Determination of heavy metals at the pg/g level in Antarctic snow with DPASV and IDMS

Summary Differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV) and isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) were used to analyse heavy metals in Antarctic snow samples. It was possible to determine Pb and Cd with DPASV at the German Antarctic station Georg-von-Neumayer whereas the analyses of Pb, Cd, Tl, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Fe with IDMS were carried out at the University of Regensburg. 80% of the elemental concentrations in surface snow samples analysed with IDMS lay in the following ranges: Pb=3–40 pg/g, Cd<0.2–3 pg/g, Tl<0.2 pg/g, Cr<0.8–15 pg/g, Ni<4.8–40 pg/g, Cu<11–30 pg/g, Zn=30–500 pg/g, and Fe=(0.5–1.5)×10³ pg/g. In most cases an acceptable agreement between the DPASV and IDMS results was obtained for Pb and Cd. More than 50% of all Pb analyses agreed within a deviation of 0–10 pg/g. The Cd results between both methods usually deviated by less than 1 pg/g. Slightly higher Pb concentrations were analysed in the average with IDMS compared with DPASV. This effect was not observed for the Cd data. A possible explanation for this fact are non-ionic Pb species in the melted snow samples, which cannot be analysed by DPASV. One particular investigation of Pb concentrations showed that the analysed data with DPASV decreased with the increasing length of sun-shine after a snowfall when samples of the same origin were determined. Blank control is the major requirement for accurate analysis results of heavy metals in this low concentration range. On the other hand, accuracy must always be tested by independent analytical methods. In this work it is shown that Pb and Cd can be analysed directly in the Antarctica with DPASV and that the result of this method is in acceptable agreement with the definitive method IDMS.

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Bestimmung von Schwermetallen im pg/g Bereich in antarktischen Schneeproben durch differentielle Pulsinversvoltammetrie und massenspektrometrische Isotopenverdünnungsanalyse

     

Decision making under uncertainty: A semi-infinite programming approach

The subject of this paper is the formulation and discussion of a semi-infinite linear vector optimization problem which extends multiple objective linear programming problems to those with an infinite number of objective functions and constraints. Furthermore it generalizes in some way semi-infinite programming. Besides the statement of some immediately derived results which are related to known results in semi-infinite linear programming and vector optimization, the problem mentioned above is interpreted as a decision model, under risk or uncertainty containing continuous random variables. Thus we treat the case of an infinite number of occuring states of nature. These types of problems frequently occur within aspects of decision theory in management science.     

Oberflächenstrukturen von Silber-Aufdampfschichten

Using low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) technique surface structures of thin epitaxial silver films have been investigated. The surface of films, evaporated onto freshly cleaved mica sheets is found to be the undisturbed (111)-plane of silver, all crystallites of the film are well ordered within 1?. Two different superstructures caused by oxygen adsorption have been observed: One at room temperature, the other at 400? C with a unit mesh of 3 and √3 times the interatomic distance of silver, respectively.