Limitations and perspectives in the determination of carbofuran with various liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry interfacing systems

Column liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (LC-MS) has been widely accepted as the preferred technique for the identification and quantification of polar and thermally labile compounds at trace levels. Over the last decade many different types of LC-MS interfacing techniques have been used for the determination of carbamate pesticides and especially for the N-methylcarbamate carbofuran. This article addresses the difficulties encountered with the various types of LC-MS interface and discusses recent alternatives for the determination of carbofuran. With thermospray and particle beam interfaces the quantification of carbofuran is affected by both the ion source pressure and temperature, whereas quantification using the recently developed atmospheric pressure ionization interfaces, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization, electrospray, and ionspray, is less dependent on these parameters.     

Step structure in the atomic Kohn-Sham potential

In this work we analyze the exchange-correlation potentialv _xc within the Kohn-Sham approach to density functional theory for the case of atomic systems. The exchange-correlation potential is written as the sum of two potentials. One of these potentialsv _xc,scr is the long-range. Coulombic potential of the coupling constant integrated exchange-correlation hole which represents the screening of the two-particle interactions due to exchange-correlation effects. The other potentialv _xc,scr ^resp contains the functional derivative with respect to the electron density of the coupling constant integrated pair-correlation function representing the sensitivity of this exchange-correlation screening to density variations. As explicit expression of the exchange-part of this functional derivative is derived using an approximation for the Greens function of the Kohn-Sham system and is shown to display a distinct atomic shell structure. The corresponding potentialv _xc,scr ^resp has a clear step structure and is constant within the atomic shells and changes rapidly at the atomic shell boundaries. Numerical examples are presented for the Be and Kr atoms using the Optimized Potential Model (OPM).     

Simultaneous flow injection determination of ammoniacal nitrogen and chloride in industrial effluent water with a combined on-line gas diffusion/dialyser unit

An on-line gas diffusion/dialyser unit has been designed and incorporated into the manifold of a flow injection system for the simultaneous determination of two different species in a single sample injected into the FIA system. A fast and reliable fully automated two-component flow injection procedure has been carried out where a single sample (50 l industrial effluent water) is injected into a carrier stream and simultaneously gas diffused and dialysed in a single on-line gas diffusion/dialyser unit for the determination of ammonia and chloride, respectively. The results obtained for the ammoniacal nitrogen and chloride in industrial effluent water compared well with data obtained by standard methods. The relative standard deviation for industrial effluent water samples with concentrations of ammoniacal nitrogen in the range between 0.050 and 1 g/l and chloride from 0.127 to 2.531 g/l have been better than 1.0% for ammoniacal nitrogen and 0.5% for chloride, respectively. The proposed system could be attractive for routine analyses of industrial effluent water.     

Theoretical study of the triplet excited state of PtPOP and the exciplexes M-PtPOP (M = Tl, Ag) in solution and comparison with ultrafast X-ray scattering results

The [Pt₂(H₂P₂O₅)₄]⁴⁻ ions in the ground and excited states and the excited-state complexes M-[Pt₂(H₂P₂O₅)₄]³⁻ and M₂-[Pt₂(H₂P₂O₅)₄]²⁻ (M = Ag, Tl) were studied in solution with various density functional theory (DFT) functionals from Gaussian 09 and Amsterdam Density Functional (ADF) programs. Calculated results were compared with ultrafast X-ray solution scattering data. Time dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations with the B3PW91 functional and unrestricted open shell calculations with the mPBE functional produce good agreement with the experimental results. Compared to gas phase calculations, the surrounding solvent is found to play an important role to shorten the Pt-Pt and M-Pt (M = Ag, Tl) bond lengths, lowering the molecular orbital energies and influences the molecular orbital transitions upon excitation, which stabilizes the excited transient molecules in solution.     

Synthesis of poly(vinylidene chloride)-based composite latexes by emulsion polymerization from epoxy functional seeds for improved thermal stability

Poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-butyl methacrylate)/poly(vinylidene chloride-co-methyl acrylate) (poly(GMA-co-BMA)/poly(VDC-co-MA)) composite latexes have been successfully synthesized via a two-stage emulsion polymerization process. In a first step, emulsion copolymerization of GMA and BMA was carried out in optimized conditions (low temperature, neutral pH, starved-feed conditions) to both limit the hydrolysis of epoxy groups and obtain small particle size (typically 30-50 nm size range). Composite latexes were then obtained by a second-stage seeded copolymerization of VDC and MA in the presence of tetrasodium pyrophosphate to control the pH and reach high molecular weight, leading to partial encapsulation of the seed particles (snow-man morphology, in agreement with theoretical expectations). Thermogravimetric analyses performed on the resulting composite particles showed that the epoxy-functionalized seed polymer behaved as an efficient thermal stabilizer of PVDC.     

Dechlorination of poly(vinyl chloride) by 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoliumhydroxide

Highly efficient dechlorination of PVC has been realized at 180 °C and at atmospheric pressure, using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoliumhydroxide ([Bmim]OH) as an environment-friendly reaction medium: in the absence of an external base or solvent the dechlorination efficiency is as high as 91.2%, while it is only 38.1% for PVC without ionic liquids. The dechlorination process follows first-order kinetics with apparent activation energy of 44 kJ mol⁻¹. Mechanistic analysis provides evidence for the equilibrium presence of carbene species, together with the hydroxide ions in [Bmim]OH, thus enhancing the dechlorination of PVC via a combined elimination and substitution mechanism.     

Axial ligand and spin-state influence on the formation and reactivity of hydroperoxo-iron(III) porphyrin complexes

The present study focuses on the formation and reactivity of hydroperoxo-iron(III) porphyrin complexes formed in the [Fe(III)(tpfpp)X]/H(2)O(2)/HOO(-) system (TPFPP=5,10,15,20-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)-21H,23H-porphyrin; X=Cl(-) or CF(3) SO(3)(-)) in acetonitrile under basic conditions at -15 °C. Depending on the selected reaction conditions and the active form of the catalyst, the formation of high-spin [Fe(III)(tpfpp)(OOH)] and low-spin [Fe(III)(tpfpp)(OH)(OOH)] could be observed with the application of a low-temperature rapid-scan UV/Vis spectroscopic technique. Axial ligation and the spin state of the iron(III) center control the mode of O-O bond cleavage in the corresponding hydroperoxo porphyrin species. A mechanistic changeover from homo- to heterolytic O-O bond cleavage is observed for high- [Fe(III)(tpfpp)(OOH)] and low-spin [Fe(III)(tpfpp)(OH)(OOH)] complexes, respectively. In contrast to other iron(III) hydroperoxo complexes with electron-rich porphyrin ligands, electron-deficient [Fe(III)(tpfpp)(OH)(OOH)] was stable under relatively mild conditions and could therefore be investigated directly in the oxygenation reactions of selected organic substrates. The very low reactivity of [Fe(III)(tpfpp)(OH)(OOH)] towards organic substrates implied that the ferric hydroperoxo intermediate must be a very sluggish oxidant compared with the iron(IV)-oxo porphyrin π-cation radical intermediate in the catalytic oxygenation reactions of cytochrome P450.     

Nanoscale patterning of organosilane molecular thin films from the gas phase and its applications: fabrication of multifunctional surfaces and large area molecular templates for site-selective material deposition

A simple methodology to fabricate micrometer- and nanometer-scale patterned surfaces with multiple chemical functionalities is presented. Patterns with lateral dimensions down to 110 nm were made. The fabrication process involves multistep gas-phase patterning of amine, thiol, alkyl, and fluorinated alkyl-functional organosilane molecules using PDMS molds as shadow masks. Also, a combination process of channel diffused plasma etching of organosilane molecular thin films in combination with masked gas-phase deposition to fabricate multilength scale, multifunctional surfaces is demonstrated.