We report the first extensive study of the spatial distribution and source apportionment of aliphatic hydrocarbons in soils from the Beijing outskirts. Mixed soil samples (5–30 cm depth) were collected for the quantitative determination of n-alkanes, isoprenoids, unresolved complex mixtures and the qualitative determination of hopanes and steranes. The total concentrations, including n-alkanes ...

Twelve surface sediments from the southern Okinawa Trough (OT) and nine surface sediments from a nearby river, the Lanyang River (LR), with high sediment discharge were analyzed for comparison of their aliphatic hydrocarbon distributions. Performing cluster analysis on all hydrocarbon data of LR and OT sediments showed that the two areas had a similarity level of only 0.15, meaning that they we...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa DQ8, which was isolated from the crude oil polluted soil in the Daqing oilfield of China, can efficiently degrade diesel, crude oil, n-alkanes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Here, we present a 6.8-Mb assembly of its genome sequence. We have annotated 23 coding sequences (CDSs) responsible for catabolism of n-alkanes and PAHs.

A deep, water-soluble cavitand extracts n-alkanes and other water-insoluble species into its cavity via hydrophobic forces: alkanes bind in a helical manner, and tumble rapidly on the NMR timescale inside the binding pocket.

The growth of a filamentous fungus, a Graphium sp., on n-alkanes (C(inf2) to C(inf4)) was inhibited by low concentrations of acetylene, propyne, 1-butyne, ethylene, and propylene. Acetylene and other unsaturated hydrocarbons had no effect on the growth of the Graphium sp. on potato dextrose broth, ethanol, or acetate. Our results suggest that n-alkynes and n-alkenes are selective inhibitors of ...

The desorption kinetics of polyethyleneglycols (PEGs) of varying chain length, N, have been studied on the surface of graphite. The chain ength dependence of the E des has been measured for PEGs and compared with those of n-alkanes and polyethyleneglycol dimethylethers PEG-DMEs) adsorbed on graphite. The short PEGs have higher E des than PEG-DMEs of comparable length. More importantly, in the s...

Microorganisms can degrade saturated hydrocarbons (alkanes) not only under oxic but also under anoxic conditions. Three denitrifying isolates (strains HxN1, OcN1, HdN1) able to grow under anoxic conditions by coupling alkane oxidation to CO(2) with NO(3) (-) reduction to N(2) were compared with respect to their alkane metabolism. Strains HxN1 and OcN1, which are both Betaproteobacteria, utilize...

The paper studies the individual composition of n-alkanes, polycycloaromatic hydrocarbons, steroids, bi-, tri-, and pentacyclic terpenoids of two peat deposits of rich fen Kirek located in Western Siberia. Considering the individual n-alkanes concentrations, some indexes were calculated to estimate the humidity during peat formation. It was shown that the pH of peat medium primarily affects ste...

Millimolar bulk concentrations of the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) induce spreading of alkanes, H(CH(2))(n)H (denoted C(n)) 12< or =n< or =21, on the water surface, which is not otherwise wet by these alkanes. The novel Langmuir-Gibbs film (LGF) formed is a liquidlike monolayer comprising both alkanes and CTAB tails. Upon cooling, an ordering transition occurs, yielding a he...

A method was developed to calculate the second dimension retention index of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC/TOF-MS) data using n-alkanes as reference compounds. The retention times of the C(7)-C(31) alkanes acquired during 24 isothermal experiments cover the 0-6s retention time area in the second dimension retention time space, which make...