The development of a gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric analytical procedure for the determination of lipids,proteins and resins in the same paint micro-sample avoiding interferences from inorganic media

This paper presents a GC–MS analytical procedure for determining proteinaceous materials, glycerolipids, natural waxes and terpenoid resins in the same paint micro-sample. The procedure is also reliable when high amounts of interfering inorganic pigments, dryers and charges are present. The characterisation of proteinaceous binders in a paint sample can be subject to analytical interferences by inorganic materials. Such materials may form complexes with functional groups of proteins, thus preventing their efficient derivatisation, which is necessary prior to GC analysis. For this reason an analytical procedure has been developed based on two extractions and a clean-up step, in order to obtain two fractions: a lipid-resinous fraction and a proteinaceous fraction. The lipid-resinous fraction is subjected to salification/saponification assisted by microwaves, followed by acidification, extraction, derivatisation and GC–MS analysis. The proteinaceous fraction is analysed by GC–MS after hydrolysis and derivatisation of the freed amino acids. The desalting step is applied before the hydrolysis, and is based on the use of the monolithic sorbent tip technology with a C4 stationary phase. Reference paint replicas of egg, casein and animal glue were prepared with and without several metals containing pigments, and used to develop and validate the analytical procedure. The procedure proved to be efficient in desalting the proteinaceous materials both from cations and anions. Although non quantitative, it is reliable in the analysis of samples whose content of extractable proteins is <1 μg, thus showing it to be suitable for the characterisation of paint samples. An example of how the analytical procedure was used to characterise a sample from a 15th century panel painting is also discussed.     

PEG-400 mediated an efficient eco-friendly synthesis of new isoxazolyl pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines and their anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity

Abstract

Polyethylene glycol-400 (PEG-400) has been developed as an efficient and eco-friendly reaction medium for the synthesis of new isoxazolyl pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives 11 from isoxazolyl cyanoacetamide synthon 7. Compound 7 was employed with various aromatic aldehydes 8 and malononitrile 9 in the presence of triethylamine (Et₃N) to afford the corresponding (E)-6-amino-1-(3-methyl-5-styrylisoxazol-4-yl)-2-oxo-4-phenyl-1,2-dihydro- pyridine-3,5-dicarbonitrile 10 at room temperature by using PEG-400 as a solvent medium as well as catalyst. The intermediate 10 on treatment with thiourea in the presence of PEG-400 at 90?°C to give the target compounds isoxazolyl pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines 11 in good to excellent yields. The newly synthesized compounds 10 and 11 were characterized by IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and HRMS analysis. The target compounds 11a-x was screened for their anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. Among the tested compounds, the compounds 11s, 11t, 11u, 11v, 11w, and 11x showed significant anti-inflammatory and potent analgesic activities as that of reference drugs. The advantages of this protocol are operational simplicity, catalyst free, environmental safety, wide substrate scope, good yields, and PEG-400 can be recovered and reused. Most significant of all, this protocol is green.     

Pt(II) uptake by dendrimer outer pockets: 2. Solvent-mediated complexation

We study the effect of the solvent (water) on the ligand exchange reaction (LER) step of Pt(II) complexation to PAMAM dendrimers. The results suggest that aquation of tetrachloroplatinate anion (PtCl(4)(2-)) inside PAMAM outer pockets occurs prior to its reaction with dendrimer atom binding sites. Thus, the active involvement of water opens up several pathways by which Pt(II) can bind to tertiary amine sites (N3). Monodentate binding pathways by which a PtCl(3)(-) moiety is obtained as a final product rather than PtCl(2)(H(2)O) are considered to be the predominant routes due to their smaller degree of complexity, including aspects such as less number of intermediates and lower energy barriers. Monodentate binding of Pt(II) to the secondary amide site (N2) is found to be feasible, in agreement with previous NMR experiments, once aquation of the tetrachloroplatinate anion has occurred. For this type of binding to occur, the dendrimer branch amide group configuration would have to switch from its equilibrium position (trans) to a cis position. It is also found that outer pockets aid Pt(II) complexation with the dendrimer mainly by making the noncovalent binding (NCB) step more favorable than that in branchless environments. Finally, our results predict that competitive monodentate binding of Pt(II) to either N3 or N2 is thermodynamically rather than kinetically driven.     

Vibrational spectra of anhydrous and monohydrated caffeine and theophylline molecules and crystals

Density functional theory and classical molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the vibrational spectra of caffeine and theophylline anhydrous and monohydrate molecules and those of their crystalline anhydrous and monohydrated states, with emphasis in the terahertz region of the spectra. To better understand the influence of water in the monohydrate crystal spectra, we analyze the vibrational spectra of water monomer, dimer, tetramer, and pentamer, and also those of liquid water at two different temperatures. In small water clusters, we observe the progressive addition of translational and librational modes to the terahertz region of the spectra. The water spectra predicted by rigid and flexible water models is examined with classical molecular dynamics, and the respective peaks, especially in the terahertz region, are compared with those found in the small clusters. Similar analysis done for caffeine and theophylline monohydrate molecules using density functional theory clearly shows the presence of water modes in the librational states and in the water stretching region. Molecular dynamics of caffeine and theophylline anhydrous and monohydrate crystals reveal the influence of vibrations from the molecule-molecule (caffeine or theophylline) crystal stacks and those from the water-molecule interactions found in the monohydrate molecules and new modes from molecule-molecule, water-molecule, and water-water hydrogen bonding interactions arising from collective effects in the crystal structure. Findings illustrate challenges of terahertz technology for the detection of specific substances in condensed phases.     

Photodegradation of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins in Liquid Samples by Near UV Light Irradiation

Photodegradation of 1,2,3,4-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (1,2,3,4-TCDD) in hexane solution was studied under controlled near-UV light exposure in the spectral region from 325 to 269 nm. GC-MS was used to detect the amount of unreacted dioxin and to characterize the relevant degradation products. Irradiation experiments carried out at a constant light energy (700 mJ) showed that the percentage of 1,2,3,4-TCDD left in the solution after irradiation changed from about 55 to 75%, with a minimum of 55% at 310 nm. Further irradiation experiments carried out at two wavelengths, namely 310 and 269 nm, and light energy ranging from 0 to 4000 mJ, showed that the photodegradation reaction of the TCDD always followed a pseudo-first-order kinetic, with a rate constant of 8 × 10⁻⁴and 5 × 10⁻⁴mJ⁻¹, respectively. These experiments also showed that trichloro- and dichloro-dibenzo-p-dioxins were produced with less than 15% of the initial quantity of TCDD, leading to the conclusion that the dechlorination process is a minor photolysis pathway.     

Preparation and characterization of transparent conducting ZnS:Al films

Al-doped ZnS films were deposited using close-spaced evaporation of the powders synthesized by chemical precipitation method. The films were prepared for different Al concentrations in the range 0–10 at.% on glass substrates kept at 300 °C. The effect of Al-doping on ZnS composition, microstructure and optoelectronic properties of as-grown ZnS layers was determined using appropriate techniques. The films were polycrystalline and showed (111) preferred orientation for all the doping concentrations in spite of an additional phase of Al₂S₃ observed at higher dopant levels. The surface morphological studies indicated that the Al incorporation had a considerable effect on the surface roughness of the films. The optical measurements indicated that the optical energy band gap decreased slightly with the increase of dopant concentration without affecting the optical transmittance characteristics significantly. The electrical analysis indicated that the resistivity of the layers changed significantly with the doping concentration in the layers. The change of photoluminescence behaviour of the as-grown ZnS:Al films with dopant concentration was also studied.     

Kinetics of fiber heat treatment. III Poly(butylene terephthalate) fibers

Small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS), shrinkage, and density experiments were performed on poly(butylene terephthalate) fibers which had been isothermally crystallized at different temperatures, and at constant tension, for times ranging from 100 to 1050 ms. A consistent correlation among WAXS, SAXS, and the kinetic results is demonstrated. Shrinkage results show that the crystallization process prevails over the chain-re-coiling process. Density measurements show that the rate of crystallization increases with temperature. Pinhole X-ray photos show that the orientation of the chains within the crystals remains constant with time and temperature. WAXS diffractometer scans show the development of wide-angle Bragg peaks. SAXS shows the development of small-angle Bragg peaks, as the annealing time is increased. The two-lobe arced pattern is the characteristic pattern. The value for long spacing ranged from 100 to 120 Å, increasing with temperature.     

Structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnS films deposited by close-spaced evaporation

ZnS films have been deposited on glass substrates by close-spaced evaporation (CSE) technique. The films were grown at different temperatures in the range, 200-350 °C. The layers have been characterized with X-ray diffractometer (XRD), atomic force microscope (AFM), energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) and optical spectrophotometer to evaluate the quality of the layers for photovoltaic applications. The studies showed that the optimum substrate temperature for the growth of ZnS layers was 300 °C. The films grown at these temperatures exhibited cubic structure with nearly stoichiometric composition. The AFM data revealed that the films had nano-sized grains with a grain size of ∼40 nm. The optical studies exhibited direct allowed transition with an energy band gap of 3.61 eV. The other structural and optical parameters such as lattice stress, dislocation density, refractive index and extinction coefficient were also evaluated. The temperature-dependent conductivity measured in the range, 303-523 K showed a change in the conduction mechanism at 120 °C. The activation energy values evaluated using the temperature dependence of electrical conductivity are 7 and 29 meV at low and high temperature regions, respectively.     

Participating life insurance policies: an accurate and efficient parallel software for COTS clusters

In this paper we discuss the development of a parallel software for the numerical simulation of Participating Life Insurance Policies in distributed environments. The main computational kernels in the mathematical models for the solution of the problem are multidimensional integrals and stochastic differential equations. The former is solved by means of Monte Carlo method combined with the Antithetic Variates variance reduction technique, while differential equations are approximated via a fully implicit, positivity-preserving, Euler method. The parallelization strategy we adopted relies on the parallelization of Monte Carlo algorithm. We implemented and tested the software on a PC Linux cluster.