Determination of boron and nitrogen in boron nitride

Improved techniques are described for the determination of boron and nitrogen in pure boron nitride. Controlled fusion of boron nitride with sodium carbonate in a muffle furnace is followed by a potentiometric titration of the boric acid. A special quartz vessel is described for the determination of nitrogen. The boron nitride is fused with sodium hydroxide and the resulting ammonia is swept into a receiver and titrated with standard hydrochloric acid. Boron and nitrogen values with their standard deviation are given for a typical pure boron nitride.     

Purification of boron nitride nanotubes through polymer wrapping

An effective method was proposed to remove obstinate boron nitride phase impurities in boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs). The method is based on strong interactions between BNNTs and a conjugated polymer wrapping them and significant weight and size difference between BNNTs and impurities. The as-grown samples and purified samples were compared through detailed characterization, using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. The results reveal that impurities are effectively removed and resultant BNNTs possess perfect crystallization.     

Separate vaporisation of boric acid and inorganic boron from tungsten sample cuvette-tungsten boat furnace followed by the detection of boron species by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-MS and ICP-AES)

Utilising extremely different vaporisation properties of boron compounds, the determination procedures of volatile boric acid and total boron using tungsten boat furnace (TBF) ICP-MS and TBF-ICP-AES have been investigated. For the determination of volatile boric acid by TBF-ICP-MS, tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH, Me₄NOH) was used as a chemical modifier to retain it during drying and ashing stages. As for the total boron, not only non-volatile inorganic boron such as boron nitride (BN), boron carbide (B₄C), etc. but also boric acid (B(OH)₃) was decomposed by a furnace-fusion digestion with NaOH to produce sodium salt of boron, a suitable species for the electrothermal vaporisation (ETV) procedure. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of various standard reference materials. The analytical results for various biological and steel samples are described.     

Rapid spectrophotometric determination of boron in steel

A rapid spectrophotometric method is presented for the determination of boron in steel by use of the fluoborate-Methylene Blue complex. The method is in principle similar to that of Rosotte, but modifications simplify the operation, obviate contamination and avoid problems with emulsion formation. Up to 20% Cr, 10% Ni, and 1% each of V, Mo and W present either individually or collectively do not interfere in the determination, making it applicable to alloy steels. The determination limit of the method has been lowered from 5 to 0.2 ppm boron. Samples are dissolved at room temperature in polythene bottles, solubilizing all forms of boron including boron nitride, and avoiding loss of relatively volatile boron compounds. The precision of the method is good. Six samples can be analysed in less than 2 hr.     

Part per billion determination of oxygen containing impurities in ammonia-nitrogen mixtures

Ammonia-nitrogen feedstock streams, free of oxygen containing impurities, are essential reagents for fabricating low oxygen contaminated nitride films. An analytical method is described for determining part per billion levels of oxygen containing impurities, which are converted to nitric oxide (NO) through reaction with microwave discharge produced active nitrogen. Quantitative determinations are then based on detecting the resulting chemiluminescence of NO at characteristic wavelengths. This metastable transfer spectrometric method (MTES) provides direct measurements of oxygen impurities over the 14 to 500 ppb region and has dynamic range extending to 200 ppm. The method, unparalleled in its measurement sensitivity for oxygen impurities in flowing nitrogen gas streams, is calibrated with an NBS standard and applied to the determination of the purification efficiency of an on-line resin system for removal of O₂, CO and NO from ammonia-nitrogen mixtures. Gaseous streams, doped deliberately in the 0.2 to 100 ppm level with either O₂, CO or NO following purification were found to contain less than 10 ppb of the residual impurity. A commercially available 1% ammonia in nitrogen semiconductor grade reagent (99.999%) is shown by MTES to be contaminated with 470 ppb of oxygen impurities.     

Root-growth mechanism for single-walled boron nitride nanotubes in laser vaporization technique

We present a detailed study of the growth mechanism of single-walled boron nitride nanotubes synthesized by laser vaporization, which is the unique route known to the synthesis of this kind of tube in high quantities. We have performed a nanometric chemical and structural characterization by transmission electron microscopy (high-resolution mode (HRTEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy) of the synthesis products. Different boron-based compounds and other impurities were identified in the raw synthesis products. The results obtained by the TEM analysis and from the synthesis parameters (temperature, boron, and nitrogen sources) combined with phase diagram analysis to provide identification of the fundamental factors determining the nanotube growth mechanism. Our experiments strongly support a root-growth model that involves the presence of a droplet of boron. This phenomenological model considers the solubility, solidification, and segregation phenomena of the elements present in this boron droplet. In this model, we distinguish three different steps as a function of the temperature: (1) formation of the liquid boron droplet from the decomposition of different boron compounds existing in the hexagonal boron nitride target, (2) reaction of these boron droplets with nitrogen gas present in the vaporization chamber and recombination of these elements to form boron nitride, and (3) incorporation of the nitrogen atoms at the root of the boron particle at active reacting sites that achieves the growth of the tube.     

Spectrochemical determination of impurities in telluric acid

An emission spectrographic method is described for determination of 20 elements present as impurities in telluric acid. Samples are excited in a 12-A. d.c. arc with the use of NaCl-KCl as a spectrographic buffer and germanium as internal standard. The limit of determination lies between 10(-5) and 10(-2)%. The precision of the method calculated as relative standard deviation is 10-25%.     

Chemical analysis of impurity boron atoms in diamond using soft X-ray emission spectroscopy

To analyze the local structure and/or chemical states of boron atoms in boron-doped diamond, which can be synthesized by the microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition method (CVD-B-diamond) and the temperature gradient method at high pressure and high temperature (HPT-B-diamond), we measured the soft X-ray emission spectra in the CK and BK regions of B-diamonds using synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). X-ray spectral analyses using the fingerprint method and molecular orbital calculations confirm that boron atoms in CVD-B-diamond substitute for carbon atoms in the diamond lattice to form covalent B-C bonds, while boron atoms in HPT-B-diamond react with the impurity nitrogen atoms to form hexagonal boron nitride. This suggests that the high purity diamond without nitrogen impurities is necessary to synthesize p-type B-diamond semiconductors.     

Simultaneous quantification of three tropane alkaloids in goji berries by cleanup of the graphene/hexagonal boron nitride hybrids and ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

A modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe method was established for simultaneous determination of atropine, anisodamine, and scopolamine in goji berries by using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. The graphene/hexagonal boron nitride hybrids were prepared and first applied as a cleanup adsorbent. Compared to classical cleanup adsorbent (C₁₈), the graphene/hexagonal boron nitride hybrids as adsorbent had better extraction efficiency for the detection of analytes. Under the optimal conditions, the proposed analytical method achieved satisfactory linearity (R² > 0.995), and obtained desirable recoveries ranged from 77.4 to 94.0% with the relative standard deviation of 1.2–6.1% at the concentration levels of 3.2–13.4 µg/kg. The limits of quantitation of atropine, anisodamine, and scopolamine were, respectively, 3.2, 4.6, and 4.5 µg/kg with linearity ranged from 3.2 to 25.4 µg/kg. The modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe sample preparation with ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry method was successfully applied to evaluate the safety of goji berries collected from 30 plant areas in China, suggesting its applicability and suitability for the routine analysis of three tropane alkaloids in goji berries.     

Direct determination of trace elements in boron nitride powders by slurry sampling total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

The use of slurry sampling total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (SlS-TXRF) for the direct determination of Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn and Ti in four boron nitride powders has been described. Measurements of the zeta potential showed that slurries with good stabilities can be obtained by the addition of polyethylenimine (PEI) at a concentration of 0.1 wt.% and by adjusting the pH at 4. For the optimization of the concentration of boron nitride in the slurries the net line intensities and the signal to background ratios were determined for the trace elements Ca and Ti as well as for the internal standard element Ga in the case of concentrations of boron nitride ranging from 1 to 30 mg mL⁻¹. As a compromise with respect to high net line intensities and high signal to background ratios, concentrations of 5 mg mL⁻¹ of boron nitride were found suitable and were used for all further measurements. The limits of detection of SlS-TXRF for the boron nitride powders were found to range from 0.062 to 1.6 μg g^– 1 for Cu and Ca, respectively. Herewith, they are higher than those obtained in solid sampling and slurry sampling graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (SoS-GFAAS, SlS-GFAAS) as well as those of solid sampling electrothermal evaporation inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (SoS-ETV-ICP-OES). For Ca and Fe as well as for Cu and Fe, however, they were found to be lower than for GFAAS and for ICP-OES subsequent to wet chemical digestion, respectively. The universal applicability of SlS-TXRF to the analysis of samples with a wide variety of matrices could be demonstrated by the analysis of certified reference materials such as SiC, Al₂O₃, powdered bovine liver and borate ore with a single calibration. The correlation coefficients of the plots for the values found for Ca, Fe and Ti by SlS-TXRF in the boron nitride powders as well as in the before mentioned samples versus the reference values for the respective samples over a concentration range from 2.5 to 1470 μg g^– 1 were found to be 0.995, 0.991 and 0.997, respectively.     

电感耦合等离子体质谱法测定香精香料中的硼元素

采用微波消解-电感耦合等离子体质谱法(ICP-MS)测定香精香料中硼元素的含量。对微波消解样品前处理条件和仪器参数进行了优化,该方法硼元素检出限为1.005 ng/mL、平均回收率为106.1%、精密度为6.15%(n=5),并用茶叶国家标准物质(GBW10016)对分析方法进行了校准。该方法适合于香精香料中硼元素的测定。     

Linear augmented cylindrical wave Green’s function method for perfect nanotubes and nanotubes with regular and point impurities

Nanotubes are giant cage molecules looking like closed hollow cylindrical shells. This review deals with basic principles of the linear augmented cylindrical Green’s function method and its applications to calculation of the electronic structure of perfect nanotubes and those containing substitutional impurities. A major argument for using cylindrical waves to describe nanotubes is that such a choice of the basis set makes it possible to explicitly consider the actual cylindrical geometry of nanotubes, which, in particular, ensures rapid convergence of iterative procedures. A computation technique has been described and the results of calculations of the band structure and densities of states of carbon and boron nitride nanotubes have been reported. Special attention has been paid to the changes in the electronic properties of nanotubes induced by the substitution of nitrogen, boron, or oxygen for C atoms in the carbon nanotubes, as well as to the isoelectronic substitution of P, Sb, or As for the nitrogen and of Al, In, or Ga for the boron in boron nitride nanotubes.     

电感耦合等离子体发射光谱法测定纺织品中总硼

建立了微波消解-电感耦合等离子体发射光谱法(ICP-OES)测定纺织品中总硼的分析方法。纺织样品经HNO_3-H_2O_2微波消解,以钇元素作为内标元素,以249.772nm波长作为硼的分析线,采用ICP-OES法进行测定。实验结果表明,硼的质量浓度在0.01~0.20mg/L范围内与发射强度比值呈线性关系,方法的定量限为0.8mg/kg,在0.8、1.6、8.0mg/kg添加水平下的回收率为80.4%~104.7%,相对标准偏差为2.4%~9.8%。该方法灵敏度高,定量准确可靠,能够满足纺织品中总硼含量的检测要求。     

ICP-MS 法测定高纯氧化铕中稀土杂质的研究

深入考察了ＩＣＰ－ＭＳ法测定高纯氧化铕时基体对稀土杂质测定的影响,研究了Ｐ５０７萃淋树脂分离大量基体Ｅｕ２Ｏ３的实验条件,建立了采用内标补偿直接测定大部分稀土杂质和经Ｐ５０７萃淋树脂分离基体后测定被干扰离子Ｔｍ相结合的高纯Ｅｕ２Ｏ３中稀土杂质的ＩＣＰ－ＭＳ分析方法。方法检出限为０．００５～０．０２１μｇ／Ｌ,加标回收率为８４％～１１２％。ＲＳＤ为１．４％～８．１％。本法适用于质量分数为９９．９９％～９９．９９９９％的高纯Ｅｕ２Ｏ３中稀土杂质的分析。     

Accurate and efficient determination of boron content in volcanic rocks by neutron induced prompt gamma-ray analysis

An accurate and efficient analytical method using neutron-induced prompt γ-ray was developed for the determination of boron contents in volcanic rocks. We corrected the effect of sample geometry and flux fluctuation by using silicon as an internal standard. However, we found that the slopes of the calibration line vary among volcanic samples with different matrix. Because the increase of boron activity correlates positively with γ-ray count rate of hydrogen (water), we call this as the hydrogen effect. The hydrogen effect was confirmed by our experiment in which the boron activities showed systematic increase with the amount of added hydrogen (water). Most volcanic rocks, however, contain little water (<2 wt.%) to show this effect. We determined boron contents in various volcanic rocks in order to confirm the validity of the procedure that we established. The analyzed boron contents agreed well with the previous reported values. For efficient PGA of boron in volcanic rocks, we recommend JB-2 (GSJ standard rock) as a single geochemical standard, because of its high boron content (31.2 ppm).     

Capillary zone electrophoresis method for the determination of famotidine and related impurities in pharmaceuticals

A simple and rapid capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method with UV detection has been developed for the determination of famotidine and its potential impurities in pharmaceutical formulations. The electrophoretic separation of these compounds was performed using a fused silica capillary and 37.5mmolL(-1) phosphate buffer pH 3.5 as the electrolyte. Under the optimised conditions, six impurities could be resolved from the famotidine peak in less than 7min. The calibration curves obtained for the seven compounds were linear over the concentration range investigated (from 1.5 to 78.5microg mL(-1)). The intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations for the migration times and corrected peak areas were less than 2% and 5%, respectively. The detection limits were found to be 0.09microg mL(-1) for famotidine, and from 0.1 to 0.62microg mL(-1) depending on the impurities. The method has been successfully applied to the determination of famotidine in commercial dosage forms.     

Hydrogen adsorption on carbon-doped boron nitride nanotube

The adsorption of atomic and molecular hydrogen on carbon-doped boron nitride nanotubes is investigated within the ab initio density functional theory. The binding energy of adsorbed hydrogen on carbon-doped boron nitride nanotube is substantially increased when compared with hydrogen on nondoped nanotube. These results are in agreement with experimental results for boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) where dangling bonds are present. The atomic hydrogen makes a chemical covalent bond with carbon substitution, while a physisorption occurs for the molecular hydrogen. For the H(2) molecule adsorbed on the top of a carbon atom in a boron site (BNNT + C(B)-H(2)), a donor defect level is present, while for the H(2) molecule adsorbed on the top of a carbon atom in a nitrogen site (BNNT + C(N)-H(2)), an acceptor defect level is present. The binding energies of H(2) molecules absorbed on carbon-doped boron nitride nanotubes are in the optimal range to work as a hydrogen storage medium.     

乙醇增敏－电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱(ICP-AES)法测定土壤中的全硼

采用电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法（ICP-AES)测定土壤中的全硼,具有测定范围宽,精密度高,测定速度快等优点,但其检出限较高,文章选择乙醇作增敏剂,降低仪器检出限,实现高中低含量样品的同时分析测定。实验发现当乙醇含量为5%时,雾化效率最佳,原子线B208.893 nm,B208.959 nm的灵敏度分别增强了21.2% 和18.7% ;采用HF-HCl-HNO3消解样品,甘露醇作保护剂,甘露醇的加入可有效解决样品消解过程中硼挥发所导致的测定结果偏低,精密度差等问题。按照本实验方法对国家标准物质及实际土壤样品进行全硼的分析测定,测定结果相对标准偏差（RSD,n=11）为0.56%～2.14%,相对误差为-2.8%～1.6%。加标回收率在 96.8%~104.6% 之间 ,可满足日常分析要求。