Initiating electropolymerization on graphene sheets in graphite oxide structure

Because of its special chemical composition, graphite oxide has peculiar influences on electrochemical processes. The existence of various functional groups significantly affects electropolymerization processes and the formation of conductive polymers. Electrochemical synthesis of polyaniline (as a prototype of conductive polymers) on a paste‐based substrate of graphite oxide was investigated. In this case, the electropolymerization is significantly different from conventional cases, and the polymer is generated just during the first potential cycle. This can be attributed to the fact that graphite oxide can assist the monomer oxidation. Alternatively, electropolymerization was successfully performed inside the graphite oxide layers via electrochemical treatment of aniline‐intercalated graphite oxide in the supporting electrolyte. Although these phenomena are related to the chemical composition of graphite oxide, the graphite prepared by the reduction of graphite oxide also displayed some advantages for the electropolymerization (over natural graphite). There is an emphasis on the morphological investigations throughout this study, because novel morphologies were observed in the system under investigation. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 2204–2213, 2010     

Determination of Total Iron in Environmental Samples by Solid Phase Extraction with Dimethyl(E)‐2‐(2‐Methoxyphenoxy)‐2‐Butenedioate

A novel solid phase extraction technique for determination of total iron in environmental water samples was developed. The method is based on sorption of Fe(III) ions on octadecyl silica membrane disk modified with a new synthetic ligand dimethyl(E)‐2‐(2‐methoxyphenoxy)‐2‐butenedioate (I). Iron(III) is quantitatively retained on the disk in the pH range of 3–7 at a flow rate of 1–7 mL min⁻¹. The Fe(III) eluted with 10 mL of 0.01 M EDTA and than was measured by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) at 248.3 nm. The maximum capacity disk modified by 7 mg of ligand was found to be 197 ± 2 μg of iron(III). The breakthrough volume was greater than 2000 mL. The iron(III) was completely recovered (> 99%) from water with a preconcentration factor of more than 200. The limit of detection of the proposed method was 1.00 ng mL⁻¹. The various cationic and anionic interferences had no effect on the recovery of iron(III) from the binary mixtures. The proposed method was successfully applied to determination of total iron from three different water samples.     

Herbrand's theorem revisited

We present recent results on the deepening connection between proof theory and formal language theory. To each first-order proof with prenex cuts of complexity at most Π_n/Σ_n, we associate a typed (non-deterministic) tree grammar of order n (equivalently, an order n recursion scheme) that abstracts the computation of Herbrand sets obtained through Gentzen-style cut elimination. Apart from offering a means to compute Herbrand expansions directly from proofs with cuts, these grammars provide a structural counterpart to Herbrand's theorem that opens the door to tackling a number of questions in proof theory such as proof equivalence, proof compression and proof complexity. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Circular proofs for the modal mu-calculus

Inspired by Stirling's tableau proofs [4] we introduce a finite, cut-free sound and complete sequent calculus for the modal mu-calculus. Proofs in this system are finite trees in which leaves are either axioms or assumptions that are discharged by a specific rule of the calculus. The discharge rules provide a way to unfold assumptions motivating the name circular proofs. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Functional Mutations in and Characterization of VHH Against Helicobacter pylori Urease

Manipulation of clinically significant antibodies can effectively improve the processes of diagnosis and treatment. Affinity maturation process has a significant role in improvement of antibodies efficiency. Error-prone PCR technique is one of the proposed methods for improvement of the affinity of antibodies. In the present research, a method was applied to camel heavy-chain antibody (VHH, nanobody) raised against UreC subunit of urease enzyme from Helicobacter pylori. This VHH was used as a starting molecule to construct a highly diversified phage displayed VHH library. The constructed library of nanobody mutants was subjected to several rounds of panning against UreC antigen. High-affinity mutant was selected. Our VHH (HMR23) showed 1.5-fold higher binding activity than the parental VHH. In addition, the mutant VHH presented a better performance in inhibition of urease activity at low concentrations retaining its specificity and thermal stability.     

Off-chip passivated-electrode, insulator-based dielectrophoresis (OπDEP)

In this study, we report the first off-chip passivated-electrode, insulator-based dielectrophoresis microchip (OπDEP). This technique combines the sensitivity of electrode-based dielectrophoresis (eDEP) with the high-throughput and inexpensive device characteristics of insulator-based dielectrophoresis (iDEP). The device is composed of a permanent, reusable set of electrodes and a disposable, polymer microfluidic chip with microposts embedded in the microchannel. The device operates by capacitively coupling the electric fields into the microchannel; thus, no physical connections are made between the electrodes and the microfluidic device. During operation, the polydimethylsiloxan (PDMS) microfluidic chip fits onto the electrode substrate as a disposable cartridge. OπDEP uses insulting structures within the channel as well as parallel electrodes to create DEP forces by the same working principle that iDEP devices use. The resulting devices create DEP forces which are larger by two orders of magnitude for the same applied voltage when compared to off-chip eDEP designs from literature, which rely on parallel electrodes alone to produce the DEP forces. The larger DEP forces allow the OπDEP device to operate at high flow rates exceeding 1 mL/h. In order to demonstrate this technology, Escherichia coli (E. coli), a known waterborne pathogen, was trapped from water samples. Trapping efficiencies of 100 % were obtained at flow rates as high as 400 μL/h and 60 % at flow rates as high as 1200 μL/h. Additionally, bacteria were selectively concentrated from a suspension of polystyrene beads.

Mesophilic alcohol dehydrogenase behavior in imidazolium based ionic liquids

The use of ionic liquids to replace organic solvents in biocatalytic processes has recently gained much attention. Despite the wide applications of oxidoreductases, there are few reports of their catalyzed reaction in ionic liquid. We have investigated the influence of four water miscible ionic liquids on the activity, stability and structure of the mesophilic alcohol dehydrogenase from yeast. Upon changes in ionic liquids concentration, both activity and stability of the enzyme were affected. As the concentration of ionic liquids increased, K_m increased while k_cat decreased. Associated conformational changes caused by ILs (150 mM) were monitored using fluorescence technique. Finally, the effects of ILs cations and anions on the enzyme activity and stability in aqueous IL mixtures were discussed.     

Diabetes Treatment: Selective Synthetic Receptor for Glucose

A new synthetic receptor has selective and strong interactions with glucose, directing towards future diabetes management. These studies pave the way to design future selective receptors that can potentially be modified with combinations of urea walls having multiple H-binding sites to generate hydrophilic affinities, and the incorporation of promising aromatic systems for hydrophobic π-interactions with glucose CH.     

Nature of metal–NHC bonds in some potential anticancer [(NHC(R))2→M]+ (M = CuI,AgI, AuI,R = n-propyl,n-butyl,n-pentyl,n-hexyl,n-heptyl,n-octyl,n-nonyl,n-decyl) complexes

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Unraveling the concerted catalytic mechanism of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease: a hybrid QM/MM study

Structural Chemistry - We give an account of a one-step concerted catalytic mechanism of HIV-1 protease (PR) hydrolysis of its natural substrate using a hybrid QM/MM method. The mechanism is a...