Control of the Properties of Carbon Nanotubes Synthesized by CVD for Application in Electrochemical Biosensors

Interest in carbon nanotubes (CNT) has grown at a very rapid rate in the last decade. Their interesting physical and chemical properties open attractive possibilities in many application areas. These properties depend on the process conditions during synthesis and on subsequent purification steps. Recent studies have demonstrated that CNT can promote the electron transfer of biomolecules. These exceptional properties make them attractive for use in electrochemical biosensors. Multi walled nanotubes have been synthesized by the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method using methane as a carbon source and Ni–Al₂O₃–SiO₂ as the catalyst. The influence of the variation of certain reaction parameters such as feed gas composition, catalyst mass, temperature and reaction time in the yield of the CVD process has been established. In addition, the structural and chemical characteristics of the CNTs have been studied and a purification process to eliminate the catalyst and amorphous carbon has been developed that involves a gaseous oxidative process and acid treatment. The efficiency of the purification step has been determined by analytical techniques. Atomic force microscopy, Raman scattering, thermogravimetric analysis, inductively coupled plasma atomic spectroscopy are the characterization techniques employed in this work.     

Phosphatidylcholine‐Coated Iron Oxide Nanomicelles for In Vivo Prolonged Circulation Time with an Antibiofouling Protein Corona

We report the synthesis of micellar phosphatidylcholine‐coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles as a new long circulation contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. Oleic acid‐coated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were first prepared through thermal degradation and then encapsulated into small clusters with a phosphatidylcholine coating to obtain hydrophilic nanomicelles. A thorough characterization confirmed the chemical nature of the coating and the excellent colloidal stability of these nanomicelles in aqueous media. Magnetization and relaxivity properties proved their suitability as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent and in vitro cell viability data showed low toxicity. Vascular lifetime and elimination kinetics in the liver were assessed by blood relaxometry and by in vivo MRI in rats and compared with “control” particles prepared with a polyethylene glycol derivative. These micellar particles had a lifetime in blood of more than 10 h, much longer than the control nanoparticles (≈2 h), which is remarkable considering that the coating molecule is a small biocompatible zwitterionic phospholipid. The protein corona was characterized after incubation with rat serum at different times by high‐throughput proteomics, showing a higher proportion of bound apolipoproteins and other dysopsonins for the phosphatidylcholine particles. The antibiofouling properties of this corona and its resistance to the adsorption of proteins corroborate the observed enhanced stability and prolonged systemic circulation.     

Convergent iterative schemes for time parallelization

Parallel methods are usually not applied to the time domain because of the inherit sequentialness of time evolution. But for many evolutionary problems, computer simulation can benefit substantially from time parallelization methods. In this paper, we present several such algorithms that actually exploit the sequential nature of time evolution through a predictor-corrector procedure. This sequentialness ensures convergence of a parallel predictor-corrector scheme within a fixed number of iterations. The performance of these novel algorithms, which are derived from the classical alternating Schwarz method, are illustrated through several numerical examples using the reservoir simulator Athena.

     

Analysis of confiscated fireworks using Raman spectroscopy assisted with SEM‐EDS and FTIR

A forensic analysis of several samples of pyrotechnic artefacts was performed by Raman spectroscopy assisted by scanning electron microscopy/energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (SEM‐EDS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. Among the components, several nitrates, ammonium perchlorate, nitrocellulose, metallic titanium particles and shellac were detected. The combination of Raman spectroscopy and SEM‐EDS showed very useful performance. All components were detected by Raman spectroscopy except for shellac, kaolinite and titanium particles, which were not conclusive enough and had to be determined by FTIR and EDS. In contrast, many compounds were not detected by FTIR. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Morphological and magnetic study of CaMnO3−x oxides obtained from different routes

The CaMnO_3−x (x=0 and 0.02) mixed oxide was synthesized from both thermal treatment of the [CaMn(C₃H₂O₄)₂(H₂O)₄] metallo-organic precursor and ceramic method. In the case of the latter method, temperatures of 1350 °C and 50 h were necessary; however, lower temperatures, 800 °C, and shorter reaction times, 15 h, were utilized in the attainment of the mixed oxide from the precursor. As a consequence, the morphology of the different products is clearly different. The samples exhibit three-dimensional antiferromagnetic ordering with T_N near 120 K, and a low-dimensional antiferromagnetic ordering at high temperatures. The presence of a ferromagnetic component above T_N was also observed in both compounds, it is slightly stronger in the phase prepared by the ceramic route.     

Selection of migration parameters for a highly reliable assignment of bands of isoforms of erythropoietin separated by capillary electrophoresis

Capillary zone electrophoresis of samples of recombinant human erythropoietin is performed. An in-house computer program is developed to compare the reliability of different migration parameters to assign the close migration bands of isoforms of erythropoietin. The migration time relative to the electroosmotic flow marker and the effective electrophoretic mobility are selected as the most accurate parameters. Percentages of correct assignment of bands higher than 99% are obtained with these parameters even when changes in operational factors are introduced. The chosen parameters have been applied to assign bands of isoforms in commercial samples of alpha- and beta-epoetin. The same capillary electrophoresis method has been applied to separate bands of isoforms of an erythropoietin analogue, darbepoetin alpha, the novel erythropoiesis-stimulating protein.     

CIEF with hydrodynamic and chemical mobilization for the separation of forms of alpha-1-acid glycoprotein

Alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) is a protein that exists in different forms, which is due to variations in the amino acid sequence and/or in the glycosidic part of the protein. These differences confer to these forms, among other characteristics, diverse pIs. Changes in these forms of AGP have been correlated to modifications of the pathophysiological conditions of the individuals. One of the analytical techniques employed for their study has been IEF performed in slab gels. CIEF method with hydrodynamic and chemical mobilization, involving an isotachophoretic process, is developed in this work to separate up to 12 bands of forms of standard AGP, which is proposed as a more reproducible, quantitative, less sample-consuming, and more automated one than conventional IEF. The challenge of this work has been the development of a CIEF method for the separation of bands of a very acidic protein (pI range: 1.8-3.8) in a capillary. Intraday RSD values < or = 1.7% have been achieved for the relative migration time of the AGP bands to that of an internal standard. For intraday area precision, RSD (%) in the range of 2.70-22.71% for AGP zones accounting for more than 10% of total area of AGP sample has been obtained. As a proof of the potential of the methodology proposed, an AGP sample purified from a pool of sera of patients suffering from ovary cancer is analyzed by CIEF.     

Digital Quantum Simulation and Circuit Learning for the Generation of Coherent States

Coherent states, known as displaced vacuum states, play an important role in quantum information processing, quantum machine learning, and quantum optics. In this article, two ways to digitally prepare coherent states in quantum circuits are introduced. First, we construct the displacement operator by decomposing it into Pauli matrices via ladder operators, i.e., creation and annihilation operators. The high fidelity of the digitally generated coherent states is verified compared with the Poissonian distribution in Fock space. Secondly, by using Variational Quantum Algorithms, we choose different ansatzes to generate coherent states. The quantum resources—such as numbers of quantum gates, layers and iterations—are analyzed for quantum circuit learning. The simulation results show that quantum circuit learning can provide high fidelity on learning coherent states by choosing appropriate ansatzes.     

Effect of the synthesis conditions on the magnetic and electrical properties of the BaFeO3−x oxide: A metamagnetic behavior

The BaFeO_2.95 oxide has been obtained from thermal decomposition of the [BaFe(C₃H₂O₄)₂(H₂O)₄] metallo-organic precursor at 800 °C under atmospheric oxygen pressure as small and homogeneous particles. From electronic paramagnetic resonance data, a metallic behavior in the 230-130 K temperature range has been observed. Magnetic measurements confirm the existence of a ferro-antiferromagnetic transition at 178 K. The magnetic properties of the BaFeO_2.95 oxide are strongly dependent on both temperature and magnetic field with a metamagnetic behavior. The synthesis conditions play an important role on the morphology and the electrical and magnetic properties. The syntherization of the sample produces a dramatic change in the transport properties and the existence of conductivity disappears.