Diphenyl(2-pyridyl)methane as a solvent for thiocyanate complexes of zinc in aqueous mineral acids

Summary Tracer (10^–8 M) zinc can be quantitatively extracted with 0.1M diphenyl(2-pyridyl)methane (DPPM) in benzene from neutral and acidic aqueous thiocyanate solutions in a single extraction. In all cases, extraction times of 1–5 min are sufficient for equilibration. The effects of the concentration of the mineral acids, the reagent, complexing and salting-out agents and phase-volume ratios on the metal extraction are reported. The metal is predominantly extracted through solvation, and the extraction of the metal as Zn(SCN)₂(DPPM)₂ is indicated. Among the common salts only sodium chloride exerts a slight depressing effect on extraction when present in high concentration. The metal can be stripped from the organic phase with aqueous oxalate, citrate or acetate solutions in a single operation. Distribution coefficients and separation factors for a number of metal ions, relative to zinc, are reported for 0.2M potassium thiocyanate media that contain the optimal concentration of mineral acid. The method can be employed for the simultaneous preconcentration of toxic metals such as zinc, copper and mercury from neutral aqueous solution in water pollution studies.

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Diphenyl(2-pyridyl)methan als Lösungsmittel für Zink-Rhodanidkomplexe in wäßrigen Mineralsäuren

Zusammenfassung Zinkspuren (10^–8 M) lassen sich mit einer benzolischen, 0,1 M Lösung von Diphenyl(2-pyridyl)methan (DPPM) aus neutralen oder sauren, wäßrigen Rhodanidlösungen durch eine einzige Extraktion ausschütteln. Jedenfalls sind 1–5 min hinreichend für die Einstellung des Gleichgewichtes. Der Einfluß der Konzentration der Mineralsäure, des Reagens, des Komplexbildners und des Aussalzmittels sowie des Volumenverhältnisses der Phasen auf die Metallextraktion wurde beschrieben. Die Extraktion erfolgt vorherrschend durch Solvatation und zwar als Zn(SCN)₂(DPPM)₂. Unter den gewöhnlichen Salzen beeinträchtigt nur NaCl in hoher Konzentration die Extraktion in geringem Maß. Das Metall kann aus der organischen Phase mit wäßrigen Oxalat-, Citrat- oder Acetatlösungen in einem Arbeitsgang rückextrahiert werden. Die Verteilungskoeffizienten und Trennungsfaktoren für einige Metallionen in bezug auf Zink in 0,2M Kaliumrhodanid bei optimaler Mineralsäurekonzentration wurden angegeben. Das Verfahren eignet sich für die gleichzeitige Anreicherung toxischer Metalle, wie Zn, Cu und Hg aus neutraler Lösung bei der Untersuchung der Gewässerverunreinigung.

     

Liquid-liquid extraction of zinc from aqueous thiocyanate solutions with 5-(-4-pyridyl)nonane in benzene

5-(4-Pyridyl)nonane dissolved in benzene has been applied to the extraction of zinc, down to very low concentration (< 10(-6)M), from aqueous thiocyanate solutions. The metal can be quantitatively extracted from neutral and acidic thiocyanate solutions (up to 5M HCl, 0.25M HNO(3) or 0.25M H(2)SO(4)) in a single extraction. Equilibration times of 5 min are sufficient for almost complete extraction. The optimum thiocyanate concentration range is 0.05-0.5M. Among the common anions chloride exerts a slight depressing effect on extraction from neutral solution when present in high concentration. The extraction mechanism and the composition of the extracted complexes of zinc are discussed. The metal is predominantly extracted by means of a solvate mechanism. The effect of chloride, nitrate, sulphate, acetate, citrate, oxalate and ascorbate ions on the extraction of zinc is described. Several elements, including those of interest in separation of zinc, have been tested for extraction from O.1M KSCN at the optimal concentrations of the mineral acids, and the separation factors estimated.     

Synthesis,spectral and biological studies of organotin(IV) complexes of heteroscorpionate

A heteroscorpionate ligand, potassium hydrobis(benzoato)(salicylaldehyde)borate (KL), has been synthesized. This was converted into organotin complexes R₂SnL₂ and R₃SnL complexes by mixing and stirring with a methanolic solution/suspension of organotin chloride. The ligand and its complexes were characterized by elemental analyses and spectral studies (IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ESI mass spectra and Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA)). Antibacterial and antifungal studies of these compounds were evaluated by the disc diffusion method at variable concentration against three species of bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia and Bacillius subtillis) and two species of fungi (Asperjillius fiavus and Candida albicans). It was found that triorganotin derivatives (R₃SnL) of the ligand were more effective as compared with diorganotin derivatives (R₂SnL₂). The organotin complexes of borates were tested for their algicidal activity on the cyanobacterial strains Aulosira fertilissma, Anabaena species, Anabaena variabilis and Nostoc muscorum and showed high to moderate toxicity towards the above species. The ligand and its complexes were also tested for its pH effect on soil in vitro for a duration of more than one month and it was found that they are able to kill pests without damaging the soil quality. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Haloxylines A and B, antifungal and cholinesterase inhibiting piperidine alkaloids from Haloxylon salicornicum

Haloxylines A (1) and B (2), new piperidine alkaloids, have been isolated from the chloroform soluble fraction of Haloxylon salicornicum and their structures elucidated by spectroscopic techniques including 2D-NMR. Both the compounds displayed antifungal and cholinesterase enzymes inhibitory potentials.     

Weak signals in high‐dimensional regression: Detection,estimation and prediction

Regularization methods, including Lasso, group Lasso, and SCAD, typically focus on selecting variables with strong effects while ignoring weak signals. This may result in biased prediction, especially when weak signals outnumber strong signals. This paper aims to incorporate weak signals in variable selection, estimation, and prediction. We propose a two‐stage procedure, consisting of variable selection and postselection estimation. The variable selection stage involves a covariance‐insured screening for detecting weak signals, whereas the postselection estimation stage involves a shrinkage estimator for jointly estimating strong and weak signals selected from the first stage. We term the proposed method as the covariance‐insured screening‐based postselection shrinkage estimator. We establish asymptotic properties for the proposed method and show, via simulations, that incorporating weak signals can improve estimation and prediction performance. We apply the proposed method to predict the annual gross domestic product rates based on various socioeconomic indicators for 82 countries.     

The kinetics of the oxidation-reduction reaction between uranium(VI) and titanium(III) in HCl solution

The oxidation-reduction reaction between U(VI) and Ti(III) in HCl solution was studied spectrophotometrically. The reaction is second-order at all concentrations of reactants, HCl, ferrous chloride and mannitol used in this work. In 5M HCl the rate constantk increases with increasing Ti(III) concentration, whereas it decreases with increasing U(VI) concentration, with increasing HCl concentration from 1.00M to 7.17M and increases thereafter from 7.17M to 11.79M. The addition of mannitol causes a consistent decrease in the rate of reaction, whereas ferrous chloride has no effect. The activation energy for this oxidation-reduction reaction was 47.90±0.11 kJ·mol^–1. The values of H , G and S were 45.40±0.11 kJ·mol^–1, 72.50±0.17 kJ·mol^–1 and –91.10±0.22J·k^–1·mol^–1, respectively. The mode of reaction is discussed in the light of kinetic results.     

Shrinkage drift parameter estimation for multi‐factor Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes

We consider some inference problems concerning the drift parameters of multi‐factors Vasicek model (or multivariate Ornstein–Uhlebeck process). For example, in modeling for interest rates, the Vasicek model asserts that the term structure of interest rate is not just a single process, but rather a superposition of several analogous processes. This motivates us to develop an improved estimation theory for the drift parameters when homogeneity of several parameters may hold. However, the information regarding the equality of these parameters may be imprecise. In this context, we consider Stein‐rule (or shrinkage) estimators that allow us to improve on the performance of the classical maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). Under an asymptotic distributional quadratic risk criterion, their relative dominance is explored and assessed. We illustrate the suggested methods by analyzing interbank interest rates of three European countries. Further, a simulation study illustrates the behavior of the suggested method for observation periods of small and moderate lengths of time. Our analytical and simulation results demonstrate that shrinkage estimators (SEs) provide excellent estimation accuracy and outperform the MLE uniformly. An over‐ridding theme of this paper is that the SEs provide powerful extensions of their classical counterparts. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A subdivision collocation method for solving two point boundary value problems of order three

In this paper, we propose a method for the numerical solution of self adjoint singularly perturbed third order boundary value problems in which the highest order derivative is multiplied by a small parameter $\varepsilon$. In this method, first we introduce the derivatives of two scale relations satisfied by the subdivision schemes. After that we use these derivatives to construct the subdivision collocation method for the numerical solution of singularly perturbed boundary value problems. Convergence of the subdivision collocation method is also discussed. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the proposed method.     

N-oxides of 4-(5-nonyl)pyridine and trioctylamine as extractants for cerium(IV) and its separation from thorium(IV)

Trace level cerium has been oxidized to the quadrivalent state with potassium dichromate and shown to be preferentially extracted from very dilute mineral acid solutions and also from moderate nitric acid media by 0.1M solutions of 4-(5-nonyl)pyridine oxide and trioctylamine oxide dissolved in xylene. The dependence of extraction on the type of N-oxide, acid concentration and the N-oxide concentration has been investigated. The influence of the concentration of salting-out agents is described. Separation factors for a number of metal ions relative to cerium(IV) are reported for 0.1 M 4-(5-nonyl)pyridine oxide/xylene-0.1M sulphuric acid system. The ratio of the D for Ce(IV) to that of Ce(III) is greater than 10⁵, and the D for Ce(IV) is much greater than that for thorium(IV). Separation of cerium(IV) from thorium has been achieved from 0.1M sulphuric acid solutions using 0.1M 4-(5-nonyl)pyridine oxide/xylene as an extractant.     

A Semiconductor or A One-Dimensional Metal and Superconductor through Tellurium π Stacking

One-dimensional conductor: Strong π?interactions between ecliptically stacked tellurium squares in Te(4) [Bi(0.74) Cl(4) ] trigger excellent one-dimensional metallic conductivity as well as superconductivity below 7.15?K under ambient pressure. The electron-precise counterpart, Te(4) [Bi(0.67) Cl(4) ], is a semiconductor. The bismuth content and temperature- dependent competition of intra- and inter-ring bonding account for the electronic conduction.