Novel metal complexes containing 6-methylpyridine-2-carboxylic acid as potent α-glucosidase inhibitor: synthesis,crystal structures,DFT calculations,and molecular docking

Molecular Diversity - The World Health Organization (WHO) report shows that diabetes mellitus (DM) will be one of the ten deadly diseases in the near future. The best way to prevent DM is to...     

Direct electrochemistry of cytochrome c on nanotextured diamond surface

Nanotextured diamond surfaces with geometrical properties close to protein dimensions were used for the realization of direct electron transfer of cytochrome c (cyt c) without any covalent bonding. The peroxidase activity of native and denatured cyt c was also investigated. Cyclic voltammograms of native cyt c show quasi-reversible electron transfer reactions, while no heme redox activity is detected for denatured cyt c. Unfolding (denaturation) of cyt c can be achieved in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Partially or fully denatured cyt c showed higher peroxidase activity than native cyt c. This is because denatured cyt c loses its tertiary structure and hydrogen peroxide is easier to access the heme redox center. The apparent Michaelis–Menten constant K_m for native and denatured cyt c has been determined to be 0.23 mM and 0.08 mM.     

19.4%‐efficient large‐area fully screen‐printed silicon solar cells

We demonstrate industrially feasible large‐area solar cells with passivated homogeneous emitter and rear achieving energy conversion efficiencies of up to 19.4% on 125 × 125 mm² p‐type 2–3 Ω cm boron‐doped Czochralski silicon wafers. Front and rear metal contacts are fabricated by screen‐printing of silver and aluminum paste and firing in a conventional belt furnace. We implement two different dielectric rear surface passivation stacks: (i) a thermally grown silicon dioxide/silicon nitride stack and (ii) an atomic‐layer‐deposited aluminum oxide/silicon nitride stack. The dielectrics at the rear result in a decreased surface recombination velocity of S_rear = 70 cm/s and 80 cm/s, and an increased internal IR reflectance of up to 91% corresponding to an improved J_sc of up to 38.9 mA/cm² and V_oc of up to 664 mV. We observe an increase in cell efficiency of 0.8% absolute for the cells compared to 18.6% efficient reference solar cells featuring a full‐area aluminum back surface field. To our knowledge, the energy conversion efficiency of 19.4% is the best value reported so far for large area screen‐printed solar cells. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Spark source mass spectrometric assessment of boron and nitrogen concentrations in crystalline gallium arsenide

The residual or doped element concentration [E] in GaAs measured by SSMS is only accurate with respect to the relative sensitivity coefficient RSC_E. For a trace element concentration, the RSC_E = [E]_SSMS/[E]_TRUE is set to unity, if no reference material or method is available to approximate the concentration to the true value. For boron a relative sensitivity coefficient of RSC_B = 0.94 ± 0.08 was obtained using TI-IDMS as a reference method. RSC_N = 1 is used for nitrogen determinations. A boron and nitrogen detection limit of 4.4 × 10¹³ cm^–3 is achieved. SSMS was used as reference method to calibrate the FTIR factor f_E = [E] / I_α due to the integrated local vibrational mode absorption I_α of atomic boron and nitrogen in GaAs. A factor of f_B = (12.0 × 2.7) × 10¹⁶ cm^–1 (517 cm^–1) and f_N = (7.4 ± 0.1) × 10¹⁵ cm^–1 (472 cm^–1) was obtained for a boron and nine nitrogen containing GaAs samples at 77 K and 10 K, respectively. Received: 15 December 1998 / Revised: 8 April 1999 / Accepted: 13 April 1999     

Ion chromatographic determination of platinum in biotic materials

A method for the determination of platinum is presented. The procedure consists of a high-pressure digestion of the sample followed by an ion Chromatographic separation. Then the platinum chloro complex is detected by UV-absorption.     

Fabrication of solid‐state nanopores and its perspectives

Nanofluidics is becoming an extensively developing technique in the field of bioanalytical chemistry. Nanoscale hole embed in an insulating membrane is employed in a vast variety of sensing platforms and applications. Although, biological nanopores have several attractive characteristics, in this paper, we focused on the solid‐state nanopores due to their advantages as high stability, possibility of diameter control, and ease of surface functionalizing. A detection method, based on the translocation of analyzed molecules through nanochannels under applied voltage bias and resistive pulse sensing, is well established. Nevertheless, it seems that the new detection methods like measuring of transverse electron tunneling using nanogap electrodes or optical detection can offer significant additional advantages. The aim of this review is not to cite all related articles, but highlight the steps, which in our opinion, meant important progresses in solid‐state nanopore analysis.