Studying Microstructure in Molecular Crystals With Nanoindentation: Intergrowth Polymorphism in Felodipine

Intergrowth polymorphism refers to the existence of distinct structural domains within a single crystal of a compound. The phenomenon is exhibited by form II of the active pharmaceutical ingredient felodipine, and the associated microstructure is a significant feature of the compound’s structural identity. Employing the technique of nanoindentation on form II reveals a bimodal mechanical response on specific single‐crystal faces, demonstrating distinct properties for two polymorphic forms within the same crystal.     

A high‐throughput LC–MS/MS method for determination of flunarizine in human plasma: Pharmacokinetic study with different doses

A high‐throughput and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the determination of flunarizine in human plasma. Liquid–liquid extraction under acidic conditions was used to extract flunarizine and flunarizine‐d8 from 100 μL human plasma. The mean extraction recovery obtained for flunarizine was 98.85% without compromising the sensitivity of the method. The chromatographic separation was performed on Hypersil Gold C₁₈ (50 × 2.1 mm, 3 μm) column using methanol–10 mm ammonium formate, pH 3.0 (90:10, v/v) as the mobile phase. A tandem mass spectrometer (API‐5500) equipped with an electrospray ionization source in the positive ion mode was used for detection of flunarizine. Multiple reaction monitoring was selected for quantitation using the transitions, m/z 405.2 → 203.2 for flunarizine and m/z 413.1 → 203.2 for flunarizine‐d8. The validated concentration range was established from 0.10 to 100 ng/mL. The accuracy (96.1–103.1%), intra‐batch and inter‐batch precision (CV ≤ 5.2%) were satisfactory and the drug was stable in human plasma under all tested conditions. The method was used to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of 5 and 10 mg flunarizine tablet formulation in 24 healthy subjects. The pharmacokinetic parameters C_max and AUC were dose‐proportional.     

A new technique for determination of melting temperature of poly(ethylene glycol) by ultrasonic velocimetry

Ultrasonic velocity and density of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) (mol. wt. 2000 and 8000) solutions in water and benzene have been studied as a function of temperature from which respective isentropic compressibility has also been calculated. The velocity (as well as isentropic compressibility) undergoes a sudden change near melting temperature, T _m, of the solute polymer. Normally, we expect only one peak in viscoelastic properties at the T _m of PEG. However, we see two peaks (T _m1 and T _m2) in the case of the aqueous solution of PEG while there is only one peak for the case of benzene solution. This has been interpreted on the basis that one of the peaks (T _m1) is for unsolvated PEG and the other peak (T _m2) is that of PEG with water solvation shell. Such solvation shell is not formed with the aprotic solvent (benzene).     

On the compositum of wildly ramified extensions

The ramification filtration on the compositum of two wildly ramified extensions is computed in various cases. Some positive results towards Abhyankar's inertia conjecture have been also proved.     

Diazotized reagent for spectrophotometric determination of glyphosate pesticide in environmental and agricultural samples

A new sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of glyphosate herbicide in environmental and agricultural samples is developed. The reaction is based on diazotization followed by coupling of glyphosate with p-dimethyl amino benzaldehyde. The resulted complex absorption spectra was observed at λ_max = 420 nm. The effects of other metal ions and pesticides were also tested for selective determination of glyphosate. The analytical parameters were optimized and have been successfully applied for determination of glyphosate in various environmental samples such as soil, water and vegetables. This method has a lower limit detection of 6 μg of glyphosate. Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range of 6.0 μg–24.0 μg glyphosate in 25 mL of the final solution at 420 nm. The standard deviation and relative standard deviation calculated are 0.0055 and 1.023, respectively. The molar absorptivity of the colored system is 1.91 × 10¹⁰ L mol^?1cm^?1 and Sandell's sensitivity is found 0.408 × 10^?5 μg cm^?2. The proposed method is simple, sensitive, highly reproducible and time saving as compare to those complicated time consuming methods.     

Delay-coupled discrete maps: Synchronization, bistability, and quasiperiodicity

The synchronization transition is studied in delay-coupled logistic maps. For low coupling, in-phase and out-of-phase synchronous dynamics coexist, and with increasing coupling there is a regime of quasiperiodicity before eventual attraction to a fixed point at a critical value of coupling that depends on the nonlinearity. The presence of a region of asynchrony separating two synchronized regimes—termed anomalous behaviour—has been observed earlier in continuous systems and is shown here to occur in delay mappings as well. There are regions of in-phase, anti-phase, and out-of-phase dynamics of periodic as well as chaotic attractors.     

Isolation of individual capsaicinoids from a mixture and their characterization by (13)C NMR spectrometry

Individual compounds were isolated from a laboratory mixture of capsaicinoids by a multi-stage approach. First, the capsaicinoids were fractionated into capsaicins and non-capsaicins by argentation solid phase extraction (SPE) on a silver-charged propyl sulfonate resin. Second, compounds in each fraction were isolated by semi-preparative liquid chromatography on a C₃₀ phase in aqueous methanol. Third, the individual components of the original mixture were concentrated by reversed phased (C₁₈) SPE. The structure of each purified compound was confirmed by ¹³C NMR spectrometry and spectral comparison to known standards, purchased or synthesized locally. The chemical shifts of 15 capsaicinoid standards were measured on a 600 MHz instrument, and their assignments to particular carbons were made by reference to Distortionless Enhancement by Polarization Transfer (DEPT) NMR experiments and NMR spectral prediction software.     

Behavior of disordered boron carbide under stress

Gibbs free-energy calculations based on density functional theory have been used to determine the possible source of failure of boron carbide just above the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL). A range of B4C polytypes is found to be stable at room pressure. The energetic barrier for shock amorphization of boron carbide is by far the lowest for the B12(CCC) polytype, requiring only 6 GPa approximately = P(HEL) for collapse under hydrostatic conditions. The results clearly demonstrate that the collapse of the B12(CCC) phase leads to segregation of B12 and amorphous carbon in the form of 2-3 nm bands along the (113) lattice direction, in excellent agreement with recent transmission electron microscopy results.     

In search for structure of active site in iron-based oxygen reduction electrocatalysts

Calculations to elucidate the structure of Fe-based electrocatalysts were performed. Lowest energy configurations for incorporation of nitrogen in bulk of graphene sheet as well as on edge were determined. Substitution of nitrogen in bulk graphene is endothermic, while on the edge it can be either exothermic, if hydrogen is present, or endothermic. Energies of various configurations for the incorporation of iron on the edge of the nitrided graphene sheet were also examined. In the absence of hydrogen, iron prefers to bond with nitrogen and a carbon atom. In the presence of hydrogen, however, iron was found to prefer bonding to two nitrogen atoms on the graphene edge.