Comparative study of bulk and partial digestion methods for airborne PM10-bound elements in a high mineral dust urban site in Constantine,Algeria

When high mineral loads in atmospheric particulate matter (PM) are present, particular attention should be paid to the selection of appropriate acidic digestion protocols for wet chemical analysis. We report on a comparative study of elemental recovery yields from five different pre-analytical acid digestion procedures for mineral-rich urban background PM₁₀ samples collected in the city of Constantine (Northeastern Algeria). Five reference materials (NIST 1633b, UPM 1648, NAT-7, SO-2 and SO-4) were also digested according to the same protocols. The selected acidic digestion/extraction procedures are widely used for PM chemical analysis and comprise P1 (HNO₃/HF/HCl), P2 (HCl/HNO₃), P3 (HCl/H₂O₂/HNO₃), P4 (HNO₃/HF/HClO₄) and P5 (HNO₃/H₂O₂); the latter assisted with microwave digestion. Elemental recovery yields were compared for major and trace elements typically determined in PM for source apportionment analysis and the results evidenced large differences. For most elements, the bulk extraction procedures (requiring the use of HF) allowed a full elemental recovery, particularly for elements that are associated with aluminium silicate species and oxides that are resistant to mild acid attack. In contrast, in the extraction protocols without HF low recovery yields were obtained for elements such as Al, Ti, Zr, Sc and other aluminium silicate-related elements in PM₁₀ samples with high mineral dust load. We highlight that the European standard digestion method EN-14902:2005 should be applied specifically for the metals for which this method was developed, but caution should be taken when the analysis of other elements in PM is required, especially in urban areas where road and vehicle wear dust is likely to be a major component of ambient PM. When using wet chemistry analysis for PM source apportionment studies, we strongly recommend HF bulk dissolution of samples to ensure the reliability of the geochemical information when coupled with an appropriate analytical tool.     

Prediction of structural and thermodynamic properties of three products: 1-bromobenzene, tetrachlorethylene and 4-hydroxy-chromen-2-one using numerical methods

Our work concerns interaction spherical study of three toxic products, bromobenzene, tetrachloroethylene, and 4-hydroxy-chromene-2-one; using the Leap Frog algorithm, we calculated new values of cut-off of the box through Lennard-Jones potential parameters. This model was adapted to allow the determination of the characteristics for the SP₁, SP₂ and SP₃ state points and was applied to study the properties for the three products by molecular dynamics. This method provides an advantage to confirm the structure–activity relationship for these compounds. We calculated the thermodynamic and structural properties for both canonical NVT and isothermal–isobaric NPT ensembles of these products. Numerical system results have been compared with both experimental data and recent investigation theoretical. Our simulation model isobaric–isothermal system gives accurate results, and comparing with the canonical system, this model agrees very well with the experimental data. We aim to demonstrate that the classical approach with a low statistical uncertainty for liquid toxic leads to data in very good agreement with experiment or other types of calculations. We obtained a good prediction of the thermodynamic properties. We hope that this model with a lower threshold to 2.5σ could be an effective starting material for studying the properties of complex systems.     

Quasi-Newton methods in infinite-dimensional spaces and application to matrix equations

In the first part of this paper, we give a survey on convergence rates analysis of quasi-Newton methods in infinite Hilbert spaces for nonlinear equations. Then, in the second part we apply quasi-Newton methods in their Hilbert formulation to solve matrix equations. So, we prove, under natural assumptions, that quasi-Newton methods converge locally and superlinearly; the global convergence is also studied. For numerical calculations, we propose new formulations of these methods based on the matrix representation of the dyadic operator and the vectorization of matrices. Finally, we apply our results to algebraic Riccati equations.     

A new method for constructing a minimal PERT network

A project is an enterprise consisting of several activities which are to be carried out in some specific order. The activities and the order in which they need to be carried out can be represented by a PERT network. The PERT technique is a traditional, well-known approach to the expert of project management. When networks are used, it often becomes necessary to draw dummy activities. Since the computation of project completion time is proportional to the number of arcs, including dummy arcs, it is desirable to draw a network with as few dummy activities as possible.In this paper, we propose a new method for constructing, for a given project scheduling problem, a PERT network having as small as possible the number of dummy arcs by using some results on line graphs. This algorithm deals with the existence of transitive arcs. The paper contains illustrative examples, proofs of some theoretical results as well as a comparative study with a similar algorithm known in the literature. Computational results showed the superiority of our algorithm.     

Bell polynomials and binomial type sequences

This paper concerns the study of the Bell polynomials and the binomial type sequences. We mainly establish some relations tied to these important concepts. Furthermore, these obtained results are exploited to deduce some interesting relations concerning the Bell polynomials which enable us to obtain some new identities for the Bell polynomials. Our results are illustrated by some comprehensive examples.     

Coordination polymer chains built from CuII and adipate ions linked by hydrogen bonds to form a three‐dimensional framework structure

In the title compound, catena‐poly[bis[(2,2′‐bipyridine‐κ²N,N′)(1,1,3,3‐tetracyano‐2‐ethoxypropenido‐κN)copper(II)]‐μ₄‐hexanedioato‐κ⁶O¹,O^1′:O¹:O⁶,O^6′:O⁶], [Cu₂(C₉H₅N₄O)₂(C₆H₈O₄)(C₁₀H₈N₂)₂]_n, the adipate (hexanedioate) dianion lies across a centre of inversion in the space group P. The Cu^II centre adopts a distorted form of axially elongated (4+2) coordination, and the Cu^II and adipate components form a one‐dimensional coordination polymer from which the 2,2′‐bipyridine and 1,1,3,3‐tetracyano‐2‐ethoxypropenide components are pendent, and where each adipate dianion is bonded to four different Cu^II centres. The coordination polymer chains are linked into a three‐dimensional framework structure by a combination of C—H...N and C—H...O hydrogen bonds, augmented by a π–π stacking interaction.     

Direct oxidation of methane to oxygenates over heteropolyanions

Partial oxidation of methane to formaldehyde and methanol was studied at atmospheric pressure in the temperature range of 700-750 °C using heteropolycompound catalysts （NH4）6HSiMo11FeO40, （NH4）4PMo11FeO39, and H4PMo11VO40, which were prepared and characterized by various analysis techniques such as infrared, visible UV, XRD and DTA. O2 or N2O was used as the oxidizing agent, and the principal products of the reaction were CH3OH, CH2O, CO, CO2, and water. The conversion and the selectivity of products depend strongly on the reaction temperature, the nature of oxidizing agent, and the composition of catalyst.     

Synthesis,X-ray structure and theoretical study of benzazole thioether and its zinc complex as corrosion inhibitors for steel in acidic medium

A ligand, 2-((benzo[d]thiazol-2-ylthio)methyl)-1H-benzo[d]imidazole, and its zinc complex have been synthesized. The structure of these compounds have been determined by spectroscopic techniques and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The corrosion inhibition study of these compounds for steel in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ medium has also been investigated using potentiodynamic polarization and EIS techniques. The quantum calculations were applied to investigate the relationship between the electronic properties and the corrosion inhibition efficiency of the two benzazoles derivatives. Surface analysis (XRF) indicated that the rust layer formed on the Cu-containing steels was enriched with Cu compounds. Polarization curves revealed that both inhibitors acted as a mixed-type inhibitor.