Analysis of impurities in pharmaceuticals by LC‐MS with cold electron ionization

Pharmaceuticals require careful and precise determination of their impurities that might harm the user upon consumption. Although today, the most common technique for impurities identification is liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS), it has several downsides due to the nature of the ionization method. Also, the analyses in many cases are targeted thus despite being present, some of the compounds will not be revealed. In this paper, we propose and show a new method for untargeted analysis and identification of impurities in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The instrument used for these analyses is a novel electron ionization (EI) LC‐MS with supersonic molecular beams (SMB). The EI‐LC‐MS‐SMB was implemented for analyses of several drug samples spiked with an impurity. The instrument provides EI mass spectra with enhanced molecular ions, named Cold EI, which increases the identification probabilities when the compound is identified with the aid of an EI library like National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We analyzed ibuprofen and its impurities, and both the API and the expected impurity were identified with names and structures by the NIST library. Moreover, other unexpected impurities were found and identified proving the ability of the EI‐LC‐MS‐SMB system for truly untargeted analysis. The results show a broad dynamic range of four orders of magnitude at the same run with a signal‐to‐noise ratio of over 10 000 for the API and almost uniform response.     

Contact vibration analysis of the functionally graded material coated half-space under a rigid spherical punch

This paper studies the contact vibration problem of an elastic half-space coated with functionally graded materials (FGMs) subject to a rigid spherical punch. A static force superimposing a dynamic time-harmonic force acts on the rigid spherical punch. Firstly, we give the static contact problem of FGMs by a least-square fitting approach. Next, the dynamic contact pressure is solved by employing the perturbation method. Lastly, the dynamic contact stiffness with different dynamic contact displacement conditions is derived for the FGM coated half-space. The effects of the gradient index, coating thickness, internal friction, and punch radius on the dynamic contact stiffness factor are discussed in detail.     

Propagation of Lorentz and Lorentz-Gauss beams through an apertured fractional Fourier transform optical system

By expanding the hard-aperture function into a finite sum of complex Gaussian functions, we derive approximate analytical formulae for Lorentz and Lorentz-Gauss beams propagating through an apertured fractional Fourier transform (FRT) optical system. As an application example, properties of a Lorentz-Gauss beam in the FRT plane after propagating through a squarely or annularly apertured FRT optical system are studied numerically. The results obtained using the approximate analytical formula are in good agreement with those obtained using numerical integral calculation. The FRT optical system provides a convenient way for laser beam shaping.     

Free vibration of functionally graded sandwich plates using four-variable refined plate theory

This paper uses the four-variable refined plate theory (RPT) for the free vibration analysis of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich rectangular plates.Unlike other theories, there are only four unknown functions involved, as compared to five in other shear deformation theories. The theory presented is variationally consistent and strongly similar to the classical plate theory in many aspects. It does not require the shear correction factor, and gives rise to the transverse shear stress variation so that the transverse shear stresses vary parabolically across the thickness to satisfy free surface conditions for the shear stress. Two common types of FGM sandwich plates are considered, namely, the sandwich with the FGM facesheet and the homogeneous core and the sandwich with the homogeneous facesheet and the FGM core. The equation of motion for the FGM sandwich plates is obtained based on Hamilton's principle. The closed form solutions are obtained by using the Navier technique. The fundamental frequencies are found by solving the eigenvalue problems. The validity of the theory is shown by comparing the present results with those of the classical, the first-order, and the other higher-ordex theories. The proposed theory is accurate and simple in solving the free vibration behavior of the FGM sandwich plates.     

Oriented O(3P2), Ne(3P2), and He(3S1) atoms emerging from a bent magnetic guide

We describe our observation of strongly oriented total electronic angular momentum J in O(³P₂), Ne(³P₂), and He(³S₁) atoms emerging from a bent magnetic multipole guide, as measured by resonant multiphoton ionisation. This was contrary to our expectation because no additional (uniform) magnetic fields were applied to orient the atoms behind the exit of the guide. Two- and three-photon ionisation techniques were employed to determine the degree of J polarisation, from which we infer that atoms become oriented as a result of a combination of weak fringe fields, possible stray fields, and the fact that molecular beam packets do not oscillate around the geometric center of the bent multipole guide. We conclude that similar effects may exist in other, related experiments and that a detailed characterisation of the degree of orientation is required prior to any study of chemical dynamics or spectroscopy. This paper should serve as a warning for anybody using similar devices not to assume isotropic angular momentum distributions of atoms and molecules emerging from a magnetic guide or a decelerator, particularly when it is bent; whenever possible, the possibility for a J anisotropy should be experimentally checked.     

Propagation of generalized Mathieu–Gauss beams through paraxial misaligned optical systems

Based on the generalized diffraction integral, we derive an analytical formula for generalized Mathieu–Gauss beams (gMGBs) passing through an apertured misaligned optical system. Furthermore, we use the fact that a hard aperture function can be expanded into a finite sum of complex Gaussian functions to establish an approximate propagation equation of gMGBs through paraxial circularly apertured optical system. As an example, the propagation of ordinary and modified zeroth order MGBs through a misaligned thin lens is studied numerically.     

A multi-beam ion/electron spectra-microscope design

This paper presents the design of a multi-beam charged particle instrument that simultaneously focuses electrons, gallium, oxygen and cesium ions onto the same sample. In addition, the instrument has provision to capture the spectra of both secondary electrons and ions in parallel. The mass spectrometer part of the instrument is expected to detect and identify secondary ion species across the entire range of the periodic table, and also record a portion of their emitted energy spectrum. The electron energy spectrometer part of the instrument is designed to acquire the entire range of scattered electrons, from the low-energy secondary electrons through to the elastic backscattered electrons.     

Fast Gaussian wavepacket transforms and Gaussian beams for the Schrödinger equation

This paper introduces a wavepacket-transform-based Gaussian beam method for solving the Schrödinger equation. We focus on addressing two computational issues of the Gaussian beam method: how to generate a Gaussian beam representation for general initial conditions and how to perform long time propagation for any finite period of time. To address the first question, we introduce fast Gaussian wavepacket transforms and develop on top of them an efficient initialization algorithm for general initial conditions. Based on this new initialization algorithm, we address the second question by reinitializing the beam representation when the beams become too wide. Numerical examples in one, two, and three dimensions demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed algorithms. The methodology can be readily generalized to deal with other semi-classical quantum mechanical problems.     

Heterogeneous Chemiluminescence of Crystal Phosphors on X‐Ray or UV Irradiation

Using a highvacuum assembly with molecular beams and setups with an implemented atom probe, we investigated atomic and molecular adsorption luminescence of the oxides CaOBi and MgO in O and O₂ beams and also radicalrecombination luminescence excited by H and O atoms in ZnS and in ZnS,CdS samples activated with silver, copper, and the rareearth element Tm. It is established that exposure to UV light and xray radiation of the CaOBi, MgO, and ZnSTm samples, where the mechanism of direct excitation of heterogeneous chemiluminescence (HCL) is realized, does not influence the characteristics of the heterogeneous chemiluminescence, whereas similar exposure of the ZnS,CdSCu,Al and ZnS,CdSAg samples and of selfactivated ZnS, in which the excitation of heterogeneous chemiluminescence is due to the ionization of the lattice, leads to an increase in the intensity of heterogeneous chemiluminescence up to five orders of magnitude. The mechanisms of the phenomenon are considered.     

基于SOS的脉冲功率源技术新进展

 研制了基于SOS的胡杨200和胡杨700脉冲功率源。给出了胡杨200和胡杨700的电路原理、组成结构和实验波形。介绍了在SOS脉冲功率源上开展的高重复频率强流电子束产生、长寿命阴极实验、绝缘介质的高重复频率击穿实验和低引导磁场无箔二极管等实验研究进展。经测试，胡杨200在2 kHz重复频率、负载阻抗200 Ω下，输出电压200 kV，脉冲宽度约35 ns，平均输出功率大于10 kW；在300 Hz条件下可连续运行。胡杨700同样为全固态脉冲功率源，其设计指标:输出电压700 kV，电流5 kA，脉冲宽度约40 ns；经初步调试在150 Ω电阻负载上单脉冲输出指标达到660 kV，4.4 kA，脉宽约70 ns。