Effect of acids on the determination of lead and cadmium by atomic absorption spectrometry

The effect of different mineral acids on the absorption signals of lead and cadmium in atomic absorption spectrometry is reported. The behaviour of the signals was studied with respect to variations in metal concentration, acid concentration, flame stoichiometry and burner height. For the determination of lead and cadmium the most suitable concentrations of hydrochloric, nitric, sulphuric and perchloric acids were 5, 5, 2.5 and 5%, respectively. Similar absorption behaviour was observed in oxidizing and reducing flames for lead and cadmium in all the acids studied.     

Coordination geometries and cooperative ordering effects in copper(II) complexes with tridentate Schiff base dianions 5 E.p.r. spectra of [N-salicylidene-(R,S)-alaninato]copper(II) complexes with derivatives of imidazole and pyrazole and structure of 1-methylimidazole[N-salicylidene-(R,S)-valinato]copper(II)

1-Methylimidazole[N-salicylidene-(R,S)-valinato]copper(II) shows square-planar coordination around the Cu2+ ion, coordinated in the basal plane by O,N,O atoms from the tridentate Schiff base dianion and by N from the coordinated 1-methylimidazole. In the crystal structure, enantiomers related by an inversion centre are bound by H bonds to units with a CuCu distance of 8.039Å. Intermolecular H bonds stabilize stacking of such units, which are propagated along the [010] axis. Two such chain systems in the unit cell are related by a glide plane parallel to (010). The basal planes of two magnetically non-equivalent complexes are canted by an angle of 74.64. The shortest CuCu distance between non-parallel-aligned coordination polyhedra is 10.518Å. On the other hand, the closest CuCu spacing of parallel-orientated coordination polyhedra is 5.628Å. Hence, in the e.p.r. powder spectrum only the coupling between ferrodistortively ordered coordination polyhedra is manifested.E.p.r. and ligand field spectra of a series of [N-salicylidene-(R,S)-alaninato]copper(II) complexes with imidazole, pyrazole and some of their derivatives provide evidence for coordination geometries ranging from square-pyramidal, with various strengths of axial interaction, to square-planar. The cooperative ordering phenomena in the structure are discussed on the basis of the e.p.r. powder spectra. When the e.p.r. spectra yield crystal g values from two coupled molecular g tensors of orthorhombic symmetry, a simple model based on consistency of G parameters was developed for evaluation of the canting angle 2 between aligned coordination polyhedra and molecular g values, respectively. The data obtained from the e.p.r. powder measurements are in excellent agreement with the results of single X-ray structural studies.     

Design and synthesis of benzodiazepine-1,2,3-triazole hybrid derivatives as selective butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors

Molecular Diversity - A new series of compounds based on benzodiazepine-1,2,3-triazole were synthesized and evaluated as cholinesterase inhibitors by Ellman’s method. The compounds proved to...     

Layered Crystalline and Amorphous Platinum Disulfide (PtS2): Contrasting Electrochemistry

Group 6 transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS₂ and WS₂ have been extensively studied for various applications while few studies have delved into other TMDs such as platinum dichalcogenides. In this work, layered crystalline and amorphous platinum disulfide (PtS₂) were synthesized, characterised and their fundamental electrochemical properties were investigated. Both materials exhibited inherent oxidation and reduction reactions which would limit their operating potential window for sensing applications. Amorphous phase materials are considered to be promising electrocatalysts due to the porous, and nanostructured morphology with high concentration of unsaturated active sites. The electrocatalytic performances towards oxygen reduction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) of crystalline and amorphous PtS₂ were analysed. Amorphous PtS₂ was found to exhibit superior electrocatalytic performances towards ORR and HER as compared to crystalline PtS₂. For HER, amorphous and crystalline PtS₂ have overpotential values of 0.30 V and 0.70 V (vs. RHE) at current density of 10 mA cm⁻², respectively. The influence of electrochemical reduction pre-treatment on their catalytic behaviours was also investigated. Electrochemical reduction pre-treatment on both crystalline and amorphous PtS₂ removed the oxidized sulfate groups and increased the proportion of Pt⁰ oxidation state which exposed more catalytic sites. As such, these materials were activated and displayed improved ORR and HER performances. Electrochemically reduced amorphous PtS₂ outperformed the untreated counterparts and exhibited the best HER performance with overpotential of 0.17 V (vs. RHE) at current density of −10 mA cm⁻². These findings provide insights into the electrochemical properties of noble metal PtS₂ in both crystalline and amorphous states which can be activated by electrochemical reduction pre-treatment.     

Metal contamination in Sunairi Point sediment core along Karachi coast,Pakistan

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - This paper describes the pollution level in sediment core collected from Sunairi Point of Karachi coastal area Pakistan. The sediment was...     

Recent trends in the chemistry of Sandmeyer reaction: a review

Metal-catalyzed reactions play a vital part to construct a variety of pharmaceutically important scaffolds from past few decades. To carry out these reactions under mild conditions with low-cost easily available precursors, various new methodologies have been reported day by day. Sandmeyer reaction is one of these, first discovered by Sandmeyer in 1884. It is a well-known reaction mainly used for the conversion of an aryl amine to an aryl halide in the presence of Cu(I) halide via formation of diazonium salt intermediate. This reaction can be processed with or without copper catalysts for the formation of C–X (X?=?Cl, Br, I, etc.), C-CF₃/CF₂, C–CN, C–S, etc., linkages. As a result, corresponding aryl halides, trifluoromethylated compounds, aryl nitriles and aryl thioethers can be obtained which are effectively used for the construction of biologically active compounds. This review article discloses various literature reports about Sandmeyer-related transformations developed during 2000–2021 which give different ideas to synthetic chemists about further development of new and efficient protocols for Sandmeyer reaction.

Graphical abstract

An updated compilation of new approaches for Sandmeyer reaction is described in this review to construct a variety of carbon-halogen, carbon-phosphorous, carbon-sulfur, carbon-boron etc. linkages.

     

Influence of thyroid volume reduction on absorbed dose in 131I therapy studied by using Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation

A simulation study has been performed to quantify the effect of volume reduction on the thyroid absorbed dose per decay and to investigate the variation of energy deposition per decay due to β- and γ-activity of 131I with volume/mass of thyroid, for water, ICRP- and ICRU-soft tissue taken as thyroid material. A Monte Carlo model of the thyroid, in the Geant4 radiation transport simulation toolkit was constructed to compute the β- and γ-absorbed dose in the simulated thyroid phantom for various values of its volume. The effect of the size and shape of the thyroid on energy deposition per decay has also been studied by using spherical, ellipsoidal and cylindrical models for the thyroid and varying its volume in 1-25 cm3 range. The relative differences of Geant4 results for different models with each other and MCNP results lie well below 1.870%. The maximum relative difference among the Geant4 estimated results for water with ICRP and ICRU soft tissues is not more than 0.225%. S-values for ellipsoidal, spherical and cylindrical thyroid models were estimated and the relative difference with published results lies within 3.095%. The absorbed fraction values for beta particles show a good agreement with published values within 2.105% deviation. The Geant4 based simulation results of absorbed fractions for gammas again show a good agreement with the corresponding MCNP and EGS4 results （±6.667%） but have 29.032% higher values than that of MIRD calculated values. Consistent with previous studies, the reduction of the thyroid volume is found to have a substantial effect on the absorbed dose. Geant4 simulations confirm dose dependence on the volume/mass of thyroid in agreement with MCNP and EGS4 computed values but are substantially different from MIRD8 data. Therefore, inclusion of size/mass dependence is indicated for 131I radiotherapy of the thyroid.