Rapid speciation and determination of vanadium compounds using ion-pair reversed-phase ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma-sector field mass spectrometry

Environmental vanadium contamination is a potential concern to public health, as evidenced by its place on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List as a priority contaminant. Vanadium toxicity varies significantly between different oxidation states; therefore, it is crucial to be able to monitor the speciation of vanadium in environmental samples. In this study, a novel method is described that utilizes ion-pair reversed-phase ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma-sector field mass spectrometry (IP-RP-UHPLC-ICP-SFMS) to separate vanadyl and vanadate ions and resolve a major polyatomic spectral interference ((35)Cl(16)O(+)) in less than a minute. Detection limits were obtained in the low ngL(-1) (part per trillion) range with linear calibrations across several orders of magnitude (50ngL(-1)-100μgL(-1)). The mechanism of chromatographic retention was elucidated through investigation of the role of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, tetrabutylammonium ion and pH on elution. The optimized method was then applied to the speciation of vanadium in local lake water samples.

Calculation of complex chemical equilibrium compositions of composite rocket propellants combustion products

An adequate method for calculating chemical equilibrium in a predominantly gaseous, multi-component reactive mixture was investigated and successfully applied. This method involves the stated equilibrium reaction scheme, including, first, the formation of chemical species, of which concentrations prevail in the mixture, then the formation of gaseous atomic species by dissociation of previous ones, and, finally, the formation of complex chemical species from the atomic species. A computer program, which permits calculations of equilibrium compositions by the iteration procedure, has been developed. The results of calculations have been compared with data obtained by the programs OPHELIE, MICROPEP, and the program SPP, as documented in the NASA-Lewis Code, which is presently the world-wide standard. All comparisons gave satisfactory agreement.