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Separations, Volume 5, Issue 4

2018 December - 13 articles

Cover Story: Forensic fire debris analysis presents data interpretation challenges due to the partial evaporation of ignitable liquids (IL) and highly varied contributions by compounds originating from the thermal breakdown of building materials and furnishings (SUB). Current data interpretation methods rely on visual chromatographic pattern recognition. Unsupervised machine learning techniques can assist fire debris analysts in identifying groups of IL and SUB with similar chromatographic or mass spectral patterns. This report details the use of a Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM) coupled with extracted ion mass spectra to organize IL and SUB pyrolysis samples on a two-dimensional grid. Groupings corresponding to the ASTM E1618-defined IL classes and SUB pyrolysis are observed. The SOM component planes give important information regarding the ions that contribute to the different groups. View this paper.
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Articles (13)

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
4,186 Views
9 Pages

Effect of Physical and Chemical Activation on Arsenic Sorption Separation by Grape Seeds-Derived Biochar

  • Vladimír Frišták,
  • Eduardo Moreno-Jimenéz,
  • Teresa Fresno and
  • Elena Diaz

The utilization of carbon-rich pyrolysis materials in the separation processes of metalloids plays a crucial role in analytes pre-concentration techniques and opens a burning issue in new sorbents development. This study characterized the effect of p...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
8,412 Views
18 Pages

Modern Instrumental Limits of Identification of Ignitable Liquids in Forensic Fire Debris Analysis

  • Robin J. Abel,
  • Grzegorz Zadora,
  • P. Mark L. Sandercock and
  • James J. Harynuk

Forensic fire debris analysis is an important part of fire investigation, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is the accepted standard for detection of ignitable liquids in fire debris. While GC-MS is the dominant technique, comprehensiv...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
3,295 Views
22 Pages

Chemometric Characterization of Synthetic Dye Sorption onto Slovakian River Sediments: A Laboratory Batch Experiment

  • Anna Koprdová,
  • Miroslava Bachratá,
  • Vanda Adamcová,
  • Martin Valica,
  • Martin Pipíška and
  • Miroslav Horník

The aim of the work was to characterize the sorption of cationic dyes thioflavine T (ThT) and methylene blue (MB) onto selected Slovakian river sediments using chemometric approaches including principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
5,912 Views
25 Pages

According to the current European regulation on cosmetics, any ingredient present as a nanomaterial should be indicated in the ingredient list. There is a need for analytical methods capable of determining the size of the relevant ingredients and thu...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,530 Views
9 Pages

A Low-Cost Approach Using Diatomaceous Earth Biosorbent as Alternative SPME Coating for the Determination of PAHs in Water Samples by GC-MS

  • Naysla Paulo Reinert,
  • Camila M. S. Vieira,
  • Cristian Berto Da Silveira,
  • Dilma Budziak and
  • Eduardo Carasek

In this study, the use of recycled diatomaceous earth as the extraction phase in solid phase microextraction (SPME) technique for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in river water samples, with separation/detection performed...

  • Feature Paper
  • Review
  • Open Access
122 Citations
11,076 Views
14 Pages

Heavy metal pollution is of great concern. Due to expansion of industrial activities, a large amount of metal is released into the environment, disturbing its fragile balance. Conventional methods of remediation of heavy metal-polluted soil and water...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,778 Views
13 Pages

Evaluation of Lipases from Wild Microbial Strains as Biocatalysts in Biodiesel Production

  • Carlos Luna,
  • Diego Luna,
  • Felipa M. Bautista,
  • Juan Calero,
  • Antonio A. Romero,
  • Alejandro Posadillo,
  • Enrique D. Sancho and
  • Rafael Estevez

In this study, the evaluation of the catalytic behavior of several wild bacterial strains in the 1,3-selective ethanolysis of triglycerides with ethanol to produce a new type of biodiesel (Ecodiesel) that integrates glycerol as monoacylglycerols was...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
4,486 Views
9 Pages

Classification of un-weathered ignitable liquids is a problem that is currently addressed by visual pattern recognition under the guidelines of Standard Test Method for Ignitable Liquid Residues in Extracts from Fire Debris Samples by Gas Chromatogra...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
5,512 Views
6 Pages

Mercury (Hg) fish and seafood contamination is a global concern and needs worldwide sea investigations in order to protect consumers. The aim of this study was to investigate the Hg concentration by means of a rapid and simple analytical technique wi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
6,749 Views
16 Pages

Characterization of the Natural Colloidal TiO2 Background in Soil

  • Allan Philippe,
  • Daniel Armando Campos,
  • Jean-Michel Guigner,
  • Christian Buchmann,
  • Dörte Diehl and
  • Gabriele E. Schaumann

An increasing amount of TiO2 engineered nanoparticles (TNP) is released into soils and sediments, increasing the need for dedicated detection methods. Titanium is naturally present in soils at concentrations typically much higher than the estimated c...

  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
10,525 Views
13 Pages

It is necessary to determine the limit of detection when validating any analytical method. For methods with a linear response, a simple and low labor-consuming procedure is to use the linear regression parameters obtained in the calibration to estima...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,958 Views
8 Pages

A strategy for the preparation of silica-based monolithic capillary columns (150 × 0.1 mm) with high selectivity to amino acids is presented. The zwitterionic columns were prepared by coating the silica monolith with [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]-dimeth...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,611 Views
19 Pages

Forensic fire debris analysis focuses on the identification of a foreign ignitable liquid in debris collected from the scene of a suspected intentional fire. Chromatograms of the extracted debris are compared to a suitable reference collection contai...

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Separations - ISSN 2297-8739