RESEARCH JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY AND ENVIRONMENT

Volume 6, No. (4), December (2002)

S.Klementova and S. Chobotova-Matousova

Dilip K. Sanyal and Isaac K. Skhosana

             Eight soil samples, four each from agriculturally productive or arable land (Arl-Ar-4) and unproductive or arid land (Dr1-Dr4) were analyzed using AAS and NAA methods for a comparative study of their micronutrient content. The elemental concentrations as determined in mg kg–1 by AAS were 10-400 for Co, 65-500 for Cr, 9.5-500 for Cu, 22900-51000 for Fe, 0.65-0.93 for Mg, 392-985 for Mn, 0.6-1.6 for Mo, 100-250 for N, 85-130 for Ni, 100-250 for P, 0.42-1.41 for Se, 91.4-231 for V and 9-20 for Zn, in the soil samples of arable land. The corresponding values in the arid land were 1.1-14, 29.6-72, 21-48, 5500-25200, 161-198, 41-999, 0.25-1.8, 0.53-1.8, 27-71, 52-76, 0.12-0.33, 19-109 and 2.8-13.2 respectively. NAA method was found to be quite ineffective for such high concentrations. Although the levels of nutrients in both set of soil samples, except for N and P in the unproductive land, the remaining elements lie well within the range required for soil fertility. It is suggested that the failure of unproductive land to supply the available nutrients for sustainable growth of plants result from the improper structure and composition of these soil. With the exception of N, P and Se all the other chosen elements from each soil sample was separated by the selective use of solvent extraction under the optimum contitions with the success rate of 95.9 to 99.9%.

Soumya Ganguly, Abhik Saha, Ajoy Gupta, Indrani Dasgupta,

Sudip K. Banerjee and Shubhendu Gupta

             Water is synonymous to life and is the ultimate limiting factor of our existence. The Indian Subcontinent consists of 36% of global runoff but has the lowest per capita availability of fresh water in the world. Almost 90% of the total area of Indian Subcontinent suffers from unclean water. With the increasing demand for fresh water supplies, the use of treated wastewater is a feasible way to supplement the global water resources. Keeping in mind, the ever-increasing shortage of fresh water, judicious use and management of water in domestic, agricultural and industrial areas are becoming extremely demanding. The article deals with the reuse of wastewater from petrochemical industry. The treated wastewater could be used in horticulture and also as water for fire fighting after few minor advanced treatments. The advanced treatments are suggested on the basis of comparative analysis of various physicochemical and biological parameters of the treated wastewater and various standard guidelines available for the water, which is to be used in the above-mentioned areas. The study provides a feasible and economical water management technique and thus provides some real life water management problem solution.

Olayinka  A.  Oyetunji

           The kinetics of the oxidations of [Mo2(O)2(m-O)2(cys)2]2- (abbreviated Mo2O4), and [Mo2(O)2(m-S)2(cys)2]2- (abbreviated Mo2O2S2) by [Fe(phen)3]3+ has been studied in aqueous perchlorate solution at ionic strength, I = 1.0 mol dm-3 (LiClO4) and hydrogen ion concentration, [H+] = 0.2 mol dm-3 (HClO4). Kinetic data are obtained in both the absence and presence of [Fe(phen)3]2+.  The effects of the replacement of the ethylenediaminetetraacetate1,2, edta, ligand with the cysteinato, cys, ligand, as well as the substitution of the bridging oxygen atoms with sulphur atoms, are discussed. At 25.2oC, the values (in dm3 mol-1        s-1) of  k1,  the electron transfer rate constants, are 39.84±2.31 and 11.65±0.52 for Mo2O4 and Mo2O2S2, respectively.  At the same temperature, k-1/k2 , a measure of the stability  of the intermediates formed in the reactions, have values of  (2.21±0.31) x 104  and (3.93±0.79) x 104, (dm3 mol-1), for Mo2O4 and Mo2O2S2 , respectively. Activation parameters, DH¹ and DS¹, are 42.8±1.8 kJ mol-1 and  –70.8±3.4  J K-1 mol-1  for oxidation of  Mo2O4 and 62.6±1.1 kJ mol-1 and        –14.4±0.3 J K-1 mol-1 for Mo2O2S2.  Outer-sphere electron transfer mechanism is suggested for the reactions

M. Sudha Swaraga, L. Charitha and M. Adinarayana

            The rates of photooxidation of uracil in presence of peroxydisulphate (PDS) have been determined by measuring the absorbence of uracil at 259.5 nm spectrophotometrically. The rates and the quantum yields (f) of oxidation of uracil by sulphate radical anion have been determined in the presence of different concentrations of caffeic acid. Increase in caffeic acid is found to decrease the rate of oxidation of uracil suggesting that caffeic acid acts as an efficient scavenger of SO4•– and protects uracil from it. Sulphate radical anion competes for uracil as well as for caffeic acid. The rate constant of sulphate radical anion with caffeic acid has been calculated to be 1.24 ± 0.22 x 1010 mol–1 dm3 s–1. The quantum yields of photooxidation of uracil have been calculated from the rates of oxidation of uracil and the light intensity absorbed by PDS at 254 nm, the wavelength at which PDS is activated to sulphate radical anion. From the results of experimentally determined quantum yields (f exptl) and the quantum yields calculated (f cl) assuming caffeic acid acting only as a scavenger of SO4•– radicals show that             f exptl values are lower than fcl values. The f’ values, which are experimentally found quantum yield values at each caffeic acid concentration and corrected for SO4•– scavenging by caffeic acid, are also found to be greater than f exptl values. These  observations suggest that the uracil radicals are repaired by caffeic acid in addition to scavenging of sulphate radical anions.

Yorgos Karvounis and Akis Kelepertsis

            Four polluted soils from the old mineralized area of Lavrion in Greece were subjected in washing experiments to achieve their cleanup from elevated concentrations of the metals Pb, Mn, Cu and Cd. Disodium Ethylene diaminotetraacetic acid’s (Na2EDTA), and Tartaric acid’s (H2×C4H4O6) solutions were used because they can form complexes with the metals and remove them from the polluted soils. The EDTA solutions were proved to be more effective in removing the metals, while the rest of solutions results were very satisfactory. The metals were removed from the soils according to the order (easily removable to less mobile elements): Pb>Cd>Mn>Cu.

B.S. Mohite and A.S. Jadhav

           A simple column chromatographic separation method is presented for the determination of barium (II) using poly-(dibenzo-18-crown-6). The separations are carried out from picric acid medium. Barium (II) showed quantitative adsorption from 0.0001-0.05 M picric acid. Amongst the various eluents tested, 0.5 M HCl, was found to be particularly efficient for the quantitative elution of barium (II). The capacity of poly-(dibenzo-18-crown-6) for barium(II) was found to be 2.18 ± 0.01 m mol/g of crown polymer. Barium (II) was separated from a number of cations in binary mixtures in which most of the cations showed a high tolerance limit. It was possible to separate barium (II) in multicomponent mixtures. The method was extended to the determination of barium in various rock samples. The method is very simple, rapid, selective and has good reproducibility (approximately±2%).

Meena Sharma, Deepika Gupta, Anamika Jain and Rekha Killedar

           Effect of magnetic field on the activation parameters during the transport of aqueous solutions of mercuric chloride and cadmium chloride across a sintered disc impregnated with cellulose acetate at different magnetic field strength and concentration is reported. The enthalpy of activation, DH* decreases with increase in magnetic field but increases with increase in concentration and voltage in all cases. The entropy of activation, DS* has negative values which suggests that the flow through membrane is more ordered due to membrane-solution interaction.

M. I. Mohamed

          Charge-Transfer complexes between triphenyl-phosphine, triethylphosphite, tri (p-tolylphosphine) and tri (m-tolylphosphine) as donors, and tetracyanoethylene TCNE as acceptor are studied.

B.R. Chhabra, Anjana Sharma, R.S. Dhillon and Shalini Vij

K. Vasanth Kumar

            The adsorption of Methylene blue in aqueous solution onto various low cost adsorbents were analyzed and reported. The adsorption equilibrium isotherms are reported. The isotherms are plotted to obtain Freundlich, Langmuir and Redlich-Peterson constants.

Sheikh Rubeena, R.C. Sharma and G.P. Pandey

          The purpose of studying the biochemical analysis of natural dyes is to know the effect caused by them on the plants. When natural dyes are disposed in the soil after being used, they combine with the organic matter present in the soil. They get decomposed and the minerals present in natural dyes are recycled. After decomposition they liberate the macronutrients and micronutrients present in them. These macro and micro nutrients if toxic, will affect the growth, pigment and starch content in the plants.

Sayyadul Arafin

         A method for determining the body parameters of spherical and cylindrical bodies by utilizing various fractions of the maximum amplitude of the anomaly, their corresponding widths, area under the gravity curve and excess mass has been described. Two procedures, one based on area under the gravity curve and the other on the excess mass, for estimating the dimensions of the bodies have been presented. The radial symmetry of the gravity anomaly due to a sphere has been utilized to calculate the excess mass from a single profile. The radius determined from the excess mass is independent of the depth estimate. This method of determining the radius is more robust than the one based on calculating from the area. The affects of truncation and zero-level errors on the estimated radius has also been discussed.

Alka Zadgaonkar

          As per statistical data, expenditure incurred on disposal of waste plastic throught the world is around US $2 billion every year. Even  a small country like Hong Kong spends US $ 14 million a year on the exercise. But the real, unquantifiable cost is environment damage. Nearly three million tones of waste plastic is produced every year in U.K. alone, only 7% of which is recycled i.e. converted into other products. The chief scientific advisor of Global Environmental Protection Agency (GEPA) U.K., Dr. John Murlis warned to improve the rate of recycling dramatically to avoid mountains of waste plastic. Plastic waste contributes significantly to the growing waste problem in United States. A majority of their landfills, allotted for plastic waste disposal, are approaching their full capacity.