Biaxial tensile behavior and strength of architectural fabric membranes

The utilization of composite fabric membrane materials for large-span membrane structures has attracted considerable attention in recent decades due to enhanced material properties. Biaxial mechanical properties with respect to real engineering applications are essential and indispensable in comparison with uniaxial ones. This study focuses on true biaxial characteristics of a typical polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-coated polyester membrane material in terms of stress-strain characteristics and breaking criteria.The true stress-strain curves obtained from an experimental study, i.e. seven loading ratios on the basis of symmetry and typical conditions, are investigated with digital image correlation method. The interpolation of these curves in combination of least square method achieves a three-dimensional strain surface as a function of warp and weft strains, which is useful to assess reasonable structural behavior. A new breaking criteria intended for architectural fabric membrane is proposed in analogy to Tsai-Hill, Yeh-Stratton and Norris failure criteria. The basic constants in the criteria are determined using experimental results. A comparative analysis between available uniaxial and biaxial criteria shows that the new criteria can cover all criteria due to the fact that biaxial mechanical properties are larger than uniaxial ones. Furthermore, a similar but glued specimen is employed to compare welded specimens. It is obtained that observations, values and curve tendency are similar, demonstrating the suitability of using new specimens to identify true biaxial properties.     

脂质修饰DNA复合结构的可控制备及膜生物学研究

综述了脂质-DNA复合结构的设计、 可控制备和结构特性; 并重点讨论其在膜生物学中的应用, 包括对活细胞膜的动态分析、 膜上纳米孔道的构建、 对活细胞的空间排布与相互作用调控以及活体药物递送等; 总结了该领域存在的一些挑战, 并对未来发展进行了展望. 利用这些精确可控的脂质-DNA复合结构, 研究者可以更深入地理解细胞膜在分子尺度上的工作原理, 实现对细胞膜功能的精确调控, 为细胞成像诊断、 纳米机器与人工细胞构建等应用提供有力的工具.     

金属有机骨架薄膜用于小分子和离子的高效分离

综述了近几年金属有机骨架（MOF）薄膜在小分子和离子高效分离应用中的研究进展.MOF膜材料因具有结晶度良好、结构可设计、孔径可调和可功能化等特点,在分离领域展现出极大的潜在应用价值而受到广泛关注.鉴于近年来MOF膜材料在分离领域取得的巨大进展,对这一领域的前沿进展进行及时系统的总结,并对未来的发展趋势进行展望,具有重要的学术价值,也为科研工作者对MOF膜材料的研究提供了参考.本文首先总结了MOF膜的4种制备方法,包括LBL自组装法（液相外延和Langmuir-Blodgett沉积）、真空制备法（化学气相沉积和原子层沉积）、电化学沉积法和粉末沉积法;而后,详述了MOF膜在气体分离、液体分离及离子/质子传导等方面的应用;最后,总结了MOF膜材料领域当前存在的挑战及潜在解决途径,并对该领域的未来发展方向进行了展望.     

Impact of ionic liquids on silver thermoplastic polyurethane composite membranes for propane/propylene separation

This work describes newly synthesized composite polymeric membranes and their utilization in propane/propylene separation in a gas mixture. The nonporous composite polymers were successfully synthesized by using thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and several silver salts/silver salts with ionic liquids (ILs). Our studies showed that silver bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (Ag[Tf₂N]) containing membranes outperformed other silver salt containing membranes in terms of selectivity. In addition, to this finding, ILs, as additives for the membranes, enhanced the selectivity by facilitating improved coordination of the olefin with the silver ions in the dense composite polymers.     

Negative refractive index in chiral spiral metamaterials at terahertz frequencies

A three-dimensional chiral metamaterial consisting of arrays of the multi-layered mutually twisted metallic spirals is proposed. We theoretically demonstrate such a chiral spiral structure exhibiting negative refractive index at terahertz frequencies. The chirality with varied refractive index can be obtained by change of configurations of the structure. The presented design offers flexibility for investigation of electromagnetic properties of chiral metamaterials in the terahertz regime and thus leads to a unique route to terahertz device applications.     

Engineered-membranes: A novel concept for clustering of native lipid bilayers

A strategy for clustering of native lipid membranes is presented. It relies on the formation of complexes between hydrophobic chelators embedded within the lipid bilayer and metal cations in the aqueous phase, capable of binding two (or more) chelators simultaneously Fig. 1. We used this approach with purple membranes containing the light driven proton pump protein bacteriorhodopsin (bR) and showed that patches of purple membranes cluster into mm sized aggregates and that these are stable for months when incubated at 19 °C in the dark. The strategy may be general since four different hydrophobic chelators (1,10-phenanthroline, bathophenanthroline, Phen-C10, and 8-hydroxyquinoline) and various divalent cations (Ni²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Mn²⁺, and Cu²⁺) induced formation of membrane clusters. Moreover, the absolute requirement for a hydrophobic chelator and the appropriate metal cations was demonstrated with light and atomic force microscopy (AFM); the presence of the metal does not appear to affect the functional state of the protein. The potential utility of the approach as an alternative to assembled lipid bilayers is suggested.     

Progress in DNA Aptamers as Recognition Components for Protein Functional Regulation

Proteins play a central role in all domains of life, and precise regulation of their activity is essential for understanding the related biological processes and therapeutic functions. Nucleic acid aptamers, the molecular recognition components derived from systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment(SELEX), can specifically identify proteins with antibody-like recognition characteristics and help to regulate their activity. This minireview covers the SELEX-based selection of protein-binding aptamers, membrane protein analytical techniques based on aptamer-mediated target recognition, aptamer-mediated functional regulation of proteins, including membrane receptors and non-membrane proteins(thrombin as a model), as well as the potential challenges and prospects regarding aptamer-mediated protein manipulation, aiming to supply some useful information for researchers in this field.     

Nylon and nylon blend nanotubes and nanorods

Nylon nanorods and nanotubes (200 nm diameter) were fabricated by the membrane wetting technique (solvent and melt wetting) from a range of nylons (6; 6,6; 6,9; 6,10; 6,12; 11; 12, 6(3)T) and nylon blended with different dyes (Nylon Cast Blue, Nylon 6/6 Black) or with molybdenum disulfide (Nylon cast MDS). The 65-μm long nylon nanotubes and nanorods were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The nanoscale nylon 6,6 served as an effective high surface area alternative to a nylon membrane as a solid support in a chemiluminescent assay for nylon-bound biotinylated nucleic acids based on streptavidin- alkaline phosphatase and chemiluminescent detection of the bound alkaline phosphatase label with the dioxetane substrate, CDP-Star. Layer-by-layer deposition of the cationic polymer (Sapphire-II™; Tropix) onto the nylon 6,6 nanostructures prior to UV-cross-linking with biotinylated DNA resulted in further enhancement of binding and detection of biotinylated DNA.     

The Susceptibility of Non-UV Fluorescent Membrane Dyes to Dynamical Properties of Lipid Membranes

Fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy are powerful techniques to detect dynamic properties in artificial and natural lipid membrane systems. Unfortunately, most fluorescent dyes that sense dynamically relevant membrane parameters are UV sensitive. Their major disadvantage is a high susceptibility to fluorescence bleaching. Additionally, the risk for hazardous damages in biological components generally increases with decreasing excitation wavelength. Therefore the use of non-UV–sensitive membrane dyes would provide significant advantage, particularly for applications in fluorescence microscopy, which usually implies high local excitation intensities. We applied steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy techniques to several UV and non-UV membrane dyes to detect and compare dynamically relevant excitation and emission characteristics. Small unilamellar liposomes (composed of egg yolk phosphatidylcholine) served as a model system for biological membranes. The dynamic properties of the membranes were varied by two independent parameters: the intrinsic cholesterol content (0–50 mol%) and temperature (10–50°C). We tested four non-UV–sensitive membrane dyes: 9-diethylamino-5H-benzophenoxazine-5-one (Nile Red), 4-(dicyanovinyl)julolidine (DCVJ), N-(3-triethylammoniumpropyl)-4-(4-(dibutylamino)styryl) pyridinium dibromide (FM 4-64), and 1,1-dioctadecyl-3,3,3,3-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiIC₁₈). We also tested three derivatives of DiIC₁₈: DiIC₁₆ and DiIC₁₂ differ in acyl chain length and Fast-DiIC₁₈ provides double bonds between hydrocarbon atoms. The spectral results were compared to established fluorescence characteristics of four UV membrane dyes: the anisotropy of 1-6-phenyl-1,3,5,-hexatrien (DPH), two derivatives of DPH (TMA-DPH and COO^–-DHP), and the generalized polarization of 6-dodecanoyl-2-dimethyl-aminonaphthalene (Laurdan). Our results indicate that the tested non-UV dyes do not reveal dynamically relevant membrane parameters in a direct manner. However, spectral characteristics make DiIC₁₈, Nile Red, and DCVJ promising probes for the microscopic detection of lateral lipid organization, an indirect indicator of membrane dynamics. In particular, DiIC₁₈ showed very selective shifts in the emission spectra at defined temperatures and cholesterol contents that have not been reported elsewhere.