Certification of reference materials for ochratoxin A analysis in coffee and wine

Mycotoxins are important non-anthropogenic food and feed contaminants, which can be present on almost every agricultural commodity. Effective consumer protection therefore essentially depends on food surveillance by reliable quantitative analysis enabled by appropriate quality control. Certified (matrix) reference materials (CRMs) are versatile tools to support quality assurance. However, in the case of ochratoxin A (OTA), a hepato- and nephrotoxic mycotoxin, which is regulated in various foods, there is a lack of suitable CRMs. This lack has now been overcome by the development of two European Reference Materials (ERM^?) for the determination of OTA in roasted coffee (ERM^?-BD475) and red wine (ERM^?-BD476). This article discusses the material preparation process as well as the results of homogeneity and stability testing. Furthermore, the results of the in-house certification studies carried out at BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing are presented and discussed. Interlaboratory comparison studies involving selected expert laboratories with documented expertise in the field of mycotoxin analysis were conducted to confirm the certified values determined by BAM. The certified ochratoxin A values and their corresponding expanded uncertainties (k?=?2) were assigned in full compliance with the requirements of ISO Guide 35 and are as follows: (6.0?±?0.6)???g?kg^?1 for roasted coffee, ERM^?-BD475, and (0.52?±?0.11)???g?L^?1 for red wine, ERM^?-BD476.     

Composition depth profile analysis of electrodeposited alloys and metal multilayers: the reverse approach

The reverse depth profile analysis is a recently developed method for the study of a deposit composition profile in the near-substrate zone. The sample preparation technique enables one to separate the deposit and a thin cover layer from its substrate, and the initial roughness of the sample is much smaller than in the conventional sputtering direction. This technique is particularly suitable to study the zones being formed in the early phase of the electrodeposition of alloys. It has been demonstrated with the reverse depth profile analysis that in many cases when one component of an alloy is preferentially deposited, an initial zone is formed that is rich in the preferentially deposited component. This phenomenon is demonstrated for Ni–Cd, Ni–Sn, Fe–Co–Ni, Co–Ni, and Co–Ni–Cu alloys. The composition change is confined to the initial 150-nm-thick deposit, and it is the result of the interplay of the deposition preference and the depletion of the electrolyte near the cathode with respect to the ion reduced preferentially. The reverse depth profile analysis made it possible to compare the measured and the calculated composition depth profile of electrodeposited multilayers. It has been shown that the decay in the composition oscillation intensity in Co/Cu multilayers with the increase of the sputtering depth can be derived from the roughness measured as a function of the deposit thickness.     

Determination of Chlorophenoxy Acid Herbicides in Water Samples by Suspended Liquid-Phase Microextraction�CLiquid Chromatography

In this study, directly suspended liquid-phase microextraction was investigated for the extraction and determination of five chlorophenoxy acid herbicides in water samples. The optimized parameters for extraction of chlorophenoxy acid herbicides were 1 M HCl concentration in sample solution, solution temperature 20 °C, 45-min extraction time, 1,000 rpm stirring rate, 25 ??L extracting solvent volume and without NaCl addition. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factor ranged from 192 to 390. Calibration curves yielded good linearity (R ² > 0.999) and the linear range was 5.0?C500.0 ??g L^?1, limit of detection was 0.3?C0.4 ??g L^?1 and limit of quantification was 1?C2 ??g L^?1 for analytes and the relative standard deviations were in the range of 3?C10% (n = 3). Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the quantification of five chlorophenoxy acid herbicides in water samples and recovery was in the range of 74?C110%.     

Separation and Preconcentration by Dispersive Liquid�CLiquid Microextraction Procedure: Recent Applications

Dispersive liquid?Cliquid microextraction (DLLME) is a relatively novel miniaturized sample pre-treatment technique. DLLME has been applied for the analysis of a large variety of organic compounds and metal ions in different samples. This paper reviews the more recent applications of this procedure for sample preparation.     

Intercomparison of techniques for estimation of sedimentation rate in the Sabah and Sarawak coastal waters

A total of eight sediment cores with 50 cm length were taken in the Sabah and Sarawak coastal waters using a gravity corer in 2004 to estimate sedimentation rates using four mathematical models of CIC, Shukla-CIC, CRS and ADE. The average of sedimentation rate ranged from 0.24 to 0.48 cm year^?1, which is calculated based on the vertical profile of ²¹⁰Pb_ex in sediment core. The finding also showed that the sedimentation rates derived from four models were generally shown in good agreement with similar or comparable value at some stations. However, based on statistical analysis of paired sample t-test indicated that CIC model was the most accurate, reliable and suitable technique to determine the sedimentation rate in the coastal area.     

Influence of thermal degradation in the physicochemical properties of fish oil

Physicochemical and thermal analyses were undertaken to evaluate the influence of the temperature on the oxidation of sea fish oil once its polyunsaturated fatty acids deteriorate rapidly. Fish oil displayed four decomposition steps in synthetic air atmosphere and only one step in nitrogen atmosphere. The first step started at 189 and 222 °C for oxidizing and inert atmospheres, respectively. An OIT value of 53 min was measured at 100 °C. After the degradation process the peroxide index and the iodine index reduced from 35.38 to 9.85 meq × 1000 g^?1 and from 139.79 to 120.19 gI₂ × 100 g^?1, respectively. An increase of the free fatty acids amount from 0.07 to 0.17% was observed while viscosity increased from 57.2 to 58.0 cP. Absorption at 272 nm also increased. The thermogravimetric and spectroscopic techniques are reproducible and versatile being an option for characterization of edible oil oxidation.     

Modeling of the molecular and electronic structures of some mono- and biosmium complexes of fullerene C60

The modeling of the molecular and electronic structures of the following mono- and biosmium complexes of fullerene C₆₀ was performed by quantum chemical methods (MNDO/PM3 and DFT/PBE): (??²-C₆₀)[Os(PPh₃)₂(CO)CNMe], (??²,??²-C₆₀)[Os(PPh₃)₂(CO)(CNMe)]₂, (??²-C₆₀)[Os(PH₃)₂(CO)H], (??²,??²-C₆₀)[Os(PH₃)₂(CO)H]₂, (??²-C₆₀)[Os(PH₃)₂(CO)CNMe], (??²,??²-C₆₀)[Os(PH₃)₂(CO)CNMe]₂, and (5-C₆₀H₅)[Os(C₅H₅)], (5, 5-C₆₀H₁₀)[Os(C₅H₅)]₂.The osmium atoms in the first six complexes are ??²-coordinated by fullerene C₆₀. In the last two complexes, the ??⁵-coordination mode is observed. The structures of the radical anions of these complexes were calculated. The energies of the frontier orbitals were evaluated. The acceptor properties of the complexes are discussed. The electron affinities were estimated in two ways: from the energy of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and as the energy difference between the neutral molecule and its radical anion.     

Electrophile affinity and positional selectivity in electrophilic substitution reactions of N-substituted pyrroles

In terms of the density functional theory (DFT) using B3LYP/6-31G(d) method with full geometry optimization, gas-phase quantum chemical calculations were performed for ??-complexes formed upon the attack of electrophiles E (E = H⁺, Me⁺, Me³Si⁺, Br⁺, NO₂ ⁺, MeCO⁺, SO₃) on ??- and ??-positions of furan, thiophene, selenophene, pyrrole, and N-substituted pyrroles (NR-pyrroles, R = Me, Bu^t, SiMe₃, SiPrⁱ ₃, C₆H₄NO₂-p, SO₂Ph, CHO, COOMe) and for respective ??- and ??-substituted electrophilic substitution products. The energy differences between the ??- and ??-isomers of the ??-complexes characterize the preferred direction of the electrophilic attack, while the energy differences between the isomeric products make it possible to estimate the energy preference of a particular product. An analysis of the results obtained demonstrates the effect of the structure of heterocycle, the nature of electrophile, and thermodynamic and steric factors on the positional selectivity (??/?? ratio) in electrophilic substitution reactions of ??-electron rich five-membered heteroaromatics.     

Furazan-containing bromoarenes in the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction

The palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of 3-[bromo(het)aryl]furazans and bromobenzofurazans with arylboronic acids afford target biaryls in good yields. 3-Bromo-4-phenylfurazan containing a bromine atom in the furazan ring undergoes decomposition under the reaction conditions.     

Synthesis of polynorbornene‐poly(tert‐butyl acrylate) nanoparticles with original morphologies by tandem ROMP and ATRP in microemulsion

Composite latex particles based on homopolymers and graft‐copolymers composed of polynorbornene (PNB) and poly(tert‐butyl acrylate) (PtBA) were synthesized in microemulsion conditions by simultaneous combination of two distinct methods of polymerization: Ring‐opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Only one commercial compound (first generation Grubbs catalyst) was used to initiate the ROMP of norbornene (NB) and activate the ATRP of tert‐butyl acrylate (tBA). Well‐defined nanoparticles with hydrodynamic diameters smaller than 50 nm were prepared with original morphologies depending on the monomer compositions, the type of combination (polymer blend or graft‐copolymer), and the conditions of microemulsion polymerizations. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011