Pyridine-2-aldoxime complexes of rare earths

New complex compounds of some rare earths (samarium, europium, gadolinium, dysprosium and ytterbium) with the bidentate ligand pyridine-2-aldoxime have been prepared. Their absorption spectrum in the ultraviolet, visible and infrared regions have been recorded.     

Determination of iodide with potassium dichromate and sodium vanadate in the presence of acetone

The determination of iodide with potassium dichromate and sodium vanadate in 6-8M phosphoric acid medium by potentiometric or visual titration is described. Ferroin and barium diphenylamine sulphonate (BDAS) are used as the indicators in the visual titration with potassium dichromate and sodium vanadate respectively. Acetone is used to stabilize the iodonium ions liberated, in the visual titration. Iodide can also be determined with sodium vanadate in 2-4M sulphuric acid medium with BDAS as indicator in the presence of oxalic acid as catalyst and acetone to stabilize the liberated iodine cations. The visual procedures are applied for the determination of iodide in tincture of iodine. The formal potentials of the iodine/iodide couple in various phosphoric acid media are reported.     

Mixed complexes of iron (III)—thiocyanate with some nitrogen and oxygen donors and their analytical applications

Methods for the determination of iron (III) as thiocyanate complex in the presence of neutral donors like isoquinoline and antipyrine have been developed. The two methods are of equal sensitivity (ε=18,000±100 lit. mole^?1 cm^?1) but operate at widely different hydrogen ion concentrations ranging from 10^?5 N(pH 5·0) to 7N. The interference of various foreign substances has been studied in the two methods. The application of these methods in the analysis of alloys and commercial HCl for iron has been explored and the composition of the extracting species established.     

Classification and identification of mosquito species using artificial neural networks

An artificial neural network method is presented for classification and identification of Anopheles mosquito species based on the internal transcribed spacer2 (ITS2) data of ribosomal DNA string. The method is implemented in two different multi-layered feed-forward neural network model forms, namely, multi-input single-output neural network (MISONN) and multi-input multi-output neural network (MIMONN). A number of data sequences in varying sizes of different Anopheline malarial vectors and their corresponding species coding are employed to develop the neural network models. The classification efficiency of the network models for untrained data sequences is evaluated in terms of quantitative performance criteria. The results demonstrate the efficiency of the neural network models to extract the genetic information in ITS2 sequences and to adapt to new data. The method of MISONN is found to exhibit superior performance over MIMONN in distinguishing and identification of the mosquito vectors.     

Biological nano-ceramic materials for holographic data storage

Here we present, a two-photon absorption (2PA) study in Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ oxidation states of cytochrome c molecule in water solution, using the femtosecond Z-scan technique with pulses from 560 to 850 nm. No qualitative difference was observed in the 2PA process for the two Fe oxidation states. The 2PA cross-sections, for both samples, increase as the wavelength approaches the absorption band, in agreement with the resonant denominator in the sum-over states model, presenting a maximum value of approximately 1000 GM at about 600 nm.     

An ICP-AES method for the determination of heavy rare earth elements (Eu-Lu) in high purity yttrium oxide

Traces of heavy rare earth elements (Eu-Lu) were determined in high purity yttrium oxide by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The yttrium oxide samples were dissolved in nitric acid and the solutions analyzed with a plasma produced by a 56 MHz RF generator at an output power of 1.5 kW. Using a high resolution sequential monochromator, interference-free spectral lines for Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu could be found for calibration. The detection limits for the above elements have been found to be slightly higher in the presence of yttrium matrix, than in aqueous solution. This could be attributed to background enhancements due to the presence of yttrium. The mean RSD of the method varied between 2.3% and 6.3% in the concentration range 0.01 and 0.5 g/ml. The percentage recovery ranged from 84 to 106 for the different rare earth elements.     

Crystallization kinetics study on higher homologues of benzylidene aniline compounds: impact of phase variant on nucleation process

A systematic kinetic study leading to the crystallization process from the kinetophases (which occur prior to crystal phase) smectic B, crystal G and smectic F is performed on representative compounds of the homologous series p -phenylbenzylidene-p′-alkylanilines (PBnA) and p-n -alkoxybenzylidene-p′-alkylanilines (nO.m) these compounds are p-phenylbenzylidene-p′-nonylaniline (PB9A), p -phenylbenzylidene-p′-tetradecylaniline (PB14A), p-n -pentadecyloxybenzylidene p′-tetradecylaniline (15O.14) and p-n -octadecyloxybenzylidene-p′-nonylaniline (18O.9). The molecular mechanism and dimensionality in crystal growth from the kineto phases are computed from the Avrami equation, while the characteristic crystalline time (t ^*) at each crystallization temperature is deduced from the individual plots of log t vs. Δ H. The low magnitudes of the dimensionality parameter n infers the occurrence of diffusion-controlled transformations leading to the formation of plates or needles of finite size possessing impinged edges. The degree of variation in the value of n at each crystallization temperature also reveals the existence of an independent nucleation mechanism for any individual member of the series. The influence of the terminal alkyl chain lengths on the rate of crystallization is determined from a comparative study with the reported analogous compounds.     

Preconcentration of traces of gold, silver and palladium on activated carbon and its determination in geological samples by flame AAS after wet ashing

A simple, rapid and cost effective preconcentration method is described for the determination of traces of gold (Au), silver (Ag) and palladium (Pd) in geological samples by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). The method is based on sorption of analytes (Au, Ag and Pd) on powdered activated carbon (AC) at pH 1 in hydrochloric acid (HCl) medium. The samples are decomposed by aqua regia — HCl treatment. The quantitative sorption (better than 92%) of analytes is obtained on AC (in absence of complexing agent), by simply manipulating optimal conditions. The unique feature of the method is, the analytes are recovered quantitatively from AC by oxidizing and completely solubilising the carbon using concentrated nitric acid (HNO₃) and perchloric acid (HClO₄) i.e. by wet ashing. The method of wet ashing has several advantages over conventional dry ashing. The accuracy of the method is evaluated by analysing, five Canada centre for mineral and energy technology (CANMET) standards; MA-3, MA-1b, FER-1, SU-1A, and CPB-1. In addition, ASK-3 and one inhouse standard, kolar gold field (KGF) samples was also analysed. As no standard for Pd is available, its accuracy was evaluated by standard addition method. The method was applied on numerous geological samples for the determination of Au, Ag and Pd down to 0.1 ppm (based on 10 g sample) within ±10% R.S.D. (n=5). The method could easily be adopted by any laboratory as the inputs are minimal (AC), inexpensive and easily available.