Vol 72, No 11 (2017)

Published data on the use of household color-recording devices, such as office scanners, digital cameras, web cameras, mobile phones, and smartphones, in quantitative chemical analysis are generalized and systematized. The main approaches underlying the use of these devices for recording optical analytical signals are discussed. Methodological approaches used in the measurements and processing of the results are described. Examples of the determination of chemical compounds and ions using household color-recording devices are given.

A procedure is proposed for the determination of the vapor concentration of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in air at a level of 10^–16 g/cm³ in the control of objects for the presence of TNT. The procedure includes preconcentration of TNT vapors and gas chromatographic determination with a limit of TNT detection at a level of 0.08 ± 0.02 pg in a sample. The procedure was applied to the control objects in cells of typical automatic luggage locker with sampling through sampling air ducts. A measure of sample losses as the breakthrough of vapors through sampling air ducts and gas dynamic conditions for the reduction of vapor losses as the ratio of diffusion coefficient to the air duct flow rate were proposed. The time constant of the saturation of the sampling system with TNT vapors and the time constant of its cleaning were determined. It was shown that TNT vapors can be detected virtually satisfactorily near TNT-containing objects with sampling through long channels.

A method is proposed for the determination of mass absorption coefficient in the analysis of two-layer thin-film V/Cr and Cr/V systems on Polikor substrates by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Simply fabricated and unified film layers formed by applying vanadium and chromium on polymer film substrates are used. Correction coefficients taking into account the attenuation of primary radiation of X-ray tube and analytical line of an element from the lower layer in the upper layer are calculated.

Preparative isolation of aromatic metabolites from lichens of the Cladonia genus (C. stellaris, C. arbuscula, C. amaurocraea, and C. rangiferina) growing in Central Yakutia was carried out. Identification by IR, UV, and time-of-flight mass spectrometry has shown that the isolated compounds belong to the group of lichen substances. It was shown that the component composition of the studied lichens corresponds to the previously described one. At the same time, the concentration of perlatolic and barbatic acids in C. stellaris and C. amaurocrae lichens, respectively, growing in Central Yakutia found by HPLC is higher than in similar types of temperate climatic zones.

The appearance of a new APINAC compound (AKB-57, ACBL(N)-018, adamantan-1-yl-1-pentyl-1H-indazol-3-carboxylate) in the Russian market of psychoactive drugs led to the need in setting measures of state control over its turnover and in solving the problem of categorizing this compound as a potentially hazardous psychoactive substance. To establish these control measures, it was necessary to determine the appropriate chromatographic–mass spectrometric characteristics and to search for its metabolites for their subsequent automated detection. The structure of an APINAC molecule has significant similarity with the molecules of other synthetic cannabinoids. In this paper, primary information on the metabolism of APINAC in the body of rats is presented. A number of putative metabolites, which are the products of hydrolysis of the initial structure and additional monohydroxylation of these products, carbonylation and carboxylation of the lateral N-pentyl chain of indazole-containing metabolites, were detected in rat urine by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry in the mode of measurement of exact masses and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. It was found that the formation of glucuronides is characteristic for 1-adamantol and its monohydroxylated metabolite and for the indazole-containing product of hydrolysis of APINAC. The presented mass spectra and retention characteristics of the detected metabolites can help in the detection of these (or similar) compounds in human urine.