Mathematical Model and Numerical Simulation of Conductometric Biosensor of Urea

In this article, a mathematical model was developed to describe and optimize the configuration of the urea biosensor. The biosensor is based on interdigitated gold microelectrodes modified with a urease enzyme membrane. The model presented here focuses on the enzymatic reaction and/or diffusion phenomena that occur in the enzyme membrane and in the diffusion layer. Numerical resolution of differential equations was performed using the finite difference technique. The mathematical model was validated using experimental biosensor data. The responses of the biosensor to various conditions were simulated to guide experiments, improve analytical performance, and reduce development costs.     

Identification and quantification of anthocyanins,flavonoids, and phenolic acids in flowers of Rhododendron arboreum and evaluation of their antioxidant potential

The current study aimed to investigate the anthocyanins, non-anthocyanins (flavonoids and phenolic acids), and free radicals scavenging potential in the flowers of Rhododendron arboreum using ultra high performance liquid chromatography with ion mobility quadrupole time of flight tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 25 constituents including nine anthocyanins, six phenolic acids, and ten flavonoids were identified in the flower extract. The major anthocyanins identified were cyanidin-3-O-β-galactoside ( 1 ), cyanidin-3-O-α-arabinoside ( 4 ), and cyanidin-3-O-rhamnoside ( 8 ), while quercetin glycosides were the main identified flavonoids in R. arboreum flowers. Additionally, ultra high performance liquid chromatography methods were developed and validated for the quantification of nine compounds (anthocyanins, flavonoid glycosides, and phenolic acids); five of them were quantified using internal standards. The extracts were analyzed for total phenolics (123.6 mg GAE/g), anthocyanin content (1.76% w/w), and evaluated for antioxidant properties against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (IC₅₀: 102.06 and 96.92 μg/mL) and 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical cation (112.25 and 45.59 μM TE/g) assays. The profiling of R. arboreum for anthocyanins is reported for the first time. The findings suggest that the flowers are a promising source of bioactive constituents and could be used as functional food, antioxidants, and nutraceuticals.     

High-performance liquid chromatography quantitative analysis of ephedrine alkaloids in Ephedrae Herba on a perfluorooctyl stationary phase

Ephedrae Herba is one of the most commonly used herbal medicines, and it has been shown that most of the clinical efficacy for cold and asthma is exerted by its alkaloidal components. A simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed using a perfluorooctyl column for the simultaneous determination of five alkaloids (norephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and methylephedrine) in Ephedrae Herba. The mobile phase comprising acetonitrile and 15 mM ammonium trifluoroacetate was used to elute the targets in isocratic elution mode. The method was validated for linearity (R² > 0.999), repeatability, intraday and interday precision, recoveries with trueness (93.87–110.99%), limits of detection (5.35–5.76 µg/mL), and limits of quantification (20 µg/mL). The quantitative results revealed that the developed method was precise and accurate. Then it was successfully applied to determine the difference in the contents of three batches of Ephedrae Herba from three pharmaceutical companies.     

A sensitive and selective HPLC–MS3 method for therapeutic drug monitoring of meropenem and its validation by comparison with HPLC–MS2 methods

Meropenem, a representative β-lactam antibiotic, is widely used to treat complicated and serious infections. Therefore, it is of great significance to monitor the plasma drug concentration for individualized antimicrobial therapy. This study first describes the development and validation of high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry cubed method for monitoring meropenem in human plasma. Protein precipitation with methanol and a chromatographic analysis time of 7 min make this method simple and of high throughput. Meropenem was extracted from human plasma with recoveries >94.1%. Calibration curves were linear (R² > 0.995) in the concentration range of 0.5–50 μg/mL. Overall accuracy and precision did not exceed 8.0% as well as no significant matrix effect was observed. The novelty of this method is that the triple-stage mass spectrometry technology improves the selectivity and sensitivity. A comparison of the presented method and traditional liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was assessed in 44 patients treated with meropenem and Passing–Bablok regression coefficients and Bland–Altman plots showed that no significant difference between the two methods. So the triple-stage mass spectrometry method developed in this study is appropriate and practical for the monitor of meropenem in the daily clinical laboratory practice.     

Enhanced Crystal Quality of Perovskite via Protonated Graphitic Carbon Nitride Added in Carbon-Based Perovskite Solar Cells

The quality of perovskite layers has a great impact on the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, defects and related trap sites are generated inevitably in the solution-processed polycrystalline perovskite films. It is meaningful to reduce and passivate the defect states by incorporating additive into the perovskite layer to improve perovskite crystallization. Here an environmental friendly 2D nanomaterial protonated graphitic carbon nitride (p-g-C\begin{document}$_3$\end{document}N\begin{document}$_4$\end{document}) was successfully synthesized and doped into perovskite layer of carbon-based PSCs. The addition of p-g-C\begin{document}$_3$\end{document}N\begin{document}$_4$\end{document} into perovskite precursor solution not only adjusts nucleation and growth rate of methylammonium lead tri-iodide (MAPbI\begin{document}$_3$\end{document}) crystal for obtaining flat perovskite surface with larger grain size, but also reduces intrinsic defects of perovskite layer. It is found that the p-g-C\begin{document}$_3$\end{document}N\begin{document}$_4$\end{document} locates at the perovskite core, and the active groups -NH\begin{document}$_2$\end{document}/NH\begin{document}$_3$\end{document} and NH have a hydrogen bond strengthening, which effectively passivates electron traps and enhances the crystal quality of perovskite. As a result, a higher power conversion efficiency of 6.61% is achieved, compared with that doped with g-C\begin{document}$_3$\end{document}N\begin{document}$_4$\end{document} (5.93%) and undoped one (4.48%). This work demonstrates a simple method to modify the perovskite film by doping new modified additives and develops a low-cost preparation for carbon-based PSCs.     

Simultaneous determination of four sedative-hypnotics in human urine based on dendritic structured magnetic nanomaterials

A magnetic solid-phase extraction technique based on magnetic dendritic structured nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄@SiO₂-NH₂-G5) as adsorbent coupled with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) has been developed to detect diazepam, midazolam, zolpidem, and zaleplon in human urine. With Fe₃O₄@SiO₂-NH₂ as the central core, dendrimer (G5) grafted alternately with cyanuric chloride and imidazole were bonded to the surface of the core to synthesize Fe₃O₄@SiO₂-NH₂-G5. The morphology and structure of the magnetic materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The key parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were optimized. A satisfactory performance was obtained under the optimum extraction conditions. The proposed method was validated, and the limits of detection of zaleplon, diazepam, zolpidem, and midazolam were 0.05, 0.05, 0.02, and 0.02 ng mL^?1, respectively. The linear correlation coefficients r of the four analytes were > 0.996, the intra-day precision was between 2.4 % and 9.4 % with the recoveries between 88.3 % and 104.8 %, and the inter-day precision ranged from 3.9 % to 15.2 % with the recovery in the range of 94.1 %?108.3 %. The magnetic dendritic structure nanomaterial Fe₃O₄@SiO₂-NH₂-G5 was successfully used to extract sedative-hypnotic drugs from human urine samples. The Fe₃O₄@SiO₂-NH₂-G5-based magnetic solid-phase extraction method eliminates centrifugation and filtration steps as in conventional extraction. Only one step of vortex dispersion extraction could achieve the separation and purification of the target compounds. The proposed method was simple, rapid, environment-friendly, and suitable for the analysis of sedative-hypnotic drugs in human urine.     

水性颜料体系无树脂色浆的制备与应用

中性墨水属于热力学上不稳定的颜料悬浮体系,选择低黏度、高稳定性的色浆是保证墨水体系分散稳定性的重要手段之一。基于此,以颜料炭黑和酞菁蓝为着色剂,配合超分散剂(EK43)与协同增效剂(BM10),制备了两款适用于中性墨水体系的无树脂色浆。首次从色浆粒径与体系分散稳定性角度出发,确定了EK43、BM10用量以及最佳研磨时间,并对其理化性能、稳定性与书写性能进行分析测试。结果表明:在黑色浆中添加质量分数10.0%的EK43、2.5%的BM10,研磨时间为90 min;在蓝色浆中添加质量分数8.0%的EK43、2.0%的BM10,研磨时间为120 min时,两种色浆的粒径与分散稳定性均达到最佳。所制备的无树脂色浆颜料固含量高、黏度较低、储存稳定性好、着色力强,以其调配的中性墨水书写性能良好,且具有较好的离心稳定性和耐热稳定性。     

金-石墨烯修饰电极电化学检测塑料瓶中双酚A

在离子液体碳糊电极(CILE)表面上采用一步电还原法制备了纳米金(nAu)-石墨烯(GR)复合膜修饰电极(nAu-GR/CILE)。研究了双酚A(BPA)在nAu-GR/CILE上的电化学行为,BPA的电极反应过程为受吸附控制的不可逆过程;采用示差脉冲伏安法研究了BPA氧化峰电流和浓度之间的关系,在0.08~400.0μmol/L范围内,检出限为0.021μmol/L(3σ)。将nAu-GR/CILE用于塑料瓶中BPA的检测,与采用高效液相色谱法(HPLC)进行对比,结果表明两种方法对BPA的检测结果相吻合。     

基于非靶向代谢组学的茄梨和红茄梨成熟期果皮代谢产物的差异分析

为了探究西洋梨品种茄梨及其红色芽变红茄梨成熟期果皮代谢产物差异,采用超高效液相色谱-质谱联用技术,对茄梨和红茄梨成熟期果皮进行非靶向代谢组学研究。通过主成分分析和正交偏最小二乘判别分析,构建了多变量统计分析模型,结合模型和变量重要性投影与最大差异倍数值,基于精确质量数、二级碎片以及同位素分布,使用PMDB(Plant Metabolome Database)数据库进行定性,筛选并鉴定出茄梨和红茄梨果皮中显著性变化(P<0.05, VIP(variable importance in project)≥1)的差异代谢物有83种,主要包括酚酸类、黄酮类和氨基酸类物质,涉及类黄酮代谢、氨基酸代谢、苯丙烷类代谢等代谢途径,其中53种物质含量上调,30种物质表达下调。通过KEGG(Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes)数据库进一步对差异代谢物质进行通路富集分析,差异代谢物主要分布在20条代谢途径中,P<0.05的代谢途径有6条,分别是类黄酮生物合成、黄酮和黄酮醇生物合成、苯丙烷生物合成、丁酸酯代谢、苯丙氨酸代谢、酪氨酸代谢。这些差异代谢物的变化可能是导致茄梨和红茄梨果皮色泽不同的原因。该研究从植物代谢组学角度初步揭示了茄梨和红茄梨成熟期果皮的代谢产物差异性。     

氟化共价有机聚合物固相微萃取-高效液相色谱测定水产品中丁香酚类麻醉剂

氟化共价有机聚合物(F-COP)具有较大的比表面积和吸附容量,对丁香酚类化合物具有特异性吸附。该文以2,3,5,6-四氟对二苯甲醛(TFA)和1,3,5-三(4-氨苯基)苯(TAPB)为单体,三氟甲磺酸钪(Sc(OTf)₃)为催化剂在室温下快速合成F-COP,并将其作为固相微萃取(SPME)吸附剂,结合高效液相色谱-紫外检测法(HPLC-UV),建立了测定水产品中丁香酚、乙酸丁香酚酯和甲基丁香酚麻醉剂的分析方法。通过傅里叶红外光谱、X射线衍射、N₂吸附-解吸等温线和扫描电子显微镜等手段对F-COP材料进行表征。考察了萃取时间、搅拌速度、解吸溶剂及解吸时间对丁香酚类麻醉剂萃取量的影响,在萃取时间为30 min、搅拌速度为700 r/min、解吸溶剂为乙腈、解吸时间为10 min时,丁香酚类麻醉剂获得了最佳的萃取效果。在Diamonsil Plus C₁₈-B色谱柱(250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm)上,以甲醇-水(60∶40, v/v)为流动相,流速0.800 mL/min,进样量20.0 μL,紫外检测波长280 nm,柱温30 ℃条件下,丁香酚和乙酸丁香酚酯在10~1000 μg/L,甲基丁香酚在10~1500 μg/L范围内呈现出良好的线性关系,相关系数(r²)大于0.9961,方法检出限为2.9~4.5 μg/kg(S/N=3),精密度小于8.7%(n=5)。最后,将该分析方法用于罗非鱼和基围虾样品的3种麻醉剂残留分析中,得到了满意的回收率(76.7%~104%)。结果表明,F-COP-SPME-HPLC-UV可满足水产品中丁香酚类麻醉剂的分析检测。