Polymer-Mercury Coated Screen-Printed Sensors for Electrochemical Stripping Analysis of Heavy Metals

In the perspective of in-field stripping analysis of heavy metals, the use and disposal of toxic mercury solutions (necessary to plate a mercury film on a carbon electrode surface) presents a problem. The aim of this work was the development of mercury coated screen-printed electrodes previously prepared in the lab and ready to use in-field. Thus some commercially available polymers like Nafion®, Eastman Kodak AQ29®, and Methocel® were investigated as mercury entrapping systems for electrochemical stripping analysis of heavy metals. Screen-printed disposable cells with a silver pseudo-reference electrode, a graphite counter electrode, and a graphite working electrode were used. To modify the sensor, the polymer solution was cast onto the carbon working electrode surface. Detection limits of 0.8 and 1 μg/L were obtained for lead and cadmium respectively. Since Methocel® based electrodes showed the best performance, they were used for the analysis of real samples. The results were compared with those obtained using a classical thin mercury film electrode and ICP spectroscopy.

All the experiments reported here were performed in un-deareated solutions as required for in-field analysis.     

Determination of Triazines and N-Methylcarbamate Pesticides in Water by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detection

A rapid and selective method for the simultaneous determination of triazine herbicides (atrazine, its degradation product desethylatrazine, simazine, prometryn, terbutryn) and N-methylcarbamate insecticides (propoxur, carbaryl and methiocarb) in surface water has been developed. A 0.5 L of the water sample was preconcentrated by passage through a 1 g C₁₈ solid-phase extraction cartridge. The retained compounds were eluted with 5 mL of methanol from the cartridge. The pesticides were separated and quantified by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with UV diode-array detection. Analytical separation was performed using a concave gradient elution with acetonitrile and water on a C₁₈ column. Prometryn and terbutryn were determined at 240 nm; propoxur, methiocarb at 204 nm and the others at 220 nm. Recoveries varied from 85 to 102% over concentrations at 0.025 and 0.2 µg L^?1. The limits of detection for the compounds investigated are in the range of 0.005-0.012 µg L^?1.     

Ranking ranges in cross-efficiency evaluations

The existence of alternate optima for the DEA weights may reduce the usefulness of the cross-efficiency evaluation, since the ranking provided depends on the choice of weights that the different DMUs make. In this paper, we develop a procedure to carry out the cross-efficiency evaluation without the need to make any specific choice of DEA weights. The proposed procedure takes into consideration all the possible choices of weights that all the DMUs can make, and yields for each unit a range for its possible rankings instead of a single ranking. This range is determined by the best and the worst rankings that would result in the best and the worst scenarios of each unit across all the DEA weights of all the DMUs. This approach might identify good/bad performers, as those that rank at the top/bottom irrespective of the weights that are chosen, or units that outperform others in all the scenarios. In addition, it may be used to analyze the stability of the ranking provided by the standard cross-efficiency evaluation.     

Nitrile Rubber Reactor Operation Troubleshooting with Principal Component Analysis

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is employed as a tool in order to demonstrate yet another application of the technique, and, most importantly, to show that results from the statistical multivariate technique do make physico-chemical sense. The operation of a typical emulsion copolymerization of acrylonitrile and butadiene (nitrile butadiene rubber, NBR) is used as an example of process troubleshooting. In more general terms, a statistical tool is used to aid process data analysis and process operation (recipe, product property) troubleshooting.

The goal is to produce consistent Mooney Viscosity (MV) among different batches. The observation is that varying induction times lead to Mooney Viscosity inconsistencies. Firstly, we show results from the application of PCA to process data. Secondly, we deal with an even more important (and often ignored) question by examining whether the trends indicated by PCA make process sense.     

关于极限理论的学习经验

分析极限理论在数学分析学习中的重要性，介绍学习极限理论的三点经验与体会，即充分理解基本内容；加强基本功训练；试着多问自己一些问题，学会举出各种各样的例子。     

Nonstandard Finite Difference Schemes for Differential Equations

This paper gives an introduction to nonstandard finite difference methods useful for the construction of discrete models of differential equations when numerical solutions are required. While the general rules for such schemes are not precisely known at the present time, several important criterion have been found. We provide an explanation of their significance and apply them to several model ordinary and partial differential equations. The paper ends with a discussion of several outstanding problems in this area and other related issues.     

Synthese et Etude Structurale D'acides Alkylphosphoniques a Longue Chaine Hydrocarbonee

Long-chain dialkyl alkylphosphonates were synthesized by radical addition of dialkyl hydrogenphosphonates onto alkenes in presence of di(t-butyl) peroxide. This synthetic route leads to high yields between 94 and 97%. We performed chemical modifications of these phosphonates in order to obtain acidic derivatives. The structure of these compounds was characterized by NMR analyses and mass spectroscopy. We also studied their thermal behaviour and various crystalline phases were put in evidence by differential scanning calorimetry and optical microscopy. The thermal stability of these compounds was compared by thermogravimetric analyses.     

Orthogonal Wavelets Analysis of Electroanalytical Signals

ABSTRACT

A signal processing technique based on orthogonal wavelet analysis is applied to process various simulated electroanalytical signals. The results indicate that if the scale parameters are selected, the orthogonal wavelet processing method (OWPM) can remove high-frequency noise. Experimental signal was recorded by computer and used to test the OWPM procedure. After processing with OWPM, the processed data was used to analyze the mechanism of the electrode reactions. Processed results of the experimental data are also satisfactory.     

Discriminant Analysis of Selected Organics Evaluated as Corrosion Inhibitors in 0.5 M HCL

Abstract

Discriminant analysis can be used to (1) find criteria to separate observations into groups and (2) to optimally assign a new observation to its correct group. It is rather exploratory in nature especially when causal relationships are not known. Twenty four selected organics were tested as corrosion inhibitors and both physical and structural features were encoded as criteria for discrimination. In addition, a narrower set of twelve nitrogen containing compounds was also studied. In both cases the carbon chain length was an important uncoded criterion. The physical factors such as boiling point, molecular weight, pKa, and molecular area were not as important as some of the structural parameters.     

Controllability of Nonsmooth Discrete Systems with Delay

This paper is concerned with a study of local controllability to discrete inclusions with delay. The sufficient conditions for relative and complete local controllability are obtained on the base of using Mordukhovich's nonsmooth constructions.