Determination of Low Contents of Fenpiverine Bromide by Extraction Spectrophotometry

An ion-pair extraction spectrophotometry method was developed for the determination of fenpiverine bromide in tablets. To determine this substance it was necessary to find experimental conditions that would allow eliminating the influence of other components of the tablets. Attention was paid to the fact that a suitable pH of water phase was necessary to achieve high selectivity.Received December 11, 2002; accepted April 24, 2003 Published online July 28, 2003     

Oxygen adsorption on hydrated gold cluster anions: experiment and theory

The discovery that supported gold clusters act as highly efficient catalysts for low-temperature oxidation reactions has led to a great deal of work aimed at understanding the origins of the catalytic activity. Several studies have shown that the presence of trace moisture is required for the catalysts to function. Using near-atmospheric pressure flow reactor techniques, we have studied humidity and temperature effects on the reactivity of gas-phase gold cluster anions with O2. Near room temperature, the humid source produces abundant gold-hydroxy cluster anions, Au(N)OH(-), and these have a reversed O2 adsorption activity: Nonreactive bare gold clusters become active when in the form Au(N)OH(-), while active bare clusters are inactive when -OH is bound. The binding energies for the stable structures obtained from density functional calculations confirm fully these findings. Moreover, the theory provides evidence that electron-transfer induced by the binding of a OH group enhances the reactivity toward molecular oxygen for odd anionic gold clusters and suppresses the reactivity for the even ones. The temperature dependence of O2 addition to Au(3)OH(-) and Au(4)(-) indicates deviations from equilibrium control at temperatures below room temperature. The effects of humidity on gold cluster adsorption activity support the conclusion drawn for the mechanism of O2 adsorption on "dry" gold cluster anions and provides insight into the possible role of water in the enhanced activity of supported gold cluster catalysts.     

Vibrational analysis of hydroxyacetone

In order to be able to fully understand the vibrational dynamics of monosaccharide sugars, we started with hydroxyacetone CH2OHCOCH3, and glycolaldehyde CH2OHCOH, which are among the smallest molecules that contain hydroxyl and carbonyl group on neighboring carbon atoms. This sterical configuration is characteristic for saccharides and determines their biochemical activity. In this work vibrational analysis of hydroxyacetone was undertaken by performing the normal coordinate analysis for glycolaldehyde first, and transferring these force constants to hydroxyacetone. The observed Raman and infrared bands for 90 wt.% solution of hydroxyacetone in water (acetol) were used as a first approximation for the bands of free hydroxyacetone. The number of observed Raman and infrared bands for acetol exceeds the number of calculated values for the most stable hydroxyacetone conformer with Cs symmetry, which suggests more than one conformer of hydroxyacetone in water solution. In particular, there are two bands both in infrared (1083 and 1057 cm(-1)) and in Raman spectrum (1086.5 and 1053 cm(-1)) that are assigned to the CO stretching mode and this is one of the indicators of several hydroxyacetone conformers in the solution. Additional information was obtained from low temperature Raman spectra: at 240 K a broad asymmetric band centered around 280 cm(-1) appears, suggesting a disorder in the orientation of hydroxyl groups. Glassy state forms at approximately 150K. The broad band at 80 cm(-1) is assigned to frozen torsions of hydroxymethyl groups.     

Relationships for determining the rate constant of the polymerization growth reaction by means of the emulsion polymerization method

Some simple equations for the emulsion polymerization system were derived on the basis of the Smith-Ewart theory. These are used in calculating the molar monomer concentration and rate of polymerization in units of moles per liter per second for the zero-order region with respect to the monomer as well as in calculating the rate constant of the growth reaction.     

Sampling procedure and a radio-indicator study of mercury determination in whole blood by using an AMA 254 atomic absorption spectrometer

A sampling procedure appropriate for the determination of mercury in whole blood was tested by using both inactive controls and a ¹⁹⁷Hg mercury radio-indicator. To exclude the influence of the instrumental device (an AMA 254 single-purpose mercury atomic absorption spectrometer) on the determination of mercury in whole blood, the function of the instrument was checked by using rat blood with metabolised ¹⁹⁷Hg. The measurement procedure was found to be free of errors. However, the study showed that the material used for the sampling vessels is a crucial parameter for obtaining accurate analytical results. The stability of solutions and samples was tested towards polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) vessels. PE displayed a time-dependent increase in the mercury content both in the samples and in the blood control material. The probable cause of this increase was direct contamination from the material of the vessel and/or diffusion of mercury from the environment through the vessel walls related to a strong complexing affinity of the sample matrix. This assumption was confirmed by supplying the vessels with the complexing agent Na₂EDTA (0.05 mol L^–1). Commercial PP vessels for blood sampling (Sarstedt S-Monovette Metall Analytik) did not give rise to statistically significant variations in mercury content in the samples and blood control material over a 30-day period.     

Theoretical and experimental consideration of the reactions between VxOy+ and ethylene

We present joint theoretical and experimental results which provide evidence for the selectivity of V(x)O(y)(+) clusters in reactions toward ethylene due to the charge and different oxidation states of vanadium for different cluster sizes. Density functional calculations were performed on the reactions between V(x)O(y)(+) and ethylene, allowing us to identify the structure-reactivity relationship and to corroborate the experimental results obtained by Castleman and co-workers (Zemski, K. A.; Justes, D. R.; Castleman, A. W., Jr. J. Phys. Chem. A 2001, 105, 10237). The lowest-energy structures for the V(2)O(2)(-)(6)(+) and V(4)O(8)(-)(10)(+) clusters and the V(2)O(3)(-)(6)(+)-C(2)H(4) and V(4)O(10)(+)-C(2)H(4) complexes, as well as the energetics for reactions between ethylene and V(2)O(4)(-)(6)(+) and V(4)O(10)(+) are presented here. The oxygen transfer reaction pathway was determined to be the most energetically favorable one available to V(2)O(5)(+) and V(4)O(10)(+) via a radical-cation mechanism.The association and replacement reaction pathways were found to be the optimal channels for V(2)O(4)(+) and V(2)O(6)(+), respectively. These results are in agreement with the experimental results reported previously. Experiments were also conducted for the reactions between V(2)O(5)(+) and ethylene to include an energetic analysis at increasing pressures. It was found that the addition of energy depleted the production of V(2)O(4)(+), confirming that a more involved reaction rather than a collisional process is responsible for the observed phenomenon. In this contribution we show that investigation of reactions involving gas-phase cationic vanadium oxide clusters with small hydrocarbons is suitable for the identification of reactive centers responsible for selectivity in heterogeneous catalysis.     

Dielectric Spectroscopy of Ferronematics Based on 6CHBT Liquid Crystal

In our study, the dielectric behaviour of the rod-like liquid crystal (6CHBT) doped with magnetic nanoparticles of spherical shape was investigated by means of dielectric spectroscopy in the frequency range from 20 Hz to 2 MHz. A low frequency dielectric dispersion in the nematic and isotropic phases of the pure liquid crystal (LC) has been assigned to the space charge polarization. After doping the host LC with the magnetic nano particles, a nearly Debye-like relaxation process was observed with the temperature dependence obeying the Arrhenius law. Considering a possible electric double layer formation on the particle surfaces, the detected relaxation process in the doped LC can be associated with the electric double layer polarization. The experimental results point out that in the measured frequency range the space charge and interfacial effects constitute the main dielectric response. Any anchoring effects were not observed and are therefore expected to appear in higher frequencies.     

The Origin of the Selectivity and Activity of Ruthenium‐Cluster Catalysts for Fuel‐Cell Feed‐Gas Purification: A Gas‐Phase Approach

Gas‐phase ruthenium clusters Ru_n⁺ (n=2–6) are employed as model systems to discover the origin of the outstanding performance of supported sub‐nanometer ruthenium particles in the catalytic CO methanation reaction with relevance to the hydrogen feed‐gas purification for advanced fuel‐cell applications. Using ion‐trap mass spectrometry in conjunction with first‐principles density functional theory calculations three fundamental properties of these clusters are identified which determine the selectivity and catalytic activity: high reactivity toward CO in contrast to inertness in the reaction with CO₂; promotion of cooperatively enhanced H₂ coadsorption and dissociation on pre‐formed ruthenium carbonyl clusters, that is, no CO poisoning occurs; and the presence of Ru‐atom sites with a low number of metal–metal bonds, which are particularly active for H₂ coadsorption and activation. Furthermore, comprehensive theoretical investigations provide mechanistic insight into the CO methanation reaction and discover a reaction route involving the formation of a formyl‐type intermediate.