Lithium and potassium isotope separation using radiofrequency spectroscopy

Separation of lithium and potassium isotopes has been achieved using the isotopic differences in the radiofrequency spectrum. The isotope separation was studied in a supersonic molecular beam magnetic resonance spectrometer, and enrichment factors up to 30 obtained.     

Intermediate level structure in the s2 state of the isolated ultracold ovalene molecule

Spectroscopic information pertaining to interstate coupling between the S₂ and S₁ electronic states of ovalene, whose electronic origins are separated by ≈ 1800 cm^?1, has been obtained by the interrogation of the fluorescence action spectrum and of the energy-resolved fluorescence in seeded supersonic beams.     

Spectroscopy of large molecules in inert gas clusters

Aromatic hydrocarbons provide nucleation centers for the formation of clusters of inert gases in high-flow supersonic beams. Large clusters of Ar, each containing a single tetracene (T) molecule, were prepared by supersonic expansion of the seeded gas at pressures p = 3000–13000 Torr and interrogated by laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy Evidence is reported for homogeneous line broadening of large TAr_n clusters prepared at p? 8000 Torr.     

The mechanism of proton transfer between adjacent sites exposed to water

The surface of a protein, or a membrane, is spotted with a multitude of proton-binding sites, some of which are only a few angstroms apart. When a proton is released from one site, it propagates through the water by a random walk under the bias of the local electrostatic potential determined by the distribution of the charges on the protein. Some of the released protons disperse into the bulk, but during the first few nanoseconds, the released protons can be trapped by encounter with nearby acceptor sites. This process resembles a scenario which corresponds with the time-dependent Debye-Smoluchowski equation. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism of proton transfer between sites that are only a few angstroms apart, using as a model the proton exchange between sites on a small molecule, fluorescein, having two, spectrally distinguishable, proton-binding sites. The first site is the oxyanion on the chromophore ring structure. The second site is the carboxylate moiety on the benzene ring of the molecule. Through our experiments, we were able to reconstruct the state of protonation at each site and the velocity of proton transfer between them. The fluorescein was protonated by a few nanosecond long proton pulse under specific conditions that ensured that the dye molecules would be protonated only by a single proton. The dynamics of the protonation of the chromophore were measured under varying initial conditions (temperature, ionic strength, and different solvents (H(2)O or D(2)O)), and the velocity of the proton transfer between the two sites was extracted from the overall global analysis of the signals. The dynamics of the proton transfer between the two proton-binding sites of the fluorescein indicated that the efficiency of the site-to-site proton transfer is very sensitive to the presence of the screening electrolyte and has a very high kinetic isotope effect (KIE = 55). These two parameters clearly distinguish the mechanism from proton diffusion in bulk water. The activation energy of the reaction (E(a) = 11 kcal mol(-1)) is also significantly higher than the activation energy for proton dissociation in bulk water (E(a) approximately 2.5 kcal mol(-1)). These observations are discussed with respect to the effect of the solute on the water molecules located within the solvation layer.     

Inverse deuterium isotope effect on radiationless electronic transitions

Fluorescence quantum yields, Y, front photoselected vibrational states in the S₁ manifold of anthracene and of perdeuterated anthracene in planar supersonic jets reveal a large inverse deuterium isotope effect on the non-radiative relaxation from the S₁ origin (Y_H/Y_D = 5), while for high (1500 cm⁻¹) excess energies above the S₁ origin the inverse isotope effect is eroded (Y_H/Y_D ≈ 1). Novel information emerges on intermediating states involved in intersystem crossing.     

Extending the range of compounds amenable for gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) suffers from a major limitation in that an expanding number of thermally labile or low volatility compounds of interest are not amenable for analysis. We found that the elution temperatures of compounds from GC can be significantly lowered by reducing the column length, increasing the carrier gas flow rate, reducing the capillary column film thickness and lowering the temperature programming rate. Pyrene is eluted at 287 degrees C in standard GC-MS with a 30 m x 0.25 mm I.D. column with 1-microm DB5ms film and 1-ml/min He column flow rate. In contrast, pyrene is eluted at 79 degrees C in our "Supersonic GC-MS" system using a 1 m x 0.25 mm I.D. column with 0.1-microm DB5ms film and 100-ml/min He column flow rate. A simple model has been invoked to explain the significantly (up to 208 degrees C) lower elution temperatures observed. According to this model, every halving of the temperature programming rate, or number of separation plates (either through increased flow rate or due to reduced column length), results in approximately 20 degrees C lower elution temperature. These considerably lower elution temperatures enable the analysis of an extended range of thermally labile and low volatility compounds, that otherwise could not be analyzed by standard GC-MS. We demonstrate the analysis of large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) such as decacyclene with ten fused rings, well above the current GC limit of PAHs with six rings. Even a metalloporphirin such as magnesiumoctaethylporphin was easily analyzed with elution temperatures below 300 degrees C. Furthermore, a range of thermally labile compounds were analyzed including carbamates such as methomyl, aldicarb, aldicarbsulfone and oxamyl, explosives such as pentaerythritol tetranitrate, Tetryl and HMX, and drugs such as reserpine (608 a.m.u.). Supersonic GC-MS was used, based on the coupling of a supersonic molecular beam (SMB) inlet and ion sources with a bench-top Agilent 6890 GC plus 5972 MSD. The Supersonic GC-MS provides enhanced molecular ion without any ion source related peak tailing. Thus, the lower GC separation power involved in the analysis of thermally labile and low volatility compounds is compensated by increased separation power of the MS gained from the enhanced molecular ion. Several implications of these findings are discussed, including our conclusion that slower chromatography leads to better analysis of thermally labile compounds.     

A comparison of electron ionization mass spectra obtained at 70 eV,low electron energies,and with cold EI and their NIST library identification probabilities

Electron ionization (EI) mass spectra of 46 compounds from several different compound classes were measured. Their molecular ion abundances were compared as obtained with 70‐eV EI, with low eV EI (such as 14 eV), and with EI mass spectra of vibrationally cold molecules in supersonic molecular beams (Cold EI). We further compared these mass spectra in their National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library identification probabilities. We found that

1. Low eV EI is not a soft ionization method, and it has little or no influence on the molecular ion relative abundances for large molecules and those with weak or no molecular ions.
2. Low eV EI for compounds with abundant or dominant molecular ions in their 70 eV mass spectra results in the reduction of low mass fragment ions abundances thereby reducing their NIST library identification probabilities thus rarely justifies its use in real‐world applications.
3. Cold EI significantly enhances the relative abundance of the molecular ions particularly for large compounds; yet, it retains the low mass fragment ions; hence, Cold EI mass spectra can be effectively identified by the NIST library.
4. Different standard EI ion sources provide different 70 eV EI mass spectra. Among the Agilent technologies ion sources, the “Extractor” exhibits relatively abundant molecular ions compared with the “Inert” ion source, while the “High efficiency source” (HES) provides mass spectra with depleted molecular ions compared with the “Inert” ion source or NIST library mass spectra.

These conclusions are demonstrated and supported by experimental data in nine figures and two tables.     

An efficient iterative method for finding common fixed point and variational inequalities in Hilbert spaces

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate the problem of finding a common solution to a fixed point problem involving demi-contractive operator and a variational inequality with monotone and Lipschitz continuous mapping in real Hilbert spaces. Inspired by the projection and contraction method and the hybrid descent approximation method, a new and efficient iterative method for solving the problem is introduced. Strong convergence theorem of the proposed method is established under standard and mild conditions. Our scheme generalizes and extends some of the existing results in the literature, and moreover, its computational effort is less per each iteration compared with related works.     

A New Pulsed Flow Modulation GC × GC–MS with Cold EI System and Its Application for Jet Fuel Analysis

We designed and operated a new system of pulsed flow modulation (PFM) two dimensional comprehensive gas chromatography (GC × GC) mass spectrometry (MS). This system is based on the combination of PFM–GC × GC with a quadrupole mass spectrometer of GC–MS via a supersonic molecular beams interface and its fly-through Cold EI ion source and applied this system for the analysis of JP8 jet fuel. PFM is a simple GC × GC modulator that does not consume cryogenic gases while providing tunable second GC × GC column injection time for enabling the use of quadrupole based mass spectrometry regardless its limited scanning speed. We analyzed JP8 jet fuel with our new PFM–GC × GC–MS with Cold EI system and found that as the second dimension GC elution time is increased the observed molecular ion mass is reduced. This unique observation that helped in improved sample compounds identification under co-elution conditions was enabled via having abundant molecular ions in Cold EI for all the fuel compounds. We named this type of analysis as PFM–GC × GC × MS. We found and discuss in this paper that PFM–GC × GC–MS with Cold EI combines improved separation of GC × GC with Cold EI benefits of tailing-free ultra-fast ion source response time and enhanced molecular ions and mass spectral isomer and isotope information for the provision of increased sample identification information.

     

Interpretation of Polarized Absorption and Emission Spectra of Molecules Incorporated in Stretched Polymer Films

Different methods for the interpretation of linear dichroic spectra of molecules incorporated in uniaxial matrices are discussed. A method based on the combination of both polarized absorption and emission measurements is described for the resolution of absorption and emission spectra into their different polarized components, and for the investigation of molecular distributions in the oriented matrix. The distributions of some planar molecules of different shapes incorporated in stretched polyethylene films are presented.