Integrated Dust Analysis by Physical Methods

Environmental analyses show that the air which we breathe, and which is so essential to life, is in general a mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid components. The solid airborne particles, whose concentration, homogeneity, chemical composition, size, and shape can vary over wide ranges, and whose origin may be “natural” or “artificial” are referred to as “dust”. Dust particles can act, inter alia, as condensation nuclei, catalysts, and directly as hazardous materials. Unfortunately, we still know far too little about dust. Dust analysis is extremely difficult and challenging, even for modern analytical chemistry; it is still far from being fully automated. The simultaneous determination of as many “dust parameters” as possible, and particularly the synoptic consideration of all available data against a background of physicochemical and technological knowledge on the development, transformation, and effects of dust, are summarized as “integrated dust analysis”.     

Primary methods of measurement in chemical analysis

 Primary methods of measurement have a central function in metrology. They are an essential component in the realisation of the SI units and therefore are indispensable for establishing traceability of measurements of all kinds of physical quantities to the corresponding SI units. This is also true for chemical analysis. Gravimetry, titrimetry, coulometry, and isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) are evaluated with regard to their potential to be primary methods according to a general definition of primary methods recently given by the Comité Consultatif pour la Quantité de Matière (CCQM). Optical absorption spectrometry and methods based on colligative properties are also considered. A general scheme for establishing traceability of chemical measurements to the SI units using primary methods is discussed. Received: 17 April 1997 · Accepted: 9 August 1997     

The Formation of C?C Bonds with the Aid of α-Halogeno Ethers,Sulfides, and Amines

α-Halogeno ethers, sulfides, and amines are reactive compounds which can be used for the formation of new C? C bonds, either as nucleophilic or as electrophilic reagents, or by α-elimination. The use of these compounds in the synthesis of many classes of organic compounds is reviewed.     

Chromatography with Supercritical Fluids

Chromatography with supercritical fluids unites the features of both gas chromatography and liquid chromatography, yet retains special characteristics of its own. The diffusion coefficient and particularly the viscosity of fluid phases may approach values for low-pressure gases, while the solvent power may be similar to that of liquids. However, with supercritical fluids it is possible to control chromatographic separations very effectively by pressure programming, since the solubility increases with increasing density. Temperature programming, on the other hand, can have the opposite effect to that in gas- or liquid-chromatography since the density decreases with increasing temperature at a given pressure. Supercritical fluid chromatography is primarily of interest for the separation of higher molecular weight compounds. The efficiency of this method of separation is demonstrated on several homologous series. Thus, a styrene oligomer with nominal M_w=2200 can be resolved by a pressure and temperature program into 40 species.     

Phosphaalkynes—Syntheses,Reactions, Coordination Behavior [New Synthetic Methods (73)]

Organophosphorus compounds have been applied in two ways in chemical synthesis. They can either be used as a reagent in a step of the synthesis (for example, in the Wittig reaction) or they can be incorporated directly into the target molecule. This second application, in particular, has expanded greatly in the last few years with the preparation of low-coordination phosphorus compounds. These include the phosphaalkynes, which are of great interest to organic and inorganic chemists. Phosphaalkynes have been employed in the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds, phosphaarenes and their valence isomers, and polycyclic compounds. Further applications have been the use of phosphaalkynes as new ligand systems in complex chemistry and their cyclooligomerization with organometallic reagents. While the chemical properties of phosphaalkynes have little in common with those of nitriles, they are in many ways very similar to those of the isoelectronic acetylenes.     

Prescriptions and Ingredients for Controlled CC Bond Formation with Organometallic Reagents. New synthetic methods (5)

Merits and drawbacks of known carbon-carbon linking procedures are outlined. Two novel methods are discussed in some detail: the copper-catalyzed alkylation of Grignard reagents and reactions with allylpotassium compounds. Both methods provide a very efficient access to saturated, unsaturated, as well as functionally substituted hydrocarbons and moreover permit an astonishing degree of regio- and stereoselective control of olefin synthesis.     

Effect of glutaraldehyde on the activity of some DNA restriction endonucleases

The effect of the bifunctional crosslinking reagent glutaraldehyde on the activity of the restriction enzymes Bam HI,Hind III, EcoRI, and Tthlll I was investigated. The four enzymes exhibited differential sensitivity to inactivation. Tthlll I was the most sensitive, with activity losses occurring at levels of 0.0025% and above.Hind III was the most stable of the four and remained fully active at concentrations as high as 0.075%. Addition of BSA to incubation mixtures generally had a stabilizing effect. Implications of these results for the design of glutaraldehyde-based methods for the immobilization of restriction endonucleases are discussed.     

Mixed hybrid bilayer lipid membrane incorporating valinomycin: improvements in preparation and functioning

The paper deals with the reconstruction of lipid bilayer membranes on a Au-covered polycarbonate membrane. Such a kind of like-biomembranes (namely mixed hybrid bilayer lipid membrane (MHBLM)) are characterised by appreciable long-term stability. Here we describe changes that have been made in the geometry of the experimental device in order to avoid artefacts and render membrane reproduction easier. Incorporation of valinomycin was performed to check the membrane and its stability: conductance and membrane potential following the changes of ion concentration were recorded. This new approach permits increase of successful trials and renders possible, when it breaks, easily formation of a new MHBLM on the same Au-covered polycarbonate membrane support. Finally, the stability shown by the MHBLM renders this system a promising tool for use under flowing conditions.     

Partially and totally asynchronous algorithms for linear complementarity problems

A unified treatment is given for partially and totally asynchronous parallel successive overrelaxation (SOR) algorithms for the linear complementarity problem. Convergence conditions are established and compared to previous results. Convergence of the partially asynchronous method for the symmetric linear complementarity problem can be guaranteed if the relaxation factor is sufficiently small. Unlike previous results, this relaxation factor interval does not depend explicitly on problem size.This material is based on research supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant No. AFOSR-89-0410.The author wishes to thank the referee for pointing out how to improve the bound (12). The same technique can be used to reduce the factorn in Ref. 5, p. 553, to .