Influence of the functionalization pattern of ethyl cellulose on the interactions with polystyrene latex particles in aqueous mixtures

The interactions between polystyrene latex particles and ethyl cellulose (EC) with different functionalization pattern have been investigated. 3-Mono-O-EC and EC with statistical functionalization pattern in the anhydroglucose units were studied in aqueous solutions and dispersions. EC belongs to a group of polymers that phase separate upon heating. The two types of EC showed large differences in phase separation temperature, which was explained as an effect of different interactions with water due to different functionalization pattern. Both types of EC did adsorb on polystyrene particles, which indicated a favorable interaction between EC and polystyrene latex particles, however, in a different manner depending on the structure of EC. The conventionally synthesized ethyl cellulose with statistical functionalization pattern formed much stronger networks with polystyrene latex particles than 3-mono-O-EC did. The lower phase separation temperature and the slightly higher molecular weight of the conventional ethyl cellulose gave it higher preference for interacting with polystyrene latex particles to form network. Throughout the study, comparison is made with other cellulose derivatives like ethyl(hydroxyethyl) cellulose (EHEC) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC).     

Automated determination of ethyl carbamate in stone-fruit spirits using headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A fully automated procedure using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric (GC/MS/MS) detection was developed for the determination of the toxic contaminant ethyl carbamate (EC) in stone-fruit spirits. After addition of deuterated internal standard, the optimised HS-SPME extraction with carbowax/divinylbenzene fibres (30 min at 70 degrees C) was done applying salting out with sodium chloride in the presence of pH 7 buffer solution. For quantitative analysis the characteristic fragmentations of m/z 74>44 and m/z 62>44 for ethyl carbamate as well as m/z 64>44 for ethyl carbamate-d5 were monitored in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode using a triple quadrupole instrument. In the validation studies, ethyl carbamate exhibited good linearity with a regression coefficient of 0.998. The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.03 and 0.11 mg/l. The precision never exceeded 4.3% (intraday) and 8.2% (interday) at any of the concentrations examined. A good agreement of analysis results in comparison to conventional sample clean-up over diatomaceous earth columns was found (R = 0.956, Bias = 0.08 mg/l). The new HS-SPME/GC/MS/MS procedure is suitable for the fast, reliable and inexpensive determination of ethyl carbamate in alcoholic beverages in an automated, and therefore, convenient procedure.     

Analysis of amphetamines in urine with liquid-liquid extraction by capillary electrophoresis with simultaneous electrochemical and electrochemiluminescence detection

Amphetamines including methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine were separated and detected by CE using simultaneous electrochemical (EC) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detection (CE-EC/ECL). Factors that influenced the separation and detection performance, such as the detection potential, the pH value and concentration of the running buffer, the separation voltage and the pH of the detection buffer, were investigated. LODs of 3.3x10(-8) mol/L (0.16 fmol), 1.6x10(-7) mol/L (0.78 fmol) and 3.3x10(-8) mol/L (0.16 fmol) were obtained for methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, respectively. For practical application, a liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate procedure was developed for urine sample pretreatment and extraction efficiencies higher than 90% were obtained. The established simultaneous CE-EC/ECL was successfully applied for urine sample analysis.     

气相色谱-三重四极杆串联质谱法同时测定调味品中的氨基甲酸乙酯和氯丙醇

建立了气相色谱-三重四极杆串联质谱(GC-MS/MS)同时测定调味品中氨基甲酸乙酯(EC)和氯丙醇(3-氯-1,2-丙二醇(3-MCPD)和2-氯-1,3-丙二醇(2-MCPD))的方法。样品添加同位素内标后,采用Extrelut^TM NT有机硅藻土填料进行基质固相分散萃取,先用正己烷淋洗除杂,再用乙酸乙酯-乙醚(20:80, v/v)混合溶剂洗脱被测物,洗脱液经浓缩后采用GC-MS/MS多反应监测(MRM)模式测定。EC、3-MCPD和2-MCPD的方法检出限依次为2、5和5 μg/kg,线性范围依次为5~1000 μg/kg(r=0.9997)、10~1000 μg/kg(r=0.9991)和10~1000 μg/kg(r=0.9995)。酱油、料酒(黄酒)、沙拉酱和方便面调味料4种基体中在20、100和400 μg/kg 3个水平加标测定的平均回收率和相对标准偏差(RSD,n=7)范围分别为EC: 87.7%~104%(RSD为4.3%~10.7%)、3-MCPD: 90.1%~109%(RSD为2.6%~10.2%)、2-MCPD: 90.9%~103%(RSD为3.0%~9.5%)。在部分酱油、料酒和方便面调味料中同时检测到了EC、3-MCPD和2-MCPD,在部分沙拉酱中检测到了EC或3-MCPD。该法准确、快速,适用于调味品中EC、3-MCPD和2-MCPD的同时检测。     

酒精度对高效液相色谱-荧光法分析白酒中氨基甲酸乙酯含量的影响

分析酒精度对高效液相色谱-荧光（HPLC-FLD）法测定白酒中氨基甲酸乙酯（EC）含量的影响,建立了快速检测白酒中EC含量的HPLC-FLD分析方法。通过比较不同酒精度下同一EC含量的峰面积,研究酒精度对EC含量测定的影响。结果表明,在5%~65%（v/v）酒精度范围内,酒精度与EC含量（峰面积）具有良好的线性关系,相关系数R²大于0.98,同时建立了不同酒精度间EC含量换算的相对校正系数。该方法在10~500 μg/L范围内呈良好的线性关系,R²大于0.9999,定量限为10 μg/L,加标回收率为98.9%~108.2%,相对标准偏差为0.6%~4.9%。评价了HPLC-FLD法的可靠性,将该方法与GC-MS方法比较,结果显示两种方法无明显差异。该方法简单、灵敏、准确,适用于白酒中EC含量的快速测定,具有较好的实际应用价值。     

Simultaneous determination of ethyl carbamate and 4‐(5‐)methylimidazole in yellow rice wine and soy sauce by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry

We developed a new method, based on alkaline diatomite solid‐phase extraction followed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry, for the simultaneous determination of the toxic contaminants ethyl carbamate (EC) and 4‐(5‐)methylimidazole (4‐MEI) in yellow rice wine and soy sauce. The optimal extraction conditions were defined. With the application of alkaline diatomite solid‐phase extraction, damage to the capillary column by organic acids was greatly reduced. With deuterated EC used as the internal standard, the linearity of the calibration curves for EC and 4‐MEI was good with correlation coefficient above 0.99. In a spiked experiment with EC and 4‐MEI in yellow rice wine and soy sauce, recovery of the added EC was 80.5–102.5% and that of 4‐MEI was 78.3–92.8%. The limit of quantification and limit of detection for EC were 6.0 and 2.0 μg/kg, respectively, and for 4‐MEI were 15.0 and 5.0 μg/kg, respectively. The validation results demonstrate that the method is fast, simple, and selective, and therefore is suitable for simultaneously determining the presence of EC and 4‐MEI in fermented food.     

Application of tandem mass spectrometry combined with gas chromatography to the routine analysis of ethyl carbamate in stone-fruit spirits

Gas chromatography (GC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) operated in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode is currently the method of choice for the determination of the toxic contaminant ethyl carbamate in alcoholic beverages. However, even after extensive sample cleanup over diatomaceous earth columns, the identity of ethyl carbamate often cannot be ascertained with confidence, due to inconsistent ratios of the SIM ions m/z 62, 74 and 44 because the qualifier ions are highly susceptible to interferences. Therefore, a new method combining GC and tandem MS using a triple-quadrupole instrument is introduced to determine ethyl carbamate in stone-fruit spirits. For quantitative analysis the characteristic transitions of m/z 74 --> 44 and m/z 62 --> 44 for ethyl carbamate as well as m/z 64 --> 44 for the deuterated internal standard ethyl carbamate-d5 were monitored in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. In the validation studies, ethyl carbamate exhibited good linearity with a regression coefficient of 1.000. The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.01 and 0.04 mg/L. The recovery of the method was 100.4 +/- 9.4%. The precision never exceeded 7.8% (intraday) and 10.1% (interday) and the trueness never exceeded 11.3% (intraday) and 12.2% (interday) at any of the concentrations examined, indicating good assay accuracy. A good agreement of analytical results between a previously developed GC/MS SIM method and the GC/MS/MS MRM procedure was found (R=0.987). Regarding the validation data, the procedure is sensitive, selective and reproducible. The applicability of the developed method was demonstrated by the investigation of 70 stone-fruit spirits from commercial trade. The ethyl carbamate concentration of the samples ranged between 0.07 and 7.70 mg/L (mean 1.21 mg/L). The main advantage of the developed GC/MS/MS method is the reliability of the results without the need for time-consuming confirmatory analyses.     

基于基质修饰的多次顶空固相微萃取-气相色谱法检测酒精饮料中的氨基甲酸乙酯

氨基甲酸乙酯(EC)是发酵食品在发酵或贮存过程中产生的致癌副产物。建立了多次顶空固相微萃取-气相色谱法(MHS-SPME-GC)检测多种酒精饮料中EC的方法。采用自制的溶胶-凝胶聚乙二醇/羟基硅油复合SPME萃取头提高了方法的灵敏度,加入无水硫酸钠对基质进行修饰大大提高了EC的萃取效率。在优化条件下,方法的线性范围为0.04～100 mg/L,线性相关系数为0.9997,检出限为34 μg/L;方法重现性好,6次重复实验所得相对标准偏差为2.19%;准确度高,加标回收率在90.9%～103.6%之间。将建立的方法用于多种实际酒样中EC的检测,其结果与标准加入法得到的结果在统计学上无显著差异。本研究表明,MHS-SPME能够克服通常存在于SPME分析中的基质干扰效应,尤其适合于大量不同基质的样品分析。     

Immobilized Rhodotorula mucilaginosa: A Novel Urethanase-Producing Strain for Degrading Ethyl Carbamate

Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, producing the ethyl carbamate (EC)-degrading enzyme, urethanase, was newly isolated from the Chinese rice wine making process. It removed 80 % of EC when it was incubated with 5.0 g/L EC. It grew and stably produced urethanase, with pH ranging from 7.0 to 3.0. In addition, urethanase production by R. mucilaginosa was systematically optimized. Glucose, yeast extract, peptone, and inoculum size were selected with the Plackett–Burman design. They were further optimized via uniform design and determined to be 24.6 g/L, 2.5 g/L, 23.1 g/L, and 65.8 mL/500 mL, respectively. Urethanase activity reached 4,340.0 U/L in the optimal fermentation condition. Furthermore, cell immobilization of R. mucilaginosa in calcium alginate/chitosan was applied to improve cell resistance to environmental stresses. The immobilized cells removed 51.6 % of EC in commercial rice wine, which was 10 times more than that of the free cells. It indicated that the immobilized R. mucilaginosa was effective for degrading EC.     

Multiple headspace solid-phase microextraction of ethyl carbamate from different alcoholic beverages employing drying agent based matrix modification

Multiple headspace solid-phase microextraction (MHS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography-nitrogen phosphorus detector is proposed to determine the toxic contaminant ethyl carbamate (EC) in various alcoholic beverages after matrix modification. The remarkable feature of this method is that matrix effect, which commonly appears in SPME-based analysis, is avoided by determining the total amount of the analyte in the sample. To increase the sensitivity of the method, a novel polyethylene glycol/hydroxy-terminated silicone oil fiber was developed by sol-gel technique and applied for the analysis. Owing to the high polarity and hydrophilia of EC, an important problem still remains because the adsorption by sample matrix causes low transport of EC to the headspace and thus invalidates MHS-SPME for quantification. Mixing with anhydrous sodium sulphate, the sensitivity of the method can be improved. A Taguchi's L(16) (4(5)) orthogonal array design was employed to evaluate potentially significant factors and screen the optimum conditions for MHS-SPME of EC. Under the optimized conditions, limit of detection of 0.034 mg L(-1) was obtained. Relative standard deviation of replicate samples (n=6) was 2.19%. The proposed method was linear in the range of 0.04-100 mg L(-1), and the coefficient of determination was 0.9997. The method was used to determine EC in various alcoholic beverages. The concentrations obtained were compared with those obtained by standard addition method and no statistically significant differences were observed.     

A novel gel polymer electrolyte based on lithium salt with an ethyl cellulose

A novel gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) that contains Li⁺ ions was fabricated. An appropriate amount of ethyl cellulose (EC) was added to 1 M lithium perchlorate in propylene carbonate to prepare the GPE. The ionic conductivity (σ) of the GPE depends on the EC content, and the GPE with an EC content of 4.5 wt.% exhibits a maximum σ of 6.47 mS/cm, a viscosity of 141 mPa?s, and a transmittance of over 80% (visible region) at room temperature. High σ and transparent GPE can be obtained. In this work, the EC was used as natural thickener to enhance the viscosity of the liquid-state electrolyte and could improve the leakage of electrolyte solution.     

High‐sensitive Electrochemical Determination of Ethyl Carbamate Using Urethanase and Glutamate Dehydrogenase Modified Electrode

An amperometric biosensor for ethyl carbamate (EC) was developed for the first time through the cascade reactions of urethanase and glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH). Urethanase decomposes ethyl carbamate to produce ammonia, which converts to L‐glutamate under the catalysis of GLDH in the presence of α‐ketoglutarate and NADH. Then the change of NADH can be detected chronoamperometrically. The two enzymes were entrapped into chitosan/gelatine/γ‐glycidoxy propyl trimethoxy silane sol‐gel and immobilized on the surface of pyrolytic graphite electrode (PGE). The modified electrode was characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Under the optimized conditions, the amperometric EC biosensor exhibits a linear detection range from 0.5 to 40 μM with a low detection limit of 5.30 nM. The biosensor was successfully used to detect EC in mimic Chinese rice wine samples, and satisfactory recovery and relative standard deviation were achieved.     

Synthesis of graft copolymer of ethyl cellulose through living polymerization and its self-assembly

Copolymers of ethyl cellulose (EC) with polystyrene (PSt) were synthesized through atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The molecular weight of graft copolymers increased without any trace of the EC macro-initiator, and the polydispersity of the side chains was low. The molecular weight of the side chains increased with the monomer conversion. Kinetic study indicated that the polymerization was first order. The micelle characteristics of the graft copolymer in acetone were investigated using dynamic light scattering (DLS), atom force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). With increasing the concentration, micelles were gradually formed from the solution. The TEM and AFM images indicated that the micelles had spherical shape and showed core-shell structure.     

EC-Pt/CNTs葡萄糖氧化酶电极

采用乙基纤维素(EC)和载Pt碳纳米管(CNTs)导电复合材料固定葡萄糖氧化酶(GOD)制备EC-Pt/CNTs葡萄糖氧化酶电极.该电极在0~4 mmol/L的浓度范围内检测葡萄糖,灵敏度为0.85μA/mmol.L-1,浸泡18 d后电极活性仍达80%,EC-Pt/CNTs葡萄糖氧化酶电极可望构建葡萄糖传感器.     

Application of preparative high-speed counter-current chromatography for separation and purification of arctiin from Fructus Arctii

Following an initial clean-up step on the AB-8 resin (polystyrene resin, 0.3-1.25 mm: NanKai Chemical Factory, Tianjin, China), high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was used to purify an arctiin from an extract of the fruits of the Arctium lappa L. Arctiin is a major lignan compound in the traditional Chinese medicinal herb A. lappa L. The two-phase solvent system used was composed of ethyl acetate-n-butanol-ethanol-water at an optimized volume ratio of 5:0.5:1:5 (v/v/v/v). The upper phase was used as the mobile phase in the head to tail elution mode. A total amount of 159 mg of arctiin at 98% purity was obtained from 350 mg of the crude extract (containing 49% arctiin) with 91% recovery. The preparative isolation and purification of arctiin by HSCCC was completed in 5 h in a separation. Identification of the target compound was performed by LC-electrospray ionization MS and 13C-NMR. The structure of the product was further confirmed by comparison with authentic sample (National Institute of the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products, Beijing, China).     

氧化硼对苯乙烯原子转移自由基聚合的加速作用

以2-溴丙酸乙酯为引发剂, 溴化亚铜为催化剂, N,N,N′,N″,N″-五甲基二乙基三胺为配体, 以氧化硼为加速剂, 进行了苯乙烯原子转移自由基聚合的加速研究. 发现氧化硼与引发剂比例为4时, 加速效果最为明显, 且对分子量的控制效果较好. 在85 ℃时, 添加该比例的氧化硼, 苯乙烯在6 h的聚合转化率达到78.5%. 在65, 75及85 ℃条件下, 加入氧化硼时体系的聚合反应动力学为一级反应, 苯乙烯聚合速率分别为空白体系的1.82, 1.54和1.5倍; 聚合物的分子量可控, 分子量分布窄, 体系呈现明显的活性聚合特征. 通过核磁共振谱对聚合物的结构进行了表征, 证明氧化硼在整个聚合过程中只起加速作用, 并不影响聚合机理和聚苯乙烯的结构. 氧化硼价廉, 有利于实现原子转移聚合的工业化.     

乙基纤维素磁性复合材料对溶液中铜离子的吸附性能

重金属离子对生态环境以及人类健康造成了严重的危害,因此处理水体中的重金属离子迫在眉睫。采用共沉淀法,以乙基纤维素为模版,将四氧化三铁（Fe₃O₄）纳米颗粒与乙基纤维素复合,制备了乙基纤维素磁性复合材料（EC/Fe₃O₄）。探究了吸附添加量、溶液pH值和吸附时间等因素对溶液中Cu（Ⅱ）吸附过程的影响。结果表明,EC/Fe₃O₄表现出良好的吸附速率和吸附性能。吸附4 min,可达到吸附平衡状态。在Cu（Ⅱ）浓度为20 mg/L,pH=7,吸附时间为160 min条件下,EC/Fe₃O₄的单位吸附量q_e为76.98 mg/g,最大去除率为94.68%。在经过8次吸附循环后,单位吸附量为62.21 mg/g。     

超高效液相色谱-串联质谱联用法同时检测降糖类和减肥类保健品中20种非法添加的化学降糖药物

建立了一种利用超高效液相色谱-质谱联用同时快速筛查、检测降糖类和减肥类保健品中20种非法添加化学成分的方法。试样用甲醇提取后,经Poroshell 120 EC-C18柱(100 mm×2.1 mm,2.7 μm)分离,以5 mmol/L乙酸铵和乙腈为流动相梯度洗脱,采用电喷雾离子源正、负离子模式切换、多反应监测模式检测。20种非法添加化合物的峰面积与质量浓度均呈良好的线性关系,相关系数均大于0.99,回收率均在75.9%~114.0%范围内,相对标准偏差均不高于11.3%,检出限均在0.3~1.5 μg/L范围内。该方法快速、简便、灵敏、重现性好,为打击降糖类和减肥类保健品中非法添加化学降糖药提供了有力的依据。     

Electrospun superhydrophobic polystyrene hollow fiber as a probe for liquid–liquid microextraction with gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry

A superhydrophobic polystyrene hollow fiber was electrospun around a copper spring collector. This approach led to the construction of a hollow fiber membrane, and the copper spring acted as a scaffold. The characteristic properties of the hollow fiber were studied by scanning electron microscopy. The membrane was used as a probe to transfer the extracting solvent from aquatic media to a gas chromatograph. After performing the liquid–liquid microextraction procedure on 10 mL of water sample by octanol, the whole solution was passed through the prepared polystyrene hollow fiber. Propanol, containing 2 mg/L lindane as the internal standard, was used for desorption and an aliquot of 2 μL of the desorbing solvent was subsequently injected into gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Effects of different parameters influencing the extraction efficiency were optimized. The limits of detection and quantification were 2 and 6 ng/L, respectively. The relative standard deviations at a concentration level of 100 ng/L were between 2 and 6% (n = 3) while the method linearity ranged from 6 to 200 ng/L. Some real water samples were analyzed by the developed method and relative recoveries were in the range of 76–107%.     

Application of positive ion chemical ionisation and tandem mass spectrometry combined with gas chromatography to the trace level analysis of ethyl carbamate in bread

A rapid, sensitive and selective method has been developed and validated for the analysis of the contaminant ethyl carbamate (EC) in bread products at the part-per-billion level. The new procedure uses positive ion chemical ionisation (PICI) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), combined with gas chromatography (GC), on a 'bench-top' triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer. Ammonia was the PICI reagent gas of choice because of its ability to produce abundant [M+H]+ and [M+NH4]+ ions from EC and deuterium-labelled EC (LEC) used as an internal standard. For identification and quantification, selected reaction monitoring (SRM) was used to follow the precursor-to-product ion transitions of m/z 107 --> 90, m/z 107 --> 62 and m/z 90 --> 62 for EC, as well as m/z 112 --> 63 for the LEC internal standard. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.6 and 1.2 microg kg(-1), respectively, and the recovery of the method was 101 +/- 10% at 10 microg kg(-1) and 98 +/- 5% at 100 microg kg(-1). The precision of the method, established under conditions of intermediate reproducibility, did not exceed a relative standard deviation of 7%. The quantitative performance of the new GC/PICI-SRM procedure compared favourably with that of a reference method based on GC/MS and selected ion monitoring (correlation coefficient, r = 0.997). However, the new method had the advantages of reduced sample preparation time, improved sensitivity and unambiguous identification of EC at all concentrations. Application of the new method to the analysis of 50 UK breads showed that levels of EC ranged from 0.6 to 2.3 microg kg(-1) in retail products and from 3.1 to 12.2 microg kg(-1) for breads prepared using domestic breadmaking machines (dry weight basis). Toasting bread in a domestic toaster led to increases of between two- and three-fold in mean EC concentrations.