A novel strategy to verification of adulteration in alcoholic beverages based on Schlieren effect measurements and chemometric techniques

A novel strategy to evaluation of adulteration in alcoholic beverages based on the measurement of the Schlieren effect using an automated FIA system with photometric detection is proposed. The assay is based on the Schlieren effect produced when beverage samples are injected in a single-line FIA system that uses water as carrier stream and a light-emitting diode-phototransistor photometer controlled by microcomputer as detector. The flow system presents limited mixing conditions which make possible to create gradients of refractive index (Schlieren effect) in the injected sample zone. These gradients are reproducible, characteristic of each alcoholic beverage and undergo specific modifications when adulterations with water or ethanol are imposed. Schlieren effect data of brandies, cachaças, rums, whiskies and vodkas were treated by SIMCA to elaborate class models applied in the evaluation of alcoholic beverages adulteration. Samples of the original matrix of each sort of beverages were adulterated in laboratory by adding water, methanol and ethanol in levels of 5% and 10% (v/v). These samples were used as test set to validate SIMCA class models. The verification of authenticity using Schlieren effect measurements presented good results making possible to identify 100% of the beverages samples adulterated in laboratory and 93% of the actual adulterated alcoholic beverages with confidence levels of 95%. As principal advantage, the automated system does not use reagents to carry out the analysis.     

Estimates for the Poisson kernel and Hardy spaces on compact manifolds

We study Hardy spaces on the boundary of a smooth open subset or Rn and prove that they can be defined either through the intrinsic maximal function or through Poisson integrals, yielding identical spaces. This extends to any smooth open subset of Rn results already known for the unit ball. As an application, a characterization of the weak boundary values of functions that belong to holomorphic Hardy spaces is given, which implies an F. and M. Riesz type theorem.     

Carrier diffusion in InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells grown on vicinal GaAs(0 0 1) substrates

We have investigated the influence of vicinal GaAs substrates on the optical and electronic properties of InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs). A single In_0.10Ga_0.90As QW was grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on a vicinal GaAs(0 0 1) substrate with a miscut angle of 0° (nominal), 2°, 4° and 6° towards [1 1 0]. The carrier diffusion was obtained by a micro-photoluminescence scan technique that permits to observe the effective diffusion length characterized by the lateral spread of carriers in the QW followed by radiative recombination. The carrier diffusion length was obtained parallel (L_||) and perpendicular (L) to the atomic steps. The diffusion length decreases as the temperature increases up to 100 K. Above this temperature we found different behaviours that depend on the sample miscut angle.     

Geometric modeling of homoepitaxial CVD diamond growth: I. The {1 0 0}{1 1 1}{1 1 0}{1 1 3} system

Plasma-assisted CVD homoepitaxial diamond growth is a process that must satisfy many stringent requirements to meet industrial applications, particularly in high-power electronics. Purity control and crystalline quality of the obtained samples are of paramount importance and their optimization is a subject of active research. In the process of such studies, we have obtained high purity CVD diamond monocrystals with unusual morphologies, namely with apparent {1 1 3} stable faces. This phenomenon has led us to examine the process of CVD diamond growth and build up a 3D geometrical model, presented here, describing the film growth as a function of time. The model has been able to successfully describe the morphology of our obtained crystals and can be used as a predictive tool to predetermine the shape and size of a diamond crystal grown in a given process configuration. This renders accessible control of desirable properties such as largest usable diamond surface area and/or film thickness, before the cutting and polishing manufacture steps take place. The two latter steps are more sensitive to the geometry of the growth sectors, which will be addressed in a companion paper.Our model, applicable to the growth of any cubic lattice material, establishes a complete mapping of the final morphology state of growing diamond, as a function of the growth rates of the crystalline planes considered, namely {1 0 0}, {1 1 1}, {1 1 0}, and {1 1 3} planes, all of which have been observed experimentally in diamond films. The model makes no claim as to the stability of the obtained faces, such as the occurrence of non-epitaxial crystallites or twinning. It is also possible to deduce transient behavior of the crystal morphology as growth time is increased. The model conclusions are presented in the form of a series of diagrams, which trace the existence (and dominance) boundaries of each face type, in presence of the others, and where each boundary crossing represent a topology change in terms of number of faces, edges and vertices. We validate the model by matching it against crystals published in the literature and illustrate its predictive value by suggesting ways to increase usable surface area of the diamond film.     

Hydroformylation: a versatile tool for the synthesis of new β-formyl-metalloporphyrins

Formyl derivatives of protoporphyrin-IX dimethyl ester metal complexes were obtained via hydroformylation reactions, catalysed by rhodium-triphenylphosphine complexes. The regioselectivity of the reaction is remarkably dependent on the metal centre of the porphyrin, yielding 100% of the branched aldehyde with zinc(II) complexes and 75% with the nickel(II). The NMR characterisation of the new compounds was carried out after their derivatisation into acetals.     

Gravitational collapse of a charged and radiating fluid ball in the diffusion limit

The collapse of a charged and radiating ball in the diffusion limit is studied using a method reported by Herrera and collaborators. The interior solution is matched with the exterior Reissner-Nordström-Vaidya metric to obtain a system of differential equations at the surface of the distribution, which can be integrated numerically for some set of initial data. For one model, the profiles of the physical variables are obtained at any piece of the material in terms of Schwarzschild-like coordinates.     

Perfect fluid spacetimes admitting curvature collineations

Some basic concepts about curvature collineations are reviewed and the existing results on this topic are applied to the case of perfect fluids, giving a characterization of those amongst them which admit proper curvature collineations.     

Large-scale production of cellulose-binding domains. Adsorption studies using CBD-FITC conjugates

A method for the gram-scale production of cellulose-binding domains (CBD) through the proteolytic digestion of a commercial enzymatic preparation (Celluclast) was developed. The CBD obtained, isolated from Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I, is highly pure and heavily glycosylated. The purified peptide has a molecular weight of 8.43 kDa, comprising the binding module, a part of the linker, and about 30% glycosidic moiety. Its properties may thus be different from recombinant ones expressed in bacteria. CBD-fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugates were used to study the CBD-cellulose interaction. The presence of fluorescent peptides adsorbed on crystalline and amorphous cellulose fibers suggests that amorphous regions have a higher concentration of binding sites. The adsorption is reversible, but desorption is a very slow process.     

Synthesis of poly(vinyl chloride)‐b‐poly(n‐butyl acrylate)‐b‐poly(vinyl chloride) by the competitive single‐electron‐transfer/degenerative‐chain‐transfer‐mediated living radical polymerization in water

The synthesis of a block copolymer poly(vinyl chloride)‐b‐poly(n‐butyl acrylate)‐b‐poly(vinyl chloride) is reported. This new material was synthesized by single‐electron‐transfer/degenerative‐chain‐transfer‐mediated living radical polymerization (SET‐DTLRP) in two steps. First, a bifunctional macroinitiator of α,ω‐di(iodo)poly (butyl acrylate) [α,ω‐di(iodo)PBA] was synthesized by SET‐DTLRP in water at 25 °C. The macroinitiator was further reinitiated by SET‐DTLRP, leading to the formation of the desired product. This ABA block copolymer was synthesized with high initiator efficiency. The kinetics of the copolymerization reaction was studied for two PBA macroinitiators with number–average molecular weight of 10 k and 20 k. The relationship between the conversion and the number–average molecular weight was found to be linear. The dynamic mechanical thermal analysis suggests just one phase, indicating that copolymer behaves as a single material with no phase separation. This methodology provides the access to several block copolymers and other complex architectures that result from combinations of thermoplastics (PVC) and elastomers (PBA). From industrial standpoint, this process is attractive, because of easy experimental setup and the environmental friendly reaction medium. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 3001–3008, 2006     

Single electron transfer–degenerative chain transfer living radical polymerization of N‐butyl acrylate catalyzed by Na2S2O4 in water media

Living radical polymerization of n‐butyl acrylate was achieved by single electron transfer/degenerative‐chain transfer mediated living radical polymerization in water catalyzed by sodium dithionate. The plots of number–average molecular weight versus conversion and ln[M]₀/[M] versus time are linear, indicating a controlled polymerization. This methodology leads to the preparation of α,ω‐di(iodo) poly (butyl acrylate) (α,ω‐di(iodo)PBA) macroinitiators. The influence of polymerization degree ([monomer]/[initiator]), amount of catalyst, concentration of suspending agents and temperature were studied. The molecular weight distributions were determined using a combination of three detectors (TriSEC): right‐angle light scattering (RALLS), a differential viscometer (DV), and refractive index (RI). The methodology studied in this work represents a possible route to prepare well‐tailored macromolecules made of butyl acrylate in an environmental friendly reaction medium. Moreover, such materials can be subsequently functionalized leading to the formation of different block copolymers of composition ABA. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 2809–2825, 2006