Simultaneous kinetic-spectrophotometric determination of hydrazine and acetylhydrazine in micellar media using the H-point standard addition method.

The H-point standard addition method (HPSAM), based on a spectrophotometric measurement for the simultaneous determination of hydrazine and acetylhydrazine, is described. This method is based on the difference between the rates of their reactions with N,N-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DAB) in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in acidic media. The results showed that hydrazine and acetylhydrazine could be determined simultaneously in the range of 0.020 - 0.70 and 0.20 - 5.0 mg L(-1), respectively. Under the working conditions, the proposed method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of hydrazine and acetylhydrazine in several synthetic mixtures and plasma and water samples.     

Weak Multiplication Modules

In this paper we characterize weak multiplication modules.     

Duality and the cosmological constant

A dynamical theory is studied in which a scalar field ϕ in Einstein-Minkowski space is coupled to the four-velocityN _μ of a preferred inertial observer in that space. As a consistent requirement on this coupling we study a principle of duality invariance of the dynamical mass term of ϕ at some universal length in the small-distance regime. In the large-distance regime duality breaking can be introduced by giving a background value to ϕ and a background direction toN _μ. It is shown that, in an appropriate approximation, duality breaking can be related to the emergence of a characteristic phase in which the condensation of the ground state allows massive excitations with a characteristic scale of squared mass which agrees with the present observational bound for the cosmological constant.     

The universal nilpotent group compactification of a semigroup

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an algebra of functions on a semitopological semigroup and to study these functions from the point of view of universal semigroup compactification. We show that the corresponding semigroup compactification of this algebra is universal with respect to the property of being a nilpotent group.

     

Stiffness of spherical bonded rubber bush mountings

Exact closed-form expressions are derived for the torsional stiffnesses of spherical rubber bush mountings in the two principal modes of angular deformation, based upon the classical theory of elasticity. Agreement is found, as limiting cases, with the known results for the torsional stiffness and shear stiffness of an elastomer pad of circular cross-section.     

Alpha decay rate enhancement in metals: An unlikely scenario

It has been recently suggested that one might drastically shorten the alpha lifetime of nuclear waste products, if these are embedded in metals at low temperatures. Using quantum mechanical tunneling arguments, we show that such an effect is likely to be very small, if present at all.     

Kinetic C<Subscript>(2)-H</Subscript> exchange study of<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cis</Emphasis>-[(en)<Subscript>2</Subscript>Co(HIm)(enH)]Br<Subscript>4</Subscript> by NMR spectroscopy: Evidence for the acidity of C<Subscript>(2)-H</Subscript> proton

C_(2)-H exchange incis-[(en)₂Co(HIm)(enH)]Br₄ (Im, imidazole; en, ethylenediamine) was studied over a pD range of 9.4 to 10.2 at 60°C where thecis-[(en)₂Co(Him)(enH)]⁴⁺ andcis-[(en)₂Co(HIm)(en)]³⁺ are the species present in significant concentrations.Cis-[(en)₂Co(HIm)(enH)]⁴⁺ has pK_a1 7.86 and pK_a2 9.82 with pK_a1 corresponding to coordinated enH ionization and pK_a2 to ImH ionization. The kinetic data may be interpreted in terms of an intramolecular H-D exchange mechanism, where the “dangling”-ND₂CH₂CH₂ND₂ group acts as a base to remove the imidazole C_(2)-H proton from the coordinated DIm moiety.     

Preparation and characterization of AgI nanoparticles with controlled size,morphology and crystal structure

AgI nanoparticles were prepared by solution-based routes using water-soluble anionic or cationic polyelectrolytes as capping agents. Depending on the polyelectrolytes, AgI nanoparticles with well-defined morphology, size, and phase compositions were obtained: the use of poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) resulted in AgI nano-rods of β-AgI in wurtzite structure (2H); with poly(acrylic acid sodium salt) (PAS) truncated-tetrahedron shaped γ-AgI nanoparticles (nanotetrahedra) in zinc-blende structure (3C) were obtained; by employing poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) plate-like AgI nanoparticles (nano-plates) consisting of unusual polytype phases of AgI (7H and 9R) were formed. Macroscopically unstable γ-AgI and 7H and 9R phases could be stabilized in the form of nanocrystalline powders. They transform reversibly into the high temperature α-AgI phase and exhibit unusually high ionic conductivity and substantially smaller transformation enthalpy values compared to the macroscopic β-AgI.     

Synthesis of enantiomerically pure β,β-diphenylalanine (Dip) and fluorenylglycine (Flg)

A new strategy for the preparation of both enantiomers of two phenylalanine analogues, β,β-diphenylalanine and fluorenylglycine, has been developed. The combination of a high yielding racemic synthesis and a very efficient resolution procedure has provided significant amounts of each amino acid in enantiomerically pure form and suitably protected for use in peptide synthesis. This methodology can be easily applied to the preparation of larger quantities of enantiopure compounds.