Separation and determination of Ni(II), Co(II) and Cu(II) by RP-HPLC with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide/n-propanol mobile phases

Summary The effect of the presence of a cationic surfactant, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and a short chain alcohol,n-propanol, in the mobile phase on the chromatographic retention of Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) diethylammonium diethyldithiocarbamate complexes, has been studied. A simple isocratic reversephase method for the determination of the metals is proposed, using a mobile phase of composition CTAB 0.03 M/n-propanol 45 %v/v. Detection limits at pg levels were obtained for all solutes. The method was applied to the determination of the complexes in tap water samples at three different concentrations, with recoveries close to 100%. In order to evaluate the interaction between the metal complexes and the aggregates formed, the values of solute binding constants are calculated.     

Some characterizations and properties of the “distance to ill-posedness” and the condition measure of a conic linear system

A conic linear system is a system of the form?P(d): find x that solves b - Ax∈C _Y , x∈C _X ,? where C _X and C _Y are closed convex cones, and the data for the system is d=(A,b). This system is“well-posed” to the extent that (small) changes in the data (A,b) do not alter the status of the system (the system remains solvable or not). Renegar defined the “distance to ill-posedness”, ρ(d), to be the smallest change in the data Δd=(ΔA,Δb) for which the system P(d+Δd) is “ill-posed”, i.e., d+Δd is in the intersection of the closure of feasible and infeasible instances d’=(A’,b’) of P(·). Renegar also defined the “condition measure” of the data instance d as C(d):=∥d∥/ρ(d), and showed that this measure is a natural extension of the familiar condition measure associated with systems of linear equations. This study presents two categories of results related to ρ(d), the distance to ill-posedness, and C(d), the condition measure of d. The first category of results involves the approximation of ρ(d) as the optimal value of certain mathematical programs. We present ten different mathematical programs each of whose optimal values provides an approximation of ρ(d) to within certain constants, depending on whether P(d) is feasible or not, and where the constants depend on properties of the cones and the norms used. The second category of results involves the existence of certain inscribed and intersecting balls involving the feasible region of P(d) or the feasible region of its alternative system, in the spirit of the ellipsoid algorithm. These results roughly state that the feasible region of P(d) (or its alternative system when P(d) is not feasible) will contain a ball of radius r that is itself no more than a distance R from the origin, where the ratio R/r satisfies R/r≤c ₁ C(d), and such that r≥ and R≤c ₃ C(d), where c ₁,c ₂,c ₃ are constants that depend only on properties of the cones and the norms used. Therefore the condition measure C(d) is a relevant tool in proving the existence of an inscribed ball in the feasible region of P(d) that is not too far from the origin and whose radius is not too small. Received November 2, 1995 / Revised version received June 26, 1998?Published online May 12, 1999     

Photocatalytic Activity in the 2,4-Dinitroaniline Decomposition Over TiO2 Sol-Gel Derived Catalysts

Titania was prepared by the sol-gel method from titanium alkoxide. Depending on the pH of the gelling solution, specific surface areas between 88 and 10 m²/g were obtained. The band gap (E _g) of the samples was found between 3.05 and 3.32 eV. In samples gelled at pH5 and 9 and calcined at 400°C only anatase phase is observed, while for pH3 and pH7 brookite, anatase and rutile or anatase-rutile phases coexist. It was found that the photoactivity in the 2,4-dinitroanailine decomposition depends on the E _g and on the crystalline phases. The highest activity corresponds to the catalysts having the lowest E _g and more than one crystalline phases co-existing.     

Nuclear and related analytical methods applied to the determination of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in a red ferralitic soil and Sorghum samples

Several studies on the influence of heavy metals to the growth of vegetables have been carried out in Cuba by the Ministry of Agriculture in order to evaluate the effects resulting of the continuous application of fertilizers and other materials to the soils. The analysis of metal contents in soil and vegetable samples is often troublesome due to the low concentration levels to be determined. In the the present work EDXRF, AAS and ASV methods were applied and compared for the evaluation of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb contents in red ferralitic soil and Sorghum samples. Several certified reference materials (CRM) (inorganic and organic matrixes) were analyzed in order to evaluate the performance of the analytical procedures and the bias and precision of the results. A study was performed with growing Sorghum in several series of pots where different quantities of metals were added to the soil substrate. The observed correlation between the metal contents in soil and plants as well as the influence of different additions of each metal on the plant growth is also presented.     

Synthesis and Crystal Structure of Dimethyl-7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene exo,exo-2,3-dicarboxylate

Dimethyl-7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene exo,exo-2,3-dicarboxylate (1) was prepared by Fisher esterification of 7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]-hept-5-ene exo-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride (2) in methanol. The colorless plates obtained were characterized by FT-IR, ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR, TGA-DSC, and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The material crystallizes in space group P2₁/c, with a = 9.2375(14) Å, b = 12.8757(18) Å, c = 9.4608(15) Å, β = 115.327(3)°, V = 1017.1(3) Å³, and Z = 4. Chains of hydrogen-bonded molecules along the c-axis interact in the b direction to form layers parallel to the bc plane.     

On the construction of anisotropic polyconvex energy densities

In this contribution we propose a general framework for the construction of polyconvex energies for arbitrary anisotropy classes. The main idea is the introduction of an anisotropic metric reflecting the material symmetry of the underlying crystal. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Coupled system of Korteweg-de Vries equation-type in domains with oscillatory moving boundaries

We consider the initial-boundary value problem in a bounded domain with oscillatory moving boundaries and nonhomogeneous boundary conditions for the coupled system of equations of KdV type modelling strong interactions between internal solitary waves. We give a result of global existence and uniqueness for strong solutions for the coupled system of equations of Korteweg – de Vries type as well as the exponential decay of small solutions in asymptotically cylindrical domains. We present a numerical examples based in semi-implicit finite differences showing the numerical effect of the oscillatory moving boundaries for this kind of systems. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Calculus of variations on time scales: weak local piecewise Crd solutions with variable endpoints

A nonlinear calculus of variations problem on time scales with variable endpoints is considered. The space of functions employed is that of piecewise rd-continuously Δ-differentiable functions (C¹_prd). For this problem, the Euler-Lagrange equation, the transversality condition, and the accessory problem are derived as necessary conditions for weak local optimality. Assuming the coercivity of the second variation, a corresponding second order sufficiency criterion is established.