Selective reagent ionisation‐time of flight‐mass spectrometry: a rapid technology for the novel analysis of blends of new psychoactive substances

In this study we demonstrate the potential of selective reagent ionisation‐time of flight‐mass spectrometry for the rapid and selective identification of a popular new psychoactive substance blend called ‘synthacaine’, a mixture that is supposed to imitate the sensory and intoxicating effects of cocaine. Reactions with H₃O⁺ result in protonated parent molecules which can be tentatively assigned to benzocaine and methiopropamine. However, by comparing the product ion branching ratios obtained at two reduced electric field values (90 and 170 Td) for two reagent ions (H₃O⁺ and NO⁺) to those of the pure chemicals, we show that identification is possible with a much higher level of confidence then when relying solely on the m/z of protonated parent molecules. A rapid and highly selective analytical identification of the constituents of a recreational drug is particularly crucial to medical personnel for the prompt medical treatment of overdoses, toxic effects or allergic reactions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

纳米通道单分子检测低噪音电流放大器系统的研究

研制了一种新型微电流放大器系统,用于检测琢-Hemolysin生物蛋白纳米通道在单分子检测实验中所产生的微弱电流信号(<100 pA)。在1 mol/L KCl、10 mmol/L Tris-HCl,1 mmol/L EDTA的缓冲液(pH 8.0)中测定了DNA-PEG-DNA交联物与纳米通道的穿越和碰撞信号。实验中使用3 kHz贝塞尔滤波器和100 kHz模数转换器来对电流进行采样。结果表明,此放大器系统能够有效降低电流记录过程中的噪音,有利于分辨待测物分子与纳米通道作用所产生的较小阻断的电流信号(<10 pA)。     

电化学还原氧化石墨烯用于四环素电催化检测

四环素(TTC)因其广泛的抗菌性和低生产成本等特点而成为应用最广泛的兽医药物. TTC的大量使用不可避免地导致其进入地表水、地下水和污水处理厂.迄今,已有许多方法用于TTC检测,包括免疫测定法、微生物检测法和化学-物理法等.然而,这些方法费用高,耗时长或需要复杂的样品预处理过程,不适合现场测量或常规分析.电化学分析法具有操作简单、成本低廉、选择性和灵敏度较高、易实现在线检测等特点,在检测领域具有重要优势.石墨烯在电化学传感器领域表现出优越的应用性能,但有关石墨烯材料应用于电分析和电催化方面的报道仍然有限.石墨烯的前驱体氧化石墨烯(GO)片层底面上具有各种类型的含氧官能团和层状边缘,导致其绝缘并具有很多缺陷,使GO包含了sp2和sp3杂化碳原子,为GO提供了独特的具有化学功能的异构电子结构.通过对GO进行还原,可以生成新的sp2域或者改变含氧官能团的数量和类型,从而为GO提供更多的特殊性质.研究表明,电化学还原是一种绿色快速的还原方法,可以控制GO的还原程度和还原过程.本文利用电化学还原法来调整GO表面的官能团和缺陷度,利用在–0.8 V还原电位下得到的电化学还原氧化石墨烯(ERGO-0.8V)修饰玻碳电极(GC)为工作电极(GC/ERGO-0.8V),采用循环伏安法对溶解在pH=3的缓冲溶液中的TTC进行电化学检测,发现ERGO-0.8V对TTC具有电催化性能.利用红外光谱(FT-IR)、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)和拉曼光谱对ERGO-0.8V, ERGO-1.2V, GO及化学还原得到的石墨烯(CRGO)表面官能团和缺陷程度进行了表征,考察了TTC在ERGO-0.8V/GC上的电化学行为,对其电催化还原机理进行了推测.结果表明,与GO, ERGO-1.2V及CRGO修饰电极相比, GC/ERGO-0.8V修饰电极的催化还原峰在0–0.5 V,对TTC表现出独特的电催化性能, GC/ERGO-0.8V电极对浓度为0.1–120 mg/L的TTC溶液具有良好的检测性能,在不同浓度范围内其氧化峰峰电流与峰电位的线性关系不同. FT-IR和XPS结果显示,在–0.8 V还原电位下得到的ERGO-0.8V,其官能团类型和数量发生变化,但仍存在大量官能团,主要是羧基、羟基和环氧基.同时,拉曼表征显示ERGO-0.8V的缺陷密度增大,同时新生成的sp2域减小而使得ERGO的sp2域减小.对比GO等其他材料的表征结果推测,官能团变化是影响ERGO独特电催化性质的主要因素,除此之外还有材料的缺陷度和sp2域.推测GC/ERGO-0.8V修饰电极对TTC可能的催化机理为： TTC在GC/ERGO电极上的还原与氢醌和醌之间的转换有关;而对于ERGO,则可能对应于羧基和羟基之间的转化.然而,同样具有羧基和羟基的ERGO-1.2V则对TTC没有产生电催化作用.其原因可能是在–0.8到–1.2 V还原电位下,形成的羧基位于石墨烯片层内部,而片层内的电子传递较慢.     

ZnO纳米棒阵列基-芴类共轭聚合物膜的制备及对TNT的检测评价

将共轭芴类荧光聚合物涂覆在纳米Zn O棒阵列上,制成荧光传感膜检测痕量TNT。通过水热法生长的Zn O纳米棒阵列具有较好的取向性,作为衬底可有效增大荧光膜荧光强度,同时,Zn O纳米棒阵列的高比表面积可提高膜对TNT气体的响应效率,使20s内的荧光猝灭率可达72%。     

Graphene Oxide Nanosheets Modified with Single‐Domain Antibodies for Rapid and Efficient Capture of Cells

Peripheral blood can provide valuable information on an individual’s immune status. Cell‐based assays typically target leukocytes and their products. Characterization of leukocytes from whole blood requires their separation from the far more numerous red blood cells. 1 Current methods to classify leukocytes, such as recovery on antibody‐coated beads or fluorescence‐activated cell sorting require long sample preparation times and relatively large sample volumes. 2 A simple method that enables the characterization of cells from a small peripheral whole blood sample could overcome limitations of current analytical techniques. We describe the development of a simple graphene oxide surface coated with single‐domain antibody fragments. This format allows quick and efficient capture of distinct WBC subpopulations from small samples (～30 μL) of whole blood in a geometry that does not require any specialized equipment such as cell sorters or microfluidic devices.     

An Efficient Labelling Approach to Harness Backbone and Side‐Chain Protons in 1H‐Detected Solid‐State NMR Spectroscopy

¹H‐detection can greatly improve spectral sensitivity in biological solid‐state NMR (ssNMR), thus allowing the study of larger and more complex proteins. However, the general requirement to perdeuterate proteins critically curtails the potential of ¹H‐detection by the loss of aliphatic side‐chain protons, which are important probes for protein structure and function. Introduced herein is a labelling scheme for ¹H‐detected ssNMR, and it gives high quality spectra for both side‐chain and backbone protons, and allows quantitative assignments and aids in probing interresidual contacts. Excellent ¹H resolution in membrane proteins is obtained, the topology and dynamics of an ion channel were studied. This labelling scheme will open new avenues for the study of challenging proteins by ssNMR.     

Photocatalytically Renewable Micro‐electrochemical Sensor for Real‐Time Monitoring of Cells

Electrode fouling and passivation is a substantial and inevitable limitation in electrochemical biosensing, and it is a great challenge to efficiently remove the contaminant without changing the surface structure and electrochemical performance. Herein, we propose a versatile and efficient strategy based on photocatalytic cleaning to construct renewable electrochemical sensors for cell analysis. This kind of sensor was fabricated by controllable assembly of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and TiO₂ to form a sandwiching RGO@TiO₂ structure, followed by deposition of Au nanoparticles (NPs) onto the RGO shell. The Au NPs‐RGO composite shell provides high electrochemical performance. Meanwhile, the encapsulated TiO₂ ensures an excellent photocatalytic cleaning property. Application of this renewable microsensor for detection of nitric oxide (NO) release from cells demonstrates the great potential of this strategy in electrode regeneration and biosensing.     

Random forests for functional covariates

We propose a form of random forests that is especially suited for functional covariates. The method is based on partitioning the functions' domain in intervals and using the functions' mean values across those intervals as predictors in regression or classification trees. This approach appears to be more intuitive to applied researchers than usual methods for functional data, while also performing very well in terms of prediction accuracy. The intervals are obtained from randomly drawn, exponentially distributed waiting times. We apply our method to data from Raman spectra on boar meat as well as near‐infrared absorption spectra. The predictive performance of the proposed functional random forests is compared with commonly used parametric and nonparametric functional methods and with a nonfunctional random forest using the single measurements of the curve as covariates. Further, we present a functional variable importance measure, yielding information about the relevance of the different parts of the predictor curves. Our variable importance curve is much smoother and hence easier to interpret than the one obtained from nonfunctional random forests.     

Microfluidic immunoassay with plug-in liquid crystal for optical detection of antibody

Recent advance in liquid crystal (LqC) based immunoassays enables label-free detection of antibody, but manual preparation of LqC cells and injection of LqC are required. In this work, we developed a new format of LqC-based immunoassay which is hosted in a microfluidic device. In this format, the orientations of LqC are strongly influenced by four channel walls surrounding the LqC. When the aspect ratio (depth/width) of the channel is smaller than 0.38, LqC orients homeotropically inside the microchannel and appears dark. After antigens bind to immobilized antibodies on the channel walls, a shift of the LqC appearance from dark to bright (due to the disruption of LqC orientation) can be visualized directly. To streamline the immunoassay process, a tubing cartridge loaded with a sample solution, washing buffers and a plug of LqC is connected to the microfluidic device. By using pressure-driven flow, the cartridge allows antigen/antibody binding, washing and optical detection to be accomplished in a sequential order. We demonstrate that this microfluidic immunoassay is able to detect anti-rabbit IgG with a naked-eye detection limit down to 1 μg mL⁻¹. This new format of immunoassay provides a simple and robust approach to perform LqC-based label-free immunodetection in microfluidic devices.     

Facile synthesis of ultrafine Co3O4 nanocrystals embedded carbon matrices with specific skeletal structures as efficient non-enzymatic glucose sensors

A facile, effective, and environmentally friendly method has been adopted for the first time to prepare tiny Co₃O₄ nanocrystals embedded carbon matrices without using surfactants, harmful organic reagents or extreme conditions. Structural characterizations reveal that the size-controlled Co₃O₄ nanocrystals are uniformly dispersed on carbon matrices. Electrochemical measurements reveal that Co₃O₄-ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) can more efficiently catalyze glucose oxidation and acquire better detection parameters compared with those for the Co₃O₄-macroporous carbon, Co₃O₄-reduced graphene oxide, and free Co₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) (such as: the large sensitivity (2597.5 μA cm⁻² mM⁻¹ between 0 and 0.8 mM and 955.9 μA cm⁻² mM⁻¹ between 0.9 and 7.0 mM), fast response time, wide linear range, good stability, and surpassingly selective capability to electroactive molecules or Cl⁻). Such excellent performances are attributed to the synergistic effect of the following three factors: (1) the high catalytic sites provided by the uniformly dispersed and size-controlled Co₃O₄ nanocrystals embedded on OMC; (2) the excellent reactant transport efficiency caused by the abundant mesoporous structures of OMC matrix: (3) the improved electron transport in high electron transfer rate (confinement of the Co₃O₄ NPs in nanoscale spaces ensured intimate contact between Co₃O₄ nanocrystals and the conducting OMC matrix). The superior catalytic activity and selectivity make Co₃O₄-OMC very promising for application in direct detection of glucose.