Development of a novel nitrate-selective composite sensor based on doped polypyrrole

The manufacture and evaluation of a novel sensor built with a composite material, highly selective to nitrate ions using doped polypyrrole as a recognition agent, are presented. When the ratio of recognition agent to graphite was optimized at 1:1, and the sensitivities found closely approached nernstian behavior. The stability times attained were less than 14 min with response times also below 20 s. Batch characterization of the sensor displayed a sensitivity of 57.1 mV/decade of nitrate ion activity () and a detection limit of 5.37 × 10⁻⁵ M, which are comparable to those reported for commercial sensors. Evaluation of the selectivity coefficients showed high affinity to nitrate ion, superior to that of commercial sensors and others reported in the literature. The composite material gives the sensor a prolonged service life with the added capability of allowing the regeneration of its active surface. Coupling the sensor and a solid state, composite-type, reference electrode to a flow injection analysis system (FIA) permitted to achieve an effective overall assessment of the system. A nitrate determination test was conducted on real samples. A comparison of the results obtained, either with stationary measurements or with FIA, indicated that there were no significant differences from the values from manufacturer’s specifications.     

Some Comments on the Matter Wave-light Wave Hypothesis

From the de Broglie matter wave hypothesis and Planck’s energy quantization law, and assuming conservation of energy in the absorption of a photon and its consequent conversion to kinetic energy of motion by a material particle initially at rest, one can deduce a simple mathematical relationship between the wavelength λ (or frequency ν), of the photon absorbed by the particle at rest, and the resulting de Broglie matter wave length, λ_D, of the particle with kinetic energy of motion of mv²/2. The relationship so deduced, λ_D∝√λ, suggests that visible wavelengths of light, from about 4000 ?, in the violet, to beyond about 7000 ?, in the red, on absorption by an electron at rest, lead to material electron wavelengths, λ_D, of the order of the size of the electron transfer proteins seen in the photosynthetic reaction centers of photosynthesizing organisms, at about a size of 50–100 ?. In addition to understanding the mechanism of photosynthesis as a material wave mediated phenomenon, further areas of importance of the relations pointed out in this paper are in the design of experiments to gain a deeper understanding of the basic tenets of wave mechanics, and in the use of tunable lasers to probe various properties of material waves, and to precisely control their properties for applications including lithography.     

A re-statement of the Hohenberg–Kohn theorem and its extension to finite subspaces

Bearing in mind the insight into the Hohenberg–Kohn theorem for Coulomb systems provided recently by Kryachko (Int J Quantum Chem 103:818, 2005), we present a re-statement of this theorem through an elaboration on Lieb’s proof as well as an extension of this theorem to finite subspaces. Contribution to the Serafin Fraga Memorial Issue.     

Synthesis and spectral determination of new derivatives of 1‐[(p‐substituted)phenyl]‐3a‐[(o‐ and p‐substituted)phenyl]‐5‐chloro‐9‐methylthio‐10,3a‐dihydro‐[1,2,4]‐oxadiazolo[2,3‐b][1,4]benzodiazepines

A new synthesis to obtain eight novel derivatives of 1‐[(p‐substituted)phenyl]‐3a‐[(o‐ and p‐substituted)‐phenyl]‐5‐chloro‐9‐methylthio‐10,3a‐dihydro‐[1,2,4]‐oxadiazolo[2,3‐b][1,4]benzodiazepines with possible biological and pharmacological activity as anxiolytics, hypnotics, anticonvulsants in the central nervous system. The final products were obtained by condensation between 2‐methylthio‐5‐[(o‐; p‐substituted)‐phenyl]‐3H‐7‐chloro‐[1,4]benzodiazepine with benzonitrile oxide generated in situ from benzohydroxamoyl chloride in triethylamine. The structure of all products was corroborated by ir, ¹H‐nmr, ¹³C‐nmr, with experiments bidimensional and ms in low and high resolution.     

Non-Born-Oppenheimer treatment of the H2 Hookean molecule

We show that the exact non-Born-Oppenheimer Schrodinger equation for the Hookean diatomic molecule H2 (a two-proton, two-electron system where the electron-proton interaction is harmonic while the proton-proton and electron-electron interactions are Coulombic) can be decoupled into equations describing the relative motion of the electrons, the relative motion of nuclei, the motion of a collective mode representing a three-dimensional harmonic oscillator, and the motion of a free particle expressed as a linear combination of the individual center-of-mass coordinates of the nuclei and electrons. Analytic solutions to the relative motion of electrons can be readily obtained for the given values of the harmonic coupling constant. However, exact analytic solutions to the equation for the relative motion of the nuclei cannot be obtained simultaneously due to the fact that the harmonic constants in these two equations are coupled. For this reason, we present for the relative nuclear motion approximate analytic wave functions, one of them obtained variationally and the other by a series solution where the coefficients are determined recursively. We also explore a variational solution to the Taylor-series expansion of the nuclear interaction potential. Properties of the electronic and nuclear intracule densities are examined at different values of the coupling constant. An interesting result of the present non-Born-Oppenheimer treatment of this harmonic model is the fact that the relative nuclear motion occurs in a highly correlated regime. This leads in a natural way to a spatial localization of the nuclei akin to Wigner electronic crystallization.     

Accurate Kohn–Sham ionization potentials from scaled‐opposite‐spin second‐order optimized effective potential methods

One important property of Kohn–Sham (KS) density functional theory is the exact equality of the energy of the highest occupied KS orbital (HOMO) with the negative ionization potential of the system. This exact feature is out of reach for standard density‐dependent semilocal functionals. Conversely, accurate results can be obtained using orbital‐dependent functionals in the optimized effective potential (OEP) approach. In this article, we investigate the performance, in this context, of some advanced OEP methods, with special emphasis on the recently proposed scaled‐opposite‐spin OEP functional. Moreover, we analyze the impact of the so‐called HOMO condition on the final quality of the HOMO energy. Results are compared to reference data obtained at the CCSD(T) level of theory. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Coordination versatility of pyridine-functionalized N-heterocyclic carbenes: a detailed study of the different activation procedures. Characterization of new Rh and Ir compounds and study of their catalytic activity

Three different reaction procedures for the coordination of N-n-butyl-N'-(2-pyridylmethyl)imidazolium salt have produced new N-heterocyclic complexes of Rh and Ir. The direct reaction of the imidazolium salt with [IrCl(cod)](2) provides a NHC-Ir(III)-H complex, while transmetalation from a silver-NHC complex and deprotonation with NEt(3) give new NHC complexes of M(I) and M(III) when reacting with [MCl(cod)](2) or [MCl(coe)(2)](2) (M = Rh, Ir). The crystal structures of the biscarbene Rh(III) and Ir(III) complexes are described. The catalytic properties of the compounds obtained have been tested in the hydrosilylation of acetylenes, the cyclization of acetylenic carboxylic acids, and hydrogen transfer to ketones.     

Thermo gravimetric analysis of supramolecular complexes of p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene and ammonium cations: crystal structure of diethylammonium complex

Thermo gravimetric analysis of ammonium-p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene salts were carried out to determine the stoichiometry of the inclusion compounds and the temperature of leaving of the ammonium cation, as amine, from the solid phase by a reverse proton transfer reaction to calixarene. The chain length of the amine molecules and their relative basicity order are the main factors which determine the decomplexation temperatures for the ammonium salts of piperidinium, diethylammonium, ethylenediammonium, morpholinium, s-butylammonium, butylammonium, hexylammonium and triethylammonium salts of p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene anion. The solid state structure of bis-diethylammonium-p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene dianion is reported. The calix moiety adopts a 1,2,3 alternate conformation, with one ammonium as exo-calix and other as endo-calix, with an intricate array of hydrogen bonds between phenol, phenolate and ammonium cations.     

Detection of NAD+-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase activities in YR-1 strain of Mucor circinelloides, a potential bioremediator of petroleum contaminated soils

Different soluble NAD⁺-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) isozymes were detected in cell-free homogenates from aerobically grown mycelia of YR-1 strain of Mucor circinelloides isolated from petroleumcontaminated soil samples. Depending on the carbon source present in the growth media, multiple NAD⁺-dependent ADHs were detected when hexadecane or decane was used as the sole carbon source in the culture media. ADH activities from aerobically or anaerobically grown mycelium or yeast cells, respectively, were detected when growth medium with glucose added was the sole carbon source; the enzyme activity exhibited optimum pH for the oxidation of different alcohols (methanol, ethanol, and hexadecanol) similar to that of the corresponding aldehyde (≈7.0). Zymogram analysis conducted with partially purified fractions of extracts from aerobic mycelium or anaerobic yeast cells of the YR-1 strain grown in glucose as the sole carbon source indicated the presence of a single NAD⁺-dependent ADH enzyme in each case, and the activity level was higher in the yeast cells. ADH enzyme from mycelium grown in different carbon sources showed high activity using ethanol as substrate, although higher activity was displayed when the cells were grown in hexadecane as the sole carbon source. Zymogram analysis with these extracts showed that this particular strain of M. circinelloides has four different isozymes with ADH activity and, interestingly, one of them, ADH4, was identified also as phenanthrene-diol-dehydrogenase, an enzyme that possibly participates in the aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation pathway.     

Fitting complex potential energy surfaces to simple model potentials: application of the simplex-annealing method

A stochastic method of optimization, which combines simulated annealing with simplex, is implemented to fit the parameters of a simple model potential. The main characteristic of the method is that it explores the whole space of the parameters of the model potential, and therefore it is very efficient in locating the global minimum of the cost function, in addition to being independent of the initial guess of the parameters. The method is employed to fit the complex intermolecular potential energy surface of the dimer of water, using as a reference the spectroscopic quality anisotropic site-site potential of Feller et al. The simple model potential chosen for its reparameterization is the MCY model potential of Clementi et al. The quality of the fit is assessed by comparing the geometry of the minimum, the harmonic frequencies, and the second virial coefficients of the parameterized potential with the reference one. Finally, to prove more rigorously the robustness of this method, it is compared with standard nonstochastic methods of optimization.