Origin of Antibacterial Activity of ZnO Nanoparticles: The Roles of Protonic and Electronic Conductions

To elucidate the origin of antibacterial activity of ZnO nanoparticles, a reactive oxygen species (ROS) mechanism is systematically investigated based on electronic and protonic conductions. While the enhancement of antibacterial activity by an increase in electronic conductivity is marginal, an apparent improvement is observed by in the increase of protonic conductivity in terms of the surface basicity. This study first demonstrates that antibacterial activity can be enhanced by controlling the surface basicity of solid particles. The basicity of ZnO can be modulated by doping alkaline‐earth oxides such as MgO and CaO, and it results in the increase of hydroxyl defects on the surface of solid particles. The basicity shows a strong dependency on mobile OH concentrations. The increase of ROS hydroxyl radicals is confirmed by Mg (ZMO) or Ca‐doping (ZCO), which shows high antibacterial activity, and Ca‐doped ZnO exhibits the highest performance. It is clearly observed that the antibacterial activity is proportional to the basicity, which is controlled by the mobile OH formation. While both electrons and hydroxyl species are required for ROS reactions, it is concluded that the formation of hydroxyl species is a key factor in improving the antibacterial activity in ZnO.     

On the local fractional wave equation in fractal strings

The key aim of the present study is to attain nondifferentiable solutions of extended wave equation by making use of a local fractional derivative describing fractal strings by applying local fractional homotopy perturbation Laplace transform scheme. The convergence and uniqueness of the obtained solution by using suggested scheme is also examined. To determine the computational efficiency of offered scheme, some numerical examples are discussed. The results extracted with the aid of this technique verify that the suggested algorithm is suitable to execute, and numerical computational work is very interesting.     

Routes to control of H2 Coulomb explosion in few-cycle laser pulses

We have measured coincident ion pairs produced in the Coulomb explosion of H2 by 8-30 fs laser pulses at different laser intensities. We show how the Coulomb explosion of H2 can be experimentally controlled by tuning the appropriate pulse duration and laser intensity. For laser pulses less than 15 fs, we found that the rescattering-induced Coulomb explosion is dominated by first-return recollisions, while for longer pulses and at the proper laser intensity, the third return can be made to be the major one. Additionally, by choosing suitable pulse duration and laser intensity, we show H2 Coulomb explosion proceeding through three distinct processes that are simultaneously observable, each exhibiting different characteristics and revealing distinctive time information about the H2 evolution in the laser pulse.     

Diorganotin(IV) complexes derived from thiazole Schiff bases: synthesis,characterization, antimicrobial and cytotoxic studies

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Organotin(IV) complexes are gaining major attention as drug candidates, accordingly we have synthesized a cluster of novel diorganotin(IV) complexes R2SnClL...     

Preparation, molecular weight determination and structural studies of (polyvinylpyrrolidone)-oximate silico-benzoyl glycine copolymer with IR spectroscopy

Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-oximate silico-benzoyl glycine (POSBG), a glycine copolymer, has been prepared with PVP-oxime and benzoyl glycine in 1 : 1 ratio, w/w, in ethanol medium.The ethanolic solution with silicic acid [Si(OH)4] as binder in same ratio was refluxed for 2-3 h resulting in a colloidal solution, which was further refluxed for 2 h and cooled to 37 degrees C for 15 min. After this a whitish solid material settled, which was separated by vacuum filtration followed by washing several times with aqueous ethanol at ordinary conditions. The average viscosity molecular weights Mv of PVP-oxime and the copolymer were determined with their respective dilute aqueous solutions. Primarily the calibration curves between the intrinsic viscosity (eta) data and their respective molecular weights of polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) (marker)have been obtained to determine the Mv of oxime. Similarly the Mv of the copolymer was determined with the (eta) data of lysozyme (molecular weight=24,000 g mol(-1)), egg albumin(40,000 g mol (-1)) and BSA (65,000 g mol (-1)). The IR spectra of the PVP-oxime and copolymer were recorded in Nujol, which do not depict band frequency of -OH group of the binder. The 1602, 1688, 1182 and 1127 cm-1 stretching vibration frequencies noted in the spectra infer the presence of -C=N, -C=O, -Si-O-Si- and -Si-O-C- functional groups, respectively, in the copolymer.     

Development of a temperature-responsive agarose-based ion-exchange chromatographic resin

A temperature-responsive ion-exchange resin (ItBA) has been prepared by grafting poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid-co-tert-butylacrylamide; ItBA) onto cross-linked agarose. A carboxymethylated ion exchanger (CM) of similar charge density was also prepared. Maximum adsorption capacities (B_max) for lactoferrin at 20 °C and 50 °C were determined for both resins by batch adsorption procedures. Dynamic adsorption and desorption characteristics of the CM and ItBA with lactoferrin were established, as well as the ability of ItBA to selectively adsorb and desorb lactoferrin in the presence of other proteins. With the CM-agarose resin there was no significant difference between the B_max values obtained at 20 °C and 50 °C. However, for the agarose-based ItBA resin the B_max value at 50 °C was almost three times higher than the B_max value at 20 °C. Dynamically, lactoferrin adsorbed to the ItBA packed column at 50 °C with a significant proportion of the adsorbed lactoferrin desorbed by reducing the temperature to 20 °C. In addition, anionic proteins did not adsorb to the ItBA packed column, and did not interfere with the dynamic adsorption/desorption behaviour of lactoferrin. These results indicate that this new temperature-responsive agarose-based ItBA resin has potential for the fractionation of whey proteins, with good selectivity for cationic proteins.     

Large-angle electron diffraction structure in laser-induced rescattering from rare gases

We have measured full momentum images of electrons rescattered from Xe, Kr, and Ar following the liberation of the electrons from these atoms by short, intense laser pulses. At high momenta the spectra show angular structure (diffraction) which is very target dependent and in good agreement with calculated differential cross sections for the scattering of free electrons from the corresponding ionic cores.     

Effects of molecular structure on ion disintegration patterns in ionization of O2 and N2 by short laser pulses

We demonstrate that the structure of the outermost orbitals of oxygen and nitrogen can be observed in the angular distribution of coincident ion pairs generated by the double ionization of these molecules by 8 fs laser pulses. We do this by establishing that these ions emerge from well defined excited electronic states of O2+2 and N2+2 respectively and that they are produced dominantly through a process which involves electron rescattering. The angular distributions of the ions from the two targets are very different, reflecting the different structures of the outermost orbitals of the two molecules.     

Understanding of nuclear quadrupole interactions of 35 Cl, 79 Br and 129 I and binding energies of solid halogens at first-principles level

This paper deals with the understanding at a first-principles level of the nuclear quadrupole interaction (NQI) parameters of solid chlorine, bromine and iodine as well as the intermolecular binding of these molecules in the solid. The electronic structure investigations that we have carried out to study these properties of the solid halogens are based on the Hartree–Fock Cluster approach using the Roothaan variational procedure with electron correlation effects included using many-body perturbation theory with the empty orbitals used in the perturbation theory investigations for the excited states. The results of our investigations provide good agreement with the measured NQI parameters primarily from the Hartree–Fock one electron wave-functions with many-body effects making minor contributions. The binding (dissociation) energies for the molecules with the solid state environment on the other hand arises from intermolecular many body effects identified as the Van der Waals attraction with one-electron Hartree–Fock contribution being repulsive in nature.