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.     

Current air quality analytics and monitoring: A review

This review summarizes the different tools and concepts that are commonly applied in air quality monitoring. The monitoring of atmosphere is extremely important as the air quality is an important problem for large communities. Main requirements for analytical devices used for monitoring include a long period of autonomic operation and portability. These instruments, however, are often characterized by poor analytical performance. Monitoring networks are the most common tools used for monitoring, so large-scale monitoring programmes are summarized here. Biomonitoring, as a cheap and convenient alternative to traditional sample collection, is becoming more and more popular, although its main drawback is the lack of standard procedures. Telemonitoring is another approach to air monitoring, which offers some interesting opportunities, such as ease of coverage of large or remote areas, constituting a complementary approach to traditional strategies; however, it requires huge costs.     

Negative compressibility property in hinging open-cell Kelvin structure

A new three-dimensional(3 D) cellular model based on hinging open-cell Kelvin structure is proposed for its negative compressibility property. It is shown that this model has adjustable compressibility and does exhibit negative compressibility for some certain conformations. And further study shows that the images of compressibility are symmetrical about the certain lines, which indicates that the mechanical properties of the model in the three axial directions are interchangeable and the model itself has a certain geometric symmetry. A comparison of the Kelvin model with its anisotropic form with the dodecahedron model shows that the Kelvin model has stronger negative compressibility property in all three directions.Therefore, a new and potential method to improve negative compressibility property can be derived by selecting the system type with lower symmetry and increasing the number of geometric parameters.     

Analytical Study of Nonlinear Dust Acoustic Waves in Two-Dimensional Dust Plasma with Dust Charge Variation

The nonlinear dust acoustic waves in two-dimensional dust plasma with dust charge variation is analytically investigated by using the formally variable separation approach. New analytical solutions for the governing equation of this system have been obtained for dust acoustic waves in a dust plasma for the first time. We derive exact analytical expressions for the general case of the nonlinear dust acoustic waves in two-dimensional dust plasma with dust charge variation.     

Metallo‐supramolecular block copolymer micelles: Improved preparation and characterization

Micelles prepared from amphiphilic block copolymers in which a poly(styrene) segment is connected to a poly(ethylene oxide) block via a bis‐(2,2′:6′,2″‐terpyridine‐ruthenium) complex have been intensely studied. In most cases, the micelle populations were found to be strongly heterogeneous in size because of massive micelle/micelle aggregation. In the study reported in this article we tried to improve the homogeneity of the micelle population. The variant preparation procedure developed, which is described here, was used to prepare two “protomer”‐type micelles: PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₇₀ and PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₃₇₅. The dropwise addition of water to a solution of the compounds in dimethylformamide was replaced by the controlled addition of water by a syringe pump. The resulting micelles were characterized by sedimentation velocity and sedimentation equilibrium analyses in an analytical ultracentrifuge and by transmission electron microscopy of negatively stained samples. Sedimentation analysis showed virtually unimodal size distributions, in contrast to the findings on micelles prepared previously. PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₇₀ micelles were found to have an average molar mass of 318,000 g/mol (corresponding to 53 protomers per micelle, which is distinctly less than after micelle preparation by the standard method) and an average hydrodynamic diameter (d_h) of 18 nm. For PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₃₇₅ micelles, the corresponding values were M = 603,000 g/mol (31 protomers per micelle) and d_h = 34 nm. The latter particles were found to be identical to the “equilibrium” micelles prepared in pure water. Both micelle types had a very narrow molar mass distribution but a much broader distribution of s values and thus of hydrodynamic diameters. This indicates a conformational heterogeneity that is stable on the time scale of sedimentation velocity analysis. The findings from electron microscopy were in disagreement with those from the sedimentation analysis both in average micelle diameter and in the width of the distributions, apparently because of imperfections in the staining procedure. The preparation procedure described also may be useful in micelle formation from other types of protomers. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 4458–4465, 2004     

On parabolic equations with a small parameter

A singularly perturbed parabolic equation with a nonlinear right-hand side of a special form is examined. A numerical analytical study of such equations is performed.     

Monotonicity criteria for difference schemes designed for hyperbolic equations

Previously formulated monotonicity criteria for explicit two-level difference schemes designed for hyperbolic equations (S.K. Godunov’s, A. Harten’s (TVD schemes), characteristic criteria) are extended to multileveled, including implicit, stencils. The characteristic monotonicity criterion is used to develop a universal algorithm for constructing high-order accurate nonlinear monotone schemes (for an arbitrary form of the desired solution) based on their analysis in the space of grid functions. Several new fourth-to-third-order accurate monotone difference schemes on a compact three-level stencil and nonexpanding (three-point) stencils are proposed for an extended system, which ensures their monotonicity for both the desired function and its derivatives. The difference schemes are tested using the characteristic monotonicity criterion and are extended to systems of hyperbolic equations.     

Steady-state analytical solutions for the lattice boltzmann equation

A general class of analytical solutions of the lattice Boltzmann equation is derived for two-dimensional, steady-state unidirectional flows. A subset of the solutions that verifies the corresponding Navier-Stokes equations is given. It is pointed out that this class includes, e.g., the Couette and the Poiseuille flow but not, e.g., the basic Kolmogorov flow. For steady-state non-unidirectional flows, first and second order solutions of the lattice Boltzmann equation are derived. Practical consequences of the analysis are mentioned. Differences between the technique applied here and those used in some earlier works are emphasized.     

On the convergence rate and optimization of a numerical method with splitting of boundary conditions for the stokes system in a spherical layer in the axisymmetric case: Modification for thick layers

The convergence rate of a fast-converging second-order accurate iterative method with splitting of boundary conditions constructed by the authors for solving an axisymmetric Dirichlet boundary value problem for the Stokes system in a spherical gap is studied numerically. For R/r exceeding about 30, where r and R are the radii of the inner and outer boundary spheres, it is established that the convergence rate of the method is lower (and considerably lower for large R/r) than the convergence rate of its differential version. For this reason, a really simpler, more slowly converging modification of the original method is constructed on the differential level and a finite-element implementation of this modification is built. Numerical experiments have revealed that this modification has the same convergence rate as its differential counterpart for R/r of up to 5 × 10³. When the multigrid method is used to solve the split and auxiliary boundary value problems arising at iterations, the modification is more efficient than the original method starting from R/r ～ 30 and is considerably more efficient for large values of R/r. It is also established that the convergence rates of both methods depend little on the stretching coefficient η of circularly rectangular mesh cells in a range of η that is well sufficient for effective use of the multigrid method for arbitrary values of R/r smaller than ～ 5 × 10³.