Measuring the electrophoretic mobility of concentrated suspensions in nonaqueous media

We present a new method of measuring the electrophoretic mobility of a particle in a concentrated suspension. The method is used to measure the electrophoretic mobility of PMMA particles (diameter 10 microm) suspended in a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons. The particle volume fraction of the suspension is varied from 0 up to 0.30 and the resulting variation of the electrophoretic mobility is discussed. The suspending liquid is such that its refractive index is very close to that of the particles. Thus the suspension is almost transparent and it is possible to follow through a microscope the motion of one particle. The suspension is subjected to a low-frequency electric field (0.5 Hz). The cell containing the suspension is mounted on a piezoelectric crystal. The displacement that compensates for the particle motion (when the particle image is steady) is determined.     

亚甲基蓝分光光度法测定锑浸出液中硫化钠

湿法炼锑中常采用硫化钠作为从锑矿中提取锑硫化物的浸出剂。准确测定锑浸出液中的硫化钠浓度对掌握和完善湿法炼锑工艺、提高生产效率有重要作用。将亚甲基蓝分光光度法用于锑浸出液中硫化钠的测定,考察了波长选择、体系酸度、显色时间、基质干扰等条件,测评、优化了方法;将方法应用于锑浸出液中硫化钠的测定,方法检出限为0.002mg/L,测定结果相对标准偏差≤3%,加标回收率≥90%。方法能较理想地应用于锑浸出液中硫化钠的测定,丰富了锑浸出液中硫化钠的测定方法,也为相关研究提供了支持与参考。     

How to cancel the program of body aging?

This issue is devoted to biochemical aspects of studies on aging of living organisms. During last several years, new evidence was published to show that aging is programmed by the genome. If this is really the case, there is a chance to prevent aging just as the programmed cell death (apoptosis) can be prevented by inhibitors arresting some steps of this process. That is why the main problem discussed by the majority of the authors contributing to this issue consists in an attempt to answer the question whether aging is programmed or not. At present it is hardly possible to solve this problem. However, we already can assume that at least there are no facts allowing to exclude existence of the aging program in humans. Thus, there is a perspective to invent a chemical agent competent in transferring humans from aging to non-aging creatures, which is exemplified by the naked mole rat whose death rate is independent of age.     

Bitumen-clay interactions in aqueous media studied by zeta potential distribution measurement

A new method of measuring the amount of coalescence that occurs between drops during the emulsification process is proposed. The method uses a hydrophobic fluorescent probe, which is introduced into a fraction of the oil phase that is to be homogenized. The ratio of the intensity of the excimer peak to the intensity of the monomer peak in the fluorescent emission spectrum is sensitive to the concentration of the probe in the oil phase. Random coalescence events between oil drops lead to redistribution of the probe and its effective dilution in the oil phase. Coalescence results in a decrease in the intensity ratio in the fluorescence spectrum obtained from the ensemble of drops. Monte Carlo simulation is used to relate the change in intensity ratio to the coalescence rate. It is experimentally verified that the signal change is only due to coalescence and is not affected by the drop size of the distribution.     

Polymers for Enhanced Oil Recovery Technology

Recently enhance oil recovery (EOR) technology is getting more attention by many countries since energy crises are getting worse and frightened. One of the reasons for this is due to the shortage of current oil resources and difficulties in finding a new oil field. Indonesia is one of the examples, before 2004 Indonesia is a net oil exporting country but after that Indonesia is a net oil importing country. The oil demand in the country is increasing while the oil production capacity is decreasing. In fact, when a new oil reservoir is drilled, the oil amount obtained from it is about 20-40% of the potential and hence there is still 60-80% oil left in the reservoir. Application of EOR technology gives an additional chance to get out more oil from the reservoir, possibly about another 20%. Polymer is the material that plays an important role in the application of EOR technology, especially surfactant and hydrogel polymers. In the technology, surfactant polymer is injected to the reservoir to reduce an interfacial tension between oil and water and is able to wipe out the trapped oil from the reservoir rock and hence increase the oil production. While an injection of hydrogel polymer to the reservoir is to increase a viscosity of fluid containing water so that the fluid is more difficult to flow than the oil, and as a result, the oil production increases. The most common polymer used for this application is polyacrylamide group.     

On the evaluation of the non-interacting kinetic energy in density functional theory

The utility of both an orbital-free and a single-orbital expression for computing the non-interacting kinetic energy in density functional theory is investigated for simple atomic systems. The accuracy of both expressions is governed by the extent to which the Kohn-Sham equation is solved for the given exchange-correlation functional and so special attention is paid to the influence of finite Gaussian basis sets. The orbital-free expression is a statement of the virial theorem and its accuracy is quantified. The accuracy of the single-orbital expression is sensitive to the choice of Kohn-Sham orbital. The use of particularly compact orbitals is problematic because the failure to solve the Kohn-Sham equation exactly in regions where the orbital has decayed to near-zero leads to unphysical behaviour in regions that contribute to the kinetic energy, rendering it inaccurate. This problem is particularly severe for core orbitals, which would otherwise appear attractive due to their formally nodeless nature. The most accurate results from the single-orbital expression are obtained using the relatively diffuse, highest occupied orbitals, although special care is required at orbital nodes.     

On the definition of the excess permittivity of a fluid mixture

It is shown that under the assumption of no intermolecular interaction, the permittivity of a homogeneous linear and isotropic fluid mixture is the sum of the individual permittivities weighted with the mole fractions of the components. For definiteness, a proof is given for gasses under standard temperature and pressure; it is, however, easy to generalize it to other conditions, as well as to liquids, as long as the assumption of no intermolecular interaction is retained. Also, although the proof is given for a binary mixture, it is a simple exercise to extend it to any multicomponent mixture.     

QUASI: a novel method for simultaneous superposition of multiple flexible ligands and virtual screening using partial similarity

The structure of many receptors is unknown, and only information about diverse ligands binding to them is available. A new method is presented for the superposition of such ligands, derivation of putative receptor site models and utilization of the models for screening of compound databases. In order to generate a receptor model, the similarity of all ligands is optimized simultaneously taking into account conformational flexibility and also the possibility that the ligands can bind to different regions of the site and only partially overlap. Ligand similarity is defined with respect to a receptor site model serving as a common reference frame. The receptor model is dynamic and coevolves with the ligand alignment until an optimal self-consistent superposition is achieved. When ligand conformational flexibility is permitted, different superposition models are possible and consistent with the data. Clustering of the superposition solutions is used to obtain diverse models. When the models are used to screen a database of compounds, high enrichments are obtained, comparable to those obtained in docking studies.     

亚甲基蓝分光光度法测定锑浸出液中硫化钠

湿法炼锑中常采用硫化钠作为从锑矿中提取锑硫化物的浸出剂。准确测定锑浸出液中的硫化钠浓度对掌握和完善湿法炼锑工艺、提高生产效率有重要作用。将亚甲基蓝分光光度法用于锑浸出液中硫化钠的测定,考察了波长选择、体系酸度、显色时间、基质干扰等条件,测评、优化了方法;将方法应用于锑浸出液中硫化钠的测定,方法检出限为0.002mg/L,测定结果相对标准偏差≤3%,加标回收率≥90%。方法能较理想地应用于锑浸出液中硫化钠的测定,丰富了锑浸出液中硫化钠的测定方法,也为相关研究提供了支持与参考。     

MEASUREMENT OF CELL LYSIS BY LIGHT SCATTERING

Abstract— A method is presented which is capable of continuously monitoring the degree of hemolysis in erythrocyte suspensions too dilute to be monitored by conventional light transmission techniques. Scattered light is used to non-destructively assess hemolysis in sparse monolayers which are particularly well suited to many photohemolytic studies. The small angle scattering (<10°), measured here, shows a transient decline as cells settle in a culture dish and then is constant if no lysis occurs. Lysis is indicated by a decrease in scattered light to < 20% of initial intensity when lysis is complete. The light used to monitor lysis is restricted to wavelengths longer than 700 nm which is outside the absorption band of many. photosensitizers of current interest, and is a wavelength range at which light scattering is relatively independent of changes in cell volume. In photohemolytic studies with phloxine B lysis values from light scattering are shown to correlate well with lysis values from hemoglobin release. An apparatus is described which is capable of periodically measuring lysis in eight suspensions without intervention by the experimenter.     

Protocol for uncertainty assessment of half-lives

The apparent tendency to underestimate the uncertainty of experimentally determined half-life values of radionuclides is discussed. It is argued that the uncertainty derived from a least-squares analysis of a decay curve is prone to error. As it is quite common for a series of activity measurement results to be autocorrelated, the prerequisite of randomness of data for common statistical tests to apply is not fulfilled. In this work, an alternative data analysis method is applied that leads to a more realistic uncertainty budget. The uncertainty components are being subdivided in three categories according to the relative frequency at which they occur, an appropriate uncertainty propagation formula applied and then the total uncertainty obtained from an independent sum. An attempt is made to apply the protocol to problematic cases in literature, yet it is clear that the reporting is usually incomplete for a full uncertainty analysis. Suggestions are made for a concise but more complete reporting style, for the sake of traceability.     

Thermomechanical degradation of filled polypropylene

The main problem in post-consumer plastics recycling is due to the thermomechanical stress acting on the melt during the reprocessing operations. The macromolecules break because of the temperature and of the mechanical stress. The extent of degradation is then correlated to the level of mechanical stress which, in turn, is proportional to the viscosity of the melt. The presence of fillers increases the viscosity of the polymers and then it is expected that the level of thermomechanical degradation of these systems is larger than that of the unfilled material. In this work the thermomechanical degradation kinetic of a polypropylene sample is investigated as a function of the calcium carbonate content. It is shown that the decrease of viscosity, that is the decrease of molecular weight, is directly related to the increase of viscosity due to the filler content. The worsening of the mechanical properties are consistent with the change of viscosity.     

Sol-Gel Fabrication of Rare-Earth Doped Photonic Components

The use of sol-gel to fabricate silica-on-silicon waveguides, and particularly erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers, is reviewed. In particular, efforts to use sol-gel to improve molecular homogeneity in heavily Er-doped silica-based films is discussed. A variety of material studies carried out to investigate the gain limitations found in these materials is then presented. These include x-ray diffraction, ellipsometry and Rutherford backscattering. Excess heat treatment is used to force crystallisation of the films, and analysis of the resulting structure is used to infer properties of the glass before the additional heating. The use of erbium alkoxide precursors is shown to alter the erbium environment in the final glass, in comparison to the use of inorganic erbium salts.     

The surface oxidation potential of melanosomes measured by free electron laser-photoelectron emission microscopy

A technique for measuring the photoionization spectrum and the photoelectron emission threshold of a microscopic structured material is presented. The theoretical underpinning of the experiment and the accuracy of the measurements are discussed. The technique is applied to titanium silicide nanostructures and melanosomes isolated from human hair, human and bovine retinal pigment epithelium cells, and the ink sac of Sepia officinalis. A common photothreshold of 4.5 +/- 0.2 eV is found for this set of melanosomes and is attributed to the photoionization of the eumelanin pigment. The relationship between the photoionization threshold and the electrochemical potential referenced to the normal hydrogen electrode is used to quantify the surface oxidation potential of the melanosome. The developed technique is used to examine the effect of iron chelation on the surface oxidation potential of Sepia melanosomes. The surface oxidation potential is insensitive to bound Fe(III) up to saturation, suggesting that the metal is bound to the interior of the granule. This result is discussed in relation to the age-dependent accumulation of iron in human melanosomes in both the eye and brain.     

Experimental study of dielectrophoresis and liquid dielectrophoresis mechanisms for particle capture in a droplet

This work presents a microfluidic system that can transport, concentrate, and capture particles in a controllable droplet. Dielectrophoresis (DEP), a phenomenon in which a force is exerted on a dielectric particle when it is subjected to a non-uniform electric field, is used to manipulate particles. Liquid dielectrophoresis (LDEP), a phenomenon in which a liquid moves toward regions of high electric field strength under a non-uniform electric field, is used to manipulate the fluid. In this study, a mechanism of droplet creation presented in a previous work that uses DEP and LDEP is improved. A driving electrode with a DEP gap is used to prevent beads from getting stuck at the interface between air and liquid, which is actuated with an AC signal of 200 V(pp) at a frequency of 100 kHz. DEP theory is used to calculate the DEP force in the liquid, and LDEP theory is used to analyze the influence of the DEP gap. The increment of the actuation voltage due to the electrode with a DEP gap is calculated. A set of microwell electrodes is used to capture a bead using DEP force, which is actuated with an AC signal of 20 V(pp) at a frequency of 5 MHz. A simulation is carried out to investigate the dimensions of the DEP gap and microwell electrodes. Experiments are performed to demonstrate the creation of a 100-nL droplet and the capture of individual 10-μm polystyrene latex beads in the droplet.     

Structure of organoclays--an X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis study

X-ray diffraction has been used to study the changes in the surface properties of a montmorillonitic clay through the changes in the basal spacings of montmorillonite (SWy-2) and surfactant-intercalated organoclays. Variation in the d-spacing was found to be a step function of the surfactant concentration. High-resolution thermogravimetric analysis (HRTG) shows that the thermal decomposition of SWy-2-MMTs modified with the surfactant octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide takes place in four steps. A mass-loss step is observed at room temperature and is attributed to dehydration of adsorption water. A second mass-loss step is observed over the temperature range 87.9 to 135.5 degrees C and is also attributed to dehydration of water hydrating metal cations such as Na+. The third mass loss occurs from 178.9 to 384.5 degrees C and is assigned to a loss of surfactant. The fourth mass-loss step is ascribed to the loss of OH units through dehydroxylation over the temperature range 556.0 to 636.4 degrees C. A model is proposed in which, up to 0.4 CEC, a surfactant monolayer is formed between the montmorillonitic clay layers; up to 0.8 CEC, a lateral-bilayer arrangement is formed; and above 1.5 CEC, a pseudotrimolecular layer is formed, with excess surfactant adsorbed on the clay surface.     

Core model calculation of the electric field gradient: Projection operator formalism with application to NH3

A core model approach to the calculation of deuteron quadrupole coupling constants is investigated using NH₃ as an example. First the deuteron quadrupole coupling constant is calculated from a CNDO wave function. This result is subsequently improved by recomputing the N—D bond orbital by means of a variational calculation using the CNDO function to construct a core potential for the bond Hamiltonian. In order to simplify integrations a single-center basis is chosen to represent the variational wave function. A projection operator formalism is used as a computational scheme to maintain orthogonality of the bond orbital to core orbitals. Excellent agreement with experiment is obtained. The procedure is applicable to more complicated molecules.     

Controlling voltammetric responses by electrode modification; using adsorbed acetone to switch graphite surfaces between adsorptive and diffusive modes

Graphite is a highly versatile electrode substrate material but the recorded voltammetric response is regularly complicated by varying degrees of adsorption of the analyte to the surface leading to voltammetry which is complex to analyse. We report how through the pre-adsorption of acetone the electro-activity of the substrate is unhindered but adsorption of an electro-active species is effectively blocked, hence the experimentalist is able to readily tailor the electrode so as to effectively switch the adsorption of the analyte 'on' or 'off'.     

Intrinsic characteristic times in the drift-diffusion problem

The redistribution of impurities in a sample in the shape of a slab filled with an isotropic liquid submitted to an external field is considered. The case in which the impurities are ions dissolved in the liquid, and the external field is an electric field is also investigated. It is shown that the intrinsic time connected with the presence of the electric field is proportional to the drift time. The constant of proportionality is of the order of the ratio between the thermal agitation energy and the electrostatic energy. A closed solution for the time evolution of the density of particles is obtained. The importance of the effect on real situations is investigated. The possible application of these results to nematic samples submitted to an external electric field is discussed.