Titrations using an apparatus for recording the antilogarithm of pH or pM

A titration apparatus plotting either the concentration of sample ion or the concentration of titrant ion has been tested. An antilog apparatus, converting measured e.m.f. values into concentrations is connected to ordinary titration equipment. The instrument has been tested by means of acid—base titrations (titrations of mixtures of weak acids and of a weak and a strong acid), precipitation titrations (determination of the chloride concentration in tap-water, titration of mixtures of halides), titrations with ion-selective electrodes (determination of the fluoride content of toothpaste) and complexometric titrations (determination of copper with EDTA, using mercuric ion as indicator ion and amalgamated silver rod as indicator electrode, or using a copper-selective indicator electrode). The method considerably simplifies the evaluation of the results as compared to conventional potentiometric titrations.     

Interface energy of semicoherent metal-ceramic interfaces

An ab initio based approach to determine energies and structures for semicoherent interfaces is developed and applied to the Fe(001)/VN(001) system. To account for elastic displacements resulting from the lattice misfit, we compare an atomistic approach using a model potential (embedded-atom method) with a continuum approach using the Peierls-Nabarro model. The total interface energy of the atomistic modeling is found to be well reproduced by the Peierls-Nabarro model, demonstrating that accurate interface energies of semicoherent interfaces can be obtained by combining first principles for the chemical part of the energy and a Peierls-Nabarro model to account for the elasticity of the media.     

Trapping of microparticles in the near field of an ultrasonic transducer

We are investigating means of handling microparticles in microfluidic systems, in particular localized acoustic trapping of microparticles in a flow-through device. Standing ultrasonic waves were generated across a microfluidic channel by ultrasonic microtransducers integrated in one of the channel walls. Particles in a fluid passing a transducer were drawn to pressure minima in the acoustic field, thereby being trapped and confined at the lateral position of the transducer. The spatial distribution of trapped particles was evaluated and compared with calculated acoustic intensity distributions. The particle trapping was found to be strongly affected by near field pressure variations due to diffraction effects associated with the finite sized transducer element. Since laterally confining radiation forces are proportional to gradients in the acoustic energy density, these near field pressure variations may be used to get strong trapping forces, thus increasing the lateral trapping efficiency of the device. In the experiments, particles were successfully trapped in linear fluid flow rates up to 1mm/s. It is anticipated that acoustic trapping using integrated transducers can be exploited in miniaturised total chemical analysis systems (microTAS), where e.g. microbeads with immobilised antibodies can be trapped in arrays and subjected to minute amounts of sample followed by a reaction, detected using fluorescence.     

Automatic fitting procedures for EPR spectra of disordered systems: matrix diagonalization and perturbation methods applied to fluorocarbon radicals

Two types of automatic fitting procedures for EPR spectra of disordered systems have been developed, one based on matrix diagonalization of a general spin Hamiltonian, the other on 2nd order perturbation theory. The first program is based on a previous Fortran code complemented with a newly written interface in Java to provide user-friendly in and output. The second is intended for the special case of free radicals with several relatively weakly interacting nuclei, in which case the general method becomes slow. A least squares' fitting procedure utilizing analytical or numerical derivatives of the theoretically calculated spectrum with respect to the g- and hyperfine structure (hfs) tensors was used to refine those parameters in both cases. 'Rigid limit' ESR spectra from radicals in organic matrices and in polymers, previously studied experimentally at low temperature, were analyzed by both methods. Fluorocarbon anion radicals could be simulated, quite accurately with the exact method, whereas automatic fitting on, e.g. the c-C(4)F(8)(-) anion radical is only feasible with the 2nd order approximative treatment. Initial values for the (19)F hfs tensors estimated by DFT calculations were quite close to the final. For neutral radicals of the type XCF(2)CF(2)* the refinement of the hfs tensors by the exact method worked better than the approximate. The reasons are discussed. The ability of the fitting procedures to recover the correct magnetic parameters of disordered systems was investigated by fittings to synthetic spectra with known hfs tensors. The exact and the approximate methods are concluded to be complementary, one being general, but limited to relatively small systems, the other being a special treatment, suited for S=1/2 systems with several moderately large hfs.     

Proton-coupled electron transfer from tyrosine: a strong rate dependence on intramolecular proton transfer distance

Proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) was examined in a series of biomimetic, covalently linked Ru(II)(bpy)(3)-tyrosine complexes where the phenolic proton was H-bonded to an internal base (a benzimidazyl or pyridyl group). Photooxidation in laser flash/quench experiments generated the Ru(III) species, which triggered long-range electron transfer from the tyrosine group concerted with short-range proton transfer to the base. The results give an experimental demonstration of the strong dependence of the rate constant and kinetic isotope effect for this intramolecular PCET reaction on the effective proton transfer distance, as reflected by the experimentally determined proton donor-acceptor distance.     

A glucose sensor made by chemically crosslinking glucose oxidase directly on the surface of a carbon electrode modified with Pd/Au for hydrogen peroxide electrocatalysis

Glucose oxidase, mutarotase and bovine serum albumin were chemically crosslinked with glutaraldehyde directly on the surface of a carbon rod, covered with a layer of sputtered palladium/gold to produce a catalytic electrode for hydrogen peroxide oxidation. The polymerization resulted in glucose sensors with response factors that were stable for months under different storage conditions. The thin membranes had a fast response so that flow injection peaks with a width at half peak height of 3 s could be recorded accurately. The detection limit was 0.5M D-glucose and the response was linear up to 3 mM D-glucose.     

Lactam analogues of galiellalactone

A synthetic route to lactam analogues of the fungal STAT3 inhibitor galiellalactone is presented. The synthesis involves a one-pot tosylamide amide coupling/intramolecular Michael addition and an introduction of an α,β-unsaturation, regioselectively directed by the tosyl functionality. An iodolactonization of the octahydroindolizine 9 and a re-opening of the lactone were employed for introducing an iodo substituent, facilitating the preparation of 8-substituted analogues (e.g., 4) using a Suzuki cross-coupling.     

The behaviour of cationic NanoFibrillar Cellulose in aqueous media

This paper deals, with cationically modified NanoFibrillar Cellulose (cat NFC), obtained by reacting a dissolving pulp with 2,3-epoxypropyl trimethylammonium chloride (EPTMAC). The cat NFC was thoroughly characterized in terms of morphology and physical properties. The dimensions of individual cellulose nanofibrils were determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging in water and in air. Fibrils as thin as 0.8–1.2 nm were observed in water. The fibril diameter changed upon drying and the average size was further quantified by image analysis. The experiments showed the importance of characterizing nanocellulosic materials in situ before drying. The fibril size in air was confirmed by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), and it was found to be 2.6–3.0 nm. Smooth ultrathin films of cationic NFC were prepared by spincoating on silica substrates. The effect of electrolyte concentration and pH on swelling of the cationic NFC film was studied using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation. The results showed that at pH = 8 the cat NFC film was insensitive to electrolyte changes while at pH = 4.5, the water content of the film decreased with increasing ionic strength. The electrophoretic mobility measurements showed a cationic zeta potential for the cat NFC that decreased at increasing pH, verifying the swelling behaviour.