XANES speciation of mercury in three mining districts – Almadén,Asturias (Spain), Idria (Slovenia)

The mobility, bioavailability and toxicity of mercury in the environment strongly depend on the chemical species in which it is present in soil, sediments, water or air. In mining districts, differences in mobility and bioavailability of mercury mainly arise from the different type of mineralization and ore processing. In this work, synchrotron‐based X‐ray absorption near‐edge spectroscopy (XANES) has been taken advantage of to study the speciation of mercury in geological samples from three of the largest European mercury mining districts: Almadén (Spain), Idria (Slovenia) and Asturias (Spain). XANES has been complemented with a single extraction protocol for the determination of Hg mobility. Ore, calcines, dump material, soil, sediment and suspended particles from the three sites have been considered in the study. In the three sites, rather insoluble sulfide compounds (cinnabar and metacinnabar) were found to predominate. Minor amounts of more soluble mercury compounds (chlorides and sulfates) were also identified in some samples. Single extraction procedures have put forward a strong dependence of the mobility with the concentration of chlorides and sulfates. Differences in efficiency of roasting furnaces from the three sites have been found.     

Versuche mit markierten Atomen über den Mechanismus der Vermehrung von Tabakmosaikvirus in Nicotiana tabacum

Zusammenfassung Tabakmosaikvirus hoher spezifischer Aktivität, das am Phosphor und/oder Kohlenstoff markiert war, wurde biosynthetisch hergestellt. Damit wurde jeweils ein Blatt einer Pflanze von Nicotiana tabacum infiziert und der etwaige Transport von intaktem Virus durch das Leitungssystem der Pflanzen dadurch weitgehend unterbunden, daß die Leitgefäße des behandelten Blattes durchtrennt wurden.Das aus den unbehandelten Blättern der Pflanze nach 17 1/2, 48 und 72 Stdn. isolierte Virus wies im Vergleich zum eingesetzten TMV einen viel geringeren Anteil an Gesamtradiokohlenstoff im Protein auf. Dies deutet darauf hin, daß das Virus der unbehandelten Blätter höchstens zu einem sehr geringen Teil aus intakt transportiertem TMV bestehen könnte.Die nicht im TMV enthaltenen Polynukleotide der unbehandelten Blätter enthalten 7 Stdn. nach der Infektion verhältnismäßig viel³²P, doch tritt derselbe innerhalb 70 Stdn. zum allergrößten Teil in niedermolekulare Verbindungen über.Die in Puffer unlöslichen Polynukleotide der unbehandelten Blätter (Blattnukleinsäure) weisen ein mit der Zeit abnehmendes Verhältnis von³²P/¹⁴C auf. Auch innerhalb der Nukleinsäure (NS) des TMV dieser Blätter nimmt dieses Verhältnis zunächst ab, steigt aber später wieder an.Die angeführten Ergebnisse stehen mit der Vorstellung im Einklang, daß das Virus NS abspaltet und sowohl die systemische Infektion der Pflanze wie auch die Virusvermehrung mindestens zum Teil durch diese freie NS bewirkt wird. Die aus dem Virus stammende freie NS unterliegt zum großen Teil lebhaftem Abbau, wobei ihre Komponenten wahrscheinlich dem Aufbau normaler Blattbestandteile dienen.Mit 3 Abbildungen     

Hierarchical structure of SERS substrates possessing the silver ring morphology

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Adsorption of azacrown ethers at solid–liquid interface. Contact angle and neutron reflectivity study

Adsorption of two alkylated N,N′-diaza-18-crown-6 ethers (decyl- and hexadecyl-derivatives, ACE-10 and ACE-16, respectively) on solid surfaces was studied by using contact angle and neutron reflectivity measurements. The solid substrates used were (a) Si covered with a native oxide layer (Si/SiO₂) and (b) Si with sputtered Pt layer (Si/Pt). The sensitivity of neutron reflectivity was drastically improved by applying the intermediate Pt layer of 150 Å, which gave rise to several Kiessig fringes in the experimentally accessible q-range. The position of the fringes is very sensitive to slight changes of the interfacial composition induced by adsorption of a thin monolayer, otherwise very difficult to detect. Unfortunately, in the studied case this sensitivity is immediately lost due to undesired adsorption of a protonated material on the Pt surface exposed to the lab air. A decrease of surface energy (increase of contact angle) of both Si/SiO₂ and Si/Pt upon exposure to toluene solutions of ACEs suggests that the latter are attached to the surface via the hydrophilic azacrown ether head with alkyl chains standing upright towards the liquid phase.     

Studies on Poly(Dialkoxyphosphazenes) for the Medical Applications

Abstract

The presence of trace of chlorine in poly(diorganophosphazenes) [-N=P(OR)2-]., where R = C₂H₅, CH₂CF₃, C₂F₅, C₄H₅, C₆H₁₃, C₈H₁₇, C₁₂H₂₅, CH₂C₆H₅ in many cases leads to the substantial changes of their physicochemical properties and limits application possibilities of this class of polymers especial for the medical materials. Despite the optimization of reaction conditions for each nucleophilic alkoxy substituent, the obtained poly(dia1koxyphosphaenes) exhibited some physicochemical anomalies.     

The effect of carbon nanotubes on epoxy matrix nanocomposites

The paper concerns thermal properties of epoxy/nanotubes composites for aircraft application. In this work, influence of carbon nanotubes on thermal stability, thermal conductivity, and crosslinking density of epoxy matrix was determined. Three kinds of nanotubes were used: non-modified with 1- and 1.5-μm length, and 1-μm length modified with amino groups. Scanning electron microscopy observations were done for examining dispersion of nanotubes in the epoxy matrix. Glass transition temperature (T _g) was readout from differential scanning calorimetry. From dynamic mechanical analysis, crosslinking density was calculated for epoxy and its composites. Also, thermogravimetric analysis was done to determine influence of nanotubes addition on thermal stability and decomposition process of composites. Activation energy was calculated from TGA curves by Flynn–Wall–Ozawa method. Thermal diffusivity was also measured. SEM images proved the uniform dispersion of carbon nanotubes without any agglomerates. It was found that nanotubes modified with amino groups lead to the increase of epoxy matrix crosslinking density. The significant increase in T _g was also observed. On the other hand, addition of carbon nanotubes leads to the decrease of thermal stability of polymer due to the increase of thermal diffusivity.     

EC–SPE–stripline-NMR analysis of reactive products: a feasibility study

Flow-through electrochemical conversion (EC) of drug-like molecules was hyphenated to miniaturized nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) via on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE). After EC of the prominent p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor BIRB796 into its reactive products, the SPE step provided preconcentration of the EC products and solvent exchange for NMR analysis. The acquisition of NMR spectra of the mass-limited samples was achieved in a stripline probe with a detection volume of 150 nL offering superior mass sensitivity. This hyphenated EC–SPE–stripline-NMR setup enabled the detection of the reactive products using only minute amounts of substrate. Furthermore, the integration of conversion and detection into one flow setup counteracts incorrect assessments caused by the degradation of reactive products. However, apparent interferences of the NMR magnetic field with the EC, leading to a low product yield, so far demanded relatively long signal averaging. A critical assessment of what is and what is not (yet) possible with this approach is presented, for example in terms of structure elucidation and the estimation of concentrations. Additionally, promising routes for further improvement of EC–SPE–stripline-NMR are discussed.     

UHPLC: The Greening Face of Liquid Chromatography

Pharmaceutical analysis based on chromatographic separation is an important part of studies aimed at developing routine quality analysis of drugs. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is one of the main analytical techniques recommended for drug analysis. Although it meets many criteria vital for analysis, it is time-consuming and uses a relatively high amount of organic solvents compared to other analytical techniques. Recently, Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) has been frequently proposed as an alternative to HPLC, which means introducing an environment-friendly approach to drug analysis achieved by reducing the consumption of solvents. It also offers greater chromatographic resolution and higher sensitivity as well as requiring less time due to faster analysis. This review focuses on the basics of UHPLC, compares that technique with HPLC and discusses the possibilities of applying UHPLC for the analysis of different pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals.     

Long-Term Cultured Hairy Roots of Chicory—A Rich Source of Hydroxycinnamates and 8-Deoxylactucin Glucoside

Foam fractionation is a promising method for separation and concentration of biochemicals. It is simple, easily scalable, inexpensive, and environment friendly. Foam fractionation thus represents an alternative to the traditional methods used for immunoglobulin enrichment. However, little, if any, literature exists documenting the utilization of foam fractionation in the enrichment of immunoglobulins. Milk were utilized as an immunoglobulin source to serve as examples of a real system in this study. The investigation examined the effects of varying five different process parameters: the initial pH value, the initial concentration of immunoglobulin, the nitrogen flow rate, the column height, and the foaming time. Experimental results demonstrated that immunoglobulin could effectively be enriched from milk by foam fractionation. The maximum enrichment ratio with pretreatment (using pH 4.6 precipitation) was 6.30 along with a more than 92 % recovery for IgG and an enrichment ratio of 5.1 with 85 % recovery for IgM.