Microextraction of metal ions based on solidification of a floating drop: Basics and recent updates

This review provides a comprehensive evaluation of solidified floating organic drop microextraction (SFODME) procedures for metal ions preconcentration and their contributions to green chemistry. In this article we focused on the modifications that have been performed in the recent years to improve this environmentally friendly procedure. Among the most important of these modifications are the inclusion of ultrasonic energy, vortex and air agitation to enhance the dispersion process. The article also discussed new challenges in the procedure by using more ecofriendly solvents as extractants such as ionic liquids, deep eutectic. and supramolecular solvents. The coupling of SFODME with solid phase extraction increases selectivity and efficiency of the preconcentration procedure.     

Spray Freeze-drying – The Process of Choice for Low Water Soluble Drugs?

Most of the novel highly potent drugs, developed on the basis of modern molecular medicine, taking into account cell surface recognition techniques, show poor water solubility. A chemical modification of the drug substance enhancing the solubility often decreases the pharmacological activity. Thus, as an alternative an increase of the solubility can be obtained by the reduction of the size of the drug particles. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to obtain micro or nanosized drug particles by classical or more advanced crystallization using supercritical gases or by milling techniques. In addition, nanosized particles are often not physically stable and need to be stabilized in an appropriate matrix. Thus, it may be of interest to manufacture directly nanosized drug particles stabilized in an inert hydrophilic matrix, i.e. nanostructured and nanocomposite systems. Solid solutions and solid dispersions represent nanostructured and nanocomposite systems. In this context, the use of the vacuum-fluidized-bed technique for the spray-drying of a low water soluble drug cosolubilized with a hydrophilic excipient in a polar organic solvent is discussed. In order to avoid the use of organic solvents, a special spray-freeze-drying technique working at atmospheric pressure is presented. This process is very suitable for temperature and otherwise sensitive drugs such as pharmaproteins.     

Fast and efficient preparation of Baylis-Hillman-derived (E)-allylic azides and related compounds in aqueous medium

A practical access to alkyl- and aryl-substituted (E)-2-(azidomethyl)alkenoates and related azido compounds from the corresponding allylic bromides in aqueous acetone is described. An alternative method to obtain the starting bromides based on heterogeneous catalysis under mild conditions was also investigated.     

The Existence of Solutions to Sturm-Liouville Boundary Value Problems with Laplacian-like Operator

Abstract The existence of infinitely many solutions to Sturm-Liouville boundary value problem with aLaplacian-like operator is studied by applying generalized polar coordinates.     

Conditional expectation of integrands and random sets

The conditional expectation of integrands and random sets is the main tool of stochastic optimization. This work wishes to make up for the lack of real synthesis about this subject. We improve the existing hypothesis and simplify the corresponding proofs. In the convex case we especially study the problem of the exchange of conditional expectation and subdifferential operators.     

L p -dual Quermassintegral sums

In this paper, we first introduce a concept of L _p -dual Quermassintegral sum function of convex bodies and establish the polar projection Minkowski inequality and the polar projection Aleksandrov-Fenchel inequality for L _p -dual Quermassintegral sums. Moreover, by using Lutwak’s width-integral of index i, we establish the L _p -Brunn-Minkowski inequality for the polar mixed projection bodies. As applications, we prove some interrelated results. This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10271071), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. Y605065) and Foundation of the Education Department of Zhejiang Province of China (Grant No. 20050392)     

Approximation of Matrices and a Family of Gander Methods for Polar Decomposition

Two matrix approximation problems are considered: approximation of a rectangular complex matrix by subunitary matrices with respect to unitarily invariant norms and a minimal rank approximation with respect to the spectral norm. A characterization of a subunitary approximant of a square matrix with respect to the Schatten norms, given by Maher, is extended to the case of rectangular matrices and arbitrary unitarily invariant norms. Iterative methods, based on the family of Gander methods and on Higham’s scaled method for polar decomposition of a matrix, are proposed for computing subunitary and minimal rank approximants. Properties of Gander methods are investigated in details. AMS subject classification (2000) 65F30, 15A18     

Chain length effect on dynamical structure of poly (vinyl pyrrolidone)-polar solvent mixtures in dilute solution of dioxane studied by microwave dielectric relaxation measurement

Dielectric relaxation study of the binary mixtures of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) (Mw=24000, 40000 and 360000 g mol⁻¹) with ethyl alcohol (EA) and poly(ethylene glycol)s (PEGs) (Mw=200 and 400 g mol⁻¹) in dilute solutions of dioxane were carried out at 10.1 GHz and 35°C. The relaxation time of PVP-EA mixtures was interpreted by the consideration of a wait-and-switch model in the local structure of self-associated ethyl alcohol molecules and also the PVP chain length as a geometric constraint for the reorientational motion of ethyl alcohol molecules. The formation of complexes and effect of PVP chain length on the molecular dynamics, chain flexibility and stretching of PEG molecules in PVP-PEG mixtures were explored from the comparative values of dielectric relaxation time. Further, relaxation time values in dioxane and benzene solvent confirm the viscosity independent molecular dynamics in PVP-EA mixtures but the values vary significantly with the non-polar solvent environment.     

Hydrolysis-condensation of tetraethoxysilane in nonparental solvents studied by GC-MS

Gas-chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry was used to investigate the hydrolysis and condensation of tetra-ethoxysilane (TEOS) in nonparental solvents (MeOH and nPrOH). In the presence of nonparental solvents, the reaction that advanced at highest rate is alkoxy group scrambling, that changes the precursor at the molecular level. Subsequent stages of hydrolysis-polycondensation process are essentially determined by the reactivity of the new molecular species formed.     

Influence of concentration on the activation energy for diffusion in polymer-solvent systems

The self-diffusion of benzene, toluene, and ethylbenzene in polystyrene have been analyzed using the Vrentas/Duda free-volume diffusion model. Diffusion coefficient predictions suggest an exponential concentration dependence of the activation energy required to overcome attractive forces, E. Without the use of any diffusion data approximating E as zero over the entire concentration range yields self-diffusion coefficient predictions which are in good agreement with experimental data. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.