Preservation of sensitive CRMs and monitoring their stability at IRMM

Over the years, the nature of CRMs has changed considerably. Recently, more and more CRMs have been certified in their "natural" form, that is processed as little as possible, with analytes at their natural concentration level. This and the trend towards certified properties other than the concentrations of clearly defined molecules/elements have made guaranteeing stability of CRMs and estimating a shelf life an even more important issue for reference material producers than it has been before. One way to meet this challenge is to take more care in processing, storage and dispatch of CRMs. At IRMM, approximately 20 % of the RMs are stored at –20 °C or below and about 10% require cooled transportation. In addition, increased efforts for assessing stability are needed. Shelf lives are estimated using addition of an uncertainty component based on real-temperature stability studies rather than by accelerated stability studies. These pre-certification efforts are complemented by a stability-monitoring program, which at IRMM includes 80 % of the non-nuclear and non-isotopic materials. Although the costs for these efforts are high in absolute terms, they are only a minor and indispensable contribution to the total costs of CRM production.     

Synthesis, structure, and electrochemical properties of 12,42-dioxo-21,31-diphenyl-7,10,13-trioxa-1,4(3,1)-diquinoxalina-2(2,3),3(3,2)-diindolizinacyclopentadecaphane

The oxidative dehydrocyclization of the 3-(indolizin-2′-yl)-2-oxoquinoxaline monopodand performed either electrochemically or under the action of molecular iodine affords new redox-active heterocyclophane consisting of the redox-switchable biindolizine fragment combined with the polyether-bridged π-deficient quinoxaline systems. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction study showed that the trioxaundecane chain of heterocyclophane adopts an extended conformation, and one of the phenyl substituents of the molecule closes the pseudocavity formed by the spacer from one of the sides. The cyclic voltammetric study of heterocyclophane in MeCN and DMF showed the three-step oxidation of the indolizine fragments accompanied by the single-electron transfer in each step. The first and third steps are reversible, and the second step is irreversible. The oxidation at potentials of the first peak gives rise to stable radical cations detected by the ESR method (g = 2.0024, a _2N = 0.26 mT). Dedicated to Professor E. A. Berdnikov on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 10, pp. 1991–2003, October, 2007.     

A differential microcalorimetric study of whey proteins and their behaviour in oil-in-water emulsions

Oil-in-water emulsions (20% soya oil, 1% protein) have been prepared containing lysozyme or isolates of -lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin from whey protein. The structural characteristics of these proteins adsorbed at an oil/water interface were determined by following their thermal transitions using differential scanning microcalorimetry. Thermograms of the proteins in the adsorbed state differed markedly from the corresponding transitions seen for the proteins in solution. This suggests that the proteins underwent substantial changes in secondary and tertiary structure upon adsorption. In general, for all the proteins studied, a net decrease in the total energy absorbed during denaturation was found when the proteins were in an adsorbed state. Both lysozyme and -lactalbumin were in part “surface denatured”, and they showed a certain degree of reversibility between solution and the adsorbed state. β-Lactoglobulin showed the highest degree of denaturation upon adsorption and the conformational change was irreversible.     

Comparative FT infrared study of structural changes occuring on dealumination of zeolite Na-Y with ethylenediaminetetraacetic or hydrochloric acid

IR lattice vibration spectra were used to monitor the changes in the structure of zeolite Na-Y upon its dealumination with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or with HCl. The terminal Si-O(H,Na) bonds thus formed (which are detectable by characteristic absorbance at v 900–950 cm^–1) are energetically less uniform when EDTA has been used as the dealuminating agent. This inhomogeneity is connected with the local deformations of zeolite structure which result in lowering the symmetry of silicon-oxygen tetrahedra. As a consequence, two novel bands appear at v 1090 cm^–1 and 1200 cm^–1 in addition to the fundamental absorption bands, v_as (TO₄) (T = Si, Al), at 1030 cm^–1 and 1145 cm^–1. A mechanism of dealumination is proposed, which takes into account the topochemical peculiarities involved in the chelation of the framework aluminum ions with EDTA.Translated fromIzyestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskay, No. 2, pp. 284–287, February, 1993.     

A configuration interaction study of phosphine using bonded functions

A computational study is made of the effect of basis set upon the energy, properties and inversion barrier of the phosphine molecule. The calculations are performed at both the SCF and CI level. The flexibility of the double zeta basis is discussed in the light of the results.     

Functional polythiiranes 7: Surface activity of polythiiranes with PEO side chains

 Some comb-like polythiiranes with PEO side chains were prepared from the corresponding macromonomers. These new materials are amphiphiles and act as surfactants. Their surface tension and interfacial tension are measured and studied in this paper on account of their structures. The lowering of surface tension measured in polymers bearing methyl terminal group in PEO side chains, are in the same range as these observed with polymers of identical structures but different main chains. An increase of the hydrophobic units in the main chain, obtained in copolymers with methylthiirane does not significantly modified the surface tensions. Better lowering is afforded with structures bearing large alkyl groups as terminal group of PEO side chains. On the contrary, some of these macro-molecules with an optimized EO content largely lower the water/xylene surface tension. The main interest of these new materials is their very low cmc and the stabilization of L₁-type microemulsions. Received: 20 May 1997 Accepted: 25 November 1997     

Etude théorique par la méthode DFT des structures non-classiques des systèmes X2H2F2 (X=Si, Ge, Sn)

The structure and the relative stability of isomers of molecules X₂H₂F₂ (X=Si, Ge, Sn) have been studied using the density functional theory (DFT). We have determined the optimised structures of the substituted isomers. The XX bond have been studied and compared to that of the parent molecules: X₂H₄. It appears that, for the planar and trans ethylenic systems, the double bond character of the XX decreases when the hydrogen atoms are substituted by fluorine atoms. The most stable structure is shown to be the one where the two fluorine atoms are fixed on the same atom. The bridged structures are also studied.     

On products of reaction of imidazole with benzoyl chloride under conditions of the Regel-Buchel reaction

The reaction of imidazole with benzoyl chloride in pyridine affordedcis-1,2-bis(benzoyl-amino)ethylene (1) rather than 2-benzoylimidazole, as has been suggested previously. The structure of1 was confirmed by¹H NMR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction study. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1593–1595, August, 1998.     

Corrosion-stable nickel- and cobalt-based alloys for dental applications

In a comparative study the in vitro corrosion behavior of a selection of nickel- and cobalt-based alloys for application in dentistry containing no noble metals was studied with slow scan cyclic voltammetry. The obtained breakthrough potentials, the repassivation behavior and further typical features of the cyclic voltamograms are correlated with the chemical composition as measured with electron beam microanalysis. Surface inhomogenities detected with the latter method are discussed with respect to the electrochemical behavior. For all alloys stabilities in terms of breakthrough potential superior to previously reported data for nickel-base alloys are found.     

Pyrolysis study of fluorinated sol-gel silica

Fluorinated silica gels at various fluorine content were prepared via sol-gel by hydrolysis of 3,3,3-trifluoropropyltrimethoxysilane and tetraethoxysilane mixtures. The gels, of nominal stoichiometry Si(CH₂CH₂CF₃)_XO_(2-X/2)(X=0.1-1), were characterized by FT-IR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and N₂ adsorption analysis. The thermal stability of the fluorinated samples was investigated by coupling thermogravimetric measurements with mass spectrometric and gas chromatographic analyses of the evolved gaseous species. The chemical reactions occurring in the gel matrices during heating were siloxane chain rearrangements involving condensation between residual hydroxyl and ethoxyl groups in the 100-350°C temperature range, whereas the thermal decomposition of the fluoroalkyl groups were observed at higher temperatures (450-600°C). The release of the fluoroalkyl moieties also involved C-F/Si-O bond exchanges inside the siloxane chains, with gas-phase evolution of different fluorinated silicon units. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.