DEATH BY POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE [KMnO4]

KMnO4 Solution

ANANT BABU MARAHATTA
Ph.D. student
Tohoku University, Japan

Potassium permanganate is not a new chemical for the chemists as well as for other scientists. It is generally used in even very simple lab. It is a crystalline, colored substance and soluble in water. Its salts are normally stable in crystalline form but Zinc permanganate can become explosive. In fact, storing it in tightly stopper bottles is highly dangerous. The color of the solution of KMnO4 is differed depending upon its concentration. If the concentration is about one part per million (1 PPm), the solution has a faint pink color. When the concentration is one part in 76000 (65mg/4.5dm3), the fluid becomes purple. Because of its color, solution has been used for staining purpose too. Those who use the chemical as a stain for flooring and woodwork and work with the concentrated solution must exercise with great care.

Infection due to KMnO4

We never believed potassium permanganate could be a poison too. In fact it is used to treat certain poisoning; such as poisoning by Opium (a drug), KMnO4 solution indeed is recommended. Doctors actually wash the stomach of patient [Opium user] with this solution because KMnO4 oxidizes the Opium. Similarly in many other poisonings, doctors wash the stomach with KMnO4 solution. But unfortunately permanganate acts as a poison too. In fact about 10-20gm of KMnO4 is enough to kill the person.

KMnO4 is a very common substance and it can be acquired without any restriction by the public. Yet poisoning by it is uncommon but doctors are probably facing a death due to this substance; in fact fatal poisoning by KMnO4 is rare. But children in particular must be protected against the ingestion of the colored crystals which they may mistake for sweets. The child aged about 22 months was died after eating some permanganate crystals which his father used for gardening. Tablets of KMnO4 are still on sale in the USA.

KMnO4 is an irritant substance. It irritates the uterus too and may cause it to expel its contents. This has made the use of KMnO4 very popular in illegal abortions. Some women simply ingest it while some make its solution and introduce it in their uterus through the vaginal route. Some women simply introduce the crystals of KMnO4 in their vagina.The insertion of tablets of KMnO4 into the vagina to procure abortion first came to notice in Spain and Italy during 1930s.Although the abortion has become legal in most of the counties, this practice has not yet been abandoned. The reason is that most unmarried girls for fear of society’s censure still do not want to disclose that they have become pregnant. They prefer to go for abortions by these dangerous methods. This has caused several deaths too.

Women make a solution of KMnO4 and then with the help of appropriate instrument, push this solution into their uterus. This process is called “DOUCHING”, which is also very common. The douching may be done to procure an abortion or only for hygienic reasons as KMnO4 is supposed to be an antiseptic. If, however, solution is too concentrated it can have dangerous and probably fatal consequences. As the doctor used KMnO4 for stomach wash in certain poisonings, but the question arises that doesn’t it kill the patient? The answer is that when KMnO4 is used for stomach wash, it is used in a solution of strength 1:5000.It only acts as an irritant at higher concentration of about 1:1000.

KMnO4 can be easily dissolved in red wine and the colors of both are almost similar. Moreover the taste of red wine would mask the taste of KMnO4. So the person would get accidentally poisoned by having some drinks contaminated with KMnO4. KMnO4 has not been really used for homicide. It has more often been used for suicidal purposes, but accidental poisoning also occurs, notably in children under the age of four years, who usually mistake the red colored crystals for sweets. Even adults have been known to take the poison mistakenly.

Another popular although wrong belief is that it is a remedy for amenorrhoea,

[A girl generally starts menstruating at about the age of 13 years, but if the menstruation cycle does not start, the condition is known as amenorrhoea]. Ideally when faced with such a symptom, a woman should contact a doctor but many women prefer to treat themselves by folk remedies, and KMnO4 is one of the folk remedies for amenorrhoea. This is done by taking pills containing 65-130mg of KMnO4 before the expected period of menstruation.

What are the symptoms appeared after ingesting KMnO4?

The person suddenly develops a burning pain in his abdomen with nausea and vomiting. The vomited material contains some brown pigments. He complains of intense thirst too. Staining of tissues is very obvious. Some patient may have brown stains on the face in linear form running down from an angle of the mouth. The eyes and the face will be stained if crystals fall onto the face. The interior part of the mouth of the patient usually decolorized [after poisoning, the color is purple-brown but within few minutes this changes brown or dark- brown and later following the formation of MnO2 which gives coal black color]. The presence of coal black at the inner part of food pipe is the clear symptom for the patient. The corrosion of stomach and food pipe will take place due to the formation of potassium hydroxide formed by the action of KMnO4 on tissues. The lips, gums, teeth, tongue, tonsils, pharynx and the upper end of the larynx are all likely to be discolored, inflamed and superficially corroded. These may severe at points where any crystals may lodge inside the mouth, throat, and lips inside the cheeks or within the piriform fossae [pear shaped pockets on either side of the pharynx]. If the crystals of the KMnO4 get lodged in piriform fossae, they can corrode these areas. Then the patients experience difficulty in speaking as well as in swallowing. The stools seem black due to the manganous sulphide compound. Irritation of the trachea and bronchi leads to difficulty in respiration. A lethal dose, about 20g kills the person with in 20 to 90 hours. But when KMnO4 is introduced into the uterus, death may occur with in 12 hours.

A short introduction on: Carbon nano tube and the reaction dynamics inside it-Part 2

Anant Babu Marahatta
Ph.D. student in Chemistry
Tohoku University,Japan

A carbon nanotube may be considered as a hollow cylinder formed by rolling up a graphite sheet. The chirality and diameter of a carbon nanotube is uniquely defined by a vector (n, m), na + mb; where a and b denote the unit vectors of the hexagonal lattice and n and m are integers.

Fig ; 2.  A unit cell of a system of twelve carbon nano tubes and 1540 water molecules.

Computational studies have suggested that CNTs can be designed as molecular channels to transport water. A single-walled CNT, with a diameter of 8.1 Å, has been studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The simulations revealed that the CNT was spontaneously filled with a single file of water molecules and that water diffused through the tube concertedly at a fast rate. The transportation of water molecules across nanometer water channels in membranes plays a key role in biological activities. It has been recognized that the existence of the charged residues in these water channels greatly reduces the permeation of protons across the channel but maintains quite stable water flows. Moreover, because charges are indispensable in both membrane proteins and physiological solutions inside and outside the cells, it is also important to understand how external charges influence the water permeation.

The electronic polarizability of carbon nanotubes has been the subject of numerous studies because of their potential use as novel photonic materials and molecular electronic elements. The axial polarizability of carbon nanotubes has been found to be much larger than the radial polarizability and is dependent on nanotube length. Dipolar species confined within or in the interstitial spaces between carbon nanotubes can interact with an induced image dipole becoming stabilized relative to the gas phase.

Experimentally, carbon nanotubes have been filled with a variety of materials. Carbon nanotubes have been filled with molten AgNO₃ and then created pure Ag particles inside the nanotubes by electron-beam-mediated reduction. Carbon nanotubes have also been filled with materials such as KI, Ag, Au, AuCl, ZrCl₄, and even C60 and higher fullerenes. Inorganic nanorods have been synthesized through carbon nanotube confined reactions. For example, Ga₂O vapor and NH₃ were reacted inside carbon nanotubes to create gallium nitrides (GaN) nanorods with diameters determined by the radius of the nanotubes. Similarly, silicon nitrides (Si₃N₄) nanorods have also been synthesized.

Due to their unique physical properties, carbon nanotubes are a novel nano scale environment to carry out chemical reactions in it. Reaction energetics, mechanism and dynamics could be significantly altered inside carbon nanotubes due to their large intrinsic polarizabilities and due to the severely decreased reaction volume. In an effort to examine the effect on reaction enthalpies and activation energies of confining reacting systems inside carbon nanotubes, calculations using hybrid density functional theory have been carried out for a model reaction.

In the studies of interaction of CNTs with organic compounds, especially amines, it has been found that the amine groups in the molecules are electron donating and responsible for charge transfer to the semi conducting nanotubes. Terminal carbon atom forms a covalent bond with the N atom of the amine.

In theoretical studies examining the effect of local environment present inside the carbon nano tube on chemical reactivity, the Menshutkin SN2 reaction has often been studied. It is the simplest system in which an amine is alkylated by an alkyl halide. Choosing ammonia as the nucleophile and methyl chloride as the methyl transfer reagent gives chloride as the anionic leaving group.

H₃N + H₃CCl           H₃NCH₃⁺  +   Cl^-

Menshutkin SN2 reactions, in which the reactants are neutral and the product species are formally charged, are quite sensitive to the polarity of the surrounding environment, becoming more favorable with increasing polarizability, which stabilizes the separation of charge throughout the reaction. Medium effects result in a reduction in reaction barrier.

 The effect of confinement of the simplest Menshutkin SN2 reaction inside carbon nanotubes on chemical reaction enthalpies and activation energies has also been investigated. It has been found that in comparison to the gas phase, the potential energy surface changes dramatically.

Fig; Menshutkin SN2 ion pair product structure inside the carbon nanotube as viewed down the symmetry axis of the nanotube (top) and from the side (bottom).

At first, the ion pair product is significantly stabilized, making the overall process more favorable. And in the second step, the transition state shifts towards the reactants and is stabilized, giving a lower reaction barrier. This result indicates that the effect of nanotube confinement on relative reaction energies closely resembles solvation and the chemical reactions in which there is a separation of charge along the reactio coordinate will be enhanced inside fullerene based materials due to their large electronic polarizabilities.

Thus the research on “reaction dynamics on carbon nanotubes” has been expected to contribute some roles in the field of nanotechnology. Modification of the surfaces of the nano tubes for studying several disciplines is not very common and convenient to every where. So the knowledge of the research is definetly applicable and will add some crucial points in the days to come.  

42-month PhD studentship on Nanoscience available in the University of Leicester

Duration: 42 months
Starting date: 1st October, 2011

Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester.

Applicants are invited for a 42-months postgraduate studentship fully funded by the UK EPSRC. This is to join in a world-leading research programme in Nanoscience. The scope of the project will include the synthesis of core-shell and core-multiple shell nanoparticles, and their characterization using state-of-the-art microscope and synchrotron measurement.

Applicants must be motivated and wish to commit to the research programme. You should also have an honored degree at 2.1 or 1st class in the field of Physics, Chemistry, Material Science or Nanoscience. The studentship will cover the annual stipend at standard rate and the tuition fee at the UK/EU rate.

You will be supervised by Dr Shengfu Yang (Chemistry) and Prof. Chris Binns (Physics). However, the research team will include other academic staff including Prof. Andy Ellis (Chemistry) and Dr. Klaus von Haeften (Physics). During the full period of the research project, you will be working with a postdoctoral research associate, Dr. Adrian Boatwright.

If you are interested, please contact Dr. S Yang (sfy1@le.ac.uk) directly to arrange an appointment.

The advertisement is also available at: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/chemistry/postgraduate-study/phd-s...

Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Division of Chemical Sciences & Engineering King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Job Title
Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Division of Chemical Sciences & Engineering
Department of Chemical and Life Science and Engineering http://www.kaust.edu.sa
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Thuwal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Application Deadline: Open until filled
Position Start Date: Available immediately

Apply By E-mail: sahraoui.chaieb@kaust.edu.sa

Job Categories: Post-Doc

Academic Fields: Chemistry - Biochemistry, Biology - Biochemistry, Physics - Atomic/Molecular/Optical/Plasma

Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Division of Chemical Sciences & Engineering

The Nanobiophysics Laboratory within the Division of Chemical and Life Science and Engineering invites applicants for several postdoctoral positions in the area of membrane biophysics applied to Cell Adhesion and vesicular trafficking in eukaryotes.

You could enjoy a truly unique Postdoctoral opportunity to contribute to Nanobiophysics research at a new university with exciting global ambitions. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is one of the biggest, most significant developments in higher education of recent times.

We are interested in understanding the intimate relationship that exists between lipid molecules composing the cellular organelles and the proper function of the transmembrane proteins. In cell adhesion we are interested in the dynamics and statics of integrin clustering and its relationship to actin ordering. In the case of vesicular trafficking we are also interested in the behavior of coat proteins during vesicular transport. Our main interest will lie within the COPI/ArfGAP1 system and the vesicle generation. The methods applied will include in vivo and in vitro transport assays, protein chemistry, molecular biology, ultra structural analysis of cells and isolated organelles, as well as lipid biochemistry. We will use characterization tools such light scattering, Cryo-TEM, TIRF microscopy and optical tweezers. Our laboratory is equipped with the state of the art proteins purification such as FPLC and PCR. KAUST has also one of the best-equipped core labs in the world such as Genomics core labs, proteomics core labs, analytics and the Nanobiology laboratories.

KAUST is located on the Red Sea in Thuwal (80km north of Jeddah). Newly opened in September 2009, KAUST is an independent and merit-based university and welcomes exceptional researchers, faculty and students from around the world. KAUST offers attractive base salaries and a wide range of benefits. Further information about KAUST can be found at http://www.kaust.edu.sa

Applicants need to have a PhD in biophysics, structural biology, biochemistry, bioengineering or a related field with some experience in instrumentation. To apply you please send your curriculum vitae, a list of publications and arrange for three letters of recommendations to be sent to Professor Sahraoui Chaieb at sahraoui.chaieb@kaust.edu.sa The review of applications will begin immediately and applicants are strongly encouraged to submit applications as soon as possible.

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EEO/AA Policy: EOE

Contact Information

Professor Sahraoui Chaieb

Chemical and Life Science and Engineering

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Thuwal, Jeddah Thuwal 23955-690

Saudi Arabia

Email: sahraoui.chaieb@kaust.edu.sa

Postdoctoral Positions -- Inorganic Chemical Synthesis of Thin Films and Nanomaterials King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Job Title: Postdoctoral Positions -- Inorganic Chemical Synthesis of Thin Films and Nanomaterials

Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Thuwal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Application Deadline: Open Until Filled
Position Start Date: Available Immediately

Apply By E-mail: husam.alshareef@kaust.edu.sa
Website For Job: http://www.kaust.edu.sa

Job Categories: Post-Doc
Academic Fields: Nanotechnology, Materials Sciences/Polymer Sciences, Environmental Sciences/Ecology/Forestry, Chemistry - Inorganic Chemistry - General Sciences - General

Postdoctoral Positions

Postdoctoral Fellows are sought, with experience in the Inorganic Chemical Synthesis of Thin Films and Nanomaterials. Experience in Chemical Synthesis of Oxides is preferred, but not required. The candidate is also expected to be familiar with key material characterization methods.

Detailed knowledge of any of the following areas is a plus.

• Thermoelectric Materials
• Semiconducting Oxides
• Multi-ferroic Oxides

A generous compensation package will be offered, that includes competitive, tax-free salary, health care medical and dental) and 30 days of annual vacation.

Appointments are for one year and may be renewed for up to three years, based on performance.

If interested, please send CV and names of two references, to Prof. Husam N. Alshareef, at: husam.alshareef@kaust.edu.sa

About Our Group:

We conduct multidisciplinary research focused on the applications of functional oxides in electronics, nanoelectronics and energy harvesting applications.

For more info., please visit: nanomaterials.kaust.edu.sa

About KAUST:
KAUST is located on the Red Sea, near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Opening in September 2009, KAUST welcomes exceptional researchers, faculty and students from around the world.
Further information can be found at: http://www.kaust.edu.sa/

Contact Information
Mr. Steve Bee
Physical Sciences and Engineering Division
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Thuwal, Jeddah 23955-690
Saudi Arabia

A short introduction on: Carbon nano tube and the reaction dynamics inside it-Part 1

Anant Babu Marahatta
Ph.D. Student in Chemistry
Tohoku University,Japan


This is the age of science and technology. In the world, many technological devices have been used and constructed which are the blessings of the science. In the field of science, nanotechnology plays crucial role for the innovation of several nano size devices from the nano materials either by modifying their properties or by using them directly.

Generally, nanotechnology is defined as the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. In recent years, properties and structures of nano size materials have attracted many people's attention. Their unique properties and small dimensionality give very promising future for various potential applications. Out of the several nano materials, the history of the newly discovered allotropic forms of carbon called “Fullerene” is the recent one. Significant progress has been made toward the understanding of the properties and structures of nano tubes.

FIG.1 [a] A hexagonal graphite sheet to create a zig-zag or armchair nanotube by rolling up along or y axis; [b] A graphite sheet with active –COOH groups; [c] An armchair SWNT with a diameter of 8.15 Å; [d] A hydrophilic SWNT with –COOH groups having an inner diameter of 8.40 Å.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are carbon allotropes. Their name has been derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is in the order of a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several millimeters in length. They are mainly of two types: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). A single-walled carbon nanotube is a one-atom thick sheet of graphite (called graphene) rolled up into a seamless cylinder with diameter on the order of a nanometer. This results in a nanostructure where the length-to-diameter ratio exceeds 10,000. SWNTs are a very important variety of CNT because they exhibit important electric properties that are not shared by MWNTs. The remarkable properties of SWNTs stem from the symmetry and unusual electronic structure of graphene.

The nature of the bonding of a nanotube is described by applied quantum chemistry, specifically, orbital hybridization. The chemical bonding of nanotubes are composed entirely of sp² bonds, similar to those of graphite. This bonding structure provides the molecules with their extraordinary and unique strength and possibility of studying reactions dynamics into it. Such cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science. They exhibit electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat. Due to strong sp2 bonding, carbon nanotubes are much less susceptible to electromigration (EM) problems that plague copper interconnects and can carry very high current density.

Computational Chemistry: visual mode