Highly selective enrichment of phosphopeptides using poly(dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6) as a solid‐phase extraction material

A poly(dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6) was used as a new solid‐phase extraction material for the selective enrichment of phosphopeptides. Isolation of phosphopeptides was achieved based on specific ionic interactions between poly(dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6) and the phosphate group of phosphopeptides. Thus, a method was developed and optimized, including loading, washing and elution steps, for the selective enrichment of phosphopeptides. To assess this potential, tryptic digest of three proteins (α‐ casein, β‐casein and ovalbumin) was applied on poly(dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6). The nonspecific products were removed by centrifugation and washing. The spectrometric analysis was performed using matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry. Highly selective enrichment of both mono‐ and multiphosphorylated peptides was achieved using poly(dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6) as solid‐phase extraction material with minimum interference from nonspecific compounds. Furthermore, evaluation of the efficiency of the poly(dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6) was performed by applying the digest of egg white. Finally, quantum mechanical calculations were performed to calculate the binding energies to predict the affinity between poly(dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6) and various ligands. The newly identified solid‐phase extraction material was found to be a highly efficient tool for phosphopeptide recovery from tryptic digest of proteins.     

Synthesis of Substituted Pyridyl‐Pyrimidines as Potential Protein–Protein Interaction Inhibitors

An efficient synthetic method for the preparation of pyridyl‐pyrimidines as potential inhibitors of protein–protein interactions is described. The key transformation is the reaction of a pyrimidine enaminone with phenyl ethyl acetate and NH⁴OAc to yield the desired pyridyl‐pyrimidine.     

Unambiguous evidence for wurtzite phase in capped CdS quantum dots

The problem of identification of the correct crystalline structure of CdS nanoclusters below 2.5 nm in size is outlined. Structure of thiophenol capped CdS nanoclusters in the size range 1.2–4.3 nm, synthesized using cadmium acetate solution in methanol, is discussed using powder XRD and electron diffraction data. Unambiguous confirmation of the wurtzite phase in CdS nanoclusters below 2.5 nm size is reported. The observation of 102 wurtzite peak in the XRD patterns of such nanoclusters indicates low stacking fault concentration.     

Novel functionalized cellulose derivatives fabricated with Cu nanoparticles: synthesis,characterization and degradation of organic pollutants

Cellulose - In this study, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was modified to oxidized cellulose (OC), 6-deoxycellulose hydrazide and 6-deoxycellulose (N,N-diethyl)amine (MCC-Hyd and MCC-DEM)...     

Unprecedented isolation of a dinuclear tin (II) complex stabilized by pyridine‐2,6‐dimethanol: structure,DFT and in vitro screening of cytotoxic properties

In this work, we report a novel dinuclear Sn (II) complex, [Sn₂(Hpdm)₂(H₂O)₆] 2H₂O 2Cl ( 1 ) (H₂pdm = pyridine‐2,6‐dimethanol), which has been crystallized out and characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, single crystal X‐ray studies and Density Functional Theory (DFT) analysis. X‐ray structure of 1 has confirmed it to be a dinuclear alkoxo‐bridged Sn (II) species where each metal adopts a seven coordinate distorted pentagonal bipyramidal (pbp) geometry. This is the first hepta‐coordinated Sn (II) complex ever isolated apart from already reported stannylenes. Spin density plots from DFT support the +2 oxidation state of each tin metal. Hirshfeld surface analysis reveals the presence of various H‐bonding interactions in the molecule and molecular docking results along with DFT confirm higher binding affinity of the present complex towards DNA. Moreover, the complex exhibits promising anticancer activities against HeLa and A549 cancer cell lines.     

Manganese-doped zinc sulfide binary nanostructures as binder-free electrode materials for supercapattery

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Binary metal sulfide–based electrode materials with distinct nanoarchitecture, improved conductivities, and fascinating mechanical stabilities are...     

Quantum carpets: efficiently probing fractional revivals in position-dependent mass systems

Position-dependent-mass systems are of great importance in many physical situations,such as the transport of charge carriers in semiconductors with non-uniform composition and in the theory of many-body interactions in condensed matter.Here we investigate,numerically and analytically,the phenomenon of fractional revivals in such systems,which is a generic characteristic manifested by the wave-packet evolution in bounded Hamiltonian systems.Identifying the fractional revivals using specific probe...     

Nonlinear absorption properties correlated with the surface and structural changes of ultra short pulse laser irradiated CR-39

We have investigated femtosecond laser irradiation effects on the surface topography, structural changes and nonlinear absorption properties of CR-39. For this purpose, a CR-39 target was exposed in air to 25 fs, 800 nm Ti: sapphire laser radiation at fluences ranging from 0.25 J cm⁻² to 3.6 J cm⁻². The surface of irradiated CR-39 probed by an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) exhibits the formation of several topographical structures, like bumps, explosions and nano cavities. Raman spectroscopy is performed to explore chemical and structural modification of the irradiated target. The spectroscopy reveals changes such as cross linking, bond breaking, formation of new bonds etc. in the fundamental structure of the polymer after irradiation. In order to establish a correlation between morphological and structural changes with the changes in the nonlinear absorption of the irradiated CR-39, a Z-scan technique was employed. A comparison of experimentally obtained data from Z-scan measurements with our calculations predicts the dominance of three-photon absorption in the case of pristine CR-39, whereas for irradiated targets concurrence of three- and two-photon absorption is probable. Nonlinear absorption increases with increasing laser fluences and is well correlated by surface and structural changes revealed by AFM and Raman spectroscopy.