Phase behavior of water/oil/nonionic surfactants with normal distribution of the poly(ethylene oxide) chain length

The phase behavior of systems consisting of water/n-hexane/polyethoxylated nonionic surfactants with a normal distribution of ethylene oxide (EO) chain length has been investigated. The surfactants used were octylphenol ethoxylated with eight EO units and nonylphenol ethoxylated with seven and ten EO units. The oil/water weight ratio was keep constant at 1, whereas the amount of surfactant and the temperature were variables. The pseudobinary phase diagrams were used to find out the triphasic bodies on the temperature scale, the tricritical points and the effect of electrolyte on them. The presence of electrolyte and the increase in surfactant hydrophobicity promote the phase inversion.     

Traceability in quantitative NMR using an electronic signal as working standard

The choice of the reference, either as internal or external is not straightforward in quantitative NMR. In this context ERETIC™ methodology appears as an universal referencing technique. An electronic signal, generated by the NMR spectrometer during the acquisition time, operates as a virtual working standard. The processes for ensuring a traceability to primary standards is illustrated on the official method devoted to (D/H)_i ratios measurement on ethanol, using quantitative ²H-NMR. The ERETIC approach is shown to be equivalent to its official homologue, in terms of accuracy and precision. Finally, its performance could be beneficial to other analytes, matrices and nuclei.     

Stereoselectivity of the Radical Reductive Alkylation of Enamines: Importance of the Allylic 1,3-Strain Model

Radical addition to enamines using Bu₃SnH as reducing agent are reported (Schemes 2 and 4). The diastereoselectivity of these reactions was examined in different systems (Tables 1 and 2). Enamines derived from cyclic ketones such as cyclohexanone were alkylated with high diastereoselectivity with preferential formation of the cis-disubstituted cycloalkanes. In acyclic systems such as enamines derived from propiophenone and diethyl ketone, moderate to high stereoselectivities were observed in the H-abstraction step. A model based principally on minimization of allylic 1,3-strain (A^1,3 strain) was deduced from the experimental results and semi-empirical (AM1) calculations.     

Analysis of basic compounds at high pH values by reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RPLC) is currently the method of choice for the analysis of basic compounds. However, with traditional silica materials, secondary interactions between the analyte and residual silanols produce peak tailing which can negatively affect resolution, sensitivity, and reproducibility. In order to reduce these secondary interactions, which comprise ion exchange, hydrogen bonding, and London forces interactions, chromatographic analyses can be carried out at low or high pH values where silanol groups and basic compounds are mostly uncharged. The chromatographic behaviour of a particular bidentate stationary phase, Zorbax Extend C18, was studied with a set of basic and neutral compounds. Thanks to a higher chemical stability than traditional silica based supports, analyses were carried out with a high pH mobile phase, which represents a good alternative to the acidic mobile phases generally used to reduce ion exchange interactions. The performance of this bidentate stationary phase was also compared with that of other supports and it was proved that it is advantageous to work with high pH mobile phases when analyzing basic compounds.     

Internal approximation of quasi-variational inequalities

Summary In this paper the internal approximation of a quasi-variational inequality is considered. An algorithm of Bensoussan-Lions type is proposed for which the convergence is proved. These results are applied to Signorini problem with friction for which two error estimates and numerical examples are also given.     

Quantum groupA ∞

The quantum groupsgl andA are constructed. The representation theory of these algebras is developed and the universalR-matrix is presented.     

Convex hull of powers of a complex number,trinomial equations and the Farey sequence

The color of a complex number is defined as the number of vertices of the convex hull of powers of that number. This induces a coloring of the unit disk. The structure of the set of points where the color changes is investigated here. It is observed that there is a connection between this fractal set and some family of trinomial equations. Three algorithms for coloring the unit disk are described, the last one (related to the Farey sequence) arising out of a conjecture. This conjecture is formulated and proved in this presentation.     

Precise and accurate quantitative C NMR with reduced experimental time

In order to detect small variations in ¹³C isotopomers concentrations, high sensitivity, accuracy and precision have to be achieved. To assess such criteria, when using ¹³C NMR, ¹³C bi-labelled ethanol has been proposed as a molecular probe. Advantage has been taken of the pre-established structural relationship between the peak areas of the ¹³C NMR spectrum of this molecule, i.e. the ratio of signal areas is set to a fixed value. It is shown that the quality performance, required by quantitative ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, is not affected by a large reduction of the repetition delay using relaxation reagents.     

Determination of sulphuric acid in process effluent streams using sequential injection titration

Sulphuric acid in process effluent streams from an electrorefining copper plant was analysed with a sequential injection (SI) titration system using sodium hydroxide as titrant. In the proposed SI titration system a base titrant, acid analyte and base titrant zone were injected sequentially into a distilled water carrier stream in a holding coil and swept by flow reversal through a reaction coil to the detector. The base zones contained bromothymol blue as indicator and the endpoint was monitored spectrophotometrically at 620 nm. The influence of carrier stream flow rate, acid and base zone volumes and titrant concentration on the linear range of the method was studied to obtain an optimum. A linear relationship between peak width and logarithm of the acid concentration was obtained in the range 0.006-0.178 mol l(-1) of H(2)SO(4) for a NaOH concentration of 0.002 mol l(-1). The results obtained for the SI titration of process samples were in good agreement with a standard potentiometric method with an RSD<0.75% and a sample frequency of 23 samples h(-1).