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    Crystal structure of diethyl (E)-2-[(benzofuran-2-yl)methylidene]succinate
    (Chester : International Union of Crystallography, 2015) Schirmer, Marie-Luis; Spannenberg, Anke; Werner, Thomas
    The title compound, C17H18O5, was synthesized by a base-free catalytic Wittig reaction. The mol­ecule consists of a diethyl itaconate unit, which is connected via the C=C double bond to a benzo­furan moiety. The benzo­furan ring system (r.m.s. deviation = 0.007 Å) forms dihedral angles of 79.58 (4) and 12.12 (10)° with the mean planes through the cis and trans eth­oxy­carbonyl groups, respectively. An intra­molecular C-H...O hydrogen bond involving the O atom of the benzo­furan moiety is observed. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked into ribbons running parallel to the b axis by C-H...O hydrogen bonds.
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    Dehydroabietylamine-Based Cellulose Nanofibril Films: A New Class of Sustainable Biomaterials for Highly Efficient, Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Effects
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2019) Hassan, Ghada; Forsman, Nina; Wan, Xing; Keurulainen, Leena; Bimbo, Luis M.; Johansson, Leena-Sisko; Sipari, Nina; Yli-Kauhaluoma, Jari; Zimmermann, Ralf; Stehl, Susanne; Werner, Carsten; Saris, Per E.J.; Österberg, Monika; Moreira, Vânia M.
    The design of antimicrobial surfaces as integral parts of advanced biomaterials is nowadays a high research priority, as the accumulation of microorganisms on surfaces inflicts substantial costs on the health and industry sectors. At present, there is a growing interest in designing functional materials from polymers abundant in nature, such as cellulose, that combine sustainability with outstanding mechanical properties and economic production. There is also the need to find suitable replacements for antimicrobial silver-based agents due to environmental toxicity and spread of resistance to metal antimicrobials. Herein we report the unprecedented decoration of cellulose nanofibril (CNF) films with dehydroabietylamine 1 (CNF-CMC-1), to give an innovative contact-active surface active against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria including the methicillin-resistant S. aureus MRSA14TK301, with low potential to spread resistance and good biocompatibility, all achieved with low surface coverage. CNF-CMC-1 was particularly effective against S. aureus ATCC12528, causing virtually complete reduction of the total cells from 10 5 colony forming units (CFU)/mL bacterial suspensions, after 24 h of contact. This gentle chemical modification of the surface of CNF fully retained the beneficial properties of the original film, including moisture buffering and strength, relevant in many potential applications. Our originally designed surface represents a new class of ecofriendly biomaterials that optimizes the performance of CNF by adding antimicrobial properties without the need for environmentally toxic silver. © Copyright 2019 American Chemical Society.
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    Structure-property relationships in nanoporous metallic glasses
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2016) Şopu, D.; Soyarslan, C.; Sarac, B.; Bargmann, S.; Stoica, M.; Eckert, J.
    We investigate the influence of various critical structural aspects such as pore density, distribution, size and number on the deformation behavior of nanoporous Cu64 Zr36 glass. By using molecular dynamics and finite element simulations an effective strategy to control the strain localization in nanoporous heterostructures is provided. Depending on the pore distribution in the heterostructure, upon tensile loading the nanoporous glass showed a clear transition from a catastrophic fracture to localized deformation in one dominant shear band, and ultimately to homogeneous plastic flow mediated by a pattern of multiple shear bands. The change in the fracture mechanism from a shear band slip to necking-like homogeneous flow is quantitative interpreted by calculating the critical shear band length. Finally, we identify the most effective heterostructure with enhanced ductility as compared to the monolithic bulk metallic glass. The heterostructure with a fraction of pores of about 3% distributed in such a way that the pores do not align along the maximum shear stress direction shows higher plasticity while retaining almost the same strength as the monolithic glass. Our results provide clear evidence that the mechanical properties of nanoporous glassy materials can be tailored by carefully controlling the design parameters.
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    Conformations of a Long Polymer in a Melt of Shorter Chains: Generalizations of the Flory Theorem
    (Washington, DC : ACS, 2015) Lang, Michael; Rubinstein, Michael; Sommer, Jens-Uwe
    Large-scale simulations of the swelling of a long N-mer in a melt of chemically identical P-mers are used to investigate a discrepancy between theory and experiments. Classical theory predicts an increase of probe chain size R ∼ P–0.18 with decreasing degree of polymerization P of melt chains in the range of 1 < P < N1/2. However, both experiment and simulation data are more consistent with an apparently slower swelling R ∼ P–0.1 over a wider range of melt degrees of polymerization. This anomaly is explained by taking into account the recently discovered long-range bond correlations in polymer melts and corrections to excluded volume. We generalize the Flory theorem and demonstrate that it is in excellent agreement with experiments and simulations.
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    Self-Regenerating Soft Biophotovoltaic Devices
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2018) Qiu, Xinkai; Castañeda Ocampo, Olga; de Vries, Hendrik W.; van Putten, Maikel; Loznik, Mark; Herrmann, Andreas; Chiechi, Ryan C.
    This paper describes the fabrication of soft, stretchable biophotovoltaic devices that generate photocurrent from photosystem I (PSI) complexes that are self-assembled onto Au electrodes with a preferred orientation. Charge is collected by the direct injection of electrons into the Au electrode and the transport of holes through a redox couple to liquid eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) electrodes that are confined to microfluidic pseudochannels by arrays of posts. The pseudochannels are defined in a single fabrication step that leverages the non-Newtonian rheology of EGaIn. This strategy is extended to the fabrication of reticulated electrodes that are inherently stretchable. A simple shadow evaporation technique is used to increase the surface area of the Au electrodes by a factor of approximately 106 compared to planar electrodes. The power conversion efficiency of the biophotovoltaic devices decreases over time, presumably as the PSI complexes denature and/or detach from the Au electrodes. However, by circulating a solution of active PSI complexes the devices self-regenerate by mass action/self-assembly. These devices leverage simple fabrication techniques to produce complex function and prove that photovoltaic devices comprising PSI can retain the ability to regenerate, one of the most important functions of photosynthetic organisms. © 2018 American Chemical Society.
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    Fast, Label-Free Tracking of Single Viruses and Weakly Scattering Nanoparticles in a Nanofluidic Optical Fiber
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2015) Faez, Sanli; Lahini, Yoav; Weidlich, Stefan; Garmann, Rees F.; Wondraczek, Katrin; Zeisberger, Matthias; Schmidt, Markus A.; Orrit, Michel; Manoharan, Vinothan N.
    High-speed tracking of single particles is a gateway to understanding physical, chemical, and biological processes at the nanoscale. It is also a major experimental challenge, particularly for small, nanometer-scale particles. Although methods such as confocal or fluorescence microscopy offer both high spatial resolution and high signal-to-background ratios, the fluorescence emission lifetime limits the measurement speed, while photobleaching and thermal diffusion limit the duration of measurements. Here we present a tracking method based on elastic light scattering that enables long-duration measurements of nanoparticle dynamics at rates of thousands of frames per second. We contain the particles within a single-mode silica fiber having a subwavelength, nanofluidic channel and illuminate them using the fiber's strongly confined optical mode. The diffusing particles in this cylindrical geometry are continuously illuminated inside the collection focal plane. We show that the method can track unlabeled dielectric particles as small as 20 nm as well as individual cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV) virions-26 nm in size and 4.6 megadaltons in mass-at rates of over 3 kHz for durations of tens of seconds. Our setup is easily incorporated into common optical microscopes and extends their detection range to nanometer-scale particles and macromolecules. The ease-of-use and performance of this technique support its potential for widespread applications in medical diagnostics and micro total analysis systems.
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    Seeded Growth Synthesis of Gold Nanotriangles: Size Control, SAXS Analysis, and SERS Performance
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2018) Kuttner, Christian; Mayer, Martin; Dulle, Martin; Moscoso, Ana; López-Romero, Juan Manuel; Förster, Stephan; Fery, Andreas; Pérez-Juste, Jorge; Contreras-Cáceres, Rafael
    We studied the controlled growth of triangular prismatic Au nanoparticles with different beveled sides for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications. First, in a seedless synthesis using 3-butenoic acid (3BA) and benzyldimethylammonium chloride (BDAC), gold nanotriangles (AuNTs) were synthesized in a mixture with gold nanooctahedra (AuNOCs) and separated by depletion-induced flocculation. Here, the influence of temperature, pH, and reducing agent on the reaction kinetics was initially investigated by UV–vis and correlated to the size and yield of AuNT seeds. In a second step, the AuNT size was increased by seed-mediated overgrowth with Au. We show for the first time that preformed 3BA-synthesized AuNT seeds can be overgrown up to a final edge length of 175 nm and a thickness of 80 nm while maintaining their triangular shape and tip sharpness. The NT morphology, including edge length, thickness, and tip rounding, was precisely characterized in dispersion by small-angle X-ray scattering and in dry state by transmission electron microscopy and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. For sensor purposes, we studied the size-dependent SERS performance of AuNTs yielding analytical enhancement factors between 0.9 × 104 and 5.6 × 104 and nanomolar limit of detection (10–8–10–9 M) for 4-mercaptobenzoic acid and BDAC. These results confirm that the 3BA approach allows the fabrication of AuNTs in a whole range of sizes maintaining the NT morphology. This enables tailoring of localized surface plasmon resonances between 590 and 740 nm, even in the near-infrared window of a biological tissue, for use as colloidal SERS sensing agents or for optoelectronic applications.
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    Die Rolle der ORCID iD in der Wissenschaftskommunikation: Der Beitrag des ORCID-Deutschland-Konsortiums und das ORCID-DE-Projekt
    (Berlin : de Gruyter Saur, 2019) Dreyer, Britta; Hagemann-Wilholt, Stephanie; Vierkant, Paul; Strecker, Dorothea; Glagla-Dietz, Stephanie; Summann, Friedrich; Pampel, Heinz; Burger, Marleen
    ORCID’s services such as the unambiguous linking of researchers and their research output form the basis of modern scholarly communication. The ORCID Germany Consortium offers a reduced ORCID premium membership fee and supports its members during ORCID integration. Services include a dialogue platform that provides German-language information and additional support services. Another major success factor is an all-encompassing communication strategy: members of the ORCID implementation can resort to established organizational communication channels. Together and with the support of the ORCID DE project they contribute significantly to the successful distribution of ORCID in Germany.
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    Rapid Colorimetric Detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Clinical Isolates Using a Magnetic Nanoparticle Biosensor
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2019) Alhogail, Sahar; Suaifan, Ghadeer A.R.Y; Bikker, Floris J.; Kaman, Wendy E.; Weber, Karina; Cialla-May, Dana; Popp, Jürgen; Zourob, Mohammed M.
    A rapid, sensitive, and specific colorimetric biosensor based on the use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) was designed for the detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in clinical samples. The biosensing platform was based on the measurement of P. aeruginosa proteolytic activity using a specific protease substrate. At the N-terminus, this substrate was covalently bound to MNPs and was linked to a gold sensor surface via cystine at the C-terminus of the substrates. The golden sensor appears black to naked eyes because of the coverage of the MNPs. However, upon proteolysis, the cleaved peptide–MNP moieties will be attracted by an external magnet, revealing the golden color of the sensor surface, which can be observed by the naked eye. In vitro, the biosensor was able to detect specifically and quantitatively the presence of P. aeruginosa with a detection limit of 102 cfu/mL in less than 1 min. The colorimetric biosensor was used to test its ability to detect in situ P. aeruginosa in clinical isolates from patients. This biochip is anticipated to be useful as a rapid point-of-care device for the diagnosis of P. aeruginosa-related infections.
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    Protein-Assisted Assembly of Modular 3D Plasmonic Raspberry-like Core/Satellite Nanoclusters: Correlation of Structure and Optical Properties
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2016) Höller, Roland P. M.; Dulle, Martin; Thomä, Sabrina; Mayer, Martin; Steiner, Anja Maria; Förster, Stephan; Fery, Andreas; Kuttner, Christian; Chanana, Munish
    We present a bottom-up assembly route for a large-scale organization of plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) into three-dimensional (3D) modular assemblies with core/satellite structure. The protein-assisted assembly of small spherical gold or silver NPs with a hydrophilic protein shell (as satellites) onto larger metal NPs (as cores) offers high modularity in sizes and composition at high satellite coverage (close to the jamming limit). The resulting dispersions of metal/metal nanoclusters exhibit high colloidal stability and therefore allow for high concentrations and a precise characterization of the nanocluster architecture in dispersion by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Strong near-field coupling between the building blocks results in distinct regimes of dominant satellite-to-satellite and core-to-satellite coupling. High robustness against satellite disorder was proved by UV/vis diffuse reflectance (integrating sphere) measurements. Generalized multiparticle Mie theory (GMMT) simulations were employed to describe the electromagnetic coupling within the nanoclusters. The close correlation of structure and optical property allows for the rational design of core/satellite nanoclusters with tailored plasmonics and well-defined near-field enhancement, with perspectives for applications such as surface-enhanced spectroscopies.