New developments in trace element analysis in the life sciences

Summary In the analysis of trace elements in biological materials it has become more and more apparent that there is often a need not only to determine the levels of the elements in the whole sample but also to measure the element contents in fractions of the materials, such as certain types of cells, subcellular components and molecules. Furthermore, it is sometimes necessary to relate the elemental data to relevant biological and biochemical parameters as there is otherwise a danger that wrong conclusions may be drawn. In this paper these trends in trace element analysis are described with the help of examples and the problems which can occur in the various steps of sampling and sample preparation are discussed.

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Neue Entwicklungen bei der Spurenelementanalyse in den Biowissenschaften

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Dedicated to Prof. Dr. G. Tölg on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Zum mechanismus des strahlenchemischen abbaus von polytetrafluorethylen

The present work studies the changes in polymer structure and the mechanism of the decomposition of polytetrafluoroethylene resin (PTFE) exposed to high energy radiation (electron beam). Spectroscopic and kinetic observations are used to interpret the degradation process. For the first time the decomposition of PTFE has been carried out on a preparative scale and new results obtained by analysing the degradation products. The radiation-induced degradation of PTFE is accompanied by thermal degradation under certain irradiation conditions. This is due to an increase in temperature of the polymer caused by retardation of highly accelerated electrons (heat accumulation effect).The kinetics are discussed in terms of the reactions and recombination of radicals produced by high-energy radiation both in the polymer melt and the polymer surface. These are related to the overall rate of decomposition.The primary radicals formed by decomposition of PTFE in an inert atmosphere (N₂, Ar) react to produce perfluorinated alkanes and alkenes. In the presence of reactive gases the decomposition fragments originated will react rapidly; e.g. if oxygen is present in the reactive area the radicals form perflourinated peroxyl and oxyl radicals which finally stabilize themselves by CC-scission to perfluorocarbon acid fluorides and carbonyldifluorides.     

Penetration and Crosslinking of Macromolecules

One of the topical problems of macromolecular chemistry is the question of the extent to which macromolecules in solution or in the amorphous solid state can engage in mutual interpenetration. The present article is concerned primarily with recent investigations on cross-linking copolymerization and with inter-and intramolecular reactions of polymers as a contribution to the study of molecular shape.     

Zur Dünnschicht-Chromatographie von zinnorganischen Verbindungen

With the aid of thinlayer chromatography mixtures of tetraorganotin compounds containing no polar groups can be separated and identified if they differ in the number of phenyl groups per molecule or in the nature of their aliphatic residues (alkyl or allyl). For analytical purposes mixtures of 80% hexane and 20% benzene by volume are suitable as mobile phase. For preparative purposes (requiring multiple development) pure hexane or hexane containing 10 to 20% benzene by volume are best suited as mobile phase, where the amount of hexane depends on the problem of separation at hand. The R_f values of the mobile phases vary linearly with the number of the phenyl groups x and decrease with increasing x. The straight lines connecting the R_f values cross at x=4 (tetraphenyltin). Dithizone and silver nitrate are suitable spray reagents for organotin compounds. By spraying the plates with dithizone tetra-, tri-, and di-organotin compounds can be immediately distinguished on the basis of the ensuing colourations. With silver nitrate allyltin compounds and polystannanes can be distinguished from alkyltin compounds; tetra-phenyltin is not coloured by this reagent.     

Serial potentiometric and conductometric detection in fast non-suppressed ion chromatography applied to the analysis of filter collected airborne particulates

Non-suppressed ion chromatography (NSIC) has been optimized to permit the determination of chloride, nitrate and sulfate in the low mg/l concentration range within 3 min. Using conductometric detection the extraneous (positive) injection peak was found to adversely affect the early eluting chloride signal when samples with high amounts of total cations are analyzed. The serial arrangement of a downstream potentiometric detector with a chloride ion selective electrode, which does not respond to other alterations of the composition of the eluent than the change in chloride concentrations, is shown to be suitable for interference-free, sensitive and reliable chloride evaluation. Application of the proposed system to the determination of chloride in extracts of filter collected airborne particulates revealed (for those samples that could be evaluated by both detection methods) high precision and no systematic deviations between conductometric and potentiometric detection.Dedicated to Professor Dr. Peter Brätter on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Quantitative analysis of small pharmaceutical drugs using a high repetition rate laser matrix-assisted laser/desorption ionization source

In this work, a high repetition rate laser matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) source is studied on a quadrupole-time-of-flight (QqTOF) and a triple quadrupole (QqQ) mass spectrometer for rapid quantification of small pharmaceutical drugs. The high repetition rate laser allows an up to 100-fold higher pulse frequency as compared with regular MALDI lasers, resulting in much larger sample throughput and number of accumulated spectra. This increases the reproducibility of signal intensities considerably, with average values being around 5% relative standard deviation after taking into account the area ratio of the analyte to an internal standard. Experiments were conducted in MS/MS mode to circumvent the large chemical background due to MALDI matrix ions in the low mass range. The dynamic range of calibration curves on the QqTOF mass spectrometer extended over at least two orders of magnitude, whereas on the QqQ it extended over at least three orders of magnitude. Detection limits ranged from 60-400 pg/microL on the QqTOF and from 6-70 pg/microL on the QqQ for a series of benzodiazepines. The benzodiazepine content of commercial pill formulations was quantified, and less than 5% error was obtained between the present method and the manufacturer's certified values. Furthermore, a high sample throughput was achieved with this method, so that a single MALDI spot could be quantitatively scanned in as little as 15 s, and an entire 96-well MALDI plate in 24 min.     

Effective Hamiltonian for fluid interfaces

Based on a microscopic theory of inhomogeneous fluids we derive a non-Gaussian and nonlocal effetive Hamiltonian of a liquid-vapor interface. A partial resummation of a gradient expansion yields terms proportional to the area as well as to the Gaussian and the square of the mean curvature of the interface. For van der Waals fluids the gradient expansion breaks down and leads to a singularity in the momentum dependent surface tension. The nonlocal Hamiltonian and various approximations thereof are compared quantitatively.