Determination of237Np in environmental samples using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Ammonium uranates (AU) obtained by the addition of aqueous NH₄ OH to a solution of UO₂ (NO₃)₂ or the equilibrium reaction of UO₃ · 2H₂ O with the vapour over concentrated NH₄ OH have been studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (DR-FTIR) and chemical analysis. Ammonia can be present as either NH₃ or NH ₄ ⁺ . For precipitates obtained at a pH of 3.7, ammonia in the form of NH₃ is predominant. For ammonium uranate obtained by reaction over concentrated NH₄OH, most of the ammonia is bonded as NH ₄ ⁺ . The reaction mechanism and structures of the products are also discussed.     

Bis(5‐hydroxy‐2‐hydroxy­methyl‐4‐pyrone‐κ2O4,O5)bis(2‐hydroxy­methyl‐5‐oxido‐4‐pyrone‐κ2O4,O5)­calcium(II) tetrahydrate

In the title compound, [Ca(C₆H₅O₄)₂(C₆H₆O₄)₂]·4H₂O, which is a kojic acid–Ca²⁺ complex, the Ca atom is on a twofold axis and is octacoordinated by O atoms from four pyrone ligand mol­ecules. The hydroxyl and ketone O atoms of each ligand form a five‐membered chelate ring with the Ca atom. The crystal structure is stabilized by partial stacking and O—H?O hydrogen bonds.     

Thermolysis of reactive oligo(p-phenylene sulfide) containing disulfide bond

Oligo(phenylene sulfide) (OPS) containing one disulfide bond at the end of the chain, which was obtained by the oxidative polymerization of diphenyl disulfide, had a relatively low Td_10%(temperature for 10% weight loss) of 412 °C because of degradation of the disulfide bond. But this thermal cleavage of the disulfide bond promoted the curing reaction through thiophenoxy radical formation. OPS was allowed to react with diiodobenzene at 220 °C. The thermal stability of OPS was improved through the consumption of the disulfide bond and the coupling of the chain.     

Enantiomeric purity determination of malic acid in apple juices by multi-beam circular dichroism detection

A multi-beam circular dichroism (CD) detector which is easily constructed by inserting inexpensive optics into a conventional photo-diode array detector has an advantage of simultaneous detection of the absorbance and CD. The enantiomeric purity determination of malic acid in beverages was performed by this detection system. Malic acid when complexed with Cu(II) was found to have an absorbance maximum at around 750 nm. The L-malic acid-Cu(II) complex showed a positive Cotton effect in its absorbance band and its anisotropy factor (delta epsilon/epsilon) was relatively large at about 1/170. This complex was retained on a reversed-phase column with the addition of racemic 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutyric acid to the mobile phase as the ligand. A plot of the relative peak areas between the CD and the absorption (delta abs/abs) versus optical purity showed good linearity with a correlation coefficient of 0.999, and the precision expressed as the relative standard deviation of the errors from the regression line was +/-2.7% (2sigma). The accuracy of the proposed method was assessed by capillary electrophoresis. Eight commercially available juice products were analyzed using this method. Five of them were thought to be adulterated with synthetic malic acid.     

A characteristic effect of pressure on inclusion complexation of phenothiazine dyes with p-sulfonatocalix[6]arene in a room-temperature ionic liquid

The inclusion complexation of p-sulfonatocalix[6]arene (Calix-S6) with three kinds of phenothiazine dyes was studied spectrophotometrically in a mixture of a room-temperature ionic liquid [bmim]BF₄ (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate) and ethanol. We have determined the association constants of Calix-S6 with phenothiazine dyes under external static pressure up to 767 bar in the [bmim]BF₄-ethanol and alcohol-water mixtures. With increasing external pressure, the inclusion equilibrium in the alcohol-water mixtures was shifted to the dissociation side. Conversely, the inclusion equilibrium of methylene blue (MB) and azure A (AA) in the ionic liquid mixture was shifted to the association side. From the analysis of the pressure effects, the reaction volumes ΔV for inclusion complexation were estimated as −7 to 9 cm³ mol⁻¹ in the [bmim]BF₄-ethanol mixture and 20–32 cm³ mol⁻¹ in the alcohol-water mixtures. Based on the results, we have suggested that there is a competing complexation between the included dye and [bmim]BF₄ molecules in the ionic liquid.