Current air quality analytics and monitoring: A review

This review summarizes the different tools and concepts that are commonly applied in air quality monitoring. The monitoring of atmosphere is extremely important as the air quality is an important problem for large communities. Main requirements for analytical devices used for monitoring include a long period of autonomic operation and portability. These instruments, however, are often characterized by poor analytical performance. Monitoring networks are the most common tools used for monitoring, so large-scale monitoring programmes are summarized here. Biomonitoring, as a cheap and convenient alternative to traditional sample collection, is becoming more and more popular, although its main drawback is the lack of standard procedures. Telemonitoring is another approach to air monitoring, which offers some interesting opportunities, such as ease of coverage of large or remote areas, constituting a complementary approach to traditional strategies; however, it requires huge costs.     

Mono-Aryl/Alkylthio-Substituted (Hetero)acenes of Exceptional Thermal and Photochemical Stability by the Thio-Friedel–Crafts/Bradsher Cyclization Reaction

The highly substituted mono-aryl/alkylthio-(hetero)acenes prepared in this study have been found to be thermally more stable (T_decomp.=331–354 °C) than the known di-aryl/alkylthio-substituted acenes by an average of 25 °C. They are also much more photostable at 254 and 365 nm (in both argon and air) than the parent anthracene and other reported anthracenes. The most photostable aryl/alkylthio-anthracenes at 254 nm were found to be 60–70 (in air) and 130 (in argon) times more stable in solution than the unsubstituted anthracene, and much more stable than known EDG/EWG-substituted anthracenes (EDG=electron-donating group, EWG=electron-withdrawing group) with an extended aromatic core. Furthermore, the acenes showed significantly higher photostability at 365 nm in both air and argon. The anthracenes were obtained by the novel thio-Friedel–Crafts/Bradsher cyclization reaction of hitherto unknown [o-(1,3-dithian-2-yl)aryl](aryl)methyl thioethers. The developed approach provides a general access to mono-aryl/alkylthio-substituted (hetero)acene frameworks containing at least three fused (hetero)aromatic rings. The characteristic feature of this approach, which leads to highly substituted acenes, is that the substituents, unlike in other methods, may be introduced at an early stage of the synthesis. DFT and TD-DFT calculations confirmed the stabilizing role of the aryl/alkylthio substituent in the mono-aryl/alkylthio-substituted anthracenes, which are the most stable anthracenes prepared to date. Their high photostability is mainly due to the quenching of singlet oxygen by the acene and the quenching of the acene S₁ state by molecular oxygen.     

Extraction-ability and -selectivity of tetra-aza-crown ethers for transition metal cations

In order to investigate the relative effects of the differences between the structures and lipophilicities of 1, 10-dioxa-4, 7, 13, 16-tetra-azacyclo-octadecane (TA-18-crown-6) and the tetrabenzyl derivative of 1,10-dioxa-4, 7, 13, 16-tetra-azacyclo-octadecane (TBTA-18-crown-6) on their extraction-abilities and -selectivities for transition metal cations, constants of the overall extraction (logK _ex) of 1:1 (M:L) complexes, the distribution (K _D) for two diluents (CH₂Cl₂ and CHCl₃) with different dielectric constants have been determined at 25 ± 0.1 °C. The magnitude of logK _ex is largely determined by that of K _D. The equilibrium constants of TA-18-crown-6 have been compared with those of TBTA-18-crown-6. It is found that:(i) logK _ex sequences of TA-18-crown-6 and TBTA-18-crown-6 for transition metals in CH₂Cl₂ lie in order: Fe³⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Zn²⁺ and Fe³⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Zn²⁺ respectively; (ii) the stability sequences of two types of tetra-aza-crown ethers with the transition metal cations in CHCl₃ are the same as follows: Fe³⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Zn²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Mn²⁺, and (iii) unusual selectivities are observed for transition metal-tetra-aza-crowns, e.g. the high Fe³⁺/M ⁿ⁺ selectivity factors (S_f) of TA-18-crown-6, except for the competitive-extractions for the special case in CHCl₃ of TBTA-18-crown-6, it was found that the Mn²⁺/M ⁿ⁺ values were relatively higher according to the other transition metal cations. A systematic sequence in these two types of solvents is not found for a given transition metal cation in terms of the variation of selectivity with the tetra-aza-crown ethers. The results provide alternatives for the rational design of other specific ligands on the transition metal cations.     

A subdomain boundary element method for high‐Reynolds laminar flow using stream function‐vorticity formulation

The paper presents a new formulation of the integral boundary element method (BEM) using subdomain technique. A continuous approximation of the function and the function derivative in the direction normal to the boundary element (further ‘normal flux’) is introduced for solving the general form of a parabolic diffusion‐convective equation. Double nodes for normal flux approximation are used. The gradient continuity is required at the interior subdomain corners where compatibility and equilibrium interface conditions are prescribed. The obtained system matrix with more equations than unknowns is solved using the fast iterative linear least squares based solver. The robustness and stability of the developed formulation is shown on the cases of a backward‐facing step flow and a square‐driven cavity flow up to the Reynolds number value 50 000. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the role of the interface charge in non-ideal metal–semiconductor contacts

The bias dependent interface charge is considered as the origin of the observed non-ideality in current–voltage and capacitance–voltage characteristics. Using the simplified model for the interface electronic structure based on defects interacting with the continuum of interface states, the microscopic origin of empirical parameters describing the bias dependent interface charge function is investigated. The results show that in non-ideal metal–semiconductor contacts the interface charge function depends on the interface disorder parameter, density of defects, barrier pinning parameter and the effective gap center. The theoretical predictions are tested against several sets of published experimental data on bias dependent ideality factor and excess capacitance in various metal–semicoductor systems.     

The circle as an attractor of an iterated function system on the plane

We give an iterated function system (IFS) on the plane with the circle as attractor. In doing this, we also give a sufficient condition for radially contracting functions on the plane (or on Rn) to be a contraction. A counterexample shows that radial contractiveness is not enough to be a contraction.     

Reactivity of a Ti–45.9Al–8Nb alloy in air at 700–900°C

A Ti–45.9Al–8Nb (at%) alloy with a lamellar structure (γ+α₂) was oxidised in air at 700, 800, 850 and 900°C in isothermal and thermal cycling conditions. The reaction progress was followed by thermogravimetric measurements. In isothermal conditions the oxidation kinetics followed approximately a parabolic rate law and the rate constants ranged from about 10^–12 kg² m^–4 s^–1 at 700°C to 10^–10 kg² m^–4 s^–1 at 900°C. The oxide scales were built of Al₂O₃ and TiO₂, the former being the main component of the outermost layer. The oxidation behaviour of Ti–45.9Al–8Nb was referred to a commercial titanium alloy, WT4 (Ti–6Al–1Mn), and selected oxidation-resistant alloys.     

Determination of Emodin and Phenolic Acids in the Petioles of Rheum undulatum and Rheum rhaponticum

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Emodin and twelve phenolic acids (ellagic, gallic, protocatechuic, homoprotocatechuic, caffeic, p-hydroxybenzoic, p-coumaric,...     

Two- and three-dimensional analysis of bose-einstein correlations inπ +/K+p interactions at 250 GeV/c

The NA22 data onπ ^? π ^? correlations are analyzed in terms of a number of two- and three-dimensional parametrizations (Gaussian space-time, Goldhaber, Bowler string-like, Bertsch hydrodynamical, Kopylov-Podgoretskii, etc.). Contrary to the results obtained for e⁺e^? andµp collisions, the Goldhaber parametrization, as well as string-like models, fail in describing the hadron-hadron data. Better fits are obtained in the framework of surface-emitting fireball-like models, both when including and excluding hydrodynamical expansion of nuclear matter. Our results indicate that pion radiation occurs at earlier stages of matter evolution than in nuclear collisions.     

On possible spin injection at non-ideal Schottky contacts

The role of the tunneling mechanisms in metal-disordered layer-semiconductor structure under spin injection at the interface is investigated. The non-ideal metal-semiconductor structure as prepared by ionized cluster beam deposition is considered, and it is shown that the depletion region of the semiconductor can be tailored to include a suitably heavily doped region near the interface. The tunneling is described within a simplified model in which the expression for the interface resistance of the metal-disordered layer-semiconductor structure is obtained. It is argued that in the case of ionized cluster beam deposited non-ideal Schottky structure a significant spin injection is achieved.