Surveying Battery Cell Sections to Determine the Composition and Spatial Distribution of Discharge Products using an Automated Microprobe

Determining the spatial distribution and composition of hydrohetaerolite in polished sections of discharged Leclanché cells requires the measurement of oxygen concentrations on microcrystalline material. This can be done if the composition of the mounting medium is included in the matrix correction of raw intensities. The method of Pouchou and Pichoir (PAP) is used initially to correct raw intensities obtained from surveys of microcrystalline standard material. Mean analyses agree well with the known compositions provided a correction is made for the oxygen content of the mounting medium. The same correction is then applied to the raw data collected when surveying cell sections, yielding spatially correlated analyses of hydro-hetaerolite formed as a discharge product. The surveying technique could be applied to lead-acid, Leclanché and alkaline cells

A lanthanum picrate complex of a 1,2-bisamide substituted calix[4]arene

The synthesis and structural characterization of a lanthanum picrate complex of the proximally-substituted calix[4]arene bisamide, 5,11,17,23-tetra-tert-butyl-25,26- bis(diethylcarbamoylmethoxy)-27,28-dihydroxycalix[4] arene (L), is reported. The complex is formulated as [La(L-H)(picrate)2]2.75CH2Cl2 and crystallises with two inequivalent metal complexes in the unit cell. The differing dispositions of the picrate anions in the two complexes suggest that intramolecular interactions between the aromatic rings of the picrate and calixarene are less significant than the forces involved in the crystal packing of the complexes