Removal of humic matter interference in the determination of Cr(VI) in soil extracts by the diphenylcarbazide method

Alkaline digestion of soil samples, which is recommended for minimizing Cr(III)–Cr(VI) interconversions during the extraction of Cr(VI), may also solubilize humic matter (HM). The latter is responsible for both positive and negative interference in the analysis of Cr(VI) in the extract by the diphenylcarbazide (DPC) method. Humic compounds indeed absorb light at 540 nm as the Cr-DPC product and are also able to rapidly reduce Cr(VI) under the pH conditions of the standard DPC method. To prevent any risk of interference and make the DPC method applicable to soil extracts, a new protocol is proposed. This consists of three successive steps: (1) extraction of Cr(VI) by the U.S.EPA method 3060A in the presence of Mg²⁺; (2) batch removal of solubilised HM by the XAD-7 sorbent at pH 3.0 ± 0.1 with 3–5 min contact time; (3) analysis of Cr(VI) with the DPC method at pH 3.0 ± 0.1. The application of this new protocol to the soil product SQC-012 Lot 4 certified by R.T. Corporation (RTC, USA) gave significantly lower Cr(VI) concentrations and smaller variability compared to certified values (46.5 ± 2.3 instead of 153 ± 32.6 mg/kg). The new protocol was validated by Cr(VI) and Cr(III) spikes either to the soil/extractant suspension or to the exctract. Cr(VI) results in the wide range of acceptance limits (104–202 mg/kg) reported by RTC were only obtained when the U.S.EPA method 3060A without the addition of Mg²⁺ and DPC analysis at pH 1.0 were applied. The latter procedure appears questionable since it leads to largely variable results which reflect the complex role played by humic matter in the determination of Cr(VI) and the instability of Cr(III) during the extraction.     

Simultaneous extraction of organotin, organolead and organomercury species from soils and litter

Extracting organotin compounds (OTC) from soils is difficult due to the high cation exchange and complexation capacity of soils, and little information about OTC in soils is available. In this study, a new extraction method, combining 1 M CaCl₂, 0.1% tropolone, and glacial acetic acid was developed. Recoveries of mono-substituted OTC from spiked plant litter, and soil samples were improved substantially to 40% compared to classical glacial acetic acid extraction commonly used in sedimentology, yielding <10% recovery in C-rich soil samples. Simultaneously, the recovery of other OTC, trimethyllead and monomethylmercury was satisfactory. The recoveries of most species from the spiked litter, upland and wetland soils exceeded 70%. The new method extracted much more organometallics from unspiked organic soils and litter than microwave- and ultrasound-assisted extraction and accelerated solvent extraction, most likely due to exchange of organometallics from the solid phase by Ca²⁺. The method is simple, highly efficient and with low contamination. Together with GC-ICP-mass spectrometry, the method allows the detection of these organometallics in the pg g⁻¹ range and it is particularly suitable for soil and plant materials with low organometallics contents.     

Catalytic Kinetic Spectrophotometric Method for Determination of Phosphate Ion

The kinetic method for the determination of phosphate microamounts was described. The developed method is based on catalytic effect of phosphate on sodium pyrogallol-5-sulphonate （PS） by dissolved oxygen. The reaction was followed spectrophotometrically by measuring the rate of change in the values of the absorbance of the oxidation product at 437 nm. The optimum reaction conditions are PS （0.44×10^-3 mol·L^-1） and HClO4 （3.6×10^-6 mol·L^-1） at 25 ℃. Following this procedure, phosphate can be determined with a linear calibration graph up to 0.23 μg·mL^-1. The interference effect of several species was also investigated and it was found that the most common cations and anions did not interfere with the determination. The developed procedure was successfully applied to the determination of phosphate in natural waters and soil.     

Development of a systems analysis approach for resolving the structure of biodegrading soil systems

An experimental and mathematical method is developed for the microbial systems analysis of polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-degrading mixed cultures in PAH-contaminated “town gas” soil systems. Frequency response is the primary experimental and data analysis tool used to probe the structure of these complicated systems. The objective is to provide a fundamental protocol for evaluating the performance of specific mixed microbial cultures on specific soil systems by elucidating the salient system variables and their interactions. Two well-described reactor systems, a constant volume stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and a plug flow differential volume reactor, are used in order to remove performance effects that are related to reactor type as opposed to system structure. These two reactor systems are well-defined systems that can be described mathematically and represent the two extremes of one potentially important system variable, macroscopic mass transfer. The experimental and mathematical structure of the protocol is described, experimental data is presented, and data analysis is demonstrated for the stripping, sorption, and biodegradation of napththalene.     

A comparative study of solvent extraction of total petroleum hydrocarbons in soil

Three non-specific methods for the extraction of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) from soil into organic solvent were compared. The techniques used for sample preparation were Soxhlet extraction, closed-vessel microwave-assisted extraction, and CEN shake extraction. The total concentrations of extracted compounds in the boiling point range of C10–C40 were determined by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. The best recovery (99%) and repeatability (±3%) from standard oil mixtures were obtained with microwave-assisted extraction. However, the different extraction methods exhibited different behaviour when spiked soil samples were extracted. The best repeatability was obtained with CEN shake extraction (±6%) but the repeatability values for Soxhlet and microwave-assisted methods were quite high (>20%). However, the larger uncertainties of the latter extraction methods does not necessarily limit the applicability of these methods to the determination of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil, as in the assessment of soil contamination the expanded uncertainty of the result is usually not limited by analytical uncertainty, but rather by the uncertainty of the primary sampling stage. However, distinctive variation found in the chromatographic profiles illustrates that discretion should be obeyed when chromatograms obtained after application of different extraction methods on petroleum contaminated samples are to be used in the fingerprinting or age dating studies. Otherwise, misleading conclusions concerning the age of spillage could be drawn.     

核磁共振法研究CH2=CHSi（OET）3的水化反应

高强水泥的生产近年来巳成为许多国家发展水泥生产的一个主要方向。在水泥中加入有机单体可以改善混凝土的质量,如加重量比为3％的有机硅烷偶联剂乙烯基三乙氧基硅烷CH_2=CHSi(OEt)_3(简称VTES)于水泥中,即可在较大程度上增加水泥石的强度。     

模拟混凝土孔溶液中钢筋钝化膜生长动力学及孔蚀过程的研究

用恒电位电流衰减法及激光扫描光电化学显微技术研究了在于ＰＨ＝１２．５及１３．８的模拟混凝土孔溶液中钢筋钝化化膜的生长动力学及相应的破坏过程，实验结果表明，钢筋钝化膜的生长过程存在两个主要阶段，各阶段膜厚均与生长时间存在正比对数关系，但当ｔ＜３０秒和ｔ＞３０秒时，膜的生长表出出不同的动力学特征，在钝化发生点蚀前，钝化膜的微区光电流一定的预兆，腐蚀抑制剂ＮａＮＯ２影响膜的生长过程及膜厚，能提高钢筋的抗     

Non-isothermal thermokinetic of cement hardening

Thermokinetic analysis of cements hydration under nonisothermal conditions was performed. The influence of the application moment, intensity and duration of heat effect on the velocity and completeness of the character of hydration was estimated.     

Hydroxyapatite-poly(d,l-lactide) Nanografts. Synthesis and Characterization as Bone Cement Additives

This paper reports the creation of hydroxyapatite/polyester nanografts by “graft-from” polymerization of d,l-lactide with [Ca₅(OH)(PO₄)₃]₂ as the initiator and tin(II)-2-ethylhexanoate as the catalyst. Model polymerizations were performed with cyclooctanol as initiator to confirm the grafting on the surface of the hydroxyapatite nanocrystals. Polymers with the highest molecular mass (M_n) between 4250 Da (cyclooctanol) and 6100 Da (hydroxyapatite) were produced. In both cases the molecular mass distributions of the polymers formed were monomodal. The materials obtained were characterized by size-exclusion chromatography, NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy, and thermal methods. Their suitability as additives for commercial bone cement (Simplex P Speedset, Stryker Orthopaedics) has been confirmed by thermal analysis techniques and mechanical testing. The results obtained show that addition of the hydroxyapatite/ polyester nanografts improved both thermal and mechanical properties of the bone cement.     

痕量砷流动注射在线还原氢化物发生原子吸收测定

方法采用流动注射停流技术使水及土壤浸出液中Ａｓ（Ｖ）在线还原为Ａｓ（Ⅲ），不经手工还原，用氢化物发生原子吸收光谱法直接测定砷的含量。含４ｍｏｌ／Ｌ ＨＣｌ的样品溶液与３０％碘化钾溶液在编结式反应器中混合，并在采样环中停流４０ｓ，达完全还原后注入到载流中与硼氢化钠反应，采样速度５５次／ｈ，检出限（３δ）０．１μｇ／Ｌ，对自来水和土壤浸出液的加标回收结果满意。