Abstract Natural fibers are becoming an efficient alternative for industrial applications. This is due to its easy accessibility in the market and for being a renewable raw material. The present work seeks to replace the cabuya as reinforcement material with polyester matrix for automotive applications with low cost and weight. This is the case of the mirrors of a vehicle, for which a base mold was manufactured. On the mold will be applied and molded the mirror on which the use of the fiber of cabuya and a polyester resin is detached. Mixtures of cobalt octoate and methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) with natural fiber significantly reduce weight; the manufacturing cost is reduced by approximately 40% due to the ease of handling of the fiber and the acquisition of this material. The application of the cabuya is recommended for automotive applications such as the rearview mirror as it presents a considerable reduction in its weight and relatively low cost compared to the original component.

Methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) is a solvent commonly used in chemical, paint and shoe industry. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a method for urinary quantification of MEK, employing headspace solid phase micro extraction sampling (SPME) coupled to gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID). The calibration curve (y=4.6851x-0.0011) presented good linearity with r²=0.9993. Accuracy (94-109%), intra-assay precision (4.07-5.91%) and inter-assay precision (3.03-5.62%) were acceptable. The quantification limit was 0.19 mg/L. This low cost method can be used routinely in the biological monitoring of occupational exposure to MEK, according to the requirements of the Brazilian legislation.

1-phenyl-3-(2-thenoyl)-1,3-propanedione, Hbth, pKa' = 9.006(8) and 1,3-di(2-thenoyl)-1,3-propanedione, Hdtm, pKa' = 8.893(3) were prepared by the Claisen condensation of ethyl 2-thiophenecarboxylate with an appropriate ketone under the influence of lithium diisopropylamide (LDA). The group electronegativity of the thienyl group is 2.10 (Gordy scale) as calculated from a linear group electronegativity vs. methyl ester IR carbonyl stretching wavenumber relationship. A crystal structure determination of Hbth (orthorhombic, Pbca, Z = 8, R = 0.0290) shows asymmetrical enolization on the side of the phenyl group. The preferred enol isomer of β-diketones containing more than one aromatic moiety that crystallizes in the solid state is determined by the resonance driving force stabilization of the thienyl or any other aromatic group, rather than the stabilization by resonance due to the phenyl group. The slow conversion of the enol isomers to the keto-enol equilibrium position was followed in CDCl3 solution by NMR spectroscopy.

En el presente trabajo se hace una revisión crítica de los trabajos que han aparecido en la literatura especializada sobre la generación de fases gaseosas en línea, y su determinación vía espectrometría infrarroja de transformada de Fourier (IR-TF). Se examinan diversos procedimientos analíticos desarrollados para la determinación de alcoholes y carbonatos en varias matrices, mezclas de tolueno, benceno y metil, tert-butil éter en gasolinas, y acetato de butilo, tolueno y metil etil cetona en solventes comerciales para pintura; cuyas Figuras de mérito son adecuadas para las aplicaciones propuestas. En todos los casos, los resultados reportados en los trabajos revisados muestran una buena coincidencia con aquellos obtenidos mediante métodos de referencia. También se presenta el desarrollo reciente del acoplamiento del análisis en flujo con generación de hidruros y detección por IR-TF para la determinación individual y simultánea de antimonio, arsénico y estaño, así como algunas aplicaciones propuestas para esta técnica. Todo esto con la finalidad de mostrar la real potencialidad analítica que presenta la técnica de generación de fases gaseosas con detección por espectrometría IR-TF en el análisis de muestras reales.

In this work; a critical review about on-line gaseous phases generation with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry detection is presented. In this sense, different experimental approaches for the determination of ethanol and carbonates in different samples, and for the simultaneous determination of benzene, toluene and methyl tert-butyl ether in gasoline; and butyl acetate, toluene and methyl ethyl ketone in commercial paint solvents has been examined. In all these methods, the figures of merit are adequate for the proposed applications, and the results are in good agreement with those obtained by diverse reference procedures. Also, it is presented the recent development of the flow analysis-hydride generation-FTIR coupling for the individual and simultaneous determination of antimony, arsenic and tin, as well as some applications proposed for this technique. All this procedures are focused to demonstrate the real analytic potentiality depicted by the on line gaseous phase generation-FTIR spectrometry technique for the analysis of real samples.