Photocatalytic oxidation of phenol in aqueous solutions with oxygen catalyzed by supported metallophthalocyanine catalyst

In this paper, zinc tetraaminophthalocyanine (Zn-APc) was immobilized on cellulosic fiber by covalent bond to obtain a novel cellulosic fiber supported metallophthalocyanine, named Zn-TDTAPc-F. At pH 11, upon visible light irradiation for 6 h in the presence of O2, Zn-TDTAPc-F was found to be highly effective for the degradation of phenol in aqueous solution, and the degradation rate of phenol was more than 95%. HPLC was used to confirm formic acid, fumaric acid and maleic acid as its main degradation products.     

Development of a simplified method for the simultaneous determination of retinol, α-tocopherol,and β-carotene in serum by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization

A new and simple method for the determination of fat-soluble vitamins (retinol, alpha-tocopherol, and beta-carotene) in human serum was developed and validated by using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (LC-APCI-MS-MS). Different solvent mixtures were tested to obtain deproteinization and extraction of the analytes from the matrix. As a result, a volume of 240 microL of a 1:1 (v/v) ethanol/ethyl acetate mixture added to 60 microL of serum was found to be suitable for both protein precipitation and antioxidants solubilization, giving the best recovery for all three analytes. Deproteinized samples (20 microL) were injected after dilution, without the need for concentration or evaporation to dryness and reconstruction of the sample. Vitamins were separated on a C-8 column using a 95:5 (v/v) methanol/dichloromethane mixture and ionized in the positive-ion mode; detection was performed in the selected-reaction monitoring mode. Linearity of the LC-APCI-MS-MS method was established over 5 orders of magnitude for retinol and alpha-tocopherol, whereas in the case of beta-carotene it was limited to 4 orders. Lower limits of quantitation were 1.7, 2.3, and 4.1 nM for retinol, alpha-tocopherol, and beta-carotene, respectively. Serum concentrations of retinol, alpha-tocopherol, and alpha+beta-carotene determined in a group of healthy volunteers were 2.48, 38.07, and 0.50 microM, respectively, in samples collected in winter ( n=122) and 2.69, 45.88, and 0.90 microM during summer ( n=66).     

Paradigms and paradoxes: patterns and estimation of the entropy of formation of aqueous hydrogen containing mono and polynuclear oxyanions

“Simple” energetic patterns, where simple means the use of parameters derived only from the stoichiometry of these species, are relatively rarely discussed in the literature. In addition, entropy studies have been dominated by derivation of the absolute quantity S° rather than the entropy of formation (TΔ_f S ^o). Relationships between the entropy of formation and different parameters such as negative value of the charge of the species, the number of oxygen atoms, the natural logarithm of the molecular weight, the total number of atoms and the number of central atoms that are gases were recently discussed by us for aqueous polynuclear oxyanions. As shown here hydrogen containing anions do not follow this pattern. In this study, new approaches for the estimation of the entropy of formation of aqueous hydrogen containing mono and polynuclear oxyanions are suggested, evaluated and recommended.     

Ferromagnetism in Metallocene-Doped Fullerenes

 Ferromagnetism in fullerene-based systems doped with metallocenes is reviewed. These compounds form a ferromagnetic state by spin-coupling between π electrons on fullerene units, while the metallocene molecules do not contribute to the spin ordering. One of these compounds has the highest critical temperature (19 K) for this class of compound. The magnetic properties of these materials are very strongly dependent on the crystallization conditions. Corresponding author. E-mail: Dragan.Mihailovic@ijs.si Received September 4, 2002; accepted September 6, 2002     

The Michael addition of indoles to alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones catalyzed by CeCl3.7H2O-NaI combination supported on silica gel

Alkylation of indoles by means of the Michael addition has been the subject of a number of investigation. It is well established that regioselectivity in the additions of indoles to electron-deficient alkenes is strongly controlled by the reaction medium. In a continuation of the work on developing greener and cleaner technologies, the cerium(III) chloride heptahydrate and sodium iodide combination supported on silica gel catalyzes the alkylation of various indoles with alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones giving 3-(3-oxoalkyl)indole derivatives in good yields. The substitution on the indole nucleus occurred exclusively at the 3-position, and N-alkylation products have not been observed.     

An Education in Robustness

A case study is presented of the application of robustness analysis to the choice of examination subjects to be made by a 14-year-old girl. The analysis is conducted in terms of the desirable future career options which may be preserved by different combinations of subjects, and also of the balance with topics selected for their intrinsic interest. The approach, which employs very limited technical apparatus, is justified on a number of grounds-in particular, the crucial importance of uncertainty, and the need for understanding and acceptance by a "client" very unlike the corporate manager. Some tentative conclusions are reached on the extension of such methods to other cases of decision-makers with little, if any, resources to control except their own lives.     

Methods for Determining the Re-order Point of an (<Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>) Ordering Policy when a Service Level is Specified

This paper deals with a periodic review inventory system. Methods are discussed for determining the re-order point s of an (s, S) order policy, when a certain service level is required. The results differ from those presented for a (Q, s) model which is usually considered in literature and implemented in practice. Methods are discussed for determining the re-order point of an (s, S) policy when demand is normal or gamma distributed. A numerical investigation demonstrates the applicability of the described methods. In particular, it is shown that these methods are superior to a formula that is implemented in many inventory control systems.     

Atomic radical—molecule reactions F + CH<Subscript>3</Subscript>C≡CH: mechanistic study

The reaction of atomic radical F with propyne has been studied theoretically using ab initio quantum chemistry methods and transition state theory. The potential energy surface was calculated at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVDZ (single-point) level using the UMP2/6-311++G(d,p) optimized structures. Two reaction mechanisms including the addition–isomerization–elimination reaction mechanism and the directed hydrogen abstraction reaction mechanism are considered. For the hydrogen abstraction reactions, i.e., the most probable evolution pathway in the title reaction, the HF formation occurs via direct abstraction mechanism dominantly and the H atom picked up by the atomic radical F should come mostly from the methyl group of normal propyne. On the other hand, for the addition–isomerization–elimination mechanism, the most feasible pathway should be the atomic radical F attacking on the C≡C triple bond in propyne (CH₃C≡CH) to form a weakly-bound adduct A1 with no barrier, followed by F addition to the C≡C triple bond to form the low-lying intermediate isomer 5. Subsequently, isomer 5 directly dissociates to P3 H₂CCCHF + H via transition state TS₅/P3. The other reaction pathways on the doublet PES are less competitive due to thermodynamical or kinetic factors. Furthermore, based on the analysis of the kinetics of all channels through which the addition and abstraction reaction proceed, we expect that the competitive power of reaction channels may vary with experimental conditions for the title reaction. The present work will provide useful information for understanding the processes of atomic radical F reaction with other unsaturated hydrocarbons. This material is available from author via E-mail.     

Determination of acetaminophen by square wave voltammetry at a gold electrode modified by 4-amino-2-mercaptopyrimidine self-assembled monolayers

A 4-Amino-2-mercaptopyrimidine self-assembled monolayer (AMP SAMs/Au) modified gold electrode was prepared. The electrochemical behavior of acetaminophen on the AMP SAMs/Au was studied in Britton-Robinson (BR) buffer solution. Compared to a bare gold electrode, the modified electrode exhibits a significant enhancement in the oxidation current response for acetaminophen. The modified electrode was used for the determination of acetaminophen by square wave voltammetry. The oxidation current increased linearly with the concentration of acetaminophen in the range of 2.0 × 10⁻⁶−4.0 × 10⁻³ M. The modified electrode made it possible to eliminate the interference of dopamine (DA), brucine, epinephrine (EP), and norepinephrine (NE). The practical analytical utility was illustrated by the determination of acetaminophen in a commercially available drug. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Visualisation of interlaboratory comparison results in PomPlots

In this work a novel graphical method is applied to the presentation of intercomparison results. This is demonstrated with the results of a recent intercomparison in measuring the ¹³⁷Cs, ⁴⁰K, and ⁹⁰Sr activity concentration in milk powder. The “PomPlot”, an intuitive graphical method, is used for producing a summary overview of the participants’ results of a common measurand. The “PomPlot” displays (relative) deviations of individual results from the reference value on the horizontal axis and (relative) uncertainties on the vertical axis.