人工纳米材料与植物的相互作用:植物毒性、吸收和传输

近十几年来纳米科技取得了突飞猛进的发展,人工纳米材料的应用日益广泛,势必导致大量纳米材料进入生态环境中,因此纳米材料可能带来的环境污染和生态效应也受到了高度关注。越来越多的研究表明,纳米材料对微生物、水生和陆生动物和植物都具有一定的毒性效应。植物是生态系统的重要组成部分,一方面纳米材料可能影响植物的发育与生长;另一方面,植物的代谢活动会影响纳米材料在环境中的迁移转化行为及其在食物网中的传递。但是,目前关于纳米材料与植物相互作用的研究还十分匮乏,多数研究只局限于相互作用导致的表观现象,例如:毒性的研究多关注于纳米材料对植物或植物细胞的表观毒性效应,缺乏对致毒机制的探讨;纳米材料的植物吸收和传输研究也仅停留在现象观察阶段,缺乏对吸收与传输机理的深入研究。而且很多研究结论还存在较大的争议,因此非常有必要对相关的研究进展与结论做全面梳理。本文综述了近年来关于纳米材料与植物相互作用的研究,从植株到植物细胞水平讨论了不同纳米材料对植物的毒性效应以及纳米材料的植物吸收和传输过程。     

ZSM-5高硅分子筛硅烷化疏水改性的研究

以甲苯为溶剂,正辛基三乙氧基硅烷(OTS)为改性剂,进行了ZSM-5高硅分子筛疏水改性研究。通过傅立叶红外(FT-IR)、X射线粉末衍射(XRD)、N2吸附-解吸附、静态水接触角、水与正己烷的静态吸附,以及水热稳定性试验等测试了改性前后样品结构与性能。结果表明,通过硅烷化改性在ZSM-5上接枝了-Si(CH2)7CH3基团,并实现了超疏水性。当0.8g ZSM-5使用0.24g改性剂时,改性后分子筛的接触角达152°,水吸附量下降了1.49%,比表面积、孔容、孔径分别减小了62.7m2/g、0.0329cm3/g、0.42nm,孔道长程有序性有所降低,且具有较高的水热稳定性。     

Polypeptide/Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Polymersomes Prepared Through Organic Solvent‐free Technique as a Smart Drug Delivery Platform

Rapid and efficient side‐chain functionalization of polypeptide with neighboring carboxylgroups is achieved via the combination of ring‐opening polymerization and subsequent thiol‐yne click chemistry. The spontaneous formation of polymersomes with uniform size is found to occur in aqueous medium via electrostatic interaction between the anionic polypeptide and cationic doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX·HCl). The polymersomes are taken up by A549 cells via endocytosis, with a slightly lower cytotoxicity compared with free DOX ·HCl. Moreover, the drug‐loaded polymersomes exhibit the enhanced therapeutic efficacy, increase apoptosis in tumor tissues, and reduce systemic toxicity in nude mice bearing A549 lung cancer xenograft, in comparison with free DOX ·HCl.     

Highly porous magnetite/graphene nanocomposites for a solid-state electrochemiluminescence sensor on paper-based chips

Graphene-nanosheet-based highly porous magnetite nanocomposites (GN-HPMNs) have been prepared using a simple solvothermal method and used as an immobilization matrix for the fabrication of a solid-state electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor on paper-based chips. Highly porous Fe₃O₄ nanocrystal clusters were coated with acrylate and wrapped tightly on the skeleton of graphene nanosheets. The structures and sizes of the GN-HPMNs could be tuned by varying the proportions of the solvents ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol. Then, the relatively highly porous ones with an average diameter of about 65 nm were combined with Nafion to form composite films on an electrode surface for immobilization of Ru(bpy)₃ ²⁺ (bpy is 2,2′-bipyridine). Because of their porosity, negatively charged surface, and cooperative characteristics of magnetic nanomaterials and graphene, under an external magnetic field, the GN-HPMNs ensured effective immobilization, excellent electron transfer, and long-term stability of Ru(bpy)₃ ²⁺ in the composite film. The sensor developed exhibited excellent reproducibility with a relative standard deviation of 0.65 % for 30 continuous cycles. It was found to be much more favorable for detecting compounds containing tertiary amino groups and DNAs with guanine and adenine. A detection limit (signal-to-noise ratio of 3) of 5.0 nM was obtained for tripropylamine. As an application example, 0.5 nM single-nucleotide mismatch could be detected. This was the first attempt to introduce magnetic nanomaterials and an external magnetic field into paper-based chips. The sensor developed has the advantages of high sensitivity, good stability, and wide potential applicability as well as simplicity, low cost, and good disposability.

Determination of 48 fragrance allergens in toys using GC with ion trap MS/MS

This paper presents a method for the simultaneous determination of 48 fragrance allergens in four types of toys (plastic toys, play clays, plush toys, and paper toys) based on GC with ion trap MS/MS. Compared with single‐stage MS, MS/MS is superior in terms of the qualification and quantification of a large range of compounds in complicated matrices. Procedures for extraction and purification were optimized for each toy type. The method proved to be linear over a wide range of concentrations for all analytes with correlation coefficients between 0.9768 and 0.9999. Validation parameters, namely, LODs and LOQs, ranged from 0.005–5.0 and from 0.02–20 mg/kg, respectively. Average recoveries of target compounds (spiked at three concentration levels) were in the range of 79.5–109.1%. Intraday and interday repeatabilities of the proposed method varied from 0.7–10.5% and from 3.1–13.4%, respectively. The proposed method was used to monitor fragrance allergens in commercial toy products. Our findings indicate that this method is an accurate and effective technique for analyzing fragrance allergens in materials composed of complex components.     

Facile synthesis of a porous network-like silver film for electrocatalytic detection of nitrate

We have developed a method for in-situ construction of a porous network-like silver film on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). It is based on a galvanic replacement reaction where a layer of copper nanoparticles is first electrodeposited as a sacrificial template. The silver film formed possesses a porous network-like structure and consists of an assembly of numerous nanoparticles with an average size of 200 nm. The electrode displays excellent electrocatalytic activity, good stability, and fast response (within 2 s) toward the reduction of nitrate at a working potential of −0.9 V. The catalytic currents linearly increase with the nitrate concentrations in the range of 0.08–6.52 mM, with a detection limit of 3.5 μM (S/N = 3) and a repeatability of 3.4 % (n = 5).

A facile method was developed for in situ construction of a porous network-like Ag film on a glassy carbon electrode by a galvanic replacement reaction, where a layer of Cu nanoparticles previously electrodeposited as a sacrificial template. Thus-formed Ag film displays excellent electrocatalytic activity, good stability, and fast response (within 2 s) toward nitrate reduction.

     

Regular arrays of triangular‐microstructure formed on silicon (111) surface via ultrafast laser irradiation in KOH solution

The regular micrometer‐scale triangular arrays were formed using ultrafast femtosecond laser irradiation on (111) surface of silicon wafer immersed in KOH solution (0.1 g/ml). At low laser fluence, the resulting surface is covered by triangular pits microstructures, whereas at high laser fluence, the structures are transformed to multilayer‐triangular stacks‐microstructures. The number of triangular stacks layer increased as the laser fluence increased. The formation of triangle microstructure arrays depends on both silicon surface crystallographic orientation and the concentration of KOH solution. Either for lower KOH solution concentration (0.02 g/ml) or other silicon crystallographic orientation, triangle arrays cannot be obtained. We attribute the formation of triangular microstructure arrays to the laser‐assisted chemical etching process. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cloning, Expression, and Characterization of β-mannanase from Bacillus subtilis MAFIC-S11 in Pichia pastoris

The β-mannanase gene (1,029 nucleotide) from Bacillus subtilis MAFIC-S11, encoding a polypeptide of 342 amino acids, was cloned and expressed in Pichia pastoris. To increase its expression, the β-mannanase gene was optimized for codon usage (mannS) and fused downstream to a sequence-encoding modified α-factor signal peptide. The expression level was improved by 2-fold. This recombinant enzyme (mannS) showed its highest activity of 24,600 U/mL after 144-h fermentation. The optimal temperature and pH of mannS were 50 °C and 6.0, respectively, and its specific activity was 3,706 U/mg. The kinetic parameters V _max and K _m were determined as 20,000 U/mg and 8 mg/mL, respectively, representing the highest ever expression level of β-mannanase reported in P. pastoris. In addition, the enzyme exhibited much higher binding activity to chitin, chitosan, Avicel, and mannan. The superior catalytic properties of mannS suggested great potential as an effective additive in animal feed industry.