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The renowned aperiodic Boerdijk-Coxeter helix is identified, with a modified, periodic form, in a MOF named ROD-1 [formulated as Cd(L), H 2 L = (3,5-dimethyl-1H-(pyrazol-4-yl)-methylene)benzoic acid], which exhibits unusual gas adsorption behaviours attributed to guest-guest interactions, and also interesting structural dynamics responding to temperature variation and gas adsorption.

The structure of a recently-published metal-organic framework is deconstructed into its underlying net which is found to be of exceptional complexity. It is shown that this is because of local pentagonal symmetry and the structure is in fact the simplest possible (minimal transitivity) given that local symmetry.

A Mn-based rod metal-organic framework (MOF), ROD-6, with a new lrk net is synthesized. It represents an unusual type of MOF topology containing both a 1-periodic secondary building unit (rod SBU) and a polytopic linker (here 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(p-benzoic acid)pyrene), and also exhibits high stability (up to 485 °C) and unusual CO2 uptake behaviour and selectivity despite the lack of strong interacting sites, demonstrated by the low and increasing heat of adsorption.

A porous lanthanide-organic framework UTSA-62a of a topology has been synthesized from a hexacarboxylate and structurally characterized, exhibiting significant potential for use in CO2-CH4-H2 separation (H2 purification) processes with high productivities and low regeneration costs when operating at high pressure and room temperature.

A rare sty type microporous metal-organic framework, Cu(2)(FDDI) (; H(4)FDDI = tetramethyl 5,5'-(9H-fluorene-2,7-diyl)diisophthalate acid), was solvothermally synthesized and structurally characterized. With open metal sites and suitable pore space for their interactions with methane molecules, exhibits absolute methane storage of 180 cm(3)(STP) cm(-3) at room temperature and 35 bar, enabling it to be one of the very few porous MOFs whose methane storage capacities have met and/or approached the DOE target of 180 cm(3)(STP) cm(-3) for material-based methane storage.

A novel robust three-dimensional lanthanide organic framework with high thermal stability has been demonstrated to exhibit the potential for purification of natural gas in nearly pure form from an 8-component gas mixture at room temperature.

The first near-infrared luminescent ytterbium metal-organic framework has been realized for the highly selective and sensitive sensing of small molecules., (© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011)

Attention is called to some little-discussed aspects of crystal structure prediction. It is pointed out that the structures of metal-organic frameworks can often be correctly predicted. This allows designed synthesis of materials with targeted pore size and functionality. For more-conventional inorganic materials, predicting the lowest energy state can be made difficult by two problems. First, the difference in energy between competing structures can be very small. Second, the unit cells of materials with simple compositions may be very large. Examples are given for both cases.

The concept of a natural tiling for a periodic net is introduced and used to derive a transitivity associated with the structure. It is accordingly shown that the transitivity provides a useful method of classifying polyhedra and nets. For design of materials to serve as targets for synthesis, structures with one kind of edge (edge transitive) are particularly important. Edge-transitive polyhedra, layers and 3-periodic nets are then described. Some other nets of special importance in crystal chemistry are also identified.

A method is presented for the determination of protein-bound residues of furazolidone in animal tissue. The use of furazolidone in food-producing animals has been banned in the EU. Illegal use of furazolidone can be monitored most effectively by testing for bound residues containing the 3-amino-2-oxazolidone (AOZ) moiety which, unlike the parent drug, is stable and can be detected for prolonged periods after cessation of treatment. This paper reports the development of an extraction and clean-up procedure for AOZ from liver using solid phase extraction. The method replaces solvent extraction and provides extensive sample clean-up with removal of approximately 99% of the derivatising agent, 2-nitrobenzaldehyde, which may interfere with the determination. It also offers the advantage of being suitable for automation, thereby increasing throughput of samples. The extraction procedure may be used for HPLC and ELISA screening techniques. The method has been validated in fortified and incurred pig liver samples, yielding mean recovery of AOZ in excess of 60%.

Paramagnetic shifts have been observed for the first time in rare-earth zeolites; the 29Si MAS NMR spectra of rare-earth ion-exchanged low silica X show a large range of isotropic chemical shifts that can be attributed to Fermi contact interactions with the lanthanide electronic moments.

A robust procedure has been developed to overcome the instability problems experienced with the fluorescent derivative of eprinomectin. The procedure involves addition of acetic acid, together with the typical reagents methylimidazole and trifluoroacetic anhydride, to produce a fluorescent molecule that can be determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. Derivatisation is completed in 30 min at 65 degrees C. This derivatisation procedure was shown to be suitable, also, for the related compounds, moxidectin, abamectin, doramectin and ivermectin. A multi-residue method for these compounds in bovine liver has been developed using the derivatisation procedure. Samples are extracted with acetonitrile; followed by clean-up on deactivated alumina and C18 solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges. The method was validated using bovine liver fortified at levels of 4 and 20 micrograms kg-1 with the drugs. The mean recovery ranged between 73 and 97%. The intra- and inter-assay variations showed relative standard deviations typically of < 6% and < 14%, respectively. The limit of quantitation of the method is 2 micrograms kg-1 (ppb).

A multi-residue method has been developed for the quantitative determination of moxidectin, abamectin, doramectin and ivermectin in liver samples, with capability for qualitative identification of the presence of eprinomectin. Liver samples are extracted with isooctane, followed by clean-up on alumina-N solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges. Extracts are derivatised and determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The method was validated using bovine liver fortified at levels of 4 and 20 micrograms kg-1 with the drugs. The mean recovery from bovine liver ranged between 90 and 96%. The intra and inter-assay variations showed RSD typically of < 5% and < 10%, respectively. The procedure was applied also to ovine and porcine liver, giving similar results. A robustness study, carried out on the alumina clean-up step, indicated that the step is relatively insensitive to method changes. However, significant differences overall were found for the type of alumina and/or commercial SPE cartridge used. The limit of quantitation of the method is 2 micrograms kg-1 (ppb).

A supercritical fluid extraction procedure has been developed for the extraction of beta-agonists in bovine liver samples. The method is suitable for compounds of different beta-agonist classes: the substituted aniline-type compounds (e.g. clenbuterol) and the phenolic-type compounds (e.g. salbutamol), including conjugated forms of the latter. The developed procedure involves a combination of supercritical fluid extraction with enzyme immunoassay for the determination of clenbuterol and salbutamol residues at the low ppb level. Addition of methanol modifier and removal of sample moisture are necessary for the extraction of more polar analytes such as salbutamol. Method validation incorporating intra- and inter-assays was carried out on fortified liver tissue and showed good recovery and low variation (RSD < 15%). An enzyme hydrolysis procedure was incorporated into the method for the deconjugation of conjugated residues. The developed procedure was shown to be successful for the determination of both clenbuterol and salbutamol in incurred liver tissue.

The use of three C18 sorbents in matrix solid phase dispersion (MSPD) for the determination of clenbuterol in bovine liver fortified at 5 ng g-1 is described. MSPD grade C18 sorbents give rise to more efficient blending and packing of the material for subsequent washing and analyte elution in comparison with a non-MSPD grade C18 sorbent. Following enzymatic deconjugation of the liver extracts, radioimmunoassay is used as the method of determination. The mean recovery of clenbuterol with all sorbents is comparable and within the range 86-96% in two intra-assay studies (n = 3). The liver extracts in each case are highly coloured. The variation in recovery is observed to be lowest with MSPD grade C18 (end-capped). This sorbent was used in further studies to evaluate the use of solid phase extraction (SPE), post MSPD, with normal phase aminopropyl or mixed mode cation exchange columns for extract purification. The mean recovery of clenbuterol (n = 4, inter-assay study) following MSPD and normal phase SPE clean-up was 95 +/- 15% and 89 +/- 9% at fortification levels of 1 and 2.5 ng g-1, respectively.

The development of a supercritical fluid extraction procedure for the extraction of clenbuterol from bovine liver tissue is described. The procedure involves a combination of supercritical fluid extraction with enzyme immunoassay for the determination of clenbuterol residues at the low ppb level. Method validation incorporating inter- and intra-assays was carried out on fortified liver tissue and showed good recoveries and low variations (RSD < 15%) for levels of clenbuterol of 0.5, 2 and 5 ppb. The developed procedure was shown to be successful for the determination of clenbuterol in incurred liver tissue. The effects of organic modifiers and of inherent sample moisture on analyte extractability are also presented.

The aim of this study was to develop a multi-residue method for the analysis of penicillins in animal tissue. Matrix solid phase dispersion (MSPD) was employed to extract the residues and the extracts were then cleaned-up by C18 solid phase extraction (SPE). Pre-column derivatisation using acetic anhydride and 1,2,4-triazole in the presence of mercuric chloride was employed to allow detection in 325 nm. Gradient elution was required to elute amoxicillin, ampicillin, penicillin G, cloxacillin and dicloxacillin derivatives from a C18 reversed phase column using phosphate buffer-acetonitrile mobile phase. The developed method had a limit of detection of 20 ng g-1 and had recoveries in the range 40-90% for the 5 drugs in samples fortified at 40 and 200 ng g-1; the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for these drugs were in the range of 50-300 ng g-1 (ppb).

Chlorotestosterone and its metabolites were determined in urine samples from bovine animals treated with chlorotestosterone acetate by oral and intramuscular routes. Sample preparation, involving enzymatic deconjugation and solid-phase extraction, was optimised. The effect of different enzyme preparations, pH, and time of incubation were studied. An extraction/clean-up procedure based on solid-phase extraction (C18 cartridge) and liquid-liquid clean-up was developed. Determination of chlorotestosterone and its metabolites was by enzyme immunoassay and GC-MS. Metabolites were converted into their TMS-enol-TMS-ether and TMS-oxime-TMS-ether forms before GC-MS (EI) analysis.

Studies undertaken using radiolabelled furazolidone have demonstrated the covalent binding of residues of the drug to cellular protein in vivo. A portion of these bound residues and those formed by furaltadone, a related nitrofuran drug, possess intact side-chains, 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ) and 5-morpholino-methyl-3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AMOZ), respectively. These side-chains have molecular characteristics in common with the parent compounds and may be released from liver tissue under mild acidic conditions. Derivatization with 2-nitrobenzaldehyde (NBA) serves to isolate the released side-chains and the derivatives NPAOZ and NPAMOZ are chromophoric, thereby permitting UV detection. This paper reports the introduction of an extract clean-up step to the existing procedure which eliminates or decreases interference from NBA in the HPLC-UV determination of NPAOZ. The modified procedure was also applied to the determination of AMOZ. The development of an LC-MS method for the quantitative and confirmatory determination of AOZ and AMOZ extracted and derivatized according to the same procedure as that for HPLC-UV is described. The methods were validated for AOZ and AMOZ in fortified (intra- and inter-assay studies) and incurred (inter-assay studies) pig liver samples. The limit of determination for fortified control liver samples was 5 ng AOZ g-1 and 10 ng AMOZ g-1 by HPLC-UV and 10 ng AOZ or AMOZ g-1 by LC-MS. In addition, a study to determine the ratio of released AOZ to the total bound residues present in incurred liver samples from pigs treated with furazolidone is described.

A method has been developed for the determination of clenbuterol in bovine urine using differential-pulse voltammetry (DPV), based on the electrochemical behaviour of clenbuterol at a Nafion-modified carbon paste electrode (CPE). Clenbuterol is irreversibly oxidized at high positive potentials, its irreversibility being due to a chemical follow-up reaction which results in a product showing quasi-reversible electrochemical behaviour at much lower potentials. It is the oxidation peak of this product, arising in acidic media at 0.42 V, which was analysed using DPV, again following the accumulation of clenbuterol at the Nafion-modified CPE. Electrode renewal was achieved by holding the potential at -0.6 V for 120 s in 0.1 mol l-1 NaOH. The determination of clenbuterol in the presence of interfering compounds present in bovine urine samples was then carried out after a two-step clean-up of the urine involving liquid-liquid extraction followed by a mixed-mode solid-phase extraction procedure. This allowed clenbuterol to be detected down to a level of 1.02 x 10(-9) mol l-1 in bovine urine extracts.

Rapid 'on-site' methods are required by the pork industry to screen for the presence of antibiotic residues in meat and meat products. There are few rapid and easy-to-use methods suitable for application in non-analytical laboratories. This paper describes a novel approach for the screening of sulfamethazine in pork muscle using matrix solid phase dispersion, a microcolumn preconcentration step and thin-layer chromatographic detection. The characteristics of the method are reported allowing for the detection of residues at the maximum residue limit of 100 ppb. Results from the industrial evaluation of the complete method are also presented.

A method is described for the extraction of four beta-agonists, clenbuterol, salbutamol, mabuterol and terbutaline from bovine urine and liver samples using radioimmunoassay (RIA) as the method of determination. Following enzymic digestion of the liver samples using protease enzyme, the digest is centrifuged and the harvested supernatant is saturated with sodium chloride and adjusted to pH 11.0. An ethyl acetate-propan-2-ol mixture is used to extract the beta-agonists from the liver digest. The samples of urine and liver extracts are adjusted to pH 6.0 and applied to mixed phase (XtrackT) columns. The column is washed with water and methanol and the beta-agonists are eluted with methanol containing 2% ammonia. After evaporation of the eluting solvent and reconstitution in ethanol the beta-agonist residues are determined by RIA, with standard graphs prepared in residue-free sample extract. The procedure has been validated for clenbuterol, salbutamol, mabuterol and terbutaline. The mean recovery of the beta-agonists from urine and liver is > 75% and > 85%, respectively. The detection limit is 0.13 ng ml-1 and 0.46 ng g-1 of clenbuterol in urine and liver, respectively. The high recoveries attained for both types of beta-agonists are a result of an efficient liquid-liquid extraction step coupled with a selective mixed solid-phase extraction procedure.

A modified high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the determination of ivermectin (IVM) residues in fish muscle tissue. The extraction and clean-up procedure is based on the matrix solid phase dispersion technique. Control and IVM-fortified fish muscle samples (0.5 g) are blended with octadecyl (C18 end-capped) packing material. A column made from the C18-fish tissue blend is washed with hexane (8 ml) and the IVM is eluted with 8 ml of dichloromethane-ethyl acetate (3 + 1). Ivermectin is derivatized and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The recovery from fortified samples was greater than 80% in the concentration range 20-100 ng g-1 of tissue. The limit of determination was 10 ng g-1 of tissue. This method and another, using solvent extraction and clean-up of the extract on a solid phase extraction cartridge, gave comparable results for an incurred sample containing IVM residue. This method incorporates a rapid sample pre-treatment step which makes it an attractive and useful method for routine analysis of IVM in fish muscle tissue.

A procedure for the extraction of salbutamol including conjugated forms of the drug, from liver samples, is described. It combines matrix solid-phase dispersion with radioimmunoassay for the measurement of salbutamol residues at the sub-ppb level. Inter- and intra-assay validation, carried out on fortified liver samples, show good recoveries over the range 1-5 ppb of salbutamol. An enzyme hydrolysis procedure was optimized for the deconjugation of incurred residue. The developed procedure is shown to be suitable for the extraction and determination of other beta-agonists such as clenbuterol, mabuterol, terbutaline, and cimaterol at residue levels of less than 1 ng g-1.

A sensitive and selective high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure is described for the determination of the synthetic corticosteroid dexamethasone (DXM), in bovine muscle, kidney, liver and fat tissues, using methylprednisolone as the internal standard. Following extraction with ethyl acetate (muscle, kidney and liver) or diethyl ether (fat) and clean-up of the tissue extract, the drug residue was isolated using a C18 solid-phase extraction column. Separation of DXM was achieved by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection at 254 nm. By using this procedure, DXM levels as low as 0.01 mg kg-1 can be detected in muscle, kidney, liver and fat.