The organo-inorganic commercial binder Albertine F/1 (Hüttenes-Albertus) constituting the starch-aluminosilicate mixture was directed to structural studies. The paper presents a detailed structural analysis of the binder before and after exposure to physical curing agents (microwaves, high temperature) based on the results of infrared spectroscopy studies (FTIR). An analysis of structural changes taking place in the binder system with the quartz matrix was also carried out. Based on the course of the obtained IR spectra, it was found that during the exposure on physical agents there are structural changes within the hydroxyl groups in the polymeric starch chains and silanol groups derived from aluminosilicate as well as in the quartz matrix (SiO2). The curing of the molding sand takes place due to the evaporation of the solvent water and the formation of intramolecular and intermolecular cross-linking hydrogen bonds. Type and amount of hydrogen bonds presence in cured molding sand have an impact on selected properties of molding sand. Results indicates that for molding sand with Albertine F/1 during conventional heating a more extensive network of hydrogen bonds is created.

The paper presents the results of theoretical calculations in terms of the G4MP2 composite method for cyprodinil–α-cyclodextrin (C ⁰@α-CD) and cyprodinil–β-cyclodextrin (C ⁰@β-CD) systems. Studies also covered analogous systems consisting of the anion (C ⁻) and the cation (C ⁺) of cyprodinil. The geometries of the cyprodinil molecule and ions were optimized on the basis of the DFT theory, using hybrid (B3LYP, PBE0), pure (B97-D) and “meta” (M06-2X) GGA functionals for selected Pople basis sets [6-311++G(d,p), 6-311++G(2d,p), 6-311++G(2d,2p)] and Dunning basis set (aug-cc-pVDZ). The research results suggest that the affinity of “guest” molecules for “hosts” is relatively low. Theoretical studies of the “guest-host” systems allow to predict the properties of the designed preparations.