Advances in rapid and effective break-in/conditioning/recovery of automotive PEMFC stacks

Automotive proton exchange membrane fuel cell stacks need to meet manufacturer specified rated beginning-of-life (BOL) performance before being assembled into vehicles and shipped off to customers. The process of “breaking-in” of a freshly assembled stack is often referred to as “conditioning.” It has become an intensely researched area especially in automotive companies, where imminent commercialization of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) demands a short, energy- and cost-efficient, and practical conditioning protocol. Significant advances in reducing the conditioning time from 1 to 2 days to as low as 4h or less, in some cases without the use of additional inert gases such as nitrogen, and with minimal use of hydrogen, and specialized test stations will be discussed.     

水溶性高聚物萃取分离光度法测定Ca2+的研究

利用在无机盐存在下,水溶性高聚物可分为两相的特点,研究了在聚乙二醇-邻苯二酚紫-邻二氮菲-硫酸铵体系中,Ca2+、Al3+、Co2+、Cu2+、Fe3+、Ni2+、Pb2+、Zn2+混合溶液中Ca2+的分离及测定条件,实现了Ca2+与Al3+、Co2+、Cu2+、Fe3+、Ni2+、Pb2+、Zn2+的定量分离和测定.Ca2+质量浓度在0.05～1.0 μg/mL范围内具有良好的线性关系,回收率92%～105%.     

Laser technology application: Deformation and elastic recovery of semi-crystalline polymers

The elastic deformation-recovery and mechanical properties of semi-crystalline polymers (HDPE, LDPE and their blends) were investigated. An optoelectronic technique based on a laser beam was used to analyze the behavior of the samples under radial stress. The laser technology showed that the recovery process develops in two stages. The first one is governed by the elastic component and the second and slower one is controlled by the inelastic component of the material. At low deformation, the overall recovery is attributed to the development of structural micro-domains generated when shearing the amorphous segments of the polymer. The radial Young modulus was also determined and compared to unidirectional measurements. At low deformation both techniques provide very similar values; nevertheless, the radial Young modulus departs significantly from the unidirectional one when increasing the number of cycles of deformation-recovery.     

Setting up of recovery profiles: A tool to perform the compliance with recovery requirements for residue analysis

The use of the recovery term has presented some confusion in Analytical Chemistry. Recent IUPAC recommendations propose to distinguish between two terms: recovery or recovery factor, ℜ, and apparent recovery, ℜ*. Apparent recovery includes recovery factor and a new recovery term proposed in this paper, named calibration recovery, ℜ^C, which depends of the type of systematic error due to the matrix effect (constant and/or proportional) and is related to the applied calibration methodology. This paper highlights the dependence of the calibration recovery on the sample analyte concentration and, for extension, of the apparent recovery, defines the recovery profile, and makes evident the need to determine a “fit for purpose” analyte concentration interval to comply with a regulated recovery requirements. An approach to estimate the calibration recovery and its associated uncertainty in relation to the above-mentioned dependence is presented. The usefulness of the proposed methodology has been shown in the quantification of a pesticide by GC-ECD for assessing dermal exposure.     

In vitro study of experimental factors affecting the microdialysis results

The aim of the present study was to determine the influence of a series of experimental conditions (probe, perfusate flow rate and the method used to ascertain recovery) as well as the pharmacokinetic variables (concentration and time) on the estimation of the recovery coefficient of microdialysis probes. Two in vitro pharmacokinetic assays were also carried out to compare the results provided by microdialysis and those obtained with traditional sampling. The probes used were made in our laboratory and ciprofloxacin was used as a model compound. The results revealed that in all cases recovery was dependent on the probe and independent of time for a 80 min sampling time period. The effects of concentration on recovery depend on the flow rate; this was not statistically significant for a flow rate of 2 μl/min but an increase in flow rate to 6 μl/min transformed this parameter into a concentration-dependent variable. A decrease in recovery parallel to the increase in flow rate was found, with an exponential relationship between the two variables. Statistically significant differences were also found between the recovery values obtained for direct dialysis (18.44±1.61) and retrodialysis by loss of the analyte of interest (16.79±3.42). The values of the protein binding of ciprofloxacin as calculated by equilibrium dialysis and by microdialysis were similar. Characterization of the in vitro kinetic profile revealed no statistically significant differences for coefficients and exponents obtained by traditional sampling and microdialysis, although the confidence intervals of the curves were wider for microdialysis.     

Selective adsorption, pre-concentration and matrix elimination for the determination of Pb(II), Cd(II), Hg(II) and Cr(III) using 1,5,9,13-tetrathiacyclohexadecane-3,11-diol anchored poly (p-chloromethylstyrene-ethyleneglycoldimethacrylate) microbeads

Poly(p-chloromethylstyrene-ethyleneglycoldimethacrylate) polymeric microbeads, poly(p-CMS-EGDMA), were synthesized and 1,5,9,13-tetrathiacyclohexadecane-3,11-diol (S4HD) was attached chemically onto the polymeric microbeads. Characterization of all microbeads was done by Fourier transform-infrared spectrometry (FT-IR) and elemental analyzer. The amount of attached 1,5,9,13-tetrathiacyclohexadecane-3,11-diol to the polymer was found to be 2.23 mmol g⁻¹ polymers. The ligand attached microbeads, poly(p-CMS-EGDMA-S4HD), were used to examine the adsorption capacity of Pb(II), Cd(II), Hg(II) and Cr(II) ions for recovery, pre-concentration and the matrix elimination by changing the pH and the initial metal ion concentrations and also adsorption kinetics of the studied metal ions was determined. Pre-concentration factors for the studied toxic metal ions were found to be more than 500-fold and recovery was between 92 and 106%. In the drinking, lake, tap and sea-water samples from water lands, ultra-trace toxic metal ion concentrations were determined easily by using ligand modified microbeads after pre-concentration because of the high pre-concentration factor and easily matrix elimination using ligand modified microbeads. Reference sea-water material was used for the validation of the method and it was found that recovery, pre-concentration and the matrix elimination were performed perfectly. For the desorption of the toxic metal ions, 3 M HCl containing 0.8 M thiourea was used and desorption ratio was obtained more than 96%.     

离子交换法纯化重组类人胶原蛋白II的研究

用阳离子交换树脂CM-52分离纯化类人胶原蛋白II(HumanCollagen-likeBioproteinII,HCBII)。通过实验,分别确定了静态吸附和柱层析吸附的操作条件,即静态吸附:在pH4.0、NaCl0.15mol/L、进料浓度7g/L,处理量17.26ml/g树脂的条件下进行吸附,吸附时间为60min;柱层析:在pH4.0、NaCl0.15mol/L、进料浓度5g/L、流速5ml/min的条件下进行吸附。然后上柱,在pH4.0、NaCl0.30mol/L下进行脱附。实验表明,采用静态吸附的方式吸附HCBII,然后上柱洗脱,HCBII的吸附量可达到48.6mg/g树脂,回收率83.8%,操作时间短,分辨率高,最终纯化的HCBII达电泳纯,分子量为97kD。     

A study of the catalytic behavior of phosphotungstic acid-modified Janus particles in a heterogeneous oil/water pickering emulsion system

An emulsion interface materialization method was used to obtain amphiphilic silica Janus nanoparticles. Reducing the photosynthesis of aquatic organisms after water pollution. PW₁₂O₄₀³⁻ was introduced onto Janus particles by ion exchange, and an amphiphilic particle emulsion catalyst (PWO-J) was prepared. Hydrogen peroxide was used as the oxygen source, and the amphiphilicty of the catalyst was used to assemble the catalyst at the Pickering emulsion interface. The PWO-J catalyst was found to exhibit very high catalytic activity toward the oxidation of oleic acid in water-in-oil systems. The results showed that PWO-J catalysis of oxidation had similar results as CTAB and phosphotungstic acid (control system) under the same conditions. The azelaic acid recovery rate was 86.7%, and PWO-J could be reused 4 times. A reaction mechanism was proposed, and the constructed model was used to calculate a reaction rate constant of 15.32 × 10⁻⁵L•mol⁻¹•s⁻¹ for the PWO-J system. The PWO-J system had a lower activation energy than the control system, showing that the catalytic oxidation of oleic acid into azelaic acid was more likely to occur in the PWO-J system.     

A systematic investigation into the recovery of radioactively labeled proteins from sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels

We report the results of a systematic investigation designed to optimize a method for quantifying radioactivity in proteins in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels. The method involves dissolving appropriately sized pieces of gel in hydrogen peroxide and heating to 70 degrees C overnight followed by liquid scintillation counting. H(2)O(2) had no effect on the count rates of [(14)C]bovine serum albumin (BSA) when counted in a conventional liquid scintillation system, and the count rates remained stable for several days. Temperatures below 70 degrees C resulted in incomplete extraction of radioactivity from gels containing [(14)C]BSA, but there was also a significant reduction in count rates in samples incubated at 80 degrees C. At 70 degrees C recovery was not affected by the amount of sample loaded onto the gel or by the staining procedure (Coomassie Brilliant Blue or SYPRO Ruby). Recoveries were in the range of 89-94%, and the coefficient of variation for five replicate samples was 5-10%. This method offers a reliable way of measuring the amount of radioactivity in proteins that have been separated by electrophoresis. It may be useful, for example, in quantitative metabolic labeling experiments when it is necessary to know precisely how much tracer has been incorporated into a particular protein.