Engineering active sites for enhancing synergy in heterogeneous catalytic oxidations

The simultaneous isomorphous substitution of Al(III) and P(V) ions, in an aluminophosphate framework, with redox active Co(III) and Ti(IV) metal ions, generates highly active single-site heterogeneous catalysts that exhibit considerable synergy, compared to their corresponding monometallic analogues, in the catalytic epoxidation of olefins.     

Improvement of sample preparation in the chemical sampling of gold ore deposits

A procedure used in the chemical sampling of gold ore deposits for assessing the representative mass of samples and analytical weighed portions is improved. It is shown that the coefficient K used to assess the representative sample mass and characterizing the nonuniformity of the gold distribution in the gold ore sample can go beyond the limits established by the regulations of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation.     

The nature of the active site in heterogeneous metal catalysis

This tutorial review, of relevance for the surface science and heterogeneous catalysis communities, provides a molecular-level discussion of the nature of the active sites in metal catalysis. Fundamental concepts such as "Br?nsted-Evans-Polanyi relations" and "volcano curves" are introduced, and are used to establish a strict partitioning between the so-called "electronic" and "geometrical" effects. This partitioning is subsequently employed as the basis for defining the concept "degree of structure sensitivity" which can be used when analyzing the structure sensitivity of catalytic reactions.     

Heterodinuclear metal arrangement in a flat macrocycle with two chemically-equivalent metal chelating sites

A phenanthroline-based macrocycle 1 has been newly developed which has two chemically equivalent metal chelating sites within the spatially restricted cavity for dinuclear metal arrangement. The macrocycle 1 reacts with Zn(CF(3)CO(2))(2) or ZnCl(2) to form homodinuclear Zn(II)-complexes. A single-crystal X-ray structural analysis of the resulting Zn(2)1(CF(3)CO(2))(4) determined the complex structure in which two Zn(II) ions are bound by two phenanthroline sites and two CF(3)CO(2)(-) ions bind to each Zn(II) ion in a tetrahedral geometry. Similarly, a homodinuclear Cu(I)-macrocycle was formed from 1 and Cu(CH(3)CN)(4)BF(4). Notably, from 1 and an equimolar mixture of Cu(CH(3)CN)(4)BF(4) and Zn(CF(3)CO(2))(2), a heterodinuclear Cu(I)-Zn(II)-macrocycle was exclusively formed in high yield (>90%) because of the relatively low stability of the dinuclear Cu(I)-macrocycle. A heterodinuclear Ag(I)-Zn(II)-macrocycle was similarly formed with fairly high selectivity from a mixture of Ag(I) and Zn(II) ions. Such selective heterodinuclear metal arrangement was not observed with other combinations of M-Zn(II) (M = Li(I), Mg(II), Pd(II), Hg(II), La(III), and Tb(III)).     

Active sites in chemisorption of oxygen on metal films

Simultaneous chemiluminescence and piezoelectric quarts crystal vacuum microbalance measurements of chemisorption rates of oxygen on deposited metal films reveal the existence of slow and fast reactions. The latter is undetected by the microbalance and is suppressed if the film is first treated with methane. We believe it to occur on “active” sites covering only a very small fraction of the surface and since dissociative Langmuir kinetics are obeyed conclude that regions of surface atoms rather than isolated atoms are involved.     

Modeling of isospecific Ti sites in MgCl2 supported heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts

New models for the steric environment of Ti isospecific polymerization sites for poly(propylene) on MgCl₂ microcrystals are proposed. They directly involve a donor molecule in order to obtain isospecific activable Ti atoms otherwise belonging to isolated adsorbed TiCl₄ molecules or Ti₂Cl₈ dimers which are lacking of the required chirality for stereocontrol. The donor molecules able to attain at best this effect keep to some peculiar conformational rules settled by the authors in a previous theoretical-correlative study on highly active Lewis bases. The new 1,3-dimethoxypropane series suggested by the authors and recently patented by Montell has been examined in detail. Essentially three different types of closeness between Ti atoms and donor molecules can take place, in which different moieties of the diether compound help to build the ‘right’ steric environment in the site's neighbouring. In the three proposed models S1, S2, S3 the stereocontrol is attained through, respectively, one of the methoxy moieties, one of the methyls, and one of the central carbon atom substituents. New hypotheses on the role of Lewis bases in the preparation of isospecific heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts are discussed.     

Lead concentration in soil from an old mining town

Lead concentration in soils has been measured in Vetagrande, an old mining town located at the state of Zacatecas in México. Eighty nine soils samples were analyzed using Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence. The lead concentrations were treated with the Kriging method in order to estimate the lead concentration distribution in the studied area. Pb levels in soils were from 8 to 7730 μg kg⁻¹, where 28.1% of soil samples have less than 400 μg kg⁻¹, 71.9% is above 400 μg kg⁻¹ which is the maximum level recommended by the EPA for residential use of soil. Lead concentration measured around public sites represent a risk of lead intake in the population.     

Role of exposed metal sites in hydrogen storage in MOFs

The role of exposed metal sites in increasing the H2 storage performances in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been investigated by means of IR spectrometry. Three MOFs have been considered: MOF-5, with unexposed metal sites, and HKUST-1 and CPO-27-Ni, with exposed Cu(2+) and Ni(2+), respectively. The onset temperature of spectroscopic features associated with adsorbed H2 correlates with the adsorption enthalpy obtained by the VTIR method and with the shift experienced by the H-H stretching frequency. This relationship can be ascribed to the different nature and accessibility of the metal sites. On the basis of a pure energetic evaluation, it was observed that the best performance was shown by CPO-27-Ni that exhibits also an initial adsorption enthalpy of -13.5 kJ mol(-1), the highest yet observed for a MOF. Unfortunately, upon comparison of the hydrogen amounts stored at high pressure, the hydrogen capacities in these conditions are mostly dependent on the surface area and total pore volume of the material. This means that if control of MOF surface area can benefit the total stored amounts, only the presence of a great number of strong adsorption sites can make the (P, T) storage conditions more economically favorable. These observations lead to the prediction that efficient H2 storage by physisorption can be obtained by increasing the surface density of strong adsorption sites.     

Improvement of the control of analytical work in the chemical sampling of gold ore deposits

A procedure for the control of analytical work in the chemical sampling of gold ore deposits is proposed to increase the efficiency of the control of analytical work.     

Hydrogen storage in microporous metal-organic frameworks with exposed metal sites

Owing to their high uptake capacity at low temperature and excellent reversibility kinetics, metal-organic frameworks have attracted considerable attention as potential solid-state hydrogen storage materials. In the last few years, researchers have also identified several strategies for increasing the affinity of these materials towards hydrogen, among which the binding of H(2) to unsaturated metal centers is one of the most promising. Herein, we review the synthetic approaches employed thus far for producing frameworks with exposed metal sites, and summarize the hydrogen uptake capacities and binding energies in these materials. In addition, results from experiments that were used to probe independently the metal-hydrogen interaction in selected materials will be discussed.     

Organoarsenic compounds in plants and soil on top of an ore vein

Plants and soil collected above an ore vein in Gasen (Austria) were investigated for total arsenic concentrations by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). Total arsenic concentrations in all samples were higher than those usually found at non‐contaminated sites. The arsenic concentration in the soil ranged from ∼700 to ∼4000 mg kg⁻¹ dry mass. Arsenic concentrations in plant samples ranged from ∼0.5 to 6 mg kg⁻¹ dry mass and varied with plant species and plant part. Examination of plant and soil extracts by high‐performance liquid chromatography–ICP‐MS revealed that only small amounts of arsenic (<1%) could be extracted from the soil and the main part of the extractable arsenic from soil was inorganic arsenic, dominated by arsenate. Trimethylarsine oxide and arsenobetaine were also detected as minor compounds in soil. The extracts of the plants (Trifolium pratense, Dactylis glomerata, and Plantago lanceolata) contained arsenate, arsenite, methylarsonic acid, dimethylarsinic acid, trimethylarsine oxide, the tetramethylarsonium ion, arsenobetaine, and arsenocholine (2.5–12% extraction efficiency). The arsenic compounds and their concentrations differed with plant species. The extracts of D. glomerata and P. lanceolata contained mainly inorganic arsenic compounds typical of most other plants. T. pratense, on the other hand, contained mainly organic arsenicals and the major compound was methylarsonic acid. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

火焰原子吸收法测定土壤中铜的测量不确定度评定

根据GB／T17138-1997规定的测量步骤对土壤中的铜进行了测定,对影响测定结果的各不确定度来源进行了分析,并对一个样品的测定结果进行了不确定度评定。     

Temperature dependence of stereospecificity of active sites in heterogeneous catalysts for propylene polymerization

Temperature dependences of the stereoregularity parameters of the most stereospecific active centres of α-TiCl₃-AlEt₃ catalytic system from ?25 to 120 and of VCl₃-AlEt₃ catalytic system from ?15° to 90° have been measured. It was found that this temperature dependence could be represented by a curve with a minimum at 20–50. The results could be explained by a two-step mechanism of isotactic chain growth (propagation) with preliminary co-ordination of monomer on the active centres.     

Conversion of N-arylhydroxylamines in the presence of metal complexes and heterogeneous catalysts

Conclusions The nature of the component distribution and the transformations in the catalytic hydrogenation of aromatic nitro compounds are analogous for the use of metal complex, colloidal, and heterogeneous catalysts. The hydrogenation features the formation of amino compounds due to disproportionation of intermediate N-arylhydroxylamines.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 12, pp. 2846–2848, December, 1988.The author thanks A. V. Bulatov for providing samples of the metal complex catalyst.     

Critical evaluation of adsorption-based sampling of vaporized metal species in flue gases

Diffusion-controlled sampling techniques, i.e. diffusion screens and diffusion tubes (= denuders), can be used in the collection of several vaporized heavy metal species in clean gases (pure N₂ atmosphere) at elevated temperatures. Collection efficiencies obtained for Hg, HgCl₂, Cd, CdCl₂ and ZnCl₂ were over 90% using adsorption on Au-coated diffusion screens and Ag-coated denuders. However, the collection efficiencies for Zn and PbCl₂ were significantly lower. In field measurements performed at a hazardous waste incineration plant and in a power plant equipped with a circulating fluidized-bed boiler, collection efficiencies seemed to vary noticeably depending on the sampling conditions and metal species to be sampled. Best collection efficiencies were obtained for mercury with both Ag coated denuders and Au coated screens whereas cadmium showed significantly poorer results in field measurements than in the laboratory. Sampling of zinc and lead species seemed to be problematic in all cases. Of the two sampling techniques, the denuder technique is more recommendable than the screen technique for sampling in relatively clean gases. However, neither of these techniques should be used in flue gases without further understanding of the collection mechanisms. Received: 6 November 1996 / Revised: 3 July 1996 / Accepted: 14 July 1996     

石墨炉原子吸收光谱法测定土壤中铅量的测量不确定度评定

通过石墨炉原子吸收光谱法对土壤中的铅量进行了测定,对影响测量结果的不确定度分量进行了量化的计算.从而得出影响铅量测量不确定度的主要因素是测量样品消解液中的铅的质量浓度引起的不确定度.     

Catalytic effect in lithium metal batteries: From heterogeneous catalyst to homogenous catalyst

Lithium metal batteries are regarded as prominent contenders to address the pressing needs owing to the high theoretical capacity.Toward the broader implementation,the primary obstacle lies in the intricate multi-electron,multi-step redox reaction associated with sluggish conversion kinetics,subsequently giving rise to a cascade of parasitic issues.In order to smooth reaction kinetics,catalysts are widely introduced to accelerate reaction rate via modulating the energy barrier.Over past decades,...     

Uranium in natural waters sampled within former uranium mining sites in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

New data are presented on ²³⁸U concentrations in surface and ground waters sampled at selected uranium mining sites in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and in water supplies of settlements located in the vicinity of these sites. Radiochemical neutron activation analysis (RNAA) was used for ²³⁸U determination in all cases. In addition, for data accuracy assessments purposes, a sub-set of these samples was analysed by high-resolution alpha spectrometry, following standard radiochemical separation and purification. Our data show that drinking waters sampled at various settlements located close to the uranium mining sites are characterised by relatively low uranium concentrations (1.9–35.9 μg L⁻¹) compared to surface waters sampled within the same sites. The latter show high concentrations of total uranium, reflecting the influence from the radioactive waste generated as a result of uranium ore production.