Separation of fatty acid methyl esters by comprehensive two-dimensional supercritical fluid chromatography with packed columns and programming of sampling duration

Fatty acid methyl esters from various fats and oils were separated by comprehensive two-dimensional supercritical fluid chromatography with conventional packed columns and FID detection. The first dimension was a silica gel column and the second dimension was an ODS column. This combination was largely orthogonal for the separation of fatty acid methyl esters. The first dimension separations were primarily based on the number of double bonds while the second dimension separations were based on the chain length. The highly-ordered chromatograms and improved resolution allowed the easy detection and identification of minor components. Although the first dimension separations were performed under isobaric conditions where the peak width increased in proportion to the retention, the programming of the sampling duration allowed us to maintain the optimum re-injection frequency (3–4 times) per peak into the second dimension and so to minimize the total analysis time without deteriorating the resolution.     

矩形截面毛细管电泳和二维分离

在石英单晶表面制成矩矩截面毛细管柱中进行电泳实验。由于矩形柱比圆形柱有更大散热侧面积且石英单晶的导热性能远无于熔融石英，所以可施加较高的场强，不仅提高了柱效，而且缩矩了分离时间。两相交的通道之间形成自然连接，可实现二维分离，并消除死体积。     

Chiral separation and molecular simulation study of six antihistamine agents on a coated cellulose tri-(3,5-dimethylphenycarbamate) column (Chiralcel OD-RH) and its recognition mechanisms

Enantiomeric separation of six antihistamine agents was first systematically investigated on a cellulose-based chiral stationary phase (CSP), that is, cellulose tris-(3,5-dimethyl phenyl carbamate) (Chiralcel OD-RH), under the reversed-phase mode. Orphenadrine, meclizine, terfenadine, dioxopromethazine, and carbinoxamine enantiomers were completely separated under the optimized mobile phase conditions with resolutions of 5.02, 1.93, 1.68, 1.67, and 1.54, respectively. Mequitazine was partially separated with a resolution of 0.77. The influences of type and concentration of buffer salt, the pH of buffer solution, and the type and ratio of organic modifier on the chiral separation were evaluated and optimized. For a better insight into the enantiorecognition mechanisms, molecular docking was carried out via the Autodock software. The lowest binding energy and the optimal conformations of the analytes/CSP complexes were supplied, and the mechanisms of chiral recognition were determined. According to the results, the key interactions for the chiral recognition of these six analytes on CDMPC were π–π interactions, hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bond interactions, and some special interactions.     

Separation of Hydrocarbon Mixtures in the Microgram Range by Inclusion in a Urea-packed Mini Column

Abstract

The use of classical urea inclusion techniques for the separation of straight chain hydrocarbons from branched and cyclic compounds is satisfactory when applied to mixtures in the milligram to gram ranges, but leads to low separation efficiencies when quantities in the microgram to milligram range are involved. In this study, a modified inclusion technique using an urea-packed milli-bore column and a catalytic eluent is described. Examples of its use for the separation of mixtures of linear and cyclic hydrocarbons from 30μg up to a few milligrams are given. The versatility of this technique for the analyses of low amounts of environmental samples is described, and an application to the hydrocarbon fraction of surface sediment from lake Leman (Switzerland) is presented.     

Fabrication of single‐walled carbon nanohorns incorporated a monolithic column for capillary electrochromatography

Single‐walled carbon nanohorns have received great interest for their unique properties and diverse potential applications. Herein, we demonstrated the feasibility of single‐walled carbon nanohorns incorporated poly(styrene‐divinylbenzene) monolith as the stationary phase for capillary electrochromatography, which were prepared by one‐step in situ copolymerization. Single‐walled carbon nanohorns were dispersed in styrene to give a stable and homogeneous suspension. The monolithic column gave effective separation for a wide range of aromatic compounds, which was based on hydrophobicity and π–π electrostatic stacking of single‐walled carbon nanohorns. The precisions of migration time and peak area varied in the ranges of 1.4–1.9% for intraday trials and 1.7–3.5% for interday trials, and 3.2–6.7% for intraday trials and 4.1–7.4% for interday trials, and 3.6–7.2% for inter‐column trials and 5.2–21.3% for inter‐column trials, respectively, indicating the good reproducibility of single‐walled carbon nanohorns embedded monolithic columns.     

Mathematical modeling of a slurry reactor for DME direct synthesis from syngas

In this paper,an axial dispersion mathematical model is developed to simulate a three-phase slurry bubble column reactor for direct synthesis of dimethyl ether(DME) from syngas.This large-scale reactor is modeled using mass and energy balances,catalyst sedimentation andsingle-bubble as well as two-bubbles class flow hydrodynamics.A comparison between the two hydrodynamic models through pilot plantexperimental data from the literature shows that heterogeneous two-bubbles flow model is in better agreement with the experimental data thanhomogeneous single-bubble gas flow model.Also,by investigating the heterogeneous gas flow and axial dispersion model for small bubblesas well as the large bubbles and slurry(i.e.including paraffins and the catalyst) phase,the temperature profile along the reactor is obtained.Acomparison between isothermal and non-isothermal reactors reveals no obvious performance difference between them.The optimum values ofreactor diameter and height were obtained at 7 m and 50 m,respectively.The effects of operating variables on the axial catalyst distribution,DME productivity and CO conversion are also investigated in this research.     

气相色谱法检测月饼中的脱氢乙酸

应用硫酸锌试剂沉淀月饼样品中的蛋白,乙醚提取样品中的脱氢乙酸,建立了Rtx-5弱极性毛细管柱-气相色谱分离检测月饼中的脱氢乙酸的方法。经方法验证,方法的检出限为0.24μg/mL,定量下限为0.32μg/mL,在0.0～0.5 mg/mL浓度范围内脱氢乙酸的浓度与色谱峰面积呈良好线性关系,相关系数r2=0.999 5,加标回收率在87.9%～94.4%之间,测定结果的相对标准偏差为2.5%(n=12)。该方法样品处理简单,适合月饼中脱氢乙酸的定量分析检测。     

Enantiomeric separations by means of nano‐LC

Enantiomers represent a class of compounds extensively investigated since they can show totally different behaviors when they interact with a chiral environment. Because of their identical chemical structure (they differ only in the spatial arrangement of the atoms in the molecule), the separation of optical isomers is a challenging task of analytical chemistry. So far employed methods for the separation of enantiomers are mainly based on chromatography. CE as well was considered as an analytical technique suitable for chiral separations, characterized by high efficiency and low consumption of reagent. Recently, miniaturization was introduced in LC to answer the needs to perform analyses in the minimum time, to use the smallest amount of samples and to reduce environmental pollution. Nano‐LC represents nowadays a valid alternative to the abovementioned conventional analytical techniques, and can be advantageously exploited for enantiomeric separation especially because it needs minute amounts of the chiral material necessary to carry out enantiomeric separations. This review describes the development and applications of nano‐LC in the field of chiral separations. The data reported in literature show its relevance for the study enantiomers‐chiral selectors interaction, as well as for application in pharmaceutical and clinical research.     

Adsorption in columns packed with porous adsorbent particles having partially fractal structures

A mathematical model is constructed and solved that could describe the dynamic behavior of the adsorption of a solute of interest in single and stratified columns packed with partially fractal porous adsorbent particles. The results show that a stratified column bed whose length is the same as that of a single column bed, provides larger breakthrough times and a higher dynamic utilization of the adsorptive capacity of the particles than those obtained from the single column bed, and the superior performance of the stratified bed becomes especially more important when the superficial velocity of the flowing fluid stream in the column is increased to accommodate increases in the system throughput. This occurs because the stratified column bed provides larger average external and intraparticle mass transfer and adsorption rates per unit length of packed column. It is also shown that increases in the total number of recursions of the fractal and the ratio of the radii between larger and smaller microspheres that make up the partially fractal particles, increase the intraparticle mass transfer and adsorption rates and lead to larger breakthrough times and dynamic utilization of the adsorptive capacity of the particles. The results of this work indicate that highly efficient adsorption separations could be realized through the use of a stratified column comprised from a practically reasonable number of sections packed with partially fractal porous adsorbent particles having reasonably large (i) total number of recursions of the fractal and (ii) ratio of the radii between larger and smaller microspheres from which the partially fractal particles are made from. It is important to mention here that the physical concepts and modeling approaches presented in this work could be, after a few modifications of the model, applied in studying the dynamic behavior of chemical catalysis and biocatalysis in reactor beds packed with partially fractal porous catalyst particles.     

Development of a rapid method for the simultaneous separation and determination of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol and its N- and O-glucuronides in human urine by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

Determination of the tobacco-specific nitrosamine metabolite 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) and its N- and O-glucuronides (NNAL-N-Gluc and NNAL-O-Gluc) is important for toxicology analysis of tobacco smoke induced carcinogenicity and the understanding of detoxification mechanisms of the carcinogenic nitrosamine in humans. But previously reported indirect measurement methods involving enzymolysis and base treatment steps were tedious and time-consuming. In this work, a direct measurement method for simultaneous determination of urinary NNAL, NNAL-N-Gluc and NNAL-O-Gluc by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) in a single run was developed for the first time without the need to perform enzymatic or base hydrolysis. Urine samples were purified using dichloromethane and further extracted by solid-phase extraction. Then they were analyzed by LC–MS/MS operated in electrospray positive ionization mode. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Phenomenex Kinetex PFP column within 6 min. The proposed method was validated and the results demonstrated that the method can produce satisfactory recoveries and reproducibility for the analytes. The applicability of this newly developed method was investigated for the simultaneous analysis of the three metabolites in smokers’ urine and the obtained results were comparable to those detected using the conventional enzymolysis method.