Rapid and accurate amperometric determination of acetaminophen in pharmaceutical preparations and spiked human blood serum samples at cadmium pentacyanonitrosylferrate modified glassy carbon electrode

The present work describes a rapid and accurate amperometric technique for the determination of acetaminophen (ACT) in pharmaceutical preparations and human blood serum, based on electrocatalytic oxidation of ACT at a glassy carbon electrode modified by cadmium pentacyanonitrosylferrate (CdPCNF) film. The electrocatalytic response of the modified GC electrode was linear over the concentration of 1.64-52.90 μM. The limit of detection was found to be 2.04 μM by amperometric technique. The method was successfully utilized for the determination of ACT in various pharmaceutical preparations and the results have been statistically compared with those obtained by the official method. The interference of some pharmaceutical and biological compounds was investigated. The results of interference study showed that the Nafion-coated CdPCNF|GC electrode can be utilized as a selective amperometric sensor for acetaminophen determination in human blood serum. The mean value of rate constant k for catalytic reaction, and the diffusion coefficient of ACT (D) in the phosphate buffer solution of pH 7.2 were found to be 4.27 × 10² M?¹ s?¹, and (4.25 ± 0.33) × 10^?6 cm² s^?1, respectively.     

Determination of percolation threshold electroactivity and phase behavior study on conducting blends of thermotropic polyesters and polyaniline

The new thermotropic polyester/polyaniline (PIn/PAni) blends have been prepared by solution blend of synthesized liquid crystalline poly[4,4′‐bis (ω‐alkoxy) biphenylisophthalate]s having four and six methylene units in spacer (PI4 and PI6) with PAni doped with camphorsolfonic acid (CSA). The percolation threshold electroactivity of prepared blend films has been determined by cyclic voltammetry. The effect of the PAni concentration, solvent nature and polyester structure on the electroactivity of the blends has been investigated. The extremely low percolation threshold of prepared PIn/PAni‐CSA blends from dimethylformamide (DMF) and m‐cresol solution was 3% weight of PAni‐CSA. The amount of conducting polymer necessary to retard the formation of the liquid crystalline (LC) phase is up to 45% by weight. Phase behavior studies by differential scanning calorimetry and polarizing microscopy show that blends with 45% of conducting polymer are both liquid crystal and conductive. The morphology of the blends has been investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structure–reactivity studies of chloro and isothiocyanato diorganotin (IV) complexes based on multidentate N‐donor ligands: Synthesis,spectral characterization and crystal structures

The reaction of [SnMe₂Cl₂] with the bidentate ligand 4,7‐phenanthroline (4,7‐phen) resulted in the formation of [SnMe₂Cl₂ (4,7‐phen)]_n ( 1a ) which is probably a polymeric chain in solution. On the other hand, the reaction of [SnEt₂Cl₂] with 4,7‐phen afforded the complex [Sn₂Et₄Cl₄ (κ¹‐N‐4,7‐phen)₂(μ‐κ²‐N,N‐4,7‐phen)] ( 1b ) which dissociates in dimethylsulfoxide solution. The reaction of [SnR₂Cl₂] (R = Me, Et) with 2,2′‐biquinoline (biq) yielded the complexes [SnMe₂Cl₂ (κ²‐N,N‐biq)] ( 2a ) and [SnEt₂Cl₂ (κ¹‐N‐biq)₂] ( 2b ) in the solid state. Moreover, the reaction of [SnR₂Cl₂] (R = Me, Et) with the tridentate ligand 4′‐(2‐furyl)‐2,2′:6′,2″‐terpyridine (ftpy) resulted in the formation of ionic penta‐ and hexa‐coordinated tin complexes [SnMe₂Cl (ftpy)][SnMe₂Cl₃] ( 3a ) and [SnEt₂Cl (ftpy)]Cl ( 3b ). The reaction of [SnMe₂ (NCS)₂] with ftpy afforded the hepta‐coordinated complex [SnMe₂ (NCS)₂(ftpy)] ( 4a ). The products were fully characterized using elemental analysis, and infrared, UV–visible, multinuclear (¹H, ¹³C, ¹¹⁹Sn) NMR, DEPT‐135°, HH‐COSY and HSQC NMR spectroscopies. The crystal structure of complex 3a reveals that it contains the simultaneous presence of penta‐ and hexa‐coordinated tin (IV) atoms. Notably, the crystal structure of complex 4a shows that tin (IV) is hepta‐coordinated in a pentagonal bipyramidal geometry SnC₂N₅ by three nitrogen atoms of ftpy, two nitrogen atoms of NCS^? and two Me groups with trans‐[SnMe₂] configuration. These data indicate the influence of halide or pseudo‐halide group on the coordination number and geometry of tin. Hirshfeld surface analysis and two‐dimensional fingerprint plots were calculated for 3a and 4a which show the π–π interaction between molecules in the solid is relatively weak.     

The covariant electromagnetic Casimir effect for real conducting cylindrical shells

Using covariant quantization of the electromagnetic field, the Casimir force per unit area experienced by a long conducting cylindrical shell, under both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions, is calculated. The renormalization procedure is based on the plasma cut-off frequency for real conductors. The real case of a gold (silver) cylindrical shell is considered and the corresponding electromagnetic Casimir pressure is computed. It is discussed that the Dirichlet and Neumann problems should be considered separately without adding their corresponding results.     

Comparative study of kinetic modeling for the oxidative coupling of methane by genetic and marquardt algorithms

Overall kinetic studies on the oxidative coupling of methane, OCM, have been conducted in a tubular fixed bed reactor, using perovskite titanate as the reaction catalyst. The appropriate operating conditions were found to be: temperature 750-775 ℃, total feed flow rate of 160 ml/min, CH4/O2 ratio of 2 and GHSV of 100 min-1. Under these conditions, C2 yield of 28% was achieved. Correlations of the kinetic data have been performed with lumped rate equations for C2 and COx formation as functions of temperature, O2 and CH4 partial pressures. Six models have been selected among the common lumped kinetic models. The selected models have been regressed with the experimental data which were obtained from the Catatest system by genetic algorithm in order to obtain optimized parameters. The kinetic coefficients in the overall reactions were optimized by different numerical optimization methods such as: the Levenberg-Marquardt and genetic algorithms and the results were compared with one another. It has been found that the Santamaria model is in good agreement with the experimental data. The Arrhenius parameters of this model have been obtained by linear regression. It should be noted that the Marquardt algorithm is sensitive to the first guesses and there is possibility to trap in the relative minimum.     

Investigation of a mutual interaction force at different pressure amplitudes in sulfuric acid

This paper investigates the secondary Bjerknes force for two oscillating bubbles in various pressure amplitudes in a concentration of 95% sulfuric acid.The equilibrium radii of the bubbles are assumed to be smaller than 10 μm at a frequency of 37 kHz in various strong driving acoustical fields around 2.0 bars (1 bar=10 5 Pa).The secondary Bjerknes force is investigated in uncoupled and coupled states between the bubbles,with regard to the quasi-adiabatic model for the bubble interior.It finds that the value of the secondary Bjerknes force depends on the driven pressure of sulfuric acid and its amount would be increased by liquid pressure amplitude enhancement.The results show that the repulsion area of the interaction force would be increased by increasing the driven pressure because of nonlinear oscillation of bubbles.     

Metal‐Doped Nitrogenated Carbon as an Efficient Catalyst for Direct CO2 Electroreduction to CO and Hydrocarbons

This study explores the kinetics, mechanism, and active sites of the CO₂ electroreduction reaction (CO2RR) to syngas and hydrocarbons on a class of functionalized solid carbon‐based catalysts. Commercial carbon blacks were functionalized with nitrogen and Fe and/or Mn ions using pyrolysis and acid leaching. The resulting solid powder catalysts were found to be active and highly CO selective electrocatalysts in the electroreduction of CO₂ to CO/H₂ mixtures outperforming a low‐area polycrystalline gold benchmark. Unspecific with respect to the nature of the metal, CO production is believed to occur on nitrogen functionalities in competition with hydrogen evolution. Evidence is provided that sufficiently strong interaction between CO and the metal enables the protonation of CO and the formation of hydrocarbons. Our results highlight a promising new class of low‐cost, abundant electrocatalysts for synthetic fuel production from CO₂.