Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Item
    Biofunctionalized zinc peroxide (ZnO2) nanoparticles as active oxygen sources and antibacterial agents
    (London : RSC Publishing, 2017) Bergs, Christian; Brück, Lisa; Rosencrantz, Ruben R.; Conrads, Georg; Elling, Lothar; Pich, Andrij
    Oxygen is one of the most important substances for physiological reactions and metabolisms in biological systems. Through the tailored design of oxygen-releasing materials it might be possible to control different biological processes. In this work we synthesized for the first time zinc peroxide nanoparticles with controlled sizes and biofunctionalized surfaces using a one-step reaction procedure. The zinc peroxide nanoparticles were obtained with tunable sizes (between 4.0 ± 1.2 nm and 9.4 ± 5.2 nm) and were decorated with glucose 1-phosphate (Glc-1P). The specific interaction of the phosphate function of Glc-1P with the nanoparticle surface was monitored by solid state 31P-NMR and zeta-potential measurements. Furthermore, using fluorescence measurements we demonstrated that anchored glucose molecules on the nanoparticle surface are accessible for specific interactions with lectins. It could be shown that these interactions strongly depend on the amount of Glc-1P attached to the nanoparticle surface. Additionally it was demonstrated that the oxygen release from biofunctionalized zinc peroxide nanoparticles could be tuned according to the chemical composition of the nanoparticles and the pH of the aqueous solution. The antibacterial efficiency of the synthesized nanoparticles against Enterococcus faecalis, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia was evaluated by determination of minimal bactericidal concentration (MIC).
  • Item
    Theoretical mechanistic investigation of zinc(ii) catalyzed oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes and esters
    (London : RSC Publishing, 2016) Nisa, Riffat Un; Mahmood, Tariq; Ludwig, Ralf; Ayub, Khurshid
    The mechanism of the Zn(II) catalyzed oxidation of benzylic alcohol to benzaldehyde and ester by H2O2 oxidant was investigated through density functional theory methods and compared with the similar oxidation mechanisms of other late transition metals. Both inner sphere and intermediate sphere mechanisms have been analyzed in the presence and absence of pyridine-2-carboxylic acid (ligand). An intermediate sphere mechanism involving the transfer of hydrogen from alcohol to H2O2 was found to be preferred over the competitive inner sphere mechanism involving β-hydride elimination. Kinetic barriers associated with the intermediate sphere mechanism are consistent with the experimental observations, suggesting that the intermediate sphere mechanism is a plausible mechanism under these reaction conditions. The oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes (first step) is kinetically more demanding than the oxidation of hemiacetals to esters (second step). Changing the oxidant to tert-butyl hydrogen peroxide (TBHP) increases the activation barrier for the oxidation of alcohol to aldehyde by 0.4 kcal mol−1, but decreases the activation barrier by 3.24 kcal mol−1 for oxidation of hemiacetal to ester. Replacement of zinc bromide with zinc iodide causes the second step to be more demanding than the first step. Pyridine-2-carboxylic acid ligand remarkably decreases the activation barriers for the intermediate sphere pathway, whereas a less pronounced inverse effect is estimated for the inner sphere mechanism.
  • Item
    High performance stability of titania decorated carbon for desalination with capacitive deionization in oxygenated water
    (London : RSC Publishing, 2016) Srimuk, Pattarachai; Ries, Lucie; Zeiger, Marco; Fleischmann, Simon; Jäckel, Nicolas; Tolosa, Aura; Krüner, Benjamin; Aslan, Mesut; Presser, Volker
    Performance stability in capacitive deionization (CDI) is particularly challenging in systems with a high amount of dissolved oxygen due to rapid oxidation of the carbon anode and peroxide formation. For example, carbon electrodes show a fast performance decay, leading to just 15% of the initial performance after 50 CDI cycles in oxygenated saline solution (5 mM NaCl). We present a novel strategy to overcome this severe limitation by employing nanocarbon particles hybridized with sol–gel-derived titania. In our proof-of-concept study, we demonstrate very stable performance in low molar saline electrolyte (5 mM NaCl) with saturated oxygen for the carbon/metal oxide hybrid (90% of the initial salt adsorption capacity after 100 cycles). The electrochemical analysis using a rotating disk electrode (RDE) confirms the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic effect of FW200/TiO2, preventing local peroxide formation by locally modifying the oxygen reduction reaction.