Electrospray tandem mass spectrometric analysis of zeaxanthin and its oxidation products

Carotenoids have been implicated in protection of the eye from light-mediated photo-toxicity caused by free radicals. Under conditions of normal oxidative stress the carotenoids serve as protective antioxidants; however, when the oxidative stress exceeds the antioxidant capacity, carotenoids can be oxidized into numerous cleavage products. The determination and identification of oxidized carotenoids in biological samples remains a major challenge due to the small sample size and low stability of these compounds. We investigated the reaction of various zeaxanthin cleavage products with O-ethyl hydroxylamine to evaluate their levels in a biological sample. For this, a sensitive and specific electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) was developed, avoiding the classical lower sensitive and specific HPLC-UV and fluorescence absorption methods. Protonated molecules [M + H](+) of carotenoids upon collision-induced dissociation produced a number of structurally characteristic product ions. A series of complicated clusters of product ions differing in 14 (CH(2))and 26 (C(2)H(2))Da was characteristic of the polyene chain of intact carotenoids. All carotenoid ethyl oximes of zeaxanthin cleavage products were characterized by the losses of 60 and 61 Da in their MS/MS spectra. Through the application of the LC/MS/MS method, we identified two oxime derivatives of 3-hydroxy-beta-ionone and 3-hydroxy-14'-apocarotenal with protonated molecules at m/z 252 and m/z 370 respectively, in a human eye sample.     

On the loss of cadmium, antimony and silver during dry ashing of biological material

Summary The loss of cadmium, antimony and silver during dry ashing of marine weeds, mussels and shrimps was studied with the aid of radioactive tracers. Except for antimony all biological material was labelled by uptake of the radioactive tracers by the organisms while still alive. At an ashing temperature of 500° C and below no significant loss by volatilization of these elements occurs. The results obtained at higher temperatures with cadmium show that the behaviour of this element may depend on the composition of the organic material. Retention on the wall of quartz crucibles did not cause serious losses.

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Über den Verlust an Cadmium, Antimon und Silber bei der Trockenveraschung von biologischem Material

Zusammenfassung Mit Hilfe radioaktiver Tracer wurden die Verluste an Cadmium, Antimon und Silber bei der Trockenveraschung von Seetang, Muscheln und Krabben untersucht. Mit Ausnahme von Antimon wurden alle Materialien mit den Tracern durch Aufnahme im lebenden Zustand markiert. Bei Veraschungstemperaturen von 500° C und darunter konnten keine signifikanten Verluste durch Verflüchtigung der Elemente festgestellt werden. Das Verhalten von Cadmium bei höheren Temperaturen kann von der Zusammensetzung des organischen Materials abhängen. Verluste durch Haften an der Wand des Quarztiegels waren unbedeutend.

     

The structure of the ion pairs of the carbanion of indene with alkali metal cations

NMR spectra have been measured of the Li⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺ ion pairs of the indenyl carbanion in 1,2-dimethoxyethane and tetrahydrofuran as a function of temperature. The changes of the chemical shifts are explained in terms of the detailed structure of the ion pairs. The results in both solvents strongly suggest that in indenyl-Li⁺ the counterion is predominantly located over the six-membered ring. In THF the preferred position of the cations Na⁺ and K⁺ in the contact ion pairs seems to be the five-membered ring.     

Determination of mitomycin C in plasma, serum and urine by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultra-violet and electrochemical detection

The performance of a number of normal phase and reversed-phase systems, with ultraviolet detection at 360 nm, has been investigated with respect to their applicability to pharmacokinetic studies of mitomycin C (MMC). The reversed-phase system developed was also combined with a polarographic detector in order to compare the sensitivity and selectivity of ultraviolet and electrochemical detection. A simple isolation procedure, based on the adsorption of MMC on a non-ionogenic resin, has been developed. The developed assay is applied to a pharmacokinetic study from which some examples are given.     

N2O decomposition over Fe/ZSM-5: reversible generation of highly active cationic Fe species

Fe-oxide species in Fe/ZSM-5 (prepared by chemical vapor deposition of FeCl3)--active in N2O decomposition--react with zeolite protons during high temperature calcination to give highly active cationic Fe species, this transformation being reversible upon exposure to water vapor at lower temperature.     

Erfahrungen mit der Automatisierung der massenspektrometrischen Gasanalyse

Zusammenfassung Apparatur und Analysengang für die massenspektrometrische Analyse von Gasgemischen mit bis zwanzig Komponenten unter Benutzung eines analog-to-digital converter und einer elektronischen Rechenmaschine werden beschrieben. Die Methode wird mit der normalen massenspektrometrischen Analyse mit photographischer Registrierung der Peaks verglichen, vor welcher sie bei gleicher Genauigkeit den Vorteil größerer Schnelligkeit hat.     

Lateral interactions and multi-isotherms: nitrogen recombination from Rh(111)

Lateral adsorbate-adsorbate interactions result in variation of the desorption rate constants with coverage. This effect can be studied in great detail from the shape of a multi-isotherm. To produce the multi-isotherm, the temperature is increased in a (semi)stepwise fashion to some temperature, followed by maintaining this temperature for a prolonged time. Then, the temperature is stepped to a higher value and held constant at this new temperature. This cycle is continued until all of the adsorbates have desorbed. Using a detailed kinetic Monte Carlo model and an optimization algorithm based on Evolutionary Strategy, we are able to reproduce the shape of the experimentally measured multi-isotherm of nitrogen on Rh(111) and obtain the lateral interactions between the nitrogen atoms.     

Fabrication and characterization of high-temperature microreactors with thin film heater and sensor patterns in silicon nitride tubes

In this paper the fabrication and electrical characterization of a silicon microreactor for high-temperature catalytic gas phase reactions, like Rh-catalyzed catalytic partial oxidation of methane into synthesis gas, is presented. The microreactor, realized with micromachining technologies, contains silicon nitride tubes that are suspended in a flow channel. These tubes contain metal thin films that heat the gas mixture in the channel and sense its temperature. The metal patterns are defined by using the channel geometry as a shadow mask. Furthermore, a new method to obtain Pt thin films with good adhesive properties, also at elevated temperatures, without adhesion metal is implemented in the fabrication process. Based on different experiments, it is concluded that the electrical behaviour at high temperatures of Pt thin films without adhesion layer is better than that of Pt/Ta films. Furthermore, it is found that the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and the resistivity of the thin films are stable for up to tens of hours when the temperature-range during operation of the microreactor is below the so-called "burn-in" temperature. Experiments showed that the presented suspended-tube microreactors with heaters and temperature sensors of Pt thin films can be operated safely and in a stable way at temperatures up to 700 degrees C for over 20 h. This type of microreactor solves the electrical breakdown problem that was previously reported by us in flat-membrane microreactors that were operated at temperatures above 600 degrees C.     

Non-linear density dependence of rotational line-broadening of HCl in dense argon

The rotational far-infrared spectra of HCl in argon at densities between 100 and 480 amagat and T = 162.5 K are presented. The observed density dependence of the width of the different rotational lines is non-linear and differs for high- and low-frequency lines. An Enskog correction to the collision frequency in the dense gas fails to account for the density dependence of the high rotational lines. It is argued that the many-body character of the relaxation mechanism should be taken into account. Comparison with the results of MD calculations on argon indicates that such an approach may explain the observed density dependence.     

Excitation energies of pi-conjugated oligomers within time-dependent current-density-functional theory

We study the pi*<--pi singlet excitations of the pi-conjugated oligomers of polyacetylene, polydiacetylene, polybutatriene, polythiophene, poly(para-phenylene vinylene), and the lowest singlet excitations of the hydrogen chain. For this we used time-dependent current-density-functional theory within the Vignale-Kohn and adiabatic local density approximations. By studying the dependence of the excitation spectrum on the chain length we conclude that the reduction of the static polarizability when using the Vignale-Kohn functional has two origins. First, the excitation energies of transitions with a large transition dipole are shifted upward. Second, the character of the transition between the lowest occupied and highest unoccupied molecular orbitals and the oscillator strength of the lowest transition within the adiabatic local density approximation is transferred to higher transitions. The lowest transitions that have a considerable oscillator strength obtained with the Vignale-Kohn functional have excitation energies that are in most cases in better agreement with available reference data than the adiabatic local density approximation.