O cenário atual das commodities minerais tem obrigado as empresas de mineração a otimizar suas operações e buscar soluções inovadoras para manter a lucratividade desejada de suas minas, controlar os riscos envolvidos e garantir a sobrevivência do negócio. Neste contexto, com a menor disponibilidade de minérios de alto teor, os depósitos minerais remanescentes exigem a lavra e o beneficiamento de grande quantidade de massa por tonelada de metal produzido. Apesar de apresentarem um teor médio decrescente, estes depósitos frequentemente contêm regiões com minério de teor mais elevado incorporados às porções de baixo teor ou mesmo na massa estéril. Por melhor que seja o conhecimento das reservas, a lavra seletiva dessa massa de teor mais elevado é praticamente inviável operacionalmente. A forma mais eficiente de aproveitar estas reservas é por meio do processo de pré-concentração de minério por ore sorting (seleção/classificação de minério). O objetivo deste processo é remover, quanto antes possível, o material com teor não econômico. A consequência imediata é uma potencial redução dos custos de processamento e do consumo de água e energia para a mesma massa de metal produzido. Existem várias tecnologias aplicáveis em pré-concentração; este estudo é focado especificamente na apresentação e discussão dos impactos causados no empreendimento mineiro de Phu Kham (PanAust), a partir da instalação e utilização do equipamento de pré-concentração, bulk ore sorter. Este equipamento faz uso de um sensor de ressonância magnética, e tem por objetivo a separação de grandes volumes de estéril direto no transportador de correias totalmente carregado (in-pit ou correia de alimentação da usina), baseando-se nos teores medidos ou inferidos a partir de seu sensor. A pré-concentração com bulk ore sorter é fundamentalmente utilizada para aumentar a produtividade baseada na capacidade fixa da usina e atenuar os prejuízos causados pelas incertezas nas definições de teores da mina. Isto é, a partir da maior precisão no controle do teor, pode-se reduzir a diluição e a perda de minério oriundas da operacionalização e explotação das reservas minerais, controlar o teor de corte e o teor médio na alimentação da usina ou ainda separar os diversos tipos de minérios para serem tratados em diferentes rotas no processo de beneficiamento. Este trabalho estuda a viabilidade técnica e econômica da aplicação do bulk ore sorter na mina de Phu Kham, no Laos. Inicialmente a tecnologia de sorting é apresentada, juntamente com os sensores disponíveis e o sistema diversor. Os resultados econômicos foram avaliados a partir dos dados de produção da mina no ano de 2014. Sem a possibilidade da realização de estudos de amostragem, a variabilidade do minério foi estimada a partir da variância de dispersão, uma ferramenta geoestatística. A estimativa do desempenho da separação inclui os erros associados a leitura do sensor e do sistema diversor. Avaliações econômicas foram realizadas para diferentes cenários e demonstraram que o bulk ore sorter tem o potencial de aumentar a produção metálica e o lucro. Este sistema de pré-concentração permite a que apenas o material com valor agregado alimente a planta de beneficiamento. / The current scenario of mineral commodities has forced the mining companies to optimize their operations and look for innovative solutions to maintain the desired profitability of their mines, control the risks involved and ensure the survival of the business. In this context, with the depletion of high grade deposits, the remaining lower grade deposits require the mining and processing of larger volumes of material per tonne of product. These low grade deposits often contain a large proportion of barren gangue. The aim of pre-concentration is to remove this barren material at as coarse a particle size and as early in the process as possible. This has the potential to reduce processing costs, energy and water consumption and possibly ore transport requirements. There are several technologies that may be applicable for pre-concentration; this work looks specifically at bulk ore sorting. This involves the separation of a large volume of barren gangue from a fully loaded conveyor belt (in-pit or plant feed belt) based on the grade as measured or inferred from a sensor measurement. Bulk ore sorting may be used to increase the production rate through fixed plant capacity, or reduce the required size of downstream processing equipment. Uneconomic or marginal reserves may be upgraded making them economic to treat and improving the resource utilisation. Bulk ore sorting could also be used to reduce dilution and ore loss in mining operations by improving grade control, or to separate ore types to treat via different process routes. Thus, bulk ore sorting has the potential to improve the profitability and reduce the environmental impact of mining operations and may be applied in different ways. This study investigates three examples of how bulk ore sorting may be employed and the associated economic benefits. The technical and economic viability of bulk ore sorting is evaluated for a copper deposit in Laos. Bulk ore sorting technology is described briefly along with discussion of appropriate sensor and diversion systems for the copper deposit considered. The economic implications were evaluated using the actual mined material and costs from 2014 as the base-case. In the absence of sampling data, ore grade variability was estimated using geo-statistical tools based on mine grade control data. A process model of the sorter was developed considering the accuracy of the sensor measurement and errors associated with material diversion. This was used to simulate the separation performance. Economic evaluations were conducted for a number of different scenarios and demonstrated that bulk ore sorting has the potential to increase the amount of metal in product and annual profit for the operation considered. This is because it is cheaper to sort and reject below cut-off grade material contained in the plant feed than to treat this material through the processing plant. The sorter acts as a gatekeeper - only above cut-off grade material (value-adding) reports to the processing plant.

Les laboratoires sur puce sont des dispositifs miniaturisés qui offrent la possibilité d'intégrer en ligne toutes les étapes de la chaîne analytique tout en réduisant les volumes d’échantillon et les temps d’analyse. Ainsi, ils constituent potentiellement un outil de diagnostic particulièrement adapté pour l’analyse de biomarqueurs phosphorylés, pour lesquels une préconcentration est nécessaire en raison de leur faible abondance dans les fluides biologiques. C’est pourquoi, de nouvelles méthodes, dédiées à l'enrichissement de phosphopeptides, ont été développées ces dernières années et en particulier celles utilisant des supports solides basées sur la chromatographie d’affinité sur des ions métalliques immobilisés (IMAC). Parmi les supports solides intégrables en microsystème, les monolithes organiques constituent une option privilégiée grâce à la possibilité d’être synthétisés in situ. Le but de ce travail de thèse était donc de développer un laboratoire sur puce intégrant une préconcentration des phosphopeptides sur support monolithique basé sur le principe de l’IMAC et leur séparation électrophorétique en ligne.Dans un premier temps, nous avons développé deux approches innovantes qui ont permis de synthétiser pour la première fois un monolithe à base d’éthylène glycol méthacrylate phosphate (EGMP) et de bisacrylamide (BAA) par voie photochimique dans des microsystèmes. La première stratégie développée dans des puces en verre repose sur la synthèse du monolithe à l’aide d’un microscope à épifluorescence. La deuxième approche est basée sur les propriétés photochimiques d’un nouvel amorceur qui a permis de synthétiser et d’ancrer le monolithe, en une seule étape, aux parois des puces en polydiméthylsiloxane (PDMS). Une caractérisation de ce monolithe en termes de morphologie, de perméabilité, de porosité et de surface spécifique a ensuite été réalisée. Ceci a permis de démontrer le potentiel de ce monolithe pour la préconcentration.Dans un deuxième temps, une méthode de séparation par électrophorèse couplée à une détection par fluorescence a été développée sur puce en verre. Celle-ci a permis de séparer un mélange de phosphopeptides modèles fluorescents possédant différents sites et degrés de phosphorylation. Les phosphopeptides ont été détectés en moins de 2 min avec une excellente résolution (R>3) et une bonne efficacité (plateaux théoriques compris entre 11000 et 25000). Enfin, le couplage en ligne du module de préconcentration monolithique et de séparation/détection a été réalisé. Sur ce dispositif miniaturisé, une préconcentration basée sur l’IMAC-Zr4+ a ainsi été développée. L’efficacité de la capture et de l’élution des phosphopeptides a été démontrée et des facteurs de préconcentration supérieurs à 340 ont été obtenus. En conclusion, ce laboratoire sur puce ouvre des perspectives très prometteuses dans le domaine du diagnostic de pathologies dont le processus physiopathologique implique des phosphopeptides.Mots clés : laboratoire sur puce, microsystème, phosphopeptide, IMAC, monolithe, photopolymérisation, préconcentration, électrophorèse sur puce / A lab on-a-chip is a miniaturized device that integrates onto a single chip different analytical steps (preconcentration, separation, detection...) with minimal sample consumption and short analysis time. They are potentially beneficial in phosphorylated biomarker analysis for which a preconcentration step is necessary because of their low abundance in biological fluids. That's why selective enrichment methods of phosphopeptides have been developed in recent years in particular those based on solid supports like Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography (IMAC). Among the solid supports, organic polymer monoliths present practical advantages when used in microchips due to their ease of preparation and in situ polymerization. The aim of this work was to develop a lab-on-a-chip integrating a monolithic support for online IMAC-based preconcentration and electrophoretic separation of phosphopeptides.In the first part, we developed two innovative approaches which allowed us to synthesize, for the first time, an ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate-co-bisacrylamide (poly (EGMP-co-BAA)) monolith by a photo-driven process in microsystems. The first monolith synthesis approach was developed in glass microchannels using an inverted epifluorescence microscope as UV-irradiation source. The second approach was based on the photochemical properties of a new initiator which allowed the simultaneous synthesis and anchorage of the monolith in native polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchips. A characterization (morphology, permeability, porosity and specific surface area) of (poly (EGMP-co-BAA)) monolith was then performed which demonstrated the potential of this monolith for preconcentration.Then a glass microchip electrophoresis method coupled to a detection by fluorescence was developed to separate a mixture of phosphopeptides fluorescent models differing with the position and number of phosphorylation sites. The phosphopeptides were detected in less than 2 min with excellent resolution (R> 3) and good efficiencies ranging from 11000 to 25000 plates. Finally, an integrated microdevice was developed by combining online preconcentration based on IMAC-Zr4+ and separation/detection of phosphopeptides. The performance of this integrated microdevice to capture and to elute the phosphopeptides was demonstrated and signal enhancement factors (SEF) higher than 340 were obtained. This lab-on-a-chip device opens news perspectives for phosphoproteomic applications and the diagnostic of diseases where the pathophysiological process involves phosphopeptides

Generation efficiency of four mercury species, namely elemental mercury and hydrides of methyl-, ethyl- and phenylmercury from liquid samples was quantified. The species chemically generated were quantitatively trapped on a gold-coated amalgamator to be subsequently determined by AMA-254 technique. Three types of construction of volatile species generators were compared. Generation effciciency among the species was comparable, fluctuating around 60% in the conventional flow injection generator equipped with a gas liquid separator with forced outlet. Better results were reached for elemental mercury and methylmercury hydride in an automated batch generator system. Generation efficiency was higher than 90% for these two species and between 60 to 80% for ethyl- and phenylmercury hydrides, respectively. Speciation analysis of elemental mercury and sublimate in gaseous samples was optimized. These two species dominate in flue gases produced during coal combustion or waste incineration. Combination of two sorbent tubes packed with alumina and gold-coated alumina enables selective and quantitative retention of both species. Sublimate is trapped on a column packed with alumina while elemental mercury is retained on gold-coated alumina. The capacity of both sorbents was investigated as well as the effect of...

The analysis of proteins in biological fluids by capillary electrophoresis (CE) is of interest in clinical chemistry. However, due to low analyte concentrations and poor concentration limits of detection (CLOD), protein analysis by this technique is frequently challenging. Coupling preconcentration techniques with CE greatly improves the CLOD. An on-line preconcentration-CE method that can selectively preconcentrate any protein for which an antibody is available would be very useful for the analysis of low abundance proteins and would establish CE as a major tool in biomarker discovery. To accomplish this, an on-line protein G monolithic preconcentrator CE system for enrichment and separation of proteins was developed. This system proved effective for on-line sample extraction, clean-up, preconcentration, and CE of IgG in human serum. IgG from diluted (500 and 65,000 times) human serum samples was successfully analyzed using this system. The approach can be applied to the on-line preconcentration and analysis of any protein for which an antibody is available. The desire to separate all proteins present in human tissues, cells and biological fluids has challenged the separation research community for many years. The difficulty of this task resides in the complexity of the sample. Blood serum, for instance, may express up to 10,000 proteins with an estimated dynamic range of 9 orders of magnitude. Additionally, most of these proteins are present at very low concentrations (ng/mL). Identification and quantification of low abundance proteins is hindered by the presence of high abundance proteins, such as human serum albumin (HSA) and immunoglobulins (IgG). Therefore, in most cases, removal of the high abundance proteins or enrichment of low abundance proteins is necessary prior to the analysis of low abundance proteins. To address this, a coupled affinity-hydropobic monolithic column for the simultaneous removal of IgG, preconcentration of low abundance proteins, and separation by capillary zone electrophoresis was designed. The system proved to be very reproducible. The run-to-run %RSD values for migration time and peak area were less than 5%, which is typical of CE. Finally, a new method was developed to prepare monoliths with anion exchange functionality. Polymer monoliths were prepared by in situ polymerization of methacrylate monomers. The monoliths were coated with a water soluble polymer and used for the analysis of proteins. Using this approach, a model monolith was prepared. Subsequent coating yielded a monolith with quaternary ammonium groups on the surface, which was confirmed by strong anodic electroosmotic flow. Analysis of standard proteins by ion exchange LC and CEC was demonstrated. This simple and rapid method for surface modification opened new avenues for the preparation of monoliths with a broad range of functionalities.

Resorcinarenes are cyclic tetramers that are synthesized by the condensation of resorcinol and various aldehydes. The upper and lower rims can be modified with substituents that provide specific selectivity and other chemical features. In this work, resorcinarene-based macrocyclic ligands with specific selectivities have been designed, synthesized and applied to chiral amine discrimination and transition metal ion separations.These resorcinarenes fall into two categories. In the first type, the upper rims of resorcinarenes were modified with amino acid groups, including chiral alanine groups. The lower rims were modified with --CH3, or --C11H23 groups. The structures were studied by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and sustained off-resonance irradiation collision induced dissociation (SORI-CID) techniques in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS). The binding strength between the resorcinarenes with amines was studied by 1H NMR titration. Among these new resorcinarenes, the chiral alanine undecyl resorcinarenes acid (AUA) showed chiral discrimination among chiral secondary amines. The AUA ligands were adsorbed onto 55% cross-linked styrene-divinylbenzene resin and used as cation-exchangers in ion chromatography (IC) for transition metal ion separations. The AUA IC column showed selectivity for Cu2+ when no chelating eluent was used in the eluent, a selectivity which was not observed with a commercial column containing standard cation-exchangers. Six metal ions (Cu2+, Mn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, and Zn2+) were separated on the AUA column within a reasonable time with a simple oxalic acid gradient eluent. The second type of resorcinarene-based ligand, cyclenbowl, contains four cyclen units on the upper rim and four --C11H23 chains on the lower rim. The column packed with cyclenbowl adsorbed onto polystyrene showed selectivity for Cu2+ over five other transition metal ions including Mn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, and Zn2+ ions. The preconcentration of Cu2+ at the parts per billion level from a high concentration matrix of Mn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, and Zn2+ ions was achieved using HNO3 eluent. Recovery of Cu2+ was greater than 98%. Furthermore, the other five transition metal ions were well separated on the cyclenbowl column with an oxalic acid eluent gradient.

<p> A method for the simultaneous preconcentration by solvent extraction of a group of trace metal ions from natural waters has been developed. The procedure makes use of a proprietary "liquid cation-exchanger", Kelex 100, the primary component of which is an alkylated oxine (8-quinolinol) derivative, 7-(4-ethyl-1-methyloctyl)-8-quinolinol (HL). After purification of HL from the commercial mixture, the extraction of ten environmentally-significant trace metal ions from artificial seawater into toluene solution was studied as a function of pH. From these investigations, the optimal conditions for the extraction of Cd(II), Co(II), Cu(II), Mn(II), Ni(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II) from natural waters were established. The conditions for quantitative back-extraction of the metal ions were then investigated. With the exception of cobalt, the metal ions were quantitatively back-extracted into a small volume of nitric acid, simplifying the matrix and providing additional analyte enrichment. The optimized forward- and back-extraction technique was subsequently applied to the determination of total (soluble) Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni and Pb in a coastal seawater reference standard by graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS). The quantitative recovery of the analytes and the uncomplicated matrix of analysis enabled quantitation to be carried out by external calibration. Compared to the method of standard additions, external calibration has advantages in overall analysis time and sample consumption. Satisfactory agreement was obtained between the experimental and reference values, although Cu(II) blanks were high due to trace Cu(II) contamination of HL and the stability of the Cu(II)-HL chelate.</p> <p> The lipophilicity of HL and its metal chelates provided high metal chelate distribution ratios which, in turn, permitted preconcentration factors of up to 500 in a single batch-extraction. Additionally, studies on the recovery of radiotracer spikes from lakewater and seawater suggested that HL is an effective extractant for stripping metal ions from variously-bound forms from natural waters.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

No description available.

No description available.

Three ionic liquids (ILs), trihexyltetradecylphosphonium tetrafluoroborate (TTPT), N-butyl-4-methylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate (BMPT), and 1-methyl-3- octylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (MOIC), were utilized to prepare sol- gel sorbent coatings. Non-polar polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polar poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), poly(tetrahydrofuran) (PolyTHF) and bis[(3-methyldimethoxy-silyl)propyl] polypropylene oxide (BMPO) polymers were employed to develop novel ionic liquidmediated sol- gel hybrid organic- inorganic sorbents. The novel sorbents were first tested as coatings for capillary microextraction off-line hyphenated to gas chromatography. To gain an understanding of the role of the ionic liquids in the sol-gel process, the preconcentration abilities of these novel coatings were investigated for several classes of compounds utilizing CME-GC. This was accomplished by comparing GC peak areas of a series of analytes extracted on the ionic liquid mediated sol-gel CME coatings with that of analogous peak areas obtained on sol- gel coatings prepared without the ionic liquid. The morphology of these coatings was compared using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging data. Overall, the ionic liquid-mediated sol- gel coatings had more porous morphologies than the sol-gel coatings prepared without ionic liquid. The PDMS andBMPO sol-gel coatings prepared with ionic liquid in the sol solution provided enhanced extraction sensitivity reflected in higher preconcentration effects and lower detection limits than the sol- gel coatings prepared without the ionic liquid. The polar IL-mediated BMPO sol- gel sorbent was further investigated by exploring the extraction profile and thermal stability of these coatings. A further application of ionic liquid-mediated sol-gel sorbents could be as stationary phases in a microchip-based separation system. Towards this goal, microfluidic channels were fabricated in glass substrates using microelectromechanical engineering. Spiral and serpentine channels were etched in Pyrex and fused silica wafers using wet and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) techniques. Microfabrication protocols such as the use of hard mask and etching times were investigated for both techniques. DRIE produced microfluidic channels that had an etch quality that was superior to wet etched channels. Thus, the ultimate microchip-based separation system should by fabricated using DRIE.

Analysis of low-abundance components in small samples remains a challenge within bioanalytical chemistry, and new techniques for sample pretreatments followed by sensitive and informative detection are required. In this thesis, procedures for preconcentration and separation of proteins and peptides in open microchannels fabricated on silicon microchips are presented. Analyte electromigration was induced by applying a voltage along the channel length, and detection was performed either by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) within the open channel, or by sampling a nL fraction containing the preconcentrated analytes from the channel for subsequent nano-electrospray ionization- (nESI-) or MALDI-MS. Utilizing solvent evaporation from the open system during sample supply, sample volumes exceeding the 25-75 nL channel volume could be analyzed. For preconcentration/separation of components in the discrete channel volume a lid of inert fluorocarbon liquid was used for evaporation control. In Papers I and II, aqueous, carrier-free solutions of proteins and peptides were analyzed, and the method was successfully applied for fast and simple preconcentration of amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides, related to Alzheimer’s disease. The impact of possible impurities in the analysis of carrier-free solutions was investigated in Paper III with the 1D simulation software GENTRANS, and a method for open-channel isoelectric focusing in a tailor-made pH gradient was developed. The latter approach was used in Paper IV for preconcentration and purification of Aβ peptides after immunoprecipitation from cerebrospinal fluid and blood plasma, followed by MALDI-MS from a micropillar chip. Paper V includes simulations of an isotachophoretic strategy for selective enrichment of Aβ peptides. GENTRANS simulations were used to select the electrolyte composition, and 2D simulations in a geometry suitable for on-chip implementation were performed using COMSOL Multiphysics. / <p>QC 20160930</p>