Modeling adsorption in binary associating solvents using the extended MPTA model

Application of the MPTA model has been extended to associative liquid adsorption. The MPTA model describes fluid–fluid interactions using an equation of state (EoS) term, and fluid–solid interactions using a potential equation. In order to extend the application to associative liquid adsorption, an association term has been considered for fluid–fluid interactions. Sixteen binary mixtures containing associating and non-associating components in equilibrium with various adsorbents have been studied; fluid–fluid interactions have been modeled using the Peng–Robinson, Soave–Redlich–Kwong, volume-translated SRK and CPA equations of state, while the effects of fluid–solid interactions have been taken into account using Dubinin–Radushkevich–Astakhov (DRA) and Steele potential functions. The model parameters have been obtained by fitting the model to experimental data on surface excess. For the studied systems, the accuracy of fitted isotherms has been found to be more dependent on the fluid–solid potential equation rather than the applied EoS. Calculations show that the SRK equation is a suitable choice for non-associating systems, while the CPA equation is found to be more appropriate for associating systems, as would be expected. The results also show that the Steele potential function is in better agreement with experimental data than the DRA potential function.     

Antimicrobial Activity and Physical Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles Green Synthesized Using Nitrate Reductase from Fusarium oxysporum

Nanostructures from natural sources have received major attention due to wide array of biological activities and less toxicity for humans, animals, and the environment. In the present study, silver nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using a fungal nitrate reductase, and their biological activity was assessed against human pathogenic fungi and bacteria. The enzyme was isolated from Fusarium oxysporum IRAN 31C after culturing on malt extract-glucose-yeast extract-peptone (MGYP) medium. The enzyme was purified by a combination of ultrafiltration and ion exchange chromatography on DEAE Sephadex and its molecular weight was estimated by gel filtration on Sephacryl S-300. The purified enzyme had a maximum yield of 50.84 % with a final purification of 70 folds. With a molecular weight of 214 KDa, it is composed of three subunits of 125, 60, and 25 KDa. The purified enzyme was successfully used for synthesis of silver nanoparticles in a way dependent upon NADPH using gelatin as a capping agent. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering spectroscopy, and transmission and scanning electron microscopy. These stable nonaggregating nanoparticles were spherical in shape with an average size of 50 nm and a zeta potential of ?34.3. Evaluation of the antimicrobial effects of synthesized nanoparticles by disk diffusion method showed strong growth inhibitory activity against all tested human pathogenic fungi and bacteria as evident from inhibition zones that ranged from 14 to 25 mm. Successful green synthesis of biologically active silver nanoparticles by a nitrate reductase from F. oxysporum in the present work not only reduces laborious downstream steps such as purification of nanoparticle from interfering cellular components, but also provides a constant source of safe biologically-active nanomaterials with potential application in agriculture and medicine.     

Iodide-selective carbon paste electrodes based on recently synthesized Schiff base complexes of Fe(III)

A new modified carbon paste electrode (CPE) based on a recently synthesized Schiff base complex of Fe(III) as a suitable carrier for I⁻ ion is described. The electrode exhibits a super Nernstian slope of 71.0±0.3 mV per decade for I⁻ ion over a wide concentration range from 1.0×10⁻⁶ to 5.0×10⁻¹ M, with a low detection limit of 6.5×10⁻⁷ M. It has a relatively fast response time, a satisfactory reproducibility and relatively long life time. The proposed sensor shows a fairly good selectivity toward I⁻ ion in comparison to other common anions. The potentiometric response is independent of the pH of the test solution in the pH range 3.5–10.0. Spectrophotometric studies confirmed the redox-type response mechanism of the electrode toward iodide ion. The proposed electrode was used as an indicator electrode in potentiometric titration of iodide ion.     

FTIR spectroscopy coupled with multivariate classification methods to identify different powdered infant formulas adulterated with melamine and cyanuric acid

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a nondestructive, simple, rapid, and cheap measurement technique for analysis of many multicomponent chemical systems, e.g., detection of adulterants in food samples. In this respect, this study proposes combining FTIR spectroscopy with multivariate classification methods for classification and discrimination of different samples of infant formulas adulterated by melamine or/and cyanuric acid. Different parametric and non-parametric multivariate classification methods including the linear discriminant analysis (LDA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), and classification and regression tree (CART) approaches were used to classify the recorded FTIR data. Assessing the performance of the multivariate methods according to their sensitivity, specificity and percent of correct prediction results demonstrated that coupling FTIR spectroscopy with multivariate classification can be applied as a rapid and powerful technique to the simultaneous detection of melamine and cyanuric acid in powdered infant formulas. This combinatorial method is efficient for adulterant concentrations as low as 0.0001 w/w%.     

Determination of thallium(I) by flotation-spectrophotometric method using iodide and rhodamine B.

A method for the trace amount determination of Tl(I), via its preconcentration, is proposed. The method is based on the reaction of iodide, Tl(I) and Rhodamine B in a weakly acidic medium. In this process an ion-associated complex is formed, which is floated at the interface of aqueous-cyclohexane layers. Various amounts of Tl(I) by a subsequent separation and dissolution of the floated complex in methanol could be determined, spectrophotometrically. Beer's law was obeyed for the Tl(I) content in the range of (0.8-8.0) x 10(-7) mol l(-1) with a correlation coefficient of 0.9974. The conditional molar absorptivity was found to be 1.0 x 10(6) l mol(-1) cm(-1) at 560 nm, which indicated the considerable sensitivity of the procedure. The detection limit (DL) was 4.7 x 10(-8) mol l(-1) and the RSD (n = 5) for 4 x 10(-7) mol l(-1) of Tl(I) was 3.34%. None of the alkaline cations was interfered, and the interference of many other metal ions was eliminated via ion-exchange separation using a cation-exchanger resin, Amberlite IR-120, before the flotation step. The reliability of the procedure was confirmed by determining the Tl(I) contents of synthetic laboratory waste water by both flotation spectrophotometry and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS). The recovery was 92.3-95.4% for 1 x 10(-7) and 4 x 10(-7) mol l(-1), respectively. The precision and accuracy of the results were comparable via F and t tests at the 95% confidence level.     

Recent advances on dual-functional photocatalytic systems for combined removal of hazardous water pollutants and energy generation

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Photocatalytic wastewater treatment and concurrent energy production or metal ions conversion to less harmful products have great potential to address both...