Subcritical water and dynamic sonication-assisted solvent extraction of fluorescent whitening agents and azo dyes in paper samples

Two low-volume solvent continuous extraction methods are applied to the extraction of paper matrices. In the methods reported here, a complex mixture of fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) and azo dyes (AZOs) used in paper materials intended to come into contact with foodstuffs was extracted by using subcritical water extraction (SWE) and dynamic sonication-assisted solvent extraction (DSASE). Rationale for the work is based upon migration concerns of these groups of analytes from the packaging to the packaged items, thus compromising their subjective and/or objective quality. In SWE, sample was extracted in 21 min with 0.5 mL of water, whereas the DSASE method required 11 min and used 7 mL of water. DSASE was further developed by incorporating an organic modifier in order to change water polarity, thus improving extraction of moderately polar analytes. This way, modified-DSASE used a total organic volume of 0.9 mL which represents a reduction of 200 times in organic solvent consumption (200 mL versus approximately 1.0 mL) and 11 times in extraction time (2h versus 11 min) compared to the existing methods. SWE was able to extract only 9 out of 12 test analytes with average recoveries between 10 and 25% whereas modified-DSASE succeed in extracting all the target analytes with an average recovery of 89%. Complete discussion and explanation concerning these differences are provided in the text.     

Fractional Schrödinger equation; solvability and connection with classical Schrödinger equation

We consider the Dirichlet boundary problem for semilinear fractional Schrödinger equation with subcritical nonlinear term. Local and global in time solvability and regularity properties of solutions are discussed. But our main task is to describe the connections of the fractional equation with the classical nonlinear Schrödinger equation, including convergence of the linear semigroups and continuity of the nonlinear semigroups when the fractional exponent α approaches 1.     

Glycolipid class profiling by packed-column subcritical fluid chromatography

The potential of packed-column subcritical fluid chromatography (SubFC) for the separation of lipid classes has been assessed in this study. Three polar stationary phases were checked: silica, diol, and poly(vinyl alcohol). Carbon dioxide (CO2) with methanol as modifier was used as mobile phase and detection performed by evaporative light scattering detection. The influence of methanol content, temperature, and pressure on the chromatographic behavior of sphingolipids and glycolipids were investigated. A complete separation of lipid classes from a crude wheat lipid extract was achieved using a modifier gradient from 10 to 40% methanol in carbon dioxide. Solute selectivity was improved using coupled silica and diol columns in series. Because the variation of eluotropic strength depending on the fluid density changes, a normalized separation factor product (NSP) was used to select the nature, the number and the order of the columns to reach the optimum glycolipid separation.     

Non-supercritically dried silica–silica composite aerogel and its possible application for confining simulated nuclear wastes

The simpler non-supercritical drying approach has been used for the first time for the preparation of silica–silica composite aerogels (CA) and the efficiency of the process being demonstrated by testing the use of the aerogels for simulated high level nuclear waste confinement. Compositions of 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 wt% of silica (aerosil® 380) in silica–aerogel were prepared by introducing pyrogenic silica in to silica sol derived by hydrolysis of Tetraethoxy silane (TEOS). The silica–silica composite aerogels (CA) possessed very high surface area and low bulk densities. The effectiveness of the prepared composite aerogels as precursor for high level nuclear waste immobilized glass is also presented. Neodymium nitrate dissolved in isopropanol is used to simulate +3 valent actinides. The stability of neodymium in the glass matrix has been found to be extremely high. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been used to characterise the aerogels as well as neodymium incorporated sintered gels. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies of the sintered samples reveal the formation of neodymium silicates.     

Degradation of benzoic acid and its derivatives in subcritical water

In this research, the stability of benzoic acid and three of its derivatives (anthranilic acid, salicylic acid, and syringic acid) under subcritical water conditions was investigated. The stability studies were carried out at temperatures ranging from 50 to 350 °C with heating times of 10–630 min. The degradation of the benzoic acid derivatives increased with rising temperature and the acids became less stable with longer heating time. The three benzoic acid derivatives showed very mild degradation at 150 °C. Severe degradation of benzoic acid derivatives was observed at 200 °C while their complete degradation occurred at 250 °C. However, benzoic acid remained stable at temperatures up to 300 °C. The degradation products of benzoic acid and the three derivatives were identified and quantified by HPLC and confirmed by GC/MS. Anthranilic acid, salicylic acid, syringic acid, and benzoic acid in high-temperature water underwent decarboxylation to form aniline, phenol, syringol, and benzene, respectively.     

亚临界1,1,1,2-四氟乙烷萃取-气相色谱-质谱法测定鱼肉中6种性激素残留

利用亚临界1,1,1,2-四氟乙烷(R134a)萃取技术,建立了鱼肉中6种性激素残留的气相色谱-质谱(GC-MS)分析方法。样品中的药物经过亚临界R134a萃取后,先进行冷冻过滤去脂,然后通过C18和NH2固相萃取小柱净化,最后经七氟丁酸酐衍生后,采用GC-MS进行定性与定量分析。本实验确定了亚临界R134a萃取6种性激素的最佳条件为:萃取压力4 MPa,萃取温度30℃,夹带剂用量6 mL。在此条件下,6种性激素在5~1000μg/L浓度范围内线性关系良好,相关系数均大于0.99;检出限为0.2~1μg/kg(S/N=3)。在3种浓度添加水平(1,5和10μg/kg)下,6种激素的平均回收率为70.5%~103.6%,相对标准偏差(RSD)为2.1%~12.5%。采用本方法进行实际样品检测时,在一份罗非鱼样品中检出己烯雌酚残留,残留量为14.6μg/kg。     

Oxidation of Alcohols to Carbonyl Compounds, Benzylic Carbons to their Ketones, and Arenes to their Quinones with Molecular Oxygen in Subcritical Water

Summary. Molecular oxygen is used as an efficient oxidant for the conversion of alcohols into carbonyl compounds, benzylic carbons to their ketones, and arenes to their quinones in subcritical water in the absence of catalysts. The procedure utilizes water and does not require support materials and metal salts.     

Oxidation of Thiols to Disulfides with Molecular Oxygen in Subcritical Water

Summary. Molecular oxygen is used as an efficient oxidant for the oxidative coupling of thiols to disulfides in subcritical water in the absence of catalysts. The procedure utilizes water and does not require support materials and metal salts providing high yields (>90%).