CARS Diagnostic and Modeling of a Dielectric Barrier Discharge

Dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) with planar- and knife-shaped electrodes are operated in N₂O₂NO mixtures under a pressure of 20 and 98 kPa. They are excited by means of consecutive unipolar or bipolar high-voltage pulse packages of 10 kV at a pulse repetition rate of 1 and 2 kHz. The rotational and vibrational excitation of N ₂ molecules and the reduction of nitric oxide (NO) in the discharge have been investigated using coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) technique. Rotational (gas) temperatures near the room temperature and vibrational temperatures of about 800 K at atmospheric pressure and 1400 K at a pressure of 20 kPa are observed. Therefore, chemical reactions of NO with vibrationally excited N ₂ are probably insignificant. One-dimensional kinetic models are developed that balance 35 chemical reactions between 10 species and deliver equations for the population density of excited vibrational levels of N ₂ together with a solution of the Boltzmann equation for the electrons. A good agreement between measured vibrational temperatures of N ₂ , the concentration of NO, and calculated data is achieved. Modeling of the plasma discharge verifies that a DBD operated with a N₂NO mixture reduces the NO content, the simultaneous presence of O ₂ , already 1%, is enough to prevent the NO reduction.     

Voltammetric Analysis of the Novel Atypical Antipsychotic Drug Quetiapine in Human Serum and Urine

The electrooxidative behaviour and determination of quetiapine (QTP), a dibenzothiazepine derivative and antipsychotic agent, on a glassy carbon disc electrode was investigated using cyclic (CV), linear sweep (LSV), differential pulse (DPV) and Osteryoung square wave voltammetry (OSWV). Fully validated DP and SW voltammetric procedures are described for the determination of QTP. QTP in pH 3.5 acetate buffer solution presents a well-defined anodic response, studied by the proposed methods. This main response was due to the irreversible, diffusion-controlled, one-electron and one-proton oxidation of the aliphatic nitrogen of the piperazine ring. Under optimal conditions, a detection limit of 4.0 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ for DPV and 1.33 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ for OSWV, and a linear calibration graph in the range from 4.0 × 10⁻⁶ to 2.0 × 10⁻⁴ mol L⁻¹ were obtained for both methods. The procedure was successfully applied to the determination of the drug in tablets, human serum and human urine with good recoveries. The detection limits were 6.20 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ and 5.92 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ in human serum and 1.44 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ and 1.31 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹ in human urine, for the DPV and OSWV method, respectively.     

Influence of Support Type and Metal Loading in Methane Decomposition over Iron Catalyst for Hydrogen Production

Natural gas resources, stimulate the method of catalytic methane decomposition. Hydrogen is a superb energy carrier and integral component of the present energy systems, while carbon nanotubes exhibit remarkable chemical and physical properties. The reaction was run at 700 °C in a fixed bed reactor. Catalyst calcination and reduction were done at 500 °C. MgO, TiO₂ and Al₂O₃ supported catalysts were prepared using a co‐precipitation method. Catalysts of different iron loadings were characterized with BET, TGA, XRD, H₂‐TPR and TEM. The catalyst characterization revealed the formation of multi‐walled nanotubes. Alternatively, time on stream tests of supported catalyst at 700 °C revealed the relative profiles of methane conversions increased as the %Fe loading was increased. Higher %Fe loadings decreased surface area of the catalyst. Iron catalyst supported with Al₂O₃ exhibited somewhat higher catalytic activity compared with MgO and TiO₂ supported catalysts when above 35% Fe loading was used. CH₄ conversion of 69% was obtained utilizing 60% Fe/Al₂O₃ catalyst. Alternatively, Fe/MgO catalysts gave the highest initial conversions when iron loading below 30% was employed. Indeed, catalysts with 15% Fe/MgO gave 63% conversion and good stability for 1 h time on stream. Inappropriateness of Fe/TiO₂ catalysts in the catalytic methane decomposition was observed.     

Ultra high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous determination of phenolic constituents in honey from various floral sources using multiwalled carbon nanotubes as extraction sorbents

An ultra high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry method has been developed for the simultaneous separation, identification and determination of 22 phenolic constituents in honey from various floral sources from Yemen. Solid‐phase extraction was used for extraction of the target phenolic constituents from honey samples, while multiwalled carbon nanotubes were used as solid‐phase adsorbent. The chromatographic separation of all phenolic constituents was performed on a BEH C₁₈ column using a linear gradient elution with a binary mobile phase mixture of aqueous 0.1% formic acid and methanol. The quantitation was carried out in selected ion reaction monitoring acquisition mode. The total amount of phenolic acids, flavonoids and other phenols in each analyzed honey was found in the range of 338–3312, 122–5482 and 2.4–1342 μg/100 g of honey, respectively. 4‐Hydroxybenzoic acid was found to be the major phenolic acid. The main detected flavonoid was chrysin, while cinnamic acid was found to be the major other phenol compound. The regeneration of solid phase adsorbent to be reused and recovery results confirm that the proposed method could be potentially used for the routine analysis of phenolic constituents in honey extract.