Metal-Enhanced Chemiluminescence

In this short paper we report the interactions of silver island films with chemiluminescing species. Our findings show that silver island films can increase the detectability of chemiluminescent reactions/species, with an approximately 5-fold increase in signal intensity. This finding not only suggests the use of silver nanostructures to amplify chemiluminscent signatures in assay platforms, and therefore increase the detectability of analytes or biospecies, but more importantly, suggests that surface plasmons can be directly excited by chemically induced electronically excited molecules. This finding is of significance towards our understanding of fluorophore–metal interactions, a relatively new near-field fluorescence concept, recently named metal-enhanced fluorescence and also radiative decay engineering.     

Solvent Effects on the Protonation Constants of Some <Emphasis Type="Italic">α</Emphasis>-Amino Acid Esters in 1,4-Dioxane–Water Mixtures

The stoichiometric protonation constants of some α-amino acid esters (glycine methyl ester, glycine t-butyl ester, l-valine methyl ester, l-valine ethyl ester, l-valine t-butyl ester, l-serine methyl ester, l-serine ethyl ester, l-leucine methyl ester, l-leucine ethyl ester, l-leucine t-butyl ester, l-alanine methyl ester, l-alanine benzyl ester, l-phenylalanine methyl ester, l-phenylalanine ethyl ester, and l-phenylalanine t-butyl ester) in water and 20%, 40%, and 60% (v/v) 1,4-dioxane–water mixtures have been determined at an ionic strength of 0.10 mol⋅L⁻¹ NaCl and at 25.0±0.1 °C under a nitrogen atmosphere. A potentiometric method was used and the calculation of the protonation constants has been carried out using the BEST computer program. The results were discussed in terms of macroscopic properties of the mixed solvent. The stoichiometric protonation constants were influenced by changes in solvent composition and their variations were discussed in terms of preferential solvation. Also, knowledge the protonation constant of α-amino acid esters will be helpful when determining the microscopic equilibrium constants of their corresponding amino acids.     

The effect of pressure on the characteristics of supercritical carbon dioxide extracts from Calamintha nepeta subsp. nepeta

Chemists and industrialists are continuously attempting to develop greener and more environmentally benign chemical processes to extract essential oils and bioactive metabolites of high purity, finding various applications in cosmetics, detergents, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. An increase preferenced for natural products over synthetic ones has made supercritical fluid technology a primary alternative for the generation of high-value bioactive ingredients. This effective technique requires only moderate temperatures, eliminates clean-up steps and avoids the use of harmful organic solvents. In this context, our study was focused on the chemical analysis of Calamintha nepeta subsp. nepeta aromatic extracts obtained with supercritical carbon dioxide. The effect of different operating conditions on the capacity of the lipophilic solvent to extract the targeted volatile components was also studied. The process was carried out at a fairly low constant temperature of 40°C, and with varying the pressure from 90 to 300 bar. The chemical composition of the extracts was analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy. The results showed that the composition pattern, the concentrations of individual components and the quality of the extractable analytes were affected by pressure increase. The extraction yields varied from 0.73 to 1.21 wt% at 90 and 300 bar, respectively.     

Liquid–liquid extraction of trivalent americium from carbonate and carbonate–peroxide aqueous solutions by methyltrioctylammonium carbonate in toluene

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) of microamounts of americium(III) from Na2CO3 and Na2CO3–H2O2 aqueous solution using...