One-dimensional displacement of active matter on curved substrates

We analytically find the diffusion of overdamped active Brownian particles (ABPs) constrained to move along curved one-dimensional channels. The autonomous motion of these particles is achieved by a projection of their internal propulsion force along the channels' long section. In particular, the diffusion of ABPs moving on one-dimensional channels with a form of a circle, an ellipse, and a limacon of second order is analysed. To characterise the effect of substrate's geometry and self-propulsion on their diffusion, analytical expressions for the ABPs short- and long-time variances, as well as their steady angular probability density functions are offered. Curvature effects are found to reduce the time an ABP reaches its steady state. Our theoretical results are validated using Brownian dynamics simulations. This model may be relevant for experiments dealing with catalytic driven systems, bacteria, and tumour cell dispersion in one-dimensional channels.     

Active Intracellular Delivery of a Cas9/sgRNA Complex Using Ultrasound‐Propelled Nanomotors

Direct and rapid intracellular delivery of a functional Cas9/sgRNA complex using ultrasound‐powered nanomotors is reported. The Cas9/sgRNA complex is loaded onto the nanomotor surface through a reversible disulfide linkage. A 5 min ultrasound treatment enables the Cas9/sgRNA‐loaded nanomotors to directly penetrate through the plasma membrane of GFP‐expressing B16F10 cells. The Cas9/sgRNA is released inside the cells to achieve highly effective GFP gene knockout. The acoustic Cas9/sgRNA‐loaded nanomotors display more than 80 % GFP knockout within 2 h of cell incubation compared to 30 % knockout using static nanowires. More impressively, the nanomotors enable highly efficient knockout with just 0.6 nm of the Cas9/sgRNA complex. This nanomotor‐based intracellular delivery method thus offers an attractive route to overcome physiological barriers for intracellular delivery of functional proteins and RNAs, thus indicating considerable promise for highly efficient therapeutic applications.     

Comparative simulation study of nitrogen and ammonia adsorption on graphitized and nongraphitized carbon blacks

Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation is used to study the adsorption of nitrogen at 77 K and ammonia at 240 K to represent weakly polar and polar molecules, respectively, on infinite and finite graphite surfaces. These graphite surfaces were modeled with different percentages of carbons removed (defects) from the top graphite layer. Increasing the number of defects increases the adsorption and the isosteric heat of nitrogen at low pressure. At moderate pressures the amount adsorbed is less due to the disruption in the packing of the nitrogen in the first layer. In contrast, the adsorption of ammonia at all pressures is reduced as the percentage of defects is increased. This is due to the disruption in ammonia bonding caused by the defects. The condensation-like step change in the ammonia isotherm on the perfect graphite surface is not observed for any of these surfaces with defects even for the case of only 10% defects. At high percentage of defects the adsorption isotherm is close to Henry law behavior for much of the pressure range. The adsorption on finite surfaces shows that the amount adsorbed for both molecules decreases compared with that of the infinite surfaces, resulting from interaction potentials with the surface and other fluid molecules at the edge. The decrease is much greater for the ammonia adsorption because the bonding between ammonia molecules is disrupted, meaning that the adsorption cannot follow the mechanism of condensation seen for the infinite surface.     

Study of tin amalgam mirrors by 119Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy and other analytical methods

From the beginning of the 16 ^th until the end of the 19 ^th century the most widely used mirrors consisted of a pane of glass backed with a reflecting layer of tin-mercury amalgam. They were made by sliding the glass pane over a tin foil covered with liquid mercury. After removal of the superfluous mercury, tin amalgam formed slowly at ambient temperature and yielded a reflecting layer adhering to the surface of the glass. Such mirrors often deteriorate in the course of time by oxidation of the tin in the amalgam to stannous or stannic oxide. ¹¹⁹Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, micro-XRF and X-ray diffraction have been used to study this deterioration process. The studied specimens were a modern mirror made for the reconstruction of the Green Vault in Dresden in the early 2000s, two rather well preserved German mirrors from the 17 ^th and 19 ^th centuries and several strongly deteriorated specimens of Baroque mirrors from the south of Spain. The modern mirror consists mainly of a Sn_0.9Hg_0.1 amalgam with only 2 % of SnO₂. The older German mirrors showed more pronounced oxidation, containing 12 and 15 % of SnO₂, which did not noticeably impair their reflectivity. In the samples from the Spanish mirrors at best a few percent of metallic phase was left. The majority of the tin had oxidised to SnO₂, but between 8 and 20 % of the tin was present as SnO. X-ray diffraction yielded similar results and micro-XRF mapping using synchrotron radiation for excitation gave information on the distribution of Sn and Hg in the reflecting layer of the mirrors.     

Electrochemical gating of single osmium molecules tethered to Au surfaces

The electrochemical study of electron transport between Au electrodes and the redox molecule Os[(bpy)₂(PyCH₂ NH₂CO-]ClO₄ tethered to molecular linkers of different length (1.3 to 2.9 nm) to Au surfaces has shown an exponential decay of the rate constant k _ET ⁰ with a slope β = 0.53 consistent with through bond tunneling to the redox center. Electrochemical gating of single osmium molecules in an asymmetric tunneling nano-gap between a Au(111) substrate electrode modified with the redox molecules and a Pt-Ir tip of a scanning tunneling microscope was achieved by independent control of the reference electrode potential in the electrolyte, E _ref ? E _s, and the tip-substrate bias potential, E _bias. Enhanced tunneling current at the osmium complex redox potential was observed as compared to the off resonance set point tunneling current with a linear dependence of the overpotential at maximum current vs. the E _bias. This corresponds to a sequential two-step electron transfer with partial vibration relaxation from the substrate Au(111) to the redox molecule in the nano-gap and from this redox state to the Pt-Ir tip according to the model of Kuznetsov and Ulstrup (J Phys Chem A 104: 11531, 2000). Comparison of short and long linkers of the osmium complex has shown the same two-step ET (electron transfer) behavior due to the long time scale in the complete reduction-oxidation cycle in the electrochemical tunneling spectroscopy (EC-STS) experiment as compared to the time constants for electron transfer for all linker distances, k _ET ⁰.     

Bulk Free Radical Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate and Vinyl Acetate: A Comparative Study

The model and methodology for estimating diffusion‐controlled rate coefficients for the methyl methacrylate (MMA) polymerization system is extended to the vinyl acetate (VAc) case. Comparison of the kinetic behavior and termination rate coefficients (k_t) of both monomers suggests that at low conversions the termination reaction is controlled by the chemical step, whereas at moderate and high conversions it is controlled by the diffusive step which in turn is determined by the segmental diffusion of the long radicals and not by the center of mass diffusion of short radicals. It is found that, for most of the conversion range, diffusion coefficient for VAc is lower than the one for MMA notwithstanding that k_tVAc > k_tMMA. An explanation of this apparent inconsistency on the base of the model results and in terms of segmental mobility is proposed.

     

Organocatalytic conjugate addition of formaldehyde N,N-dialkylhydrazones to beta,gamma-unsaturated alpha-keto esters

(1S,2R)-1-Aminoindan-2-ol-derived thioureas behave as efficient H-bonding organocatalysts for the nucleophilic conjugate addition of formaldehyde hydrazones to beta,gamma-unsaturated alpha-keto esters as enoate surrogates, affording the corresponding adducts in good yields and enantioselectivities.     

The role of reaction force and chemical potential in characterizing the mechanism of double proton transfer in the adenine-uracil complex

A theoretical study of the intermolecular double proton transfer in the adenine-uracil base pair has been performed to model the double proton transfer in the adenine-thymine dimer. The mechanism is analyzed in terms of the reaction force profile, which indicates that the activation of the transfer occurs via structural rearrangements to bring the interacting molecules close to each other to let the donor and acceptor atoms in the right position to achieve the transfer. It is found that only when the first proton transfer is partially completed does the second proton get activated, thus illustrating the asynchronous nature of the double proton-transfer process in base pair systems.