Analysis of trace‐level nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water samples by solid‐phase microextraction with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry

A solid‐phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry method has been developed for the determination of ten nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water samples. Five different kinds of commerical fibers were used to compare the extraction efficiency, including 65 μm polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene, 100 μm polydimethylsiloxane, 30 μm polydimethylsiloxane, 7 μm polydimethylsiloxane, and 85 μm polyacrylate fibers. Five factors were also selected to optimize conditions, including extraction temperature, time, stirring speed, salt concentration, and headspace volume. Taguchi design was applied to design the experiments and obtain the best parameters. The results show that 65 μm polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene fiber directly immersed into aqueous solution for 35 min at 55°C with a constant stirring rate of 1150 rpm were the optimal conditions. Under these conditions, the limits of quantification were 0.007–0.063 μg/L, and the relative standard deviation based on six replicates ranged from 2.8 to 9.5%. The spiked recoveries ranged from 69.1 to 110.1%. Intra‐ and inter day relative standard deviations at three concentration levels were less than 12%, and the recoveries were 66.4–111.5%. The proposed method is reliable for analyzing nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in different water samples.     

Silica‐based magnetic hybrid nanocomposite for the extraction and preconcentration of some organophosphorus pesticides before gas chromatography

The precise control of pesticide residues in foodstuffs depends significantly on the clean extraction of analytes using specifically designed separation methods. In this study, a one‐pot sol–gel process was used for the preparation of a magnetic hybrid silica gel tetraethylortho silicate‐cyanopropyltriethoxy silane nanocomposite. The prepared material was characterized using energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, single‐point specific surface area, and scanning electron microcopy. The synthesized magnetic hybrid material was used as a solid phase extraction sorbent for the extraction and preconcentration of some organophosphorus pesticides before gas chromatography with a microelectron capture detector. The performance of the proposed magnetic solid‐phase extraction technique was validated by linearity (0.05–2 ng/mL), correlation coefficients (r² = 0.9993–0.9997), limit of detection (0.02–0.06 ng/mL, S/N = 3, n = 3), and intraday (RSD = 1.5–8.7%, n = 3) and interday precision (RSD = 5.5–9.3%, n = 12), while the recovery in real samples and equilibrium adsorption capacity was 72.02–103.84% and 8–20 mg/g, respectively. The magnetic solid‐phase extraction based on the hybrid nanocomposite revealed a high enrichment factor, an appropriate dynamic range, and great absorptive ability toward the selected organophosphorus pesticides spiked in real water samples.     

Dispersion polymerization of methyl methacrylate: Mechanism of particle formation

The mechanism for the formation of micron-size polymer particles in the dispersion polymerization of methyl methacrylate was investigated by applying dynamic light scattering to monitor the evolution of the average particle size in the early stages of the polymerization. In addition, the contributions of physically adsorbed stabilizer and graft copolymer were evaluated by measuring the bound, unbound (adsorbed), and free stabilizer, and by determining the amount of added stabilizer required in seeded dispersion polymerizations. Twenty nanometer particles (termed nuclei) were the smallest particles detected and are considered to be formed by aggregation of growing polymer chains precipitating from solution as they exceed their critical chain length. Aggregation of these nuclei with themselves and their aggregates continues until mature and stable particles are formed. This occurs when sufficient stabilizer occupies the particle surface which includes both the polymeric stabilizer [poly(vinylpyrrolidone)] and its graft copolymer which is created in situ. The effects of process variables are discussed based on this mechanistic picture of the dispersion polymerization process. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A Novel Method for the Detection of Chlorpyrifos by Combining Quantum Dot-labeled Molecularly Imprinted Polymer with Flow Cytometry

Uniform-sized fluorescent molecularly imprinted polymers were prepared by one-step swelling and suspension polymerization, while chlorpyrifos, methacrylic acid, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, and oil-soluble CdSe/ZnS quantum dots were used as the carrier, template molecule, functional monomer, cross-linker, and fluorophor, respectively. The morphology, adsorption dynamics, binding ability, and selectivity of quantum dot-labeled molecularly imprinted polymers were evaluated. The dosage of quantum dots for labeling the molecularly imprinted polymers was optimized. The results showed that the optimized dose of quantum dots was 200?µL using a concentration of 8.0?µM. The microsphere size was approximately 10?µm with a honeycombed surface. The quantum dot-labeled molecularly imprinted polymers had an even brightness and a high selectivity. In the presence of different concentrations of chlorpyrifos, a decrease in the fluorescence intensity of the quantum dot-labeled molecularly imprinted polymer was clearly identified by flow cytometry. The whole detection process was accomplished within 2?h including pretreatment. This method was used for the determination of chlorpyrifos in tap water samples.     

Numerical simulation of deformation behavior of droplet in gas under the electric field and flow field coupling

The water droplets in the process of electrostatic coalescence are important when studying electrohydrodynamics. In the present study, the electric field and flow field are coupled through the phase field method based on the Cahn–Hilliard formulation. A numerical simulation model of single droplet deformation under the coupling field was established. It simulated the deformation behavior of the movement of a droplet in the continuous phase and took the impact of droplet deformation into consideration which is affected by two-phase flow velocity, electric field strength, the droplet diameter, and the interfacial tension. The results indicated that under the single action of the flow field, when the flow velocity was lower, the droplet diameter was greater as was the droplet deformation degree. When the flow velocity was increased, the droplet deformation degree of a small-diameter droplet was at its maximum size, the large-diameter droplet had a smaller deformation degree, and the middle-diameter droplet was at a minimum deformation degree. When the flow velocity was further increased, the droplet diameter was smaller, and the droplet deformation degree was greater. Under the coupled effect of the electric field and flow field, the two-phase flow velocity and the electric field strength were greater, and the degree of droplet deformation was greater. While the droplet diameter and interfacial tension were smaller, the degree of droplet deformation was greater. Droplet deformation degree increased along with the two-phase flow velocity. The research results provided a theoretical basis for gas–liquid separation with electrostatic coalescence technology.     

Composition dependence of the photocatalytic activities of BiOCl(1-x)Br(x) solid solutions under visible light

We prepared BiOCl(1-x)Br(x) (x=0-1) solid solutions and characterized their structures, morphologies, and photocatalytic properties by X-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, photocurrent and photocatalytic activity measurements and also by density functional theory calculations for BiOCl, BiOBr, BiOCl(0.5)Br(0.5). Under visible-light irradiation BiOCl(1-x)Br(x) exhibits a stronger photocatalytic activity than do BiOCl and BiOBr, with the activity reaching the maximum at x=0.5 and decreasing gradually as x is increased toward 1 or decreased toward 0. This trend is closely mimicked by the photogenerated current of BiOCl(1-x)Br(x) , indicating that the enhanced photocatalytic activity of BiOCl(1-x)Br(x) with respect to those of BiOCl and BiOBr originates from the trapping of photogenerated carriers. Our electronic structure calculations for BiOCl(0.5)Br(0.5) with the anion (O(2-), Cl(-), Br(-)) and cation (Bi(3+)) vacancies suggest that the trapping of photogenerated carriers is caused most likely by Bi(3+) cation vacancies, which generate hole states above the conduction band maximum.     

Synthesis and structure of anhydrodimers of salicylaldehydes

Anhydrodimers have been synthesized by reactions of salicylaldehyde and 3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylaldehyde with SOCl₂ or PCl₅. A mechanism of condensation has been proposed, and the molecular structure of dibenzo-2,6,9-trioxabicyclo[3.3.1]nona-3,7-diene has been determined by X-ray structural analysis.Deceased.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1549–1551, August, 1995.The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 94-03-08653).     

Particle number density and velocity distributions in laser plumes

A time-of-flight mass spectrometer with electron impact ionization facility was used in investigations of the laser plume structure. Densities and velocity distributions of positively charged and neutral species were measured 12 cm downstream of the target. Velocities of particles in a plume were measured by the retarding potential method. The combination of a skimmer and declining electric field was used to suppress the influence of charged particles during the measurement of the neutral component parameters. In the case of YBaCuO ceramic laser ablation, a strong variation of the laser-induced plume composition was observed from its head to its tail. It seems to be accounted for by the difference of the starting (phase transition) temperatures of various layers of a plume. Ions detected mainly in the head of a plume were followed by atoms, molecules and clusters in inverse succession to their appearance in the plume under the light intensity increase. The characteristic of the number density dependence upon the laser spot diameter make it clear that most of the molecules BaO and YO are the direct product of ablation. In contrast, the detected clusters with masses up to 2000 amu are the product of condensation in the expanding plume under the conditions of the experiments.     

Reactions of isomeric 3,6- and 3,5-di-tert-butyl-ortho-benzoquinones with NH3

The interaction of 3,6-di-tert-butyl-ortho-benzoquinone (1) and 3,5-di-tert-butyl-ortho-benzoquinone (2) with NH₃ in water—alcohol medium and with (NH₄)₂CO₃ in a solid phase has been studied. Redox processes with participation of a nucleophile of the medium take place for1, while2 reacts with NH₃ at the carbonyl group with transformation of the quinone imide. The mechanism of redox transformation of1 has been proposed.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 9, pp. 1789–1793, September, 1995.This work was carried out with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 94-03-08653).     

Biochemical sensors: The state of the art

The basic components of a (bio)chemical sensor and the main concepts involved in the (bio)chemical sensor methodology are considered in order to depict the state of the art of the development of research in this field, paying special attention to the evolution of the published scientific literature in analytical chemistry.