An analysis of avidin, biotin and their interaction at attomole levels by voltammetric and chromatographic techniques

The electroanalytical determination of avidin in solution, in a carbon paste, and in a transgenic maize extract was performed in acidic medium at a carbon paste electrode (CPE). The oxidative voltammetric signal resulting from the presence of tyrosine and tryptophan in avidin was observed using square-wave voltammetry. The process could be used to determine avidin concentrations up to 3 fM (100 amol in 3 l drop) in solution, 700 fM (174 fmol in 250 l solution) in an avidin-modified electrode, and 174 nM in a maize seed extract. In the case of the avidin-modified CPE, several parameters were studied in order to optimize the measurements, such as electrode accumulation time, composition of the avidin-modified CPE, and the elution time of avidin. In addition, the avidin-modified electrode was used to detect biotin in solution (the detection limit was 7.6 pmol in a 6 l drop) and to detect biotin in a pharmaceutical drug after various solvent extraction procedures. Comparable studies for the detection of biotin were developed using HPLC with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and flow injection analysis with electrochemical detection, which allowed biotin to be detected at levels as low as 614 pM and 6.6 nM, respectively. The effects of applied potential, acetonitrile content, and flow rate of the mobile phase on the FIA-ED signal were also studied.     

Gas-chromatographische Analyse von Kohlenwasserstoffen in der Au?enluft nach Probenahme mit dem Tieftemperaturgradientenrohr

Zusammenfassung Es wird über ein gas-chromatographisches Verfahren zur Bestimmung von Alkanen, Alkenen und Aromaten in der Außenluft berichtet, bei dem die Probenahme an Tenax GC oder Carbopack mit Hilfe eines Tieftemperaturgradientenrohres erfolgt und die Analyse unter Einsatz eines Doppelsäulensystems in Verbindung mit zwei Flammenionisationsdetektoren durchgeführt wird. Eingehende Untersuchungen zum Verhalten der Substanzen bei der Probenahme zeigen, daß die Trocknung der Probeluft mit Magnesiumperchlorat das Ergebnis nicht beeinflußt und für Kohlenwasserstoffe mit drei oder mehr C-Atomen keine auf Durchbruch zurückzuführenden Substanzverluste zu befürchten sind. Bei einem Probenahmevolumen von 51 Luft können 2 g Substanz/m³ gut bestimmt werden. Für Außenluft-Konzentrationen von 45 g Benzol/m³, 95 g Toluol/m³ und 35 g n-Pentan/m³ betrugen die Standardabweichungen 3,5, 6,0 bzw. 3,6 g/m³. Bei leichter Modifikation des Systems ist mit derselben Probenahmevorrichtung die gleichzeitige Bestimmung von Kohlenwasserstoffen mit einem Flammenionisationsdetektor und von Organohalogen Verbindungen mit einem Elektroneneinfangdetektor möglich.

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Gas-chromatographic analysis of hydrocarbons in ambient air with cryogenic sampling

Summary A method is described for the gas-chromatographic determination of alkanes, alkenes and aromatics in ambient air. The hydrocarbons are trapped by cryogenic sampling using Tenax GC or Carbopack as adsorbing material and are analyzed in a two-column system equipped with two flame-ionization detectors. A detailed examination of the sampling procedure shows that drying the air with magnesium perchlorate does not affect the results, and losses of substances due to break-through need not be reckoned with for hydrocarbons with three and more carbon atoms. In a 51 air sample 2 g/m³ of hydrocarbons can be determined readily. The standard deviations for benzene, toluene and n-pentane were 3.5, 6.0 and 3.6 g/m³ at ambient air concentrations of 45, 95 and 35 g/m³. A slight modification of the system which includes the combined use of a flame-ionization detector and an electron-capture detector permits the simultaneous determination of hydrocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons.

     

Catchment region partitioning of energy hypersurfaces,I

The space of internal coordinates of a molecular system is partitioned into catchment regions of various critical points of the energy hypersurface. The partitioning is based on an ordering of steepest descent paths into equivalence classes. The properties of these catchment regions and their boundaries are analyzed and the concepts of chemical structure, reaction path and reaction mechanism are discussed within the framework of the Born-Oppenheimer and energy hypersurface approximations. Relations between catchment regions and the chemically important reactive domains of energy hypersurfaces, as well as models for branching of reaction mechanisms, caused by instability domainsD , 1, are investigated.     

Laser-induced fluorescence microscopic system using an optical parametric oscillator for tunable detection in microchip analysis

A laser-induced fluorescence microscopic system based on optical parametric oscillation has been constructed as a tunable detector for microchip analysis. The detection limit of sulforhodamine B (Ex. 520 nm, Em. 570 nm) was 0.2 mol, which was approximately eight orders of magnitude better than with a conventional fluorophotometer. The system was applied to the determination of fluorescence-labeled DNA (Ex. 494 nm, Em. 519 nm) in a microchannel and the detection limit reached a single molecule. These results showed the feasibility of this system as a highly sensitive and tunable fluorescence detector for microchip analysis.     

20-Hydroxyecdysone from Stemmacantha uniflora Subsp. satzyperovii

The dynamics of 20-hydroxyecdysone content in vegetative and generative organs of Stemmacantha uniflora subsp. satzyperovii (Soskov) Dittrich, which is distributed over Primorskii Krai, were investigated. A high content of 20-hydroxyecdysone during the plant vegetative period is characteristic of growing organs. The amount is maximal for young leaves during development of racemes (7.8 g/mg) and for ripe achenes (11.15 g/mg).     

Fourth-derivative spectrophotometric determination of neodymium in mixed rare earths with methyl thymol blue and cetylpyridinium chloride

A sensitive and selective method is described for the determination of neodymium in mixed rare earths using fourth-derivative spectrophotometry. The method is based on the absorption spectra of 4f electron transitions of the complex of neodymium with methyl thymol blue and cetylpyridinium chloride. The influence of various instrumental parameters and reaction conditions for maximum colour development are investigated. The calibration curve is linear over the range 0–3.5 g ml^–1 neodymium. The relative standard deviation for determination of 1.4 g ml^–1 neodymium (n = 7) is 1.6%. The detection limit (signal-to-noise ratio = 3) is 0.2 g ml^–1.     

Determination of phosphorus,sulfur and chlorine in high-purity aluminium

Multi-step procedures for the determination of phosphorus, sulfur and chlorine are described and tested against established methods and on reference materials. Phosphorus is separated as hydrogen phosphide, extracted as phosphomolybdic acid, reduced to molydenum blue and measured photometrically (detection limit 0.05 g/g). Sulfur is separated after reduction as hydrogen sulfide or by means of pyrohydrolysis and measured by ICP-OES (detection limit 0.1 g/g). Chloride can be measured by ion chromatography after pyrohydrolytic separation (detection limit 0.1 g/g). The determination of sulfur was also successfully tested on copper and steel samples.Dedicated to Professor Günther Tölg on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

On-line trace enrichment — column liquid chromatography of polar pollutants in surface water using bifunctional membrane-based extraction-disk cartridges

Summary An on-line trace-enrichment system, using a bifunctional membrane extraction-disk cartridge, has been combined with a column liquid chromatography separation for the simultaneous determination of basic, neutral and acidic pollutants in surface water. The enrichment device consisted of a specially constructed holder containing both C-18 and cation-exchange disks. The holder can contain up to 25 disks of 0.5 mm thickness and 4.6 mm diameter. Before trace enrichment of 20 ml of surface water (pH 3.0), calcium ions were removed from the sample by means of an oxalic acid precipitation. Desorption of the cartridge was at elevated temperature using reversed-phase gradient elution; detection was performed with a diode-array UV absorbance detector. The detection limits for the test compounds in surface water are typically 0.5–2 g/l; the calibration graphs are linear from the lower limit of determination up to 50 g/l.     

Determination of benzidine in urine using capillary gas chromatography and negative-ion chemical ionisation mass spectrometry

Summary A highly sensitive and specific gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) assay for the determination of benzidine in urine is reported. It is based on the solvent extraction of the hydrolysed benzidine conjugates, together with the deuterium-labelled benzidine-d₈ added as an internal standard, and a two-phase derivatisation procedure using pentafluoropropionic anhydride (PFPA) in the presence of pyridine as the phase-transfer catalyst. The reaction is complete within 5 min at room temperature. The pentafluoropropyl derivatives are quantified through capillary column GC-MS using selected ion monitoring (SIM) in the negative-ion chemical ionisation mode (NICI). The lower limit of detection for benzidine was 0.5 g/l and the calibration plot showed linearity between 2 g/l and 200 g/l. The recovery of the analyte added to pooled urine was above 82%. Analysis of 20 urine samples from un-exposed persons and 20 urine specimens of workers employed in a polyurethane-making plant using this procedure showed no substances likely to manifest false positive results in the range of interest.     

Semiautomatic determination of furazolidone and furaltadone by continuous and stopped flow FIA methods

New methods are proposed for the semiautomatic determination of furazolidone and furaltadone by photometric flow injection or stopped flow FIA analysis, on the basis of their alkaline hydrolysis reactions. Linear calibration graphs between 1 and 30 g/ml are obtained for both compounds, the detection limits for furazolidone and furaltadone being 0.20 and 0.26 g/ml, respectively, by flow injection and 0.27 and 0.21 g/ml by the stopped flow approach.     

Potassium-selective optrode based on an immobilized fluorogenic crown ether

A new optical sensor phase for potassium ions has been developed based on the immobilization of the pH-dependent fluorogenic crown ether 4-acryloylamidobenzo-18-crown-6 on the non-ionic polymeric resin Amberlite XAD-2.Two different optical designs, a flow-through sensor and a fibre optic probetype sensor (optrode), have been constructed and their analytical performance characteristics have been evaluated. The resulting fluorimetric sensors for K⁺ ions exhibited detection limits of 0.4 or 0.8 M of K⁺ (16 g/l or 31 g/l), depending on the design, while the linear response occurred from 1 to 25 M of the metal concentrations. The precision, evaluated as the relative standard deviation of measurements of K⁺ levels at around ten times the detection limit (e.g. 5 M), turned out to be around ±2%.Advantageous features of this fluorimetric sensing phase and optrode include ease of construction, simplicity of use, reversibility, short response times (ca. 1 min full scale deflection) selectivity and operational stability, suitable for sensing potassium at low levels in complex matrices such as biological fluids.The fluorimetric optical sensor has been successfully applied to the direct determination of potassium in clinically important samples (serum and urine) and in natural waters. Very good accuracy has been obtained just using adequate synthetic aqueous potassium standards for calibration.     

The relative importance of temperature and isotope effects on the dipole oscillator strength distribution of H2

Summary The calculation of the effects of temperature and isotopic composition on the energy weighted moments of the dipole oscillator strength distribution of H₂ in the random phase approximation to the polarization propagator are reported. It is seen that the effect of isotopic composition is small, while that of temperature is of an order accessible to experiment. We find that all the mean excitation energiesI , for =–1, 0, 1, decrease with temperature as does the dipole oscillator strength momentS() for >0, while the opposite is true for <0. These effects are interpreted in terms of the bond length dependence of the excitation energies.     

Ion chromatographic determination of chloride,chlorate, and perchlorate in sulfuric acid solutions

Summary The determination of chloride and perchlorate by non-suppressed ion chromatography in aqueous process solutions containing a high sulfate background is described. The method is reliable and fast. The sensitivity for perchlorate is lower than for other anions like nitrate, nitrite and chlorate. The detection limits are about 0.3 g/ml with linear calibration curves within a concentration range from 1 to 50 g/ml.     

Comparison of three multivariate calibration methods as an approach to arsenic speciation by HG-AAS

This paper compares three multivariate calibration methods, namely classical least squares (CLS), inverse least squares (ILS) and Kaiman filter, applied to continuous-flow hydride generation with sodium tetrahydroborate(III) reducing agent and AAS detection for the purposes of speciation of As(III), As(V), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). The precision of the three multivariate methods was compared in the calibration and prediction steps by standard error of prediction (SEP) and relative error of prediction (REP), respectively, for each analyte and no significant differences have been found for As(III), As(V), MMA, and DMA when the F-test was applied to compare the three multivariate calibration methods in pairs at the 95% confidence level. Determination of the As species was carried out in spiked drinking and sea water in the range 7–35 g 1^–1. Recoveries were in all cases around 100% and the detection limit for the least sensitive species was close to 5 g 1^–1.     

Speciation of Cr(III) and Cr(VI) by reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography using UV-detection

Summary A method for the simultaneous determination of Cr(III) and Cr(VI) in water samples is described. The different reaction products of Cr(III) and Cr(VI) species with ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (APDC) are extracted with ethyl acetate and determined by reversed phase HPLC using UV-detection. The procedure is optimized and its detection limit accordingly improved as compared to literature data. The detection limits achieved are 2.4 g/l for Cr(III) and 2.1 g/l for Cr(VI) and the calibration curves are linear between 5 g/l and 5000 g/l. For the speciation of Cr, APDC was demonstrated to be more suitable as chelating agent than sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (NaDDC). The procedure was applied to the determination of both Cr species in galvanic waste waters and its accuracy was approved by comparing the results (at the 100 g/l level) with those of a photometric determination of Cr(VI) species.Dedicated to Professor Dr. Wilhelm Fresenius on the occasion of his 80th birthday     

Simultaneous determination of copper,mercury and lead by first-order derivative spectrophotometry using dithizone as reagent

A first-order derivative spectrophotometric method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of copper, mercury and lead at g/L levels using dithizone as reagent. The procedure involves the simultaneous extraction of these elements by dithizone in chloroform from weakly alkaline solutions. Linear calibration curves were obtained in the ranges 0.5–10 (Cu), 1–10 (Hg) and 1–10 (Pb) g present in 40 ml of aqueous phase with detection limits of 5 g/L (Cu) and 20 g/L (Hg and Pb). The R.S.D.s for 100 g/L of copper, mercury and lead were 2.5, 2.6 and 3.1% respectively, for 5 determinations. The method is applicable for the determination of copper and lead in marine sediment samples with good precision and accuracy.     

Determination of Squalene Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detection

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with photodiode array detection has been developed for the determination of squalene. After treated by extraction and fractional crystallization, squalene was analyzed on a C₁₈ column (150 × 3.9 mm, 5 m) with acetonitrile as mobile phase. Excellent linearity of the calibration curve was observed in the range of 100–40000 gL^–1 and the detection limit was 40 gL^–1. The recoveries were from 89.6% to 100.5% and the relative standard deviations were from 0.5% to 1.4%. The method was successfully applied to the determination of squalene in squalene capsules, olive oil, algal lipids and algal cells.     

Feature characterization of microfabricated microfluidic chips by PDMS replication and CCD imaging

This paper presents a new approach for the metrological characterization of microfabricated features on microfluidic chips, based on a combination of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) replication and charge-coupled device (CCD) imaging. A PDMS replicate was cast from the original chip sample, and a 2-mm thick sample slice was cut from the replica at the cross-section to be studied. The digital image of the revealed structural profile was captured by a CCD camera under a microscope, and the image was processed using specially-developed algorithms for CCD image calibration and edge detection. Depth and width measurements obtained using the method agreed well with those gained using a stylus profiler and universal measuring microscope, with a deviation of below 0.9 m, while profile distortions of deeper structures using stylus profilers were avoided. The method is reliable, non-destructive, and cheap and simple to implement in any analytical laboratory.     

Spectrofluorimetric determination of traces of bromide

A Spectrofluorimetric method for the determination of traces of bromide has been developed. The method is based on the bromination of fluorescein after bromide and hypochlorite form bromine, giving the less fluorescent eosin. The fluorescence decrease is used as the analytical signal. The calibration graph is linear over the range 10 to 80 g/1. The detection limit is 3 g/1 and the relative standard deviation 1.0%. The method has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of bromide in natural waters.