Ethyl methyl 1,4‐dihydro‐4‐(3‐nitrophenyl)‐2,6‐bis(1‐piperidylmethyl)­pyridine‐3,5‐dicarboxylate

In the title compound, C₂₈H₃₈N₄O₆, the 4‐aryl substituent occupies a pseudo‐axial position approximately orthogonal to the plane of the di­hydro­pyridine ring [88.1 (3)°]. The di­hydro­pyridine ring adopts a flattened boat conformation. The H atom on the pyridine N atom is involved in a bifurcated intramolecular hydrogen bond, the acceptors being the N atoms of the two piperidyl­methyl groups [N?N 2.629 (4) and 2.695 (4) Å].     

Design of novel,simple, and inexpensive 3D printing-based miniaturized electrochemical platform containing embedded disposable detector for analytical applications

This paper describes the development of a novel, simple, and inexpensive electrochemical device containing an integrated and disposable three-electrode system for detection. The base of this platform consists on a PDMS structure containing microchannels which were prototyped using 3D-printed molds. Pencil graphite leads were inserted into these microchannels and utilized as working, counter and reference electrodes in a novel design. Morphological analysis and electrochemical experiments with benchmark redox probes were carried out in order to evaluate the performance and characterize the miniaturized device proposed. Even using inexpensive materials and a simple fabrication protocol, the electrochemical platform developed provided good repeatability and reproducibility over a low cost (ca. $2 per device), acceptable lifetime (ca. 250 voltammetric runs) and extremely reduced consumption of samples and reagents (order of µL). As proof of concept, the analytical feasibility of the platform was investigated through the simultaneous determination of dopamine (DOPA) and acetaminophen (AC). The two analytes showed linear dependence on the concentration range from 1 to 15 µM and the LODs achieved were 0.21 µM for DOPA and 0.29 µM for AC. Moreover, the platform was successfully applied on the determination of DOPA and AC in spiked blood serum and urine samples. The results obtained with the device described here were better than some reports in literature that use more costly electrodic materials and complex modification steps for the detection of the same analytes.     

Active Porous Electrodes Prepared by Ultrasonic‐bath and their Application in Glucose/O2 Electrochemical Reactions

Most of the practical applications in electrocatalysis require porous electrodes, built by dispersing the nanoparticles (NPs) on a gas diffusion layer, as carbon paper (CP). The lack of correlation between classic measurements in clean, controlled surfaces and thin films with those of porous electrodes, used in practical application, is largely neglected. Since catalysis depends on the area available, it is clear that the distribution of the NPs on the porous material is pivotal to the efficiency of the catalyst. Here we show a low‐cost method to disperse NPs on CP assisted in ultrasonic bath. Such method improves the Pt/C NPs distribution over the CP compared to the immersion method. As proof‐of‐concept, we show an increase in output current by using Pt/C/CP for 10 mM glucose electrooxidation and O₂ eletroreduction in buffered solution at 37 °C, which is ascribed to the increase in collision factor. Furthermore, the cathodic reaction is facilitated compared to electrodes prepared by immersion, yielding an unprecedented open circuit voltage of 800 mV for the coupled reaction. The glucose/oxygen reaction is also investigated in passive flow in an H‐type cell to produce power. This concept shows promising application to build any kind of porous electrodes with improved area utilization.     

Effect of Ligand Polarity on the Internal Dipoles and Ferroelectric Distortion in BaTiO3 Nanocubes

Surface adsorbates and surrounding matrix species have been demonstrated to affect the properties of nanoscale ferroelectrics and nanoscale ferroelectric composites; potentially counteracting performance losses that can occur in small particle sizes. In this work, the effects of nonpolar oleic acid (OA) and polar tetrafluoroborate (BF₄⁻) ligand capping on the surface of various sizes of BaTiO₃ nanocubes have been investigated with combined neutron diffraction and neutron pair distribution function (PDF), density functional theory (DFT), and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) methods. The low real space PDF region provides an unobstructed view of rhombohedral (split short and long) Ti−O distances in BaTiO₃ nanocubes, mimicking the well-established order-disorder local structure found in bulk BaTiO₃. Interestingly, the intermediate-range order in nanocubes is found to be orthorhombic, rather than tetragonal. It is concluded that polar ligands adsorbed at BaTiO₃ surfaces stabilize the correlation length scale of local rhombohedral distortions in ferroelectric nanoparticles relative to nonpolar ligands.     

Acrolein detection based on alcohol dehydrogenase inhibition

This paper presents the effect of acrolein on three dehydrogenases and proposes a fast spectrometric method for acrolein analysis. We have found that alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (AlDH) are inhibited by low acrolein concentrations (0.2?mM) while inhibition of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) is not observed even at higher acrolein concentrations (1?mM). Acrolein is a suicide substrate for AlDH and ADH inhibition by acrolein is competitive. Cysteine (L-Cys) and glutathione (GSH) react with acrolein and thus reduce its expected inhibitory effect. ADH was chosen to develop a spectrophotometric method for acrolein analysis based on enzyme inhibition. The calibration curve is linear between 0.2 and 1.0?mM acrolein.     

Light propagation in porous ceramics: porosity and optical property studies using tunable diode laser spectroscopy

By integrating gas in scattering media absorption spectroscopy and frequency domain photon migration a new method is developed for the study of optical porosity and optical properties of porous media, in our case ceramics. The optical porosity is defined as the ratio of the path length through the gas-filled pores and the physical path length through the whole medium. The effective refractive index of the porous ceramics is also retrieved based on the optical porosity, which is then used to evaluate the reduced scattering coefficients of the porous ceramics. The combined method provides a new way to study light propagation in porous media. A modified Looyenga model is proposed to study the relationship between the physical porosity and the effective refractive index of the porous medium, which also connects the optical and physical porosities, and provides the possibility to use the present method for porosimetry analysis.