Silica gel modified with Eriochrome Blue SE as a sorbent in trace analysis for metal ions

The sorption of 14 metal ions on silica gel impregnated with a mixture of Aliquat 336 and Eriochrome Blue SE was investigated. It was found that the sorption behaviour depends upon the species and the pH of the loading solution. Alkali metal ions were not retained under any of the investigated conditions. The retained metal ions can be eluted with dilute solutions of hydrochloric or perchloric acid without significant elution of the chelating reagent from the sorbent. The sorbent was used for the separation of metal ion mixtures by column — extraction chromatography and for additional purification of some salt solutions from trace amounts of Zn, Cd, Pb and Cu. The effectiveness of purification was confirmed by anodic stripping voltammetry.     

Methacrylate-based short monolithic columns: enabling tools for rapid and efficient analyses of biomolecules and nanoparticles

This review describes the novel chromatography stationary phase--a porous monolithic methacrylate-based polymer--in terms of the design of the columns and some of the features that make these columns attractive for the purification of large biomolecules. We first start with a brief summary of the characteristics of these large molecules (more precisely large proteins like immunoglobulins G and M, plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and viral particles), and a list of some of the problems that were encountered during the development of efficient purification processes. We then briefly describe the structure of the methacrylate-based monolith and emphasize the features which make them more than suitable for dealing with large entities. The highly efficient structure on a small scale can be transferred to a large scale without the need of making column modifications, and the various approaches of how this is accomplished are briefly presented in this paper. This is followed by presenting some of the examples from the bioprocess development schemes, where the implementation of the methacrylate-based monolithic columns has resulted in a very efficient and productive process. Following this, we move back to the analytical scale and demonstrate the efficiency of the monolithic column--where the mass transfer between the stationary and mobile phase is greatly enhanced--for the in-process and final control of the new therapeutics. The combination of an efficient structure and the appropriate hardware results in separations of proteins with residence time less than 0.1 s.     

Effect of sample pre-treatment on isoflavones quantification in soybean

High performance liquid chromatography is the most common technique for analysing isoflavones in soy; however, the appropriate sample pre-treatment is required, including extraction and, often, hydrolysis. In the present work, the kinetics of extraction was investigated with regard to the number of extraction steps and their duration for the exhaustive extraction of bonded forms of isoflavones and aglycones. In addition, a systematic experimental study of hydrolysis depending on the temperature and acidity of the medium was conducted. The results showed that the assisted methods were more effective for the isolation of isoflavones. Moreover, ^the differences between the results obtained using ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), microwave-assisted extraction and pressurised liquid extraction were not statistically significant; however, the appropriate number of extraction steps and their duration for UAE were required. The investigation also revealed that, due to the varying susceptibility of glycosides on conversion to free forms and the stability of the aglycones obtained, two parallel hydrolysis procedures should be conducted to obtain the highest hydrolysis efficiency. The optimised conditions, taking into account the shortest time combined with the highest efficiency, were as follows: 4 M HCl and 60 min for genistein; 8 M HCl and 30 min for glycitein and daidzein.     

Synthesis and self-assembly of thio derivatives of calix[4]arene on noble metal surfaces

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) provide a simple route to functionalize electrode surfaces with organic molecules. Herein we use cavity-containing derivatives of calix[4]arenes in SAMs. Bound to noble metal surface, the assembled molecules are candidates to serve as molecular sieves for H 2 molecules and H (+) ions, which could have relevance for fuel cell applications. Tetra- O-alkylated calix[4]arenes with thiolacetate and thiolamide wide-rim anchoring groups in cone and partial-cone conformations were designed, synthesized and self-assembled onto Au, Pt, and Pd surfaces. The resulting SAMs were systematically examined. Single crystal X-ray diffraction of 5,11,17,23-tetrakis(thioacetyl)-25,26,27,28-tetra- i-propoxycalix[4]arene confirmed the cone conformation and revealed the cavity dimensions of the SAMs that were formed by immersing noble metal substrates (Au, Pt and Pd deposited on Si-wafers) in solutions of calix[4]arenes. Surface characterization techniques including ellipsometry, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used, indicating that the metal surface is terminated with a monomolecular layer. Experimental thicknesses obtained from the ellipsometry are consistent with the calculated values. CV results showed 50 to 80% physical passivation against the Fe(CN) 6 (3-/4-) couple, implying an overall relatively low concentration of defects and pinholes in the films. The binding energies of the S2p core level in the XPS were consistent with the literature values and revealed that up to 3.2 out of four anchoring groups were bonded to the noble metal surface.     

Criticality controlled by cross-linking density in liquid single-crystal elastomers

A high-resolution calorimetry and deuteron-nuclear magnetic resonance study of a paranematic-nematic phase transition was performed on liquid single-crystal elastomers. We show that density variations of both rodlike and pointlike cross-links strongly affect the mean value and the dispersion of local mechanical fields. The system exhibits an inherent weakly disordered orientational state composed of regions with the temperature profile of the nematic order parameter ranging from first order to supercritical. On increasing the cross-linking density the predominantly first order thermodynamic response transforms into a predominantly supercritical one.     

A preliminary study on the effect of mineralization parameters on determination of metals in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Viscum album</Emphasis> species

An increasing interest in determination of various macro- and microelements in medicinal plants has been observed. The majority of studies are carried out using one mineralization method without any optimization. The present study demonstrates that changes in mineralization parameters can significantly affect the recovery of the elements determined. In the study, the dried plant material was mineralized in 12 ways and iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni) and manganese (Mn) levels were determined. The samples were mineralized in the dry or open microwave mode as well as 10 closed microwave modes. The influence of acid amounts, irradiation power and time, addition of hydrogen peroxide and perfluoric acid was examined. All parameters were shown to be critical — good efficiency was observed with larger amounts of acid. The determined content varied significantly in the same sample and were in the ranges (ug g⁻¹): 46–136 (Fe), 1.4–11.8 (Cu), 4.0–11.3 (Ni), 15.4–53.8 (Zn) and 9.5–67.6 (Mn). Increased irradiation resulted in the loss of copper and zinc and better recovery of nickel. The results demonstrate that such determinations should include the mineralization optimization step.      

Rapid high-performance liquid chromatography method for determination of pregabalin in a pharmaceutical dosage form following derivatization with fluorescamine

A simple, fast, and sensitive HPLC method was developed and validated for the evaluation of pregabalin in a pharmaceutical dosage form using fluorescamine as a derivatization agent for the first time. After a precolumn derivatization (5 min, room temperature), the reaction mixture was chromatographed on a C18 column with isocratic elution using 0.2% of triethylamine in a mixture of methanol and water (10 + 90, v/v). 3-Aminopentanoic acid was used as the internal standard. Using fluorescent detection (lamdaex 395 nm, lamdaem 476 nm), a low detection limit of 0.02 microg/mL was reached. The method was linear (r > 0.999) over the lower (0.125-25 microg/mL) and higher (1.25-250 microg/mL) concentration range. The intraday and interday precision of the QC samples was < 4.3%, and the accuracy was 94.2-102.5%. The samples were stable for 24 h at 4 degrees C. The robustness study showed that the derivatization is more robust than the chromatography method. The method was applied for the analysis of pregabalin content in 25, 75, and 300 mg capsules, and a good agreement was found with the declared amount of pregabalin (the relative error did not exceed 3.2%). Finally, the method was successfully used for dissolution studies of pregabalin capsules.     

PdGa intermetallic hydrogenation catalyst: an NMR and physical property study

The PdGa intermetallic compound is a highly selective and stable heterogeneous hydrogenation catalyst for the semi-hydrogenation of acetylene. We have studied single crystals of PdGa grown by the Czochralski technique. The (69)Ga electric-field-gradient (EFG) tensor was determined by means of NMR spectroscopy, giving experimental confirmation of both the recently refined structural model of PdGa and the theoretically predicted Pd-Ga covalent bonding scheme. The hydrogenation experiment has detected no hydrogen uptake in the PdGa, thus preventing in situ hydride formation that leads to a reduction of the catalytic selectivity. We have also determined bulk physical properties (the magnetic susceptibility, the electrical resistivity, the thermoelectric power, the Hall coefficient, the thermal conductivity and the specific heat) of single-crystalline PdGa. The results show that PdGa is a diamagnet with metallic electrical resistivity and moderately high thermal conductivity. The thermoelectric power is negative with complicated temperature dependence, whereas the Hall coefficient is positive and temperature-dependent, indicating complexity of the Fermi surface. Partial fulfillment of the NMR Korringa relation reveals that the charge carriers are weakly correlated. Specific heat measurements show that the density of electronic states (DOS) at the Fermi energy of PdGa is reduced to 15% of the DOS of the elemental Pd metal.     

Structural and magnetic changes in hydrogenated TiFe1−xNix alloys

A series of crystalline B2 and amorphous TiFe_1−xNi_x samples with different compositions and hydrogen loading ratios was characterized by XRD, VSM, TG, mass-spectrometry, and ¹H NMR in order to investigate possible correlations between the sample magnetization and hydrogen content. In crystalline samples, a reversible second-order phase transition from α-phase (B2 with soluble hydrogen) through a mixture of α- and ß-phase (B19 TiFe_1−xNi_xH_y) into a pure ß-phase was found. An increase of magnetization upon hydrogen loading was observed, depending on the concentration of iron in the samples. No unambiguous correlation between the hydrogen content and the saturation magnetization was found. The saturation magnetization of as-prepared amorphous samples was found to be significantly higher than in as-prepared crystalline ones. For both types of samples, magnetization remained high after dehydrogenation as well. Thermal desorption mass-spectra was found to strongly depend on composition, whereas structure, charging pressure, and H-content did not have tremendous effect. By ¹H NMR, enhanced relaxation due to strong magnetic moments was observed; however, by TEM the existence of Fe-clusters in hydrogenated samples could not be verified.     

Additional purification of alkali or alkaline earth salts by using silica gel modified with pyrocatechol violet as a sorbent

Sorption of 14 metal ions on silica gel impregnated with a mixture of Aliquat 336 and Pyrocatechol Violet was investigated. It was found that alkali metals and calcium are not retained on the sorbent, magnesium is retained from solutions of pH > 6, contrary to other metal ions. The sorbent was used for purification of some salts from trace amounts of heavy metals and magnesium. Some metals ion mixtures have also been separated by using column extraction chromatography stepwise elution with perchloric acid solutions.