BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 perovskite as catalysts for methane combustion

Unsupported and γ-Al₂O₃-supported Ba and Pb titanate catalysts were prepared, characterized and studied in the combustion of methane, as a test reaction for VOCs’ catalytic combustion. They present good catalytic activities, and after dispersion (5%) on γ-Al₂O₃ the specific activity of the supported perovskite phase increased 25 and 30 times, respectively, compared with the unsupported samples. PbTiO₃/γ-Al₂O₃ shows the best catalytic properties among the tested samples.     

Iridium(III) Complexes with Sulfonyl and Fluorine Substituents: Synthesis,Stereochemistry and Effect of Functionalisation on their Photophysical Properties

The synthesis and photophysical and electrochemical characterisation of new heteroleptic iridium complexes with electron‐withdrawing sulfonyl groups and fluorine atoms bound to phenylpyridine ligands are reported. The emission energy of these materials strongly depends on the position of the sulfonyl groups and on the number of fluorine substituents. A 90 nm wide tuning range of photoluminescence from the blue‐green (λ_em=468 nm) of iridium(III)bis[2‐(4′‐benzylsulfonyl)phenylpyridinato‐N,C2′][3‐(pentafluorophenyl)‐pyridin‐2‐yl‐1,2,4‐triazolate] to the orange (λ_em=558 nm) of iridium(III)bis[2‐(3′‐benzylsulfonyl)phenylpyridinato‐N,C2′](2,4‐decanedionate) has been achieved. Emission quantum yields ranging from 47 to 71 % have also been found for degassed solutions of the complexes, and a surprisingly high value of 16 % was recorded for iridium(III)bis[2‐(5′‐benzylsulfonyl‐3′,6′‐difluoro)phenylpyridinato‐N,C2′](2,4‐decanedionate) in air‐equilibrated dichloromethane. A unusual stereochemistry of the benzylsulfonyl‐substituted dimer and heteroleptic complexes has been detected by ¹H NMR spectroscopy, and is characterised by the mutual cis disposition of the pyridyl nitrogen atoms of the phenylpyridine ligands, which differs from the most common trans arrangement reported in the literature.     

Flow injection analysis: Rayleigh light scattering technique for total protein determination

A novel flow injection analysis (FIA) method with Rayleigh light scattering (RLS) detection was developed for the determination of total protein concentrations. This method is based on the weak intensity of RLS of bromothymol blue (BB) (3',3"-dibromothymolsulfonephthalein) which can be enhanced by the addition of protein in weakly acidic solution. A common spectrofluorimeter was used as a detector. It was proved that the application of this method to quantify the total proteins in real samples by using bovine serum albumin was possible. The RLS signal was detected at lambda(ex)= lambda(em)=572 nm. The linear range was 7.0-70.0 microg mL(-1), the detection limit was 3.75 microg mL(-1), the reproducibility was 5.5% (n=7), and the sample throughput was 26 h(-1).     

Five-membered ring chelate complexes of Ni(II), Pd(II) and Pt(II) derived of di-(2-pyridyl)-N-ethylimine

Cis-diaquobis{di-(2-pyridyl)-N-ethylimine}nickel(II) chloride (2) was obtained from the reaction of di-(2-pyridyl)-N-ethylimine (1) and [NiCl₂dppe] [dppe = cis-1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethylene] in a 2:1 ratio in hot acetonitrile. Cis-dichloro{di-(2-pyridyl)-N-ethylimine}palladium(II) (3) and cis-dichloro{di-(2-pyridyl)-N-ethylimine}platinum(II) (4) complexes were obtained from the reaction of MCl₂ (M = Pd, Pt) and (1) in equimolar ratio in hot acetonitrile. Compounds 1–4 were characterized by IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and mass spectrometry; the complexes 3 and 4 were characterized in solution by NMR. In addition, solid state structures of compounds 1–4 were determined using single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. X-ray diffraction data of the complexes 3 and 4 showed a distorted square planar local geometry at palladium and platinum atoms with the chlorine atoms in a cis-coordination; in 2 a local octahedral geometry at nickel atom was observed. Complexes 3 and 4 are arranged as dimers with a M?M distance of 3.4567(4) Å (M = Pd) and 3.4221(4) Å (M = Pt), respectively; 2 consists of units linked by intermolecular hydrogen bonding.     

Sensitive Determination of the Diquat Herbicide in Fresh Food Samples on a Highly Boron‐Doped Diamond Electrode

The highly boron‐doped diamond electrode (HBDD) combined with square wave voltammetry (SWV) was used in the development of an analytical procedure for diquat determination in potato and sugar cane samples and lemon, orange, tangerine and pineapple juices. Preliminary experiments realised in a medium of 0.05 mol L^?1 Na₂B₄O₇ showed the presence of two voltammetric peaks around ?0.6 V and around ?1.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl/Cl^? 3.0 mol L^?1, where the first peak could be successfully used for analytical proposes due the facility in the electrode surface renovation. After the experimental and voltammetric optimisation, the calculated detection and quantification limits were 1.6×10^?10 mol L^?1 and 5.3×10^?10 mol L^?1 (0.057 µg L^?1 and 0.192 µg L^?1, respectively), which are lower than the maximum residue limit established for fresh food samples by the Brazilian Sanitary Vigilance Agency. The proposed methodology was used to determine diquat residues in potato and sugar cane samples and lemon, orange, tangerine and pineapple juices and the calculated recovery efficiencies indicated that the proposed procedure presents higher robustness, stability and sensitivity, good reproducibility, and is very adequate for diquat determination in complex samples.     

The role of the Zn(II) binding domain in the mechanism of E. coli DNA topoisomerase I

Background  

Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase I binds three Zn(II) with three tetracysteine motifs which, together with the 14 kDa C-terminal region, form a 30 kDa DNA binding domain (ZD domain). The 67 kDa N-terminal domain (Top67) has the active site tyrosine for DNA cleavage but cannot relax negatively supercoiled DNA. We analyzed the role of the ZD domain in the enzyme mechanism.     

Evaluation of lipid removal from animal fats for the determination of organochlorine, pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyl indicators by gas chromatography with electron capture detector

For cleanup of animal fat before GC analysis of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls, freezing-lipid filtration with solid-phase extraction and matrix solid-phase dispersion were evaluated to replace the official Brazilian methodology that uses preparative alumina column chromatography. General drawbacks associated with this last technique, such as the use of large amounts of solvent, laborious and time-consuming procedure could be avoided by using these alternative approaches. Experiments were carried out to study the performance by using different combinations of sorbents and elution solvents. Efficiency of alternative extraction methods in terms of fat removal and recovery capability was monitored by gravimetry, TLC, and GC with electron capture detection. Freezing-lipid filtration with solid-phase extraction afforded better clean up efficiency with recoveries in a range of 54.5 to 103.6% with the relative standard deviation of less than 10% for all compounds under investigation.