Proposal of a New Hf(IV)/Zr(IV) Separation System by the Solvent Extraction Method

A liquid-liquid extraction study has been conducted to separate hafnium from zirconium, using Cyanex 301 in kerosene. Noticeably, it is the first time that Cyanex 301 is utilized to separate Hf(IV) from Zr(IV). In this series of experiments, several parameters influencing the separation have been investigated, such as the initial pH, the extractant concentration, the metal ion concentration, the temperature, the type of the diluents and the salt addition. Regarding the aging of the Zr(IV) and Hf(IV) solutions, the solutions with a maximum 3 d aging time could be used with no difficulties. It was observed that the initial pH increase caused an increase in the Zr(IV)/Hf(IV) separation factor. Moreover, the distribution decreased with the temperature increase, suggesting that the reaction is exothermic. In agreement with the resulting data, the optimum separation factor illustrates the value of 7 at a pH of 4.00 in the presence of NaCl as an added salt. The attractive characteristics of the presently designed method are the use of low acidic nitrate solutions, the lack of using thiocyanate and a higher extractability of hafnium-Cyanex 301 relative to zirconium-Cyanex 301 complexes.     

Synthesis of new indolylpyrrole derivatives via a four-component domino reaction between arylglyoxals,acetylacetone, indole and aliphatic amines in aqueous media

A novel synthesis of indolylpyrrole derivatives is described by a four-component domino reaction between arylglyoxals, acetylacetone, indole and aliphatic amines in water as solvent at 60?°C without using any catalyst or promoter. The FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR spectral and elemental analysis confirm the structures of the products.     

Tyrosine sensing on phthalic anhydride functionalized chitosan and carbon nanotube film coated glassy carbon electrode

Phthaloylchitosan (PHCS) has been synthesized by a simple and low-cost method using chitosan and phthalic anhydride as organic precursors by microwave irradiation. Techniques of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), FT-IR spectroscopy and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to characterize the structure and properties of the Phthaloylchitosan. Moreover, glassy carbon electrode modified with Phthaloylchitosan and carbon nanotube (PHCS–CNT/GCE) was prepared by casting of the PHCS–CNT solution on GCE. The electrochemical behavior of PHCS–CNT/GCE was investigated and compared with the electrochemical behavior of Phthaloylchitosan modified GC (PHCS/GC), carbon nanotube modified GC (CNT/GC) and unmodified GC using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The Phthaloylchitosan film is electrochemically inactive; similar background charging currents are observed at bare GC. Electrochemical parameters, including apparent diffusion coefficient for the Fe(CN)₆^3-/4- redox probe at PHCS–CNT/GCE is comparable to values reported for GCE, CNT/GCE and PHCS/GCE. The PHCS–CNT/GCE sensor responded linearly to tyrosine (Tyr) in the concentration of 1.0 × 10^–6 to 8.0 × 10^–4 M with detection limit of 3.0 × 10^–7 M at 3σ using amperometry. In addition, the PHCS–CNT/GCE displayed good reproducibility, high sensitivity and good selectivity towards the determination of Tyr, making it suitable for the determination of Tyr in clinical and medicine.     

Complete order amenability of the Fourier algebra

We define complete order amenability and first complete order cohomology groups for quantized Banach ordered algebras and show that the vanishing of the latter is equivalent to the operator amenability for the Fourier algebra.     

Controlled Ethylene Polymerization Catalyzed by Cp$\rm{{_{2}^{\ast}}}$ZrBu2/[Ph3C] [B(C6F5)4]/iBu4Al2O above Room Temperature

The ternary system composed of Cp ZrBu₂ (Cp*=Me₅Cp), [CPh₃][B(C₆F₅)₄], and tetraisobutyldialuminoxane (TIBAO) catalyzed the polymerization of ethylene in a controlled fashion at temperatures up to 60 °C. The consumption of ethylene remained constant during the polymerization process, the molecular weight of the polyethylene increased linearly with time, and polydispersity indexes down to 1.3 were obtained. Characterization of the polyethylene by ¹³C‐NMR and FT‐IR spectroscopy did not indicate any branching or CC linkages, even for polymer produced at 40 °C or above. The linear and saturated polymer structure is due to the absence of β‐hydride transfer, β‐hydride elimination and chain walking during the polymerization. The absence of termination reactions is consistent with the system's demonstrated controlled polymerization.     

Composition of essential oil and biological activity of extracts of Viola odorata L. from central Iran

Essential oil composition of the leaves of Viola odorata L. growing wild in Kashan, central Iran, was extracted by hydro distillation-solvent extraction method and analysed using GC-MS technique. The analysis revealed the presence of 25 identified compounds, representing 92.77% of the oil with butyl-2-ethylhexylphthalate (30.10%) and 5,6,7,7a-tetrahydro-4,4,7a-trimethyl-2(4H)-benzofuranone (12.03%) being the two main components. Several components were identified for the first time in this chemotype of V. odorata. Antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the oil, methanol and chloroform extracts were also evaluated for the first time in this research work.     

In vitro bioactivity of essential oils and methanol extracts of Salvia reuterana from Iran

The chemical composition of the essential oils, antioxidant activity (DPPH and beta-carotene/linoleic acid assays) and total phenolic content (Foline-Ciocalteu) of the flowers and leaves of Salvia reuterana were determined. Essential oils extracted from the flowers and leaves by hydrodistillation were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Forty-four constituents, representing 99.7-99.9% of the oils, were identified. The major components were germacrene D, benzoic acid hexyl ester, bicyclogermacrene, beta-gurjunene and ishwarene, constituting 33.7-31.9% of the oils. The highest radical-scavenging activity (DPPH test) was shown by the methanol extract of the flowers (IC50 = 77.6 microg/mL). In the beta-carotene/linoleic acid assay, the methanol extract of the leaves showed the highest inhibition (40.3%) which was only slightly lower than that shown by BHT (82.9%). The total phenolic contents of the methanol extracts of the flowers and leaves as gallic acid equivalents were 81.4 and 88.3 microg/mg, respectively. The plant also showed good antimicrobial activity against three strains of tested microorganisms.     

Synthesis and characterization of ordered mesoporous carbon as electrocatalyst for simultaneous determination of epinephrine and acetaminophen

In this research, we report an easy method for synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) with hexagonal arrays of tubes (CMK-5). The synthesized OMC was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and nitrogen sorption isotherms techniques. Due to the large surface area and high conductivity of OMC, OMC-modified glassy carbon (OMCs/GC) electrode was prepared. The unique electrochemical activity of OMCs/GC electrode was illustrated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electron impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in which OMC showed a faster electron transfer rate, as compared with glassy carbon electrode. The electrochemical behavior of epinephrine (EN) and acetaminophen (AP) at OMC/GC electrode was also investigated using cyclic voltammetry. The OMC/GC electrode exhibited high electrocatalytic activities toward oxidation of EN and AP and displayed good voltammetric peak separation between them. In differential pulse voltammetry technique, both EN and AP give sensitive oxidation peaks at 120?mV and 320?mV, respectively. Therefore, investigated method was applied for simultaneous determination of EN and AP. AP and EN give linear response over the range of 0.2–15?μM and 4–100?μM, respectively. The lower detection limits were found to be 0.07?μM for AP and 0.94?μM for EN.     

A new method for measuring the diffusion coefficient in a gas phase

A new and fast method for measuring the diffusion coefficients of binary gas mixtures using ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has been developed. In this method, the sample is injected as a short pulse into the flowing drift gas, forming a Gaussian concentration profile inside the drift region. This Gaussian cloud is irradiated with a fast moving swarm of electrons to create negative ions. The flash of electrons is so short that the negative ions do not move much during the exposure time. The ions then drift toward the detector, where they are collected. The collected ion signal pattern reflects the spatial distribution of the sample inside the cloud at the time of exposure. This is repeated in intervals of 300-400 ms to monitor the spatial spreading of the molecules in the drift region. Consecutive IMS spectra show the evolution of the cloud over time. The collected spectra are fit to Gaussian functions to extract diffusion coefficients. Using this method, the diffusion coefficient of O(2), CHCl(3), and C(2)H(2)Cl(2) were measured, and the results are in good agreement with the previously reported experimental data.     

Intermolecular energy transfer across nanocrystalline semiconductor surfaces

The yields and dynamics for energy transfer from the metal-to-ligand charge-transfer excited states of Ru(deeb)(bpy)(2)(PF(6))(2), Ru(2+), and Os(deeb)(bpy)(2)(PF(6))(2), Os(2+), where deeb is 4,4'-(CH(3)CH(2)CO(2))(2)-2,2'-bipyridine, anchored to mesoporous nanocrystalline (anatase) TiO(2) thin films were quantified. Lateral energy transfer from Ru(2+)* to Os(2+) was observed, and the yields were measured as a function of the relative surface coverage and the external solvent environment (CH(3)CN, THF, CCl(4), and hexanes). Excited-state decay of Ru(2+)*/TiO(2) was well described by a parallel first- and second-order kinetic model, whereas Os(2+)*/TiO(2) decayed with first-order kinetics within experimental error. The first-order component was assigned to the radiative and nonradiative decay pathways (tau = 1 micros for Ru(2+)*/TiO(2) and tau = 50 ns for Os(2+)*/TiO(2)). The second-order component was attributed to intermolecular energy transfer followed by triplet-triplet annihilation. An analytical model was derived that allowed determination of the fraction of excited-states that follow the two pathways. The fraction of Ru(2+)*/TiO(2) that decayed through the second-order pathway increased with surface coverage and excitation intensity. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to estimate the Ru(2+)* --> Ru(2+) intermolecular energy transfer rate constant of (30 ns)(-1).