The Employ of Multiple Voltammetric Pulses for the Study of the Adsorption of Bipyridilium Pesticides in River Sediment

The multiple square‐wave voltammetry (MSWV) allied to gold microelectrode (Au‐ME) was used to establish an electroanalytical procedure for the determination of the paraquat and diquat pesticides in river sediment samples. For both pesticides, two reduction peaks, at around ?0.70 V (peak 1) and around ?1.00 V vs. Ag/AgCl 3.00 mol L^?1 (peak 2), with profile of the totally reversible redox process, were observed. The experimental and voltammetric conditions showed that the best conditions to reduce paraquat and diquat were a pH of 6.0, a frequency of 250 s^?1, a scan increment 2 mV, a square‐wave amplitude of 50 mV and pulse number of 8 pulses of potential in each step of staircase of potential. Under such conditions, the detection limit of 0.044 μg L^?1 (0.044 ppb) and 0.360 μg L^?1 (0.360 ppb ) for peak 1 and peak 2 of paraquat and 0.159 μg L^?1 (0.159 ppb) and 0.533 μg L^?1 (0.533 ppb) for peak 1 and peak 2 of diquat, respectively, were obtained. These results are an order of magnitude of about two less than those obtained and published in the literature. Also, the electroanalytical procedure proposed was applied for the determination of adsorption isotherms of pesticides on river sediments samples collected from Mogi‐Guaçu River in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. The experimental data were fitted using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms models; and the results indicated low intensities of adsorption process of the pesticides in the samples employed with distribution coefficients (K_d) lower 5.0, and paraquat showed slightly higher affinity than diquat in the sediments. The increase in organic matter and organic carbon leads to an increase in the K_d values, and consequently an increase in the organic matter constant (K_OM) organic carbon constant (K_OC) values. All results demonstrated that isotherms “L” type in the Giles classification were obtained, indicating that sediments have a medium affinity for the pesticides, and no strong competition from the solvent used (in this case Na₂SO₄) for adsorption sites occurs.     

Isolated square planar metal complexes of carbon

Based on the group theory analysis and quantum chemical calculations within the framework of SW X _α method (in relativistic approximation for core electrons and non-relativistic for valence ones), the existence possibility of square planar complexes [M₄C] and [M₄C]^2? (M = Al, Ga, In, Tl, Sc, and Y) in gas phase has been shown. The extraction of Kt₂[M₄C] square planar complexes of carbon in the crystal state is possible too. A high stability of these complexes, in comparison with usual tetrahedral, is achieved due to the formation of five-and four-center bonds (bonds M-M and M-C).     

High-performance liquid chromatography with continuous gradient elution in screening for unknown metabolites of butoprozine directly in dog bile

This paper describes the screening for metabolites of butoprozine, a new anti-anginal drug, in dog bile by means of reverse-phase HPLC. Although it does involve a simple clean-up step to remove a substantial amount of endogenous bile compounds, this screening method nevertheless avoids extraction of metabolites and thus allows all metabolites to be introduced into the chromatographic system. A single run of 100 minutes from 100% water to 100% methanol in a linear gradient effects adequate separation of the great majority of metabolites without interference from remaining endogenous compounds. Two methods of differentiating between metabolite peaks and endogenous peaks have been worked out. The first one makes use of ¹⁴C-labeled butoprozine by measuring the amount of radioactivity in the column effluent while simultaneously recording the UV absorbance. The second method compares continuous gradient chromatograms of bile recorded before and after butoprozine administration under very similar conditions. The latter method can be applied to both radioactive and non-radioactive materials.     

Numerical examination of performance of some exchange-correlation functionals for molecules containing heavy elements

The performance of 17 exchange-correlation functionals for molecules containing heavy elements are numerically examined through four-component relativistic density DFT calculations. The examined functionals show the similar accuracy as they do for the molecules containing light elements only except for bond lengths. LDA and OP86 produce good results for bond lengths and frequencies but bad bond energies. Different functionals do not show much different performance for bond energies except LDA. BP86 and GP86 produce results with average accuracy while LYP does not perform well. Although encouraging results are obtained with functional B97GGA-1, other heavily parameterized and meta-GGA functionals do not produce impressive results.     

Fe_3(CO)_9(μ_3-S)_2的P(SR)Cl_2和P(SR′)_3取代物的合成和结构研究

用P(SR)Cl_2和P(SR′)_3作n-酸配体,分别与Fe_3(CO)_9(μ_3-S)_2进行取代反应,得到6种新的一取代产物Fe_3(CO)_8(μ_3-S)_2L和3种新的二取代产物Fe_3(CO)_7(μ_3-S)_2L_2,并对它们进行了IR、~1H NMR和MS表征,测定了其中一种取代物Fe_3(CO)_8(μ_3-S)_2[P(SC_6H_5)Cl_2]的分子和晶体结构。     

Nondifferential optimization via adaptive smoothing

The problem of minimizing a nondifferential functionx f(x) (subject, possibly, to nondifferential constraints) is considered. Conventional algorithms are employed for minimizing a differential approximationf off (subject to differentiable approximations ofg). The parameter is adaptively reduced in such a way as to ensure convergence to points satisfying necessary conditions of optimality for the original problem.This research was supported by the UK Science and Engineering Research Council, the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ECS-8121149, and the Joint Services Electronics Program, Contract No. F49620-79-C-0178.     

Optimization of upper semidifferentiable functions

In this paper, we present an implementable algorithm to minimize a nonconvex, nondifferentiable function in ^m . The method generalizes Wolfe's algorithm for convex functions and Mifflin's algorithm for semismooth functions to a broader class of functions, so-called upper semidifferentiable. With this objective, we define a new enlargement of Clarke's generalized gradient that recovers, in special cases, the enlargement proposed by Goldstein. We analyze the convergence of the method and discuss some numerical experiments.The author would like to thank J. B. Hiriart-Urruty (Toulouse) for having provided him with Definition 2.1 and the referees for their constructive remarks about a first version of the paper.     

A quantitative method for dual‐pass electrostatic force microscopy phase measurements

Electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) has become a powerful tool for investigating charges on surfaces. The use of phase measurement in EFM is a direct and fast way to detect electrostatic force gradients, but only qualitatively. With the dual‐pass scheme, the phase signal at lifted height is often assumed to exclude any influences from the topography, but it does not. We report the collection of both topography and phase data by EFM on charged, micron‐sized metal wires. In order to quantify the electrostatic force, a cone model and finite element analysis are provided to integrate the force gradient from the phase signal. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

氟的离子选择电极瞬时电位法测定

研究了氟离子选择电极瞬时电位分析法，其检出限和Nernst响应下限均低于传统电位分析法，空白液切换到试液时瞬时电位达到稳定的峰电位Vp比传统电位法的响应快得多，可以实现小体积试液的快速准确分析；用该法测定了自来水和矿泉水中氟的含量；利用校正曲线的截距和检出限计算了LaF3的溶度积，在0.1mol/L KNO3介质中Ksp(LaF3)=10^-28.45，在0.001mol/L柠檬酸钠＋HAc-NaAc缓冲液（pH=5.50，离子强度I＝0.10mol/L)介质中溶度积K′sp(LaF3)=10^-26.26；据此，计算得柠檬酸与La^3 络合物的稳定常数K1=10^5.46和K2=10^3.99；用离子水合吉氏自由能ΔGh(F^-,g)解释了不同浓度F^-试液瞬时电位的跃迁时间。     

Evaluation of Multicenter Electronic Attraction, Electric Field and Electric Field Gradient Integrals with Screened and Nonscreened Coulomb Potentials over Integer and Noninteger n Slater Orbitals

By the use of complete orthonormal sets of -exponential-type orbitals, where ( = 1, 0, –1, –2,...) the multicenter electronic attraction (EA), electric field (EF) and electric field gradient (EFG) integrals of nonscreened and Yukawa-like screened Coulomb potentials are expressed through the two-center overlap integrals with the same screening constants and the auxiliary functions introduced in our previous paper (I.I. Guseinov, J. Phys. B, 3 (1970) 1399). The recurrence relations for auxiliary functions are useful for the calculation of multicenter EA, EF and EFG integrals for arbitrary integer and noninteger values of principal quantum numbers, screening constants, and location of slater-type orbitals. The convergence of the series is tested by calculating concrete cases.