Measurement of effective specific heat of packed bed materials by the continuous flow electrical method

The theory of the continuous flow electrical method for the determination of specific heat of liquids has been extended to the measurements of effective specific heat of packed bed materials consisting of solid-liquid phase systems. Experimental data are reported showing the variation of effective specific heat with mass porosity and saturating liquid specific heat. The weighted arithmetic mean equation of constituent specific heats is in fair agreement with the measured values.     

Flow injection spectrophotometric determination of nitrite

4-Nitroaniline, which gives intensely yellow solution on dissolution in dilute hydrochloric acid, has been found to react with nitrite almost instantaneously in acidic medium yielding a colourless product that has been identified as 4-nitrophenyl diazo cation. The measurement of decrease in colour intensity suggested a new, simple and one-step reaction procedure that has been used for the reversed flow injection determination of 5microg-5 mg/l. NO(2)-N. The limit of detection has been found to be 2 microg/l. NO(2)-N. A number of species such as copper(II) and lead(II), which interfere in other spectrophotometric procedures, do not affect the results. The method has been applied to determine nitrite in natural waters when the %RSD was in the range 1.8-3.5%.     

Drop retention force as a function of drop size

The force, f, required to slide a drop past a surface is often considered in the literature as linear with the drop width, w, so that f/w = const. Furthermore, according to the Dussan equation for the case that the advancing and receding contact angles are constant with drop size, one can further simplify the above proportionality to f/V(1/3) = const where V is the drop volume. We show, however, that experimentally f/V(1/3) is usually a decaying function of V (rather than constant). The retention force increases with the time the drop rested on the surface prior to sliding. We show that this rested-time effect is similar for different drop sizes, and thus the change of f/V(1/3) with V occurs irrespective of the rested-time effect which suggests that the two effects are induced by different physical phenomena. The time effect is induced by the unsatisfied normal component of the Young equation which slowly deforms the surface with time, while the size effect is induced by time independent properties. According to the Dussan equation, the change of f/V(1/3) with V is also expressed in contact angle variation. Our results, however, show that contact angle variation that is within the scatter suffices to explain the significant force variation. Thus, it is easier to predict contact angle variation based on force variation rather than predicting force variation based on contact angle variation. A decrease of f/V(1/3) with V appears more common in the system studied compared to an increase.     

Large Ultrathin Shelled Drops Produced via Non‐Confined Microfluidics

We present a facile approach for producing large and monodisperse core–shell drops with ultrathin shells using a single‐step process. A biphasic compound jet is introduced into a quiescent third (outer) phase that ruptures to form core–shell drops. Ultrathin shelled drops could only be produced within a certain range of surfactant concentrations and flow rates, highlighting the effect of interfacial tension in engulfing the core in a thin shell. An increase in surfactant concentrations initially resulted in drops with thinner shells. However, the drops with thinnest shells were obtained at an optimum surfactant concentration, and a further increase in the surfactant concentrations increased the shell thickness. Highly monodisperse (coefficient of variation smaller than 3 %) core–shell drops with diameter of ～200 μm–2 mm with shell thickness as small as ～2 μm were produced. The resulting drops were stable enough to undergo polymerisation and produce ultrathin shelled capsules.     

Sequential determination of fat- and water-soluble vitamins in Rhodiola imbricata root from trans-Himalaya with rapid resolution liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid method was developed to determine both types of vitamins in Rhodiola imbricata root for the accurate quantification of free vitamin forms. Rapid resolution liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (RRLC–MS/MS) with electrospray ionization (ESI) source operating in multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode was optimized for the sequential analysis of nine water-soluble vitamins (B₁, B₂, two B₃ vitamins, B₅, B₆, B₇, B₉, and B₁₂) and six fat-soluble vitamins (A, E, D₂, D₃, K₁, and K₂). Both types of vitamins were separated by ion-suppression reversed-phase liquid chromatography with gradient elution within 30 min and detected in positive ion mode. Deviations in the intra- and inter-day precision were always below 0.6% and 0.3% for recoveries and retention time. Intra- and inter-day relative standard deviation (RSD) values of retention time for water- and fat-soluble vitamin were ranged between 0.02–0.20% and 0.01–0.15%, respectively. The mean recoveries were ranged between 88.95 and 107.07%. Sensitivity and specificity of this method allowed the limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantitation (LOQ) of the analytes at ppb levels. The linear range was achieved for fat- and water-soluble vitamins at 100–1000 ppb and 10–100 ppb. Vitamin B-complex and vitamin E were detected as the principle vitamins in the root of this adaptogen which would be of great interest to develop novel foods from the Indian trans-Himalaya.     

Acoustic wave propagation in barium monochalcogenides in the B1 phase

Temperature dependence of ultrasonic attenuation due to phonon-phonon interaction and thermoelastic loss have been studied in (NaCl-type) barium monochalcogenides [BaX, X = S, Se, Te], in the temperature range 50–500 K; for longitudinal and shear modes of propagation along 〈100〉, 〈110〉, 〈111〉 directions. Second and third order elastic constants have been evaluated using electrostatic and Born repulsive potentials and taking interactions up to next nearest neighbours. Gruneisen parameters, nonlinearity constants, nonlinearity constants ratios and viscous drag due to screw and edge dislocations have also been evaluated for longitudinal and shear waves at 300 K. In the present investigation, it has been found that phonon-phonon interaction is the dominant cause for ultrasonic attenuation. The possible implications of results have been discussed. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

On certain generalized families of unified elliptic-type integrals pertaining to Euler integrals and generating functions

Elliptic-type integrals have their importance and potential in certain problems in radiation physics and nuclear technology. A number of earlier works on the subject contains several interesting unifications and generalizations of some significant families of elliptic-type integrals. The present paper is intended to obtain certain new theorems on generating functions. The results obtained in this paper are of manifold generality and basic in nature. Beside deriving various known and new elliptic-type integrals and their generalizations these theorems can be used to evaluate various Euler-type integrals involving a number of generating functions.      

Dielectric relaxation and conductivity studies on (PEO:LiClO4) polymer electrolyte with added ionic liquid [BMIM][PF6]: Evidence of ion–ion interaction

Polymer electrolytes, (PEO:LiClO₄)+x IL (1‐Buty‐3‐methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate) with varying concentration of IL; x = 0,5,10,15,20 wt % have been prepared by solution cast technique and characterized by X‐Ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetery, FTIR, conductivity and dielectric relaxation measurements in the frequency range of 100 Hz–5 MHz. Temperature dependence of relaxation frequency and conductivity were found to be typical of thermally activated process both at T > T_m and T < T_m. Composition dependence of conductivity, dielectric relaxation, and degree of crystallinity has also been studied. On addition of IL, the degree of crystallinity after a decrease at 5 wt % IL increases slightly at 10 wt % and then finally decreasing. Variation of conductivity and relaxation frequency with composition could only be partly explained on the basis of variation of degree of crystallinity. An additional feature of ion–ion interaction (contact ion pair formation between IL or salt cations and their associated anions) has been invoked which was supported by FTIR studies. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011     

Determination of traces of rubidium in high purity cesium chloride by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) using boric acid as a modifier

The use of boric acid as a modifier for the determination of trace amount of rubidium in high purity cesium chloride matrix by electrothermal atomic absorption is described. It was found that the negative influence of the chloride matrix could not be eliminated using stabilized temperature platform (STPF) alone. Due to the high dissociation energy (D₀ = 427 kJ mol⁻¹) of rubidium chloride, it was difficult to dissociate in the gas phase and hence is lost. Elimination of interferences was achieved by the addition of boric acid as a chemical modifier. Diluted cesium chloride samples (5%, m/v) were analyzed applying the standard addition method. The characteristic mass of 24 pg was obtained. The detection limit of the proposed method is around 26 ng g⁻¹. The developed method was applied to the determination of traces of rubidium in high purity cesium chloride samples. The data obtained by this method were in good agreement with those obtained by other independent method like FAAS.