Smartphones & microfluidics: Marriage for the future

Smartphones have become widely recognized as a very interesting detection and controlling tool in microfluidics. They are portable devices with built‐in cameras and internal microprocessors which carry out image processing. In this case, the external computers are not needed and phones can provide fast and accurate results. Moreover, the connectivity of smartphones gives the possibility to share and provide real‐time results when needed, whether in health diagnostics, environmental monitoring, immunoassays or food safety. Undoubtedly, the marriage of smartphones and microfluidics has a brilliant future in building low cost and easily operable systems for analysis in the field, realizing the idea of people's “smartlife”. The aim of this review is to present and summarize the main advantages and disadvantages of the use of smartphones as well as to take a closer look at some novel achievements published during the last couple of years. In the next paragraphs, readers will find specific uses of a combination of smartphones and microfluidics such as water analysis, health analysis (virus and bacteria detection), and measurement of physical properties or smartphone liquid control in polymer devices.     

All‐electron relativistic computations on the low‐lying electronic states,bond length,and vibrational frequency of CeF diatomic molecule with spin–orbit coupling effects

Ab initio all‐electron computations have been carried out for Ce⁺ and CeF, including the electron correlation, scalar relativistic, and spin–orbit coupling effects in a quantitative manner. First, the n‐electron valence state second‐order multireference perturbation theory (NEVPT2) and spin–orbit configuration interaction (SOCI) based on the state‐averaged restricted active space multiconfigurational self‐consistent field (SA‐RASSCF) and state‐averaged complete active space multiconfigurational self‐consistent field (SA‐CASSCF) wavefunctions have been applied to evaluations of the low‐lying energy levels of Ce⁺ with [Xe]4f¹5d¹6s¹ and [Xe]4f¹5d² configurations, to test the accuracy of several all‐electron relativistic basis sets. It is shown that the mixing of quartet and doublet states is essential to reproduce the excitation energies. Then, SA‐RASSCF(CASSCF)/NEVPT2 + SOCI computations with the Sapporo(‐DKH3)‐2012‐QZP basis set were carried out to determine the energy levels of the low‐lying electronic states of CeF. The calculated excitation energies, bond length, and vibrational frequency are shown to be in good agreement with the available experimental data. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Improved detection sensitivity of elements in solids via laser postionization in laser desorption time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

A newly constructed laser desorption (532 nm, 5 ns) and laser postionization (266 nm, 5 ns) time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer (LD‐LPI‐TOFMS) has been applied for improving the detection sensitivity of elements in solid samples. This method affords to acquire the information of the elemental impurities in solid standards as well as limit of detection (LOD) down to 10⁻⁸ g/g for some elements. Neutral atoms of solids are generated by low‐irradiance laser desorption (< 10⁸ W/cm²), followed by high‐irradiance laser postionization (~ 10⁹ W/cm²) of the desorbed atoms, facilitating to decouple the desorption and ionization processes in spatial and temporal domain. This non‐interacting feature overcomes the discrimination between deteriorating spectral resolution at high irradiance (10⁹–10¹¹ W/cm²) and limited detectable elemental species and high LOD at low or medium irradiance (below 10⁹ W/cm²). The utilization of originally “wasted” neutral atoms by laser postionization will help improve atom utilization and instrumental sensitivity. In this work, getting the utmost out of the consumed neutral atoms instead of an increment in sampling amounts is given attention with high priority for achieving high sensitivity and low LOD, which is especially useful on the occasions where very low sample consumption is desired.     

原子荧光光谱法测定玩具材料中可迁移砷

玩具材料和玩具部件按《玩具安全》(GB6675—2014)规定的程序制样和用盐酸提取后,加入硫脲-抗坏血酸将提取溶液中砷预还原为适合氢化物发生的价态As(Ⅲ),再加入硼氢化钾使其还原成砷氢化物,建立了原子荧光光谱法测定玩具材料中可迁移砷含量的方法。方法的检出限为0.017mg/kg,多种代表性玩具材料的砷元素加标回收率在94.4%~104%。方法适用于各种玩具材料中可迁移砷的分析。     

土壤中易解析硫化物的解析条件研究

探索了在以磷酸为酸化剂条件下的实验条件,包括还原剂的添加、酸浓度选择的计算、系统的精密度、准确度的统计,目的是为土壤中硫化物的检出提供借鉴和参考。在以三种土壤为实验样本的实验中,对比磷酸、盐酸、硫酸为酸化剂的检出结果,添加20mL磷酸、1.5g乙二胺四乙酸二钠、0.25g抗坏血酸的检出结果和以硫酸为酸化剂的检出结果比较接近,同样酸度条件下添加抗氧化剂后的检出值和实际样品加标回收率都有提高。三种土壤的相对标准偏差分别是5.6%、6.1%、10.1%,样品加标回收率分别是77.8%、81.9%、64.4%。系统可以完成对部分金属硫化物、易溶硫化物完全解析,且不会因为氧化还原反应造成对S2-的正负误差。     

用恒温热重法测定1-己基-3-甲基咪唑苏氨酸离子液体[C6mim][Thr]蒸汽压和蒸发焓

用中和法合成了氨基酸离子液体(AAIL)1-己基-3-甲基苏氨酸盐[C₆mim][Thr],并用核磁共振氢谱(¹H NMR)和核磁共振碳谱(¹³C NMR)进行了表征。以苯甲酸为参考物质,用恒温热重法确定了AAIL[C₆mim][Thr]的蒸汽压和在平均温度下(T_av= 438.15 K)的蒸发焓(Δ^g_lH_m^? (T_av) =128.5 ± 6.0 kJ·mol^-1)。利用Verevkin等人提出的方法计算得到AAIL[C₆mim][Thr]气态和液态的恒压热容差(Δ^g_lC_pm^? = -70.8 J·K^-1·mol^-1),进而计算了不同温度的蒸发焓,其中参考温度(298.15 K)下的蒸发焓Δ^g_lH_m^? (298.15 K) = 138.4 kJ·mol^-1,只比应用我们提出的蒸发焓理论模型估算值大1.6 kJ·mol^-1,小于恒温热重法的实验误差3.0 kJ·mol^-1,说明这个蒸发焓的理论模型有一定的合理性。借助Clausius-Clapeyron方程估算了AAIL[C₆mim][Thr]的假想的正常沸点T_b= 522.07 K,以及沸点的蒸发熵Δ^g_lS_m^? (T_b) = 228.5 J·K^-1·mol^-1,进一步得到了不同温度的蒸发熵和蒸发自由能Δ^g_lG_m^? (T),其结果表明蒸发自由能随着温度的上升而减小,达到沸点温度T_b时变为零,而蒸发熵则随着温度上升而增大,是AAIL[C₆mim][Thr]蒸发过程的驱动力。     

Understanding Chemical Reactivity in Extended Systems:Exploring Models of Chemical Softness in Carbon Nanotubes

Chemical reactivity towards electron transfer is captured by the Fukui function.However,this is not well defined when the system or its ions have degenerate or pseudo-degenerate ground states.In such a case,the first-order chemical response is not independent of the perturbation and the correct response has to be computed using the mathematical formalism of perturbation theory for degenerate states.Spatialpseudo-degeneracy is ubiquitous in nanostructures with high symmetry and totally extended systems.Given the size of these systems,using degenerate-state perturbation theory is impractical because it requires the calculation of many excited states.Here we present an alternative to compute the chemical response of extended systems using models of local softness in terms of the local density of states.The local softness is approximately equal to the density of states at the Fermi level.However,such approximation leaves out the contribution of inner states.In order to include and weight the contribution of the states around the Fermi level,a model inspired by the long-range behavior of the local softness is presented.Single wall capped carbon nanotubes(SWCCNT) illustrate the limitation of the frontier orbital theory in extended systems.Thus,we have used a C360 SWCCNT to test the proposed model and how it compares with available models based on the local density of states.Interestingly,a simple Hü ckel approximation captures the main features of chemical response of these systems.Our results suggest that density-of-states models of the softness along simple tight binding Hamiltonians could be used to explore the chemical reactivity of more complex system,such a surfaces and nanoparticles.     

Basic principles,recent trends and future directions of microextraction techniques for the analysis of aqueous environmental samples

Microextraction-based sample preparation techniques have exhibited remarkable importance in analytical chemistry since they were first developed in the 1980s. The application of these techniques involves efficient and, at the same time, environmentally-friendly analytical methodologies. They are also generally faster when compared with classical sample preparation techniques, requiring low solvent and sample volumes, and also allowing for automated or semi-automated procedures. This paper provides an overview of the basic principles of sample preparation techniques and the important applications and developments that have taken place in this area over the past five years. These procedures include solid-phase microextraction (SPME), stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), bar adsorptive microextraction (BAμE), rotating disk sorptive extraction (RDSE), micro solid-phase extraction (μ-SPE) and liquid-phase microextraction (LPME). The main variations are discussed with a focus on recent applications in the analysis of environmental water samples. Lastly, some of the trends and perspectives associated with these outstanding microextraction sample preparation approaches are highlighted.     

Mechanistic Insights into the Fluorescence Quenching of Rhodamine 6G by Graphene Oxide

The fluorescence quenching of Rhodamine 6G (R6G) by graphene oxide (GO) was interrogated by R6G fluorescence measurements using a set of controlled GO samples with varied C/O ratios as the quencher.The carbonyl groups on the GO nanosheet turned to play a dominant role in quenching the R6G fluorescence.The quenching in the static regime can be described by the "sphere of action" model.The significant absorption of the R6G fluorescence by the ground-state complex formed between R6G and GO was identified to be responsible for the static quenching.This work offers helpful insights into the fluorescence quenching mechanisms in the R6G/GO system.     

Dissipaton Equation of Motion Theory versus Fokker-Planck Quantum Master Equation

The quest of exact and nonperturbative methods on quantum dissipation with nonlinear coupling environments remains in general a great challenge. In this review we present a comprehensive account on two approaches to the entangled system-and-environment dynamics, in the presence of linear-plus-quadratic coupling bath. One is the dissipaton-equation-ofmotion (DEOM) theory that has been extended recently to treat the nonlinear coupling environment. Another is the extended Fokker-Planck quantum master equation (FP-QME) approach that will be constructed in this work, based on its DEOM correspondence. We closely compare these two approaches, with the focus on the underlying quasi-particle picture, physical implications, and implementations.