Search results for "Surfaces"
showing 10 items of 2837 documents
Self-Organization Pathways and Spatial Heterogeneity in Insulin Amyloid Fibril Formation
2009
At high temperature and low pH, the protein hormone insulin is highly prone to form amyloid fibrils, and for this reason it is widely used as a model system to study fibril formation mechanisms. In this work, we focused on insulin aggregation mechanisms occurring in HCl solutions (pH 1.6) at 60 degrees C. By means of in situ Thioflavin T (ThT) staining, the kinetics profiles were characterized as a function of the protein concentration, and two concurrent aggregation pathways were pointed out, being concentration dependent. In correspondence to these pathways, different morphologies of self-assembled protein molecules were detected by atomic force microscopy images also evidencing the prese…
A passive solid sensor for in-situ colorimetric estimation of the presence of ketamine in illicit drug samples
2017
Abstract A colorimetric sensor has been developed for the presumptive detection of ketamine in illicit drug samples. The sensor has been prepared by immobilized the reagent Co(SCN) 2 into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). When exposed to solutions of ketamine at a basic pH, the sensor color changes from brown to blue-purple due to the diffusion of the analyte molecules to the polymeric matrix and subsequent interaction with the reagent particles. The sensor enables the visual identification of amounts of drug as low as 30 μg in a few minutes. Quantification of ketamine is also possible through the measurement of the absorbance in diffuse reflectance mode. Under the proposed conditions, linear re…
Pressure and Temperature Effects on Low-Density Mg3Ca(CO3)4 Huntite Carbonate
2019
Pressure (P)–volume (V)–temperature (T) relations of huntite [Mg3Ca(CO3)4] have been determined in situ up to 5 GPa and 500 °C using a resistive-heated diamond-anvil cell and synchrotron X-ray diff...
Improved Photocatalytic Activity of Polysiloxane TiO2 Composites by Thermally Induced Nanoparticle Bulk Clustering and Dye Adsorption
2021
Fine control of nanoparticle clustering within polymeric matrices can be tuned to enhance the physicochemical properties of the resulting composites, which are governed by the interplay of nanoparticle surface segregation and bulk clustering. To this aim, out-of-equilibrium strategies can be leveraged to program the multiscale organization of such systems. Here, we present experimental results indicating that bulk assembly of highly photoactive clusters of titanium dioxide nanoparticles within an in situ synthesized polysiloxane matrix can be thermally tuned. Remarkably, the controlled nanoparticle clustering results in improved degradation photocatalytic performances of the material under …
Designing solid optical sensors for in situ passive discrimination of volatile amines based on a new one-step hydrophilic PDMS preparation
2016
Abstract We reported an optimal material for embedding chemoresponsive dyes based on modified commercial PDMS. A new approach to impart hydrophilicity to H-PDMS in an unique step was developed by addition of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and in absence of basic or acid aqueous mixtures or hydroxyl-compounds during the PDMS coating process. This incorporation significantly enhances the performance of PDMS-based devices for sensing applications. New colorimetric sensors for passive detection and in situ discrimination of volatile amines have been obtained. The limit of detection achieved was 1.5 mg m −3 for both, dimethylamine and methylamine, suitable to control real working atmospheres. T…
Investigation of pH-Responsiveness inside Lipid Nanoparticles for Parenteral mRNA Application Using Small-Angle X-ray Scattering.
2020
Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based nanomedicines have shown to be a promising new lead in a broad field of potential applications such as tumor immunotherapy. Of these nanomedicines, lipid-based mRNA nanoparticles comprising ionizable lipids are gaining increasing attention as versatile technologies for fine-tuning toward a given application, with proven potential for successful development up to clinical practice. Still, several hurdles have to be overcome to obtain a drug product that shows adequate mRNA delivery and clinical efficacy. In this study, pH-induced changes in internal molecular organization and overall physicochemical characteristics of lipoplexes comprising ionizable li…
A novel high-spin heterometallic Ni12K4cluster incorporating large Ni–azide circles and an in situ cyanomethylated di-2-pyridyl ketone
2005
Reaction of di-2-pyridyl ketone (dpk) with nickel acetate and azide in the presence of potassium tert-butylate as a catalytic base generates the title compound, which contains the largest [Ni(m1,1-N3)]6 circles in the discrete ferromagnetically-coupled MII–azide cluster family, and shows an unprecedented in situ cyanomethylation of ketone. Clemente Juan, Juan Modesto, Juan.M.Clemente@uv.es
Insights on the Mechanism of Insoluble-to-Soluble Prussian Blue Transformation
2009
The electrochemical transformation of the soluble form of Prussian blue (PB) material from the insoluble form was monitored using electrochemical, gravimetric, acoustic, and spectroscopic techniques simultaneously. The described combination of in situ techniques represents an innovative tool for measurement in electrochemistry, which provides complementary information on the electrochemical systems. The insoluble-to-soluble PB transformation process takes place during the successive voltammetric cycles between the mixed valence form (PB) and the fully reduced form [Everitt's salt (ES)]. One of the processes that takes place is the exit of free Fe(CN) 4- 6 ions occluded in the vacancies of t…
Structural variations as a function of surface adsorption in nanostructured particles
2004
Macroscopic (adsorption isotherm and micro-calorimetry measurement) and microscopic (in situ X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy) approaches were used to study the influence of water adsorption on γ-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles. A nonmonotonic variation of γ-Fe 2 O 3 lattice parameter is revealed when the relative water pressure (p/p 0 ) increases from 0.03 to 0.96 with a maximum deviation for p/p 0 0.1. With IR spectroscopy, similar results were observed since a modification of γ-Fe 2 O 3 structural bands has been shown. In situ investigations as well as thermodynamics considerations lead to one important conclusion: the variation of the lattice parameter is in relation with the strains induce…
A nitroreductase and glutathione responsive nanoplatform for integration of gene delivery and near-infrared fluorescence imaging
2020
A novel platform rationally integrating indocyanine green analogues and an arginine-rich dendritic peptide with both nitroreductase (NTR) and glutathione (GSH) reduction responsive linkers was developed. This multifunctional platform can enable selective and efficient gene delivery and specific turn-on fluorescence imaging in tumors.