Development and Application of Certified Reference Materials of Light Crude Oil for Water Content

The water content of the crude oil needs to be measured accurately. The analytical methods that are used, including distillation and Karl Fischer coulometric titration (KFCT), require verification using certified reference materials (CRMs) of crude oil for the water content. In the present study, five CRMs of light crude oil with large volumes and various certified water contents (1–10 mg/g) were developed using the gravimetric method. Each candidate CRM was prepared individually, including the addition of pure water to the dried blank crude oil and weighing the masses of the added water and the blank crude oil. The water content of the blank crude oil was measured using azeotropic distillation-KFCT (AD-KFCT). The certified water content for the CRM was calculated by using the water content of the blank crude oil, the masses of the added pure water, and the blank crude oil. The certified water content and the expanded uncertainty (U, k = 2) of the five CRMs were 1.12 (0.04), 2.14 (0.06), 3.14 (0.10), 5.14 (0.15), and 10.05 (0.27) mg/g. These CRMs were used to verify the accuracy of analytical methods, including distillation, KFCT, and AD-KFCT methods

Triphenylene Substituted Pyrene Derivative: Synthesis and Single Molecule Investigation

A novel donor–acceptor material based on pyrene derivative with two substituted triphenylenes (Py-TP2) is synthesized via the Sonogashira coupling reaction. The structure and physical chemistry properties of the target molecule have been discussed, ranging from the traditional ¹H NMR and high-resolution mass spectroscopy (HRMS), over UV and PL spectra, and to the surface science research. The results revealed that the Py-TP2 molecule shows a narrowed energy gap between LUMO–HOMO and a bathochromic shift of 27 nm in the solid state as compared to that in solution, which is important for its practical applications in optoeletronic devices. Moreover, combined with DFT calculations, our STM results clearly show that the Py-TP2 molecule assembled into a stable long-ranged zigzag structure on HOPG surface. The interesting results in this contribution will boost the physical chemistry study of other functional materials under such methods