A flow injection procedure based on solenoid micro-pumps for spectrophotometric determination of free glycerol in biodiesel

A flow system designed with solenoid micro-pumps is proposed for fast and greener spectrophotometric determination of free glycerol in biodiesel. Glycerol was extracted from samples without using organic solvents. The determination involves glycerol oxidation by periodate, yielding formaldehyde followed by formation of the colored (3,5-diacetil-1,4-dihidrolutidine) product upon reaction with acetylacetone. The coefficient of variation, sampling rate and detection limit were estimated as 1.5% (20.0 mg L⁻¹ glycerol, n = 10), 34 h⁻¹, and 1.0 mg L⁻¹ (99.7% confidence level), respectively. A linear response was observed from 5 to 50 mg L⁻¹, with reagent consumption estimated as 345 μg of KIO₄ and 15 mg of acetylacetone per determination. The procedure was successfully applied to the analysis of biodiesel samples and the results agreed with the batch reference method at the 95% confidence level.     

A multicommuted flow system with solenoid micro-pumps for paraquat determination in natural waters

A flow system designed with solenoid micro-pumps is proposed for the determination of paraquat in natural waters. The procedure involves the reaction of paraquat with dehydroascorbic acid followed by spectrophotometric measurements. The proposed procedure minimizes the main drawbacks related to the standard chromatographic procedure and to flow analysis and manual methods with spectrophotometric detection based on the reaction with sodium dithionite, i.e. high solvent consumption and waste generation and low sampling rate for chromatography and high instability of the reagent in the spectrophotometric procedures. A home-made 10-cm optical-path flow cell was employed for improving sensitivity and detection limit. Linear response was observed for paraquat concentrations in the range 0.10–5.0 mg L⁻¹. The detection limit (99.7% confidence level), sampling rate and coefficient of variation (n = 10) were estimated as 22 μg L⁻¹, 63 measurements per hour and 1.0%, respectively. Results of determination of paraquat in natural water samples were in agreement with those achieved by the chromatographic reference procedure at the 95% confidence level.     

A green flow-based procedure for fluorimetric determination of acid-dissociable cyanide in natural waters exploiting multicommutation

A flow system designed with solenoid valves is proposed for determination of weak acid dissociable cyanide, based on the reaction with o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) and glycine yielding a highly fluorescent isoindole derivative. The proposed procedure minimizes the main drawbacks related to the reference batch procedure, based on reaction with barbituric acid and pyridine followed by spectrophotometric detection, i.e., use of toxic reagents, high reagent consumption and waste generation, low sampling rate, and poor sensitivity. Retention of the sample zone was exploited to increase the conversion rate of the analyte with minimized sample dispersion. Linear response (r = 0.999) was observed for cyanide concentrations in the range 1–200 μg L⁻¹, with a detection limit (99.7% confidence level) of 0.5 μg L⁻¹ (19 nmol L⁻¹). The sampling rate and coefficient of variation (n = 10) were estimated as 22 measurements per hour and 1.4%, respectively. The results of determination of weak acid dissociable cyanide in natural water samples were in agreement with those achieved by the batch reference procedure at the 95% confidence level. Additionally to the improvement in the analytical features in comparison with those of the flow system with continuous reagent addition (sensitivity and sampling rate 90 and 83% higher, respectively), the consumption of OPA was 230-fold lower.     

Determination of uric acid in human urine by ion chromatography with conductivity detector

A simple,fast,precise and eco-friendly analytical method for the determination of uric acid(UA) in human urine by ion chromatography(IC) was established.The sample pretreatment was not required,only needed centrifugation and filtration.The separation was carried out on a cation exchange column with 2.0 mmol/L nitric acid as mobile phase at the flow-rate 1.0 mL/min.A non-suppressed conductivity detector was used.The IC analysis time for one run was within 10 min under the optimized IC condition.The detection limits were 0.5μg/L(S/N = 3) for uric acid.The recovery was 100.1%while the relative standard deviation (RSD) was 1.8%from 10 measurements.     

A spectrophotometric flow procedure for the determination of cationic surfactants in natural waters using a solenoid micro-pump for fluid propulsion

An automatic flow-analysis procedure for spectrophotometric determination of cationic surfactants in surface water using a solenoid micro-pump for propelling solutions of reagents and sample is described. The proposed method is based on a ternary formation complex between chromazurol S, the Fe(III) ion, and the cationic surfactant. The flow network comprised four solenoid micro-pumps controlled by a microcomputer, which performed the sampling step by loading a reaction coil with sample and reagent solutions and displacing the sample zone through the analytical path. The system is simple, easy to operate, and very flexible, with sufficient sensitivity to determine cationic surfactants in water without any pre-concentration or separation step. After determining the best operational conditions, favourable features such as a linear response between 0.34 and 10.2?mg?L^?1 of surfactant (R?=?0.999), a relative standard deviation of 0.6% (n?=?11) for a sample containing 3.4?mg?L^?1 of surfactant, a detection limit of 0.035?mg?L^?1 of surfactant, and a sampling throughput of 72 determinations per hour were achieved. The system was used to determine cationic surfactant in river-water samples, and recovery values between 91 and 106% were achieved.     

A multi-pumping flow-based procedure with improved sensitivity for the spectrophotometric determination of acid-dissociable cyanide in natural waters

An analytical procedure with improved sensitivity was developed for cyanide determination in natural waters, exploiting the reaction with the complex of Cu(I) with 2,2′-biquinoline 4,4′-dicarboxylic acid (BCA). The flow system was based on the multi-pumping approach and long pathlength spectrophotometry with a flow cell based on a Teflon AF 2400^® liquid core waveguide was exploited to increase sensitivity. A linear response was achieved from 5 to 200 μg L⁻¹, with coefficient of variation of 1.5% (n = 10). The detection limit and the sampling rate were 2 μg L⁻¹ (99.7% confidence level), and 22 h⁻¹, respectively. Per determination, 48 ng of Cu(II), 5 μg of ascorbic acid and 0.9 μg of BCA were consumed. As high as 100 mg L⁻¹ thiocyanate, nitrite or sulfite did not affect cyanide determination. Sulfide did not interfere at concentrations lower than 40 and 200 μg L⁻¹ before or after sample pretreatment with hydrogen peroxide. The results for natural waters samples agreed with those obtained by a fluorimetric flow-based procedure at the 95% confidence level. The proposed procedure is then a reliable, fast and environmentally friendly alternative for cyanide determination in natural waters.     

HPLC法测定人尿中尿酸含量

建立了一种人体尿液中尿酸含量的高效液相色谱测定方法.采用ACE5 AQ亲水色谱柱,pH3.2的乙酸水溶液为流动相,检测波长280nm.尿酸含量在7.1～224.6μg/mL范围内线性关系良好,平均加样回收率为99.7%～100.5%,RSD小于1.4%.将该法用于健康人和肝硬化病人尿液样本的测定,两类样本中尿酸含量无显...     

Voltammetric determination of uric acid by using gold nanotubule electrode

Gold nanotubule membranes were prepared by using electroless deposition of gold within the pores and surfaces of polycarbonate track-etched membranes.And the gold nanotubule membrane was used as an electrode for determination of uric acid in urine samples for the first time.In Britton-Robinson buffer of pH 4.56,uric acid exhibited well-defined differential pulse voltammograms.And the interference between coexistent ascorbic acid and uric acid was overcome owing to the attractive ability of the gold nanotubule electrode to yield a large anodic peak difference ca.0.404 V(vs.SCE).The proposed method was then applied to the determination of uric acid in urine without any pretreatment.     

Disposable luminol copolymer-based biosensor for uric acid in urine

A new electrochemiluminescent (ECL) disposable biosensor for uric acid was manufactured by immobilization in a double-layer design of luminol as a copolymer with 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) and the enzyme uricase in chitosan on gold screen-printed cells. The good mechanical and improved electroluminescent characteristics of the new copolymer poly(luminol–TMB) make it possible to determine uric acid by measuring the growing ECL emission with the analyte concentration. The combination of enzymatic selectivity with ECL sensitivity results in a disposable analytical device with a linear range for uric acid from 1.5 × 10⁻⁶ to 1.0 × 10⁻⁴ M, a limit of detection of 4.4 × 10⁻⁷ M and a precision of 13.1% (1.0 × 10⁻⁵ M, n = 10) as relative standard deviation. Satisfactory results were obtained for uric acid determination in 24 h-urine samples compared to a reference procedure. This uric acid biosensor can be used as a low-cost alternative to conventional methods.     

Capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection for uric acid determination in biological fluids

The suitability of capillary electrophoresis (CE) with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C⁴D) for the direct determination of uric acid in human plasma and urine was investigated. It was found that a careful optimization of the buffer composition and pH was necessary to achieve selective determination in the complex sample matrices. An electrolyte solution consisting of 10 mM 2-morpholinoethanesulfonic acid (MES), 10 mM histidine and 0.1 mM hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), pH 6.0, was finally found suitable for use as running buffer for both sample matrices. The limit of detection (3 S/N) was determined as 3.3 μM. The linearity of the response was tested for the range between 10 and 500 μM and a correlation coefficient of 0.9996 was obtained. Intra- and inter-day variabilities were <10%. Quantitative analysis of urine and plasma samples showed a good correlation with the routine enzymatic method currently used at the University Hospital of Basel.     

A multicommuted flow system for sequential spectrophotometric determination of hydrosoluble vitamins in pharmaceutical preparations

A multicommuted flow system is proposed for spectrophotometric determination of hydrosoluble vitamins (ascorbic acid, thiamine, riboflavine and pyridoxine) in pharmaceutical preparations. The flow manifold was designed with computer-controlled three-way solenoid valves for independent handling of sample and reagent solutions and a multi-channel spectrophotometer was employed for signal measurements. Periodic re-calibration as well as the standard addition method was implemented by using a single reference solution. Linear responses (r=0.999) were obtained for 0.500-10.0 mg l⁻¹ ascorbic acid, 2.00-50.0 mg l⁻¹ thiamine, 5.00-50.0 mg l⁻¹ riboflavine and 0.500-8.00 mg l⁻¹ pyridoxine. Detection limits were estimated as 0.08 mg l⁻¹ (0.5 μmol l⁻¹) ascorbic acid, 0.8 mg l⁻¹ (2 μmol l⁻¹) thiamine, 0.2 mg l⁻¹ (0.5 μmol l⁻¹) riboflavine and 0.1 mg l⁻¹ (0.9 μmol l⁻¹) pyridoxine at 99.7% confidence level. A mean sampling rate of 60 determinations per hour was achieved and coefficients of variation of 1% (n=20) were estimated for all species. The mean reagent consumption was 25-fold lower in relation to flow-based procedures with continuous reagent addition. Average recoveries between 95.6 and 100% were obtained for commercial pharmaceutical preparations. Results agreed with those obtained by reference methods at 95% confidence level. The flow system is suitable for application in quality control processes and in dissolution studies of vitamin tablets.     

Determination of uric acid and creatinine in human urine using hydrophilic interaction chromatography

Uric acid is the end-product of purine metabolism and a major antioxidant in humans. The concentrations of uric acid in plasma and urine are associated with various diseases and routinely measured in clinical and biomedical laboratories using enzymatic conversion and colorimetric measurement. In this study a hydrophilic interaction chromatographic (HILIC) method was developed for simultaneous determination of uric acid and creatinine, a biomarker of urine dilution and renal function, in human urine. Urine samples were pretreated by dilution, protein precipitation, centrifugation and filtration. Uric acid and creatinine were separated from other components in urine samples and quantified using HILIC chromatography. A linear relationship between the ratio of the peak area of the standards to that of the internal standard and the concentration of the standards was obtained for both uric acid and creatinine with the square of correlation coefficients >0.999 for both analytes. The detection limits were 0.04 μg/mL for creatinine and 0.06 μg/mL for uric acid. The described HILIC method has proved to be simple, accurate, robust and reliable.     

A biosensor based on urate oxidase-peroxidase coupled enzyme system for uric acid determination in urine

A new amperometric biosensor based on urate oxidase-peroxidase coupled enzyme system for the specific and selective determination of uric acid in urine was developed. Commercially available urate oxidase and peroxidase were immobilized with gelatin by using glutaraldehyde and fixed on a pretreated teflon membrane. The method is based on generation of H₂O₂ from urine uric acid by urate oxidase and its consuming by peroxidase and then measurement of the decreasing of dissolved oxygen concentration by the biosensor. The biosensor response depends linearly on uric acid concentration between 0.1 and 0.5 μM. In the optimization studies of the biosensor, phosphate buffer (pH 7.5; 50 mM) and 35 °C were obtained as the optimum working conditions. In addition, the most suitable enzyme activities were found as 64.9×10⁻³ U cm⁻² for urate oxidase and 512.7 U cm⁻² for peroxidase. And also some characteristic studies of the biosensor such as reproducibility, substrate specificity and storage stability were carried out.     

A quercetin-modified biosensor for amperometric determination of uric acid in the presence of ascorbic acid

The present work reports a quercetin-modified wax-impregnated graphite electrode (Qu/WGE) prepared through an electrochemical oxidation procedure in quercetin-containing phosphate buffer solution (PBS), for the purpose of detecting uric acid (UA) in the presence of ascorbic acid (AA). During modification quercetin was oxidized to the corresponding quinonic structure, and in the blank buffer solution the electrodeposited film exhibits a voltammetric response anticipated for the surface-immobilized quercetin. Retarding effect of the film towards the reaction of anionic species was found; therefore the pH of sample solutions was selected to ensure the analyte in molecular form. At suitable pHs the Qu/WGE shows excellent electrocatalytic effect towards the oxidation of both AA and UA, and separates the voltammetric signal of UA from AA by about 280 mV, allowing simultaneous detection of these two species. A linear relation between the peak current and concentration was obtained for UA in the range of 1-50 μM in the presence of 0.5 mM AA, with a detection limit 1.0 μM (S/N = 3). This sensor was stable, reproducible and outstanding for long-term use.     

聚茜素黄R膜修饰电极对尿酸电催化及对人尿中尿酸的检测

用电聚合的方法制备了聚茜素黄R膜修饰的玻碳电极,研究了尿酸在该电极上的电化学行为。结果表明,该修饰电极对尿酸的氧化具有良好的电催化能力。示差脉冲伏安法测定尿酸的氧化峰电流与其浓度在1.0×10-6～1.0×10-4mol/L范围内呈现良好的线性范围,检测限为8.6×10-7 mol/L(S/N=3)。本方法用于人尿液中尿酸含量的测定,结果令人满意。     

A multicommuted flow-system for spectrophotometric determination of tannin exploiting the Cu(I)/BCA complex formation

A flow system exploiting the multicommutation approach is proposed for spectrophotometric determination of tannin in beverages. The procedure is based on the reduction of Cu(II) in the presence of 4,4′-dicarboxy-2,2′-biquinoline, yielding a complex with maximum absorption at 558 nm. Calibration graph was linear (r = 0.999) for tannic acid concentrations up to 5.00 μmol L^− 1. The detection limit and coefficient of variation were estimated as 10 nmol L^− 1 (99.7% confidence level) and 1% (1.78 μmol L^− 1 tannic acid, n = 10), respectively. The sampling rate was 50 determinations per hour. The proposed procedure is more sensitive and selective than the official Folin-Denis method, also minimizing drastically waste generation. Recoveries within 91.8 and 115% were estimated for total tannin determination in tea and wine samples.     

Multicommutation in flow analysis. Part 3. Spectrophotometric kinetic determination of creatinine in urine exploiting a novel zone sampling approach

Zone sampling performed on a single analytical channel and associated with the stopped-flow approach was proposed and applied to the spectrophotometric kinetic determination of creatinine in urine based on Jaffé's reaction. The flow network comprised microcomputer controlled three-way solenoid valves. With multicommutation, the potentialities of zone sampling and stopped-flow were expanded, and the design of the flow set up was simplified. Influence of the main related parameters such as system configuration, reagent concentrations, temperature and timing were studied. The proposed system handled about 24 samples per hour. Baseline drift was not observed during extended operation periods (8 h). Sample pretreatment was not required. Results were reproducible (R.S.D. < 3%) and in agreement with those obtained in a batch procedure.     

A clean method for flow injection spectrophotometric determination of cyclamate in table sweeteners

A flow system based on the multicommutation is proposed for fast and clean determination of cyclamate. The procedure exploits the reaction of cyclamate with nitrite in acidic medium and the spectrophotometric determination of the excess of nitrite by iodometry. The flow system was designed with a set of solenoid micro-pumps to minimize reagent consumption and waste generation. The detection limit was estimated as 30 μmol L⁻¹ (99.7% confidence level) with linear response ranging up to 3.0 mmol L⁻¹. The coefficient of variation was estimated as 1.7% for a solution containing 2.0 mmol L⁻¹ cyclamate (n = 20). About 60 samples can be analyzed per hour, consuming only 3 mg KI and 1.3 μg NaNO₂, and generating 2.0 mL of effluent per determination, thus providing an environmentally friendly alternative to previously proposed procedures. Common artificial and natural sweeteners did not interfere when present in concentrations 10-times higher than cyclamate. The procedure was successfully applied for determination of cyclamate in artificial table sweeteners with results in agreement with the reference method at the 95% confidence level.     

基于纳米结构BDD电极的人体尿酸检测

利用纳米结构硼掺杂金刚石(nBDD)电极的优点对人体尿液中的UA含量进行检测,并与常规玻碳(GC)电极做了比较。检测不同尿样的结果可知,nBDD电极检测的回收率为95.3%～98.4%,GC电极79.6%～87.1%;检测同一尿样的重复性实验得出,nBDD电极上峰电流的相对标准偏差(RSD)为8.0%,GC电极上峰电流的RSD为39%。     

Exploiting Mn(III)/EDTA complex in a flow system with solenoid micro-pumps coupled to long pathlength spectrophotometry for fast manganese determination

The formation of the Mn(III)/EDTA complex in a flow system with solenoid micro-pumps was exploited for fast manganese determination in freshwater. Manganese(II) was oxidized in a solid-phase reactor containing lead dioxide immobilized on polyester. Long pathlength spectrophotometry was exploited to increase sensitivity, aiming to reach the threshold limit established by environmental legislation. A linear response was observed from 25 to 1500 μg L^− 1, with a detection limit of 6 μg L^− 1 (99.7% confidence level). Sample throughput and coefficient of variation were 36 samples/h and 2.6% (n = 10), respectively. EDTA consumption and waste generation were estimated as 500 μg and 3 mL per determination, respectively. The amount of Pb in the residue corresponds to 250 μg per determination and a solid-phase reactor could be used for up to 1600 determinations. Adsorption in active charcoal avoided interferences caused by organic matter and the developed procedure was successfully applied for determination of manganese in freshwater samples. Results were in agreement with those attained by GFAAS at the 95% confidence level.