Application of ion-selective electrodes for the microdetermination of chlorine and bromine in volatile organic compounds

Summary A method is described for the determination of chlorine and bromine in mg samples of highly halogenated volatile organic compounds. The samples are introduced into the combustion system by injection and burnt in a stream of oxygen at 1000° over platinum and quartz. The combustion gases are absorbed in a solution of 80% acetic acid containing some hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid and mercuric chloride or bromide. The halide is then titrated with mercury. The end-point is determined by an ion-specific electrode. One determination takes approximately 15 minutes. The relative standard deviation of the determination is about 1%. The reversibility and durability of the silver sulphide electrode are unaffected as long as the mercury ion concentration is less than 10^–3 M.

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Zusammenfassung Eine Methode für die Bestimmung von Chlor und Brom in Milligramm hochhalogenierter Substanzen wird beschrieben. Die Proben werden in das Verbrennungssystem eingespritzt und in einem Sauerstoffstrom bei 1000° C über Platin und Quarz verbrannt. Die Verbrennungsgase werden in 80% Essigsäure absorbiert, die etwas Perhydrol, Salpetersäure und Quecksilberchlorid oder -bromid enthält. Das Halogen wird mit einer Quecksilber(II)-lösung titriert. Der Endpunkt wird mit Hilfe einer ionenspezifischen Elektrode ermittelt. Eine Analyse dauert etwa 15 Minuten. Die relative Standardabweichung ist ±1%. Die Reversibilität und Dauerhaftigkeit der Silbersulfidelektrode bleibt so lange unbeeinflußt, als die Konzentration der Quecksilberionen geringer ist als 10^–3-m.

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Résumé Une méthode pour le dosage du chlore ou du brome dans des échantillons milligramiques de composés organiques volatiles contenant des quantités élevées d'halogène a été décrite. Les échantillons sont introduits dans le système de combustion par injection et la combustion s'effectue sous courant d'oxygène à 1000° C sur platine et quartz. Les gaz de combustion sont absorbés dans une solution d'acide acétique 80% avec addition de faibles quantités de peroxyde d'hydrogène, acide nitrique et chlorure ou bromure mercurique. Puis l'haloide est titré avec une solution mercurique. Le point d'équivalence est établi à l'aide d'une électrode ion-spécifique. Un dosage prend approximativement 15 minutes et l'écart type est environ 1%. La réversibilité et la durabilité de l'électrode de sulphure d'argent restent intactes pourvu que la concentration mercurique ne surmonte pas celle de 10^–3 M.

     

Multilevel preconditioning

Summary This paper is concerned with multilevel techniques for preconditioning linear systems arising from Galerkin methods for elliptic boundary value problems. A general estimate is derived which is based on the characterization of Besov spaces in terms of weighted sequence norms related to corresponding multilevel expansions. The result brings out clearly how the various ingredients of a typical multilevel setting affect the growth rate of the condition numbers. In particular, our analysis indicates how to realize even uniformly bounded condition numbers. For example, the general results are used to show that the Bramble-Pasciak-Xu preconditioner for piecewise linear finite elements gives rise to uniformly bounded condition numbers even when the refinements of the underlying triangulations are highly nonuniform. Furthermore, they are applied to a general multivariate setting of refinable shift-invariant spaces, in particular, covering those induced by various types of wavelets.The work of this author was partially supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Contract No. 89/0455) and by the Office of Naval Research (Contract No. N00014/90/1343) during her stay at the Department of Mathematics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.     

Driving rate effects on crackling noise

Many systems respond to slowly changing external conditions with crackling noise, created by avalanches or pulses with a broad range of sizes. Examples range from Barkhausen noise (BN) in magnets to earthquakes. In this Letter, we discuss the effects of increasing driving rate Omega on the scaling behavior of the avalanche size and duration distributions as well as qualitative effects of Omega on the power spectra. We derive an exponent inequality as a criteria for the relevance of Omega. To illustrate these general results, we use recent experiments on BN as a successful example.     

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