Application of Ion-Selective Electrodes as Reference Electrodes

Abstract

Reference electrodes limiting interfering effects of conventional reference electrodes on the measurement involving ion-selective electrodes have been developed. They are constructed of a plastic body with porous plug or sleeve junction. Solid state, low impedance, ion-selective electrodes (cupric, cadmium, fluoride) in the equilibrium of corresponding ion solution are used as the half-cells. The absence of interfering ions in the electrolyte allows the determination of the ion of interest at extremely low levels without interference. The electrodes have good reproducibility and stable intercomparison potentials of ± 0.2 mV. The performance of the electrodes has been tested for the measurement of sub-ppm halide levels. Data on stability, reproducibility, effects of temperature, ionic strengthand pH is presented and compared to that of conventional reference electrodes.     

Separation and Quantitation of Urinary Phthalates by HPLC

Abstract

A method was developed for the separation and quantitation of plasticizers and their metabolites from human urine using HPLC, Urine was diluted with an equal volume of water and extracted at pH 2.0 with diethyl ether, The extract was dried, the solvent vacuum stripped, and the residue dissolved in methanol for injection into the chromatograph. A C₁₈ reverse phase column containing 10 μ particles was used for the analysis. Ionic suppression, 0.5% acetic acid in water, at pH 3.0 was used to resolve the acidic components. A step gradient of acetonitri1e:water (containing acetic acid) was used to elute the polar metabolites as well as the non-polar plasticizers. Mass spectrometry was used t o identify the compounds in the HPLC fractions. From the HPLC fractions of the urine extract collected, phthalic acid, MEHP, DEHP and normal urinary constituents (e.g., hippuric and benzoic acid derivatives) were identified     

High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Pirenzepine Dihydrochloride in Its Pharmaceutical Formulation

Abstract

A high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure for the determination of pirenzepine dihydrochloride as a bulk material and in its tablet dosage form (Gastrozepin^R) is presented. Normal phase liquid chromatography has been performed on a Micro-pack Si-10 column using ammonium hydroxide (28–30% NH₃) in methanol (0.75: 99.25% v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 2 ml/min. Clobazam has been used as internal standard with retention times of 1.9 and 2.8 minutes for clobazam and pirenzepine dihydrochloride, respectively at 254 nm. Analytical calibration yields a linear relationship between 5 and 25 μg/ml, with correlation coefficient of 0.999. Tablets each labelled to contain 25 mg pirenzepine dihydrochloride give mean percentage found of 99.98 ± 0.4. A plot of logarithm of concentration against time for a solution in 6 N hydrochloric acid gives a straight line with a slope of - 0.197 day^?1. The proposed method is, therefore, a stability indicating method.     

The influence of water on the memory effect of the amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenyl carbamate) stationary phase

Acid/base modifiers are sometimes used as additives in normal phase elution on columns packed with CHIRALPAK^® AD^®. These modifiers affect enantioseparations in ways that are not yet fully understood for the lack of systematic studies. Shifts of the selectivity of certain pairs of enantiomers upon exposure of the column to these modifiers is amply documented. Furthermore, once the modifier has been removed from the mobile phase, the modified selectivity remains, which has been named the Memory Effect. After a column has been exposed to an eluent stream containing acidic/basic modifiers, this particular column no longer separates certain enantiomeric pairs with the same selectivity as a modifier naive column. This makes the transfer of developed methods from one to other CHIRALPAK AD columns difficult to predict, if the selectivity needs to be similar between the two columns. We selected four enantiomeric pairs for a systematic study of this Memory Effect. The selectivity of 4-chlorophenylalanine ethyl ester improves after a solution of ethanesulfonic acid (ESA) is percolated through the column. The selectivity of Propranolol and Tröger's base increases after a solution of Diiospropylamine is percolated through the column. The selectivity of Propranolol and Tröger's base enantiomers is inversely affected by percolation of the acid solution. The 4-chlorophenylalanine ethyl ester enantiomers is inversely affected by percolation of the base solution. In contrast, the selectivity of trans-stilbene oxide (TSO) is not affected by either modifier. Analytical studies of the stationary phase suggest that slow protonation/deprotonation of water molecules attached to the carbamate moiety may be responsible for the acid/base Memory Effect. To further the understanding of the effect of water on the Memory Effect, mobile phases – spiked with water (0.01–0.43%) – were used to measure changes in the Memory Effect. Finally, we showed that the influence of water on the Memory Effect can be minimized by percolating through the column a sufficiently concentrated solution of the appropriate base while using dried mobile phases.     

Modification of membrane surface for anti-biofouling performance: Effect of anti-adhesion and anti-bacteria approaches

Membrane biofouling refers to the undesirable accumulation (attachment and growth) of microorganisms on a membrane surface, and has been a major problem in the application of membrane technology in water and wastewater treatment. In this study, the surface of a base membrane made of chitosan/cellulose acetate blend was modified by reacting with heparin, quaternary ammonium or being immobilized with silver ions. The purpose of the modifications was to increase the surface hydrophilicity, alter the surface charge property or endue the surface with anti-bacteria function. The modified membranes were then examined for their anti-biofouling performance in terms of the anti-adhesion and anti-bacteria effects, with Escherichia coli pure culture and mixed culture bacteria in a bioreactor that simulated the activated sludge wastewater treatment process. The results clearly show that the hydrophilicity of a membrane, although important, is not an effective indicator for the tendency of membrane biofouling but the nature of the surface charges of the membrane also plays a very important role. It was found that the anti-adhesion approach that prevents the initial attachment of bacteria on a membrane surface is a more effective method than the anti-bacteria approach that aims at killing bacteria already attached on the membrane surface. The best performance for minimizing membrane biofouling has, however, been realized through a modified membrane surface that has effective anti-adhesion property plus additional anti-bacteria function, with the latter as a safe guard in case some bacteria do attach to the surface of a membrane.     

直接甲醇燃料电池的稳定性

综述了近年来在直接甲醇燃料电池性能衰减方面的研究进展, 探讨了影响电池运行稳定性的主要因素.     

Vegetable oil-based flame retardant epoxy/clay nanocomposites

Flammability of epoxy appears to be one of the greatest threats and hence limits its advanced applications. The present investigation, therefore, reports on vegetable oil-based self-extinguishing epoxy/clay nanocomposites for the first time. These nanocomposites were prepared by the ex-situ technique using mechanical shearing and ultrasonication at different loadings (1, 2.5 and 5 wt%) of nano-clay. Monoglyceride of Mesua ferrea L. seed oil, bisphenol-A and tetrabromobisphenol-A based epoxy resin was used as the matrix. XRD, TEM, SEM, FTIR and rheological studies confirmed partially exfoliated nanocomposites formation. The study demonstrates two fold improvements of tensile strength and scratch hardness, three-fold increase in adhesive strength and 20 units increase in gloss value without any change in impact resistance through nanocomposite formation. TG studied confirmed the enhancement of thermal stability of the nanocomposite by 25 °C. The limiting oxygen index values and UL 94 test indicated the self-extinguishing characteristic of the nanocomposites.     

On-Line Coupling of Separation Techniques to NMR

The hyphenation of chromatographic separation techniques with NMR spectroscopy is one of the most powerful and time-saving methods for the separation and structural elucidation of unknown compounds and molecular compositions of mixtures. Most of the routinely used NMR flow-cells have detection volumes between 40–180 μL for conventional separations with analytical columns, and the newest designs employ detection volumes in the order of 200 nL for capillary separations. The low flow rates used in capillary chromatography permit the use of deuterated solvents. Unequivocal structural assignment of unknown chromatographic peaks is possible by two-dimensional stopped-flow capillary HPLC-NMR experiments.     

含磺酸基团的含氟嵌段共聚物的溶液性能及其应用

利用原子转移自由基聚合以及随后的磺化反应合成了一系列具有不同含氟量和磺化度的嵌段共聚物P(SSt b FNEMA) (PSSF) .通过溶液粘度和表面张力的测定 ,研究了该含氟嵌段共聚物独特的溶液行为 .实验结果表明 ,PSSF能显著降低N 甲基吡咯烷酮溶液的表面张力 .然而 ,与N 甲基吡咯烷酮溶液的表面性能不同 ,PSSF不能显著地降低水溶液的表面张力 ;当PSSF中和成钠盐后 ,水溶液的表面张力趋于一致 .进一步通过TEM、1 H NMR考察了PSSF在不同溶液中的形态 ,发现PSSF在水溶液中以核壳结构存在 ,而在N 甲基吡咯烷酮溶液中主要以胶束的形式存在 .初步考察了PSSF对聚氨酯脲 丙烯酸酯 (PUA)复合水分散液的改性效果 ,发现只需加入少量的PSSF ,就可使PUA膜的吸水率从原来的 10wt%下降到 4wt% .     

Comparison of particle size and flow rate optimization for chromatography using one-monomer molecularly imprinted polymers versus traditional non-covalent molecularly imprinted polymers

The dependence of enantio-selective chromatographic performance on particle size, as measured by separation factor, was investigated for one-monomer molecularly imprinted polymers (OMNiMIPs) compared to traditionally formed EGDMA/MAA molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). Five particle size ranges were compared (<20 μm, 20-25 μm, 25-38 μm, 38-45 μm, and 45-63 μm), revealing that the particle sizes above 25 μm provided the highest separation factor, and thus the best enantiomer separation, for both imprinted polymers. Other chromatographic parameters such as the number of theoretical plates and resolution exhibited only minor changes for the OMNiMIPs as the particle size changed, except for particles 20 μm and below. However, the number of theoretical plates and resolution for EGDMA/MAA are higher for particles in the 20-25 μm range. Thus, chromatographic factors for the EGDMA/MAA polymers are better in this range, despite better enantioselectivity for particle sizes above 25 μm. In contrast, OMNiMIPs generally show the most favorable performance for particle sizes in the 38-45 μm range. It was also found that decreasing flow rate resulted in improved enantioselectivity for both MIPs for all particle sizes.