2008 NOV 24 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research from Vancouver, Canada, "2,4,6-Tris(2-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TPTZ) was used as a ligand to prepare iron-TPTZ(Fe-TPTZ) complexes for the development of a new oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst. The prepared Fe-TPTZ complexes were then heat-treated at temperatures ranging from 400 degrees C to 1100 degrees C to obtain carbon-supported Fe-N catalysts (Fe-N/C)."

  "These catalysts were characterized in terms of catalyst composition, structure, and morphology by several instrumental methods such as energy dispersive X-ray, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. With respect to the ORR activity, the Fe-NJC catalysts were also evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, as well as rotating disk and ring-disk electrodes. The results showed that among the heat-treated catalysts, that obtained at a heat-treatment temperature of 800 degrees C is the most active ORR catalyst. The overall electron transfer number for the catalyzed ORR was determined to be between 3.5 and 3.8, with 10-30% H2O2 production. The ORR catalytic activity of this catalyst was also tested in a hydrogen-air proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell," wrote C.W.B. Bezerra and colleagues ...read more

  2008 NOV 24 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "The Cysteamine/DNA/SWNTs-film-modified Au electrode was successfully prepared, and its electrochemical behavior is investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV). The modified electrode exhibited a pair of stable and well-defined redox peaks, with the formal potentials (E-0) at about -0.032 V (vs," scientists in Hefei, People's Republic of China report.

  "SCE) in 0.1 M pH 7.0 phosphate buffer solution (PBS). The dependence of E-0 on solution pH indicated that the direct electron transfer reaction of the Cysteamine/DNA/SWNTs film is the same electron transfer coupled with the proton participating in the reaction process. Taxol is an anticancer drug; it interacts with microtubule proteins in a manner that catalyzes the formation of microtubules from tubulin and stabilizes the resulting structures. Using the Cysteamine/DNA/SWNTs-film-modified Au electrode, we study the interaction between DNA and Taxol studied," wrote W.X. Cheng and colleagues ...read more

  2008 NOV 24 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "A novel method for determining perphenazine in flow-injection systems has been developed in this work. The method was successfully applied for fast determination of perphenazine in its pharmaceutical formulations," scientists in Iran report.

  "Being very simple, precise, accurate, time-saving, and economical, this method has many advantages compared to all of the previously reported methods. Some investigations were also performed to find the effects of various parameters on the sensitivity of the proposed method. The conditions responsible for the performance were a pH value of 2, a scan rate value of 30 V/s, an accumulation potential of 500 mV, and an accumulation time of 0.8 s. Some of the advantages of the proposed method are as follows: the removal of oxygen from the test solution is not required anymore, the detection limit of the method is subnanomolar, and finally, the method is fast enough to determine such compounds in a wide variety of chromatographic methods. We also introduce a special computer-based numerical method to calculate the analyte signal and noise reduction. After subtraction of the background current from noise, the electrode response was calculated based on partial and total charge exchanges at the electrode surface. The integration range of currents was set for all the potential scan ranges, including oxidation and reduction of the Au surface electrode, to obtain a sensitive determination. The waveform potential was continuously applied on an Au disk microelectrode (a radius of 12.5 mu m). The detention limit of the method for perphenazine was 15 pg/ml," wrote P. Norouzi and colleagues, University of Tehran ...read more