Flow-injection chemiluminescence determination of epinephrine in pharmaceutical preparations using raw apple juice as enzyme source

Raw apple juice exhibits the activity of polyphenol oxidase which can be employed for the determination of mono-, di- and polyhydric phenols. The chemiluminescence detection in the two-channel manifold was used to develop the new procedure for determination of epinephrine. Epinephrine can be determined by this method in pharmaceutical preparations in concentration ranges 1.0–10.0 and 10.0–25.0 mg l⁻¹, with a detection limit of 0.2 mg l⁻¹. Good selectivity against typical antioxidants and other coexisting substances was achieved. Relatively slow loss of the enzyme activity was observed during 1 week. The proposed method is very simple. Fresh juice solution from one apple can be prepared in 10 min and used for at least 8 h with excellent precision. Consumption of luminol solution was 0.15 ml min⁻¹. The throughput was 20 samples per hour.     

Breakup of a Multiple Emulsion Drop in a Uniform Electric Field

The steady deformation and breakup of emulsion drops in a uniform electric field are considered experimentally. Due to the low volume fraction of inner drops, the emulsions can be effectively assumed as Newtonian fluids with spatial nonuniformity. The measurements of the electrical properties show that the oil-in-water (o/w) emulsion drop behaves like a conducting drop. On the other hand, the water-in-oil (w/o) emulsion drops can be regarded as inhomogeneous leaky dielectric drops. It is found that the viscosity ratio is not an important parameter within the small deformation limit and breakup mode of the o/w emulsion drops. In the case of w/o emulsion drops, however, the breakup mode depends on the viscosity ratio. Inherent nonuniformity of the emulsion drops makes drop more deformable and unstable. The tip-streaming is the dominant breakup mode of o/w emulsion drops when the nonuniformity of drop phase is appreciable. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.     

Anatase-Rutile Transition of Precipitated Titanium Oxide with Alcohol Rinsing

The effect of alcohol washing on the anatase-rutile transition of precipitated titanium oxide was investigated using X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier-transform IR spectroscopy, and thermogravimetry. Alcohol (butanol) rinsing accelerated the anatase-rutile transition of precipitated titanium oxide powder so that the onset temperature of transition decreased drastically from 800 degrees C for water-washed powder to 550 degrees C for alcohol-rinsed powder. Alternation of transition kinetics and mechanisms by rinsing media could be confirmed from the analysis of temperature and time dependence of rutile content. The attributability of the chemical state of anatase after crystallization, which contained H(2)O, OH, and organic residues, to the change of transition kinetics with alcohol rinsing will be discussed. Two mechanisms, the effect of residual organics and/or H(2)O(OH), could be suggested on the basis of analysis of the difference between chemical states of water-washed anatase and alcohol-rinsed powder. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Fluorine-doped nanocrystalline SnO2 powders prepared via a single molecular precursor method as anode materials for Li-ion batteries

Fluorine-doped nanocrystalline tin dioxide materials (F:SnO₂) have been successfully prepared by the sol-gel process from a single molecular precursor followed by a thermal treatment at 450-650 °C. The resulting materials were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption porosimetry (BET) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The mean particle size increased from 5 to 20 nm and the specific surface area decreased from 123 to 37 m²/g as the temperature of heat treatment was risen from 450 to 650 °C. Fluorine-doped nanocrystalline SnO₂ exhibited capacity of 560, 502, and 702 mA h/g with 48%, 50%, and 40% capacity retention after 25 cycles between 1.2 V and 50 mV at the rate of 25 mA/g, respectively. In comparison, commercial SnO₂ showed an initial capacity of 388 mA h/g, with only 23% capacity retention after 25 cycles.     

In situ Fe K-edge X-ray absorption fine structure of a nitrosyl adduct of iron phthalocyanine irreversibly adsorbed on a high area carbon electrode in an acidic electrolyte

Key aspects of the microenvironment surrounding the Fe center in the nitrosyl adduct of iron phthalocyanine, [Fe(Pc)(NO)], have been elucidated from the analysis of the Fe K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) of the material adsorbed on the surface of a high area carbon electrode recorded in situ, in 0.5 M H(2)SO(4). Statistical best fits to the EXAFS data place the Fe center in a five-coordinated square pyramidal configuration shifted away from the Pc plane toward the axially bound NO bent at an angle of ca. 40 degrees with respect to the normal to the Pc plane. This environment is analogous to that of Fe in the nitrosyl adduct of crystalline [Fe(TPP)], where TPP = meso-tetraphenylporphyrinato(2-), determined from X-ray diffraction.     

Morphology, crystallization behavior and properties of impact-modified polypropylene copolymer with or without sodium benzoate as a nucleating agent

 The morphology, crystallization behavior, and properties of an impact-modified polypropylene (PP) copolymer with or without sodium benzoate were investigated. The contents of ethylene–propylene rubber (EPR) in the reactor-made PP copolymer is about 15 wt%. For comparison, blends of PP and EPR containing the same EPR composition were prepared by melt-mixing. Morphological studies by scanning probe microscopy indicated that the impact-modified copolymer consists of three different phases, i.e., polyethylene, PP, and EPR phases, which is considerably different from the morphology of the conventional PP/EPR blend of the corresponding composition. The impact-modified PP copolymer exhibited a higher crystallization rate in terms of the lower crystallization half-time and thus higher thermal and mechanical properties, such as impact strength and hardness, than the PP/EPR blend did. The addition of sodium benzoate as a nucleating agent to the copolymer increased the crystallization rate and the mechanical properties. Received: 4 June 2001 Accepted: 31 October 2001     

Studies of tetracene- and pentacene-based organic thin-film transistors fabricated by the neutral cluster beam deposition method

The neutral cluster beam deposition (NCBD) method has been applied to produce and characterize organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) based upon tetracene and pentacene molecules as active layers. Organic thin films were prepared by the NCBD method on hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS)-untreated and -pretreated silicon dioxide (SiO2) substrates at room temperature. The surface morphology and structures for the tetracene and pentacene thin films were examined by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The measurements demonstrate that the weakly bound and highly directional neutral cluster beams are efficient in producing high-quality single-crystalline thin films with uniform, smooth surfaces and that SiO2 surface treatment with HMDS enhances the crystallinity of the pentacene thin-film phase. Tetracene- and pentacene-based OTFTs with the top-contact structure showed typical source-drain current modulation behavior with different gate voltages. Device parameters such as hole carrier mobility, current on/off ratio, threshold voltage, and subthreshold slope have been derived from the current-voltage characteristics together with the effects of surface treatment with HMDS. In particular, the high field-effect room-temperature mobilities for the HMDS-untreated OTFTs are found to be comparable to the most widely reported values for the respective untreated tetracene and pentacene thin-film transistors. The device performance strongly correlates with the surface morphology, and the structural properties of the organic thin films are discussed.     

Ab initio SCF Calculation of the Fluoronium Ion: Geometry,electronic structure and vibrational constants

An ab initio SCF calculation of 42 points of the energy hypersurface of the fluoronium ion is presented using a contracted F(5s/3p), H(2s) gaussian basis set. In its equilibrium structure a bond length of 1.812 a.u. and a HFH bond angle of 127.2° are predicted. The calculated vibrational frequencies for H₂F⁺, HDF⁺, and D₂F⁺ are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Asymptotic and exponential decay in mean square for delay geometric Brownian motion

Applications of Mathematics - We derive sufficient conditions for asymptotic and monotone exponential decay in mean square of solutions of the geometric Brownian motion with delay. The conditions...