Hydrogenation of naphthalene on noble-metal-containing mesoporous MCM-41 aluminosilicates

Aromatic saturation of oil fractions is a key process in the refining industry due to increasing demand for cleanest distillates with superior performances. In this study, the behavior of different catalysts containing 1 wt.% of noble-metal inside a mesoporous MCM-41 (Si:Al=20) framework was investigated in the hydrogenation of naphthalene, as preliminary step to investigate bimetallic catalysts. While at atmospheric pressure only Rh and Pd showed a low hydrogenation activity, in the tests performed at 6.0 MPa the catalytic activity grew, exhibiting the following order: Pt>RhPd>>>Ru≈Ir. However, all the catalysts required a large H₂ excess, to avoid a decrease in hydrogenation and ring-opening activity, and gave rise to the best performance for a contact time of 6.8 s, favouring at lower values the partial hydrogenation to tetralin and at higher values cracking reactions. Finally, all the catalysts showed low thio-tolerance, with significant deactivation already feeding 100 ppm wt. of dibenzothiophene (DBT), with a partial reversibility only for the Pt-containing catalyst (CAT 3).     

Determination of ethyl glucuronide in urine using reversed-phase HPLC and pulsed electrochemical detection (Part II)

A direct, versatile method for the determination of ethyl glucuronide (EtG), a biomarker of ethanol consumption, in urine has been developed using reversed-phase liquid chromatography with pulsed electrochemical detection (PED). EtG and methyl glucuronide (MetG), which serves as an internal standard, are readily separated using a mobile phase consisting of 1% acetic acid/acetonitrile (98/2, v/v). Post-column addition of NaOH allows for the detection of all glucuronides using PED at a gold working electrode. Upon optimization, EtG was found to have a limit of detection of 0.03 μg/mL (7 pmol; 50 μL injection volume) and repeatability at the limit of quantitation of 1.7%R.S.D. (relative standard deviation). Solid-phase extraction (SPE) using an aminopropyl phase was used to remove interferents in urine samples prior to their analysis. Compound recovery following SPE was approximately 50 ± 2%. The forensic utility of this method was further validated by the analysis of 29 post-mortem urine specimens, whose results agreed strongly with certified determinations.