Preparation of hollow beads of poly(styrene-co-divinyl benzene)

Two methods are described for the production of hollow beads by copolymerization of styrene and divinyl benzene. Characterization of the beads is described and growth mechanisms proposed.     

Using wavelets to analyze AFM images of thin films: surface micelles and supported lipid bilayers

This paper presents micro- and nanoanalysis of thin films based on images obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The analysis exploits the discrete wavelet transform and the resulting wavelet spectrum to study surface features. It is demonstrated that the wavelet technique can characterize micro- and nanosurface features and distinguish between similar surface structures. The use of a feature extraction method is shown. The method involves the separation of certain frequency content from the original AFM images and analyzing the data independently to gain quantitative information about the images. By using the feature extraction method, soft surfaces in water are analyzed and nanofeatures are measured. The packing of surface micelles of sodium dodecyl sulfate on a self-assembled monolayer is analyzed. The characteristics of pore formation, due to penetration of the antibacterial peptide protegrin, into a solid-supported lipid bilayer are quantified. The sizes of the pores are obtained, and it is observed that the line tension of the pores reduces the fluctuations of the lipid bilayer.     

Reaction of Aln clusters with oxygen and ammonia

Aluminum clusters were generated by a laser vaporization method. Ionization potential of Al₂ was found to be lower than that of Al. In the reaction with oxygen at high concentration, the mixed cluster Al₉O₇ survives predominantly as a stable cluster. Ammonia was found to be adsorbed weakly on the Al_n surface.     

Vibronic coupling and Raman intensities of pyrazine

The fluorescence spectrum of pyrazine vapour and the Raman spectra of liquid pyrazine excited at various wavelengths were observed. The appearance of the long progression of the hydrogen bending vibration ν₅ (b_2g) in the fluorescence spectrum and a remarkable preresonance effect of the Raman line of the same vibration confirm the theoretical prediction given by Albrecht.     

Catalytic air oxidation of manganese in synthetic waters

An attempt was made to study the oxidation of manganese by air in synthetic waters. A series of batch experments were performed at differnet values of concentration, temperature and pH. Unoxidized manganese in the solution was determined by formaldoxime spectrometric method. Results of these studies indicated that the air oxidation of manganese soluble in water can be effectively performed in basic media and that oxidation yield increasedwith an increase in pH and concentration. The yield was very high in the presence of manganese dioxide, sepiolite or clinoptilolite in solution and, the oxidation was almost completed especially at high values of pH and concentration. The reaction was found to be first order with respect to Mn²⁺ with a very low activation energy. A yield of 62% was obtained for the air oxidation of wastewater taken from the treatment plant of Corum Municipality.     

Chromatographic molecular recognition for catechol-related compounds using thiacalix[4]arene as an effective selector

Thiacalix[4]arene (5,11,17,23-tetra-tert-butyl-25,26,27,28-tetrahydroxy-2,8,14,20-tetrathiacalix[4]arene) is an amphiphilic molecule comprising four p-tert-butylphenol-like groups ortho-linked by single sulfur atoms. This molecule has a high electron density area owing to the close proximity of the hydroxyl groups and sulfur atoms. We studied the applicability of this interesting compound as a selector for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) thereby presumably exploiting this feature. Firstly, uniformly sized polymer particles were prepared by using a multi-step swelling and polymerization method with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as a cross-linker. Methacrylic acid (MAA) was introduced onto the surface of the resulting polymer particles through a new modification method. Thiacalix[4]arene was chemically bonded through the MAA group by using 1,4-dibromobutane as a spacer to reduce steric hindrance around the MAA and the polymer particle itself. The performance of the prepared polymer-based thiacalix[4]arene-modified stationary phase was evaluated with HPLC. Specific chromatographic retention behavior was observed for catechol relative to positional isomers of xylene, cresol, and benzene-diol. Catecholamine and catechol showed specific chromatographic retention behavior.     

DNA Hydrolysis by Homo- and Heteronuclear Cu(II)–Ni(II) Complexes of Two Diester-type Ligands

Nucleolytic activities of novel mononuclear Cu(II), homo- and heterodinuclear Cu(II)–Ni(II) complexes with two diester-type ligands were investigated on pCYTEXP by neutral agarose gel electrophoresis. The analyses of the cleavage products obtained electrophoretically indicate that the examined complexes induce very similar conformational changes on supercoiled DNA by converting supercoiled form to nicked form. At concentrations greater than 100M, the complexes possessed effective nucleolytic activities for 10min of incubation time. However, their nucleolytic activities did not increase significantly with longer periods of incubation. The pH-nucleolytic activity profiles of the complexes differed significantly. Metal complex induced DNA cleavage was also tested for inhibition by various radical scavengers. It could be proposed from the data that diffusible intermediate oxidants are not involved in these reactions or they are not necessary for DNA cleavage since none of antioxidants inhibited DNA cleaving activities of the complexes.     

Adsorption of N-Nitrosodiethylamine and N-Nitrosodimethylamine on Activated Carbon: A Pre-Concentration Procedure for Gas Chromatographic Analysis

In this study, a rapid pre-concentration procedure, which employs powdered activated carbon as a clean-up and pre-concentration material, is described for the gas chromatographic analysis of N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) and N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in aqueous solutions. It was found that powdered activated carbon is suitable for the adsorption of volatile N-nitrosamine compounds from aqueous solutions. Adsorption efficiency with spiked beer samples (alcohol content 5% v/v) was found to be 80.5% (NDMA) and 89.4% (NDEA) and recovery of extraction from activated carbon was calculated as 82.1% (NDMA) and 89.7% (NDEA), respectively. The effect of 100µgmL^–1 of tannic acid on the adsorption was also studied, and no significant effect on the adsorption and extraction of volatile N-nitrosamine compounds was found.     

New Copper（Ⅱ） and Nickel（Ⅱ） Complexes of 4-Morpholinoacetophenone Thiosemicarbazone： Structural, Electrochemical and Antimicrobial Studies

4-Morpholinoacetophenone thiosemicarbazone, MAPT, and its nickel（Ⅱ） and copper（Ⅱ） complexes have been prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, magnetic susceptibility, spectral methods （FT-IR, ^1H NMR） and cyclic voltammetry. Electrochemical behaviors of the complexes have been studied by cyclic voltammetry in DMF media showing metal centered reduction processes for both of them. The redox properties, nature of the electrode processes and the stability of the complexes were discussed. [Cu（MAPT）2]Cl2 complex shows Cu（Ⅱ）/Cu（Ⅰ） couple and quasi-reversible wave associated with the Cu（Ⅲ）/Cu（Ⅱ） process. The reduction/oxidation potential values depend on the structures of complexes. Also, the antimicrobial activities of these complexes were determined against S. aureus, E. coli and B. subtilis.