Covalent attachment of a nickel nitrilotriacetic acid group to a germanium attenuated total reflectance element

The surface of a germanium internal reflectance element (IRE) was modified to bind 6X-histidine (his)-tagged biomolecules. The step-by-step surface modification was monitored via single-pass attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FT-IR). Initially an adlayer of 7-octenyltrimethoxysilane (7-OTMS) was formed on the Ge crystal through the surface hydroxyl groups, which were produced via ozonolysis of the Ge surface. The vinyl moiety of 7-OTMS was oxidized to a carboxylic acid, which was activated by 1,1'-carbonydiimidazole (CDI) to produce a labile imidazole. The labile imidazole that resulted from the CDI coupling was then displaced by the primary amine of nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA). Nickel sulfate was added to the system, and it coordinated with the three carbonyl groups and the nitrogen on NTA, thus leaving the ability of Ni to coordinate with two adjacent histidine residues. Binding of his-tagged biotin to nickel nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA) was observed by ATR-FT-IR spectroscopy. The surface modification method presented in this paper had minimal nonspecific binding, the Ni-NTA surface was reusable if stored properly, and complete removal of the organic surface was achievable.     

Characterization of single- and double-stranded DNA on gold surfaces

Single- and double-stranded deoxy ribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules attached to self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold surfaces were characterized by a number of optical and electronic spectroscopic techniques. The DNA-modified gold surfaces were prepared through the self-assembly of 6-mercapto-1-hexanol and 5'-C(6)H(12)SH -modified single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). Upon hybridization of the surface-bound probe ssDNA with its complimentary target, formation of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) on the gold surface is observed and in a competing process, probe ssDNA is desorbed from the gold surface. The competition between hybridization of ssDNA with its complimentary target and ssDNA probe desorption from the gold surface has been investigated in this paper using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, chronocoulometry, fluorescence, and polarization modulation-infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS). The formation of dsDNA on the surface was identified by PM-IRRAS by a dsDNA IR signature at approximately 1678 cm(-)(1) that was confirmed by density functional theory calculations of the nucleotides and the nucleotides' base pairs. The presence of dsDNA through the specific DNA hybridization was additionally confirmed by atomic force microscopy through colloidal gold nanoparticle labeling of the target ssDNA. Using these methods, strand loss was observed even for DNA hybridization performed at 25 degrees C for the DNA monolayers studied here consisting of attachment to the gold surfaces by single Au-S bonds. This finding has significant consequence for the application of SAM technology in the detection of oligonucleotide hybridization on gold surfaces.     

Enhanced ethanol sensing properties of WO3 modified TiO2 nanorods

Pristine and WO₃ decorated TiO₂ nanorods (NRs) were synthesised to investigate n-n-type heterojunction gas sensing properties. TiO₂ NRs were fabricated via hydrothermal method on fluorine-doped tin oxide coated glass (FTO) substrates. Then, tungsten was sputtered on the TiO₂ NRs and thermally oxidised to obtain WO₃ nanoparticles. The heterostructure was characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. Fabricated sensor devices were exposed to VOCs such as toluene, xylene, acetone and ethanol, and humidity at different operation temperatures. Experimental results demonstrated that the heterostructure has better sensor response toward ethanol at 200 °C. Enhanced sensing properties are attributed to the heterojunction formation by decorating TiO₂ NRs with WO₃.     

The glasma initial state and JIMWLK factorization

We review recent work on understanding the next to leading order corrections to the classical fields that dominate the initial stages of a heavy ion collision. We have recently shown that the leading ln 1/x divergences of these corrections to gluon multiplicities can be factorized into the JIMWLK evolution of the color charge density distributions.     

Supramolecular control of valence-tautomeric equilibrium on nanometer-scale gold clusters

This communication describes the preparation and characterization of a valence tautomer complex covalently attached to gold nanoparticles. Variable-temperature IR spectroscopy is used to determine the equilibrium thermodynamic parameters for the valence tautomerization. These results are compared with a nonsurface combined valence tautomer complex. The results show that surface confinement attenuates both DeltaH degrees and DeltaS degrees . We attribute these changes to a reduced accessible molecular surface area.     

Phenolic compounds,essential oil composition,and antioxidant activity of Angelica purpurascens (Avé-Lall.) Gill

In this study, methanol extracts (MEs) and essential oil (EO) of Angelica purpurascens (Avé-Lall.) Gill obtained from different parts (root, stem, leaf, and seed) were evaluated in terms of antioxidant activity, total phenolics, compositions of phenolic compound, and essential oil with the methods of 2,2-azino-bis(3ethylbenzo-thiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS•⁺), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazil (DPPH•) radical scavenging activities, and ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP), the Folin–Ciocalteu, liquid chromatography−tandem mass spectrometry (LC−MS/MS), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC−MS), respectively. The root extract of A. purpurascens exhibited the highest ABTS•⁺, DPPH•, and FRAP activities (IC₅₀: 0.05 ± 0.0001 mg/mL, IC₅₀: 0.06 ± 0.002 mg/mL, 821.04 ± 15.96 µM TEAC (Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity), respectively). Moreover, EO of A. purpurascens root displayed DPPH• scavenging activity (IC₅₀: 2.95 ± 0.084 mg/mL). The root extract had the highest total phenolic content (438.75 ± 16.39 GAE (gallic acid equivalent), µg/mL)). Twenty compounds were identified by LC−MS/MS. The most abundant phenolics were ferulic acid (244.39 ± 15.64 μg/g extract), benzoic acid (138.18 ± 8.84 μg/g extract), oleuropein (78.04 ± 4.99 μg/g extract), and rutin (31.21 ± 2.00 μg/g extract) in seed, stem, root, and leaf extracts, respectively. According to the GC−MS analysis, the major components were determined as α-bisabolol (22.93%), cubebol (14.39%), α-pinene (11.63%), and α-limonene (9.41%) among 29 compounds. Consequently, the MEs and EO of A. purpurascens can be used as a natural antioxidant source.     

Eigenvector mapping: a method for discerning solvent effects on vibrational spectra

This paper reports a density functional theory (DFT) analysis of the adenine spectra in a hydrogen-bonding environment. We compare the theoretical vibrational spectra of 26 model systems in which water has been hydrogen bonded to adenine with the experimental frequencies of the solid state infrared spectra (150-1700 cm(-1)) of polycrystalline adenine and the experimental frequencies observed in matrix isolation spectra of adenine [J. Phys. Chem. 100 (1996) 3527]. The vibrational eigenvectors of adenine are compared by taking the dot product to determine how the normal modes of the 15-adenine atoms are affected by different hydrogen bonding geometries. Using the isolated adenine molecule as a reference permits a comparison of different calculated spectra in terms of the projections of various normal modes and the determination of the potential energy redistribution among normal modes. This method creates a map of the normal modes using the isolated adenine molecule as a reference. Improvement in agreement between the polycrystalline data and a model of adenine with four waters is most striking. The improvement in the fit between matrix isolation data and a model of adenine with a single water was not as dramatic as the fit seen for the polycrystalline data, but the fact that a single hydrogen-bonded water shifted the spectra of the model to a closer fit than that of isolated adenine is important. We call this method eigenvector mapping. The eigenvector mapping method can be used to extract the normal modes of a parent molecule from a solvent model system. The application of this method is important because it aids in the interpretation of complex molecular interactions in terms of the spectrum of an isolated molecule. The eigenvector mapping procedure will be shown to greatly improve the correspondence between the model and the experimental data.     

Infrared spectra of H(2)16O, H(2)18O and D(2)O in the liquid phase by single-pass attenuated total internal reflection spectroscopy

Mid-infrared attenuated total internal reflection (ATR) spectra of H(2)16O, H(2)18O and D(2)16O in the liquid state were obtained and normal coordinate analysis was performed based on the potential energy surface obtained from density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Fits of the spectra to multiple Gaussians showed a consistent fit of three bands for the bending region and five bands for the stretching region for three isotopomers, H(2)16O, H(2)18O and D(2)16O. The results are consistent with previous work and build on earlier studies by the inclusion of three isotopomers and mixtures using the advantage of single-pass ATR to obtain high quality spectra of the water stretching bands. DFT calculation of the vibrational spectrum of liquid water was conducted on seven model systems, two systems with periodic boundary conditions (PBC) consisting of four and nine H(2)16O molecules, and five water clusters consisting of 4, 9, 19, 27 and 32 H(2)16O molecules. The PBC and cluster models were used to obtain a representation of bulk water for comparison with experiment. The nine-water PBC model was found to give a good fit to the experimental line shapes. A difference is observed in the broadening of the water bending and stretching vibrations indicative of a difference in the rate of pure dephasing. The nine-water PBC calculation was also used to calculate the wavenumber shifts observed in the water isotopomers.     

Multiplicity distributions and long range rapidity correlations

The physics of the initial conditions of heavy ion collisions is dominated by the nonlinear gluonic interactions of QCD. These lead to the concepts of parton saturation and the Color Glass Condensate (CGC). We discuss recent progress in calculating multigluon correlations in this framework, prompted by the observation that these correlations are in fact easier to compute in a dense system (nucleus–nucleus) than a dilute one (proton–proton).     

Long range rapidity correlations as seen in the STAR experiment

We analyze long range rapidity correlations observed in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Our goal is to extract properties of the two particle correlation matrix, accounting for the analysis method of the STAR experiment. We find a surprisingly large correlation strength for central collisions of gold nuclei at highest RHIC energies. We argue that such correlations cannot be the result of impact parameter fluctuations.