Nitrogen Compound Characterization in Fuels by Multidimensional Gas Chromatography.

Certain nitrogen-containing compounds can contribute to fuel instability during storage. Hence, detection and characterization of these compounds is crucial. There are significant challenges to overcome when measuring trace compounds in a complex matrix such as fuels. Background interferences and matrix effects can create limitations to routine analytical instrumentation, such as GC-MS. In order to facilitate specific and quantitative measurements of trace nitrogen compounds in fuels, a nitrogen-specific detector is ideal. In this method, a nitrogen chemiluminescence detector (NCD) is used to detect nitrogen compounds in fuels. NCD utilizes a nitrogen-specific reaction that does not involve the hydrocarbon background. Two-dimensional (GCxGC) gas chromatography is a powerful characterization technique as it provides superior separation capabilities to one-dimensional gas chromatography methods. When GCxGC is paired with a NCD, the problematic nitrogen compounds found in fuels can be extensively characterized without background interference. The method presented in this manuscript details the process for measuring different nitrogen-containing compound classes in fuels with little sample preparation. Overall, this GCxGC-NCD method has been shown to be a valuable tool to enhance the understanding of the chemical composition of nitrogen-containing compounds in fuels and their impact on fuel stability. The % RSD for this method is <5% for intraday and <10% for interday analyses; the LOD is 1.7 ppm and the LOQ is 5.5 ppm.

Influence of surfactants and humic acids on Artemia Franciscana's embryonic phospho-metabolite profile as measured by 31P NMR.

Surfactants, such as triton X-100 (Tx-100), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) are known to be toxic to Artemia Franciscana (Artemia) - an organism, frequently used to monitor the health of the aquatic environment. The phospho-metabolite profile of a living organism is often indicative of imbalances that may have been caused by environmental stressors, such as surfactants. This study utilizes in vivo31P NMR to monitor temporal changes in the phospho-metabolite profile of Artemia caused by Tx-100, CPC, and SDS and the ability of humic acid (HA) to mitigate the toxicity of these surfactants. It was found that, while Tx-100 does not have any effect on the phospho-metabolite profile, both CPC and SDS cause a complete retardation in growth of the phosphodiester (PDE) peak in the 31P NMR spectrum, which is indicative of the inhibited cell replication. This growth inhibition was independently verified by the decreased guanosine triphosphate (GTP) concentration in the CPC and SDS-exposed Artemia. In addition, upon introduction of HA to the CPC and SDS-exposed Artemia, an increase of PDE peak over time is indicative of HA mitigating toxicity.

Surfactant toxicity to Artemia Franciscana and the influence of humic acid and chemical composition.

Surfactants can be extremely toxic to aquatic species and are introduced to the environment in a variety of ways. It is thus important to understand how other environmental constituents, in this case humic acids (HAs), may alter the toxicity of anthropogenic surfactants. Hatching and mortality assays of Artemia Franciscana were performed for three different toxic surfactants: Triton X-100 (Tx-100, non-ionic), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC, cationic), and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS, anionic). Humic acids of varying composition and concentrations were added to the assays to determine the toxicity mitigating ability of the HAs. Tx-100 had a significant toxic effect on Artemia mortality rates and HAs from terrestrial sources were able to mitigate the toxicity, but an aquatic HA did not. CPC and SDS limited hatching success of the Artemia and, as HAs were added, the hatching percentages increased for all HA sources, indicating toxicity mitigation. In order to determine which functional groups within HAs were responsible for the interaction with the surfactants, the HAs were chemically modified by: (i) bleaching to reduce aromatics, (ii) Soxhlet extraction to reduce lipids, and (iii) acid hydrolysis to reduce O- and N-alkyl groups. Although most of the modified HAs had some toxicity mitigating ability for each of the surfactants, there were two notable differences: 1) the lipid-extracted HA did not reduce the toxicity of Tx-100 and 2) the bleached HA had a lower toxicity mitigating ability for CPC than the other modified HAs.