Electrically assisted liquid-phase microextraction for determination of β2-receptor agonist drugs in wastewater

Electromembrane extraction followed by high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultraviolet detection was validated for the determination and quantification of salbutamol (SB) and terbutaline in aqueous samples. A 200‐V electrical field was applied to extract the analytes from 2.5 mL sample solution with pH 3.0, through an organic phase which consisted of 80% 2‐nitrophenyl octyl ether, 10% di‐(2‐ethylhexyl) phosphate and 10% tris‐(2‐ethylhexyl)phosphate as supported liquid membrane into an acidic acceptor solution with pH 1.0, located inside the lumen of a hollow fiber. To achieve the best extraction conditions, the organic membrane composition was optimized separately and other parameters, such as extraction time, applied voltage and pH in sample solution and acceptor phase were studied using experimental design. Under optimal conditions, extraction recoveries of 53 and 43% were obtained for SB and terbutaline, respectively, which corresponded to preconcentration factors of 89 for SB and 72 for terbutaline. The method offers acceptable linearity with correlation coefficient higher than 0.9947 and relative standard deviation less than 4.7%. Finally, it was applied for analysis of drugs in wastewater samples.     

DFT studies and AIM analysis of AlN-polycycles

The structure and properties of AlN-polycycles were studied by DFT (density functional theory) method. The results of calculations were obtained at B3LYP/6-311G(d, p) level on model species. Topological parameters such as electron density, its Laplacian, kinetic electron energy density, potential electron energy density, and total electron energy density at the ring critical points (RCP) from Bader’s ‘Atoms in molecules’ (AIM) theory were analyzed in detail. These results indicate a good correlation between ρ(3, +1), G(r), H(r), and V(r) averaged values and hardness of AlN-polycycles. The aromaticity of all molecules has been studied by nucleus-independent chemical shift. There is a linear correlation between ΣNICS(0.0)_molecule values and polarizability.     

The influence of environmental conditions on estimation of source distance and height using a single vertical array

The performance of microphone arrays outdoors is influenced by the environmental conditions. Numerical simulations indicate that, while horizontal arrays are hardly affected, direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation with vertical arrays becomes biased in presence of ground reflections and sound speed gradients. Turbulence leads to a huge variability in the estimates by reducing the ground effect. Ground effect can be exploited by combining classical source localization with an appropriate propagation model (ground effect inversion). Not only does this allow the source elevation and range to be determined with a single vertical array but also it allows separation of sources which can no longer be distinguished by far field localization methods. Furthermore, simulations provide detail of the achievable spatial resolution depending on frequency range, array size and localization algorithm and show a clear advantage of broadband processing. Outdoor measurements with one or two sources confirm the results of the numerical simulations.     

High-efficiency ultrasmall polarization converter in InP membrane

An ultrasmall (<10 μm length) polarization converter in InP membrane is fabricated and characterized. The device relies on the beating between the two eigenmodes of chemically etched triangular waveguides. Measurements show a very high polarization conversion efficiency of >99% with insertion losses of <-1.2 dB at a wavelength of 1.53?μm. Furthermore, our design is found to be broadband and tolerant to dimension variations.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel soluble and thermally stable polyamides based on pyridine monomer

Nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction of 4-aminophenol and also 5-amino-1-naphthol with 2,6-dichloropyridine in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as solvent, in the presence of potassium carbonate, afforded two aromatic ether diamines. Eight soluble, thermally stable polyamides were prepared by polycondensation reaction of the obtained diamines with aromatic and aliphatic diacid chlorides including terephthaloyl chloride (TPC), isophthaloyl chloride (IPC), adipoyl chloride (AC), and sebacoyl chloride (SC). The prepared monomers and polymers were characterized by conventional spectroscopic methods. Physical and thermal properties of the polymers, such as thermal behavior, thermal stability, solution viscosity, and solubility behavior were also studied.