Rapid method for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in agricultural soils by sonication-assisted extraction in small columns

A rapid method has been developed for the determination of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil based on their sonication-assisted extraction in small columns (SAESC) with a low volume of ethyl acetate and subsequent quantitation and identification by GC with electron impact mass spectrometric detection in the SIM mode (GC-MS-SIM). Spiked blank soil extracts were used as standards to counteract the matrix effect observed in the chromatographic determination. PAHs were confirmed at trace level by their retention times, their qualifier and target ions, and their qualifier/target abundance ratios. Recovery studies were performed at 0.5, 1.0, 5.0, and 10 microg/kg fortification levels for each PAH, and the recoveries obtained ranged from 91.2 to 99.8% with RSDs between 0.4 and 9.3%. The detection limits of the method ranged from 0.03 to 0.3 microg/kg for the different PAHs studied. The developed method is linear over the range assayed, 1-100 microg/L with determination coefficients higher than 0.996. PAH levels were determined using this method in soil samples taken from different agricultural areas of Spain. In general, PAH concentrations were low and the most frequently occurring PAHs were naphthalene, pyrene, phenanthrene, and fluoranthene.     

Design of a PXR experiment based on the NCEL

Parametric X-ray Radiation （PXR） can be used as a novel, quasi-monochromatic energy-tunable and high-yield X-ray source. It is produced at the Bragg angle by a relativistic electron beam passing through the periodic structure of crystal materials. This article concerns the PXR experiment using low energy electrons （10 MeV） from NCEL （Novel Compact Electron-Linac）. The difficulty of the experiment is to distinguish the PXR photons form the background. The design of the experiment relies mainly on the yield of PXR, the Bremsstrahlung background of the X-rays and the capability of the detector.     

Magnetic properties of rare earth ion (Sm) added nanocrystalline Mg-Cd ferrites, prepared by oxalate co-precipitation method

Nanocrystalline ferrite powder having the general formula Mg_1−xCd_xFe₂O₄+5% Sm³⁺ (x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) was synthesized by chemical oxalate co-precipitation technique. The synthesized powder was characterized by X-ray, IR and SEM techniques. The XRD analysis confirms cubic spinel phase with orthoferrite secondary phase. The lattice constant increases with increase in Cd²⁺ content (x). It is smaller than that for pure Mg-Cd ferrites. The average crystallite size lies in the range 28.69-32.66 nm. Saturation magnetization and magnetic moment increase with cadmium content up to x=0.4 and decrease thereafter. This is attributed to the existence of localized canted spin. The decrease in saturation magnetization and magnetic moment beyond x=0.4 is due to the presence of triangular spin arrangement on B-site. Coercivity and remanent magnetization decrease while Y-K angles increase with Cd²⁺ content. The Sm³⁺ addition improves the magnetic properties.     

Isotropy of optical excitations in few-layer graphenes

The geometric and the most band structures of monolayer and AB-stacked bilayer graphenes exhibit strong anisotropy. Nevertheless, the absorption spectra are isotropic for the polarization vector on graphene plane. The velocity matrix elements dominate this property. These results suggest that AA- and AB-stacked few-layer graphenes and graphites manifest this feature.