Normality Calculation Based on Concentration

For calculation of Normality in Liquid (Acids) is Based on three factors:

1. Specific Gravity of the substance.   
2. Equivalent Weight of the substance.
3. Puirity of the substance.

For eg:  Calculation of Hydrochloric Acid Normality:

Sp. Gravity of HCl   =  1.18; Equivalent weight     =  36.45; Purity of HCl           =  35%

                                            Specific Gravity of HCl   x Purity of HCl x 1000
Normality of HCl     =        _____________________________________
                                           Equivalent weight of HCl  x   100

                                                    1.18   x  35 x  1000
Normality of HCl     =         ______________________
                                            36.45     x  100

                                                    1.18  x 35 x 10
Normality of HCl    =         ________________
                                                   36.45

Normality of HCl    = 11.3 N

Calculation of Sulphuric Acid Normality:

Sp. Gravity of H2SO4 = 1.84 ; Equivalent weight = 49.04 ; Purity of H2SO4 = 98%


                                        Specific Gravity of H2SO4 x Purity of H2SO4 x 1000
Normality of H2SO4 = _____________________________________

                                    Equivalent weight of H2SO4 x  100

                                                        1.84 x 98 x 1000
Normality of H2SO4 =           ______________________

                                                  49.04 x  100

Normality of H2SO4  =  36.8 N


Calculation of Nitric Acid Normality:


Sp. Gravity of H2SO4 = 1.42; Equivalent weight = 63; Purity of H2SO4 = 70%

                                          Specific Gravity of HNO3 x Purity of HNO3 x 1000
Normality of HNO3 = _____________________________________

                                           Equivalent weight of HNO3 x  100

                                                  1.42 x 70 x 1000
Normality of HNO3 =    ______________________

                                                63 x 100

Normality of Nitric Acd  =  15.8 N

Leaders as Team Builder

Nothing influences behavior more than your behavior at the top. You are the role model and your actions, not the slogans on the wall, will influence how others behave. A collaborative environment that encourages working together for a common purpose, within and among teams, is important to your organization's success. Here are some strategies that will make this happen:

Cultivate a cohesive team
- Know when to step in and when to stay out of team conflicts. A certain amount of disagreement is normal in any team. But if a conflict between two or more employees is polarizing the group, interfering with communication (for example, employees refusing to speak to or work with each other), or using up an unacceptable amount of time and energy, it may be time for you to step in. If you don't feel you have the skills to mediate effectively between employees (or if you feel that you shouldn't be involved), consider bringing in a skilled mediator.
- Plan occasional team events that let people get together without the pressures of work. These might be a monthly lunch to celebrate team members' birthdays or a semiannual off-site planning day that includes time to socialize. Be creative if you have budget constraints. Ensure that these are events that everyone can participate in.

Minimize the impact of a destructive team member.
If you inherit a problematic employee or hire someone who turns out to have negative effects on the team's morale, find out what is interfering with that person's ability to be a positive, productive worker.

- If the problem is solvable (for example, maybe the person would be happier transferring to another area), do what you can to resolve the situation.
- If the person must stay, make clear your expectations for improvement and, if necessary, what the consequences might be if no improvement is forthcoming.
- If you are simply stuck with a negative employee whom you can't terminate, do what you can to minimize this person's effect on others (for example, assign tasks the employee can do on his own).

Be loyal to your employees. Remember that loyalty is a two-way street.
- Be the voice of your team at the management table. If you don't promote their needs and give voice to their opinions, no one else will. However, ensure that your employees know it is your role to balance their needs with the needs of the organization.
- Share the credit with your team for its achievements and ensure that those above you know about its successes.
- Don't publicly point a finger when something goes wrong. If one or more team members have let the team down, address the situation with those people, but don't broadcast it at meetings or chastise the whole team for the actions of one or two.

Promote team problem solving
- Strike a balance between sharing with your employees challenges that they need to know about and burdening them with or dwelling on problems they can't do much about.
- Be accessible for consultation with your employees if problems arise, but don't micromanage. Encourage them to consult with each other for collaborative problem solving.
- Establish a guideline that whenever employees bring you a problem, they are expected to also bring you at least one possible solution.

Balance peak work periods with some rewards.
- Recognize when your people are putting in extra effort. Acknowledge and thank them in a way that seems appropriate. Many people appreciate handwritten notes from the boss.
- Give tangible rewards when it's practical and appropriate.
- Celebrate the completion of a demanding project. Acknowledge special efforts or contributions made by individuals, but ensure that the team is also recognized as a unit.

Source of Reference:
Bryn Hughes, The Leader's Tool Kit: Hundreds of Tips and Techniques for Developing the Skills You Need

Seven Communication Principles

To compose effective message you need to apply certain specific communication principles. They tie closely with the basic concepts of the communication process and are important for both written and oral communications. Called the “seven C’s”, they are: completeness, conciseness, consideration, concreteness, clarity, courtesy, and correctness.

Completeness

Your business message is "complete" when it contains all facts the reader or listener needs for the reaction you desire. Remember that communicators differ in their mental filters; they are influenced by their backgrounds, viewpoints, needs, attitudes, status, and emotions.

Completeness is necessary for several reasons. First, complete messages are more likely to bring the desired results without the expense of additional messages. Second, they can do a better job of building goodwill. Third, they can help avert costly lawsuits that may result if important information is missing.

As you strive for completeness, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Answer all questions asked.

• Give something extra, when desirable.

• Check for the five W's and any other essentials.

Conciseness

A concise message saves time and expense for both sender and receiver. Conciseness is saying what you have to say in the fewest possible words without sacrificing the other C qualities. Conciseness contributes to emphasis. By eliminating unnecessary words, you help make important ideas stand out.

To achieve conciseness try to observe the following suggestions:

• Eliminate wordy expressions.

• Include only relevant statements.

• Avoid unnecessary repetition.

Consideration

Consideration means that you prepare every message with the recipient in mind and try to put yourself in his or her place. Try to visualize your readers (or listeners)—with their desires, problems, circumstances, emotions, and probable reactions to your request. Then handle the matter from their point of view. This thoughtful consideration is also called "you-attitude," empathy, the human touch, and understanding of human nature. (It does not mean, however, that you should overlook the needs of your organization.)

In a broad but true sense, consideration underlies the other six C's of good business communication. You adapt your language and message content to your receiver's needs when you make your message complete, concise, concrete, clear, courteous, and correct.

However, in four specific ways you can indicate you are considerate:

• Focus on "you" instead of "I" and "we."

• Show reader benefit or interest in reader.

• Emphasize positive, pleasant facts.

• Apply integrity and ethic.

Concreteness

Communicating concretely means being specific, definite, and vivid rather than vague and general. The following guidelines should help you compose concrete, convincing messages:

• Use specific facts and figures.

• Put action in your verbs.

• Choose vivid, image-building words.

Clarity

Clarity means getting your message across so the receiver will understand what you are trying to convey. You want that person to interpret your words with the same meaning you have in mind. Accomplishing that goal is difficult because, as you know, individual experiences are never identical, and words have different meanings to different persons.

Here are some specific ways to help make your messages clear:

1. Choose short, familiar, conversational words.

2. Construct effective sentences and paragraphs.

3. Achieve appropriate readability (and listenability).

4. Include examples, illustrations, and other visual aids, when desirable.

Courtesy

Courteous messages help to strengthen present business friendships, as well as make new friends. Courtesy stems from sincere you-attitude. It is not merely politeness with mechanical insertions of "please's" and "thank-you's." To be courteous, considerate communicators should follow these suggestions regarding tone of the communications.

• Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful, and appreciative.

• Omit expressions that irritate, hurt, or belittle.

• Grant and apologize good-naturedly.

Correctness

The correctness principle comprises more than proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. A message may be perfect grammatically and mechanically but still insult or lose a customer and fail to achieve its purpose. The term correctness, as applied to a business message, means the writer should:

• Use the right level of language

• Include only accurate facts, words, and figures

• Maintain acceptable writing mechanics

• Choose nondiscriminatory expressions

• Apply all other pertinent C qualities

Source of Reference:

Herta Murphy, Herber Hildebrandt and Jane Thomas, Effective Business Communications McGraw Hill

8 Qualities of Success Person

1. Desire

The motivation to succeed comes from the burning desire to achieve a purpose. Napoleon Hill wrote, "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve." A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishment. Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great results.

2. Commitment

Integrity and wisdom are the two pillars on which to build and keep commitments. This point is best illustrated by the manager who told one of his staff members, "Integrity is keeping your commitment even if you lose money and wisdom is not to make such foolish commitments."

3. Responsibility

People with character accept responsibilities. They make decisions and determine their own destiny in life. Accepting responsibilities involves taking risks and being accountable which is sometimes uncomfortable. Most people would rather slay in their comfort zone and live passive lives without accepting responsibilities. They drill through life waiting for things to happen rather than making them happen. Accepting responsibilities involves taking calculated, not foolish, risks. It means evaluating all the pros and cons, then taking the most appropriate decision or action. Responsible people don't think that the world owes them a living.

4. Hard work

Success is not something that you run into by accident. It takes a lot of preparation and character. Everyone likes to win but how many are willing to put in the effort and lime to prepare to win? It takes sacrifice and self-discipline. There is no substitute for hard work. One cannot develop a capacity to do anything without hard work, just as a person cannot learn how to spell by sitting on a dictionary. Professionals make things look easy because they have mastered the fundamentals of whatever they do.

5. Character

Character is the sum total of a person's values, beliefs and personality. It is reflected in our behavior, in our actions. It needs to be preserved more than the richest jewel in the world. To be a winner takes character. George Washington said, "I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most valuable of all titles, the character of an honest man."

It is not the polls or public opinions but the character of the leader that determines the course of history. There is no twilight zone in integrity. The road to success has many pitfalls. It takes a lot of character and effort not to fall into them. It also takes character not to be disheartened by critics.

6. Positive believing

What is the difference between positive thinking and positive believing? What if you could actually listen to your thoughts? Are they positive or negative? How are you programming your mind, for success or failure? How you think has a profound effect on your performance.

Positive believing is a lot more than positive thinking. It is having a reason to believe that positive thinking will work. Positive believing is an attitude of confidence that comes with preparation. Having a positive attitude without making the effort is nothing more than having a wishful dream. The following illustrates positive believing.

7. The Power of persistence

The journey to being your best is not easy. It is full of setbacks. Winners have the ability to overcome .mil bounce back with even greater resolve. Persistence means commitment and determination. There is pleasure in endurance. Commitment and persistence is a decision. Athletes put in years of practice for a few seconds or minutes of performance.

Persistence is a decision. It is a commitment to finish what you start. When we are exhausted, quitting, looks good. But winners endure. Ask a winning athlete. He endures pain and finishes what he started. Lots of failures have begun well but have not concluded anything. Persistence comes from purpose. Life without purpose is drifting. A person who has no purpose will never persevere and will never be fulfilled.

8. Pride of performance

In today's world, pride in performance has fallen by the wayside because it requires effort and hard work. However, nothing happens unless it is made to happen. When one is discouraged, it is easy to look for shortcuts. However these should be avoided no matter how great the temptation. Pride comes from within, which is what gives the winning edge.

Pride of performance does not represent ego. It represents pleasure with humility. The quality of the work and the quality and the worker are inseparable. Half-hearted effort does not produce half results; it produces no results.

Excellence comes when the performer takes pride in doing his best. Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it, regardless of what the job is, whether washing cars, sweeping the floor or painting a house.

AAS - Graphite Furnace

Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) is also known by various other acronyms, including electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS).

This technique is based on the fact that free atoms will absorb light at frequencies or wavelengths characteristic of the element of interest (hence the name atomic absorption spectrometry).

Within certain limits, the amount of light absorbed can be linearly correlated to the concentration of analyte present. Free atoms of most elements can be produced from samples by the application of high temperatures. In GFAAS, samples are deposited in a small graphite tube, which can then be heated to vaporize and atomize the analyte.

The first GFAAS systems were built 30 years ago, there is still room for improvement. An ideal graphite furnace should fulfill the following requirements:
A constant temperature in time and space during the interval in which free atoms are produced;
quantitative atom formation regardless of the sample composition;
separate control of the volatilization and atomization processes;
high sensitivity and good detection limits;
A minimum of spectral interferences. Developments in graphite furnace design made at Umeå University have been incorporated in many modern commercial instruments.

AAS- Analysis interference

Since the concentration of the analyte element is considered to be proportional to the ground state atom population in the flame, any factor that affects the ground state population of the analyte element can be classified as an interference.

Factors that may affect the ability of the instrument to read this parameter can also be classified as an interference. The following are the most common interferences:
A) Spectral interferences are due to radiation overlapping that of the light source. The interference radiation may be an emission line of another element or compound, or general background radiation from the flame, solvent, or analytical sample. This usually occurs when using organic solvents, but can also happen when determining sodium with magnesium present, iron with copper or iron with nickel.
B) Formation of compounds that do not dissociate in the flame. The most common example is the formation of calcium and strontium phosphates.
C) Ionization of the analyte reduces the signal. This is commonly happens to barium, calcium, strontium, sodium and potassium.
D) Matrix interferences due to differences between surface tension and viscosity of test solutions and standards.
E) Broadening of a spectral line, which can occur due to a number of factors. The most common linewidth broadening effects are:
1. Doppler effectThis effect arises because atoms will have different components of velocity along the line of observation.
2. Lorentz effectThis effect occurs as a result of the concentration of foreign atoms present in the environment of the emitting or absorbing atoms. The magnitude of the broadening varies with the pressure of the foreign gases and their physical properties.
3. Quenching effectIn a low-pressure spectral source, quenching collision can occur in flames as the result of the presence of foreign gas molecules with vibrational levels very close to the excited state of the resonance line.
4. Self absorption or self-reversal effectThe atoms of the same kind as that emitting radiation will absorb maximum radiation at the centre of the line than at the wings, resulting in the change of shape of the line as well as its intensity. This effect becomes serious if the vapour which is absorbing radiation is considerably cooler than that which is emitting radiation.

AAS- Measurement Principle

A cathode lamp is a stable light source, which is necessary to emit the sharp characteristic spectrum of the element to be determined. A different cathode lamp is needed for each element, although there are some lamps that can be used to determine three or four different elements if the cathode contains all of them. Each time a lamp is changed, proper alignment is needed in order to get as much light as possible through the flame, where the analyte is being atomized, and into the monochromator.
The atom cell is the part with two major functions: nebulization of sample solution into a fine aerosol solution, and dissociation of the analyte elements into free gaseous ground state form. Not all the analyte goes through the flame, part of it is disposed.
As the sample passes through the flame, the beam of light passes through it into the monochromator. The monochromator isolates the specific spectrum line emitted by the light source through spectral dispersion, and focuses it upon a photomultiplier detector, whose function is to convert the light signal into an electrical signal.
The processing of electrical signal is fulfilled by a signal amplifier. The signal could be displayed for readout, or further fed into a data station for printout by the requested format.

AAS - Types of Flame

Types of flame
Different flames can be achieved using different mixtures of gases, depending on the desired temperature and burning velocity. Some elements can only be converted to atoms at high temperatures. Even at high temperatures, if excess oxygen is present, some metals form oxides that do not redissociate into atoms. To inhibit their formation, conditions of the flame may be modified to achieve a reducing, nonoxidizing flame. Table 1 shows the characteristics of various flames.
Characteristics of different flames Source Reynolds et al., 1970.
----------------------------Max. flame speed (cm/s) ---------------Max. temp. (oC)
Air-Coal gas -----------------55------------------------------------1840
Air-propane -----------------82------------------------------------1925
Air-hydrogen----------------320-----------------------------------2050
Air-50% oxygen-acetylene---160-----------------------------------2300
Oxygen-nitrogen-acetylene--640-----------------------------------2815
Oxygen-acetylene------------1130----------------------------------3060
Oxygen-cyanogen------------140-----------------------------------4640
Nitrous oxide-acetylene------180-----------------------------------2955
Nitric oxide-acetylene---------90-----------------------------------3095
Nitrogen dioxyde-hydrogen---150----------------------------------2660
Nitrous oxide-hydrogen-------390----------------------------------2650

AAS - Basic Instrumentation

Flame atomic absorption hardware is divided into six fundamental groups that have two major functions: generating atomic signals and signal processing. Signal processing is a growing additional feature to be integrated or externally fitted to the instrument.

AAS - Basic Principle

The technique of flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) requires a liquid sample to be aspirated, aerosolized, and mixed with combustible gases, such as acetylene and air or acetylene and nitrous oxide. The mixture is ignited in a flame whose temperature ranges from 2100 to 2800 deg C.
During combustion, atoms of the element of interest in the sample are reduced to free, unexcited ground state atoms, which absorb light at characteristic wavelengths, as shown in figure

The characteristic wavelengths are element specific and accurate to 0.01-0.1nm. To provide element specific wavelengths, a light beam from a lamp whose cathode is made of the element being determined is passed through the flame. A device such as photonmultiplier can detect the amount of reduction of the light intensity due to absorption by the analyte, and this can be directly related to the amount of the element in the sample.