Search results for " film"
showing 10 items of 3842 documents
Amplified Spontaneous Emission in Thin Films of CsPbX3 Perovskite Nanocrystals
2019
During the last years, Metal Halide Perovskites (MHPs) have attracted special attention as an efficient conversion films for photovoltaics, or excellent gain media to construct optical sources. In spite of the fact that most of the works have been focussed on CH 3 NH 3 PbX 3 (X=Cl, Br, I) polycrystalline thin films, MHP can be also synthesized as colloidal nanocrystals. In particular, caesium lead halide perovskite CsPbX 3 nanocrystals (NCs) revealed extraordinary properties for optoelectronics. With a high quantum yield of emission (>90%) at room temperature and linewidths less than 100 meV, CsPbX 3 NCs have demonstrated favourable characteristics for active photonics. Indeed, thin films o…
Amplified spontaneous emission in thin films of quasi-2D BA3MA3Pb5Br16 lead halide perovskites
2021
Quasi-2D (two-dimensional) hybrid perovskites are emerging as a new class of materials with high photoluminescence yield and improved stability compared to their three-dimensional (3D) counterparts. Nevertheless, despite their outstanding emission properties, few studies have been reported on amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and a thorough understanding of the photophysics of these layered materials is still lacking. In this work, we investigate the ASE properties of multilayered quasi-2D BA3MA3Pb5Br16 films through the dependence of the photoluminescence on temperature and provide a novel insight into the emission processes of quasi-2D lead bromide perovskites. We demonstrate that the …
Amyloid Fibrils Formation of Concanavalin A at Basic pH
2011
Mechanisms of partial unfolding and aggregation of proteins are of extreme interest in view of the fact that several human pathologies are characterized by the formation and deposition of protein-insoluble material, mainly composed of amyloid fibrils. Here we report on an experimental study on the heat-induced aggregation mechanisms, at basic pH, of concanavalin A (ConA), used as a model system. Thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence and multiangle light scattering allowed us to detect different intertwined steps in the formation of ConA aggregates. In particular, the ThT fluorescence increase, observed in the first phase of aggregation, reveals the formation of intermolecular β-sheet structure wh…
Thermodynamic versus Conformational Metastability in Fibril-Forming Lysozyme Solutions
2012
The role of intermolecular interaction in fibril-forming protein solutions and its relation with molecular conformation is a crucial aspect for the control and inhibition of amyloid structures. Here, we study the fibril formation and the protein-protein interactions of lysozyme at acidic pH and low ionic strength. The amyloid formation occurs after a long lag time and is preceded by the formation of oligomers, which seems to be off-pathway with respect to fibrillation. By measuring the osmotic isothermal compressibility and the collective diffusion coefficient of lysozyme in solution, we observe that the monomeric solution is kept in a thermodynamically metastable state by strong electrosta…
Thioflavin T Hydroxylation at Basic pH and Its Effect on Amyloid Fibril Detection
2008
The fluorescent dye thioflavin T (ThT) is commonly used for in situ amyloid fibril detection. In this work, we focused on the spectroscopic properties and chemical stability of ThT in aqueous solution as a function of pH, temperature, and dye concentration. A reversible hydroxylation process occurs in alkaline solutions, which was characterized using a combination of UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, proton NMR, and density functional theory (DFT). On the basis of these studies, we propose a chemical structure for the hydroxylated form. Finally, by means of fluorescence spectroscopy, ThT hydroxylation effects on in situ amyloid detection have been investigated, providing new insights on the e…
Negative staining across holes: application to fibril and tubular structures.
2007
The negative staining technique, when used with holey carbon support films, presents superior imaging conditions than is the case when samples are adsorbed to continuous carbon films. A demonstration of this negative staining approach is presented, using ammonium molybdate in combination with trehalose, applied to several fibrillar and tubular samples. Fibrils formed from the amyloid-beta peptide and the protease inhibitor pepstain A spread very well unsupported across holes and the different polymorphic fibril forms can be readily assessed. However, tubular forms of amyloid-beta have a tendency to be flattened, due to surface tension forces prior to and during specimen drying. Sub-fibril a…
The Boson Peak of Amyloid Fibrils: Probing the Softness of Protein Aggregates by Inelastic Neutron Scattering
2014
Proteins and polypeptides are characterized by low-frequency vibrations in the terahertz regime responsible for the so-called "boson peak". The shape and position of this peak are related to the mechanical properties of peptide chains. Amyloid fibrils are ordered macromolecular assemblies, spontaneously formed in nature, characterized by unique biological and nanomechanical properties. In this work, we investigate the effects of the amyloid state and its polymorphism on the boson peak. We used inelastic neutron scattering to probe low-frequency vibrations of the glucagon polypeptide in the native state and in two different amyloid morphologies in both dry and hydrated sample states. The dat…
Secondary nucleation and accessible surface in insulin amyloid fibril formation.
2008
At low pH insulin is highly prone to self-assembly into amyloid fibrils. The process has been proposed to be affected by the existence of secondary nucleation pathways, in which already formed fibrils are able to catalyze the formation of new fibrils. In this work, we studied the fibrillation process of human insulin in a wide range of protein concentrations. Thioflavin T fluorescence was used for its ability to selectively detect amyloid fibrils, by mechanisms that involve the interaction between the dye and the accessible surface of the fibrils. Our results show that the rate of fibrillation and the Thioflavin T fluorescence intensity saturate at high protein concentration and that, surpr…
Polysorbate 80 controls Morphology, structure and stability of human insulin Amyloid-Like spherulites
2022
AbstractAmyloid protein aggregates are not only associated with neurodegenerative diseases and may also occur as unwanted by-products in protein-based therapeutics. Surfactants are often employed to stabilize protein formulations and reduce the risk of aggregation. However, surfactants alter protein-protein interactions and may thus modulate the physicochemical characteristics of any aggregates formed. Human insulin aggregation was induced at low pH in the presence of varying concentrations of the surfactant polysorbate 80. Various spectroscopic and imaging methods were used to study the aggregation kinetics, as well as structure and morphology of the formed aggregates. Molecular dynamics s…
¿De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de análisis del discurso? Contra-hegemonía, populismo y mediaticismo en el caso de Podemos
2015
En su tarea de desontologización del marxismo y de reivindicación de una nueva estrategia hegemónica para la izquierda, Ernesto Laclau y Chantal Mouffe erigen un paradigma epistemológico que podríamos llamar retórica general, cuya metodología de investigación de las dinámicas antagónicas ha dado en denominarse, a su vez, Análisis del Discurso. El problema que pretendemos abordar en nuestro artículo es que este análisis, al ser su fin explícitamente estratégico y orientado a la praxis política, acaba muchas veces convertido en un álgebra en la que la pretensión de predicción algorítmica desborda el campo de la heurística o de la hermenéutica, en pro de una hipostatización del éxito político.…