Optimization of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry with the aid of experimental design for simultaneous determination of heavy metals in natural waters

In this study, dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) combined with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was developed for simultaneous preconcentration and trace determination of chromium, copper, nickel and zinc in water samples. Sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (Na-DDTC), carbon tetrachloride and methanol were used as chelating agent, extraction solvent and disperser solvent, respectively. The effective parameters of DLLME such as volume of extraction and disperser solvents, pH, concentration of salt and concentration of the chelating agent were studied by a (2^f−1) fractional factorial design to identify the most important parameters and their interactions. The results showed that concentration of salt and volume of disperser solvent had no effect on the extraction efficiency. In the next step, central composite design was used to obtain optimum levels of effective parameters. The optimal conditions were: volume of extraction solvent, 113 μL; concentration of the chelating agent, 540 mg L⁻¹; and pH, 6.70. The linear dynamic range for Cu, Ni and Zn was 1-1000 μg L⁻¹ and for Cr was 1-750 μg L⁻¹. The correlation coefficient (R²) was higher than 0.993. The limits of detection were 0.23-0.55 μg L⁻¹. The relative standard deviations (RSDs, C = 200 μg L⁻¹, n = 7) were in the range of 2.1-3.8%. The method was successfully applied to determination of Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn in the real water samples and satisfactory relative recoveries (90-99%) were achieved.     

Optimized ultrasonic assisted extraction-dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with gas chromatography for determination of essential oil of Oliveria decumbens Vent

Ultrasonic assisted extraction-dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (UAE-DLLME) coupled with gas chromatography (GC) was applied for extraction and determination of essential oil constituents of the plant Oliveria decumbens Vent. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to see the effect of ultrasonic radiation on the extraction efficiency. By comparison with hydrodistillation, UAE-DLLME is fast, low cost, simple, efficient and consuming small amount of plant materials (～1.0 g). The effects of various parameters such as temperature, ultrasonication time, volume of disperser and extraction solvents were investigated by a full factorial design to identify significant variables and their interactions. The results demonstrated that temperature and ultrasonication time had no considerable effect on the results. In the next step, a central composite design (CCD) was performed to obtain the optimum levels of significant parameters. The obtained optimal conditions were: 0.45 mL for disperser solvent (acetonitrile) and 94.84 μL for extraction solvent (chlorobenzene). The limits of detection (LODs), linear dynamic range and determination coefficients (R(2)) were 0.2-29 ng mL(-1), 1-2100 ng mL(-1) and 0.995-0.998, respectively. The main components of the essential oil were: thymol (47.06%), carvacrol (23.31%), gamma-terpinene (18.94%), p-cymene (8.71%), limonene (0.76%) and myristicin (0.63%).     

Electrolyte effect on mixed micelle and interfacial properties of binary mixtures of cationic and nonionic surfactants

In the present work, the adsorption behavior at the liquid-air interface and micellization characteristics of mixtures of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and p-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl) polyoxyethylene (TritonX-100) in aqueous media containing different concentrations of NaBr were investigated by surface tension and potentiometry measurements. From plots of surface tension (gamma) as a function of solution composition and total surfactant concentration, we determined the critical micelle concentration (CMC), minimum surface tension at the CMC (gamma(CMC)), surface excess (Gamma(max)), and mean molecular surface area (A(min)). On the basis of regular solution theory, the compositions of the adsorbed film (Z) and micelles (X(M)) were estimated, and then the interaction parameters in the micelles (beta(M)) and in the adsorbed film phase (beta(sigma)) were calculated. For all mole fraction ratios, the results showed synergistically enhanced ability to form mixed micelles as well as surface tension reduction. Furthermore beta was calculated by considering nonrandom mixing and head group size effects. It was observed that, for both the planar air/aqueous interface and micellar systems, the nonideality decreased as the amount of electrolyte in the aqueous medium was increased. This was attributed to a decrease of the surface charge density caused by increasing the concentration of bromide ions.     

Theoretical and experimental study of molecular structure and vibrational spectra of N -(2-pyridylmethyl)-2-pyrazinecarboxamide

N-(2-Pyridylmethyl)-2-pyrazinecarboxamide was prepared and its crystal structure was investigated by X-ray analysis. The compound crystallizes in the triclinic space group P[`1]P{\bar 1} with a = 4.262(3), b = 12.117(9), c = 20.840(18) ?, α = 91.802(6), β = 89.834(7), γ = 91.845(6)°, V = 1075.2(16) ?³, Z = 4, and D = 1.323 Mg/m³. The structure was solved by direct method and refined to R = 0.0699 and wR ₂ = 0.1268 by full matrix anisotropic least-squares method. Using the Hartree-Fock and density functional method (B3LYP) with 6-31G(d) basis set, the molecular geometry and vibrational frequencies of the title compound has been investigated and compared with experimental ones from experimental studies. The optimized bond lengths obtained by RHF method and bond angles obtained by B3LYP method show better agreement with the experimental values. The vibrations computed of the title compound by the RHF and DFT methods are in good agreement with the observed IR spectra data.     

Theoretical and experimental study of molecular structure and vibrational spectra of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-(2-pyridylmethyl)-2-pyrazinecarboxamide

N-(2-Pyridylmethyl)-2-pyrazinecarboxamide was prepared and its crystal structure was investigated by X-ray analysis. The compound crystallizes in the triclinic space group \(P{\bar 1}\) with a = 4.262(3), b = 12.117(9), c = 20.840(18) Å, α = 91.802(6), β = 89.834(7), γ = 91.845(6)°, V = 1075.2(16) ų, Z = 4, and D = 1.323?Mg/m³. The structure was solved by direct method and refined to R = 0.0699 and wR ₂ = 0.1268 by full matrix anisotropic least-squares method. Using the Hartree-Fock and density functional method (B3LYP) with 6-31G(d) basis set, the molecular geometry and vibrational frequencies of the title compound has been investigated and compared with experimental ones from experimental studies. The optimized bond lengths obtained by RHF method and bond angles obtained by B3LYP method show better agreement with the experimental values. The vibrations computed of the title compound by the RHF and DFT methods are in good agreement with the observed IR spectra data.     

Molecular interactions of cationic and anionic surfactants in mixed monolayers and aggregates

The properties of anionic-rich and cationic-rich mixtures of CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) and SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) were investigated with conductometry and surface tension measurements and by determining the surfactant NMR self-diffusion coefficients. The critical aggregate concentration (CAC), surface tension reduction effectiveness(gamma(CAC)), surface excess(Gamma(max)), and mean molecular surface area (A(min)) were determined from plots of the surface tension (gamma) as a function of the total surfactant concentration. The compositions of the adsorbed films (Z) and aggregates (chi) were estimated by using regular solution theory, and then the interaction parameters in the aggregates (beta) and the adsorbed film phases (beta(sigma)) were calculated. The results showed that the synergism between the surfactants enhances the formation of mixed aggregates and reduces the surface tension. Further, the nature and strength of the interaction between the surfactants in the mixtures were obtained by calculating the values of the following parameters: the interaction parameter, beta, the size parameter, rho, and the nonrandom mixing parameter, P*. These results indicate that in ionic surfactant mixtures the optimized packing parameter has the highest value and that the size parameter can be used to account for deviations from the predictions of regular solution theory. It was concluded that, for planar air/aqueous interfaces and aggregation systems, this nonideality increases as the temperature increases. This trend is attributed to the increased dehydration of the surfactant head groups that results from increases in temperature. Further, our conductometry measurements show that the counterion binding number of mixed micelles formed in mixtures with a high CTAB content is different to those with a high SDS content. This difference is due to either their different aggregation sizes or the different interactions between the head groups and the counterions.     

Determination of mono- and dichloroacetic acids in betaine media by liquid chromatography

A simple and sensitive method has been developed for the analysis of residue amounts of chloroacetic acids in betaine samples based on derivatization by 1-naphthylamine (NA). The derivatized compounds are analyzed by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography using methanol and water as mobile phase in the ratio of 32/68 (v/v) and phenyl column and PDA detection at 222 nm. The detection limits (LOD) of monochloroacetic acid (MCA) and dichloroacetic acid (DCA) are 0.1 and 0.15 μg mL⁻¹, respectively. The limits of quantification (LOQ) and the linear dynamic ranges (LDR) of MCA are found to be 1 and 1-400 μg mL⁻¹, respectively, and for DCA are found to be 3 and 3-400 μg mL⁻¹, respectively. The precision at the 5 ppm level for MCA and DCA are about 3% and 2%, (n = 5), respectively. The average recovery for MCA and DCA spiked to betaine samples are 98% and 97%, respectively.     

Synthesis and characterization of some organotin(IV) adducts containing a related series of pyridines: Crystal structure of [SnMe2Cl2(bu2bpy)]

Organotin(IV) complexes of [SnR_(4−n)Cl_n] (n = 2, R = Me, ⁿBu; n = 1, R = Ph) react with the bidentate pyridyl ligand 4,4′-di-tert-butyl-2,2′-bipyridine (bu₂bpy) to give hexa-coordinated adducts with the general formula [SnR_(4−n)Cl_n(bu₂bpy)]. However, the reaction of these organotin(IV) complexes with the corresponding monodentate ligand 4-tert-butylpyridine (bupy) resulted in the formation of the hexa-coordinated complex [SnMe₂Cl₂(bupy)₂] and the penta-coordinated complexes [SnR_(4−n)Cl_n(bupy)] (n = 2, R = ⁿBu; n = 1, R = Ph). Moreover, the reaction of the above organotin(IV) complexes with 4,4′-trimethylenedipyridine (tmdp) yields hexa-coordinated adducts with the general formula [SnR₂Cl₂(tmdp)] (R = Me, ⁿBu) and the penta-coordinated complex [ClPh₃Sn-μ-(tmdp)SnPh₃Cl] in the solid state. The resulting complexes have been characterized by multinuclear NMR (¹H, ¹³C, ¹¹⁹Sn) spectroscopy and elemental analysis. NMR data shows that the triphenyltin(IV) adducts are not stable in solution and dissociate to give tetra-coordinated tin(IV) complexes. The X-ray crystal structure determination of [SnMe₂Cl₂(bu₂bpy)] reveals that the tin atom is hexa-coordinated in an octahedral geometry with a trans-[SnMe₂] configuration.     

Synthesis of 1,2,3 triazole-linked pyrimidines catalyzed by mg-Al-LDH-immobilized-CuI as a heterogeneous catalyst

A useful and efficient procedure was obtained for the synthesis of 1,2,3-triazole-linked pyrimidines via click reaction of propynylated pyrimidine and aromatic azides in the presence of Mg-Al-LDH-immobilized-CuI with high-to-excellent yields. Moreover, the prepared catalyst was characterized by the FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD, BET, SEM, and ICP techniques. The developed synthetic technique offers numerous advantages such as a clean reaction, easy workup, high reaction yields, and short reaction time.     

Graphene oxide anchored with sulfonic acid-functionalized glycerin: production,characterization and catalytic performance for the synthesis of N,N′-alkylidene bisamides

Research on Chemical Intermediates - A novel nanosheet-structured material, namely graphene oxide anchored with sulfonic acid-functionalized glycerin (GO@Gl-SO3H), was prepared and characterized by...