Titanium dioxide in face powders and eyeshadows: Developing an analytical methodology for accessing customer safety.

Background: Titanium dioxide (TiO), a white powder, represents the opacifier used in many products, including drugs, foods, cosmetics, paints, and dyes.

Method: The Uv-Vis spectrophotometry was a particularly suitable technique to quantify TiO in the solutions obtained from cosmetics. In this work, we determined the TiO content in a total of 88 samples of eye shadows and face powders of different brands and costs.

Analytical Method for Quantification of Several Phthalate Acid Esters by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry in Coffee Brew Samples.

Several phthalate acid esters (PAEs), often called phthalate esters or phthalates, are substances classified as harmful due to their carcinogenic and mutagenic properties, and moreover, as dangerous for humans because they interfere with the endocrine system. In general, phthalic esters are used as plasticizers for different polymers and more other consumer products. In the present study, we describe a simple method to quantify PAEs in coffee brew using a liquid-liquid extraction without purification processes through analysing the obtained organic phase by GCMS in the single ion monitoring mode.

Platinum and Rhodium in Potato Samples by Using Voltammetric Techniques.

Potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial having high nutritional values. This paper is the first analytical approach to quantify Pt and Rh in vegetal food. In this study a total of 38 different potato samples produced in Europe and one in Australia were investigated.

Speciation of vanadium in urban, industrial and volcanic soils by a modified Tessier method.

Vanadium (V) concentrations in industrial, urban and volcanic soils were sequentially extracted using a modified Tessier's method. The voltammetric technique was used to determine V concentrations in solutions obtained from the various extraction steps. At the reference stations, the V concentrations (sum of four individual fractions) in soils ranged from 0.

Discrimination of almonds (Prunus dulcis) geographical origin by minerals and fatty acids profiling.

Twenty-one almond samples from three different geographical origins (Sicily, Spain and California) were investigated by determining minerals and fatty acids compositions. Data were used to discriminate by chemometry almond origin by linear discriminant analysis. With respect to previous PCA profiling studies, this work provides a simpler analytical protocol for the identification of almonds geographical origin.

Platinum and rhodium associated with the leaves of Nerium oleander L.; analytical method using voltammetry; assessment of air quality in the Palermo (Italy) area.

A rapid accumulation of the catalytic active noble metals in the environmental and biological matrices was observed and concern arose about potential environmental and health risks. The development of reliable analytic methods to measure very low Pt and Rh concentrations is required. The main purpose of this work was to develop a reliable method for the determination of Pt and Rh in environmental matrices because of inherent difficulties in using conventional techniques used, in particular, the ICP-OES technique.

The formal redox potential of the Ti(IV, III) couple at 25 degrees C in 1 M HCl 2 M NaCl medium.

The formal redox potential of the Ti(IV, III) couple has been determined at 25 degrees C in 1 M HCl, 2 M NaCl aqueous medium, by emf measurements of a junction-free cell with glass and mercury electrodes. Ti(III) and Ti(IV) concentrations were changed by controlled electrolysis. The mean value of the searched formal potential, in a large range of total titanium concentration, is 9 +/- 1 mV against the molar hydrogen electrode in the same ionic medium.

The formal redox potential of the Yb(III, II) couple at 0 degrees C in 3.22 molal Nacl medium.

Following our previous investigations on aqueous solutions of hypooxidized and iperoxidized species, we managed, by lowering the temperature of the solutions to 0 degrees C, to obtain, by electrochemical methods, Yb(II) and Yb(III) mixtures, enough stable to determine by a potentiometric method the formal redox potential of the Yb(IlI, II) couple. Its value, in a large range of total Ytterbium concentration, is -1233 +/- 3 mV against the molal hydrogen electrode in the 3.22 m NaCl medium.