Analytical Extraction Methods and Sorbents’ Development for Simultaneous Determination of Organophosphorus Pesticides’ Residues in Food and Water Samples: A Review

Extensive use of organophosphorus pesticides in agriculture leads to adverse effects to the environment and human health. Sample preparation is compulsory to enrich target analytes prior to detection as they often exist at trace levels and this step is critical as it determines the concentration of pollutants present in samples. The selection of a suitable extraction method is of great importance. The analytical performance of the extraction methods is influenced by the selection of sorbents as sorbents play a vital role in the sensitivity and selectivity of an analytical method. To date, numerous sorbent materials have been developed to cater to the needs of selective and sensitive pesticides’ detection. Comprehensive details pertaining to extraction methods, developed sorbents, and analytical performance are provided. This review intended to provide a general overview on different extraction techniques and sorbents that have been developed in the last 10 years for organophosphorus pesticides’ determinations in food and water samples.     

Modeling the growth and branching of plants: A simple rod-based model

A rod-based model for plant growth and branching is developed in this paper. Specifically, Euler's theory of the elastica is modified to accommodate growth and remodeling. In addition, branching is characterized using a configuration force and evolution equations are postulated for the flexural stiffness and intrinsic curvature. The theory is illustrated with examples of multiple static equilibria of a branched plant and the remodeling and tip growth of a plant stem under gravitational loading.     

Leakage current and capacitance characteristics of Si/SiO2/Si single-barrier varactor

We investigate, both experimentally and theoretically, current and capacitance (I–V/C–V) characteristics and the device performance of Si/SiO₂/Si single-barrier varactor diodes (SBVs). Two diodes were fabricated with different SiO₂ layer thicknesses using the state-of-the-art wafer bonding technique. The devices have very low leakage currents (about 5×10^-2 and 1.8×10^-2 mA/mm²) and intrinsic capacitance levels of typically 1.5 and 50 nF/mm² for diodes with 5-nm and 20-nm oxide layers, respectively. With the present device physical parameters (25-mm² device area, 760-μm modulation layer thickness and ≈10¹⁵-cm^-3 doping level), the estimated cut-off frequency is about 5×10⁷ Hz. With the physical parameters of the present existing III–V triplers, the cut-off frequency of our Si-based SBV can be as high as 0.5 THz. Received: 9 February 2001 / Accepted: 9 February 2001 / Published online: 23 March 2001     

Fluorescent sensing platform for low-cost detection of Cu2+ by coumarin derivative: DFT calculation and practical application in herbal and black tea samples

A fluorogenic probe based on a coumarin-derivative for Cu²⁺ sensing in CH₃CN/H₂O media (v/v, 95/5, 5.0 μM) was developed and applied in real samples. 3-(4-chlorophenyl)-6,7-dihydroxy-coumarin (MCPC) probe was obtained by synthetic methodologies and identified by spectral techniques. The probe MCPC showed remarkable changes with a “turn-off” fluorogenic sensing approach for the monitoring of Cu²⁺ at 456 nm under an excitation wavelength of 366 nm. The response time of the probe MCPC was founded as only 1 min. The detection limit of the probe MCPC was recorded to be 1.47 nM. The binding constant and possible stoichiometric ratio (1:1) values were determined by Benesi-Hildebrand and Job’s plot systems, respectively. The mechanism of the probe MCPC with Cu²⁺ was further confirmed by ESI-MS and FT-IR analyses, as well as supported by theoretical calculations. Furthermore, the probe MCPC was successfully employed for the practical applications to sense Cu²⁺ in different herbal and black tea samples. The proposed sensing method was also verified by ICP-OES method.     

Assessment of different hazard indices around coal-fired power plants in Turkey

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - This paper presents the radiological and heavy metal risk assessment to evaluate the impact of coal-fired power plants on humans and the...     

Optimizing nozzle convergent angle using central composite design on the particle velocity and acoustic power level for single-hose dry ice blasting nozzle

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - One of the important parameters in developing dry ice blasting nozzle is the high-speed dry ice pellets. However, many studies focus primarily only on...     

Quantum groups of fermionic algebras

We consider inhomogeneous quantum groups that transform various types of fermions: standard fermions, commuting fermions and orthofermions. These quantum groups are notq-deformations.     

Preparation,optimization and swelling study of carboxymethyl sago starch (CMSS)–acid hydrogel

In this study, sago starch was modified in order to enhance its physicochemical properties. Carboxymethylation was used to introduce a carboxymethyl group into a starch compound. The carboxymethyl sago starch (CMSS) was used to prepare smart hydrogel by adding acetic acid into the CMSS powder as the crosslinking agent. The degree of substitution of the CMSS obtained was 0.6410. The optimization was based on the gel content and degree of swelling of the hydrogel. In this research, four parameters were studied in order to optimize the formation of CMSS–acid hydrogel. The parameters were; CMSS concentration, acetic acid concentration, reaction time and reaction temperature. From the data analyzed, 76.69% of optimum gel content was obtained with 33.77 g/g of degree of swelling. Other than that, the swelling properties of CMSS–acid hydrogel in different media such as salt solution, different pH of phosphate buffer saline solution as well as acidic and alkaline solution were also investigated. The results showed that the CMSS–acid hydrogel swelled in both alkaline and salt solution, while in acidic or low pH solution, it tended to shrink and deswell. The production of the hydrogel as a smart material offers a lot of auspicious benefits in the future especially related to swelling behaviour and properties of the hydrogel in different types of media.     

Chemometrics-Assisted Optimization of Beta-/Gamma-Tocol Separation on a C<Subscript>30</Subscript> Stationary Phase in Reversed-Phase LC

This paper presents a chemometrics-assisted optimization study to improve the separation of tocopherol (-T) and tocotrienol (-TT) homologues on a C₃₀ stationary phase in reversed-phase HPLC. The HPLC settings were optimized using a central composite design and the response surface methodology. Flow rate, column temperature, and mobile phase composition were chosen as independent variables. Peak resolution (R_s), analysis time (t_R), and peak symmetries of the tocopherol isomers were chosen as response variables. Optimum performance in terms of R_s was obtained at a flow rate of 0.31 mL min^?1, a temperature of 8.70 °C, and % B content (methyl tert-butyl ether: methanol: water, 80:18:2, v/v/v) in the mobile phase of 38.12%. The analysis of variance and regression analysis gave adjusted R² values of 0.9841 for R_s, 0.9850 for t_R-(α-T), 0.9853 for t_R-(β-T), and 0.9204 for the peak symmetry of β-T. This confirms the good agreement of experimental data with predicted values. The close eluting peaks of β-/γ-tocol could be baseline separated at the optimized conditions at a minimized analysis time. Empirical second-order polynomial models were derived that gave statistically high significances (P?<?0.0001). Hence, the models can be successfully employed to predict the optimum separation conditions of co-eluting peaks of β-/γ-tocols. The optimized method was successfully applied to determine the individual tocol homologues in various cold pressed edible oils. Total contents ranged from 15 to almost 2600 mg tocol kg^?1 oil.     

Gas chromatographic separation of PCB and OCP by photocatalytic degradation

A photocatalytic degradation method was developed for polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) and organochloride pesticide (OCP) discrimination and quantification. A mixture of Aroclor 1260 and p,p′-DDT was irradiated at 254 nm by UV lamp (40 W) in the presence of TiO₂ (30 mg mL⁻¹ non-aqueous solution). Comparison of gas chromatograms showed that p,p′-DDT signals decreased significantly after irradiation, while Aroclor 1260s chromatograms did not show any difference before and after irradiation. Detection limits were 0.30 mg L⁻¹ and 0.15 mg L⁻¹ for p,p′-DDT and Aroclor 1260, respectively. The method was applied to spiked egg samples, the recoveries were found as 72% for DDT and 82.01% for Aroclor 1260.