Synthesis of functionalized 3-spirocyclopropane-2-indolones from isomerised Baylis-Hillman adducts of isatin

A facile, high yield stereoselective synthesis of functionalized diastereomeric 3-spirocyclopropane-2-indolones (10-17a,b) from the isomerised bromo derivatives of Baylis-Hillman adducts of isatin(2-9a,b) by reductive cyclization with sodium borohydride is reported.     

Norm estimates for the Alexander transforms of convex functions of order alpha

The hyperbolic sup norm of the pre-Schwarzian derivative of a locally univalent function on the unit disk measures the deviation of the function from similarities. We present sharp norm estimates for the Alexander transforms of convex functions of order α, 0?α<1.     

Rapid determination of triclosan in personal care products using new in-tube based ultrasound-assisted salt-induced liquid–liquid microextraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection

This paper describes the development of a novel, simple and efficient in-tube based ultrasound-assisted salt-induced liquid–liquid microextraction (IT-USA-SI-LLME) technique for the rapid determination of triclosan (TCS) in personal care products by high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) detection. IT-USA-SI-LLME method is based on the rapid phase separation of water-miscible organic solvent from the aqueous phase in the presence of high concentration of salt (salting-out phenomena) under ultrasonication. In the present work, an indigenously fabricated home-made glass extraction device (8-mL glass tube inbuilt with a self-scaled capillary tip) was utilized as the phase separation device for USA-SI-LLME. After the extraction, the upper extractant layer was narrowed into the self-scaled capillary tip by pushing the plunger plug; thus, the collection and measurement of the upper organic solvent layer was simple and convenient. The effects of various parameters on the extraction efficiency were thoroughly evaluated and optimized. Under optimal conditions, detection was linear in the concentration range of 0.4–100 ng mL⁻¹ with correlation coefficient of 0.9968. The limit of detection was 0.09 ng mL⁻¹ and the relative standard deviations ranged between 0.8 and 5.3% (n = 5). The applicability of the developed method was demonstrated for the analysis of TCS in different commercial personal care products and the relative recoveries ranged from 90.4 to 98.5%. The present method was proven to be a simple, sensitive, less organic solvent consuming, inexpensive and rapid procedure for analysis of TCS in a variety of commercially available personal care products or cosmetic preparations.     

Fast Analysis of Synthetic Pyrethroid Metabolites in Water Samples Using In-Syringe Derivatization Coupled Hollow Fiber Mediated Liquid Phase Microextraction with GC-ECD

A fast and efficient method has been demonstrated for the trace determination of six important metabolites of synthetic pyrethroids including cis- and trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (cis- and trans-Cl₂CA), cis-3-(2,2-dibromovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (cis-Br₂CA), 4-fluoro-3-phenoxybenzoic acid (4-F-3-PBA), 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA), and 2-phenoxybenzoic acid (2-PBA) in environmental water samples using hollow fiber (HF)-mediated liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) coupled with in-syringe derivatization (ISD) followed by gas chromatography (GC) with electron capture detector (ECD) analysis. This method utilizes a HF membrane segment impregnated with extraction solvent as the LPME sampling probe, which was connected to a microsyringe pre-filled with derivatizing agents, and it was immersed into sample solution for extraction. After extraction, the extracting solution was subjected to derivatization reaction that was performed inside the syringe barrel followed by GC-ECD analysis. Under optimal conditions, the best extraction efficiency was obtained using sampling probe (2.0 cm hollow fiber) impregnated with 1-octanol immersed into water sample (5.0 mL, adjusted pH below 1.0) and stirring (1,250 rpm) for 10 min at 70 °C and diisopropylcarbodiimide (2 μL) and 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (1 μL) were the derivatizing agents used. The detection limits of 3 ng mL^?1 for cis- and trans-Cl₂CA, 2 ng mL^?1 for cis-Br₂CA, 6 ng mL^?1 for 4-F-3-PBA, and 0.6 ng mL^?1 for 3-PBA and 2-PBA. The method showed good linearity (R ² = 0.973?0.998), repeatability from 4.0 to 13 % (n = 5), recovery from 79.2 to 95.7 %, and enrichment factors ranged between 109 and 159 for target analytes spiked in water samples. The proposed method and conventional methods were compared. Results suggested that the proposed HF-LPME-ISD/GC-ECD method was a rapid, simple, inexpensive, and eco-friendly technique for the analysis of metabolites of pyrethroids.     

Synthesis of 3‐Heteroaryl‐Substituted Tetrahydrofurans from the Baylis–Hillman Adducts of Heteroarylaldehydes by n‐Bu3SnH‐Mediated 5‐exo‐trig Vinyl Radical Cyclization

The synthesis of 3‐heteroaryl‐substituted tetrahydrofurans from the propargyl derivative of Baylis–Hillman adducts of heteroaryl aldehydes by n‐Bu₃SnH‐mediated 5‐exo‐trig vinyl radical cyclization in high yield is reported.     

Metal Nanozyme with Ester Hydrolysis Activity in the Presence of Ammonia-Borane and Its Use in a Sensitive Immunosensor

Metal nanoparticle surfaces are used for peroxidase- and oxidase-like nanozymes but not for esterase-like nanozymes. It is challenging to obtain rapid catalytic hydrolysis on a metal surface and even more so without a catalytically labile substrate. Here, we report that metal nanoparticle surfaces rapidly catalyze non-redox ester hydrolysis in the presence of redox H₃N−BH₃ (AB). Metal hydrides are readily generated on a Pt nanoparticle (PtNP) from AB, and as a result the PtNP becomes electron-rich, which might assist nucleophilic attack of H₂O on the carbonyl group of an ester. The nanozyme system based on PtNP, AB, and 4-aminonaphthalene-1-yl acetate provides an electrochemical signal-to-background ratio much higher than natural enzymes, due to the rapid ester hydrolysis and redox cycling involving the hydrolysis product. The nanozyme system is applied in a sensitive electrochemical immunosensor for thyroid-stimulating hormone detection. The calculated detection limit is approximately 0.3 pg mL⁻¹, which indicates the high sensitivity of the immunosensor using the PtNP nanozyme.     

Studies in Detergency: Influence of Different Factors for Removing Motor Oil Stain from the Cotton Fabric

The ability of surfactants to remove a organic soil from the cotton fabric has been investigated using various parameters such as temperature and hardness of water. The surfactants such as alkylpolyglucosides (APG), sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), and alpha olefin sulphonate (AOS) have been taken to formulate the detergent as such and in mixtures to evaluate the detergency performance to remove motor oil from the 100% cotton fabric. In the past, the detergency of nonionic APG surfactants has not been well studied. The behavior of commercial APG surfactants and mixtures of APGs with other common surface cleaning agents (SLS & AOS) in laundry applications has been investigated. Motor oil is the toughest soil to remove as it contains nonpolar organic compounds. The performance of detergency was evaluated at different temperatures (30°C, 45°C, and 60°C) and in the presence of hard water (40, 100, and 300 ppm).     

Elliott's identity and hypergeometric functions

Elliott's identity involving the Gaussian hypergeometric series contains, as a special case, the classical Legendre identity for complete elliptic integrals. The aim of this paper is to derive a differentiation formula for an expression involving the Gaussian hypergeometric series, which, for appropriate values of the parameters, implies Elliott's identity and which also leads to concavity/convexity properties of certain related functions. We also show that Elliott's identity is equivalent to a formula of Ramanujan on the differentiation of quotients of hypergeometric functions. Applying these results we obtain a number of identities associated with the Legendre functions of the first and the second kinds, respectively.     

Determination of pyrethroid metabolites in human urine using liquid phase microextraction coupled in-syringe derivatization followed by gas chromatography/electron capture detection

Metabolites of synthetic pyrethroids such as cis-3-(2,2-dibromovinyl)-2,2-di-methylcyclo-propane-1-carboxylic acid, cis- and trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid), 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA), and 4-fluoro-3-PBA are biomarkers for exposure to phenothrin, tetramethrin, cyfluthrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, and permethrin. In this study, the pyrethroid metabolites in workers’ urine samples were monitored for the first time with a novel sample pretreatment process combining hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME) and in-syringe derivatization (ISD) followed by gas chromatography–electron capture detector (GC-ECD) analysis. A micro-syringe pre-filled with derivatizing agents and syringe needle connected to an extracting solvent impregnated hollow fiber segment was used as the LPME probe. Pyrethroid metabolites were extracted and enriched simultaneously from urine samples by HF-LPME sampling and acid hydrolysis at 70 °C for 10 min. After sampling, the ISD was performed by mixing the extracting solution and derivatizing agents through plunger movements, followed by GC-ECD analysis. Parameters influencing the HF-LPME efficiency and ISD were investigated and optimized. Under optimum conditions, the method provided enrichment factors of 69.8–154.6, repeatability from 5.0 to 12% (n = 5), and good linearity (R ² = 0.9980–0.9998) for interested analytes spiked in urine samples. The method detection limits ranged from 1.6 to 17 ng/mL. A comparison was performed between the proposed method and conventional methods. The proposed method was applied to analyze pyrethroid metabolites in the urine samples collected from workers of pesticide formulation plants. The results suggested that the proposed HF-LPME coupled ISD method was a rapid, simple, efficient, and eco-friendly technique in the biomonitoring of metabolites of pyrethroids in workers’ urine.     

A novel graphene nanosheets coated stainless steel fiber for microwave assisted headspace solid phase microextraction of organochlorine pesticides in aqueous samples followed by gas chromatography with electron capture detection

In this study, a novel graphene nanosheets (GNSs) coated solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was prepared by immobilizing microwave synthesized GNSs on a stainless steel wire. Microwave synthesized GNSs were verified by X-ray diffraction, field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). GNS-SPME fiber was characterized using FE-SEM and the results showed the GNS coating was homogeneous, porous, and highly adherent to the surface of the stainless steel fiber. The performance and feasibility of the GNS-SPME fiber was evaluated under one-step microwave assisted (MA) headspace (HS) SPME followed by gas chromatography with electron capture detection for five organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in aqueous samples. Parameters influencing the extraction efficiency of MA-HS-GNS-SPME such as microwave irradiation power and time, pH, ionic strength, and desorption conditions were thoroughly examined. Under the optimized conditions, detection limits for the OCPs varied between 0.16 and 0.93 ng L(-1) and linear ranges varied between 1 and 1500 n gL(-1), with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9984 to 0.9998, and RSDs in the range of 3.6-15.8% (n=5). In comparison with the commercial 100 μm polydimethylsiloxane fiber, the GNS coated fiber showed better extraction efficiency, higher mechanical and thermal stability (up to 290°C), longer life span (over 250 times), and lower production cost. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of real water samples with recoveries ranged between 80.1 and 101.1% for river water samples. The results demonstrated that the developed MA-HS-GNS-SPME method was a simple, rapid, efficient pretreatment and environmentally friendly procedure for the analysis of OCPs in aqueous samples.