A Kinetic Spectrophotometric Method for the Determination of Iron （Ⅲ） in Water Samples

A new kinetic spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of iron (Ⅲ). The method is based on the catalytic effect of iron (Ⅲ) on the oxidation of weak acid brilliant blue dye (RAWL) by KIO4 in acid medium. The advantages of the proposed method are that it is sensitive, accurate, rapid, inexpensive, can be operated under room temperature and has a large determination concentration range compared to other techniques. The obtained optimum conditions are pH 3.15, RAWL (200 mgL-1) 5.00mL, Potassium periodate solution (0.01 molL-1) 0.30mL, phenanthroline (0.02molL-1) 1.00mL, reaction temperature 25℃ and reaction time 7 miu. With this method iron could quantitively be determined in the range 0.00-0.02 mgL-1, the detection limit being 4.10×10-10mL-1. The relative standard deviations (RSD) in five replicate determinations for 3 μgL-1 and 5μgL-1 iron (Ⅲ) are 3.1% and 1.9%, respectively. The method has been applied to the determination of iron (Ⅲ) in tap water samples and seawater samples (from the South China Sea), the recovery rates being 98.0% and 100.5%, respectively.     

Determination of Trace Vanadium (Ⅴ) in Seawater and Fresh Water by the Catalytic Kinetic Spectrophotometric Method

A new kinetic spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of vanadium (Ⅴ).The method is based on the catalytic effect of vanadium (Ⅴ) on the oxidation of weak acid brilliant blue dye (RAWL) by KBrO3 using the citric acid as activation reagent.The obtained optimum conditions are:c (RAWL)=1×10-4 molL-1, c (KBrO3)=3×10-2 molL-1, c (citric acid)= 9×10-3 molL-1, pH=2.50, the reaction time being 7.0 min and the temperature being 25.0℃.Under the optimum conditions, the pro-posed method allows the determination of vanadium (Ⅴ) in the range of 0?70.0 ng mL-1 and the detection limit is down to 0.407 ng mL-1.For standard vanadium (Ⅴ) solution determination, the recovery efficiency is in the range of 98.5%?102% and the RSD ranges from 0.76%?1.25%.Moreover, it is demonstrated that most cations and anions do not interfere with the determination of vanadium (Ⅴ) under the analytical condition.The new method was successfully applied in the determination of vanadium (Ⅴ) in fresh water and seawater samples with satisfactory results.Vanadium (Ⅴ) in the seawater samples from Qingdao offshore was determined using the method and the distribution of vanadium (Ⅴ) was mapped.Compared with other instrumental analytical methods, the proposed method shows good selectivity, sensitivity, simplicity, lower cost and rapidity.It can be employed on shipboard easily.     

Determination of Trace Copper （Ⅱ） in Water Samples by Kinetic-spectrophotometry

A new kinetic-spectrophotometric method is proposed for the determination of copper （ Ⅱ ）. The method is based on the catalytic effect of copper （ Ⅱ ） on the oxidation of weak acid brilliant blue dye （RAWL） by hydrogen peroxide. The copper （ Ⅱ ） can be determined spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease of absorbance of RAWL at λ = 626 nm using the fix-time method. The optimum reaction conditions are as follows： pH 7.20, buffer solution NaOH-KH2PO4, RAWL （200 mgL-1） 5.00 mL, H2O2 （30%） 0.50 mL, reaction temperature 80 ？？ and reaction time 20 min. The linear range of this method is between 0 μg L^-1 and 12 μg L^-1 and the limit of detection is 0.011 μg L-1, the relative standard deviation （RSD） in five replicate determinations for 2 and 8 μg L-1 copper （ Ⅱ ） are 3.2% and 2.3%, respectively. Twenty ions do not interfere in the determination of copper （ Ⅱ ）. The method has been applied satisfactorily to the determination of copper （ Ⅱ ） in freshwater samples （tap water and Yellow River water from Lijin, Shandong, China） and seawater samples （from the South China Sea）, the recovery rates are 98.0%, 102.5% and 96.0%, respectively.     

Measurement of Trace Manganese(Ⅱ) by the Catalytic Kinetic Spectrophotometric Method

A new kinetic spectrophotometric method is developed for the measurement of manganese (Ⅱ) in water. The method is based on the catalytic effect of manganese (Ⅱ) with the oxidation of weak acid brilliant blue dye (RAWL) by KIO4 using the Nitrilo triacetic acid (NTA) as an activation reagent. The optimum conditions obtained are 40mgL-1 RAWL, 1×10-4molL-1 KIO4, 2×10-4molL-1 Nitrilo triacetic acid (NTA), pH = 5.8, the reaction time of 3.00 min and the temperature of 20.0 ℃. Under the optimum con-ditions, the proposed method allows the measurement of manganese (Ⅱ) in a range of 0-50.0ngmL-1 and with a detection limit of down to 0.158 ng mL-1. The recovery efficiency in measuring the standard manganese (Ⅱ) solution is in a range of 98.5%-102%, and the RSD is in a range of 0.76%-1.25%. The new method has been successfully applied to the measurement of manganese (Ⅱ) in both fresh water and seawater samples with satisfying results. Moreover, few cations and anions interfere with the measurement of man-ganese (Ⅱ). Compared with other kinetic catalytic methods and instrumental methods, the proposed method shows fairly good selec-tivity and sensitivity, low cost, cheapness, low detection limit and rapidity. It can be applied on boats easily.     

Study on the Determination of Trace Ni（Ⅱ） by the Catalytic Kinetic Spectrophotometric Method

A new kinetic spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of trace Ni (II) in natural water.The method is based on the catalytic effect of Ni (II) on the oxidation of weak acid brilliant blue dye (RAWL) by KIO4 in acid medium.The concentration of nickel (II) can be determined spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease of absorbance of RAWL at λ= 626 nm using the fix-time method.The influencing factors are investigated by the orthogonal experimental design.The obtained optimum analytical conditions are:pH=2.00,c RAWL=5.00×10-5 mol L-1,cKIO 4= 2.00×10-5 mol L-1,the reaction time t=10 min and the temperature T=25℃..Under the optimum conditions,the developed method allows the measurement of Ni (II) in a range of 0-40.0 ng mL-1.The standard deviation of eleven independent measurements of blank reaction is S=3.08×10-3 and the limit of detection is 2.20 ng mL-1.The relative standard deviations (RSDs) in six replicate determinations of 5 ng mL-1 and 8 ng mL-1 Ni (II) are 2.87% and 1.11%,respectively.Moreover,the experiments show few cations and anions can interfere with the measurement of Ni (II).The recovery efficiencies of this method are in a range of 97.0%-102.5% in freshwater samples.But there is a decreasing effect,which is about 0.2 times the added Ni (II) in seawater medium.After reasonable calibration this processing method is used for the determination of Ni (II) in seawater samples successfully.The results show this developed method has high accuracy and precision,high sensitivity,large range of linearity and high speed.The method can,therefore,be employed at room temperature.     

Mechanistic Study and Kinetic Determination of Cu(Ⅱ) by the Catalytic Kinetic Spectrophotometric Method

A highly sensitive and selective catalytic kinetic spectrophotometric method for the determination of Cu(Ⅱ) is proposed. It is based on the catalytic effect of Cu(Ⅱ) on the oxidation of glutathione(GSH) by potassium hexacyanoferrate(Ⅲ) in acidic medium at 25.0℃. The reaction is monitored spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease in absorbance of oxidant at 420 nm using the fix-time method. Under the optimum conditions, the proposed method allows the determination of Cu(Ⅱ) in a range of 0-35.0 ng m L^-1 with good precision and accuracy and the limit of detection is down to 0.04 ng m L^-1. The relative standard deviation(RSD) is 1.02%. The reaction orders with respect to each reagent are found to be 1, 1/2, and 1/2 for potassium hexacyanoferrate(Ⅲ), glutathione and Cu(Ⅱ) respectively. On the basis of these values, the rate equation is obtained and the possible mechanism is established. Moreover, few anions and cations can interfere with the determination of Cu(Ⅱ). The new proposed method can be successfully used to the determination of Cu(Ⅱ) in fresh water samples and seawater samples. It is found that the proposed method has fairly good selectivity, high sensitivity, good repeatability, simplicity and rapidity.     

Membrane preconcentration of iron in seawater samples and on-site determination in spectrophotometry

A novel method for on-site determination of trace iron was developed using membrane preconcentration and spectrophotometric detection. Fe(Ⅱ)-ferrozine complex was reacted with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) to form a Fe(Ⅱ)-ferrozine-CTAB paired compound, which was collected on a membrane by filtration under vacuum. The membrane was immersed in 2 mL of ethanol-nitric acid and the absorbance of the solution measured for quantitative analysis. Various factors affecting the iron collection and determination were investigated. With different sample preconcentration volumes, the range of determination was broadened to 0.5-120 g/L. The detection limit of this method reached 0.19 g/L and the recoveries were between 97.2 and 109% when the concentration enrichment was about 45. The relative standard deviation (n = 7) was 1.9% for samples containing 10 g/L Fe. Twelve seawater samples were analyzed on-site using the proposed method, and two were also analyzed in inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. No significant difference was shown between the two methods by the Student’s t-test. The method has also been used on-site for iron enrichment experiments with phytoplankton and concluded to be simple, accurate and inexpensive.     

Simultaneous determination of iron and manganese in water using artificial neural network catalytic spectrophotometric method

A new analytical method using Back-Propagation (BP) artificial neural network and kinetic spectrophotometry for simultaneous determination of iron and magnesium in tap water, the Yellow River water and seawater is established. By conditional experiments, the optimum analytical conditions and parameters are obtained. Levenberg-Marquart (L-M) algorithm is used for calculation in BP neural network. The topological structure of three-layer BP ANN network architecture is chosen as 15-16-2 (nodes). The initial value of gradient coefficient μ is fixed at 0.001 and the increase factor and reduction factor of μ take the default values of the system. The data are processed by computers with our own programs written in MATLAB 7.0. The relative standard deviation of the calculated results for iron and manganese is 2.30% and 2.67% respectively. The results of standard addition method show that for the tap water, the recoveries of iron and manganese are in the ranges of 98.0%-104.3% and 96.5%-104.5%, and the RSD is in the range of 0.23%-0.98%; for the Yellow River water (Lijin district of Shandong Province), the recoveries of iron and manganese are in the ranges of 96.0%-101.0% and 98.7%-104.2%, and the RSD is in the range of 0.13%-2.52%; for the seawater in Qingdao offshore, the recoveries of iron and manganese are in the ranges of 95.3%-104.8% and 95.3%-104.7%, and the RSD is in the range of 0.14%-2.66%. It is found that 21 common cations and anions do not interfere with the determination of iron and manganese under the optimum experimental conditions. This method exhibits good reproducibility and high accuracy in the determination of iron and manganese and can be used for the simultaneous determination of iron and manganese in tap water and natural water. By using the established ANN- catalytic spectrophotometric method, the iron and manganese concentrations of the surface seawater at 11 sites in Qingdao offshore are determined and the level distribution maps of iron and manganese are drawn.     

Chemical oxygen demand of seawater determined with a microwave heating method

This paper investigates a microwave heating method for the determination of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in seawater. The influences of microwave-power, heating time and standard substances on the results are studied. Using the proposed method, we analyzed the glucose standard solution, the coefficient of variation being less than 2%. Compared with the traditional electric stove heating method, the results of F-test and T-test showed that there was no significant difference between the two methods, but the microwave method had slightly higher precision and reproducibility than the electric stove method. With the microwave heating method, several seawater samples from Jiaozhou Bay and the South Yellow Sea were also analyzed. The recovery was between 97.5% and 104.3%. This new method has the advantages of shortening the heating time, improving the working efficiency and having simple operation and therefore can be used to analyze the COD in seawater.     

Speciation analysis of arsenic compounds in seafood by ion chromatography-atomic fluorescence spectrometry

Ion chromatography-ultra violet-hydride generation-Atomic Florescence Spectrometry was applied to detect 5 arsenic species in seafoods. The arsenic species studied include arsenobetaine(As B), arsenite(As(III)), dimethylarsinic acid(DMA), monomethylarsonic acid(MMA), and arsenate(As(V)), which were extracted from samples using 2% formic acid. Gradient elution using 33 mmol L~(-1) CH_3COONH_4 and 15 mmol L~(-1) Na_2CO_3 with 10 mL CH_3CH_2OH at pH 8.4 allowed the chromatographic separation of all the species on a Hamilton PRP-X100 anion-exchange column in less than 8 min. In this study, an ultrasound extraction method was used to extract arsenic species from seafood. The extraction efficiency was good and the recoveries from spiked samples were in the range of 72.6%–109%; the precision between sample replicates was higher than 3.6% for all determinations. The detection limits were 3.543 μg L~(-1) for As B, 0.4261 μg L~(-1) for As(III), 0.216 μg L~(-1) for DMA, 0.211 μg L~(-1) for MMA, and 0.709 μg L~(-1) for As(V), and the linear coefficients were greater than 0.999. We also developed an application of this method for the determination of arsenic species in bonito, Euphausia superba, and Enteromorpha with satisfactory results. Therefore, it was confirmed that this method was appropriate for the detection of arsenic species in seafood.     

Simultaneous determination of calcium and magnesium in water using artificial neural network spectro-photometric method

A new analytical method using Back-Propagation(BP) artificial neural networks and spectrophotometry for simultaneous determination of calcium and magnesium in tap water,the Yellow River water and seawater is established.By condition experiment,the optimum analytical conditions for calcium,magnesium and Arsenazo(Ⅲ) color reactions are obtained.Levenberg-Marquart(L-M) algorithm is used for calculation in BP neural network.The topological structure of three-layer BP ANN network architecture is chosen as 11-10-2(nodes).The initial value of gradient coefficient μ is fixed at 0.001 and the increase factor and reduction factor of μ take the default values of the system.The data are processed by computers with our own programs written in MATLAB 7.0.The relative standard deviations of the calculated results for calcium and magnesium are 2.31% and 2.14%,respectively.The results of standard addition method show that the recoveries of calcium and magnesium are 103.6% and 100.8% in the tap water,103.2% and 96.6% in the Yellow River water(Lijin district of Shandong Province),and 98.8%-103.3% and 98.43%-103.4% in seawater from Jiaozhou Bay of Qingdao.It is found that 14 common cations and anions do not interfere with the determination of calcium and magnesium under the optimum experimental conditions.The comparative experiments do not show any obvious difference between the results obtained by this new method and those obtained by the classical complexometric titration method in seawater medium.This method exhibits good reproducibility and high accuracy in the determination of calcium and magnesium and can be used for the simultaneous determination of Ca2+ and Mg2+ in tap water and natural water.     

Fast adsorption of microcystin-LR by Fe(Ⅲ)-modified powdered activated carbon

Microcystins(MCs) are cyclic hepatotoxic peptides produced by the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis and present a public health hazard to humans and livestock. The removal of MCs from contaminated water with powdered activated carbon(PAC) has been employed as a simple and economic treatment strategy. In this study, PAC-Fe(Ⅲ) was prepared and utilized for the fast and efficient removal of MCs from water. PAC-Fe(Ⅲ) exhibited superior microcystin-LR(MC-LR) removal capacity and efficiency compared to the unmodified PAC. The MC-LR removal efficiency of PAC-Fe(Ⅲ) increased with decreasing p H within the pH range of 4.3 to 9.6. PAC-Fe(Ⅲ) could be reused for 3 times by methanol elution while the MC-LR removal efficiency was still over 70 percent. The removal efficiency was positively correlated to the ionic strength of water and negatively correlated to alkalinity. Natural organic matter(NOM) such as humic acid(HA) and salicylic acid(SA) generated low interference with MC-LR adsorption by PAC-Fe(Ⅲ). The complexation reaction between Fe~(3+) in PAC-Fe(Ⅲ) and the functional groups of MCLR was suggested as the key mechanism of MC-LR removal by PAC-Fe(Ⅲ). The results suggest that Femodified PAC is a promising material for the treatment of MC-contaminated waters.     

Determination of Steroid Hormone Residues in Fish Tissues Using Gel Permeation Chromatography and Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

A highly sensitive method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 8 steroid hormones in high-fat fish tissues using ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-MS/MS).The 8 steroid hormones were extracted from the tissues with diethyl ether.Differing from other common purification methods,the extract solutions were cleaned by gel permeation chromatography(GPC) using ethyl acetate-cyclohexane solution(1:1,v/v) as the mobile phase.The separation of target compounds was carried out by a BEH C18 column and a gradient elution consisting of acetonitrile and 0.2% aqueous formic acid(v/v).The compounds were detected under the multiple reaction monitoring(MRM) mode and quantified with external standard method.This method was validated with respect to linearity,specificity,accuracy and precision.A linearity with correlation coefficient larger than 0.995 was achieved in the range of 0.5 to 50 ng m L~(-1).The average recoveries at the spiked levels of 1.0,5.0,and 10.0 μg kg~(–1) varied between 81.7% and 90.8%,with the relative standard deviations(n=5) ranged from 3.50% to 10.0%.The limit of quantification(LOQ) for 8 steroid hormones ranged from 0.2 to 1.5 μg kg~(-1).It was concluded that this method can be successfully applied for the determination of 8 steroid hormones in complicated matrices including high-fat fish tissues.     

Bloom forming species of phytoplankton in two coastal waters in the Southeast coast of India

The results of an investigation carried out during June 2005 to May 2007 on bloom-forming phytoplankton species composition and abundance in the Parangipettai and Coleroon coastal waters(Southeast coast of India) are reported.Air and surface water temperatures(℃) varied from 25.1 to 30.1 and 24.5 to 28.5,respectively,in the former waters and from 25.5 to 31.2 and 25.0 to 29.3 in the latter waters.The respective salinities varied from 6.0 to 28.5 and 5.0 to 33.1 and the respective pH ranged between 7.0 and 8.3 and 7.2 and 8.3.Correspondingly,the dissolved oxygen content varied from 3.1 to 7.5 and 3.1 to 7.9 mgL-1 while the light extinction coefficient(LEC) values ranged between 3.1 and 10.1 and 1.8 and 11.0.The content ranges of inorganic nutrients,i.e.,nitrate,nitrite,phosphate and silicate(μmolL-1),in the Parangipettai and Coleroon coastal waters were:6.5-27.0;1.0-8.9;0.1-3.0 and 15.0-140 and 10.1-23.4;1.2-8.9;0.2-3.1 and 55-125 respectively.The chlorophyll a contents in both waters ranged from 2.0-7.5 μgL-1.Presently,124 phytoplankton species representing different classes were recorded in the Coleroon coast,viz,Bacillariophyceae(77);Dinophyceae(19);Cyanophyceae(15);Chlorophyceae(10) and Chrysophyceae(3),whereas 117 phytoplankton species were recorded in the Parangipettai coast,viz,Bacillariophyceae(66);Dinophyceae(22);Cyanophyceae(19);Chlorophyceae(7) and Chrysophyceae(3).The phytoplankton cell abundance in the Parangipettai and Coleroon coastal waters varied from 290 to 111662 and 140 to 132 757 cells L-1,respectively,with peak diversity(3.38 and 3.52 bits ind-1.) recorded in summer.The maximum abundance occurred in summer coinciding with the stable hydrographical conditions.The seasonal distribution and abundance of phytoplankton are discussed in relation to hydrographical parameters.Totally 31 and 24 species of phytoplankton were found to be bloom-forming in the Parangipettai and Coleroon coastal waters,respectively.Presently Trichodesmium bloom was also observed,which appeared at the 10 fathom level of the coastal water and quickly spread to the marine zone of the Vellar estuary and near the mouth region of the mangrove waters.The Parangipettai and Coleroon coastal waters are subject to long term fluctuations in physico-chemical conditions depending upon the seasonal tidal range and freshwater influx,resulting in a continuous exchange of organic,inorganic,plant and animal matters.     

Molecularly imprinted polymers for selective extraction of crystal violet from natural seawater coupled with high-performance liquid chromatographic determination

Molecularly imprinted polymers(MIPs) were prepared by the bulk polymerization using crystal violet as the template molecule, and the methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimetheacrylate as functional monomer and cross-linker, respectively. Systematic investigations of synthetic conditions were conducted. The surface morphology and recognition mechanism of the obtained polymers were studied using scanning electron microscope and spectrophotometric analysis. MIPs showed high affinity to template molecule and were successfully applied as special solid-phase extraction sorbent for selective extraction of crystal violet from natural seawater. An off-line molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction(MISPE) method followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diodearray detection for the analysis of crystal violet was also established. MISPE columns have good recoveries for crystal violet standard solutions and good linearity was obtained over the concentration range of 0-200 μg L-1(R2 0.99). Finally, two natural seawater samples were investigated. The recoveries of spiked seawater on the MISPE columns were from 44.47% to 62.34%, the relative standard deviation(n=3) being in the range of 2.89%-5.96%.     

A NEW TYPE OF ISOTHERM FOR ZINC LIQUID-SOLID PARTITIONING ON δ-MnO_2,γ-MnOOH AND MANGANIIE IN SEAWATER

This article deals with the interaction of zinc with δ-MnO2,γ-MnOOH and manganite existing in natural water systems. The mechanism of the reaction has been studied in detail. From the fact that the "ratio of ion exchange (%)-pH" graph is an "S shaped" curve, it is possible to deduce that the chemical reaction is of the nature of cation exchange. And since the pH range of ion exchange = 4, it is possible to further deduce that the reaction can be explained by the mechanism of monovalence cation exchange.The main result of this article is the discovery of a new type of isotherm which has not been mentioned in previous literature here and abroad. This isotherm cannot be represented by any presently available adsorption isotherm equations in marine chemistry. The characteristics of this new type of isotherm are as follows: the isotherm has two "knees" and three "plateaus", the heights of these three "plateaus" are in the ratio 1:2:3. In order to explain theoretically our new isotherm, this article suggest     

Application of matter-element model in soil nutrient evaluation of ecological fragile region

On the basis of the soil environment investigation in Da'an City, Jilin Province, China, 40 soil samples from main land use types were obtained and tested by standard method. Soil organic matter (SOM), total N (TN), total P (TP), total K (TK), available N (AN), available P (AP) and available K (AK) were chosen as the evaluation factors. A regional soil nutrient evaluation model was developed based on the matter-element model. The results show that the soil samples with nutrient grade Ⅱ-Ⅴ respectively account for 10%, 30%, 32.5% and 27.5%, and those with grade Ⅳ and Ⅴ account for 60% in all samples. The relationship between soil nutrients and land types indicates that the nutrients of farmland are relatively good, with 41.7% of soil samples with the nutrient grade Ⅳ and Ⅴ. The nutrients of saline-alkali land and sandy land are the worst, with 100% of soil samples with the nutrient grade Ⅳ and Ⅴ. And the ratios of soil samples grade Ⅳ and Ⅴ in grassland and wasteland are respectively 62.5 % and 54.55%. Generally speaking, the soil nutrients status in Da'an City is poor, 60% of soil samples are in poor and extremely poor conditions, indicating that the soil has been severely eroded. Being a relatively superior evaluation method with more accurate resuits and spatial distribution consistency, matter-element analysis is more suitable for regional soil nutrient evaluation than previous models.     

Cytochemical characterization of yolk granule acid phosphatase during early development of the oyster Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg)

In this study,a cytochemical method and transmission electron microscopy was used to examine acid phosphatase activities of yolk granules throughout the early developmental stages of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. This study aimed to investigate the dynamic change of yolk granule acid phosphatase,and the mechanisms underlying its involvement in yolk degradation during the early developmental stages of molluscs. Three types of yolk granules(YGI,YGII,and YGIII) that differed in electron density and acid phosphatase reaction were identified in early cleavage,morula,blastula,gastrula,trochophore,and veliger stages. The morphological heterogeneities of the yolk granules were related to acid phosphatase activity and degrees of yolk degradation,indicating the association of acid phosphatase with yolk degradation in embryos and larvae of molluscs. Fusion of yolk granules was observed during embryogenesis and larval development of C. gigas. The fusion of YGI(free of acid phosphatase reaction) with YGII(rich in acid phosphatase reaction) could be the way by which yolk degradation is triggered.     

Determination of Ca,K, Mg and Fe in four fish species by FAAS

A method for determining calcium(Ca),potassium(K),magnesium(Mg) and iron(Fe) in four fish species was optimized and validated.It included microwave mineralization of the samples and subsequent quantification by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy(FAAS) with Zeeman-effect background correction.Using HNO3(65%) and H2O2(33%) as extraction solutions,the optimal conditions of extraction were established as follows:0.5 g of sample mass;microwave time program of 300 W/5 min and 600 W/5 min.The method was free of matrix interferences.The linear correlation coefficients were ≥0.9991,the recovery percentage of analytes was from 99.31% to 103.70% and the RSD(relative standard deviation) was lower than 2.06%.The detection limits obtained were 32.3,43.2,14.0 and 68.6 ng mL-1 for Ca,K,Mg and Fe in FAAS respectively.It is shown that the method is rapid,simple,sensitive and accurate.The method was applied to the studies of digestibility and measurement of these nutrients in samples of fish collected from Norway,Japan and China.     

Solidification of loess using microbial induced carbonate precipitation

Microbial-induced carbonate precipitation(MICP)is a relatively innovative and environmentally-friendly soil reinforcement technology,primarily used on sand,but its application in loess has rarely been studied.This paper explores the viability of the MICP technique for improving the engineering properties of typical loess.Sporosarcina pasteurii was used to trigger carbonate precipitation.Factors such as reaction temperature,p H of the media,and the inoculation ratio were adopted to determine the optimum conditions.Different concentrations of Sporosarcina pasteurii and cementation reagent were selected for combination to treat the loess samples with a selfdesigned vacuum test device.The unconfined compressive strength and calcium carbonate content of the treated samples were tested and Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM)was carried out to evaluate the improving effect.The results showed that the optimum conditions are reaction temperature of 30℃,p H of the media of 9,a higher inoculation ratio can produce higher enzyme activity and monomer enzyme activity.The engineering properties of the MICP-treated loess are significantly improved.The obtained unconfined compressive strength increases nearly 4 times when the OD600 is 1.5 and cementation reagent concentration is 1 mol/L.The test results of calcium carbonate content are consistent with unconfined compressive strength.Finally,the microstructure of loess samples was quantitatively analyzed by Pore(Particle)and cracks analysis system(PCAS).It was showed that MICP has a great influence on the surface porosity,followed by the pore fractal dimension and the probability entropy,but has little influence on the pore average form factor.