Ultrasensitive determination of mercury by solution anode glow discharge atomic emission spectrometry coupled with hydride generation

An innovative method for the ultrasensitive detection of mercury by solution anode glow discharge atomic emission spectroscopy (SAGD-AES) coupled with hydride generation (HG) was first investigated. In this method, the mercury vapor generated by the HG was transmitted to the SAGD through the miniature hollow tungsten tube for excitation and detected by a miniaturized spectrograph. A thorough parametric evaluation of the HG and SAGD system was performed, including the type and concentration of carrier acid, He flow rate, concentrations of NaBH₄, discharge current and discharge gap. Under optimal operating conditions, the detection limit for Hg²⁺ achieved 0.03 μg/L, with a relative standard deviation of 1.1% at the Hg²⁺ concentration of 5 μg/L. Moreover, the correlation coefficient of the calibration curve was 0.9996 in the range between 0.1 and 10 μg/L. The accuracy and practicability of HG-SAGD-AES were verified by measuring GBW09101b (human hair), GBW10029 (fish), soil and rice samples. The results showed good agreement with the certified values and values from direct mercury analyzer (DMA).     

Aggregation of Electrochemically Active Conjugated Organic Molecules and Its Impact on Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Batteries

Molecule aggregation in solution is acknowledged to be universal and can regulate the molecule's physiochemical properties, which however has been rarely investigated in electrochemistry. Herein, an electrochemical method is developed to quantitatively study the aggregation behavior of the target molecule methyl viologen dichloride. It is found that the oxidation state dicationic ions stay discrete, while the singly-reduced state monoradicals yield a concentration-dependent aggregation behavior. As a result, the molecule's energy level and its redox potential can be effectively regulated. This work does not only provide a method to investigate the molecular aggregation, but also demonstrates the feasibility to tune redox flow battery's performance by regulating the aggregation behavior.     

Prussian Blue Modified Amperometric Hg2+ Ion Biosensor Based on Glucose Oxidase Inhibition

In this research a Hg²⁺ ion biosensor was developed by combining Prussian blue (PB) with glucose oxidase (GOx) – an enzyme that can be inhibited by Hg²⁺ ions. An application of PB in the design of Hg²⁺ ion biosensor enabled detecting changes in hydrogen peroxide reduction current at low operational potential of 0.2 vs Ag|AgCl,KCl_sat. The described Hg²⁺ ion biosensor exhibited wide linear range from 27 μM to 247 μM of Hg²⁺ and higher maximal detectable concentration of Hg²⁺ than other GOx inhibition-based biosensors, making it convenient for the analysis of samples with high concentration of Hg²⁺ ions.     

Pushing the Upper Limit of Nucleophilicity Scales by Mesoionic N-Heterocyclic Olefins

A series of mesoionic, 1,2,3-triazole-derived N-heterocyclic olefins (mNHOs), which have an extraordinarily electron-rich exocyclic CC-double bond, was synthesized and spectroscopically characterized, in selected cases by X-ray crystallography. The kinetics of their reactions with arylidene malonates, ArCH=C(CO₂Et)₂, which gave zwitterionic adducts, were investigated photometrically in THF at 20 °C. The resulting second-order rate constants k₂(20 °C) correlate linearly with the reported electrophilicity parameters E of the arylidene malonates (reference electrophiles), thus providing the nucleophile-specific N and s_N parameters of the mNHOs according to the correlation lg k₂(20 °C)=s_N(N+E). With 21<N<32, the mNHOs are much stronger nucleophiles than conventional NHOs. Some mNHOs even excel the reactivity of mono- and diacceptor-substituted carbanions. It is exemplarily shown that the reactivity parameters thus obtained allow to calculate the rate constants for mNHO reactions with further Michael acceptors and predict the scope of reactions with other electrophilic reaction partners including carbon dioxide, which gives zwitterionic mNHO-carboxylates. The nucleophilicity parameters N correlate linearly with a linear combination of the quantum-chemically calculated methyl cation affinities and buried volumes of mNHOs, which offers a valuable tool to tailor the reactivities of strong carbon nucleophiles.     

High Valent Mercury Fluoride Ions

Mercury fluoride ions formed during the laser ablation of HgF_{2( s )} show the formation of six different cluster ion series viz., HgF_n^±, Hg_nF_n–2^±, Hg_nF_n–1^±, (HgF)_n^±, Hg_nF_n+1^±, and Hg_nF_n+2^±. Among the different ion series, the observation of high valent HgF_n^±_(n^±_{=3,4; n}⁻_=6–8) indicates the existence of corresponding molecules which signify the remarkable participation of 5d Hg electrons in the chemical bonding with F atoms and thus make Hg a truly transition metal. Further, molecular orbital calculations show a large HOMO-LUMO energy gap (≥3 eV) and high electron affinity (≥5 eV) that indicates highly stable HgF_n=3,4,6,8 with super halogen properties.     

催化裂解-金汞齐富集-冷原子吸收光谱仪测定土壤样品中总汞含量

为建立采用催化裂解-金汞齐富集-冷原子吸收光谱仪即直接测汞仪测定土壤样品中汞含量的方法,本研究配制汞总量为0~2 ng、0~15 ng和25~1023 ng的三种不同汞浓度系列的标准工作曲线,选取9个土壤样品,3种国家土壤有证标准物质,同一样品分别进行6组平行测定,并抽取3个土壤样品进行3种不同浓度加标回收试验,以对其方法精密度和准确度进行论证。 结果显示：仪器信号值与Hg总量之间均呈良好的线性关系。根据仪器多次测定空白数据结果,按照称样量0.1 g计算,方法最小检出量为0.09 ng/g;平行测定结果相对标准偏差均小于10%,土壤标准物质测定值与标准物质标准参考值均相符,不同浓度的加标回收率范围为78.4%～92.7%。结果表明催化裂解-金汞齐富集-冷原子吸收光谱仪,可用于批量土壤样品中汞含量的快速测定分析,方法的精密度和准确度可满足测定分析要求,且实验过程中无需前处理消煮,操作方便、快速高效。     

Efficient photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange dye using facilely synthesized α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles

In this paper, α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles were fabricated via the combustion process using glucose and sucrose as organic fuels for the first time. The fabricated products were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, HR-TEM, and UV–vis spectrophotometer. The average crystallite size of the α-Fe₂O₃ samples, which were synthesized using glucose and sucrose fuels, is 27.25 and 6.13 nm, respectively. The HR-TEM images confirmed the presence of spherical and irregular shapes with an average diameter of 31.92 and 8.83 nm for the α-Fe₂O₃ samples, which were synthesized using glucose and sucrose fuels, respectively. The optical energy gap of the α-Fe₂O₃ samples, which were synthesized using glucose and sucrose fuels, is 2.00 and 2.48 eV, respectively. Additionally, the synthesized α-Fe₂O₃ samples were employed as a photocatalyst for the degradation of methyl orange dye under UV irradiations in the absence and presence of hydrogen peroxide. The optimum pH, irradiation time, and dose of α-Fe₂O₃ that achieved the highest degradation efficiency in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (82.17 % in the case of using an α-Fe₂O₃ sample which was synthesized using glucose or 95.31 % in the case of using an α-Fe₂O₃ sample which was synthesized using sucrose) are 3, 100 min, and 0.05 g, respectively.     

The simultaneous elimination of arsenic and mercury ions via hollow fiber supported liquid membrane and their reaction mechanisms: Experimental and modeling based on DFT and generating function

This study investigates the simultaneous removal of low concentrations of arsenic and mercury ions from synthetic produced water via hollow fiber supported liquid membrane (HFSLM). Results show that HFSLM can remove both arsenic and mercury ions from synthetic produced water to less than 0.02 and 0.001 mg·L^-1, respectively. These final concentrations comply with the wastewater standard of Thailand. Percentages of extraction for arsenic and mercury ions proved to be about 100 %. Those of recovery for arsenic and mercury ions reached 70 % and 75 %, respectively. A quantum model based on density functional theory (DFT) is introduced to analyze the forming and breaking of supramolecular complex species in the processes of extraction and recovery, respectively. Furthermore, the concept of Generating Function is applied to construct a mathematical model for forecasting the potential of removing metal ions via HFSLM. The mathematical model conforms to the experimental data, having an average relative deviation of 5 %. The results of this study provide a better understanding of the transport mechanisms of arsenic and mercury ions.     

Infrared spectra and UV-induced photochemistry of methyl aziridine-2-carboxylate isolated in argon and xenon matrices

Methyl aziridine-2-carboxylate (MA2C) has been isolated in low temperature argon and xenon matrices and its structure and photochemistry were studied by FTIR spectroscopy. The reactant as well as the main photoproducts were characterized by comparison of their experimental IR spectra with spectra calculated at the DFT(B3LYP)/6-311++G(d,p) level. The theoretical calculations predicted the existence of two low energy MA2C conformers, differing by the orientation of the OCCN dihedral angle. Both conformers were identified in the studied matrices. Both narrowband tunable and broadband UV irradiations of matrix-isolated MA2C yielded isomerization photoproducts resulting from cleavage of the CC and weakest CN bonds of the aziridine ring. Irradiation with UV laser-light at λ = 235 nm resulted in the formation of the E isomer of methyl 2-(methylimino)-acetate (MMIA) and the Z isomer of methyl 3-iminopropanoate (M3IP). Subsequent irradiation at 290 nm led to observation of new bands resulting from E → Z isomerization of MMIA, while bands due to M3IP remained unchanged. The photoproduced Z isomer of MMIA could be subsequently consumed upon higher-wavelength irradiation (λ = 330 nm). The initially produced MMIA conformer was found to obey the nonequilibrium of excited rotamers (NEER) principle. No photoproducts resulting from the cleavage of the strongest CN bond of the MA2C aziridine ring were observed, nor that of methyl 3-aminoacrylate (M3AA), which could in principle be obtained also by cleavage of the weakest CN bond of the MA2C aziridine ring, but would imply a different H-atom migration simultaneous with the ring opening process. These results indicate that both the differential electronic characteristics of the CN bonds of substituted aziridine rings and the type of required H-atom migration are major factors in determining the specific photochemistries of substituted aziridines. Photofragmentation reactions of MA2C were also observed, through identification of various related products, e.g., acetonitrile, methanol, methane, CO and CO₂.     

ICP-AES法测定烟花爆竹药物中的砷、汞、铅

为了禁止含砷、汞、铅物质应用到烟花爆竹药物中,建立ICP-AES方法,在烟花爆竹药物经乙醇、丙酮及硝酸处理后,选用As 189.042 nm、Hg 194.227 nm、Pb 220.353 nm分析线同时测定这3种元素的含量,结果:相对标准偏差为1.97%~2.71%,回收率为98.5%~101%.方法操作简单快速,检出限低、干扰小,结果准确可靠.