Determination of very low levels of inorganic and organic mercury in natural waters by cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometry after preconcentration on a chelating resin

Inorganic and organic mercury at ng l^?1 levels in fresh waters are collected simultaneously on a column of a dithiocarbamate-treated resin and quantitatively eluted with slightly acidic aqueous thiourea solution. Mercury vapor is generated from inorganic mercury by reduction with alkaline SnCl₂ solution, and from inorganic and organic mercury with a CdCl₂SnCl₂ solution, for determination by cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometry. The range of determination is 0.2–5,000 ppt (ng l^?1) for 20-l water samples.     

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy: General remarks

Summary The ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has its coming of age currently with 4 sources detected at high significance levels, after experiencing about 30 years history. The energetic gamma rays provide direct means for uncovering higher-energy non-thermal phenomena at various celestial objects. We need more data with improved sensitivities, and multitudes of such efforts are now under way. Paper presented at the Special Session on ground-based gamma-ray astronomy of the XXIV International Cosmic-Ray Conference, Rome, August 28–September 8, 1995.     

Single structure widely distributed in a GeTe-Sb2Te3 pseudobinary system: a rock salt structure is retained by intrinsically containing an enormous number of vacancies within its crystal

GeTe(1-x)-Sb2Te3(x) sputtered amorphous film was crystallized into a simple NaCl-type structure through instantaneous laser irradiation over a wide composition range from x = 0 to at least 2/3. When the ratio of Sb2Te3 increases, a vacancy is generated at every Na site for two Sb atoms. The fraction of vacancies, v(x), changes according to x/(1 + 2x), and the cubic root unit cell volume varies with a strong correlation to v(x). Through these created vacancies, valence electrons provided by adjacent Ge/Sb and Te atoms remain constant regardless of the composition, ensuring that these electrons occupy predominantly the bonding molecular orbitals. This results in crystal chemical stability, with the closed shell p-p bondings in the valence electrons arranging the crystal's atomic configuration into an NaCl-type structure.