Solid Separation from a Mixed Suspension through Electric‐Field‐Enhanced Crystallization

When applied to a pure component suspension in an apolar solvent, a strong inhomogeneous electric field induces particle movement, and the particles are collected at the surface of one of the two electrodes. This new phenomenon was used to separately isolate two organic crystalline compounds, phenazine and caffeine, from their suspension in 1,4‐dioxane. First, crystals of both compounds were collected at different electrodes under the influence of an electric field. Subsequent cooling crystallization enabled the immobilization and growth of the particles on the electrodes, which were separately collected after the experiment with purities greater than 91 %. This method can be further developed into a technique for crystal separation and recovery in complex multicomponent suspensions of industrial processes.     

BiVO4‐TiO2 Composite Photocatalysts for Dye Degradation Formed Using the SILAR Method

Composite photocatalyst films have been fabricated by depositing BiVO₄ upon TiO₂ via a sequential ionic layer adsorption reaction (SILAR) method. The photocatalytic materials were investigated by XRD, TEM, UV/Vis diffuse reflectance, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP‐OES), XPS, photoluminescence and Mott–Schottky analyses. SILAR processing was found to deposit monoclinic‐scheelite BiVO₄ nanoparticles onto the surface, giving successive improvements in the films′ visible light harvesting. Electrochemical and valence band XPS studies revealed that the prepared heterojunctions have a type II band structure, with the BiVO₄ conduction band and valence band lying cathodically shifted from those of TiO₂. The photocatalytic activity of the films was measured by the decolourisation of the dye rhodamine 6G using λ>400 nm visible light. It was found that five SILAR cycles was optimal, with a pseudo‐first‐order rate constant of 0.004 min^?1. As a reference material, the same SILAR modification has been made to an inactive wide‐band‐gap ZrO₂ film, where the mismatch of conduction and valence band energies disallows charge separation. The photocatalytic activity of the BiVO₄–ZrO₂ system was found to be significantly reduced, highlighting the importance of charge separation across the interface. The mechanism of action of the photocatalysts has also been investigated, in particular the effect of self‐sensitisation by the model organic dye and the ability of the dye to inject electrons into the photocatalyst′s conduction band.     

Chiral separation of brompheniramine enantiomers by recycling high‐speed countercurrent chromatography using carboxymethyl‐β‐cyclodextrin as a chiral selector

A recycling high‐speed countercurrent chromatography protocol was proposed for the enantioseparation of brompheniramine by employing β‐cyclodextrin derivatives as a chiral selector. The two‐phase solvent system of n‐hexane/isobutyl acetate/0.10 mol/L phosphate buffer solution with a volume ratio of 2:4:6 was selected by a series of extraction experiments. Factors that affected the distribution of the enantiomers over the two‐phase system (e.g., the type and concentration of β‐cyclodextrin derivatives = pH value of the aqueous solution, and the separation temperature) were also investigated. In addition, the theory of thermodynamics is applied to verify the feasibility of the enantioseparation process and the corresponding results demonstrate that this separation process is feasible. The optimized conditions include carboxymethyl‐β‐cyclodextrin concentration of 0.010 mol/L, pH of 7.5, and temperature of 5°C. Under the optimal conditions, the purities of both monomer molecules were over 99%, and the recovery yields were 88% for (+)‐brompheniramine and 85% for (–)‐brompheniramine, respectively.     

Fast and effective low‐temperature freezing extraction technique to determine organotin compounds in edible vegetable oil

Most organotin compounds that have been widely used in food packaging materials and production process show serious toxicity effects to human health. In this study, a simple and low‐cost method based on high‐performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of four organotins in edible vegetable oil samples was developed. Four organotins including dibutyltin dichloride, tributyltin chloride, diphenyltin dichloride, and triphenyltin chloride were simultaneously extracted with methanol using the low‐temperature precipitation process. After being concentrated, the extracts were purified by matrix solid‐phase dispersion using graphitized carbon black. The experimental parameters such as extraction solvent and clean‐up material were optimized. To evaluate the accuracy of the new method, the recoveries were investigated. In addition, a liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was also proposed for comparison. The procedures of extracting and purifying samples for the analysis were simple and easy to perform batch operations, also showed good efficiency with lower relative standard deviation. The limits of detection of the four organotins were 0.28–0.59 μg/L, and the limits of quantification of the four organotins were 0.93–1.8 μg/L, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the simultaneous analysis of the four organotins in edible vegetable oil. Some analytes were detected at the level of 2.5–28.8 μg/kg.     

Mixed‐mode chromatography integrated with high‐performance liquid chromatography for protein analysis and separation: Using bovine serum albumin and lysozyme as the model target

A type of mixed‐mode chromatography was integrated with high‐performance liquid chromatography for protein analysis and separation. The chromatographic behavior was tested using bovine serum albumin and lysozyme as model proteins. For the mixed‐mode column, the silica beads were activated with γ‐(2,3‐epoxypropoxy)‐propytrimethoxysilane and coupled with 4‐mercaptopyridine as the functional ligand. The effects of pH, salt, and the organic solvent conditions of the mobile phase on the retention behavior were studied, which provided valuable clues for separation strategy. When eluted with a suitable pH gradient, salt concentration gradient, and acetonitrile content gradient, the separation behavior of bovine serum albumin and lysozyme could be controlled by altering the conditions of the mobile phase. The results indicated this type of chromatography might be a useful method for protein analysis and separation.     

Preparation and application of magnetic molecularly imprinted nanoparticles for the selective extraction of osthole in Libanotis Buchtomensis herbal extract

In this work, novel magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were prepared for the selective extraction of osthole from Libanotis Buchtomensis herbal extract. During the synthesis process, double bonds grafted on the surface of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles could not only drive the temple molecules to locate onto the surface of vinyl‐functionalized magnetic nanoparticles by π–π conjugation, which makes the distribution of binding sites ordered, but also direct the occurrence of imprinting polymerization at the surface of magnetic nanoparticles by the copolymerization of vinyl terminal groups with functional monomers and cross‐linking agent. The characteristics of the resulting polymers were evaluated by transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometry. Adsorption kinetics, isotherms, selectivity, reproducibility, and reusability were discussed, which suggest that the obtained nanomaterials possess rapid binding kinetics, high adsorption capacity of 17.65 mg/g, and favorable selectivity for the target molecule. Satisfactory reproducibility and reusability were verified as well. Meanwhile, the resultant imprinted nanoparticles were successfully applied to selectively separate osthole from the herbal extract, which show great potential in extracting active ingredients from traditional Chinese medicine.     

Triticonazole enantiomers: Separation by supercritical fluid chromatography and the effect of the chromatographic conditions

Enantiomeric pairs of triticonazole have been successfully separated by supercritical fluid chromatography coupled with a tris(3,5‐dimethylphenylcarbamoyl) cellulose‐coated chiral stationary phase in this work. The effects of co‐solvent, dissolution solvent, flow rate, backpressure, and column temperature have been studied in detail with respect to retention, selectivity, and resolution of triticonazole. As indicated, the co‐solvents mostly affected the retention factors and resolution, due to the different molecular structure and polarity. In addition, the dissolution solvents, namely, chloromethanes and alcohols, have been also important for enantioseparation because of the different interaction with stationary phase. Higher flow rate and backpressure led to faster elution of the triticonazole molecules, and the change of column temperature showed slight effect on the resolution of triticonazole racemate. Moreover, a comparative separation experiment between supercritical fluid chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography revealed that chiral supercritical fluid chromatography gave the 3.5 times value of R_s/t_R2 than high performance liquid chromatography, which demonstrated that supercritical fluid chromatography had much higher separation efficiency.     

Enantioselective comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography of lavender essential oil

The enantiomeric composition of several chiral markers in lavender essential oil was studied by flow modulated comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography operated in the reverse flow mode and hyphenated to flame ionization and quadrupole mass spectrometric detection. Two capillary column series were used in this study, 2,3‐di‐O‐ethyl‐6‐O‐tert‐butyldimethylsilyl‐β‐cyclodextrin or 2,3,6‐tri‐O‐methyl‐β‐cyclodextrin, as the chiral column in the first dimension and α polyethylene glycol column in the second dimension. Combining the chromatographic data obtained on these column series, the enantiomeric and excess ratios for α‐pinene, β‐pinene, camphor, lavandulol, borneol, and terpinen‐4‐ol were determined. This maybe a possible route to assess the authenticity of lavender essential oil.     

核-壳结构磁性金属有机骨架材料Fe3O4@UiO-66-NH2的合成、表征及催化性能

UiO-66-NH_2是以Zr4+为金属,以2-氨基对苯二甲酸为配体制备得到的金属有机骨架材料,它是目前报道中具有较高热稳定性和化学稳定性的材料之一。本文以Fe_3O_4为核,以UiO-66-NH_2为壳,采用层层自组装方法制备了核-壳结构的磁性金属有机骨架材料Fe_3O_4@UiO-66-NH_2。利用X射线衍射(XRD)、傅里叶变换红外光谱(FTIR)、透射电子显微镜(TEM)、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和氮气吸附等对其进行了表征,并考察了该磁性材料在克脑文盖尔(Knoevenagel)缩合反应中的催化性能。结果表明,该磁性材料Fe_3O_4@UiO-66-NH_2为核-壳结构,壳层厚度约为100 nm,氨基含量为1.70 mmol·g-1。该磁性复合材料具有Fe_3O_4和UiO-66-NH_2的双重功能,既可以磁性分离,又具有UiO-66-NH_2的孔结构和催化性能。由于壳层材料中Lewis酸性位(Zr4+)和碱性基团(-NH_2)的协同催化能力及其壳层的纳米尺寸效应,该磁性材料在Knoevenagel缩合反应中表现出和UiO-66-NH_2纳米粒子相当的催化活性。而且,通过磁性分离实现催化剂的多次循环使用后,其结构没有明显变化。     

Magnetically separated and N,S co-doped mesoporous carbon microspheres for the removal of mercury ions

Magnetically separated and N, S co-doped mesoporous carbon microspheres (N/S-MCMs/Fe₃O₄) are fabricated by encapsulating SiO₂ nanoparticles within N, S-containing polymer microspheres which were prepared using resorcinol/formaldehyde as the carbon source and cysteine as the nitrogen and sulfur co-precursors, followed by the carbonization process, silica template removal, and the introduction of Fe₃O₄ into the carbon mesopores. N/S-MCMs/Fe₃O₄ exhibits an enhanced Hg²⁺ adsorption capacity of 74.5 mg/g, and the adsorbent can be conveniently and rapidly separated from wastewater using an externalmagnetic field. This study opens up new opportunities to synthesize welldeveloped, carbon-based materials as an adsorbent for potential applications in the removal of mercury ions from wastewater.