Suppressed ion chromatography for monitoring chemical impurities in steam for geothermal power plants

A suppressed ion chromatography (IC) technique has been evaluated as a chemical monitoring tool for detecting major anions (F-, Cl-, NO3- and SO4(2-)) of condensed steam in geothermal power plants. It is shown that the suppressed IC technique provides a suitable means for preventing possible damage to generating equipment in the geothermal industry. An electrical conductivity detector (0.1 microS sensitivity) with an anion-exchange column (IonPac AS4A-SC), a micro-membrane suppressor (AMMS II), and an isocratic high-pressure pump system were successfully used for detecting low concentrations of inorganic anions. Method detection limits for the anions of interest were <0.184 mg/L. Details of the IC methodology as well as some experimental results obtained during its application for the chemical monitoring of geothermal steam pipes are also described.     

Determination of nitrite and mixtures of bromide and iodide with o-iodosobenzoate

Nitrite diazotizes sulphanilamide, which then does not undergo 3,5-dibromination. Nitrite can therefore be determined by reaction with excess of sulphanilamide, the surplus of which is then titrated with o-iodosobenzoate or chloramine-T in the presence of potassium bromide, with Methyl Red as indicator. Mixtures of iodide and bromide can be analysed by oxidation of the iodide with excess of o-iodosobenzoate at pH 4-6, followed by extraction of the iodine (which is then titrated with thiosulphate) and then oxidation of the bromide in dilute sulphuric acid medium in the presence of sulphanilamide as bromine scavenger, the residual oxidant being evaluated iodometrically.     

Determination of 1,3-benzodioxanes in Piper mullesua by high-performance thin-layer chromatography

A new, simple, precise, and rapid high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method was developed for the determination of 6 benzodioxanes in Piper mullesua extract: 1',3'-benzodioxole-5'-(2,4,8-triene-isobutyl nonanoate), 1',3'-benzodioxole-5'-(2,4,12-triene-isobutyl tridecanoate), fargesin, sesamin, asarinin, 1',3'-benzodioxole-5'-(2,4,8-triene-methyl nonanoate). The ingredients were separated on a precoated Silica Gel 60 F254 plate with a solvent system of toluene-acetone (92 + 8). The 6 benzodioxanes were well separated and easily identified in this chromatographic system. The separated benzodioxanes were visualized by color development with a spray reagent consisting of 1 g vanillin dissolved in 100 mL H2SO4-ethanol (5 + 95, v/v). Quantitation was performed by scanning the spots and comparing the integrated areas of compounds in samples with those of standards. Recoveries from samples spiked with known amounts of the benzodioxanes were excellent. The results were comparable with those estimated by liquid chromatography.     

Mixed dialkyltin(IV) trifluoroacetates

Mixed dialkytin(IV) trifluoroacetates,Me EtSn(O₂CCF₃)₂,Et Pr ⁿ Sn(O₂CCF₃)₂ andPr ⁿ Bu ⁿ Sn(O₂CCF₃)₂ have been prepared by metathetical reactions of the corresponding dialkyltin(IV) chlorides with silver trifluoroacetate in CH₂Cl₂. They are monomeric in benzene and nonconducting inMeNO₂ andMeCN. Bidentate trifluoroacetate groups are indicated by their IR spectra.Mössbauer spectra confirmtrans-arrangement of theR-Sn-R moiety.¹H,¹⁹F NMR and mass spectra are also discussed.

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Gemischte Dialkylzinn(IV)-trifluoracetate

Zusammenfassung Die gemischten Dialkylzinn(IV)-trifluoroacetateMe EtSn(O₂CCF₃)₂,Et Pr ⁿ Sn(O₂CCF₃)₂ undPr ⁿ Bu ⁿ Sn(O₂CCF₃)₂ wurden über Metathese-Reaktionen der entsprechenden Dialkylzinn(IV)-chloride mit Silbertrifluoracetat in CH₂Cl₂ dargestellt. Sie sind monomer in Benzol und nichtleitend inMeNO₂ undMeCN. Die IR-Spektren zeigen zweizähnige Trifluoracetat-Gruppen an. DieMössbauer-Spektren bestätigen dietrans-Anordnung derR-Sn-R-Einheit. Die¹H-,¹⁹F-NMR und die Massenspektren werden ebenfalls diskutiert.

     

Gold nanoparticle networks with photoresponsive interparticle spacings

Photoresponsive gold nanoparticle networks were prepared by functionalizing them with azobenzene derivatives. A network can be formed when a linker molecule constituting the azobenzene moiety suitably derivatized on either side with gold surface sensitive groups such as thiols and amines is added to the nanoparticle solution. It is shown that the interparticle spacing in the networks could be controlled by the reversible trans-cis isomerization of the azobenzene moiety induced by UV and visible light, respectively. The photoinduced variation in the interparticle spacings is inferred by the changes in the optical spectra of the gold nanoparticles which display a red or blue shift in the surface plasmon resonance peak depending on a decrease or increase in the interparticle spacing, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy images are in consonance with the evidence from the optical spectra.     

Evaluating and clustering retrosynthesis pathways with learned strategy

With recent advances in the computer-aided synthesis planning (CASP) powered by data science and machine learning, modern CASP programs can rapidly identify thousands of potential pathways for a given target molecule. However, the lack of a holistic pathway evaluation mechanism makes it challenging to systematically prioritize strategic pathways except for using some simple heuristics. Herein, we introduce a data-driven approach to evaluate the relative strategic levels of retrosynthesis pathways using a dynamic tree-structured long short-term memory (tree-LSTM) model. We first curated a retrosynthesis pathway database, containing 238k patent-extracted pathways along with ∼55 M artificial pathways generated from an open-source CASP program, ASKCOS. The tree-LSTM model was trained to differentiate patent-extracted and artificial pathways with the same target molecule in order to learn the strategic relationship among single-step reactions within the patent-extracted pathways. The model achieved a top-1 ranking accuracy of 79.1% to recognize patent-extracted pathways. In addition, the trained tree-LSTM model learned to encode pathway-level information into a representative latent vector, which can facilitate clustering similar pathways to help illustrate strategically diverse pathways generated from CASP programs.

Tree-structured long short-term memory neural model learns to understand the retrosynthesis design strategies from patent-extracted retrosynthetic pathway data.     

Electron and positron impact excitation of hydrogen from the initially excited 22S state to 32S and 32P states

The total and differential cross sections for the electron and positron impact excitation of hydrogen from its initially excited metastable 2²S state to 3²S and 3²P states are reported. A distorted-wave approximation theory is used for the calculation. The angular correlation parameters, Ly and alignment angle are also reported for 2²S-3²P excitation. For comparison, similar first Born results are also obtained. Interesting features are noted on comparing our distorted wave results with the first Born results as well as with the other available results forn ²S andn ²P (n=2,3) excitations from the ground 1²S state of hydrogen.     

Colorimetric method for the determination of captafol (difolatan) in commercial formulations and residues on grains and apples.

A simple and rapid colorimetric method for the microdetermination of captafol (difolatan), based on its reaction with a dithiocarbamate, has been developed. The bright yellow colour which develops instantaneously on mixing the fungicide with the reagent is stable for at least 12 h. The method has been successfully adapted to the determination of captafol in its formulated products and residues on grains and apples.