OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

A. INTRODUCTION
1. Environmental Analysis
Environmental analysis, as used in these notes, is the chemical (or physical) characterization of some component of the natural or engineered environment. One may speak of four facets to environmental analysis:
1. Analytical Methods
2. Sampling Protocol
3. Quality Control
4. Data Analysis


B. TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF ANALYTICAL METHODS
I. Classical
A. Gravimetric
1. Evaporation
2. Filtration
3. Precipitation
4. Extraction
B. Volumetric Analysis or Titrimetric Analysis
1. Acid/Base
2. Precipitation
3. Complexation or Chelation
4. Oxidation/Reduction
II. Modern or Instrumental Methods
A. Spectroscopic Methods
1. Molecular
a. Molecular Absorption
i. Ultraviolet/Visible
ii. Infrared
b. Molecular Emission
2. Atomic
b. Atomic Absorption (AAS)
i. Flame
ii. Furnace
b. Atomic Emission
i. Flame
ii. Plasma
B. Electrochemical Methods
1. Potentiometry
a. Glass Electrode
b. Ion Selective Electrodes (ISE)
2. Amperometry
3. Voltammetry
4. Conductance
C. Chromatographic Methods
1. Planar Chromatography
2. Gas Chromatography
a. Flame Ionization Detection
b. Electron Capture Detection
c. Thermal Conductivity
3. Liquid Chromatography
D. Mass Spectrometry
a. Probe Introduction
b. GC Introduction (GC/MS)
c. LC Introduction (LC/MS)
E. Nuclear Methods
III. Biochemical Methods
A. Whole Organisms
B. Cell Cultures
C. Enzyme Systems

Articles

12th General Conference of the Romanian Physical Society "TRENDS IN PHYSICS"

FOREWORD

The Romanian Physical Society (RPS) has been organizing, every year, the National Conference of Physics, since 1990, the date of society's post-war initiation. It however continues a tradition that the community of physicists managed to pursue for two decades earlier. There are important differences as comparing with the past in many respects: logistics, means, motivation of participation both of institutions and individuals, scope and aims. However from several points of view the word "continuity" has a factual support.

The main purpose of the national conference is to bring together physicists from various institutions, universities, research laboratories, colleges, and high schools, to discuss all matters referring to our profession and activity. And problems appear more and more acute in the present stage of historical development of our country.

Equally important is to watch to what extent the standard of research and education in physics correspond to the mainstream of the world science and to what extent we find the physics in Romania imbedded in .the world's civilization.

The sub-title "trends in physics" , adopted from the European general conferences, expresses exactly the desire of the organizers to have an overview of the status of research and education in physics in our country capable to constitute a frame for further steps and a signal for competent authorities in science policy - and for physicists themselves, too. From this point of view the Romanian Physical Society is the ideal institution, if not the only one, capable to engage on such a task. Specialized conferences more, or less successful, have been abundant during the last few years and they are extremely necessary. They solve punctual problems of scientific communication and cooperation. National conferences are expected to be a general real forum for physics promotion and advancement in Romania.

The present book contains the abstracts of contributions submitted to the conference. They will be catalogued by several international agencies (i.e. INIS-AIEA) and will be kept in the web page of RPS. As we have found an increase of the standard of presentation by the authors no paper was rejected, though we recognize that there are many misprints and language mistakes in many texts. The meaning and the intrinsic value of these texts are however transparent. Unfortunately the organizers did not have the means and time to make the necessary corrections; we operated in general to the printing aspect and uniformity of presentations. Regarding the content, spelling, grammar and logical flow, these remain entirely as the responsibility of the authors themselves.


Articles

Synthesis of a chitosan-based chelating resin and its application to the selective concentration and ultratrace determination of silver in environment

Abstract

A novel chelating resin using chitosan as a base material, ethylenediamine-type chitosan, has been synthesized for the first time in the present study, and applied to the collection/concentration of ultratrace amounts of silver in environmental water samples. In the present study, ultratrace amounts of silver collected on the resin were eluted and determined by ICP-MS. The resin packed in a 1 mL mini column could adsorb silver selectively and quantitatively at a flow rate of 2 mL min⁻¹ in the wide pH range from 1 to 8, and silver adsorbed on the resin could be easily recovered by passing 1 M nitric acid as an eluent into the column. High adsorption capacity for silver at pH 5, 0.37 mmol mL⁻¹ of the resin, was achieved, and t_1/2 of the adsorption is less than 5 min. The effect of chloride on the collection of silver was examined by varying chloride concentrations from 10⁻⁴ to 0.75 M; the results showed that the present resin can be used for the collection/concentration of ultratrace amounts of silver in natural waters, as well as seawater. To ensure the accuracy and the precision of the method, CASS-4 near shore seawater reference material from the NRCC has been analyzed. This is not a certified SRM for silver, but has been used for comparative silver analysis by several groups, who report very similar results to those that are reported here. The developed method using ethylenediamine-type chitosan resin gives 0.7 pg mL⁻¹ of the detection limit when 50-fold enrichment was used. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of silver in tap, river, and seawater samples.

Keywords: Chelating resin; Chitosan; Determination of silver; Environmental water samples; ICP-MS

Article Outline

1. Introduction

2. Experimental

2.1. Instruments

2.2. Reagents and solutions

3. Procedure

3.1. Synthesis of ethylenediamine-type chitosan resin

3.2. Mini column procedure for collection and concentration of silver

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Characteristics of the ethylenediamine-type chitosan resin

4.2. Adsorption capacity of ethylenediamine-type chitosan resin

4.3. Adsorption behavior of metal ions on ethylenediamine-type chitosan resin

4.4. Detection limit

4.5. Effect of chloride ion

4.6. Speciation of silver in water and adsorption mechanism of silver on the ethylenediamine-type chitosan resin

4.7. Determination of silver in CASS-4 nearshore seawater reference material

4.8. Determination of silver in tap, river, and seawater samples

5. Conclusion

Acknowledgements

References

Quality Traceability DependabilityWorld wide

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[PDF] VHGCatalog_Final 92607B.qxp:Layout 1

SUMMARIES OF PHYSICAL RESEARCH IN METALLURGY, SOLID STATE PHYSICS, AND CERAMICS

I. PRODUCTION, TREATMENT, AND PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS
A. Metallurgy of Reactor Materials
Metallurgical and Other Investigations on Special Metals, Other Materials-5 and Processes
Purification of Alkali Halides-8
Physical Metallurgy of Uranium-9
Uranium A13 oys -10
Physical Metallurgy of Plutonium and Its Alloys-12
Niobium Phase Diagrams-13
System Zirconium-Iron-Tin -14
Uranium Phase Equilibria Studies-15
Bonding Fundamentals -16
Basic Studies Relevant to the Liquid Metal Fuel Reactor-17
Transformation Characteristics of Zirconium-Niobium Alloys-19
Study of Inclusions in Uranium-21
Fatigue Behavior of Dilute Alloys of Niobium -22
Physical Metallurgy of Uncommon Metals -23
Constitution of Uranium Alloys-24
Fundamentals of Diffusional Bonding-25
Phase Equilibria Studies of Alloy Systems Involving One or More Alkali
and Alkaline Earth Metals as Components -26
Basic Properties of Light Metal Hydrides -27
B. Materials Preparation
Preparation, Structure and Properties of Uranium Compounds-31
Metal Purification and Crystal Preparation-32
Preparation of Semiconducting Materials-33
C. Refractory Materials
Basic Research In Ceramics-37
Properties of Ceramics at Elevated Temperatures-38
Research on Graphite-39
Volume Change on Melting 1102 -40
Ceramics Research-41
D. Corrosion and Oxidation Studies
Basic Corrosion Studies-45
Scaling of Zirconium at Elevated Temperatures-46
Study of the Films Formed on Zirconium-Niobium Alloys in Oxygen Atmospheres -47
Investigation of Phenomena Related To Liquid Metal Corrosion-48
Corrosion of Nuclear Metals -49
Electrochemical Studies on the Corrosion of Nuclear Reactor Metals-50


[PDF] SUMMARIES OF PHYSICAL RESEARCH IN METALLURGY, SOLID STATE PHYSICS ..

Chelating Sorbents in Inorganic Chemical Analysis

INTRODUCTION
Accurate analysis of various complex samples (natural and waste waters, geological, biological and industrial materials, substances of high purity), especially at trace levels, is one of the most difficult and complicatedanalytical tasks.
The rapid development of electronic instrumentation has created powerful analytical tools for trace element determination. At the same time, matrix effects (which can give erroneous results) and the extent of separation chemistry in instrumental methods have become evident.1
In the last years, the importance of separation and concentration techniques involving chelating sorbents in the trace analysis has risen substantially.
Pre-treatment of an aqueous sample by the sorption technique not only increases the ion concentration to a detectable level but also eliminates matrix effects. The use of chelating sorbents can provide a concentration factor up to several hundred folds, better separation of interferent ions, high efficiency and rate of process, and the possibility of combining with different determination methods.2¿5
A chelating sorbent essentially consists of two components: the chelate forming functional group and the polymeric matrix or the support; the properties of both components determine the features and the applications of the respective material.

[PDF] Chelating Sorbents in Inorganic Chemical Analysis

Biosorption of heavy metals by Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A review

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems today. Biosorption, using biomaterials such as bacteria, fungi, yeast and algae, is regarded as acosteffective biotechnology for the treatment of high volume and low concentration complex wastewaters containing heavy metal(s) in the order of 1 to 100 mg/L. Among the promising biosorbents for heavy metal removal which have been researched during the past decades, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has received increasing attention due to the unique nature in spite of its mediocre capacity for metal uptake compared with other fungi. S. cerevisiae is widely used in food and beverage production, is easily cultivated using cheap media, is also a by-product in large quantity as a waste of the fermentation industry, and is easily manipulated at molecular level.

The state of the art in the field of biosorption of heavy metals by S. cerevisiae not only in China, but also worldwide, is reviewed in this paper, based on a substantial number of relevant references published recently on the background of biosorption achievements and development. Characteristics of S. cerevisiae in heavy metal biosorption are extensively discussed. The yeast can be studied in various forms for different purposes. Metal-binding capacity for various heavy metals by S. cerevisiae under different conditions is compared. Lead and uranium, for instances, could be removed from dilute solutions more effectively in comparison with other metals. The yeast biosorption largely depends on parameters such as pH, the ratio of the initial metal ion and initial biomass concentration, culture conditions, presence of various ligands and competitive metal ions in solution and to a limited extent on temperature. An assessment of the isotherm equilibrium model, as well as kinetics was performed. The mechanisms of biosorption are understood only to a limited extent. Elucidation of the mechanism of metal uptake is a real challenge in the field of biosorption. Various mechanism assumptions of metal uptake by S. cerevisiae are summarized.

Article Outline

1. Introduction

2. Advantages of S. cerevisiae as biosorbents in metal biosorption

3. Forms of S. cerevisiae in biosorption research

4. Biosorption capacity of S. cerevisiae

4.1. Metal ion uptake

4.2. Biosorption capacity

4.3. Selectivity and competitive biosorption by S. cerevisiae

4.4. Comparison with other biomaterials

5. Influential factors

5.1. Properties of metal ions in solution

5.2. Environmental conditions

5.2.1. pH

5.2.2. Temperature

5.2.3. Contact time

5.2.4. Competing ions/co-ions

5.2.5. Initial concentration of metal ions and biomass

5.2.6. Composition of cultural medium

5.2.6.1. Glucose

5.2.6.2. Other compositions of cultural medium

5.2.7. Cell age

6. Pretreatment

7. Biosorption equilibrium isotherm models and kinetics models

7.1. Equilibrium isotherm models

7.2. Kinetics of biosorption

7.3. Process of metal uptake

7.4. Kinetic models for S. cerevisiae

8. Biosorption mechanism by the cell of S. cerevisiae

8.1. Extracellular accumulation/precipitation

8.2. Cell surface sorption/precipitation

8.3. Intracellular accumulation/ precipitation

9. Instrumental tools and techniques used in metal biosorption studies

10. Discussions and future directions

10.1. Mechanism research

10.2. Application of biosorption technology

10.3. Screening of biomaterials

10.4. Hybrid technology

Acknowledgements

References