Probe electrode study of cathodically polarized PtIr-YSZ interfaces

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Local cathodic polarizations of yttria-stabilized zirconia were carried out with a PtIr probe as the working electrode in a controlled atmosphere high...     

Enhanced Sensitivity to Local Dynamics in Peptides by Use of Temperature-Jump IR Spectroscopy and Isotope Labeling

Site-specific isotopic labeling of molecules is a widely used approach in IR spectroscopy to resolve local contributions to vibrational modes. The induced frequency shift of the corresponding IR band depends on the substituted masses, as well as on hydrogen bonding and vibrational coupling. The impact of these different factors was analyzed with a designed three-stranded β-sheet peptide and by use of selected ¹³C isotope substitutions at multiple positions in the peptide backbone. Single-strand labels give rise to isotopically shifted bands at different frequencies, depending on the specific sites; this demonstrates sensitivity to the local environment. Cross-strand double- and triple-labeled peptides exhibited two resolved bands that could be uniquely assigned to specific residues, the equilibrium IR spectra of which indicated only weak local-mode coupling. Temperature-jump IR laser spectroscopy was applied to monitor structural dynamics and revealed an impressive enhancement of the isotope sensitivity to both local positions and coupling between them, relative to that of equilibrium FTIR spectroscopy. Site-specific relaxation rates were altered upon the introduction of additional cross-strand isotopes. Likewise, the rates for the global β-sheet dynamics were affected in a manner dependent on the distinct relaxation behavior of the labeled oscillator. This study reveals that isotope labels provide not only local structural probes, but rather sense the dynamic complexity of the molecular environment.     

COSMO-RS predictions of logP in the SAMPL7 blind challenge

Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design - We applied the COSMO-RS method to predict the partition coefficient logP between water and 1-octanol for 22 small drug like molecules within the...     

Tutorial review on validation of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry methods: Part II

This is the part II of a tutorial review intending to give an overview of the state of the art of method validation in liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and discuss specific issues that arise with MS (and MS–MS) detection in LC (as opposed to the “conventional” detectors). The Part II starts with briefly introducing the main quantitation methods and then addresses the performance related to quantification: linearity of signal, sensitivity, precision, trueness, accuracy, stability and measurement uncertainty. The last section is devoted to practical considerations in validation. With every performance characteristic its essence and terminology are addressed, the current status of treating it is reviewed and recommendations are given, how to handle it, specifically in the case of LC–MS methods.     

Highly Reproducible Flexible Ion-selective Electrodes for the Detection of Sodium and Potassium in Artificial Sweat

It is well known that potentiometric sensors provide a versatile, cost-effective, and efficient platform for wearable applications. Unfortunately, mass production and commercialization of such devices is often constrained by the requirement of a calibration step, which is due to the poor sensor-to-sensor reproducibility and the need of conditioning the electrodes in the analyte before use. Herein, we fabricated calibration-free flexible sensors including ion-selective electrode and reference electrode by integrating single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with poly(3-octylthiophene) (POT) and applying on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The developed sodium and potassium ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) display excellent repeatability, selectivity, stability as well as high sensor-to-sensor reproducibility, with a standard deviation of as low as 1.0 mV in artificial sweat microliter samples volume.