Taylor, "Catalytic Synthesis of Methanol and Formaldehyde by Partial Oxidation of Methane", Fuel Processing Technology, 42, 151 - 178 (1995).

  15. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and S. H. Taylor, " Methane Partial Oxidation over Gallium Oxide based Catalysts : Use of the Methane - Deuterium Exchange Reaction as a Design Tool", Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, 523 - 524 (1996).

  16. Q. A. Pankhurst, S. Betteridge, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and S. H. Taylor, "Iron Sodalite Catalysts for the Oxidation of Methane to Methanol", Italian Physical Society Conference Proceedings (IPS), 50, 673-676 (1996).

  17. G. J. Hutchings, J. S. J. Hargreaves, R. W. Joyner and S. H. Taylor, "A Novel Approach to the Scientific Design of Oxide Catalysts for the Partial Oxidation of Methane to Methanol", Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, 107, 41 - 46 (1997).

  18. A. Burrows, C. J. Kiely, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner, J. S. J. Hargreaves and M. Yu. Sinev, "Structure / Function Relationships in MgO doped Nd2O3 Catalysts for the Methane Coupling Reaction",
    Journal of Catalysis, 173, 383-398 (1998).

  19. K. Blick, T. D. Mitrelias, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner, C. J. Kiely and F. E. Wagner, "Methane Oxidation using Au/MgO Catalysts", Catalysis Letters, 50, 211-218 (1998).

  20. S. H. Taylor, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and C. W. Lembacher, " The Partial Oxidation of Methane to Methanol: An Approach to Catalyst Design", Catalysis Today, 42, 217-224 (1998).

  21. J. S. J. Hargreaves, I. M. Mellor and R. W. Joyner, "A Study of the Structure Sensitivity of the Exchange of Oxygen with the Surface of Magnesium Oxide", Journal of Molecular Catalysis A, 141, 171-176 (1999).

  22. A. S. C. Brown, J. S. J. Hargreaves and B. Rijniersce, "A Study of the Effect of Sulfation on Iron Oxide Catalysts for Methane Oxidation", Catalysis Today, 45, 47-54 (1998).

  23. A. S. C. Brown, J. S. J. Hargreaves and B. Rijniersce, " A Study of the Structural and Catalytic Effects of Sulfation on Iron Oxide Catalysts Prepared from Goethite and Ferrihydrite Precursors for Methane Oxidation", Catalysis Letters, 53, 7-13 (1998).

  24. A. S. C. Brown and J. S. J. Hargreaves, "Sulfated Metal Oxides - Superactivity through Superacidity?", Green Chemistry, 1, 17-20 (1999).

  25. A. S. C. Brown, J. S. J. Hargreaves and S. H. Taylor, "A Study of "Superacidic" MoO3/ZrO2 Catalysts for Methane Oxidation", Catalysis Letters, 57, 109-113 (1999).

  26. A. S. C. Brown, J. S. J. Hargreaves and S. H. Taylor, "The Application of "Superacidic" Metal Oxides and Their Platinum Doped Counterparts to Methane Combustion", Catalysis Today, 59, 403-409 (2000).

  27. M. A. Edwards, A. S. J. Baker, A. S. C. Brown, J. S. J. Hargreaves and C. J. Kiely, "Observations of Nanoporous Haematite Derived from the Thermal Decomposition of Sulphated Goethite", Inst. Phys. Conf. Ser. , 161, 549-552 (1999).

  28. A. S. J. Baker, A. S. C. Brown, M. A. Edwards, J. S. J. Hargreaves, C. J. Kiely, A. Meagher and Q. A. Pankhurst, "A Structural Study of Haematite Samples Prepared from Sulfated Goethite Precursors - the Generation of Axial Mesoporous Voids", Journal of Materials Chemistry, 10, 761-766 (2000).

  29. A. S. C. Brown, J. S. J. Hargreaves and B. Rijniersce, "The Effects of Sulfation on the Activity of Fe2O3 Catalysts for Methane Oxidation", Topics in Catalysis, 11/12, 181-184 (2000).

  30. A. S. C. Brown, J. S. J. Hargreaves, M-L. Palacious and S. H. Taylor, "The Influence of "Superacidic" Modification on ZrO2 and Fe2O3 Catalysts for Methane Combustion" Proceedings of 4th International Symposium on Supported Reagents and Catalysts in Chemistry, RSC London, 152-165 (2001).

  31. I.D. Burton, J. S. J. Hargreaves, D. G. Nicholson, M. H. Nilsen and M. Stockenhuber, "An X-ray Absorption Study on Copper Containing AlPO4-5 for Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx by Propene", Journal of Materials Chemistry, 11, 1441-1446 (2001).

  32. G. Martra, T. Cacciatori, L. Marchese, J. S. J. Hargreaves, I. M. Mellor, R. W. Joyner and S. Coluccia, "Surface Morphology and Reactivity of Microcrystalline MgO. Single and Multiple Acid-Base Pairs in Low Co-ordination Revealed by FTIR Spectroscopy of Adsorbed CO, CD3CN and D2", Catalysis Today, 70, 121-130 (2001).

  33. J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, R. W. Joyner and S. H. Taylor, "A Study of the Methane - Deuterium Exchange Reaction over Metal Oxides", Applied Catalysis A, 227, 191-200 (2002).

  34. D. M. Whittle, A. A. Mirzaei, J. S. J. Hargreaves, R. W. Joyner, C. J. Kiely, S. H. Taylor and G. J. Hutchings, "Co-precipitated copper zinc oxide catalysts for ambient temperature carbon monoxide oxidation: effect of precipitate ageing on catalyst activity", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 4, 5915-5920 (2002).

  35. J. S. J. Hargreaves and A. A. Lapkin (Guest Editors), Catalyst Life Cycle - a special issue of CatalysisToday (Elsevier) published July 2003.

  36. S. D. Jackson, J. S. J. Hargreaves and D. Lennon, Editors, Catalysis in Application, RSC Cambridge, published in June 2003.

  37. J. L. Rico, J. S. J. Hargreaves and E. Derouane, "Direct transformation of methane to higher hydrocarbons in the presence or absence of carbon monoxide", Catalysis in Application, eds S. D. Jackson, J. S. J. Hargreaves and D. Lennon, RSC Cambridge, 253 (2003).

  38. A. Burrows, S. Coluccia, M. J. Duggan, J. S. J. Hargreaves, R. W. Joyner, C. J. Kiely, G. Martra, I. M. Mellor and M. Stockenhuber, "Structure Sensitivity and Mechanism in the Oxygen Isotopic Exchange Reaction over MgO", Journal of Catalysis, 234, 14-23 (2005)

  39. J. S. J. Hargreaves, "Powder X-ray diffraction and heterogeneous catalysis", Crystallography Reviews, 11, 21-34 (2005)

  40. J. S. J. Hargreaves and D. Mckay, "Nitrides and oxyntrides as catalysts", Specialist Periodical Reports in Catalysis, RSC Cambridge, J J Spivey Senior Reporter, Volume 19, Chapter 3, 86-109 (2006).

  41. J. S. J. Hargreaves, S. D. Jackson and G. Webb (eds) "Isotopes in heterogeneous catalysis", ca 290 pages, London, Imperial College Press, London, 2006, ISBN 1860945848.

  42. J. S. J. Hargreaves and I. M. Mellor, "Isotopic oxygen exchange over oxide surfaces", Chapter 5 "Isotopes in heterogeneous catalysis", eds J. S. J. Hargreaves, S. D. Jackson and G. Webb, London, Imperial College Press, 2006, ISBN 1860945848.

  43. S. Burns, J. S. J. Hargreaves, P. Pal, K. M. Parida and S. Parija, "The effect of dopants on the activity of MoO3/ZSM-5 catalysts for the dehydroaromatisation of methane", Catalysis Today, 114, 383-387 (2006).

  44. S. Burns, J. S. J. Hargreaves, P. Pal, K. M. Parida and S. Parija, "Using phosphorus doping of MoO3/ZSM-5 to modify performance in methane dehydroaromatisation", Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical, 245, 141-146 (2006).

  45. A. F. Lee, S. F. J. Hackett, J. S. J. Hargreaves and K. Wilson, "On the active site in heterogeneous palladium selox catalysts", Green Chemistry, 8, 549-555 (2006).

  46. D. Mckay, J. S. J. Hargreaves and R. F. Howe, “XPS evidence for molybdenum nitride formation in ZSM-5”, Catalysis Letters, 112, 109-113 (2006).

  47. S. Burns, J. S. J. Hargreaves and S. M. Hunter, "On the use of methane as a reductant in the synthesis of transition metal phosphides", Catalysis Communications, 8, 931-935 (2007).

  48. S. Burns, J. S. J. Hargreaves, M. Stockenhuber and R. P. K. Wells, "An Al K-edge EXAFS study of  MoO3/H-ZSM-5 catalyst precursors", Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 104, 97-102 (2007)

  49. J. S. J. Hargreaves and G. Ormsby, "A CO and H2 space time yield comparison of recent literature on methanol decomposition", Specialist Periodical Reports on Catalysis, Volume 20, RSC Cambridge, 107-121 (2007).

  50. S. Burns, J. G. Gallagher, J. S. J. Hargreaves and P. J. F. Harris, "Direct observation of carbon nanotube formation in Pd/H-ZSM-5 and MoO3/H-ZSM-5 methane activation catalysts", Catalysis Letters, 116, 97-102 (2007) 

  51. D. Mckay, D. H. Gregory, J. S. J. Hargreaves, S. M. Hunter and X-L. Sun, "Towards nitrogen transfer catalysis: Reactive lattice nitrogen in cobalt molybdenum nitride", Chem. Commun., 3051-3053 (2007) .

  52. D. Mckay, J. S. J. Hargreaves, J. L. Rico, J. L. Rivera and X-L. Sun, "The influence of phase and morphology of molybdenum nitrides on ammonia synthesis activity and reduction characteristics", Journal of Solid State Chemistry, 181, 325-333 (2008)

  53. S. D. Jackson and J. S. J Hargreaves (eds.) "Metal Oxide Catalysis", Volumes 1 and 2 "Characterisation of metal oxides" and "Catalysis over metal oxides" respectively, Wiley-VCH Weinheim, ISBN 10:3-527-318151

  54. D-L. Long, Y-F. Song, E. F. Wilson, P. Kogeler, S-X. Guo, A. M. Bond, J. S. J. Hargreaves and L. Cronin, "Capture of periodate in a {W18O54} cluster cage yielding a catalytically active polyoxometalate [H3W18O56(IO)6]6- embedded with high valent iodine",  Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 47, 4384-4387 (2008)

  55. K. AlGhamdi, J. S. J. Hargreaves and S. D. Jackson, "Base catalysis with metal oxides" Chapter 21, 821-845, Metal oxide catalysis, eds. S. D. Jackson and J. S. J. Hargreaves, Wiley-VCH (2008).

  56. J. S. J. Hargreaves and D. Mckay, "A comparison of the reactivity of lattice nitrogen in Co3Mo3N and Ni2Mo3N catalysts", Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical, 305, 125-129 (2009).

  57. J. S. J. Hargreaves, Guest Editor, special double issue of Topics in Catalysis, centring upon "Nitrides, oxynitrides and nitrogen-containing catalytic materials", in press.

  58. A. S. C. Brown and J. S. J. Hargreaves, "Methane combustion in the presence of zirconia based catalysts", Topics in Catalysis, 52, 458-463 (2009).

  59. M. Balakrishnan, V. S. Batra, J. S. J. Hargreaves, A. Monaghan, I. D. Pulford, J. L. Rico and S. Sushil, "Hydrogen production from methane in the presence of red mud - making mud magnetic ", Green Chemistry, 11, 42-47 (2009).

  60. A. G. Cairns, J. G. Gallagher, J. S. J. Hargreaves, D. Mckay, E. Morrison, J. L. Rico and K. Wilson, "The influence of precursor source and thermal parameters upon the formation of beta-phase molybdenum nitride," Journal of Alloys and Compounds,  479, 851-854 (2009).

  61. J. S. J. Hargreaves, R. F. Howe, D. Mckay, E. Morrison, J. L. Rico and M. Stockenhuber, "Nitridation of MoO3/HZSM-5 and Fe-MoO3/HZSM-5", Topics in Catalysis,  52 , 1559-1565 (2009).

  62. G. Ormsby, J. S. J. Hargreaves and E. J. Ditzel, "A methanol-only route to acetic acid", Catalysis Communications 10, 1292-1295 (2009).

  63. A. G. Cairns, J. G. Gallagher, J. S. J. Hargreaves, D. Mckay, J. L. Rico and K. Wilson, “The effect of low levels of dopants upon the formation and properties of beta-phase molybdenum nitride”, Journal of Solid State Chemistry , 183, 613-619 (2010).

  64. J. K. Bartley, J. S. J. Hargreaves, G. J. Hutchings, J. L. Rico, S. H. Taylor, R. P. K. Wells and D. J. Willock, “Metal Oxides”, contributed chapter in the Encyclopedia of Catalysis , 2 nd Edn.

  65. S. M. Hunter, D. Mckay, R. I. Smith, J. S. J. Hargreaves and D. H. Gregory, “Topotactic nitrogen transfer; structural transformation in cobalt molybdenum nitrides”, Chemistry of Materials , 22 , 2898-2907 (2010).

  66. S. Sushil, A. M. Alabdulrahman, M. Balakrishnan, V. S. Batra, R. A. Blackley, J. Clapp, J. S. J. Hargreaves. A. Monaghan, I. D. Pulford, J. L. Rico and W. Zhou, "Carbon deposition and phase transformations in red mud on exposure to methane", Journal of Hazardous Materials, doi:10.1016/j.hazmat.2010.04.046.

  67. A-M. Alexander and J. S. J. Hargreaves, "Alternative catalytic materials: carbides, nitrides, phosphides and amorphous boron alloys", Chemical Society Reviews 2010, DOI:10.1039/B916787K

  68. D. H. Gregory, J. S. J. Hargreaves and S. M. Hunter, "On the regeneration of Co3Mo3N from Co6Mo6N with N2", Catalysis Letters , doi 10.1007/s 10562-010-0464-3.

  69. A. Kamrai, I. D. Pulford and J. S. J. Hargreaves, "Chitosan as a potential amendment to remediate metal contaminated soil - a characterisation study", Colloids and Surfaces B : Biointerfaces , 82 , 71-80 (2011).

  70. M. Balakrishnan, V. S. Batra, J. S. J. Hargreaves and I. D. Pulford, "Waste materials ­ catalytic opportunities: an overview of the application of large scale waste materials as resources for catalytic applications", Green Chemistry , doi 10.1039/C0GC00685H



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