A strategy to improve the accuracy of digital simulation for electroanalytical chemistry

A strategy for digital simulation methods was presented for solving partial differential equations, called as IPBFP which is to insert M points before the first time point of the usual way, to decrease simulation errors. The theoretical analysis and simulation results show that it can improve the fully implicit method with any dimensionless diffusion coefficient A, Crank-Nicolson method with large and Saul'yev method with small . The IPBFP is convenient to arrange the simulation time points flexibly and reduce calculation time and errors. This approach can combine the merits of non-uniform time grid and uniform time grid methods in simulation for electrochemical studies.     

Influence of hydration on the protomeric tautomerism in selenium analogue of methimazole: A computational chemistry study

Hydrogen bond assisted proton transfer reactions were investigated in 3-methyl-1H-imidazole-2(3H)-selone (MSeI) and 1H-imidazole-2(3H)-selone (SeI) at B3LYP/6-311++G(2d,2p) level of theory. The B3LYP results predict that the direct proton transfer process in MSeI and SeI is more difficult than the water-assisted one. The results also show that the selone complexes are more stable than corresponding selenol ones. Interaction energies for a single NHSe hydrogen bond in dimers MSeI and SeI are −31.3 and −32.7 kJ/mol, respectively. ZPE-corrected binding energies in the self-association complexes of the MSeI and SeI are greater than the water-associated complexes. The small negative value of H(r) obtained by AIM analysis at B3LYP/6-311++G(2d,2p) level reveals some contribution of sharing interaction (partially covalent) to the SeHN bond in dimers of the MSeI and SeI. AIM data also reveal the partially covalent nature of SeH6 interaction and electrostatic nature of OH5 interaction in water-associated complexes. Results of charge analysis show that the selenium analogue of the methimazole is more nucleophilic than the methimazole. Our results confirm that the selenium analogue of methimazole can exist as a zwitterionic form.     

Monte-carlo simulation of gas chromatographic separation for the prediction of retention times and peak half widths

Summary A new method for prediction of gas chromatographic retention times and peak half widths is based on the renewal theory. The only requirements are the heats of vaporization of the compounds to be separated and one calibration measurement. With this data, retention times and peak half widths can be predicted for isothermal as well as temperature-programmed gas chromatography. For the separation of non-polar substances on non-polar stationary phases the prediction error for retention times is approx. 1–2%. First simulations of polar molecules and polar stationary phases indicate that this method is also applicable in these cases but some extension will be required.     

Liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry of unusual phenols from Yucca schidigera bark: comparison with other analytical techniques

Qualitative and quantitative analyses of phenolic compounds are of interest for both medicinal and food plants. In the present work, the phenolic fraction from Yucca schidigera, a plant bearing the GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) label approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, was studied. Crude extracts of Y. schidigera bark were investigated by liquid chromatography/UV spectrophotometry with diode-array detection, liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS) and liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS), in order to develop and optimize simple and rapid techniques to determine both stilbenes and yuccaols for the purposes of quality control of collected material. With optimal LC and MS conditions, stilbenes and yuccaols were quantified with all the proposed methods and the results were compared. Sensitivity was evaluated and the results indicated that MS/MS detection in the multiple reaction monitoring mode is easily applicable to this plant and allows the rapid and direct identification and quantification of these peculiar compounds in crude plant extracts.     

Recent progress in the application of analytical techniques to anticancer metallodrug proteomics

Interactions of therapeutic drugs containing metals with proteins are known to exert a great impact on the mode of action of these compounds, including drug metabolism, delivery, cell processing, and targeting. Modern analytical techniques applied to proteomic studies of metallodrugs may improve our understanding of accompanying biochemical processes, which is essential for the efficiency of treatment, the proper dosing of established metal-based cancerostatic agents, and the design and development of new drugs. Such methods basically rely on the application of mass spectrometry (or a few alternative detection techniques) for species identification, characterization, quantification, and measuring the binding parameters, directly or after separation of free parent drug and protein-bound drug fractions, using the principles of electrophoresis, chromatography or ultrafiltration.This review focuses on the development and recent advances in the field of “metallodrug proteomics” from the implementation of advanced analytical methodologies. Also addressed are emerging issues of metallodrug binding toward cellular protein targets and within real-world biological samples.     

A study of rubber flow in a mold during the tire shaping process using experiment and computer simulation

Automobile tires consist of more than ten layers, including tread, belt, carcass, sidewall, etc. The outermost layer, known as the tread, plays an important role during driving as it comes in direct contact with the road. This tread has grooves with complicated shapes, which are formed by a mold during the shaping process. When the tread rubber does not fill the mold properly, tire quality deteriorates crucially. As such, it is important to observe the flow of the tread rubber during the shaping process. To determine the flow of tread rubber in the mold, we conducted an experiment and computer simulation with white rubber strips inserted into specific areas of the tread. The white rubber strips showed detailed flow behavior of the tread rubber visually in the mold during the shaping process. No significant flows were observed for rubber in the central area of each block of the mold, but more changes were found near the edges of each block. The strips of rubber below the grooves exhibited more significant changes as they were pressed down by the protruding area of the mold. Moreover, there was no flow of rubber between blocks in the mold. This implies the profile design of the extruded tread should match the mold profile and the volume of each block. The experiment and simulation had similar results, and the observations of rubber flow in the mold using simulation proved to be highly useful.     

Simulation of an ultrafiltration process of bovine serum albumin in hollow-fiber membranes

This work presents a numerical simulation of an ultrafiltration process of bovine serum albumin in solution, using hollow-fiber membranes. Such membranes are constituted of tiny polymer cylinders disposed in a tube-and-shell arrangement. The concentrate flows through the interior of the fibers and the pure solvent is recovered in the shell, assuming perfect solute rejection. In modeling the process, the flow of concentrate inside the fibers was considered to be laminar, with constant density, viscosity and solute diffusivity. Axial diffusion and angular effects were ignored. The model combines the effect of concentration polarization and adsorption, which are the two main limiting phenomena in ultrafiltration processes. The pressure on the shell side was considered constant and inside the fibers a linear pressure profile, dependent on the axial position, was adopted. The solution of the problem was achieved with the method of orthogonal collocation, with adequate choice of the weight function in the radial direction. In the axial direction, a finite-difference method was used. The numerical results were compared with experimental data available in the literature.     

Advanced analytical techniques for the extraction and characterization of plant‐derived essential oils by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry

In recent years, essential oils have received a growing interest because of the positive health effects of their novel characteristics such as antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant activities. For the extraction of plant‐derived essential oils, there is the need of advanced analytical techniques and innovative methodologies. An exhaustive study of hydrodistillation, supercritical fluid extraction, ultrasound‐ and microwave‐assisted extraction, solid‐phase microextraction, pressurized liquid extraction, pressurized hot water extraction, liquid–liquid extraction, liquid‐phase microextraction, matrix solid‐phase dispersion, and gas chromatography (one‐ and two‐dimensional) hyphenated with mass spectrometry for the extraction through various plant species and analysis of essential oils has been provided in this review. Essential oils are composed of mainly terpenes and terpenoids with low‐molecular‐weight aromatic and aliphatic constituents that are particularly important for public health.     

Modeling the oxidative coupling of methane： Heterogeneous chemistry coupled with 3D flow field simulation

The oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) over titanate perovskite catalyst has been developed by three-dimensional numerical simulations of flow field coupled with heat transfer as well as heterogeneous kinetic model. The reaction was assumed to take place both in the gas phase and on the catalytic surface. Kinetic rate constants were experimentally obtained using a ten step kinetic model. The simulation results agree quite well with the data of OCM experiments, which were used to investigate the effect of temperature on the selectivity and conversion obtained in the methane oxidative coupling process. The conversion of methane linearly increased with temperature and the selectivity of C2 was practically constant in the temperature range of 973–1073 K. The study shows that CFD tools make it possible to implement the heterogeneous kinetic model even for high exothermic reaction such as OCM.     

Effect of chemical potential on the computer simulation of hydrogen storage in single walled carbon nanotubes

Hydrogen is a kind of clean, sustainable and renewable energy carrier. Of the problems to be solved for the utilization of hydrogen energy, how to store and transport hydrogen has been given high priority on the research agenda. Recently, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were reported to be very promising candidates for hydrogen uptake[1], which may have possibility to satisfy the benchmark set by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Plan for fuel cell powered vehicles: a gravimetric density …     

DSC study and computer modelling of the melting process in ice slurry

In order to understand the non-isothermal melting kinetics in the ice slurry, a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used. Experimental results were compared to those obtained by a numerical simulation in which a general enthalpy method was applied. In this work the ice slurry studied consists of ice particles uniformly dispersed within a water-antifreeze liquid mixture. The effects of the heating rate and the initial antifreeze mass fraction are discussed. It has been found that the temperature gradients inside the sample of the solution become important if either heating rate increases or initial antifreeze mass fraction decreases.     

Molecular simulation of condensation process of Lennard-Jones fluids confined in nanospace with jungle-gym structure

We report grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations for a Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid modeled on methane confined in nanospace with jungle-gym-like (JG) cubic structure, which is typically found in porous coordination polymers. Pillars composing the cubic structure were modeled as structureless smooth solid rods made of LJ carbon. We examined the effects of pore size, pore geometry, rod thickness, and rod potential onto the condensation phenomena in the JG pore structure. The simulations clarified that the condensation pressure and adsorption amount in the JG structure were influenced by pore size and rod potential, while the transition type was determined by rod thickness. The characteristics of the JG structure lie in the sensitivity to the slight changes in pore size, rod thickness, and rod potential owing to the combination of the packing effect of molecules and the superposition effect of rod potentials.     

Modeling the polymerization behavior of vegetable‐oil‐derived macromonomers in solution by computer simulation

A computer simulation model was used to study the polymerization behavior of multifunctional, vegetable‐oil‐derived macromonomers. Mixtures of olefins (A) and acrylates (B) were initially randomly dispersed on a cubic lattice of size L³. Interactions between A, B, and the solvent sites were considered with respect to their relative proximity, mobility and some kinetics. The Metropolis algorithm was used to move each functional group (A and B). Stirred and equilibrated samples were prepared before reaction initiation. Reactions between the functional groups were implemented with a bonding probability k_αβ, which was subject to the availability of unsaturated bonds. The conversion factor, that is, the growth of A–B bonds, was analyzed for a range of polymer concentrations (p = 0.2–0.8) with different reaction probabilities (i.e., k_αβ). A stirred (nonequilibrium) sample did not allow sufficient time for the functional groups to arrange according to the interaction parameters. Therefore, the simulations were rerun with equilibrated samples and were found to be consistent with experimental observations. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 1164–1172, 2004     

Occurrence of erythromycin and its degradation products residues in honey. Validation of an analytical method

Erythromycin A, the main component of erythromycin, is widely used to treat and control foulbrood diseases in honey bees. In this study, we developed a fast and sensitive method to simultaneously determine erythromycin A and its degradation products in honey. The analytical methodology was based on dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry with advanced i‐Funnel technology. The liquid–liquid microextraction and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry parameters were optimized. The recoveries of erythromycin A and its degradation products from spiked honey samples were 76.1–102.1%, with reproducibility rates of 7.1–13.1% and correlation coefficients  >0.99. The decision limit and detection capability were 0.02–0.07 and 0.03–0.10 ng/g, respectively. The proposed method was validated and successfully applied to the determination of the target analytes in commercial honey samples. It was efficient and sensitive, and it lays the foundation for further research on honey safety.     

Room temperature phosphorescence in the liquid state as a tool in analytical chemistry

A wide-ranging overview of room temperature phosphorescence in the liquid state (RTPL¹) is presented, with a focus on recent developments. RTPL techniques like micelle-stabilized (MS)-RTP, cyclodextrin-induced (CD)-RTP, and heavy atom-induced (HAI)-RTP are discussed. These techniques are mainly applied in the stand-alone format, but coupling with some separation techniques appears to be feasible. Applications of direct, sensitized and quenched phosphorescence are also discussed. As regards sensitized and quenched RTP, emphasis is on the coupling with liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE), but stand-alone applications are also reported. Further, the application of RTPL in immunoassays and in RTP optosensing—the optical sensing of analytes based on RTP—is reviewed. Next to the application of RTPL in quantitative analysis, its use for the structural probing of protein conformations and for time-resolved microscopy of labelled biomolecules is discussed. Finally, an overview is presented of the various analytical techniques which are based on the closely related phenomenon of long-lived lanthanide luminescence. The paper closes with a short evaluation of the state-of-the-art in RTP and a discussion on future perspectives.     

FastTrack to supercritical fluid chromatographic purification: Implementation of a walk-up analytical supercritical fluid chromatography/mass spectrometry screening system in the medicinal chemistry laboratory

Medicinal chemists often depend on analytical instrumentation for reaction monitoring and product confirmation at all stages of pharmaceutical discovery and development. To obtain pure compounds for biological assays, the removal of side products and final compounds through purification is often necessary. Prior to purification, chemists often utilize open-access analytical LC/MS instruments because mass confirmation is fast and reliable, and the chromatographic separation of most sample constituents is sufficient. Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is often used as an orthogonal technique to HPLC or when isolation of the free base of a compound is desired. In laboratories where SFC is the predominant technique for analysis and purification of compounds, a reasonable approach for quickly determining suitable purification conditions is to screen the sample against different columns. This can be a bottleneck to the purification process. To commission SFC for open-access use, a walk-up analytical SFC/MS screening system was implemented in the medicinal chemistry laboratory. Each sample is automatically screened through six column/method conditions, and on-demand data processing occurs for the chromatographers after each screening method is complete. This paper highlights the “FastTrack” approach to expediting samples through purification.     

A complete numerical simulation of the techniques of alternating current linear sweep and cyclic voltammetry: analysis of a reversible process by conventional and fast Fourier transform methods

We describe the method of achieving the first completely general simulation of ac linear sweep and cyclic voltammetry making use of the fully implicit Richtmyer modification (FIRM) method. The simulation technique is applied to a reversible process under conditions where a sinusoidal waveform of any amplitude is superimposed onto the dc potential which is swept at a finite scan rate. Results, where possible, are compared with the existing theory derived at constant dc potential to confirm the fidelity of the simulation. In particular, we demonstrate excellent agreement with the results of Engblom et al. [J. Electroanal. Chem. xxx (1999) xxx] for large amplitude ac voltammetry described in the companion paper immediately preceding this article. The use of conventional and Fourier transform methods of data analysis are compared to highlight the advantages of the use of the fast Fourier transform algorithm in ac voltammetry.     

Efficiency of four different techniques in coupled HPLC-UV/VIS to quantify overlapping peaks with known spectral features

Summary Four different techniques to quantify unresolved chromatographic peaks with known spectral features combined with photodiode array detection, are investigated as regards their efficiency for the accurate and precise determination of drugs in the low g-range. The comparison includes peak suppression utilising difference chromatograms, first-order derivative chromatograms, selective chromatograms, generated by the calculation of orthogonal polynomial shares, and the powerful least-squares multicomponent analysis approach. Each of these methods uses UV-spectra taken throughout, the peak. The results presented and conclusions reached should enable the chromatographer to come to a decision about the reasonable use of these options now provided by multichannel detection in HPLC.     

Factors affecting the reproducibility and reliability of retention simulation in any form of temperature programmed capillary GC

Conversion of Kováts retention indices on a given stationary phase into the thermodynamic parameters of compounds on a given column leads to a simplified method for retention simulation in isothermal, linear, and multi-ramp temperature programmed capillary gas chromatography. The influence of numerical methods used in the computation, the temperature coefficient of Kováts indices, and the experimental factors such as isothermal temperatures selected in the measurement of n-alkanes, column characterization and sample overloading, on the reproducibility and accuracy of simulation were discussed and examined. When the column used is properly characterized, the error between the simulated values and the experimental data is within ± 0.5 index unit or less than ± 1% of retention time.