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A strong red fluorescent nanocomposite, consisting of graphite-like carbon nitride nanosheets (g-C3N4 NSs) and serum albumin-capped Au nanoclusters (AuNCs), was synthesized. Dopamine (DA) can quench the red fluorescence of the nanocomposite, based on the Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism. In this quenching process, the energy is transferred from the fluorescent g-C3N4 NSs-AuNCs to the oxidized DA quinine molecules (DA is easily oxidated to form DA quinine in air). The red fluorescence emission at 420 nm decreases dramatically and the quenching ratio (F0 – F)/F0 is linearly related to the concentration of DA in the range of 0.05–8.0 μmol L−1 with a detection limit of 0.018 μmol L−1 (S/N = 3). Additionally, this sensor has a potential of application to assay the DA in the real samples, such as human serum and human urine.

The interactions of the sugars glucose and lactose with the transport protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) were investigated using fluorescence, FT-IR and circular dichroism (CD) techniques. The results indicated that glucose could be bonded and transported by BSA, mainly involving hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions (ΔH = -86.13 kJ mol(-1)). The obtained fluorescence data from the binding of sugar and BSA were processed by the multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) method, and the extracted concentration profiles showed that the equilibrium constant, rglucose:BSA, was about 7. However, the binding of lactose to BSA did not quench the fluorescence significantly, and this indicated that lactose could not be directly transported by BSA. The binding experiments were further performed using the fluorescence titration method in the presence of calcium and BSA. Calcium was added so that the calcium/BSA reactions could be studied in the presence or absence of glucose, lactose or hydrolysis products. The results showed that hydrolyzed lactose seemed to enhance calcium absorption in bovine animals. It would also appear that for children, lactose provides better nutrition; however, glucose is better for adults.

An electrochemical biosensor capable of indirect detection of DNA damage induced by any one of the three endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) – bisphenol A (BPA), 4-nonylphenol (NP) and 4- t -octylphenol (OP), has been researched and developed. The methylene blue (MB) dye was used as the redox indicator. The glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was modified by the assembled dsDNA/graphene oxide-chitosan/gold nano-particles to produce a dsDNA/GO-CS/AuNPs/GCE sensor. It was characterized with the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The loading/release of the MB dye by the dsDNA/GO-CS/AuNPs film was investigated, and the results showed that the process was reversible. Based on this, the sensor was used to measure the difference between the loading capabilities of intact and damaged dsDNA in the films. The sensor was then successfully applied to detect DNA damage electrochemically. The differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) peak current ratio for MB, observed before and after DNA damage, increased linearly in the presence the BPA, NP or OP compounds; the treatment range was 10–60 min, and the respective damage rates were 0.0069, 0.0044 and 0.0031 min −1 , respectively. These results were confirmed by the binding constants: 2.09 × 10 6 M −1 (BPA-DNA), 1.28 × 10 6 M −1 (NP-DNA) and 9.33 × 10 5 M −1 (OP-DNA), all of which were obtained with the use of differential pulse stripping voltammetry (DPSV).

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is an emerging material with some unique physical and electronic properties somewhat comparable to those of graphene. It was prepared with the use of a simple hydrothermal process, and has a layered structure similar to that of graphene. Also, it has a peroxidase-like catalytic activity and is able to catalyze the oxidation of the colorless peroxidase substrate, 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), in the presence of H2O2 to produce a blue product. This reaction used MoS2 as a useful peroxidase, which involved a colorimetric method for trace analysis of H2O2 in water, e.g. lake waters. This method is uncomplicated, inexpensive and highly sensitive for H2O2 in the 0.125-1.75 μM range (LOD: 0.08 μM). It is also quite stable in the presence of many common inorganic and organic potentially interfering compounds, e.g. metal ions as well as amino acids and sugars.

Flos Chrysanthemum is a generic name for a particular group of edible plants, which also have medicinal properties. There are, in fact, twenty to thirty different cultivars, which are commonly used in beverages and for medicinal purposes. In this work, four Flos Chrysanthemum cultivars, Hangju, Taiju, Gongju, and Boju, were collected and chromatographic fingerprints were used to distinguish and assess these cultivars for quality control purposes. Chromatography fingerprints contain chemical information but also often have baseline drifts and peak shifts, which complicate data processing, and adaptive iteratively reweighted, penalized least squares, and correlation optimized warping were applied to correct the fingerprint peaks. The adjusted data were submitted to unsupervised and supervised pattern recognition methods. Principal component analysis was used to qualitatively differentiate the Flos Chrysanthemum cultivars. Partial least squares, continuum power regression, and K-nearest neighbors were used t...

This review is focused on the impact of chemometrics for resolving data sets collected from investigations of the interactions of small molecules with biopolymers. These samples have been analyzed with various instrumental techniques, such as fluorescence, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, and voltammetry. The impact of two powerful and demonstrably useful multivariate methods for resolution of complex data—multivariate curve resolution–alternating least squares (MCR–ALS) and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC)—is highlighted through analysis of applications involving the interactions of small molecules with the biopolymers, serum albumin, and deoxyribonucleic acid. The outcomes illustrated that significant information extracted by the chemometric methods was unattainable by simple, univariate data analysis. In addition, although the techniques used to collect data were confined to ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism, and voltammetry, data profiles produced by ot...

Samples of Forsythia suspensa from raw (Laoqiao) and ripe (Qingqiao) fruit were analyzed with the use of HPLC-DAD and the EIS-MS techniques. Seventeen peaks were detected, and of these, twelve were identified. Most were related to the glucopyranoside molecular fragment. Samples collected from three geographical areas (Shanxi, Henan and Shandong Provinces), were discriminated with the use of hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), discriminant analysis (DA), and principal component analysis (PCA) models, but only PCA was able to provide further information about the relationships between objects and loadings; eight peaks were related to the provinces of sample origin. The supervised classification models-K-nearest neighbor (KNN), least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM), and counter propagation artificial neural network (CP-ANN) methods, indicated successful classification but KNN produced 100% classification rate. Thus, the fruit were discriminated on the basis of their places of origin.

Hydrogen peroxide is an important analyte in biochemical, industrial and environmental systems. Therefore, development of novel rapid and sensitive analytical methods is useful. In this work, a hemin-graphene nano-sheets (H-GNs)/gold nano-particles (AuNPs) electrochemical biosensor for the detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was researched and developed; it was constructed by consecutive, selective modification of the GCE electrode. Performance of the H-GNs/AuNPs/GCE was investigated by chronoamperometry, and AFM measurements suggested that the graphene flakes thickness was ∼1.3 nm and that of H-GNs was ∼1.8 nm, which ultimately indicated that each hemin layer was ∼0.25 nm. This biosensor exhibited significantly better electrocatalytic activity for the reduction of hydrogen peroxide in comparison with the simpler AuNPs/GCE and H-GNs/GCE; it also displayed a linear response for the reduction of H2O2 in the range of 0.3 μM to 1.8 mM with a detection limit of 0.11 μM (S N−1 = 3), high sensitivity of 2774.8 μA mM−1 cm−2, and a rapid response, which reached 95% of the steady state condition within 5 s. In addition, the biosensor was unaffected by many interfering substances, and was stable over time. Thus, it was demonstrated that this biosensor was potentially suitable for H2O2 analysis in many types of sample.

The interaction of graphene oxide (GO), a medicinal drug (10-hydroxy camptothecin (HCPT)), and bovine serum albumin (BSA) was investigated with the aim of developing a method for the analysis of serum albumin proteins. It was demonstrated that HCPT could be readily loaded onto GO via the π–π stacking interaction, and the delivery of HCPT to BSA was improved in the presence of GO; this, in turn, facilitated the binding interaction of HCPT and BSA. Chemometrics methods, multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), were applied to resolve spectral data, and this assisted in the elucidation of the above interaction. GO was found to enhance the fluorescence response of HCPT to BSA, and thus, a low cost fluorescence bio-sensing platform was developed for fluorescence-enhanced detection of BSA based on GO. The satisfactory analytical performance of this biosensor for BSA was attributed to the structure and electronic properties of GO.

Chromatographic profiles of Rhizoma et Radix Notoperygii (RRN, “Qianghuo” in Chinese), a complex traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), were collected by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) at 330 nm. These data profiles were used as fingerprints to investigate quality control classification modeling of the RRN samples. In contrast to the classical methods for discrimination of TCMs, that is, just using common HPLC peaks, all chromatographic profile data were pre-processed by the correlation optimized warping method and polynomial functions; then, these data were submitted as fingerprints (variables) for classification on the basis of sample origin. Chemometrics methods used for calibration modeling and subsequent sample classification-least square support vector machine (LS-SVM), artificial neural network (ANN), and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA); all produced satisfactory calibrations as well as classification results.

This overview summarizes the application and impact of chemometrics on the extraction and interpretation of analytical data with the use of curve resolution methods from about 2005 onward. The development and usage of well-known and novel chemometric methods have been described and approximately 85 papers have been referenced. Many suggested improvements to some well-known methods, for example, multivariate curve resolution, have been noted as well as the growing software for such methods. Also, these high dimensional resolution methods have found significant application and, arguably, have opened up a new perspective in calibration, that is, extraction of otherwise unobtainable analytical information from strongly overlapping profiles in the presence of interferences. Recent literature suggests that the use of chemometric methods in analytical chemistry for data extraction and interpretation provides indispensable tools for multivariate data processing and extraction of hidden information, which otherwis...

The binding interaction of bovine serum albumin (BSA) with dopamine was studied by different spectroscopic techniques, and a fluorescence quenching mechanism was associated with this process. Estimated thermodynamic parameters indicated the presence of hydrogen bonding and van der Walls forces between dopamine and BSA. The microenvironment of the protein-binding site was studied by the synchronous fluorescence, FT-TR, and three-way fluorescence techniques in the presence of dopamine, and changes in conformation were indicated within the binding cavity. This study provides useful information on the transportation and distribution of dopamine in proteins.

Many complex natural or synthetic products are analysed either by the GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) or HPLC-DAD (high performance liquid chromatography-diode-array detector) technique, each of which produces a one-dimensional fingerprint for a given sample. This may be used for classification of different batches of a product. GC-MS and HPLC-DAD analyses of complex, similar substances represented by the three common types of the TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), Rhizoma Curcumae were analysed in the form of one- and two-dimensional matrices firstly with the use of PCA (Principal component analysis), which showed a reasonable separation of the samples for each technique. However, the separation patterns were rather different for each analytical method, and PCA of the combined data matrix showed improved discrimination of the three types of object; close associations between the GC-MS and HPLC-DAD variables were observed. LDA (linear discriminant analysis), BP-ANN (back propagation-artificial neural networks) and LS-SVM (least squares-support vector machine) chemometrics methods were then applied to classify the training and prediction sets. For one-dimensional matrices, all training models indicated that several samples would be misclassified; the same was observed for each prediction set. However, by comparison, in the analysis of the combined matrix, all models gave 100% classification with the training set, and the LS-SVM calibration also produced a 100% result for prediction, with the BP-ANN calibration closely behind. This has important implications for comparing complex substances such as the TCMs because clearly the one-dimensional data matrices alone produce inferior results for training and prediction as compared to the combined data matrix models. Thus, product samples may be misclassified with the use of the one-dimensional data because of insufficient information.

Interaction of isoprenaline (ISO) with calf-thymus DNA was studied by spectroscopic and electrochemical methods. The behavior of ISO was investigated at a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse stripping voltammetry (DPSV); ISO was oxidized and an irreversible oxidation peak was observed. The binding constant K and the stoichiometric coefficient m of ISO with DNA were evaluated. Also, with the addition of DNA, hyperchromicity of the UV-vis absorption spectra of ISO was noted, while the fluorescence intensity decreased significantly. Multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) chemometrics method was applied to resolve the combined spectroscopic data matrix, which was obtained by the UV-vis and fluorescence methods. Pure spectra of ISO, DNA and ISO-DNA complex, and their concentration profiles were then successfully obtained. The results indicated that the ISO molecule intercalated into the base-pairs of DNA, and the complex of ISO-DNA was formed.

High performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) was employed for the chromatographic fingerprint analysis and characterization of Rhizoma Curcumae, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Genetic algorithm-partial least squares (GA-PLS) were applied for feature variables selection based on the 11 common peaks. Then, two chemometrics pattern recognition methods, principal component analysis (PCA) and K-nearest neighbor (KNN), were applied to investigate the mean chromatograms of Rhizoma Curcumae samples, which were obtained from four different provinces with two different processing methods. It was found that these samples can be successfully compared and distinguished according to their origin and processing methods. The results indicated that the proposed method could be efficiently used to control the quality of Rhizoma Curcumae samples and providing a reference method for chemical pattern recognition for other TCMs.

The binding interaction of the terazosin hydrochloride and prazosin hydrochloride with bovine serum albumin (BSA) was studied by spectrofluorimetry. Both of these two compounds quenched the fluorescence of BSA. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔH 0, ΔS 0 and ΔG 0) obtained from the fluorescence data measured at two different temperatures showed that the binding of terazosin hydrochloride to BSA involved hydrogen bonds and that of prazosin hydrochloride to BSA involved hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. In this work, the competitive interaction of the terazosin hydrochloride and prazosin hydrochloride with BSA was studied by three-way excitation-emission fluorescence with the aid of parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC).

Naturally occurring macromolecules present at the epicuticular wax/stalk tissue interface of sugarcane were investigated using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Investigations of water, cellulose, and wax-cellulose interrelationships were possible using NIRS methods, where in the past many different techniques have been required. The sugarcane complex interface was used as an example of typical phenomena found at plant leaf/stalk interfaces. This detailed study showed that sugarcane cultivars exhibit spectral differences in the CH(n), water OH, and cellulose OH regions, reflecting the presence of epicuticular wax, epidermis, and ground tissue. Spectrally complex water bands (5276 cm(-1) and 7500-6000 cm(-1)) were investigated via freeze-drying experiments which revealed sequentially a complex band substructure (7500-6000 cm(-1)), a developing weak H-bonding system ( approximately 7301 cm(-1)), and strong H-bonding ( approximately 7062 cm(-1)) assigned to water-cellulose interactions. Principal component analysis techniques clarified complex band trends that developed during the desorption experiment. Bands from wax-free stalk were minimized in the 4327-4080 cm(-1) region (C--H(n) vibrational modes associated with long chain fatty compounds), while bands from the stalk tissue (particularly lignin and moisture) became more pronounced. This work is a comprehensive guide to similar studies by scientists involved in a variety of plant and fiber research fields. (c) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 91: 642-651, 2009.This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The "Published Online" date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com.

Multi-wavelength fingerprints of Cassia seed, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), were collected by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) at two wavelengths with the use of diode array detection. The two data sets of chromatograms were combined by the data fusion-based method. This data set of fingerprints was compared separately with the two data sets collected at each of the two wavelengths. It was demonstrated with the use of principal component analysis (PCA), that multi-wavelength fingerprints provided a much improved representation of the differences in the samples. Thereafter, the multi-wavelength fingerprint data set was submitted for classification to a suite of chemometrics methods viz. fuzzy clustering (FC), SIMCA and the rank ordering MCDM PROMETHEE and GAIA. Each method highlighted different properties of the data matrix according to the fingerprints from different types of Cassia seeds. In general, the PROMETHEE and GAIA MCDM methods provided the most comprehensive information for matching and discrimination of the fingerprints, and appeared to be best suited for quality assurance purposes for these and similar types of sample.

A novel voltammetric method for simultaneous determination of the glucocorticoid residues prednisone, prednisolone, and dexamethasone was developed. All three compounds were reduced at a mercury electrode in a Britton–Robinson buffer (pH 3.78), and well-defined voltammetric waves were observed. However, the voltammograms of these three compounds overlapped seriously and showed nonlinear character, and thus, it was difficult to analyze the compounds individually in their mixtures. In this work, two chemometrics methods, principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS), were applied to resolve the overlapped voltammograms, and the calibration models were established for simultaneous determination of these compounds. Under the optimum experimental conditions, the limits of detection (LOD) were 5.6, 8.3, and 16.8 µg l−1 for prednisone, prednisolone, and dexamethasone, respectively. The proposed method was also applied for the determination of these glucocorticoid residues in the r...

Chromatographic fingerprints of 46 Eucommia Bark samples were obtained by liquid chromatography-diode array detector (LC-DAD). These samples were collected from eight provinces in China, with different geographical locations, and climates. Seven common LC peaks that could be used for fingerprinting this common popular traditional Chinese medicine were found, and six were identified as substituted resinols (4 compounds), geniposidic acid and chlorogenic acid by LC-MS. Principal components analysis (PCA) indicated that samples from the Sichuan, Hubei, Shanxi and Anhui—the SHSA provinces, clustered together. The other objects from the four provinces, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Gansu and Henan, were discriminated and widely scattered on the biplot in four province clusters. The SHSA provinces are geographically close together while the others are spread out. Thus, such results suggested that the composition of the Eucommia Bark samples was dependent on their geographic location and environment. In general, the basis for discrimination on the PCA biplot from the original 46 objects× 7 variables data matrix was the same as that for the SHSA subset (36 × 7 matrix). The seven marker compound loading vectors grouped into three sets: (1) three closely correlating substituted resinol compounds and chlorogenic acid; (2) the fourth resinol compound identified by the OCH3 substituent in the R4 position, and an unknown compound; and (3) the geniposidic acid, which was independent of the set 1 variables, and which negatively correlated with the set 2 ones above. These observations from the PCA biplot were supported by hierarchical cluster analysis, and indicated that Eucommia Bark preparations may be successfully compared with the use of the HPLC responses from the seven marker compounds and chemometric methods such as PCA and the complementary hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA).

Synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy (SFS) was applied for the investigation of interactions of the antibiotic, tetracycline (TC), with DNA in the presence of aluminium ions Al3+. The study was facilitated by the use of the Methylene Blue (MB) dye probe, and the interpretation of the spectral data with the aid of the chemometrics method, parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). Three-way synchronous fluorescence analysis extracted the important optimum constant wavelength differences, deltalambda, and showed that for the TC-Al3+-DNA, TC-Al3+ and MB dye systems, the associated deltalambda values were different (deltalambda=80, 75 and 30 nm, respectively). Subsequent PARAFAC analysis demonstrated the extraction of the equilibrium concentration profiles for the TC-Al3+, TC-Al3+-DNA and MB probe systems. This information is unobtainable by conventional means of data interpretation. The results indicated that the MB dye interacted with the TC-Al3+-DNA surface complex, presumably via a reaction intermediate, TC-Al3+-DNA-MB, leading to the displacement of the TC-Al3+ by the incoming MB dye probe.

A sensitive method for the simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of Fe(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Mn(II) in mixtures has been developed with the aid of multivariate calibration methods, such as classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS). The method is based on the spectral differences of the analytes in their complexation reaction with 4‐(2‐pyridylazo)‐resorcinol (PAR) and the use of full spectra with wavelengths in the range of 300–600 nm. It was found that both the spectral positive and negative bands obtained against the PAR blank, are proportional to the concentration for each metal complex. The obtained linear calibration concentration ranges are 0.025–0.6, 0.05–0.8, 0.025–0.8, and 0.05–0.8 µg ml−1 for Fe(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Mn(II), respectively, and the LODs for the four metal ions were found to be approximately 1–3×10−2 µg ml−1. The proposed method was applied to a verification set of synthetic mixtures of these four metal...

A sensitive and selective enzymatic kinetic method for the simultaneous determination of mixtures of carbaryl and phoxim pesticides was researched and developed. It was based on the inhibitory effect of the pesticides on acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and the use of 5,5′-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic) acid (DTNB) as a chromogenic reagent for the thiocholine iodide (TChI) released from the acetylthiocholine iodide (ATChI) substrate. The DTNB-thiocholine reaction was investigated by a spectrophotometric-kinetic approach. The complex rate equation for the formation of the chromogenic product, P, was solved under certain experimental conditions, which enabled the absorbance ( A P , at λ max = 412 nm) from the mixtures of the two pesticide inhibitors to be directly related to their concentrations provided the absorbance additivity was followed. The spectra were measured for mixtures of carbaryl and phoxim at different concentrations, and at t = 904 s, T = 35 °C, pH = 7.5, c ATChI = 0.14, and c AChE = 0.10 mg mL −1 . The detection limits of the enzymatic kinetic spectrophotometric procedures for the determination of the carbaryl and phoxim were 4.7 and 0.59 μg L −1 , respectively. Calibration models for chemometrics methods, such as principal component regression (PCR), partial least squares (PLS) and radial basis function-artificial neural network (RBF-ANN) were constructed and verified with synthetic samples of the mixtures of the two pesticides. The best performing model was based on the RBF-ANN method yielding at approximately 10 ppb analyte concentrations, %RPE T (carbaryl = 5.2; phoxim = 6.5), %Recovery (approx.105%) and %RPE T (6.5). Various spiked town-water samples produced recoveries in the range of 98.8–103% for each pesticide.

The interactions of salicylic acid (SL) and two different site markers (warfarin for site I and ibuprofen for site II) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) in pH 7.4 Tris–HCl buffer have been investigated with the use of spectrofluorimetry. An equilibrium solution of BSA and SA was titrated separately with the two markers. This initial work showed that the binding of SL with BSA could be quite complex, and that there was probably a competitive interaction occurring between ibuprofen and SL. However, the spectral results were difficult to interpret clearly for the interaction of warfarin and SL in similar circumstances. To extract more information from the resolution of fluorescence excitation-emission spectra, the contour plots of the fluorescence spectra indicated that the optimal excitation wavelengths for BSA, SL, warfarin and ibuprofen were different, and were found to be at 278, 295, 306 and 218 nm, respectively. The spectral information was arranged into three-way excitation-emission fluorescence matrix (EEM) stack arrays, and was submitted for analysis by the parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) algorithm. Firstly, it was demonstrated that the estimated excitation and emission spectral responses for SL, BSA and the site markers, warfarin and ibuprofen, agreed well with the measured spectra. Then, the interpretation of the plots of simultaneously extracted (by PARAFAC) equilibrium concentrations for the above four reactants, showed that: (i) the SL primarily appears to bind in site I but at a different location from the high-affinity binding site (HAS) for warfarin, and the interaction partially overlaps with the low-affinity binding site (LAS) for warfarin. (ii) The SL may have two LAS—one in site II where the HAS for ibuprofen is located, and the other in site I at the LAS for ibuprofen. Thus, application of the PARAFAC method for the study of competitive interaction of SL and BSA with the aid of two different site markers has extracted information unobtainable by traditional methods such as the Scatchard plot, and provided useful means of data visualization.

Organophosphorus pesticides, such as parathion methyl (PTM), fenitrothion (FT), parathion (PT), and isocarbophos (ICP), have sensitive but overlapped voltammetric peaks with peak potentials −309, −364, −317, and −480 mV, respectively, in Britton‐Robinson buffer of pH 4.8 by application of linear sweep stripping voltammetry (LSSV). In this work, two multivariate calibration methods, partial least squares (both PLS‐1 and PLS‐2), and principal component regression (PCR), were applied to quantitatively resolve the overlapping voltammogram of the mixtures of these four pesticides. The prediction results obtained from a set of independent test samples showed that PLS‐1 method performed better prediction ability than PLS‐2 and PCR methods. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of these four pesticides in grain samples after a pre‐extraction step with a solvent of acetone.

Voltammetric behaviour of four carbamate pesticides, propoxur, isoprocarb, carbaryl and carbofuran, was investigated, and a method was developed for the simultaneous determination of these compounds. This was based on their anodic voltammetric behaviour observed following their alkaline hydrolysis, which produced electroactive phenol derivatives. It was found that by applying the differential pulse voltammertric (DPV) method in the presence of perchloric acid, the four compounds have well defined voltammetric oxidation waves with peak potentials at 712, 888, 664, and 688 mV, respectively. For each compound, a linear calibration was obtained in the concentration range of 1.0–30 mg l −1 . Serious overlapping of individual voltammetric peaks was observed for the mixtures of these four compounds, and to facilitate the resolution of these complex voltammograms, different calibration models were investigated based on four different chemometrics methods, viz., classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR), partial least squares (PLS) and radial basis function-artificial neural networks (RBF-ANN). The prediction ability of these models were tested with the use of a data set constructed from synthetic solutions of the four pesticides. The analytical performance of the prediction models was characterized with the use of various figures of merit, and the best results were obtained with the PC-RBF-ANN method (%RPE T = 5.6 and %Recovery (average) = 100). This method was then applied for the determination of the four pesticides in different water samples.

A differential pulse stripping voltammetry method (DPSV) is proposed for the determination of parathion-methyl (PTM), fenitrothion (FT) and parathion (PT) at a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE). The voltammograms of these three compounds overlap strongly, and it is difficult to determine the compounds individually from their mixtures. Quantitative analysis for each of the pesticide compounds in a mixture has been investigated with the aid of chemometrics and the prediction performance of the different methods such as classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR), partial least squares (PLS), Kalman filter (KF) and radial basis function-artificial neural networks (RBF-ANN), was compared. A set of synthetic mixtures of the three compounds was analysed by using the proposed methods, and it was found that the lowest relative prediction error (RPE) and satisfactory % recovery were achieved with the RBF-ANN procedure. The proposed method was also applied to several vegetable samples spiked with known amounts of the pesticides with satisfactory results.

This paper presents a study undertaken to evaluate site suitability for sewage effluent renovation based on physico-chemical characteristics of the soil. The results obtained showed that as the soil becomes acidic, the phosphorus concentration in the soil reduces accordingly. The chloride ion concentration was found to be a reliable indicator for evaluating the soil capacity to remove nitrogen. A high cation exchange capacity (CEC) can enhance the renovation of sewage effluent. Soils with high quartz content had a low CEC with high organic matter content (OM) being able to compensate. Therefore, an understanding of the micro-nutrients in the soil, organic matter content and chloride ion concentration are important. To facilitate a multi-variate approach for site selection, multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, PROMETHEE and GAIA, were applied for analysis of a sequence of three matrices consisting of 8, 16, and 48 soil site objects, respectively, and seven soil property parameters. Matrix models and the interpretation of results are discussed in detail. From these analyses, PROMETHEE II net outranking flows, ϕ , found that two sites were always among the top three ranks of the three matrix models, which suggested that they were the most suitable for sewage effluent renovation. The criteria CEC and OM, were particularly important for the selection of these better sites, but pH and Cl − attributes discriminated the weaker performing sites from the better ones; as well the PO 4 3− and the NH 3 –N criteria were in general opposition to CEC, OM, pH and Cl − but were much less effective as discriminators. Consideration of net outranking flows suggested an approach method for the selection of other possibly suitable sites for sewage effluent renovation.

A voltammetric method, aided by chemometrics, was developed for the simultaneous determination of paracetamol and phenobarbital in pharmaceuticals. Both of these analytes gave well‐defined oxidation peaks in the Britton–Robinson buffer (pH 5.72) when analyzed by differential pulse‐stripping voltammetry (DPSV) at a glassy carbon electrode. The experimental conditions were optimized: 200 mV—deposition potential, 160 s—deposition time, 4 mV—increment potential, 50 mV—amplitude, and 60 ms—pulse width. Under these selected conditions, the oxidation current had a linear relationship with concentration of paracetamol [ranges: 0.09–0.93 mg l−1 (r 2 = 0.999) and 0.9–11.7 mg l−1 (r 2 = 0.999)], and phenobarbital [1.0–22.0 mg l−1 (r 2 = 0.999)]. Due to the overlapping voltammograms from the two analytes, two chemometrics methods, partial least squares (PLS), and principal component regression (PCR), were used for building calibration models from voltammograms of mixtures. These models were applied for predi...

Metal ions such as Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Fe(III) and Cr(III), which are commonly present in electroplating baths at high concentrations, were analysed simultaneously by a spectrophotometric method modified by the inclusion of the ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) solution as a chromogenic reagent. The prediction of the metal ion concentrations was facilitated by the use of an orthogonal array design to build a calibration data set consisting of absorption spectra collected in the 370–760 nm range from solution mixtures containing the five metal ions earlier. With the aid of this data set, calibration models were built based on 10 different chemometrics methods such as classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR), partial least squares (PLS), artificial neural networks (ANN) and others. These were tested with the use of a validation data set constructed from synthetic solutions of the five metal ions. The analytical performance of these chemometrics methods were characterized by relative prediction errors and recoveries (%). On the basis of these results, the computational methods were ranked according to their performances using the multi-criteria decision making procedures preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) and geometrical analysis for interactive aid (GAIA). PLS and PCR models applied to the spectral data matrix that used the first derivative pre-treatment were the preferred methods. They together with ANN-radial basis function (RBF) and PLS were applied for analysis of results from some typical industrial samples analysed by the EDTA-spectrophotometric method described. DPLS, DPCR and the ANN-RBF chemometrics methods performed particularly well especially when compared with some target values provided by industry.

The FTIR spectra were measured for raw Uplands Sicala-V2 cotton fibers over a temperature range of 40–325°C to explore the temperature-dependent changes in the hydrogen bonds of cellulose. These cotton–cellulose spectra exhibited complicated patterns in the 3800–2800 cm−1 region and thus were analyzed by both the exploratory principal component analysis (PCA) and two-dimensional (2-D) correlation spectroscopy methods. The exploratory PCA showed that the spectra separate into two groups on the basis of thermal degradation of the cotton–cellulose and the consequent breakage of intersheet H-bonds present in its structure. Frequency variables, which strongly contributed to each principal component highlighted in its loadings plot, were linked to the frequencies assigned to vibrations of the OH groups involved in different kinds of H-bonds, as well as to vibrations of the CH groups. Deeper insights into reorganization of the temperature-dependent hydrogen bonding were obtained by 2-D correlation spectroscopy. Synchronous and asynchronous spectra were analyzed in the temperature ranges of 40 to 150 and 250 to 320°C, the ranges indicated by PCA. Detailed band assignments of the OH stretching region and changes in the patterns of the hydrogen bonding network of the cotton–cellulose were proposed with the aid of the 2-D correlation spectroscopy analysis. Below 150°C, distinctly different bands assigned to the less stable Iα and the more stable Iβ interchain H-bonds O6H6…O3′ were observed at about 3230 and 3270 cm−1, respectively. Evaporation of water entrapped in the cellulose network was examined by means of the band at about 3610 cm−1. The cooperativity of hydrogen bonds, which play a key role in the cellulose conformation, was monitored by frequencies assigned to intrachain H-bonds. It was possible to separate the frequencies assigned to the O2H2…O6 and O3H3…O5 intrachain H-bonds into two separate ranges, the spread of which was controlled by the cooperativity effect. The temperature dependence of the asynchronous spectra indicated that the less stable O3H3…O5 bonds gave rise to an absorption extending from 3300 to 3384 cm−1, while the more stable O2H2…O6 bonds were characterized by the absorption between 3400 and 3470 cm−1. The final breaking of the inter- and intrachain H-bonds, which occurs at the higher temperatures, was monitored by the asynchronous peaks at 3533 and 3590 cm−1, respectively. On the basis of both the exploratory PCA and 2-D correlation spectroscopy investigations, it was possible to extract well-defined wavenumber ranges assigned to different kinds of intra- and interchain hydrogen bonds, as well as to the free OH groups of the cotton–cellulose. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers (Biospectroscopy) 67: 456–469, 2002

A novel electrochemical biosensor, DNA/hemin/nafion–graphene/GCE, was constructed for the analysis of the benzo(a)pyrene PAH, which can produce DNA damage induced by a benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) enzyme-catalytic product. This biosensor was assembled layer-by-layer, and was characterized with the use of cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and atomic force microscopy. Ultimately, it was demonstrated that the hemin/nafion–graphene/GCE was a viable platform for the immobilization of DNA. This DNA biosensor was treated separately in benzo(a)pyrene, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and in their mixture, respectively, and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) analysis showed that an oxidation peak was apparent after the electrode was immersed in H2O2. Such experiments indicated that in the presence of H2O2, hemin could mimic cytochrome P450 to metabolize benzo(a)pyrene, and a voltammogram of its metabolite was recorded. The DNA damage induced by this metabolite was also detected by electrochemical impedance and ultraviolet spectroscopy. Finally, a novel, indirect DPV analytical method for BaP in aqueous solution was developed based on the linear metabolite versus BaP concentration plot; this method provided a new, indirect, quantitative estimate of DNA damage.

A simple UV spectrophotometric method has been developed for resolving ternary mixture of food colorants, Tartrazine, Sunset Yellow and Ponceau 4R, which are species with highly overlapped spectra, by using H-point standard addition method (HPSAM). In this method, the concentration of one colorant was calculated from overlapping spectra at two appropriate wavelengths, where the other two colorants were selected as interferents present the equal absorbance relationship. These wavelength pairs are generally easily found, and can be selected to give the most precise analytical results. This method was satisfactorily applied to determination of colorants of Tartrazine, Sunset Yellow and Ponceau 4R in synthetic ternary mixtures and several commercial products.

The voltammetric behavior of antipsychotic drugs, such as, chlorpromazine hydrochloride and promethazine hydrochloride has been investigated at a glassy carbon electrode in Britton–Robinson buffer of pH 9. It was found by applying the differential pulse stripping voltammetry (DPSV) that both chlorpromazine hydrochloride and promethazine hydrochloride had well formed oxidation voltammetric waves, with the peak potential for chlorpromazine hydrochloride at 620 mV, and for the two peaks of promethazine hydrochloride at 444 and 668 mV. The calibrations were linear for chlorpromazine hydrochloride and promethazine hydrochloride in the concentration ranges of 0.05–1.2 and 0.1–1 mg l−1, respectively. However, the voltammetric peaks of these two drugs, seriously overlap and it is difficult to determine them individually from a response of a drug mixture. In this work, a method for the simultaneous determination of these two drugs is proposed, and is based on their oxidation at the glassy carbon electrode. The interpretation of the complex voltammograms is achieved with the aid of chemometric methods, such as, classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS). The proposed method was applied to determine these two drugs in a set of synthetic mixtures and blood samples, and in general, satisfactory results were obtained.

The voltammetric behaviour of five nitro-substituted aromatic compounds, such as nitrobenzene, 2-, 3-, 4-nitrophenol and 2,4-dinitrophenol, was investigated, and a method was developed for the simultaneous determination of these compounds, based on their reduction at a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE). It was found that by applying the differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) approach in a Britton–Robinson buffer of pH 5.4, nitrobenzene, 2-, 3- and 4-nitrophenol had well defined voltammetric reduction waves with peak potentials at −344, −284, −292 and −376 mV, respectively. However, 2,4-dinitrophenol had two peaks with potentials at −240 and −364 mV under the same conditions. For each compound linear calibration graphs were obtained in the general concentration range of 0.05–3.0 mg l−1. In mixtures of the five compounds, serious overlapping of voltammetric peaks was observed, and with conventional analytical methodology pre-separation steps would be required. In this study, chemometrics methods of data analysis, such as partial least squares (PLS), principal component regression (PCR) and classical least squares (CLS), were applied to resolve the overlapped voltammograms. Orthogonal experimental design was used for construction of the training sets containing the five aromatic compounds in the concentration range of 0.1–2.6 mg l−1. Five significant factors or principal components were modelled for prediction by the PLS and PCR methods, respectively. The percent of relative prediction error (RPE) was similar and acceptable for both methods being approximately ±10%. The percent of recoveries were within ±10% of the target value. The CLS method performed poorly (RPET=38%). The developed method was then applied to the analysis of these nitro-substituted aromatic compounds in field samples with similar satisfactory results.

A kinetic spectrophotometric method has been developed for simultaneous quantitative determination of acetaminophen and phenobarbital in pharmaceutical preparations, and relies on the different kinetic rates of the analytes in their oxidative coupling reaction with 3-methylbenzothiazolin-2-one hydrazone (MBTH) in the presence of hydrochloric acid and the Fe(III) oxidant. The absorbance was measured and recorded from 440 to 740 nm every 60 s from 15 to 435 s. An artificial neural network (ANN) coupled with principal component analysis (principal component artificial neural network, PC-ANN) has been described, and its principles and applications were illustrated by a simulated kinetic system. The performance of the PC-ANN was compared with a conventional ANN model. PC-ANN, as well as ANN and partial least squares (PLS), were applied to a validation set of overlapping spectra containing kinetic data of binary mixtures with different concentration ratios of acetaminophen and phenobarbital. The results show that PC-ANN is the most efficient of the three chemometrics methods applied for prediction of the two analytes.

The voltammetric behavior of synthetic food antioxidants, such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate (PG) and tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), at a glassy carbon electrode in solution of 0.1 mol l−1 perchloric acid containing 1% methanol has been investigated. The obtained linear sweep voltammograms (LSV) showed that all these four compounds have well-defined oxidation waves with peak potentials of 629, 818, 599 and 501 mV for BHA, BHT, PG and TBHQ, respectively. Linear calibration graphs were also obtained in the concentration ranges of 0.5–15.0, 0.5–8.0, 1.0–15.0 and 1.0–15.0 mg l−1 for BHA, BHT, PG and TBHQ, respectively. However, the voltammetric peaks of these antioxidants seriously overlap and it is difficult to determine them individually from a mixture without prior separation. In this work, a method for simultaneous determination of these antioxidants, based on their oxidation at the glassy carbon electrode, with the aid of chemometric approaches, such as classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS), has been developed. The method was applied to determine the four antioxidants in a set of synthetic mixtures and several commercial food samples; in general, satisfactory results were obtained.

Human-scalp hair samples were discriminated by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) micro-spectroscopy and chemometrics. The hairs were flattened with a small metallic roller, and the spectra were collected in the reflectance mode. The effects of gender, race and hair oxidation were examined. The results indicate a clear separation between FT-IR spectra collected from the heads of two different subjects of the same gender, race, hair colour, hair length, and treatment. The same results have also indicated a discrimination between spectra of hairs collected from the LHS and RHS of a head of a given subject. In addition, FT-IR spectra collected from different subjects were discriminated on the basis of treatment and gender. The study has demonstrated that chemometrics provides information that is not readily available by conventional visual methods of spectral interpretation.

Various rice samples were collected in Vietnam from the Red River region, and some other parts of the country as well as from Yanco, NSW, Australia. The rice samples were analysed for 14 elements (P, K, Mg, Ca, Mn, Zn, Fe, Cu, Al, Na, Ni, As, Mo, and Cd) by ICP-AES, ICP-MS and FAAS. The analytical procedures were carefully controlled and validated using the rice flour certified material (NIES No 10). In general, the results showed that Vietnamese rice has elemental concentration ranges similar to those of the Australian and other overseas rice. However, analyses for some elements are characteristic of some Vietnamese and Australian rice samples. Thus, Vietnamese rice shows somewhat higher levels of P, K and Mg than rice samples from other countries; Mn could be a marker for the Australian rice grown in the Yanco region, and the analysed Australian samples were also very low in Cd (0.003 mg kg-1). An unusual distribution of Ni, present in higher concentrations in the white rice samples than in the brown ones, was observed for some Vietnamese rice samples.

Raw naturally coloured and white cotton cellulose fibres were investigated by Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy and chemometric methods, namely principal component analysis (PCA). In general, the white cotton exhibited bands that could be associated with the structural features of the cotton cellulose polymer. But the FT-NIR spectrum of the green cotton, which is reported for the first time, exhibited a sharp band at 4250 cm–1. Further band analysis indicated that green cotton contains a higher C–H content and a lower C–C/C–O and O–H fractions than other natural cotton fibres, suggesting that it has undergone an oxidation process as indicated in the previous FT-Raman spectroscopic study (see Liu, Y., Kokot, S., and Sambi, J., Analyst, 1998, 123, 633). Although the PCA scores plot of FT-NIR spectra of seven types of cotton fibres showed no better separation than that of FT-Raman spectra, it is still possible to differentiate the various types of natural cotton fibres.

A comparison of predicted values of the breaking force of cotton fabrics as measured by diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy and thermogravimetry (TG) was carried out with the aid of the partial least squares (PLS) method. Excellent agreement was found for the validation set of samples with a standard errors of prediction (SEP) value of about 3%. Three thermal degradation parameters of eight different cellulosic samples, predicted from thermogravimetric measurements again using PLS, gave good analytical results on a small validation sample set.

The polarographic waves of pyrazine and its methyl derivatives are seriously overlapping, so they cannot be determined individually by polarographic methods without a prior separation. In this paper, a chemometric approach, iterative target transformation factor analysis (ITTFA), is developed and applied to the determination of mixtures of pyrazines at trace level (2.0–9.0 × 10 −6 moll −1 ) by using differential pulse polarography (DPP) and a static mercury drop electrode (SMDE). Different from the general ITTFA method, only one-dimensional measurement data of n − 1 standards and an unknown were used in this work. It produced acceptable results with average recoveries in the 96–108% range and relative standard errors in the 3.4–9.5% range.

A set of natural cellulosic and regenerated fabrics was analysed by thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results were interpreted by chemometrics methods of data analysis, viz., principal component analysis (PCA) and SIMCA. PCA scores plots conveniently displayed the overall information from the TG and DSC data respectively, and the SIMCA classification analysis provided supporting quantitative information. The chemometrics analysis showed that both the TG and DSC data from the natural cellulosic fabrics clustered in a sequence: raw fabrics, linen, bleached fabrics and poplin. This sequence was related to the thermal degradation parameters of maximum weight loss rate and enthalpy of these fabrics.

Electrochemical behavior of three antioxidants: butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and butylated hydroquinone (TBHQ), was investigated at a glassy carbon electrode modified with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs/GCE). This electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results indicated that the modified electrode was strongly electroactive during the redox reactions of BHA, BHT and TBHQ, and this was confirmed by the observed increased redox peak currents and shifted potentials; in addition, the oxidation products of BHA and TBHQ were found to be the same. The experimental conditions were optimized and the oxidation peaks of BHA and BHT were clearly separated. Based on this, an electrochemical method was researched and developed for the simultaneous determination of BHA, BHT and TBHQ in mixtures with the use of first derivative voltammetry; the linear concentration ranges were 0.10-1.50 μg mL(-1), 0.20-2.20 μg mL(-1) and 0.20-2.80 μg mL(-1), and detection limits were 0.039, 0.080 and 0.079μgmL(-1), for BHA, BHT and TBHQ, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the analysis of the three analytes in edible oil samples.

An electrochemical method involving a gold nanoparticle modified glassy carbon electrode (AuNPs/GCE) was researched and developed for the simultaneous analysis of three β(2)-agonists, ractopamine (RAC), salbutamol (SAL) and clenbuterol (CLB). The three analytes were electrocatalytically oxidized at the AuNP/GCE, which enhanced the oxidation peak current and influenced the shift of the oxidation potentials to lower values in comparison with the analysis involving only the GCE. The differential pulse stripping voltammetry (DPSV) voltammograms from the drug mixture produced complex, overlapping profiles, and chemometrics methods were applied for calibration modeling. The peak currents associated with RAC, SAL and CLB measurements were linear as a function of their concentrations (ranges within 0.005-0.150 μg mL(-1)); the detection limits for RAC, SAL and CLB were 2.4, 5.8 and 2.6 ng mL(-1), respectively. It was shown that satisfactory quantitative results were obtained with the use of the MVC1 package of chemometrics methods e.g. the PLS1 calibration model produced a relative prediction error (RPE(T)) of 7.0% and an average recovery of 97.6%. The above AuNP/GCE was successfully employed for the simultaneous analysis of RAC, SAL and CLB in pork meat, liver and pig feed samples.

Authentication of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) has become important because they can be adulterated with relatively cheap herbal medicines similar in appearance. Detection of such adulterated samples is needed because their presence is likely to reduce the pharmacological potency of the original TCM and, in the worst cases, the samples may be harmful. The aim of this study was to develop a rapid near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) analytical method which was supported by multi-variate calibration, e.g. partial least squares regression (PLSR) and radial basis function artificial neural networks (RBF-ANN), in order to quantify the TCM and the adulterants. In this work, Cynanchum stauntonii (CS), a commonly used TCM, in mixtures with one or two adulterants — two morphological types of TCM, Cynanchum atrati (CA) and Cynanchum paniculati (CP), were determined using NIR reflectance spectroscopy. The three sample sets, CS adulterated with CA or CP, and CS with both CA and CP, were measured in the range of 800–2500 nm. Both PLSR and RBF-ANN calibration models provided satisfactory results, even at an adulteration level of 5 mass %, but the RBF-ANN models with better root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) values for CS, CA, and CP arguably performed better. Consequently, this work demonstrates that the NIR method of sampling complex mixtures of similar substances such as CS adulterated by CA and/or CP is capable of producing data suitable for the quantitative analysis of mixtures consisting of the original TCM adulterated by one or two similar substances, provided the spectral data are interrogated by multi-variate methods of data analysis such as PLS or RBF-ANN.

A rapid kinetic method for the simultaneous determination of levodopa, dopamine, and dobutamine was examined and developed. It was based on a consecutive reaction of a reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) by catecholamines, followed by the complexation of Cu(I) with neocuproine to form a yellow product in an acetic acid-acetate buffer. Spectrophotometric data were recorded at 453 nm (wavelength at the yellow complex absorption maximum) for 300 s. Linear calibrations were obtained in the concentration ranges of (0.08–1.44) × 10−5 mol L−1, (0.08–1.44) × 10−5 mol L−1, and (0.16–1.44) × 10−5 mol L−1 for levodopa, dopamine, and dobutamine, respectively. A variety of multivariate calibration models was developed for simultaneous analysis of the three analytes; while most models produced satisfactory prediction results for synthetic samples, the hybrid linear analysis method was arguably the best-performing (relative prediction error, RPET = 6.6 %). The proposed method was applied to an analysis of spiked rabbit serum samples and the results showed good agreement with the high performance liquid chromatography measurements.

The interaction of salbutamol (Sal), an animal growth promoter, with DNA was investigated by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and fluorescence spectroscopy. An irreversible reduction was observed from the cyclic voltammograms, and the reaction mechanism involved a one-electron change irreversible oxidation. In the presence of DNA, the DPV peak current decreased and the Sal peak shifted to higher potentials, indicating that Sal interacted with DNA to form an intercalation Sal-DNA complex. In addition, reaction binding parameters were extracted from the DPV data with the use of the multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) method; the binding constant and ratio were found to be (2.0±0.5)×10(5) M(-1) and 1:1, respectively. Quantitative voltammetric analysis of Sal was performed in the concentration range of 3.02×10(-6) to 1.23×10(-4) molL(-1), and it was found that the detection limit was 5.11×10(-7) molL(-1) in the presence of 1.00×10(-6) molL(-1) DNA. The method was applied for the determination of Sal in spiked urine and human serum samples, and the calibration was successfully verified.

The application of four chemometrics procedures viz., principal components analysis, SIMCA, multicriteria decision-making routines PROMETHEE and GAIA, and fuzzy clustering, was investigated for the selection of a suitable microwave digestion method for sediment and rock samples. The NBS 2704 SRM and a secondary rock standard were acid digested by 15 different methods and the digests analysed for six metals, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cr, Co and Zn. The four chemometrics approaches produced consistent results and provided similar information about the data structure (outliers, groupings, trends). Only the PROMETHEE procedure gave the ranking information necessary for the selection of a suitable digestion method. This method was based on the HF-HNO3 acid composition of the digest mixture.

Principal component analysis (PCA) and the multicriteria decision making methods, PROMETHEE and GAIA, were used to select a suitable microwave digestion method for metal analysis of soil samples. When the residuals matrix derived from the Cu, Pb, Co, Mn and Zn analyses of 18 different digests of the NBS 2704 SRM, was subjected to PCA and PROMETHEE ranking, two prefered methods were isolated. This PROMETHEE ranking together with the microwave oven settings and digest acid composition were then used as variables. The corresponding data matrix was subjected to PROMETHEE analysis coupled with the visualisation technique, GAIA. This illustrated the relationship between the different practical variables and method perfromance leading to the selection of the most suitable digestion method.