A photoelectrochemical device with a nanostructured SnO2 electrode modified with composite clusters of porphyrin-modified silica nanoparticle and fullerene

A silica nanoparticle has been successfully employed as a nanoscaffold to self-organize porphyrin and C60 molecules on a nanostructured SnO2 electrode. The quenching of the porphyrin excited singlet state on the silica nanoparticle is suppressed significantly, showing that silica nanoparticles are promising scaffolds for organizing photoactive molecules three-dimensionally in nanometer scale. Marked enhancement of the photocurrent generation was achieved in the present system compared with the reference system, where a gold core was employed as a scaffold of porphyrins instead of a silica nanoparticle. The rather small incident photon-to-current efficiency relative to a similar photoelectrochemical device using a silica microparticle may result from poor electron and hole mobility in the composite film due to poor connection between the composite clusters of a porphyrin-modified silica nanoparticle and C60 in micrometer scale.     

Micellar structures of block‐copolymers with ordered cores in dilute solution as studied by polarized and depolarized light scattering

The hierarchical self‐assembly behaviors of a series of amphiphilic liquid crystalline block copolymers (pEG_mAz_n), consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) (pEG) block and liquid crystalline polymer block (pAz) of poly{11‐[4‐(4‐butylphenylazo) phenoxy]‐undecyl methacrylate} containing an azobenzenzene mesogen, in the selective solvent diethyleneglycol, which is good for pEG block, were studied by polarized and depolarized light scattering. It was found that these copolymers can form micellar particles with internal ordered structures of optical anisotropy. Depending on the relative lengths of the blocks, the obtained micellar structures show optical anisotropies with different geometrical anisotropies. The higher composition of pAz‐core blocks leads to the larger aggregate. The lower‐molecular‐weight copolymers tend to form the long and thin strings, which show rather the larger size with larger aggregation number. Even at the similar composition of pAz‐core block, copolymers with different chain lengths can form the core of the different aggregating structures with the different molecular orientations. It was also found that the addition of a small amount of the surfactant, C₁₂E₂₅, makes the string‐like aggregate shorter. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1333–1343, 2007     

Design of a rate- and time-programming drug release device using a hydrogel: pulsatile drug release from κ-carrageenan hydrogel device by surface erosion of the hydrogel

We have found that a repetitive pulsatile drug release with a certain time interval is observed from a monolithic hydrogel device by surface erosion of the hydrogel. As a model system of pulsatile drug release, dibucaine hydrochloride and κ-carrageenan hydrogel were chosen as a drug and a device, respectively. Electrostatic interactions between dibucaine hydrochloride and κ-carrageenan polymer segments are strong, since dibucaine hydrochloride is positively charged and each disaccharide repeating unit of κ-carrageenan chains has one sulfate group. Dibucaine hydrochloride was loaded into the hydrogel by immersing dry κ-carrageenan hydrogel disks in a dibucaine hydrochloride solution for 24 h. The pulsed release of dibucaine hydrochloride from the device was observed every 50 min between 30 and 250 min after the release starts. The weight of κ-carrageenan hydrogel decreases in an oscillatory manner with time in distilled water. The oscillatory changes observed in the hydrogel weight in distilled water are considered to be caused by influx and efflux of water molecules into and from the surface and core of the hydrogel and by polymer liberation from the hydrogel. This phenomenon was well explained by our kinetic model [Colloids and Surfaces B 8 (1996) 93–100]. The time interval between pulses observed in drug release coincides with that observed in the oscillatory weight change of the hydrogel. From these, it was concluded that the pulsatile release of dibucaine hydrochloride from the device was caused by the pulsatile liberation of swollen κ-carrageenan hydrogel from the surface of the device.     

A cationic surfactant is bound to poly(vinylpyrrolidone) in high pH media

Interaction of tetradecylpyridinium bromide with poly(vinylpyrrolidone) was studied by use of an electrode sensitive to the cationic surfactant. In a neutral medium, there was no sign of interaction: potentiometric titration response was in agreement with Nernst equation irrespective of absence and presence of the polymer. But in a medium with pH 11.3, deviation from Nernst response appeared in a PVP solution showing binding of the cationic surfactant onto the polymer which had been thought indifferent to cationic surfactants in spite of strong affinity to anionic surfactants. The result is interpreted in terms of deprotonation from PVP at higher pH media.     

Microelectrochemical approach to induce local cell adhesion and growth on substrates

The nature of an albumin-coated substrate that blocks protein adsorption and cell adhesion was rapidly switched to cell-adhesive by exposure to an oxidizing agent such as HBrO. This finding has enabled cellular pattern drawing even on a single-cell level by closely scanning a microelectrode above the substrate and electrochemically producing the agent at the tip of the electrode. The present microelectrochemical cell patterning is applicable even for a previously cell-patterned substrate and for a grooved substrate. These unique technical features will have impacts on a variety of cell-based studies that require the analysis of heterotypic cell-cell interactions and cellular arrangement on an uneven surface such as semiconductor devices.     

Hydrogen bonding effects on the surface structure and photoelectrochemical properties of nanostructured SnO2 electrodes modified with porphyrin and fullerene composites

Hydrogen bonding effects on surface structure, photophysical properties, and photoelectrochemistry have been examined in a mixed film of porphyrin and fullerene composites with and without hydrogen bonding on indium tin oxide and nanostructured SnO2 electrodes. The nanostructured SnO2 electrodes modified with the mixed films of porphyrin and fullerene composites with hydrogen bonding exhibited efficient photocurrent generation compared to the reference systems without hydrogen bonding. Atomic force microscopy, infrared reflection absorption, and ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopies and time-resolved fluorescence lifetime and transient absorption spectroscopic measurements disclosed the relationship between the surface structure and photophysical and photoelectrochemical properties relating to the formation of hydrogen bonding between the porphyrins and/or the C60 moieties in the films on the electrode surface. These results show that hydrogen bonding is a highly promising methodology for the fabrication of donor and acceptor composites on nanostructured semiconducting electrodes, which exhibit high photoelectrochemical properties.     

Alternating copolymerization through the complexes of conjugated vinyl monomers–alkylaluminum halides

A vinyl monomer that has the nitrile or carbonyl group conjugated to the C?C double bond, such as acrylonitrile, methyl acrylate, and methyl methacrylate, forms a complex with an alkylaluminum halide, and the complex reacts spontaneously with a hydrocarbon monomer such as styrene, propylene, or ethylene, giving a high molecular weight copolymer. The copolymers always contain the two monomer units in 1:1 ratio. Thus styrene, copolymerized with methyl acrylate or methyl methacrylate in the presence of ethylaluminum sesquichloride in homogeneous toluene solution, gives such an equimolar copolymer regardless of the initial monomer compositions. The NMR spectra of these copolymers are distinctly different from those of the equimolar copolymers obtained with azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator and have simpler and well separated patterns. The copolymers and the corresponding radical copolymers appear to be amorphous, judged by their x-ray diffraction patterns and their differential thermal analyses. Their infrared spectra resemble each other very closely. Hence, the difference in the NMR spectra may be ascribed to the matter of the sequence distribution. The infrared spectrum of ethylene–methyl acrylate copolymer shows no absorption near 720 cm.^?1 due to the methylene sequence arising from ethylene–ethylene linkage. These experimental data lead to the inference that the equimolar copolymers obtained in this work may have an alternating sequence.     

Antioxidant action by gold-PAMAM dendrimer nanocomposites

Gold-dendrimer nanocomposites were prepared in the presence of poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer (generation 3, 3.5, 5, and 5.5) via reduction of HAuCl4 with sodium borohydride. The average particle size of the gold nanoparticles was independent of the dendrimer concentration, ranging between 3.0 and 4.3 nm in diameter. The catalytic activities of the gold-dendrimer nanocomposites upon elimination of hydroxyl radicals formed in an H2O2/FeSO4 system were examined using a spin-trapping method. The gold-dendrimer nanocomposites exhibited high catalytic activities which were hardly affected by the concentration and the generation of the dendrimer except PAMAM dendrimer 3.5. The highest activity for the gold-PAMAM dendrimer 3.5 nanocomposites was 85 times that of ascorbic acid.     

Preparation of gold-, gold/silver-dendrimer nanocomposites in the presence of benzoin in ethanol by UV irradiation

Gold- and gold/silver-dendrimer nanocomposites have been synthesized by UV irradiation of their salts dissolved in ethanol containing dendrimers. As dendrimers, poly(amidomaine) PAMAM dendrimers and poly(propyleneimine) PPI dendrimers of various generations were used. The photoreduction of their salts is greatly accelerated by using benzoin as a photoinitiator. The sizes of gold in the nanocomposites are affected by the concentration of benzoin as well as the concentration of dendrimers, but are hardly changed with the kind of dendrimers. For gold/silver-dendrimer nanocomposites, the absorption spectra of gold/silver nanoparticles in the nanocomposites are very similar to the theoretical spectra of gold/silver alloy nanoparticles, suggesting the formation of gold/silver alloy nanoparticles. From the comparison of TEM and DLS measurements, it is found that the metal-dendrimer nanocomposites consist of metal nanoparticles covering by dendrimer molecules.     

Zwitterionic heterogemini surfactants containing ammonium and carboxylate headgroups. 1. Adsorption and micellization

Zwitterionic heterogemini surfactants with two hydrocarbon chains and two different hydrophilic groups, N,N-dimethyl-N-[2-(N'-alkyl-N'-beta-carboxypropanoylamino)ethyl]-1-alkylammonium bromides (2C(n)AmCa, where n represents the hydrocarbon chain lengths of 8, 10, 12, and 14), were synthesized by N,N-dimethylethylenediamine with alkyl bromide, followed by reaction with succinic anhydride. One of the hydrophilic groups is a carboxylate anion, and the other is an ammonium cation. Their physicochemical properties were characterized by measuring equilibrium and dynamic surface tension, fluorescence intensity of pyrene, and light-scattering intensity. A relationship between a logarithm of critical micelle concentration (cmc) and hydrocarbon chain length showed a linear decrease upon increasing chain length and then a departure from linearity at n = 14. This is due to the existence of premicellar aggregations at concentrations below the cmc for n = 14. The surface tension of 2C(n)AmCa reached 27-30 mN m(-1) at each cmc, indicating efficiencies typical of hydrocarbon chain surfactants. The adsorbing rate at the air/water interface became slow with an increase of the chain length. From the fluorescence intensity ratios of 373 and 384 nm using pyrene as a probe, for n = 8, 10, and 14, the pyrene was solubilized in surfactant micelles at around the cmc, whereas for n = 12 the pyrene was solubilized from a concentration of 10-fold the cmc. The scattering intensities by dynamic light scattering also increased from around these concentrations for each chain length, showing the formation of aggregates in solution.