A simplified sampling technique for use with the Weisz ring oven: application to qualitative analysis of some gold and silver alloys

Up to 100 microg of sample can be collected from gold or silver alloys by rubbing the specimen with the ground hemispherical tip of a 4-mm Pyrex glass rod. Gold alloys are then dissolved in potassium cyanide solution containing hydrogen peroxide; silver alloys are exposed to vapours of nitric acid. Procedures for transfer, ring oven separation and identification of alloy constituents in the sample solutions are described.     

Microdetermination of chlorine and bromine in some organic compounds by ion-selective electrodes

Summary The solid state ion-selective chloride and bromide electrodes are used for the microdetermination of chlorine and bromine in organic compounds. After combustion in an oxygen-filled flask, potentiometric titration with silver nitrate at pH 5–7 in presence of 50% dioxan is carried out. Results accurate to ±0.3% absolute are obtained with some partially and highly halogenated compounds.

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Mikrobestimmung von Chlor und Brom in einigen organischen Verbindungen mit Hilfe von ionenselektiven Elektroden

Zusammenfassung Chlorid- und bromidselektive Festkörperelektroden wurden zur Chlor- und Brombestimmung in teilweise bzw. hochhalogenierten organischen Verbindungen benutzt. Nach Verbrennung im Sauerstoffkolben erfolgt eine potentiometrische Titration mit Silbernitrat bei pH 5–7 in Gegenwart von 50% Dioxan. Die erhaltenen Ergebnisse sind auf ±0,3 % genau.

     

Synergism in the solvent extraction of samarium by thenoyltrifluoroacetone and triphenyl or trioctyl phosphine oxide mixture

Synergistic extraction of samarium with TTA(HA) and TPPO or TOPO (B) mixtures were investigated. The extracted complex was proved to have the general formula SmA₃ · 2B. A graphical determination for the formation constants of these complexes gave the values 3.9 × 10¹³ and 8.2 × 10¹⁰ for SmA₃ · 2TOPO and SmA₃ · 2TPPO in benzene, respectively.     

Die Oxydationswirkung von Natrium-1,2-naphthochinon-4-sulfonat

Zusammenfassung Die Reaktionen von Natrium-1,2-naphthochino-4-sulfonat mit -Aminosäuren, primären aliphatischen Aminen, Dicarbonsäuren, aliphatischen -Hydroxysäuren und primären Alkoholen werden beschrieben. In allen diesen Fällen reagiert Natrium-1,2-naphtochinon-4-sulfonat als Oxydationsmittel und wird zu dem entsprechenden Diphenol reduziert.     

Microdetermination of the fluoride ion using an amplification reaction

Summary A new simple, rapid and accurate amplification micro method for fluoride determination is described. It is based on the reaction between the sparingly soluble calcium iodate and the fluoride ion. After adding isopropyl alcohol to the solution, so that its final concentration is 65%, and filtering, an equivalent amount of the iodate is obtained. The latter is titrated iodometrically resulting in a six-fold amplification of the titre. The method is reproducible over a range from 0.4–8 mg fluoride ion. The mean recovery is 99.69%, after applying a correction factor due to potassium iodate solubility.

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Zusammenfassung Ein Multiplikationsverfahren zur Mikrobestimmung von Fluorid wurde beschrieben. Es beruht auf der Umsetzung zwischen dem schlecht löslichen Calciumjodat und Fluorid. Nach Zusatz von i-Propylalkohol, bis die Lösung 65% davon enthält, wird filtriert. Die äquivalente Jodatmenge wird jodometrisch titriert. Zwischen 0,4 und 8 mg Fluorid sind die Ergebnisse reproduzierbar. Bei Anwendung eines Korrekturfaktors wegen der Löslichkeit von Kaliumjodat wurden 99,69% Fluorid wieder gefunden.

     

Reductive Amination of Aldehydes and Ketones with Sodium Triacetoxyborohydride. Studies on Direct and Indirect Reductive Amination Procedures(1)

Sodium triacetoxyborohydride is presented as a general reducing agent for the reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones. Procedures for using this mild and selective reagent have been developed for a wide variety of substrates. The scope of the reaction includes aliphatic acyclic and cyclic ketones, aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes, and primary and secondary amines including a variety of weakly basic and nonbasic amines. Limitations include reactions with aromatic and unsaturated ketones and some sterically hindered ketones and amines. 1,2-Dichloroethane (DCE) is the preferred reaction solvent, but reactions can also be carried out in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and occasionally in acetonitrile. Acetic acid may be used as catalyst with ketone reactions, but it is generally not needed with aldehydes. The procedure is carried out effectively in the presence of acid sensitive functional groups such as acetals and ketals; it can also be carried out in the presence of reducible functional groups such as C-C multiple bonds and cyano and nitro groups. Reactions are generally faster in DCE than in THF, and in both solvents, reactions are faster in the presence of AcOH. In comparison with other reductive amination procedures such as NaBH(3)CN/MeOH, borane-pyridine, and catalytic hydrogenation, NaBH(OAc)(3) gave consistently higher yields and fewer side products. In the reductive amination of some aldehydes with primary amines where dialkylation is a problem we adopted a stepwise procedure involving imine formation in MeOH followed by reduction with NaBH(4).     

Ab initio Computational Modeling of Glyphosate Analogs: Conformational Perspective

A historical perspective on the application of conformational analysis to structure-based ligand design approach is presented. The application of isodensity molecular electrostatic potential surfaces with the conformational energy surfaces (CES) have allowed us to reach pertinent conclusions for aiding synthetic and biochemical studies. Here we illustrate such an application on the modeling of the potent analogs of an important, environmentally stringent herbicidal compound glyphosate by constructing conformational energy surfaces. The systems were modeled by substituting F, Cl, and NH— OH moiety to the position of pharmacophoric nitrogen center in glyphosate structure. All the calculations were thoroughly performed with ab initio MO theory at Hartree–Fock method using 3-21G(d) basis functions. On the basis of the results, we identified the bioactive conformations for N-fluoro-glyphosate, N-chloro-glyphosate, and N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate as (−38^∘, 77^∘), (−61^∘, 111^∘), and (−167^∘, −169^∘), respectively. Geometry optimization of certain selected conformations of these compounds using hybrid DFT method with 6–31+G(d) basis functions provides nearly equal values of φ and ψ. Moreover, the results indicate that the global minimum structures of N-fluoro and N-chloro analogs of glyphosate show cyclic conformation whereas the N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate global minimum structure shows spyrocyclic and zig-zag conformation. Also, the predicted bioactive conformation of N-hydroxyamino analog optimally overlaps with glyphosate backbone in EPSPS complex with 0.1 Å RMSD value. However, the other two compounds slightly deviate from the backbone of glyphosate with RMSD of 0.92 Å for N-fluoro-glyphosate and 0.83 Å for N-chloro-glyphosate. The linear N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate exhibits relatively more number of intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions as compared to the other two analogs. Further, comparison of CES of previously studied glyphosate analogs such as N-hydroxy-glyphosate (2.2 μM) and N-amino-glyphosate (0.61 μM) with the present systems reveals the order of activity as: N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate > N-fluoro-glyphosate > N-chloro-glyphosate based on CES flexibility. Also, the calculated heats of formation of N-fluoro-glyphosate, N-chloro-glyphosate, and N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate are −288, −209, and −288 kcal/mol, respectively, which clearly indicate that the N-hydroxyamino and N-fluoro analogs of glyphosate are thermodynamically more stable than N-amino-glyphosate (−278 kcal/mol).     

Conductivity of carbon black-loaded styrene–butadiene rubber

Styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR) charged with 50 phr of HAF carbon black has been found to show a positive temperature coefficient of resistivity close to 0.07/°C at 27°C. Beyond a point (75°C) of minimum conductivity, however, it behaves as a normal noncrystalline semiconductor with a resistivity which decreases with rise of temperature with an activation energy of 0.56 eV. Blending the composition with poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) shifts the minimum towards lower temperatures. The descending branch of the conductivity versus reciprocal absolute temperature characteristic is probably associated with thermal expansion of tunnelling paths separating the conducting carbon particles.     

Ion-selective electrode for gallium determination in nickel alloy, fly-ash and biological samples

A poly(vinyl chloride)-based membrane of 2,9-dimethyl-4,11-diphenyl-1,5,8,12-tetraazacyclotetradeca-1,4,8,11-tetraene (DDTCT) with sodium tetraphenyl borate (STB) as an anion excluder and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), dibutyl butylphosphonate (DBBP), tris(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (TEP) and tributyl phosphate (TBP) as plasticizing solvent mediators was prepared and investigated as a Ga(III)-selective electrode. The best performance was observed with the membrane having the ligand-PVC-DBP-STB composition 1:4:1:1, which worked well over a wide concentration range (1.45 × 10⁻⁶ to 0.1 mol L⁻¹) with a Nernstian slope of 28.7 mV per decade of activity between pH 4.0 and 10.0. This electrode showed a fast response time of 12 s and was used over a period of 100 days with good reproducibility (s = 0.3 mV). The selectivity coefficients for monovalent, divalent and trivalent cations indicate excellent selectivity for Ga(III) ions over a large number of cations. Anions such as Cl⁻ and SO₄²⁻ do not interfere and the electrode also works satisfactorily in partially water-alcohol medium. The practical utility of the membrane sensor has also been observed in solutions contaminated with detergents, i.e., cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and sodium dodecyl sulfate and used for the determination of gallium in nickel alloy, fly-ash and biological samples.     

A modified steepest descent method with applications to maximizing likelihood functions

In maximizing a non-linear function G(), it is well known that the steepest descent method has a slow convergence rate. Here we propose a systematic procedure to obtain a 1–1 transformation on the variables , so that in the space of the transformed variables, the steepest descent method produces the solution faster. The final solution in the original space is obtained by taking the inverse transformation. We apply the procedure in maximizing the likelihood functions of some generalized distributions which are widely used in modeling count data. It was shown that for these distributions, the steepest descent method via transformations produced the solutions very fast. It is also observed that the proposed procedure can be used to expedite the convergence rate of the first derivative based algorithms, such as Polak-Ribiere, Fletcher and Reeves conjugate gradient methods as well.