Flow-injection spectrophotometric determination of aluminium based on chrome azurol S and cetylpyridinium chloride

Acidic aluminium solutions (120 μl) are injected into a buffered (pH 5.7) carrier stream and merge with a chrome azurol S/cetylpyridinium chloride stream; a 2.25-m reaction coil is used with a total flow rate of 4 ml min ^?1. Ethanol (30% v/v) in the reagent stream enhances the absorbance of the ternary complex; the molar absorptivity is then 1.34×10 ⁵ l mol ^?1 cm ^?1 at 625 nm. Calibration is linear over the range 0–400 ng ml^?1 aluminium; the limit of determination is 5 ng ml ^?1. Iron is masked in the usual way; fluoride is tolerated at ˇ1 mg l ^?1. The injection rate is about 45 h^?1. The procedure appears to be applicable to tap water.     

Elemental characterization of Suaeda mollis L. (Amaranthaceae) from Algerian rangelands using gamma-ray spectrometry

Present study was performed to measure the chemical status of Suaeda mollis L. (Amaranthaceae) that is widely browsed by livestock (sheep and goats) in Algerian arid rangelands. Gamma-ray spectrometry technique was performed to characterize some major and trace elements, e.g., calcium, potassium, sodium, iron, zinc, cobalt, europium, antimony, and terbium in this fodder-shrub. Results revealed that S. mollis had good levels of calcium, potassium, and cobalt to meet needs of sheep and goats. However, this species had substantial level of sodium above the recommended concentration for livestock. The potential toxins (europium, antimony and terbium) were within the safety-limits suggested by the National Research Council guidelines. The data obtained in the present study can be useful in the ration formulation for grazing livestock.     

Application of a Chitosan-Immobilized Talaromyces thermophilus Lipase to a Batch Biodiesel Production from Waste Frying Oils

Waste frying oil, which not only harms people’s health but also causes environmental pollution, can be a good alternative to partially substitute petroleum diesel through transesterification reaction. This oil contained 8.8 % of free fatty acids, which cause a problem in a base-catalyzed process. In this study, synthesis of biodiesel was efficiently catalyzed by the covalently immobilized Talaromyces thermophilus lipase and allowed bioconversion yield up to 92 % after 24 h of reaction time. The optimal molar ratio was four to six parts of methanol to one part of oil with a biocatalyst loaded of 25 wt.% of oil. Further, experiments revealed that T. thermophilus lipase, immobilized by a multipoint covalent liaison onto activated chitosan via a short spacer (glutaraldehyde), was sufficiently tolerant to methanol. In fact, using the stepwise addition of methanol, no significant difference was observed from the one-step whole addition at the start of reaction. The batch biodiesel synthesis was performed in a fixed bed reactor with a lipase loaded of 10 g. The bioconversion yield of 98 % was attained after a 5-h reaction time. The bioreactor was operated successfully for almost 150 h without any changes in the initial conversion yield. Most of the chemical and physical properties of the produced biodiesel meet the European and USA standard specifications of biodiesel fuels.     

High-gain erbium-doped fiber amplifier incorporating a double-pass amplification technique as a preamplifier

We present a high-gain erbium-doped fiber amplifier to be utilized as a preamplifier. A double-pass amplification technique is used in the first-stage amplifier together with a tunable bandpass filter. The secondstage amplifier is a counter-pumped configuration and another tunable bandpass filter is utilized to filter out amplified spontaneous emission from the first-stage amplifier. This design is able to produce a high gain of 55.6 dB and a noise figure of 6.02 dB at 1530 nm with a signal power of ?45 dBm. The receiver sensitivity measurement shows that the proposed amplifier improves the minimum detectable power from ?33.7 to ?40.8 dBm for a bit-error rate of 10^?11 at 155 Mbps.

     

Characterization of a dual wavelength fibre laser based-on dumbbell configuration

This paper reports the design of a dual wavelength fibre laser system using a dumbbell shaped configuration. The oscillation of the lasing wavelength is completed via fibre loop mirrors with a tuneable bandpass filter. The output power, side mode suppression ratio and wavelength spacing of the lasers were investigated against the pump power for forward and backward pumping schemes. The output powers of 4.99 and 3.69 dBm at 1545.08 and 1547.28 nm, respectively, for forward pumping scheme. On contrary, the output powers of 1.93 and 2.14 dBm at 1546.12 and 1551.48 nm, respectively, for backward pumping scheme. The peak output powers of less than 1 dB difference are obtained without any adjustment of the intra-cavity loss over a wider spectral range.     

High dispersion and fluorescence of anthracene doped in polyphenylsiloxane films

Phenylsilsesquioxane-diphenylsiloxane glass thick films doped with anthracene were prepared from homogeneous coating sols obtained from two different approaches. One approach consisted in incorporating the dye during the glass preparation (which implies the incorporation of the dye in an aqueous media). The doped-glass was further dissolved in the solvents mixture composed of cyclohexane and acetone. The other approach which is non-aqueous consisted simply in dissolving directly the preformed non-doped polyphenylsiloxane glass in the dye solutions. The stability of the organic-inorganic hybrid glass matrix in most organic solvents makes possible the incorporation of the dye without problems of miscibility and dispersion in the hybrid matrix. The coating was performed at room temperature using spin-coating technique prior to further heat-treatment. Crack-free and homogeneous films of high optical quality were obtained. The optical properties of the doped films based on their absorption and emission spectra were discussed owing the incorporation route of the dye. The results showed that the non-aqueous approach used to incorporate the dye minimizes the dye aggregation. This property associated to the preparation route permits to obtain optically active hybrid films loaded with high concentrations of anthracene (in the order of 10⁻² M) which enhance the fluorescence of the doped films. The hybrid doped-films obtained represent therefore a tremendous potential for applications in the field of optics and photonics including the development of new nonlinear optical materials. Bouzid Menaa and Masahide Takahashi both the author contributed equally.     

Flow-injection methods for the determination of uracil derivatives with voltammetric detection

Flow-injection methods are described for the determination of 18 uracil derivatives and related compounds, by means of differential-pulse amperometry (d.p.a.) or differential-pulse cathodic stripping voltammetry (d.p.c.s.v.). The carrier stream is a borax/KNO₃/HNO₃ (of NaOH) solution containing 0.001% (v/v) Triton X-100. This surfactant displaces the oxygen reduction peak to such negative potentials that deaeration is unnecessary for detection of compounds having peak potentials in the range 180–70 mV (vs. Ag/AgCI) at pH 7.6. At the hanging mercury drop electrode, the uracil derivative is deposited from the flowing sample at a fixed potential more positive than the relevant peak potential and stripped under stopped-flow or slow-flow conditions. In the amperometric mode, a constant potential also more positive than the relevant peak potential is applied to the dropping mercury electrode and the resulting peak is measured under flow conditions. Linear calibration graphs were found for most of the compounds at 10^?6–10^?7 M by d.p.a, and about one order of magnitude lower by d.p.c.s.v.. The limit of determination for 5-iodouracil was 5×10^?9 M (ca. 1.2 ng ml^?1). Separation is needed for applications to blood or urine. Simple deproteination followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with a reversed-phase column proved satisfactory. Separations of various uracil derivatives, and of 5-fluorouracil, uric acid and 5-fluorodeoxyuridine, are described; spectrophotometric and amperometric detectors were used sequentially to check performance.     

An efficient background suppression ratio and output power using a novel fiber loop mirrors technique

This paper demontrates a novel configuration of a linear cavity erbium-doped fiber laser using fiber loop mirrors to effectively suppress the noise generated by the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). A tunable filter is deployed in each fiber loop mirror to create a narrow passband for the selected mode. The fiber laser produces high background suppression ratio (BSR) of more than 75 dB from 1525 to 1565 nm at the output coupling of 95%. There is no residual ASE detected at the output to verify the effectiveness of the noise filtering in the proposed fiber laser. Low threshold powers are obtained in the range of 2.5–3 mW and the peak power variation is smaller than 1.6 dB.     

Modulation of the intercalation properties of copper-zinc mixed-metal phosphonate materials

New layered mixed divalent metal vinylphosphonates Cu(II) (1-x)Zn(II) (x)(O(3)PC(2)H(3)).H(2)O have been prepared from a range of pre-formed copper-zinc oxides Cu(II) (1-x)Zn(II) (x)O obtained by isomorphous substitution of zinc into the tenorite-type structure of Cu(II)O. The corresponding mixed divalent copper-zinc vinylphosphonates have been characterised by powder X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. All compounds have been shown to consist of a single-phase solid solution that crystallises in an monoclinic unit cell, space group P2(1)/c with a=9.86-9.90, b=7.61-7.64, c=7.32-7.35 A and beta=95.9-96 degrees, with the exception of the pure zinc vinylphosphonate (x=1), the structure of which is comparable to other Zn(II)(O(3)PR).H(2)O materials. Studies of the intercalation of n-butylamine into the range of copper-zinc vinylphosphonates have demonstrated that significant modulation of the adsorption properties occurs; whereas one mole of amine is intercalated into the pure zinc vinylphosphonate to give Zn(II)(O(3)PC(2)H(3)).(C(4)H(9)NH(2)), for all other members of the series two moles of amine are coordinated to give intercalated compounds of composition Cu(II) (1-x)Zn(II) (x)(O(3)PC(2)H(3)).[(C(4)H(9)NH(2))(1-x)(C(4)H(9)NH(2))(x)](2) from which the amine can be sequentially removed from the different metal sites; this opens up possibilities for further applications of these materials.