Formamide reactions on rutile TiO2(0 1 1) surface

The reaction of formamide over the (0 1 1) faceted TiO₂(0 0 1) surface has been studied by Temperature Programmed Desorption (TPD) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). Two main reactions were observed: dehydration to HCN and H₂O and decomposition to NH₃ and CO. The dehydration reaction was found to be three to four times larger than the decomposition at all coverages. Each of these reactions is found to occur in two temperature domains which are dependent upon surface coverage. The low temperature pathway (at about 400 K) is largely insensitive to surface coverage while the high temperature pathway (at about 500 K) shifts to lower temperatures with increasing surface coverage. These two temperature pathways may indicate two adsorption modes of formamide: molecular (via an η¹(O) mode of adsorption) and dissociative (via an η²(O,N) mode of adsorption). C1s and N1s XPS scans indicated the presence of multiple species after formamide absorption at 300 K. These occurred at ca. 288.5 eV (-CONH-) and 285 eV (sp³/sp² C) for the C1s and 400 eV-(NH₂), 398 eV (-NH) and 396 eV (N) for the N1s and result from further reaction of formamide with the surface.     

Hydrothermal Synthesis and Crystal Structure of a New Manganese（Ⅱ） Complex with 2,4-Pyridine-dicarboxylic Acid and 2,2′-Bipyridine Ligands

A new metal-organic complex [Mn2（PDC）2（bipy）2（H2O）2] （H2PDC = 2,4-pyridine-dicarboxylic acid, bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine） 1 has been hydrothermally synthesized and structurally characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectrum, TG and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallizes in triclinic, space group P ^-1 with a = 7.376（3）, b = 9.990（4）, c = 11.950（5） A^°, α= 75.217（5）, β = 78.052（5）, γ = 70.655（5）°, V = 796.0（5）A^°3, C34HE6Mn2N6O10, Mr = 788.49, De = 1.645 g/cm^3,μ（MoKa） = 0.866 mm^-1, F（000） = 235, Z = 1, the final R = 0.0425 and wR = 0.0700 for 1971 observed reflections （I 〉 2σ（I））. In the crystal structure, the manganese atom is six-coordinated by two carboxylate oxygen atoms from two different PDC ligands, one aqua ligand, and three nitrogen atoms from 2,2′-bipy and PDC ligands, giving a distorted octahedral geometry. It exhibits a three-dimensional supramolecular network defined by O-H…O hydrogen-bonding interactions.     

Fast liquid chromatography separation and multiple‐reaction monitoring mass spectrometric detection of neurotransmitters

We describe here the fast LC‐MS/MS separation of a mixture of neurotransmitters consisting of dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, 3,4‐dihydroxybenzylamine (DHBA), salsolinol, serotonin, and γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA). The new UltiMate® 3000 Rapid Separation system (RSLC) was successfully coupled to the 4000 QTRAP mass spectrometer operating in multiple‐reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The separation was attained using a 100 mm length, 2.2 μm particle size Acclaim column at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. The column back pressure was 350 bar, while the total run time including column re‐equilibration was 5.2 min. The peak resolution was minimally affected by the fast separation. The RSLC‐MRM separation was found to have a precision range based on peak area for 50 replicate runs of 2–5% CV for all analytes, and the reproducibility of the retention time for all analytes was found to range from 0–2% CV. The described method represents an almost seven times shorter analysis time of neurotransmitters using LC/MRM which is very useful in screening large quantities of biological samples for various neurotransmitters.     

15N NMR chemical shifts for the identification of dipyrrolic structures

A variety of dipyrromethanes and dipyrromethenes have been prepared, and their 15N NMR chemical shifts have been measured by two-dimensional correlation to 1H NMR signals. The nitrogen atoms in five examples of dipyrromethanes consistently exhibit chemical shifts around -231 ppm, relative to nitromethane. Seven examples of hydrobromide salts of meso-unsubstituted dipyrromethenes consistently display 15N chemical shifts around -210 ppm, while their corresponding zinc(II) complexes exhibit chemical shifts around -170 ppm. The presence of electron-withdrawing substituents on one of the pyrrolic rings of dipyrromethenes affects the chemical shifts of both of the nitrogen nuclei in the molecule. Boron difluoride complexes of meso-unsubstituted dipyrromethenes display 15N chemical shifts around -190 ppm. Two examples of free-base dipyrromethenes bearing substituents at the meso-position exhibit 15N chemical shifts at approximately -156 ppm, and for the zinc complexes of these compounds at -162 ppm. One-bond nitrogen-hydrogen coupling constants, when measurable, were consistently in the range of -96 Hz. Since the measured 15N chemical shifts have such a high regularity correlated to structure, they can be used as diagnostic indications for identifying the structure of dipyrrolic compounds.     

Interlaboratory study of the Charm ROSA Safe Level Aflatoxin M1 Quantitative lateral flow test for raw bovine milk

An interlaboratory study of 21 public health, state agriculture, and industry laboratories in the United States tested raw commingled bovine milk containing aflatoxin M1 using the Charm Rapid One Step Assay (ROSA) Safe Level Aflatoxin M1 Quantitative lateral flow method. Blind coded sample pairs were fortified with 0, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, and 550 parts per trillion (ppt) aflatoxin M1. A ROSA reader quantitatively interpreted test strips with ppt readings. Readings < or = 400 ppt were interpreted as negative, and readings >400 ppt were interpreted as positive. Initial positive samples were subsequently assayed 2 additional times. If both retest results were >400 ppt, the sample was called positive/ actionable relative to U.S. and Codex levels, 500 ppt. The concentration of 400 ppt was chosen for the positive/negative interpretation to provide 90% sensitivity with 95% confidence at the 500 ppt legislative level. The combined false negative rate was <5% (4 of 83) for samples at 500 and 550 ppt. The false violatives at 0, 300, 350, 400, and 450 ppt (n = 42 at each level) were 0, 0, 21, 14, and 93%, respectively. The 90% positive concentration with 95% confidence was 503 ppt by probit analysis. The average intralaboratory repeatability was 11% and average interlaboratory reproducibility was 13% for the fortified sample pairs. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis of the study samples by 5 laboratories showed 38% false negatives with the 500 and 550 ppt samples, and a 0% false-violative rate with samples less than the 500 ppt action level.     

Experimental and theoretical investigation on the microstructure of aluminum alloys during extrusion

The purpose of this work is the investigation of the material behavior of aluminum alloys during extrusion and cooling. In particular, the alloys of the 6000 series (Al–Mg–Si) and 7000 series (Al–Zn–Mg) are relevant here. Under the corresponding conditions, their behavior is controlled mainly by dynamic recovery during the extrusion and static recrystallization during cooling. For the development of a suitable material model EBSD measurements are done on different parts of an extruded Al6060 specimen. For this sample a microstructure picture is generated and a statistical analysis is performed. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

B-Spline Gaussian Collocation Software for Two-Dimensional Parabolic PDEs

In this paper we describe new B-spline Gaussian collocation software for solving two-dimensional parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) defined over a rectangular region. The numerical solution is represented as a bi-variate piecewise polynomial (using a tensor product B-spline basis) with time-dependent unknown coefficients. These coefficients are determined by imposing collocation conditions: the numerical solution is required to satisfy the PDE and boundary conditions at images of the Gauss points mapped onto certain subregions of the spatial domain. This leads to a large system of time-dependent differential algebraic equations (DAEs) which is solved using the DAE solver, DASPK. We provide numerical results in which we use the new software, called BACOL2D, to solve three test problems.