Metathetical conversion of Nd2O3 nanoparticles into NdS2 polysulfide nanoparticles at low temperatures using boron sulfides

A new simple metathetical sulfidation method using boron sulfides has been developed to prepare nanoparticles of NdS(2) via conversion of ca. 50-nm-sized nanoparticles of Nd(2)O(3) at 450 degrees C, in which boron and sulfur powders form boron sulfides in situ and evaporate to sulfidize the oxide. The X-ray powder diffraction analysis revealed that the products were purely NdS(2), and the atomic absorption spectrometric analysis confirmed nonexistence of boron in the products after washing with water. The detailed TEM studies showed that the NdS(2) nanoparticles maintained the original size of the oxide particles without fusion during the low-temperature sulfidation process.     

Green analytical chemistry-driven response surface modeling to stability-indicating chromatographic method for estimation of cilnidipine and application of high-performance thin-layer chromatography–mass spectrometry for characterization of degradation products

Cilnidipine is a calcium channel blocker that is used to treat cardiac diseases such as angina and high blood pressure. Several column and planar chromatographic methods for estimating cilnidipine in pharmaceutical dosage forms have been documented. However, these method developments have been carried out employing organic solvents such as acetonitrile, methanol, toluene, chloroform, and others as mobile phase components or as sample pretreatment diluents. These organic solvents are neurotoxic and teratogenic to humans and aquatic animals, according to International Council for Harmonization Q3C (R8) recommendations. According to the green analytical chemistry approach, such organic solvents should be reduced or removed during the development of chromatographic methods for environmental protection and the safety of human and aquatic animal life. As a result, the stability-indicating chromatographic estimation of cilnidipine was performed utilizing less toxic organic solvents. To prevent organic solvent waste during method development, mobile-phase optimization was performed using the design of experiment-based response surface modeling. Cilnidipine has been subjected to hydrolysis, oxidation, photolysis, and dry-heat decomposition to determine its stability. The greenness profiles of the suggested and published chromatographic methods were examined using the national environment method index, analytical greenness calculator, green analytical procedure index software, and eco-scale assessment tool.     

14CO2 labeling : a reliable technique for rapid measurement of total root exudation capacity and vascular sap flow in crop plants

Root release of organic compounds and rate of the vascular sap flow are important for understanding the nutrient and the source-sink dynamics in plants, however, their determination is procedurally cumbersome and time consuming. We report here a simple method involving ¹⁴C labeling for rapid and reliable measurement of root exudates and vascular sap flow rate in a variable groundnut population developed through seed gamma irradiation using a cobalt source (⁶⁰Co). An experimental hypothesis that a higher ¹⁴C level in the vascular sap would indicate a higher root release of carbon by the roots into the rhizosphere was verified.     

Sheet-forming abiotic hetero foldamers

Abiotic hetero oligomers, adopting a well-defined extended self-assembled sheet-like structure, derived from conformationally constrained aliphatic and aromatic amino acid residues repeating at regular intervals are reported.     

Chemical Analysis of the Luminous Slime Secreted by the Marine Worm Chaetopterus (Annelida,Polychaeta)

The marine annelid Chaetopterus variopedatus produces bioluminescence by an unknown and potentially novel mechanism. We have advanced the study of this fascinating phenomenon, which has not been investigated for nearly 60 years after initial studies were first reported for this species. Here, we show that the luminous slime produced by the worm exhibits blue fluorescence that matches the bioluminescence emission. This result suggests that the oxyluciferin emitter is present. However, while the blue fluorescence decays over time green fluorescence is increasingly revealed that is likely associated with products of the luminescence reaction. LC/MS and fluorescence analysis of harvested luminescent material revealed riboflavin as the major green fluorescent component. Riboflavin is usually associated with the mechanism of light production in bacteria, yet luminous bacteria were not found in the worm mucus, and accordingly were not reported to be directly responsible for the light emission, which is under nervous control in the worm. We therefore propose a hypothesis in which riboflavin or a structurally related derivative serves as the emitter in the worm's light producing reaction.     

Fabrication and characterization of multilayer films from amphiphilic poly(p-phenylene)s

Over the past two decades, considerable efforts have been devoted to the development of conjugated polymeric materials for electronic applications due to the tunability of their properties through variation of their chemical structure. The LB technique is one of the most effective and precise methods for controlling the organization and thereby the properties of polymer films at the nanoscale for device fabrication. A detailed study was performed on the Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) monolayer and Langmuir-Blodgett-Kuhn (LBK) multilayer formation of newly designed conjugated poly(p-phenylene)s (C(n)PPPOH), incorporated with alkoxy groups with different chain lengths (C(6)H(13)O-, C(12)H(25)O-, and C(18)H(37)O-) and hydroxyl groups on the polymer backbone. The monolayer formed at the air-water interface was characterized using surface pressure-area isotherms, including hysteresis measurements. The films were then transferred to different hydrophilic solid substrates and analyzed using surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and AFM measurements. The results showed that the polymer with a short alkoxy chain (C(6)PPPOH) forms uniform monolayers at the air-water interface and can be transferred as multilayer films compared to C(12)PPPOH and C(18)PPPOH. The observed film thicknesses measured by SPR and AFM studies were similar to the theoretical value obtained in the case of C(6)PPPOH, whereas this was not the case with the other two polymers. The present study shows that the polymer C(n)PPPOH with short alkoxy chain can be transferred onto different solid substrates for device fabrication with molecular level control.     

Photophysical properties of hydroxylated amphiphilic poly(p-phenylene)s

A homologous series of polyhydroxylated poly(p-phenylene)s with different alkoxy groups (C6PPPOH, C12PPPOH, and C18PPPOH) were synthesized with use of the Suzuki polycondensation reaction. Comparative studies of the structure correlation between their photophysical properties and film morphology is described. The absorption and emission spectra of polymers in solution and thin films showed similar features indicating that the electronic properties in solution were retained in the film state. Compared to the polymer with the short alkoxy chains (C6PPPOH), the polymers with long alkoxy groups (C12PPPOH and C18PPPOH) showed improved film forming properties with continuous and smooth film morphology. The absorption properties of the C12PPPOH showed an enhanced effective conjugation length and high quantum yield implying planarization of the backbone through alkoxy chain packing (C12H25O-) and potential hydrogen bonds. No overlap in the absorption and emission spectra was observed, which indicated minimized excimer formation or excitation energy transfer in the films. Time-resolved fluorescence measurements showed that the decay times increased from 43 ps (C6PPPOH) to 78 ps (C12PPPOH) and 99 ps (C18PPPOH). Electrochemical studies were performed for all polymers and the observed oxidation potential for C6PPPOH was higher than that of C12PPPOH and C18PPPOH. In addition, the C12PPPOH has the lowest band gap of DeltaE = 2.59 eV when compared to the 3.1 (C6PPPOH) and 2.61 eV (C18PPPOH) gaps. The optical band gaps estimated from the absorption onset of the polymers are significantly higher than those obtained from electrochemical data. C12PPPOH was chosen for investigating the charge carrier mobility by the time-of-flight (TOF) technique. The observed results also showed negative field dependent values of the drift mobility for the polymer C12PPPOH.     

Regulatory Aspects in Development of Stability-Indicating Methods: A Review

Poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PVCL) connected to aminopropyl silica is a new stationary phase for temperature responsive liquid chromatography (TR-LC). PVCL shows a transition from hydrophilic to hydrophobic interaction between 30 and 40 °C. The synthesis is described in detail. The temperature responsive characteristic of the phase is illustrated with a mixture of steroids using pure water as mobile phase. An increase in retention is observed when raising the temperature. H–u plots at different temperatures were constructed. Below the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), no optimal velocity could be measured because of substantial resistance to mass transfer. Above the LCST, u _opt was ca. 0.3 mm s^?1 with reduced plate heights from 4 at 45 °C to 3 at 65 °C. The temperature responsive nature of the polymer is lost in green chromatography with ethanol as modifier in concentrations above 5%.     

Nanostructured platform for the detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and differential pulse voltammetry

We report on a nanocomposite based genosensor for the detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a bacterium causing the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea. Amino-labeled probe DNA was covalently immobilized on electrochemically prepared polyaniline and iron oxide (PANI-Fe₃O₄) nanocomposite film on an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques have been employed to characterize surface of the modified electrode. The genosensor has detection limits of 1?×?10^-15 M and 1?×?10^-17 M, respectively, using the EIS and DPV techniques. This biosensor can discriminate a complementary sequence from a single-base mismatch and from non-complementary DNA, and has been utilized for detection of DNA extracted from N. gonorrhoeae culture, and from patient samples with N. gonorrhoeae. It is found to exhibit good specificity for N. gonorrhoeae species and shows no response towards non-gonorrhoeae type of Neisseria species (NgNs) and other gram-negative bacterias (GNBs). The affinity constant for hybridization calculated using the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model is found to be 3.39?×?10⁸ M^-1.