Methods for physical separation and characterization of soil organic matter fractions

Turnover of soil organic matter (SOM) is coupled to the cycling of nutrients in soil through the activity of soil microorganisms. Biological availability of organic substrate in soil is related to the chemical quality of the organic material and to its degree of physical protection. SOM fractions can provide information on the turnover of organic matter (OM), provided the fractions can be related to functional or structural components in soil. Ultrasonication is commonly used to disrupt the soil structure prior to physical fractionation according to particle size, but may cause redistribution of OM among size fractions. The presence of mineral particles in size fractions can complicate estimations of OM turnover time within the fractions. Densiometric separation allows one to physically separate OM found within a specific size class from the heavier-density mineral particles. Nutrient contents and mineralization potential were determined for discrete size/density OM fractions isolated from within the macroaggregate structure of cultivated grassland soils. Eighteen percent of the total soil C and 25% of the total soil N in no-till soil was associated with fine-silt size particles having a density of 2.07-2.21 g/cm3 isolated from inside macroaggregates (enriched labile fraction or ELF). The amount of C and N sequestered in the ELF fraction decreased as the intensity of tillage increased. The specific rate of mineralization (mug net mineral N/mug total N in the fraction) for macroaggregate-derived ELF was not different for the three tillage treatments but was greater than for intact macroaggregates. The methods described here have improved our ability to quantitatively estimate SOM fractions, which in turn has increased our understanding of SOM dynamics in cultivated grassland systems.

Determination of Point of Zero Charge of Tunisian Kaolinites by Potentiometric and Mass Titration Methods

This paper deals with determining points of zero charge of natural and Na+-saturated mineral kaolinites using two methods: (1) acid-base potentiometric titration was employed to obtain the adsorption of H+ and OH- on amphoteric surfaces in solutions of varying ionic strengths in order to determinate graphically the point of zero net proton charge (PZNPC) defined equally as point of zero salt effect (PZSE); (2) mass titration curve at different electrolyte concentrations in order to estimate PZNPCs by interpolation and to compare with those determined by potentiometric titrations. The two methods involved points of zero charge approximately similar for the two kaolinites between 6.5-7.8, comparable to those reported previously and were in the range expected for these clay minerals. The comparison of potentiometric surface titration curves obtained at 25 °C and those published in the literature reveals significant discrepancies both in the shape and in the pH of PZNPCs values.

Studies on coarsening of microdomains in binary polymer mixtures by Lattice Boltzmann methods

An improved free energy approach Lattice Boltzmann model(LBM) is proposed by introducing a forcing term instead of the pressure tensor. This model can reach the proper thermodynamic equilibrium after enough simulation time. On the basis of this model, the phase separation in binary polymer mixtures is studied by applying a Flory-Huggins-type free energy. The numerical results show good agreement with the analytic coexistence curve. This model can also be used to study the coarsening of microdomains in binary polymer mixtures at the early and intermediate stages.

Enhancement of the electrooxidation of ethanol on Pt-Sn-P/C catalysts prepared by chemical deposition process

In this paper, five Pt3Sn1/C catalysts have been prepared using three different methods. It was found that phosphorus deposited on the surface of carbon with Pt and Sn when sodium hypophosphite was used as reducing agent by optimization of synthetic conditions such as pH in the synthetic solution and temperature. The deposition of phosphorus should be effective on the size reduction and markedly reduces PtSn nanoparticle size, and raise electrochemical active surface (EAS) area of catalyst and improve the catalytic performance. TEM images show PtSnP nanoparticles are highly dispersed on the carbon surface with average diameters of 2 nm. The optimum composition is Pt3Sn1P2/C (note PtSn/C-3) catalyst in my work. With this composition, it shows very high activity for the electrooxidation of ethanol and exhibit enhanced performance compared with other two Pt3Sn1/C catalysts that prepared using ethylene glycol reduction method (note PtSn/C-EG) and borohydride reduction method (note PtSn/-B). The maximum power densities of direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) were 61 mW cm(-2) that is 150 and 170% higher than that of the PtSn/C-EG and PtSn/C-B catalyst.

Discrimination of herbal medicines by molecular spectroscopy and chemical pattern recognition

The molecular spectroscopy (including near infrared diffuse reflection spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy) with OPUS/Ident software was applied to clustering ginsengs according to species and processing methods. The results demonstrate that molecular spectroscopic analysis could provide a rapid, nondestructive and reliable method for identification of Chinese traditional medicine. It's found that the result of Raman spectroscopic analysis was the best one among these three methods. Comparing with traditional methods, which are laborious and time consuming, the molecular spectroscopic analysis is more effective.

Comparison of different methods for variable selection

In chemistry for chemical analysis of a multi-component sample or quantitative structure-activity/property relationship (QSAR/QSPR) studies, variable selection is a key step. In this study, comparisons between different methods were performed. These methods include three classical methods such as forward selection, backward elimination and stepwise regression; orthogonal descriptors; leaps-and-bounds regression and genetic algorithm. Thirty-five nitrobenzenes were taken as the data set. From these structures quantum chemical parameters, topological indices and indicator variable were extracted as the descriptors for the comparisons of variable selections. The interesting results have been obtained. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.