A new metal-organic framework Zn2(H2O)(dobdc)·0.5(H2O) (UTSA-74, H4dobdc = 2,5-dioxido-1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid), Zn-MOF-74/CPO-27-Zn isomer, has been synthesized and structurally characterized. It has a novel four coordinated fgl topology with one-dimensional channels of about 8.0 Å. Unlike metal sites in the well-established MOF-74 with a rod-packing structure in which each of them is in a five coordinate square pyramidal coordination geometry, there are two different Zn(2+) sites within the binuclear secondary building units in UTSA-74 in which one of them (Zn1) is in a tetrahedral while another (Zn2) in an octahedral coordination geometry. After activation, the two axial water molecules on Zn2 sites can be removed, generating UTSA-74a with two accessible gas binding sites per Zn2 ion. Accordingly, UTSA-74a takes up a moderately high and comparable amount of acetylene (145 cm(3)/cm(3)) to Zn-MOF-74. Interestingly, the accessible Zn(2+) sites in UTSA-74a are bridged by carbon dioxide molecules instead of being terminally bound in Zn-MOF-74, so UTSA-74a adsorbs a much smaller amount of carbon dioxide (90 cm(3)/cm(3)) than Zn-MOF-74 (146 cm(3)/cm(3)) at room temperature and 1 bar, leading to a superior MOF material for highly selective C2H2/CO2 separation. X-ray crystal structures, gas sorption isotherms, molecular modeling, and simulated and experimental breakthroughs comprehensively support this result.

Ambient mass spectrometry, pioneered with desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) technique, is of increasing interest in recent years. In this study, a corona discharge ionization source is adapted for direct surface desorption chemical ionization of compounds on various surfaces at atmospheric pressure. Ambient air, with about 60% relative humidity, is used as a reagent to generate primary ions such as H(3)O(+), which is then directed to impact the sample surface for desorption and ionization. Under experimental conditions, protonated or deprotonated molecules of analytes present on various samples are observed using positive or negative corona discharge. Fast detection of trace amounts of analytes present in pharmaceutical preparations, viz foods, skins and clothes has been demonstrated without any sample pretreatment. Taking the advantage of the gasless setup, powder samples such as amino acids and mixtures of pharmaceutical preparations are rapidly analyzed. Impurities such as sudan dyes in tomato sauce are detected semiquantitatively. Molecular markers (e.g. putrescine) for meat spoilage are successfully identified from an artificially spoiled fish sample. Chemical warfare agent stimulants, explosives and herbicides are directly detected from the skin samples and clothing exposed to these compounds. This provides a detection limit of sub-pg (S/N > or = 3) range in MS2. Metabolites and consumed chemicals such as glucose are detected successfully from human skins. Conclusively, surface desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DAPCI) mass spectrometry, without toxic chemical contamination, detects various compounds in complex matrices, showing promising applications for analyses of human related samples.

Ambient mass spectrometry has been increasingly applied for sensitive detection of trace organic compounds present in complex matrixes. In the real world, detection of trace amounts of inorganic species, particularly with speciation information, is of great significances. Herein a method based on extractive electrospray ionization (EESI) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) has been established for rapid detection of radioactive inorganic species in natural water samples. Negatively charged uranyl acetate undergoes characteristic fragmentation in the gas phase, providing the fundamental chemistry for specific detection of uranyl species in complex matrixes without sample pretreatment. Under the optimized experimental conditions, uranyl species in various natural water samples were rapidly detected using multiple-stage EESI mass spectrometry. The mean time for each sample analysis was about 10 s. The limit of detection was about a few 10(-3) ng/L of uranium by utilizing the characteristic fragments obtained in the EESI-MS(3) experiments. The typical relative standard deviation (RSD) of this method was 6.9-8.1% for 8 measurements (S/N = 3). The dynamic response range was 10(-1)-10(3) ng/L for uranium in water samples. The isotope ratio of uranyl species was quantitatively detected using EESI-MS experiments. The results show that EESI-MS, a typical method initially developed for organic compound analysis, has promising perspectives for real time, online monitoring of inorganic species such as uranyl species in natural water samples.

Reversible single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation (SCSC) was for the first time observed between 4f-based molecular magnets.

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