Evaluation of desulfurization procedures for the elimination of sulfur interferences in the organotin analysis of sediments

Different clean-up and desulfurization procedures were compared in order to check their efficiency in eliminating elemental sulfur and organosulfur compounds from sediment extracts. Adsorption column chromatography cannot remove elemental sulfur or organosulfur compounds. Treatment with activated copper powder only removes elemental sulfur, but organosulfur compounds remain in the extract, and phenyltins are partially lost (up to 50%). Ligand exchange chromatography with AgNO₃-coated silica gel as adsorbent effectively removes elemental sulfur and interfering organosulfur compounds from the sediment extract allowing the quantitation of butyltins with recoveries >80%. Since the phenyltin compounds do not survive the desulfurization step, they should be measured in the untreated extract.     

Organoelement compounds in the electrochemical synthesis of fluoroorganics

Electrochemical generation of organic anion-radicals in the presence of fluoroorganosilanes causes the chain addition reaction. Adducts of CFCl₂SiMe₃, CFClCFSiMe₃ and CF₃SiMe₃ with benzaldehyde were obtained with conversion efficiency up to 8000%.Electroreduction of bis-(trifluoromethyl)mercury (II) was established to be the route for the intermediate formation of trifluoromethyl anion, which was trapped by the reactions with benzaldehyde, Me₃SiCl and bromobenzonitrile.The use of salen Ni(II) complex as mediator allows the electrochemical reduction of polyfluoroalkylchlorides at the potentials more than 1 V higher than their reduction potentials.     

Comparison of simultaneous distillation extraction and solid-phase microextraction for the determination of volatile flavor components

Traditional simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE) and solid-phase microextraction (SPME) techniques were compared for their effectiveness in the extraction of volatile flavor compounds from various mustard paste samples. Each method was used to evaluate the responses of some analytes from real samples and calibration standards in order to provide sensitivity comparisons between the two techniques. Experimental results showed traditional SDE lacked the sensitivity needed to evaluate certain flavor volatiles, such as 1,2-propanediol. Dramatic improvements in the extraction ability of the SPME fibers over the traditional SDE method were noted. Different SPME fibers were investigated to determine the selectivity of the various fibers to the different flavor compounds present in the mustard paste samples. Parameters that might affect the SPME, such as the duration of absorption and desorption, temperature of extraction, and the polarity and structure of the fiber were investigated. Of the various fibers investigated, the PDMS–DVB fiber proved to be the most desirable for these analytes.     

Annual survey of organometallic metal cluster chemistry for the year 2003

The synthetic, mechanistic, and structural chemistry of organometallic metal cluster compounds is reviewed for the year 2003.     

From the Principle of Areno-Analogy to Heterocyclopolyaromatic Compounds

Organometallic linkage of heteroaromatic compounds provided a means of synthesizing complicated combinations of heteroaromatic compounds; not only nucleophilic aromatic substitution, but also “Ar? Cu/Ar? Hal linkage”, “organometallic oxidative linkage”, and “metal amide linkage” have been employed. The heterocyclopolyaromatic compounds are made of one, two, or three kinds of heteroaromatic species as ring members. These syntheses illustrate the construction of heterocycles from large, performed structural units. Competition experiments showed that the reactivity typical of the individual species is enhanced in open-chain combinations (Ar_Nu)_n and (Ar_E)_n (Ar_Nu, Ar_E: nucleo- and electrophilic heteroaromatic systems, respectively); the opposite situation is mostly encountered in the case of Ar_Nu? A_E combinations.—Cycloocta[1,2-b:4,3-b′5,6-b″:8,7-b?]tetrathiophene, the only heterocyclopolyaromatic system yet to have been studied in detail, proved surprisingly inclined to undergo monosubstitution reactions.     

Study on the transannular bond formation and hypercoordination in tin and germanium spirometallocanes

D(CH₂CH₂S)₂MSNH(C₆H₄) (M = Ge, Sn; D = O, S) spirocycles were synthesized to analyze the influence of the decrease of the radius of the metal and the change of the hardness of donor atom on the strength of the transannular bond and the hypercoordination of group 14 elements. The compounds were characterized by IR, Raman and NMR (¹H, ¹³C and ¹¹⁹Sn) spectroscopy, EI mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. Monocrystal X-ray diffraction analyses were made for the germanium compounds. The germaspirocycles were five-coordinated and had distorted trigonal bipyramid geometry. In contrast with most of the reported analogous germocanes, the transannular bond is stronger when the donor atom is oxygen, rather than sulfur. O(CH₂CH₂S)₂GeSNH(C₆H₄) exhibits an intramolecular hydrogen bond formation between the amine group and the transannular oxygen. The presence of this hydrogen bond determines whether the sulfur (O?Ge–S) or the nitrogen (S?Ge–N) of the five-member ring is the axial atom. According to the ¹¹⁹Sn chemical shift, both stannospirocycles were five-coordinated and therefore the presence of the transannular interaction in solution could be suggested.     

Strategies for the liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis of non-polar compounds

Electrospray ionization and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) have evolved recently as very useful tools for the liquid chromatographic–mass spectrometric (LC–MS) analysis of polar substances. Non-polar compounds, however, are difficult to analyze with these atmospheric pressure ionization techniques due to their soft ionization mechanism. Recently, new approaches have been introduced which are likely to overcome this obstacle, at least partly. On-line electrochemical conversion of the analytes to more polar reaction products, atmospheric pressure photoionization, atmospheric pressure electron capture negative ion-MS and coordination ionspray-MS are four techniques which are presented in detail, compared and discussed critically with respect to their current status and future perspectives. Particular focus is directed from a chemical viewpoint on the substance groups which are accessible by each of the new approaches.