Modeling diamagnetic and magnetooptic properties of organic compounds with the TOSS-MODE approach

The topological substructural molecular design (TOSS-MODE) approach is used to describe the diamagnetic susceptibility of organic compounds. Two data sets composed of 233 aliphatic and 85 aromatic compounds were studied for which good linear correlations were found. The contributions of many different structural fragments and atomic groups were computed by the current approach. The predictive ability of the models developed was tested by using external prediction sets of compounds of different classes than those used in training. A quantitative model based on the current approach was developed to compute the diamagnetic susceptibility exaltation of aromatic compounds, which is exemplified by the study of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The rotatory power of organic compounds in a magnetic field was also described by the TOSS-MODE approach. Good linear correlations were obtained for this property in aliphatic and aromatic compounds. The predictive abilities of the models found were tested by external prediction sets for which good correlations between calculated and experimental values are found.     

Stochastic search for the conformations of bicyclic hydrocarbons

The stochastic search method was used to seek all of the conformations for 32 bicyclic hydrocarbons. Since the size of the random kick used is sufficient to invert the configurations of carbon atoms, the out, out, in, out, and in, in conformations were all found in a single stochastic run for each hydrocarbon. The lowest energy conformer obtained in each category is reported. A modification of the program to prevent inversion of configuration was developed. It was found, in some cases, that in, in and out, out isomers for some bicyclic hydrocarbons were interconverted by this modified program, presumably through the “homeomorphic isomerization” process described by Park and Simmons. A statistical formula for estimating the approximate chances of finding (or missing) any conformer as a function of the number of random kicks given is derived and presented.     

Determination of Uranium and Plutonium in High Active Solutions by Extractive Spectrophotometry

Plutonium and uranium was extracted from nitric acid into trioctyl phosphine oxide in xylene. The TOPO layer was analysed by spectrophotometry. Thoron was used as the chromogenic agent for plutonium. Pyridyl azoresorcinol was used as chromogenic agent for uranium. The molar absorption coefficient for uranium and plutonium was found to be 19000 and 19264 liter/mole-cm, respectively. The correlation coefficient for plutonium and uranium was found to be 0.9994. The relative standard deviation for the determination of plutonium and uranium was found to be 0.96% and 1.4%, respectively.     

Determination of carbendazim in tea using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS) is applied to detect the concentration of carbendzim(CBZ) in tea leaves. Au colloid is selected and used for active surfaces, and the extraction conditions are optimized in the experiment. The linearity range for the SERS intensity and the concentration of CBZ is found to be0.5 to 8 mg kgà1. The detection limit for CBZ is 0.1 mg kgà1and its recovery in tea samples is 72.3%. The detection results for CBZ using this method are compared with those of HPLC, and no obvious difference can be found. In addition, by dripping the condensed Au colloid on the tea leaves, the proposed SERS approach could be used to the in-situ determination of the half life period of CBZ on tea leaves.     

A routine gas chromatographic method for the analysis of chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol cans

Summary A gas chromatographic (GC) method for the routine analysis of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in aerosol cans is described. The identification of CFCs by GC was found to be in full agreement with those by GC-mass-spectrometery. The method has been applied to the analysis of CFCs in 448 aerosol products. The most commonly used fully halogenated CFC propellants in aerosol cans were found to be CFC11, CFC12 and CFC114.     

Odd-even effects in the alignment of ferroelectric liquid crystals

Nine different poly-n-alkylterphthalamides have been synthesized, and their properties as alignment layers for chiral smectic C liquid crystals have been determined. Poly-n-hexylterphthalamide is found to be particularly well suited for one of the room temperature mixtures used in this study. The contrast between relaxed states shows an odd-even effect that can probably be explained by the crystal form of the different polymers. The tilt angle found between the relaxed states depends only on the polymer used, not on the inherent tilt of the chiral smectic C phases.     

Effect of working gases on thermal plasma waste treatment

An electric arc melter used for waste treatment processing is numerically studied. The effects of different plasma working gases are studied by using a laboratory scale test reactor. A two-dimensional finite difference approximation is used to solve the set of governing equations. The Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the combined Maxwell's equation for the electromagnetic fields is used to obtain the temperature and flow fields in the are melter. It is found that the energy efficiency of the air plasma is lower than that of an argon plasma. However, the melted soil volumes are larger using the air plasma than those using the argon plasma. The overall energy efficiency increases cis the gap between the cathode and the soil surface decreases. More uniform gas temperatures are found for the air plasma than that for the argon plasma. Result obtained from the laboratory-scale are melter is used as an input of the energy absorbed into the soil for the USBM arc melter simulation. Results show a maximum temperature of 2195 K at the center of the heat generation and a molten soil exit temperature of 1600 K.     

Isotopes and concentrations of Zn in human blood and serum by ICP-MS

The double focusing-Jeol Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer PLASMAX2 is used at different resolving powers, for the separation between zinc isotopes and their interfering ions. NIST standard solution samples of zinc as single and multielements are used in the analysis. Variation of different Zn isotopic abundances and their interfering ions are studied as a function of concentrations at low and high resolutions. The precision for different isotopic ratios in multielement solutions, after taking the experimental considerations, at high resolution are calculated and found to have a value between 0.19 and 0.42. While the accuracy for the isotopes can reach a value between 0.27 and 1.17, blood and serum samples in human are used as an application for this method in the biological samples. The obtained results are compared with that obtained by using flame atomic absorption spectrometer and it is found in the same range of concentration.     

Direct probing of zwitterion formation in unsolvated peptides

Molecular beam electric deflection measurements have been used to determine electric susceptibilities for small unsolvated alanine-based peptides. The electric susceptibility provides information about the charge distribution within the peptide and can be used to distinguish between zwitterionic and canonical forms. Measured electric susceptibilities for WAn peptides (n = 1-5) are similar to those for capped Ac-WAn-NH2 peptides (which cannot form zwitterions). Susceptibilities calculated using a simulated tempering-based approach are substantially larger for the zwitterionic form than for the canonical form. The measured susceptibilities are in good agreement with those calculated for the canonical form. For the larger peptides, the lowest potential energy structure found in the simulations is hairpin-like, while the lowest free energy structure found at room temperature is extended. The zwitterionic form is constrained by intramolecular interactions which make it entropically unfavorable.     

Pyrene: hydrogenation, hydrogen evolution, and π-band model

We present a theoretical investigation of the hydrogenation of pyrene and of the subsequent molecular hydrogen evolution. Using density functional theory (DFT) at the GGA-PBE level, the chemical binding of atomic hydrogen to pyrene is found to be exothermic by up to 1.6 eV with a strong site dependence. The edge C atoms are found most reactive. The barrier for the formation of the hydrogen-pyrene bond is small, down to 0.06 eV. A second hydrogen binds barrierless at many sites. The most stable structure of dihydrogenpyrene is more stable by 0.64 eV than pyrene plus a molecular hydrogen molecule and a large barrier of 3.7 eV for the molecular hydrogen evolution is found. Using a simple tight-binding model we demonstrate that the projected density of π-states can be used to predict the most stable binding sites for hydrogen atoms and the model is used to investigate the most favorable binding sites on more hydrogenated pyrene molecules and on coronene. Some of the DFT calculations were complemented with hybrid-DFT (PBE0) showing a general agreement between the DFT and hybrid-DFT results.     

葡萄糖酶电极测定环糊精聚合物中的环糊精单元

用多巴胺电氧化聚合物膜将葡萄糖氧化酶固定在铅笔电极上,制得简易的葡萄糖酶电极.用自制的葡萄糖酶电极对自制环糊精聚合物中环糊精单元进行定量检测.研究了自制的葡萄糖酶电极的检测范围和稳定性.结果表明环糊精聚合物中环糊精单元质量与葡萄糖酶电极响应电流间存在很好的线性关系,且酶电极稳定性好,可以多次反复使用,连续使用30天,响应电流只减弱7%.与用Sulfate-Phenol比色法测得的环糊精聚合物中环糊精单元结果相比,两者相对偏差在8%以内.     

Odd-even effects in the alignment of ferroelectric liquid crystals

Nine different poly-n-alkylterphthalamides have been synthesized, and their properties as alignment layers for chiral smectic C liquid crystals have been determined. Poly-n-hexylterphthalamide is found to be particularly well suited for one of the room temperature mixtures used in this study. The contrast between relaxed states shows an odd-even effect that can probably be explained by the crystal form of the different polymers. The tilt angle found between the relaxed states depends only on the polymer used, not on the inherent tilt of the chiral smectic C phases.     

Analysis of p-chlorobenzoic acid in water by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

para-Chlorobenzoic acid (p-CBA) is typically used as a probe compound to indirectly quantify hydroxyl radicals formed during advanced oxidation processes used in drinking water and wastewater treatment. A method has been developed for the sensitive analysis of p-CBA in water using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). A reporting limit in water of 100 ng/L was determined for the method, which is 40-fold lower than the 4.0 microg/L reporting limit of the widely used liquid chromatography with UV detection (LC-UV) method. The method was found to be robust in difficult matrices such as wastewater and highly selective, unlike LC-UV which relies on non-specific detection at 234 nm. The detection of p-CBA below 1 microg/L during bench-scale ozonation of wastewater after hydrogen peroxide addition was demonstrated. Duplicate samples were analyzed by LC-MS/MS and LC-UV and results were found to be comparable at concentrations quantifiable by both methods.     

Determination and removal of impurities in 2-D LC-MS of peptides

Problems occurring during operation of a 2-D LC-MS system for separation and identification of neuropeptides, such as contamination of the used salts and column bleed, are described. When using polysulfoethyl aspartamide, which is widely used as a strong cation exchange stationary phase in the first dimension, interfering peaks were observed in the second-dimension reversed-phase chromatograms. The observed peaks, found to be caused by column bleeding, had abundance above the threshold value and influenced the quality of the analyses. The origin of the peaks was verified and appropriate measures are proposed. Additionally, peaks caused by polyethylene glycols (PEGs), covering approximately 5 min of feasible chromatographic time in every fraction, were observed. The commercial ammonium formate salts used to prepare the first-dimension mobile phase were found to contain PEG impurities, and in subsequent work the salt solutions were prepared from formic acid and ammonia to avoid any additional contaminations.     

Solvation of sodium-chloride ion pair in water cluster at atmospheric conditions: grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulation

Open statistical ensemble simulations are used to study the mechanism of nucleation of atmospheric water on sodium-chloride ion pair in a wide range of temperature and relative humidity values. The extended simple point-charge model is used for water molecules. Ions-water nonadditive interactions are taken into account by introducing the mutual polarization of ions and water in the field of each other. Gibbs free-energy variations are calculated from Na+-Cl- pair-correlation function and used as a criterion for determining the possible stable states of the cluster. In this relation, it was found that the dissociation of ion pairs in water clusters occurs even at vapor pressures of only a few millibars. In the conditions under consideration solvent-separated ion-pair states are found to be more probable than contact ion-pair configurations. The susceptibilities of water and ions are found to play an essential role in the stabilization of ions at large separations. The structure of ion-induced clusters is analyzed in terms of binary correlation functions. The non-pair interactions influence essentially the structure of ion solvation shells. The results of simulation show that the separation of the charges in water clusters containing simple ions can take place under atmospheric conditions.     

Specific Differential Spectrophotdmetric Determination of Ascorbic Acid in Plants Using Ascorbate Oxidase

Abstract

A specific enzymic-differential spectrophatometric method is described and evaluated for the determination of ascorbic acid in vegetables and medicinal plants. It is based on the absorbance measurement at 593 nm of the complex of ferrous ion with 2,4,6-tris (pyridyl)-S-triazine, which is produced by reduction of ferric ion by ascorbic acid, versus a blank sample treated with ascorbate oxidase. The absorbance difference is linearly related to ascorbic acid from 10 to 100 ug/ml. A standard deviation of ±0.5 ug/ml (n=5) and a mean recovery of 101.47. (98.3–103.3%.) from spiked plant extracts, were found. The method was used to determine ascorbic acid in various plants of the Greek flora. Acacia cvanophvlla was found to be the richest source tested for ascorbic acid (89.6 mq/100 q of leaves). The method is very simple and can be used in routine analysis.     

Adhesion to mineralized tissue: Bonding to human dentin

We consider the conditions and demonstrable reactions which promote chemical bonding to human dentin. The desirability of developing durable adhesion to dentin is used as background for a discussion of feasible reactions to the dentin components, for possible use in new formulations. This is followed by a discussion of the demonstrable reactions found in the literature, as well as our own surface-sensitive IR work on the reaction between dentin protein and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, an ingredient found in proprietary tissue replacement formulations.     

Cobalt Complex of l-(2-Quinolylazo)-2-Phenanthrol(Co-Qap) as a Visual Acid-Base Indicator

Cobalt complex of 1-(2-quinolylazo)-2-phenanthrol (Co-QAP) prepared by refluxing cobalt acetate and QAP in the molar ratio 1:2 has been used as a visual acid-base indicator. The apparant indicator constant has been found to be 6.35. The solution of the indicator in dioxane is stable for at least fifteen days if stored in a dark coloured bottle, while in a transparent bottle it was found to be stable for eight days.     

Water Oxidation for Simplified Models of the Oxygen‐Evolving Complex in Photosystem II

For the main parts of the mechanism for water oxidation in photosystem II there has recently been very strong experimental support for the mechanism suggested by theoretical model studies. The question addressed in the present study is to what extent this knowledge can be used for the design of artificial catalysts. A major requirement for a useful artificial catalyst is that it is small enough to be synthesized. Small catalysts also have the big advantage that they could improve the catalysis per surface area. To make the mechanism found for PSII useful in this context, it needs to be analyzed in detail. A small model system was therefore used and the ligands were replaced one by one by water‐derived ligands. Only the main chemical step of O?O bond formation was investigated in this initial study. The energetics for this small model and the larger one previously used for PSII are remarkably similar, which is the most important result of the present study. This shows that small model complexes have a potential for being very good water oxidation catalysts. It was furthermore found that there is a clear correlation between the barrier height for O?O bond formation and the type of optimal structure for the S₃ state. The analysis shows that a flexible central part of the complex is the key for efficient water oxidation.     

High resolution gas phase chromatography-mass spectrometry of polychlorinated biphenyl congener residues in samples of biologic origin

A study is performed on polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congener residues in samples of human blood and milk as well as in falcon and pigeon eggs. Most of the PCB congeners found in these biological samples were quantified by high-resolution gas chromatography (HRGC). A PCB technical mixture--namely, DP6 (Phenochlor)--was used for the calibration as its composition was previously determined by HRGC-mass spectrometry. The usefulness of such a congener analysis is outlined. It is the first time to the best of our knowledge that a Phenochlor mixture is used for standardization.