Determination of selenium in biological samples by electrochemical preconcentration and atomic absorption spectrometry

Summary For the determination of selenium in biological materials the samples are digested with an HNO₃/H₂SO₄/ V₂O₅ or an HNO₃/HClO₄ mixture. Selenium is then electrolyzed onto a platinum wire, followed by atomic absorption spectrometry with simultaneous electrothermal and flame atomization. Results for the reference materials Bovine Liver and Albacore Tuna are reported (1–3±0.2 ppm Se).

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Selenbestimmung in biologischen Proben durch elektrochemische Anreicherung und Atomabsorptionsspektrometrie

Zusammenfassung Die Proben werden mit HNO₃/H₂SO₄/V₂O₅ oder HNO₃/HClO₄ aufgeschlossen; Se wird elektrolytisch auf einem Platindraht niedergeschlagen und durch AAS mit gleichzeitiger elektrothermischer und Flammen-Atomisierung bestimmt. Ergebnisse werden mitgeteilt für die Analyse von Standardreferenzmaterialien (Bovine Liver und Albacore Tuna, 1–3±0,2 ppm Se).

     

Determination of selenium in technical sulphuric acid by flame atomic absorption spectrometry after electrochemical preconcentration

Electrochemical preconcentration on a platinum filament, followed by atomization in an argon—hydrogen flame with simultaneous electrothermal heating of the filament, is used for the determination of selenium in technical sulphuric acid. The effect of experimental parameters such as acid concentration, deposition potential and temperature are described, and the speciation of selenium in sulphuric acid is discussed. The technical acids were found to contain selenium in the range 30–60 μg l^-1.     

A domain embedding preconditioner for the Lagrange multiplier system

Finite element approximations for the Dirichlet problem associated to a second-order elliptic differential equation are studied. The purpose of this paper is to discuss domain embedding preconditioners for discrete systems. The essential boundary condition on the interior interface is removed by introducing Lagrange multipliers. The associated discrete system, with a saddle point structure, is preconditioned by a block diagonal preconditioner. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a new operator, constructed from the -inner product, for the block of the preconditioner corresponding to the multipliers.

     

Hyperelliptic curves and homomorphisms to ideal class groups of quadratic number fields

For the function field K of hyperelliptic curves over Q we define a subgroup of the ideal class group called the group of Z-primitive ideals. We then show that there are homomorphisms from this subgroup to ideal class groups of certain quadratic number fields.     

(51)V NMR parameters of VOCl(3): static and dynamic density functional study from the gas phase to the bulk

(51)V NMR parameters have been calculated for VOCl(3), the reference compound in (51)V NMR spectroscopy, in order to capture environmental effects in both the neat liquid and the solid state. Using a combination of periodic geometry optimizations and Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations with embedded cluster NMR calculations, we are able to test the ability of current computational approaches to reproduce (51)V NMR properties (isotropic shifts, anisotropic shifts and quadrupole coupling constants) in the gas, liquid and solid states, for direct comparison with liquid and solid-state experimental data. The results suggest that environmental effects in the condensed phases can be well captured by an embedded cluster approach and that the remaining discrepancy with experiment may be due to the approximate density functionals in current use. The predicted gas-to-liquid shift on the isotropic shielding constant is small, validating the common practice to use a single VOCl(3), molecule as reference in (51)V NMR computations.     

Gas phase structures, energetics, and potential energy surfaces of disilacyclohexanes

The molecular structures of 1,4-, 1,3-, and 1,2-disilacyclohexanes (denoted as 14, 13, and 12, respectively) were investigated by means of gas electron diffraction (GED). Each molecule was found to possess a chair as the most stable conformation in the gas phase, the point group being C(2h), C(s), and C(2), respectively. Experimental GED structures are in good agreement with theoretical calculations (MP2/cc-pVTZ and B3LYP/cc-pVTZ). A qualitative ring strain analysis suggests 14 to be the most stable and 12 the least stable of the parent disilacyclohexanes. Relative energy calculations with the G4 model chemistry protocol, on the other hand, predict 13 to be the most stable isomer, 5.9 and 14.2 kcal/mol more stable than 14 and 12, respectively. The enhanced stability of 13 compared to 14 is in agreement with an analysis on endocyclic bond lengths and bond polarities. The heats of formation (G4 calculations) are predicted to be -12.3, -18.1, and -3.9 kcal/mol for 14, 13, and 12, respectively. The potential energy surface (PES) and the lowest energy path for the chair-to-chair inversion have been calculated for each isomer. In addition to the two chair forms in each case and some half-chair or sofa-like transition states (four in the case of 14, and two in the case of 13), there are two twist forms found as stationary points on the PES of 14, six twist and six boat forms on the PES of 13, and four twist and six boat forms on the PES of 12.     

Radiation‐Grafted Fluoropolymers Soaked with Imidazolium‐Based Ionic Liquids for High‐Performance Ionic Polymer–Metal Composite Actuators

On purpose to develop a polymer actuator with high stability in air‐operation as well as large bending displacement, a series of ionic polymer–metal composites (IPMC) was constructed with poly(styrene sulfonate)‐grafted fluoropolymers as ionomeric matrix and immidazolium‐based ionic liquids (IL) as inner solvent. The prepared IPMC actuators exhibited greatly enhanced bending displacement compared to Nafion‐based actuators. The actuators were stable in air‐operation, maintaining initial displacement for up to 10⁴ cycles or 24 h. Investigating the material parameters and morphology of the IPMCs, high ion exchange capacity of the ionomers resulted in high ion conductivity and robust electrode of IPMC, which synergistically contributed to the high bending performance.