Surface modification of soft-glass capillaries for gas chromatography by treatment with water vapour

“Leaching” or “etching” by strong mineral acids seems to be a necessary pretreatment step for the most commonly used deactivation procedures of glass capillaries by reaction with either polyethylene glycol or silylation reagents. The acidic sites which are formed on the surface during this acid treatment cannot be completely removed by the subsequent deactivation process. This drawback can be overcome by performing the leaching with water vapour, resulting in an accumulation of cations at the surface and a decrease in the number of silanol groups. Capillaries of this type show excellent properties for the chromatography of strongly basic compounds. After the wash-out of the alkaline surface layer, the acidity of the support is suited for the chromatography of strongly basic as well as strongly acidic compounds. Due to a lack of reactive acidic sites, special deactivation procedures have to be applied to capillaries produced in this way.     

A calorimetric study of the glass transition kinetics in polyisoprene

The connection between the dielectric and calorimetric relaxation behaviours of synthetic polyisoprene Cariflex IR 305 is studied. A similar comparison of dielectric and dilatometric results was described in [1]. The heat capacity was measured during heating of samples prepared with different thermal history. Experimental results were compared with the heat capacity curves calculated for a model based on the multiparameter theory of Kovacs et al. [4]. The model considers the relaxation system as being composed of a set of subsystems characterized by different relaxation times. The distribution of relaxation times and their temperature dependence were taken from the diclectric measurement. The relaxation time of a subsystem from posed to depend, not only on the actual, temperature of the sample, but also on the deviation of this subsystem from equilibrium, or alternatively, on the deviation of the system as a whole. The comparison between the measured and modeled curves shows that both influences must be taken into account in order to explain the experimental results.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. W. Pechhold on the occasion of his 60th birthday.     

Microfabricated bioreactor chips for immobilised enzyme assays

A microfabricated device is reported that has been designed to permit the in situ packing of a section of channel with enzyme immobilised onto controlled pore glass (CPG). It is fabricated from glass and polydimethylsiloxane and to prevent dead volumes, has dedicated channels for packing the reactor. The device has the advantage of being simple in design, the flow through enzyme reactor channel being simply a widened section of the analyte channel. The system is suitable for both hydrodynamic and electro-osmotic pumping, and is designed such that when the packing is exhausted it can be repacked. Controlled pore glass provides a reproducible none swelling, high porosity medium onto which the enzyme could be immobilised. The large particle size meant that it was vital to optimise the immobilisation procedure in order to achieve acceptable enzyme activity. The microfabricated device was developed with two enzymes of different molecular masses; alkaline phosphatase and xanthine oxidase. The pore size of the CPG was found to be very important for xanthine oxidase, where the 697 Å pore size (120-200 mesh) CPG was found to give the highest activity (18-20% activity retained after immobilisation). The microfabricated device was used for the assay of p-nitrophenyl phosphate and hypoxanthine with spectrophotometric detection at 405 and 470 nm, respectively. The limits of detection were 5 and 8 μM, respectively.     

Protection of immobilized sulfhydryl groups against autooxidation by alterations in their microenvironment

Immobilized sulfhydryl groups were prepared by partial thiolation of NH₂-glass beads. The microenvironment of the immobilized SH groups was varied by different chemical modifications of neighboring NH₂ groups. Introduction of a strong charge in the surroundings of immobilized sulfhydryls results in their dramatic stabilization against autooxidation. This effect is due to the salting of O₂ from the surface microlayer of the thiolated beads.     

Advances in two-dimensional GC with glass capillary columns

A versatile two-dimensional gas chromatograph is described, consisting of 2 separate ovens, one intermediate trap, an auxiliary inlet, and the necessary hardware to effect off-line switching according to the principle of Deans. The unit has been designed for use with high resolution glass capillary columns. The performance of individual instrumental components was critically evaluated. Results showed that low dead volume glass to metal connections were required in the manifold and detector lines to minimize extra-column effects. The mass of the intermediate trap must be low to allow rapid heating. Operational parameters are discussed and examples of some applications are shown.     

Physicochemical characterization of biological glass coatings

Metallic implants are widely used in orthopaedic surgery but metal release has been reported by several authors. High metallic ion concentration in surrounding tissues may play a major role in therapeutic failure. We have investigated in vivo and in vitro two biological glasses (BVA and BVH) used as coatings of metal implants. Physicochemical characterization was made by several complementary methods, particularly particle induced x‐ray emission (PIXE) and energy‐dispersive x‐ray spectroscopy (EDXS) associated with electronic microscopy. Analyses clearly show the differences of behaviour between both glasses. The BVA glass is bioactive, i.e. it develops a direct chemical bond between prosthesis and bone by the formation of a calcium phosphate layer at its surface. These structural and compositional modifications are caused by hydrolysis of the glass. After its dissolution BVA glass is replaced by bone, which ensures better integration of the implant in the bone site. The BVH glass is not bioactive and is used as a cement to isolate the metal implant from the biological environment, but the coating disaggregates with implantation time and glass grains migrate through the bony lacuna network. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prospects of Sol-Gel Process for Spectral Hole-Burning Glasses

Persistent spectral hole burning was studied in Eu³⁺ ions-doped Al₂O₃-SiO₂ glass prepared by a sol-gel method. The gel synthesized by the hydrolysis of Si- and Al-alkoxides and EuCl₃·6H₂O was heated in air and hydrogen gas atmospheres. For the glass heated in air to contain OH bonds, the hole was formed by the photoinduced rearrangement of the OH bonds surrounding the Eu³⁺ ions, and was thermally refilled and erased above 200 K. On the other hand, the glass heated in hydrogen gas showed the hole spectrum above 200 K. It was found that the hole depth was independent of the temperature and was 7% of the total intensity at room temperature. The proposed mechanism was the electron transfer between the Eu³⁺ ions and the defect centers formed in glass matrix.     

Mechanical properties and transition temperatures of crosslinked-oriented gelatin

 This second part of a systematic study of the properties of crosslinked-oriented gelatin involves the effects of orientation and water content on the glass transition temperature T _g and on the melting behavior. The samples were the same as those in the preceding study, and their transition temperatures were determined by both differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. The crosslinked gelatin which had been room-conditioned showed two transition temperatures: the lower one was attributed to T _g of the water-plasticized gelatin, and the higher one was interpreted as T _g of dried gelatin superimposed by melting. A rather unusual situation arose because of the fact that the T _g and melting temperatures T _m (217 and 230 ^°C, respectively) are so similar. Using water as plasticizer not only decreases T _g but produces imperfect crystallites which melt below the T _g of the system. The presence of the amorphous phase in the glassy state would presumably make it essentially impossible to define a melting point or crystallization temperature in the normal manner, as an equilibrium between crystalline and amorphous phases. Received: 8 October 1996 Accepted: 2 November 1995     

Fluorinated monomer–styrene copolymer latex particles: I. kinetic studies in a soap-free aqueous medium

Soap-free emulsion copolymerization of 2, 2, 2-trifluoroethyl acrylate (3FEA) with styrene was carried out by using potassium persulfate as an initiator, and the effects of the weight fraction of 3FEA in the monomer feed on the kinetics and the particle size were investigated. Monomer conversions were followed by a gravimetric method, revealing that the overall polymerization rate increased exponentially with an increase in the weight fraction of 3FEA. According to dynamic light scattering measurement, the final particle size was found to decrease with an increase in the weight fraction of 3FEA. The number of particles for 3FEA homopolymerization was roughly twice as large as that at the fraction of 0.9, although both fractions had the almost same polymerization rates. These results indicate that soap-free emulsion homopolymerization of 3FEA would proceed not only inside the polymer particles but also in the aqueous phase throughout the polymerization.     

Analysis of Early Medieval Glass Beads – The Raw Materials to Produce Green, Orange and Brown Colours

 Monochrome coloured glass beads of the Merovingians (5^th–7^th cent. AD) have been examined by different analytical methods. The elemental composition of a large number of mostly unprepared beads have been measured non-destructively by X-ray fluorescence analysis. After subtracting the content of the colouring oxides of the glass beads and normalising the residual values to 100% an identical soda-lime-glass matrix was obtained. X-ray diffraction was used for the identification of the crystalline colouring and opacifying pigments (SnO₂, Cu, Cu₂O, PbSnO₃), and scanning electron microscopy as well as electron probe microanalysis were applied to study the microstructure and the composition of white, brown, green, orange and yellow coloured glass beads. Oxidised metals, alloys (lead, copper, bronze, brass and mixtures of them) and iron smelting slag have been identified as raw materials to colour the soda-lime-glass.