High-sensitive amperometric hydrazine sensor based on chemically synthesized zinc nitroprusside nanoparticle-supported carbon ceramic electrode

Zinc nitroprusside (ZnNP) nanoparticles were fabricated at the surface of zinc powder-doped carbon ceramic electrode (CCE) by a chemical derivatization process. This modified electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and cyclic voltammetry techniques. The charge transfer rate constant (k _s) and charge transfer coefficient (α) were calculated for the electron exchange reaction of the ZnNP thin film. The ZnNP nanoparticle-modified CCE (ZnNP|CCE) showed good electrocatalytic activity toward hydrazine oxidation. The limit of detection (S/N = 3) and sensitivity were found to be 0.16 µM and 0.21 µA/µM, respectively. The mechanism of hydrazine electrooxidation at the electrode surface was studied. Finally, the ZnNP|CCE was successfully used for the determination of trace amount of hydrazine in different spiked and real samples.     

Novel techniques for improving NNetEn entropy calculation for short and noisy time series

Entropy is a fundamental concept in the field of information theory. During measurement, conventional entropy measures are susceptible to length and amplitude changes in time series. A new entropy metric, neural network entropy (NNetEn), has been developed to overcome these limitations. NNetEn entropy is computed using a modified LogNNet neural network classification model. The algorithm contains a reservoir matrix of N = 19,625 elements that must be filled with the given data. A substantial number of practical time series have fewer elements than 19,625. The contribution of this paper is threefold. Firstly, this work investigates different methods of filling the reservoir with time series (signal) elements. The reservoir filling method determines the accuracy of the entropy estimation by convolution of the study time series and LogNNet test data. The present study proposes 6 methods for filling the reservoir for time series of any length 5 ≤ N ≤ 19,625. Two of them (Method 3 and Method 6) employ the novel approach of stretching the time series to create intermediate elements that complement it, but do not change its dynamics. The most reliable methods for short-time series are Method 3 and Method 5. The second part of the study examines the influence of noise and constant bias on entropy values. In addition to external noise, the hyperparameter (bias) used in entropy calculation also plays a critical role. Our study examines three different time series data types (chaotic, periodic, and binary) with different dynamic properties, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and offsets. The NNetEn entropy calculation errors are less than 10% when SNR is greater than 30 dB, and entropy decreases with an increase in the bias component. The third part of the article analyzes real-time biosignal EEG data collected from emotion recognition experiments. The NNetEn measures show robustness under low-amplitude noise using various filters. Thus, NNetEn measures entropy effectively when applied to real-world environments with ambient noise, white noise, and 1/f noise.

     

An Eulerian multiplicative constitutive model of finite elastoplasticity

An Eulerian rate-independent constitutive model for isotropic materials undergoing finite elastoplastic deformation is formulated. Entirely fulfilling the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient, a constitutive equation and the coupled elastoplastic spin of the objective corotational rate therein are explicitly derived. For the purely elastic deformation, the model degenerates into a hypoelastic-type equation with the Green–Naghdi rate. For the small elastic- and rigid-plastic deformations, the model converges to the widely-used additive model where the Jaumann rate is used. Finally, as an illustration, using a combined exponential isotropic-nonlinear kinematic hardening pattern, the finite simple shear deformation is analyzed and a comparison is made with the experimental findings in the literature.     

Commutative Rings whose Proper Ideals are Serial

A result of Nakayama and Skornyakov states that a ring R is an Artinian serial ring if and only if every R-module is serial. This motivated us to study commutative rings for which every proper ideal is serial. In this paper, we determine completely the structure of commutative rings R of which every proper ideal is serial. It is shown that every proper ideal of R is serial, if and only if, either R is a serial ring, or R is a local ring with maximal ideal \({\mathcal {M}}\) such that there exist a uniserial module U and a semisimple module T with \({\mathcal {M}}=U\oplus T\). Moreover, in the latter case, every proper ideal of R is isomorphic to \(U^{\prime }\oplus T^{\prime }\), for some \(U^{\prime }\leq U\) and \(T^{\prime }\leq T\). Furthermore, it is shown that every proper ideal of a commutative Noetherian ring R is serial, if and only if, either R is a finite direct product of discrete valuation domains and local Artinian principal ideal rings, or R is a local ring with maximal ideal \({\mathcal {M}}\) containing a set of elements {w ₁,…,w _n } such that \({\mathcal {M}}=\bigoplus _{i=1}^{n} Rw_{i}\) with at most one non-simple summand. Moreover, another equivalent condition states that: there exists an integer n ≥ 1 such that every proper ideal of R is a direct sum of at most n uniserial R-modules. Finally, we discuss some examples to illustrate our results.     

Magnetic solid-phase extraction of rose bengal using iron oxide nanoparticles modified with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide

Magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) based on cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-coated magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (C-MIONPs) was investigated for the separation, preconcentration and determination of Rose Bengal (RB) in aqueous solutions. The influences of different analytical parameters such as pH, temperature, ionic strength, volume of desorbent solvent, amount of adsorbent and interfering ions in the adsorption of RB on C-MIONPs were investigated. The RB adsorption on C-MIONPs follows Langmuir isotherm. The sizes of C-MIONPs were in the range of 20–80 nm. The method was capable of determining RB concentration in the range of 0.01–1.20 μg ml^?1. The limit of detection (LOD) of RB based on three times the standard deviation of the blank (3Sb) was found to be 5.91 × 10–3 μg ml^?1 (n = 8). The relative standard deviation (RSD) for 0.3 μg ml^?1 and 0.8 μg ml^?1 of RB were 4.1% and 1.1%, respectively. The proposed method was applied to the determination of RB in Brucella Antigen solution and water samples from the Karoon River.     

Formation and Thermal Stability of Gold–Silica Nanohybrids: Insight into the Mechanism and Morphology by Electron Tomography

Gold–silica hybrids are appealing in different fields of applications like catalysis, sensorics, drug delivery, and biotechnology. In most cases, the morphology and distribution of the heterounits play significant roles in their functional behavior. Methods of synthesizing these hybrids, with variable ordering of the heterounits, are replete; however, a complete characterization in three dimensions could not be achieved yet. A simple route to the synthesis of Au‐decorated SiO₂ spheres is demonstrated and a study on the 3D ordering of the heterounits by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) tomography is presented—at the final stage, intermediate stages of formation, and after heating the hybrid. The final hybrid evolves from a soft self‐assembled structure of Au nanoparticles. The hybrid shows good thermal stability up to 400 °C, beyond which the Au particles start migrating inside the SiO₂ matrix. This study provides an insight in the formation mechanism and thermal stability of the structures which are crucial factors for designing and applying such hybrids in fields of catalysis and biotechnology. As the method is general, it can be applied to make similar hybrids based on SiO₂ by tuning the reaction chemistry as needed.     

Simple design of an aligned transparent biofilm by magnetic particles and its cellular study

The aim of this study was to produce aligned biodegradable films. In this study, we used magnetic microparticles and strong magnetic field for orientation of gelatin gels. The samples were evaluated by microscopic analyses and cell culture assays with Schwann cells. Results of structural analyses showed a good arrangement and orientation of films under strong magnetic field with movement of magnetite particles. Cellular experiments showed a good cell adhesion and orientation on the designed films compared with those on unmodified ones. This aligned guide appears to have the right organization for testing in vivo nerve tissue engineering studies. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficient Organic Transformations Mediated by ZrOCl2·8H2O in Water

Abstract

Operationally simple and environmentally benign methods for some organic transformations comprising reductive coupling of sulfonyl chlorides, chemoselective deoxygenation of sulfoxides, and halogenation of alcohols mediated by ZrOCl₂·8H₂O/MX in water have been developed.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT     

A needle trap device packed with a sol–gel derived,multi-walled carbon nanotubes/silica composite for sampling and analysis of volatile organohalogen compounds in air

A needle trap device (NTD) packed with silica composite of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) prepared based on sol–gel technique was utilized for sampling and analysis of volatile organohalogen compounds (HVOCs) in air. The performance of the NTD packed with MWCNTs/silica composite as sorbent was examined in a variety of sampling conditions and was compared with NTDs packed with PDMS as well as SPME with Carboxen/PDMS-coated fibers. The limit of detection of NTDs for the GC/MS detection system was 0.01–0.05 ng mL⁻¹ and the limit of quantitation was 0.04–0.18 ng mL⁻¹. The RSD were 1.1–7.8% for intra-NTD comparison intended for repeatability of technique. The NTD-MWCNTs/silica composite showed better analytical performances compared to the NTD-PDMS composite and had the same analytical performances when compared to the SPME-Carboxen/PDMS fibers. The results show that NTD-MWCNTs-GC/MS is a powerful technique for active sampling of occupational/environmental pollutants in air.