Marine mammal blubber reference and control materials for use in the determination of halogenated organic compounds and fatty acids

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a diverse collection of control materials derived from marine mammal blubber, fat, and serum. Standard Reference Material (SRM) 1945 Organics in Whale Blubber was recertified for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, organochlorine pesticides, and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners. SRM 1945 has also been assigned mass fraction values for compounds not frequently determined in marine samples including toxaphene congeners, coplanar PCBs, and methoxylated PBDE congeners which are natural products. NIST also has assigned mass fraction values, as a result of interlaboratory comparison exercises, for PCB congeners, organochlorine pesticides, PBDE congeners, and fatty acids in six homogenate materials produced from marine mammal blubber or serum. The materials are available from NIST upon request; however, the supply is very limited for some of the materials. The materials include those obtained from pilot whale blubber (Homogenates III and IV), Blainville’s beaked whale blubber (Homogenate VII), polar bear fat (Homogenate VI), and California sea lion serum (Marine Mammal Control Material-1 Serum) and blubber (Homogenate V).     

A Three-Channel Spectrometer for Wide-Field Imaging of Anisotropic Plasmonic Nanoparticles

A three-channel spectrometer (3CS) based on a commercial digital camera was developed to distinguish among tens of large (>100 nm), anisotropic plasmonic particles with various shapes, orientations, and compositions on a surface simultaneously. Using band pass filters and polarizers, the contrast of 3CS images could be enhanced to identify specific orientation and composition characteristics of gold and gold-silver nanopyramids and as well as the direction of the longest arm of gold nanostars.     

Synthesis of nanoscale NbSe2 materials from molecular precursors

This communication describes a new synthetic approach to one- (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) NbSe2 nanoscale materials using soft chemical methods. Our one-pot synthesis provides a direct route to control the morphology of nanostructures that can exhibit complex electronic properties, and can produce layered, nanocrystalline materials in high yield.     

Mitotic and amitotic cell replication in malignant melanoma: the role of subdivisional cell replication

It is widely assumed that significant mitotic activity is typical of malignant melanoma and many believe that significant mitotic activity is essential for this diagnosis. We have studied mitotic activity in 205 malignant melanomas and have found that mitotic activity is often minimal or absent, even in malignant melanomas which have recurred or metastasized. Based on our previous work suggesting that new cells can form from nucleoli via nucleolar stalks, we also studied nucleolar stalks in our cases. These were present in greater numbers than mitoses and help explain the anomaly of infrequent mitoses in a highly malignant neoplasm.     

An improved colorimetric method for chlorine dioxide and chlorite ion in drinking water using lissamine green B and horseradish peroxidase

Lissamine Green B (LGB) was carefully selected as a potential candidate for the development of a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) method that is intended for use at water utilities to determine chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) in drinking water. Chlorine dioxide reacts with LGB in aqueous solution to decrease the absorbance of LGB in direct proportion to the ClO₂ concentration. LGB was confirmed to have adequate sensitivity, and to suffer less interference than other dyes reported in the literature. The stoichiometry for the reaction between LGB and ClO₂ was found not to be 1:1 and is dependent on the LGB concentration. This required calibration of each LGB stock solution and prompted the investigation of alternate means of calibration, which utilized a horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-catalyzed conversion of chlorite ion (ClO₂⁻) to ClO₂. This approach allowed the simultaneous determination of ClO₂⁻ concentration, which is also required each day at water plants that use ClO₂. Studies were conducted to characterize and carefully optimize the HRP-conversion of ClO₂⁻ to ClO₂ in order to yield reaction conditions that could be accomplished in less than 30 min at modest cost, yet meet EPA's sensitivity and robustness requirements for routine monitoring. An assessment of method detection limit, linearity and slope (or sensitivity), precision, and accuracy in finished drinking water matrices indicated that this approach was suitable for publication as EPA Method 327.0.     

Controlling the Orientation of Nanowrinkles and Nanofolds by Patterning Strain in a Thin Skin Layer on a Polymer Substrate

We describe herein how to control the orientation of polymer nanowrinkles and nanofolds with large amplitudes. Nanowrinkles were created by chemically treating thermoplastic polystyrene sheets to form a thin skin layer and then heating the substrate to relieve strain. By manipulating the strain globally and locally in the skin layer, we could tune whether wrinkles or folds formed, as well as the distances over which these structures could be produced. This unique materials system provided access to high strain regimes, which enabled mechanisms behind the spontaneous formation of complex structures to be explored.     

Gold Nanopyramids Assembled into High-Order Stacks Exhibit Increased SERS Response

This Letter describes how gold pyramidal nanoshells (nanopyramids) can be assembled into low- and high-order structures by varying the rate of solvent evaporation and surface wettability. Single-particle and individual-cluster dark field scattering spectra on isolated, dimers and trimers of nanopyramids were compared. We found that the short wavelength resonances blue-shifted as the particles assembled; the magnitude of this shift was greater for high-order structures. To test which assembled architecture supported a larger Raman-active volume, we compared their surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) response of the resonant Raman molecule methylene blue (λ(ex) = 633 nm). We discovered that high-order structures exhibited more Raman scattering compared to low-order assemblies. Finite-difference time-domain modeling of nanopyramid assemblies revealed that the highest electromagnetic field intensities were localized between adjacent particle faces, a result that was consistent with the SERS observations. Thus, the local spatial arrangement of the same number of nanoparticles in assembled clusters is an important design parameter for optimizing nanoparticle-based SERS sensors.     

Manipulating the optical properties of pyramidal nanoparticle arrays

This paper reports the orientation-dependent optical properties of two-dimensional arrays of anisotropic metallic nanoparticles. These studies were made possible by our simple procedure to encapsulate and manipulate aligned particles having complex three-dimensional (3D) shapes inside a uniform dielectric environment. Using dark field or scattering spectroscopy, we investigated the plasmon resonances of 250-nm Au pyramidal shells embedded in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) matrix. Interestingly, we discovered that the scattering spectra of these particle arrays depended sensitively on the direction and polarization of the incident white light relative to the orientation of the pyramidal shells. Theoretical calculations using the discrete dipole approximation support the experimentally observed dependence on particle orientation with respect to incident field. This work presents an approach to manipulate--by hand--ordered arrays of particles over cm(2) areas and provides new insight into the relationship between the shape of well-defined, 3D particles and their supported plasmon resonance modes.     

Connectivity of features in microlens array reduction photolithography: generation of various patterns with a single photomask

Microlens array photolithography (MAP) is a technique in which arrays of microlenses positioned close to photoresist reduce cm-sized figures on photomasks and form mum-scale images in the photoresist. This work demonstrates that MAP, using a single photomask, can generate patterns having different symmetries and periodicities from that of the lens array. This capability of MAP depends on (i) the connectivity between the images produced by individual microlenses and (ii) the orientation of the photomask relative to the lens array prior to exposure. By changing this orientation, MAP, using a single mask and a single array of microlenses, could be used to generate patterns that (i) are separated from each other, (ii) overlap with each other, (iii) are 2D chiral, and thus different from both the lens array and the mask in symmetry, (iv) have a symmetry reduced from that of the lens array, or (v) have a smaller unit cell and smaller pitch than that of the lens array.