A novel carbon/chitosan paste electrode for electrochemical detection of normetanephrine in the urine

Normetanephrine is a marker for pheochromocytoma, a rare catecholamine-secreting and neuroendocrine tumor, that arises from sympathetic and parasympathetic paraganglia. In this work, a novel carbon/chitosan electrode paste was used for sensitive voltammetric determination of normetanephrine and dopamine in the presence of ascorbic acid and uric acid. The modified electrode has shown an increase in the effective area of up to 68%, well-separated oxidation peaks, and an excellent electrocatalytic activity. The electrochemical response characteristics were investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry. Interestingly, high sensitivity and selectivity in the linear range of normetanephrine, dopamine, ascorbic acid, and uric acid concentrations were observed. The present method was applied in the urine sample and satisfactory results were obtained showing that this electrode is very suitable in pharmaceutical and clinical preparations.     

Analysis of the Glass-Forming Ability of Fe–Er Alloys,Based on Thermodynamic Modeling

The Fe–Er phase diagram and thermodynamic properties of all its phases are assessed by means of self-consistent analysis. To refine the data on phase equilibria in the Fe–Er system, an investigation is performed in the 10–40 at % range of Er concentrations. The temperature–concentration dependences of the thermodynamic properties of a melt are presented using the model of ideal associated solutions. Thermodynamic parameters of each phase are obtained, and the calculated results are in agreement with available experimental data. The correlation between the thermodynamic properties of liquid Fe–Er alloys and their tendency toward amorphization are studied. It is shown that compositions of amorphous alloys prepared by melt quenching coincide with the ranges of concentration with the predominance of Fe₃Er and FeEr₂ associative groups that have large negative entropies of formation.     

Characterization of different ice habits according to nucleation processes in the electrolyte LiCl · RH2O (6 < R < 9)

The ability to observe different ice nucleation processes in LiCl · RH₂O electrolytes is demonstrated by light scattering experiments. The homogeneous ice nucleation mechanism is analyzed on the basis of Turnbull's theory. This nucleation operates in supercooled water, as deduced from the volumic dependence of the samples on R(5 < R < 9), and is compatible with the definition of the electrolyte as a heterogeneous submicroscopic LiCl·6H₂O medium composed of H₂O and LiCl·6H₂O.     

Generalizations of Pełczyński’s decomposition method for Banach spaces containing a complemented copy of their squares

Suppose that X and Y are Banach spaces isomorphic to complemented subspaces of each other. In 1996, W. T. Gowers solved the Schroeder-Bernstein Problem for Banach spaces by showing that X is not necessarily isomorphic to Y. However, if X ² is complemented in X with supplement A and Y ² is complemented in Y with supplement B, that is,

Ring inversion, structural stability and vibrational assignments of sulfolane c-C4H8SO2 and 3-sulfolene c-C4H6SO2

The structural stability of sulfolane (tetrahydrothiophene1,1-dioxide) and 3-sulfolene (dihydrothiophene1,1-dioxide) was investigated by DFT-B3LYP and ab initio MP2 calculations with 6-311+G**) basis set. The calculated symmetric ring-puckering potential of 3-sulfolene at the B3LYP level is consistent with a flat minimum that corresponds to a planar ring but at the MP2 level with a double minimum with a low barrier of about 193calmol(-1) to ring planarity in reasonable agreement with experimental results. From the calculations at the two levels of theory sulfolane was predicted to exist predominantly in the twist conformation. The vibrational wavenumbers were calculated at the MP2/6-31G** level of theory and the potential energy distributions PED among the symmetry coordinates of the normal modes were computed for the low-energy structure of the molecules. Complete vibrational assignments were provided on the basis of the calculated PED values. The experimental infrared and Raman spectra of the two molecules were compared to the calculated ones.     

HPLC and chemometrics-assisted UV-spectroscopy methods for the simultaneous determination of ambroxol and doxycycline in capsule

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and multivariate spectrophotometric methods are described for the simultaneous determination of ambroxol hydrochloride (AM) and doxycycline (DX) in combined pharmaceutical capsules. The chromatographic separation was achieved on reversed-phase C(18) analytical column with a mobile phase consisting of a mixture of 20mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate, pH 6-acetonitrile in ratio of (1:1, v/v) and UV detection at 245 nm. Also, the resolution has been accomplished by using numerical spectrophotometric methods as classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS-1) applied to the UV spectra of the mixture and graphical spectrophotometric method as first derivative of the ratio spectra ((1)DD) method. Analytical figures of merit (FOM), such as sensitivity, selectivity, analytical sensitivity, limit of quantitation and limit of detection were determined for CLS, PLS-1 and PCR methods. The proposed methods were validated and successfully applied for the analysis of pharmaceutical formulation and laboratory-prepared mixtures containing the two component combination.     

Validated spectrofluorometric methods for determination of amlodipine besylate in tablets

Two simple and sensitive spectrofluorometric methods have been developed and validated for determination of amlodipine besylate (AML) in tablets. The first method was based on the condensation reaction of AML with ninhydrin and phenylacetaldehyde in buffered medium (pH 7.0) resulting in formation of a green fluorescent product, which exhibits excitation and emission maxima at 375 and 480 nm, respectively. The second method was based on the reaction of AML with 7-chloro-4-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NBD-Cl) in a buffered medium (pH 8.6) resulting in formation of a highly fluorescent product, which was measured fluorometrically at 535 nm (lambda(ex), 480 nm). The factors affecting the reactions were studied and optimized. Under the optimum reaction conditions, linear relationships with good correlation coefficients (0.9949-0.9997) were found between the fluorescence intensity and the concentrations of AML in the concentration range of 0.35-1.8 and 0.55-3.0 microg ml(-1) for ninhydrin and NBD-Cl methods, respectively. The limits of assays detection were 0.09 and 0.16 microg ml(-1) for the first and second method, respectively. The precisions of the methods were satisfactory; the relative standard deviations were ranged from 1.69 to 1.98%. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the analysis of AML in pure and pharmaceutical dosage forms with good accuracy; the recovery percentages ranged from 100.4-100.8+/-1.70-2.32%. The results were compared favorably with those of the reported method.     

Template assisted electrodeposition of germanium and silicon nanowires in an ionic liquid

In this paper we report for the first time on the room temperature template synthesis of germanium and silicon nanowires by potentiostatic electrochemical deposition from the air- and water stable ionic liquid 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([Py(1,4)]Tf(2)N) containing GeCl(4) and SiCl(4) as a Ge and Si source, respectively. Commercially-available track-etched polycarbonate membranes (PC) with an average nominal pore diameter of 90-400 nm were used as templates. Ge and Si nanowires with an average diameter corresponding to the nanopores' diameter and lengths of a few micrometres were reproducibly obtained. Structural characterization of the nanowires was performed by EDX, TEM, HR-SEM and Raman spectroscopy. Despite the rough surface of the nanowires, governed mostly by the original shape of the nanopore's wall of the commercially-available PC membrane, preliminary structural characterizations demonstrate the promising prospective of this innovative elaboration process compared to constraining high vacuum and high temperature methods.     

Electrodeposition of Ge, Si and Si x Ge 1-x from an air- and water-stable ionic liquid

The electrodeposition of Ge, Si and, for the first time, of Si(x)Ge(1-x) from the air- and water-stable ionic liquid 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([Py(1,4)]Tf(2)N) containing GeCl(4) and/or SiCl(4) as precursors is investigated by cyclic voltammetry and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. GeCl(2) in [Py(1,4)]Tf(2)N is electrochemically prepared in a two-compartment cell to be used as Ge precursor instead of GeCl(4) in order to avoid the chemical attack of Ge(iv) on deposited Ge. Silicon, germanium and Si(x)Ge(1-x) can be deposited reproducibly and easily in this ionic liquid. Interestingly, the Si(x)Ge(1-x) deposit showed a strong colour change (from red to blue) at room temperature during electrodeposition, which is likely to be due to a quantum size effect. The observed colours are indicative of band gaps between at least 1.5 and 3.2 eV. The potential of ionic liquids in Si(x)Ge(1-x) electrodeposition is demonstrated.