Chitosan-Modified Carbon Nanotubes-Based Platform for Low-Density Lipoprotein Detection

We have fabricated an immunosensor based on carbon nanotubes and chitosan (CNT-CH) composite for detection of low density lipoprotein (LDL) molecules via electrochemical impedance technique. The CNT-CH composite deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass electrode has been used to covalently interact with anti-apolipoprotein B (antibody: AAB) via a co-entrapment method. The biofunctionalization of AAB on carboxylated CNT-CH surface has been confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic and electron microscopic studies. The covalent functionalization of antibody on transducer surface reveals higher stability and reproducibility of the fabricated immunosensor. Electrochemical properties of the AAB/CNT-CH/ITO electrode have been investigated using cyclic voltammetric and impedimetric techniques. The impedimetric response of the AAB/CNT-CH/ITO immunoelectrode shows a high sensitivity of 0.953?Ω/(mg/dL)/cm² in a detection range of 0–120 mg/dL and low detection limit of 12.5 mg/dL with a regression coefficient of 0.996. The observed low value of association constant (0.34 M^–1s^–1) indicates high affinity of AAB/CNT-CH/ITO immunoelectrode towards LDL molecules. This fabricated immunosensor allows quantitative estimation of LDL concentration with distinguishable variation in the impedance signal.     

Intradiffusion coefficients in perchloric acid solutions: Water at 5°C; water and perchlorate ion at 25°C

Intradiffusion coefficients for tritiated water (³HHO) and perchlorate ion (³⁶ClO ₄ ^- ) were measured in perchloric acid solutions. At 5°C the diffusion coefficient measured for the tritiated species increases to a maximum near 1.3 mol-dm^–3. The data at 25°C have been used to calculate distinct diffusion coefficients, D _ij ^d . As a precursor for those calculations, new estimates were made of the Onsager phenomenological coefficients, l _ij . The l _ij and D _ij ^d are similar to the respective coefficients in hydrochloric acid solutions.     

Nucleic acid sensor for M. tuberculosis detection based on surface plasmon resonance

Cysteine modified NH(2)-end peptide nucleic acid (PNA) (24-mer) probe and 5'-thiol end labeled deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) probes specific to Mycobacterium tuberculosis have been immobilized onto BK-7 gold coated glass plates for the detection of complementary, one-base mismatch, non-complementary targets and complementary target sequence in genomic DNA of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique. The DNA/Au and PNA/Au bio-electrodes have been characterized using contact angle, atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetric (CV) techniques, respectively. It is revealed that there is a 252 millidegrees SPR angle change in the case of PNA immobilization and 205 millidegrees for DNA immobilization, indicating increased amount of immobilized PNA molecules. Hybridization studies reveal that there is no binding of the non-complementary target to DNA/Au and PNA/Au electrode. Compared to the DNA/Au bioelectrode, PNA/Au electrode has been found to be more efficient for detection of one-base mismatch sequence. The PNA/Au bioelectrode shows better detection limit (1.0 ng ml(-1)) over the DNA-Au bioelectrode (3.0 ng ml(-1)). The values of the association (k(a)) and dissociation rate constant (k(d)) for the complementary sequence in case of the PNA/Au bioelectrode have been estimated as 8.5 x 10(4) m(-1) s(-1) and 3.6 x 10(-3) s(-1), respectively.     

Is the glass transition in some super-cooled polyphenyls preceded by molecular cluster formation?

A recently reported anomalous behaviour of the positronium annihilation rate with temperature in certain super-cooled organic liquids is explained in terms of a simple free-volume model modified in the presence of molecular cluster formation. This model apart from showing the entropic origin of the phenomenon accounts for the existence of the transition temperature “T_r” much above the glass-transition temperature T_g. It also predicts for the threshold temperature “T_r” fo clusters to commence formation a value of 310_-7.0^+8.0 K as against the experimental value of 304 K for ortho-terphenyl.     

Polyaniline Langmuir-Blodgett film based cholesterol biosensor

Cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) has been covalently linked to Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) monolayers of polyaniline (PANI)-stearic acid (SA) prepared onto indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated glass plates via glutaraldehyde (Glu) chemistry. These ChOx/Glu/PANI-SA LB film/ITO electrodes have been characterized by FT-IR, cyclic voltammetry, and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The results of response measurements carried out on these bioelectrodes using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) reveal linearity from 25 to 400 mg/dL of cholesterol concentration with sensitivity of 88.9 nA mg(-1) dL. The linear regression analysis of bioelectrode reveals standard deviation and correlation coefficient of 0.737 microA and 0.9988, respectively. The low value of the Michaelis-Menten constant of these bioelectrodes obtained as 1.21 mM for the immobilized enzyme indicates increased interaction between ChOx and cholesterol in the PANI-SA LB film.     

Thermal behaviour of fentanyl and its analogues during flash pyrolysis

Flash pyrolysis of fentanyl and its analogues has been studied on pyrolysis-gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (Py-GC-MS) system. Initial pyrolytic fragmentation of these compounds led to the formation of N-substituted-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine and N-phenylpropanamide as the primary pyrolytic products. Moreover, depending up on the furnace temperature, these pyrolytic products can also undergo further fragmentation to give different compounds. We, herein, discuss the probable fragmentation routes of parent as well as pyrolytic products. This study will be useful while developing technologies for thermal aerosol generation of fentanyl and related compounds.