TY - JOUR A1 - Liebig, Ferenc A1 - Sarhan, Radwan Mohamed A1 - Prietzel, Claudia Christina A1 - Schmitt, Clemens Nikolaus Zeno A1 - Bargheer, Matias A1 - Koetz, Joachim T1 - Tuned Surface-Enhanced raman scattering performance of undulated Au@Ag triangles JF - ACS applied nano materials N2 - Negatively charged ultraflat gold nanotriangles (AuNTs) stabilized by the anionic surfactant dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (AOT) were reloaded with the cationic surfactant benzylhexadecyldimethylammonium chloride (BDAC). Because of the spontaneous formation of a catanionic AOT micelle/BDAC bilayer onto the surface of the reloaded AuNTs, a reduction of Ag+ ions leads to the formation of spherical silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). With increasing concentration of AgNPs on the AuNTs, the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is shifted stepwise from 1300 to 800 nm. The tunable LSPR enables to shift the extinction maximum to the wavelength of the excitation laser of the Raman microscope at 785 nm. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) experiments performed under resonance conditions show an SERS enhancement factor of the analyte molecule rhodamine RG6 of 5.1 X 10(5), which can be related to the silver hot spots at the periphery of the undulated gold nanoplatelets. KW - gold nanotriangles KW - catanionic surfactant bilayer KW - undulated nanoplatelets KW - SERS KW - LSPR Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.8b00570 SN - 2574-0970 VL - 1 IS - 4 SP - 1995 EP - 2003 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Guo, Ranran A1 - Tian, Ye A1 - Yang, Yueqi A1 - Jiang, Qin A1 - Wang, Yajun A1 - Yang, Wuli T1 - A Yolk-Shell nanoplatform for gene-silencing-enhanced photolytic ablation of cancer JF - Advanced functional materials N2 - Noninvasive near-infrared (NIR) light responsive therapy is a promising cancer treatment modality; however, some inherent drawbacks of conventional phototherapy heavily restrict its application in clinic. Rather than producing heat or reactive oxygen species in conventional NIR treatment, here a multifunctional yolk-shell nanoplatform is proposed that is able to generate microbubbles to destruct cancer cells upon NIR laser irradiation. Besides, the therapeutic effect is highly improved through the coalition of small interfering RNA (siRNA), which is codelivered by the nanoplatform. In vitro experiments demonstrate that siRNA significantly inhibits expression of protective proteins and reduces the tolerance of cancer cells to bubble-induced environmental damage. In this way, higher cytotoxicity is achieved by utilizing the yolk-shell nanoparticles than treated with the same nanoparticles missing siRNA under NIR laser irradiation. After surface modification with polyethylene glycol and transferrin, the yolk-shell nanoparticles can target tumors selectively, as demonstrated from the photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging in vivo. The yolk-shell nanoplatform shows outstanding tumor regression with minimal side effects under NIR laser irradiation. Therefore, the multifunctional nanoparticles that combining bubble-induced mechanical effect with RNA interference are expected to be an effective NIR light responsive oncotherapy. KW - cancer KW - gene silencing KW - near-infrared absorption KW - photolytic ablation KW - yolk-shell nanoparticles Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201706398 SN - 1616-301X SN - 1616-3028 VL - 28 IS - 14 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vishnevetskaya, Natalya S. A1 - Hildebrand, Viet A1 - Dyakonova, Margarita A. A1 - Niebuur, Bart-Jan A1 - Kyriakos, Konstantinos A1 - Raftopoulos, Konstantinos N. A1 - Di, Zhenyu A1 - Müller-Buschbaum, Peter A1 - Laschewsky, Andre A1 - Papadakis, Christine M. T1 - Dual orthogonal switching of the "Schizophrenic" self-assembly of diblock copolymers JF - Macromolecules : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - Based on diblock copolymers, a pair of "schizophrenic" micellar systems is designed by combining a nonionic and thermoresponsive block with a zwitterionic block, which is thermoresponsive and salt-sensitive. The nonionic block is poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) or poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM) and exhibits a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behavior in aqueous solution. The zwitterionic block is a polysulfobetaine, i.e., poly(4((3-methacrylamidopropyl)dimethylammonio)butane-1-sulfonate) (PSBP), and has an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) behavior with the clearing point decreasing with increasing salt concentration. The PSBP-b-PNIPAM and PSBP-b-PNIPMAM diblock copolymers are prepared by successive reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerizations. The PSBP block is chosen such that the clearing point of the homopolymer is significantly higher in pure water than the cloud point of PNIPAM or PNIPMAM. Using turbidimetry, H-1 NMR, and small-angle neutron scattering, we investigate the overall phase behavior as well as the structure and interaction between the micelles and the intermediate phase, both in salt-free D2O and in 0.004 M NaBr in D2O in a wide temperature range. We find that PSBP-b-PNIPAM at 50 g L-1 in salt-free D2O is turbid in the entire temperature range. It forms spherical micelles below the cloud point of PNIPAM and cylindrical micelles above. Similar behavior is observed for PSBP-b-PNIPMAM at 50 g L-1 in salt-free D2O with a slight and smooth increase of the light transmission below the cloud point of PNIPMAM and an abrupt decrease above. Upon addition of 0.004 M NaBr, the UCST-type cloud point of the PSBP-block is notably decreased, and an intermediate regime is encountered below the cloud point of PNIPMAM, where the light transmission is slightly enhanced. In this regime, the polymer solution exhibits behavior typical for polyelectrolyte solutions. Thus, double thermosensitive and salt-sensitive behavior with "schizophrenic" micelle formation is found, and the width of the intermediate regime, where both blocks are hydrophilic, can be tuned by the addition of electrolyte. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.8b00096 SN - 0024-9297 SN - 1520-5835 VL - 51 IS - 7 SP - 2604 EP - 2614 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kirpichenko, Svetlana A1 - Shainyan, Bagrat A. A1 - Kleinpeter, Erich A1 - Shlykov, Sergey A. A1 - Tran Dinh Phien, A1 - Albanov, Alexander T1 - Synthesis of 3-fluoro-3-methyl-3-silatetrahydropyran and its conformational preferences in gas and solution by GED, NMR and theoretical calculations JF - Tetrahedron N2 - The 3,3-disubstitued 3-silaheterocyclohexane with an electronegative substituent at silicon, 3-fluoro-3-methyl-3-silatetrahydropyran 1, was synthesized, and its molecular structure and conformational properties studied by gas-phase electron diffraction (GED) and low temperature C-13 and F-19 NMR spectroscopy. Quantum-chemical calculations were carried out both for the isolated species and Hcomplexes in gas and in polar medium. The predominance of the 1-FeqMeax conformer (1-F-eq:1-F-ax ratio of 65:35, Delta G degrees = 0.37 kcal/mol) determined from GED is close to the theoretically estimated conformational equilibrium, especially at the DFT level. In solution, low temperature NMR spectroscopy showed no decoalescence of the signals in C-13 (down to 95 K) and F-19 NMR spectra (down to 123 K). However, the calculated F-19 chemical shift of -173.6 ppm for the 1-FeqMeax conformer practically coincides with the experimentally observed value (-173 to -175 ppm) as distinct from that for the 1-FaxMeeq conformer (-188.8 ppm), suggesting compound 1 to be anancomeric in solution, in compliance with its theoretical and experimental preference in the gas phase. KW - 3-Fluoro-3-methyl-3-silatetrahydropyran KW - Conformational analysis KW - Gas phase electron diffraction KW - Low-temperature NMR KW - DFT KW - MP2 and CCSD(T) calculations Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tet.2018.02.055 SN - 0040-4020 VL - 74 IS - 15 SP - 1859 EP - 1867 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Roder, Phillip A1 - Hille, Carsten T1 - Local tissue manipulation via a force- and pressure-controlled AFM micropipette for analysis of cellular processes JF - Scientific reports N2 - Local manipulation of complex tissues at the single-cell level is challenging and requires excellent sealing between the specimen and the micromanipulation device. Here, biological applications for a recently developed loading technique for a force-and pressure-controlled fluidic force microscope micropipette are described. This technique allows for the exact positioning and precise spatiotemporal control of liquid delivery. The feasibility of a local loading technique for tissue applications was investigated using two fluorescent dyes, with which local loading behaviour could be optically visualised. Thus, homogeneous intracellular distribution of CellTracker Red and accumulation of SYTO 9 Green within nuclei was realised in single cells of a tissue preparation. Subsequently, physiological micromanipulation experiments were performed. Salivary gland tissue was pre-incubated with the Ca2+-sensitive dye OGB-1. An intracellular Ca2+ rise was then initiated at the single-cell level by applying dopamine via micropipette. When pre-incubating tissue with the nitric oxide (NO)-sensitive dye DAF-FM, NO release and intercellular NO diffusion was observed after local application of the NO donor SNP. Finally, local micromanipulation of a well-defined area along irregularly shaped cell surfaces of complex biosystems was shown for the first time for the fluidic force microscope micropipette. Thus, this technique is a promising tool for the investigation of the spatiotemporal effects of locally applied substances in complex tissues. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-24255-9 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 8 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Liebig, Ferenc A1 - Sarhan, Radwan Mohamed A1 - Prietzel, Claudia Christina A1 - Thünemann, Andreas F. A1 - Bargheer, Matias A1 - Koetz, Joachim T1 - Undulated Gold Nanoplatelet Superstructures BT - In Situ Growth of Hemispherical Gold Nanoparticles onto the Surface of Gold Nanotriangles JF - Langmuir N2 - Negatively charged flat gold nanotriangles, formed in a vesicular template phase and separated by an AOT-micelle-based depletion flocculation, were reloaded by adding a cationic polyelectrolyte, that is, a hyperbranched polyethylenimine (PEI). Heating the system to 100 degrees C in the presence of a gold chloride solution, the reduction process leads to the formation of gold nanoparticles inside the polymer shell surrounding the nanoplatelets. The gold nanoparticle formation is investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, and dynamic light scattering measurements in combination with transmission electron microscopy. Spontaneously formed gold clusters in the hyperbranched PEI shell with an absorption maximum at 350 nm grow on the surface of the nanotriangles as hemispherical particles with diameters of similar to 6 nm. High-resolution micrographs show that the hemispherical gold particles are crystallized onto the {111} facets on the bottom and top of the platelet as well as on the edges without a grain boundary. Undulated gold nanoplatelet superstructures with special properties become available, which show a significantly modified performance in SERS-detected photocatalysis regarding both reactivity and enhancement factor. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b02898 SN - 0743-7463 VL - 34 IS - 15 SP - 4584 EP - 4594 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessig, Pablo A1 - John, Leonard A1 - Mertens, Monique T1 - Extending the Class of [1,3]-Dioxolo[4.5-f]benzodioxole (DBD) Fluorescent Dyes JF - European journal of organic chemistry N2 - Synthetic routes to a collection of new fluorescent dyes are described, which are based on the [1,3]-dioxolo[4.5-f]benzodioxole (DBD) core. By introducing different electron withdrawing groups in 4- and 8-position of the DBD moiety the emission wavelength could be adjusted over a large spectral range from blue to orange light. KW - Functional organic materials KW - Fluorescence KW - DBD dyes KW - Large Stokes shifts KW - Aryllithium compounds KW - Heterocycles Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.201800002 SN - 1434-193X SN - 1099-0690 VL - 2018 IS - 14 SP - 1674 EP - 1681 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tian, Guang-Zong A1 - Hu, Jing A1 - Zhang, Heng-Xi A1 - Rademacher, Christoph A1 - Zou, Xiao-Peng A1 - Zheng, Hong-Ning A1 - Xu, Fei A1 - Wang, Xiao-Li A1 - Linker, Torsten A1 - Yin, Jian T1 - Synthesis and conformational analysis of linear homo- and heterooligomers from novel 2-C-branched sugar amino acids (SAAs) JF - Scientific reports N2 - Sugar amino acids (SAAs), as biologically interesting structures bearing both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups represent an important class of multifunctional building blocks. In this study, we develop an easy access to novel SAAs in only three steps starting from nitro compounds in high yields in analytically pure form, easily available by ceric (IV) mediated radical additions. Such novel SAAs have been applied in the assembly of total nine carbopeptoids with the form of linear homo-and heterooligomers for the structural investigations employing circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, which suggest that the carbopeptoids emerge a well-extended, left (or right)-handed conformation similar to polyproline II (PPII) helices. NMR studies also clearly demonstrated the presence of ordered secondary structural elements. 2D-ROESY spectra were acquired to identify i+1NH <-> (C1H)-C-i, (C2H)-C-i correlations which support the conformational analysis of tetramers by CD spectroscopy. These findings provide interesting information of SAAs and their oligomers as potential scaffolds for discovering new drugs and materials. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-24927-6 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 8 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - John, Daniela A1 - Zimmermann, Marc A1 - Böker, Alexander T1 - Generation of 3-dimensional multi-patches on silica particles via printing with wrinkled stamps JF - Soft matter N2 - A simple route towards patchy particles with anisotropic patches with respect to a different functionality and directionality is presented. This method is based on microcontact printing of positively charged polyethylenimine (PEI) on silica particles using wrinkled stamps. Due to the wrinkled surface, the number of patches on the particles as well as the distance between two patches can be controlled. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8sm00224j SN - 1744-683X SN - 1744-6848 VL - 14 IS - 16 SP - 3057 EP - 3062 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Matic, Aleksandar A1 - Schlaad, Helmut T1 - Thiol-ene photofunctionalization of 1,4-polymyrcene JF - Polymer international N2 - 1,4-Polymyrcene was synthesized by anionic polymerization of -myrcene and was subjected to photochemical functionalization with various thiols (i.e. methyl thioglycolate, methyl 3-mercaptopropionate, butyl 3-mercaptopropionate, ethyl 2-mercaptopropionate and 2-methyl-2-propanethiol) using benzophenone/UV light as the radical source. The yield of thiol addition to the trisubstituted double bonds of 1,4-polymyrcene decreased in the order 1 degrees thiol (ca 95%) > 2 degrees thiol (ca 80%) > 3 degrees thiol (<5%), due to the reversibility of the thiol-ene reaction. Remarkably, thiol addition to the side-chain double bonds was 8 - 10 times (1 degrees thiol) or 24 times (2 degrees thiol) faster than to the main-chain double bonds, which can be explained by the different accessibility of the double bonds and steric hindrance. Despite the use of a 10-fold excess of thiol with respect to myrcene units, the thiol-ene addition was accompanied by chain coupling reactions, which in the extreme case of 3 degrees thiol (or in the absence of thiol) resulted in the formation of insoluble crosslinked material. As an example, a methyl-thioglycolate-functionalized 1,4-polymyrcene was saponified/crosslinked to give submicron polyelectrolyte particles in dilute alkaline solution. (c) 2018 Society of Chemical Industry KW - polymyrcene KW - thiol-ene KW - photochemistry KW - regioselectivity Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pi.5534 SN - 0959-8103 SN - 1097-0126 VL - 67 IS - 5 SP - 500 EP - 505 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paz, Cristian A1 - Heydenreich, Matthias A1 - Schmidt, Bernd A1 - Vadra, Nahir A1 - Baggio, Ricardo T1 - Three new dihydro-beta-agarofuran sesquiterpenes from the seeds of Maytenus boaria JF - Acta Crystallographica Section C N2 - As part of a project studying the secondary metabolites extracted from the Chilean flora, we report herein three new beta-agarofuran sesquiterpenes, namely (1S,4S,5S,6R,7R,8R,9R,10S)-6-acetoxy-4,9-dihydroxy-2,2,5a,9-tetramethyloctahydro-2H-3,9a-methanobenzo[b] oxepine-5,10-diylbis(furan-3-carboxylate), C27H32O11, (II), (1S,4S,5S,6R,7R,9S,10S)-6-acetoxy-9-hydroxy-2,2,5a, 9-tetramethyloctahydro-2H-3,9a-methanobenzo[ b] oxepine-5,10-diyl bis(furan-3-carboxylate), C27H32O10, (III), and (1S,4S,5S,6R,7R,9S,10S)-6-acetoxy-10-(benzoyloxy)-9-hydroxy-2,2,5a,9-tetramethyloctahydro-2H-3,9a-methanobenzo[b]oxepin-5-yl furan-3-carboxylate, C29H34O9, (IV), obtained from the seeds of Maytenus boaria and closely associated with a recently published relative [Paz et al. (2017). Acta Cryst. C73, 451-457]. In the (isomorphic) structures of (II) and (III), the central decalin system is esterified with an acetate group at site 1 and furoate groups at sites 6 and 9, and differ at site 8, with an OH group in (II) and no substituent in (III). This position is also unsubstituted in (IV), with site 6 being occupied by a benzoate group. The chirality of the skeletons is described as 1S, 4S, 5S, 6R, 7R, 8R, 9R, 10S in (II) and 1S, 4S, 5S, 6R, 7R, 9S, 10S in (III) and (IV), matching the chirality suggested by NMR studies. This difference in the chirality sequence among the title structures (in spite of the fact that the three skeletons are absolutely isostructural) is due to the differences in the environment of site 8, i.e. OH in (II) and H in (III) and (IV). This diversity in substitution, in turn, is responsible for the differences in the hydrogen-bonding schemes, which is discussed. KW - Celastraceae KW - Maytenus boaria KW - sesquiterpene KW - dihydro-beta-agarofuran KW - crystal structure KW - NMR KW - DSC Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1107/S2053229618005429 SN - 2053-2296 VL - 74 SP - 564 EP - 570 PB - International Union of Crystallography CY - Chester ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Starke, Ines A1 - Koch, Andreas A1 - Kammer, Stefan A1 - Holdt, Hans-Jürgen A1 - Möller, Heiko Michael T1 - Electrospray mass spectrometry and molecular modeling study of formation and stability of silver complexes with diazaperylene and bisisoquinoline JF - Journal of mass spectrometry N2 - The complex formation of the following diazaperylene ligands (L) 1,12-diazaperylene 1, 1,1-bisisoquinoline 2, 2,11-disubstituted 1,12-diazaperylenes (alkyl=methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, 3, 5, 7), 3,3-disubstituted 1,1-bisisoquinoline (alkyl=methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, 4, 6, 8 and with R=phenyl, 11 and with pyridine 12), and the 5,8-dimethoxy-substituted diazaperylene 9, 6,6-dimethoxy-substituted bisisoquinoline 10 with AgBF4 was investigated. Collision-induced dissociation measurements were used to evaluate the relative stabilities of the ligands themselves and for the [1:1](+) complexes as well as for the homoleptic and heteroleptic silver [1:2](+) complexes in the gas phase. This method is very useful in rapid screening of the stabilities of new complexes in the gas phase. The influence of the spatial arrangement of the ligands and the type of substituents employed for the complexation were examined. The effect of the preorganization of the diazaperylene on the threshold activation voltages and thus of the relative binding energies of the different complexes are discussed. Density functional theory calculations were used to calculate the optimized structures of the silver complexes and compared with the stabilities of the complexes in the gas phase for the first time. KW - electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and modeling KW - silver(1) complexes KW - stability Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/jms.4071 SN - 1076-5174 SN - 1096-9888 VL - 53 IS - 5 SP - 408 EP - 418 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bouakline, Foudhil T1 - Unambiguous signature of the berry phase in intense laser dissociation of diatomic molecules JF - The journal of physical chemistry letters N2 - We report strong evidence of Berry phase effects in intense laser dissociation of D-2(+) molecules, manifested as Aharonov-Bohm-like oscillations in the photofragment angular distribution (PAD). Our calculations show that this interference pattern strongly depends on the parity of the diatom initial rotational state, (-1)(j). Indeed, the PAD local maxima (minima) observed in one case (j odd) correspond to local minima (maxima) in the other case (j even). Using simple topological arguments, we clearly show that such interference conversion is a direct signature of the Berry phase. The sole effect of the latter on the rovibrational wave function is a sign change of the relative phase between two interfering components, which wind in opposite senses around a light-induced conical intersection (LICI). Therefore, encirclement of the LICI leads to constructive (j odd) or destructive (j even) self-interference of the initial nuclear wavepacket in the dissociative limit. To corroborate our theoretical findings, we suggest an experiment of strong-field indirect dissociation of D-2(+) molecules, comparing the PAD of the ortho and para molecular species in directions nearly perpendicular to the laser polarization axis. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b00607 SN - 1948-7185 VL - 9 IS - 9 SP - 2271 EP - 2277 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meiling, Till Thomas A1 - Cywinski, Piotr J. A1 - Löhmannsröben, Hans-Gerd T1 - Two-Photon excitation fluorescence spectroscopy of quantum dots BT - photophysical properties and application in bioassays JF - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces N2 - The applications of quantum dots (QDs) in two-photon (2P) excitation applications demand reliable data about their 2P absorption (2PA) cross sections (sigma(2PA)). In the present study, sigma(2PA) values have been determined for a series of commercial colloidal CdSe/ZnS QDs and CdSeTe/ZnS QDs in aqueous media. For the first time for these QDs, the sigma(2PA) values have been determined over a wide spectral range, that is, between 720 and 900 nm, and are compared to the extinction coefficient (epsilon) values obtained under one-photon (1P) excitation. Furthermore, we present a QD in combination with an organic dye in a biotin-streptavidin Forster resonance energy transfer bioassay under 1P and 2P excitation. The results for the bioassay under 2P excitation are compared to those obtained under 1P excitation. The results demonstrate that in the case of the 2P excitation, higher sensitivity can be achieved because of an improved signal-to-noise ratio. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b12345 SN - 1932-7447 SN - 1932-7455 VL - 122 IS - 17 SP - 9641 EP - 9647 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lendlein, Andreas T1 - Fabrication of reprogrammable shape-memory polymer actuators for robotics T2 - Science robotics N2 - Shape-memory polymer actuators, whose actuation geometry and switching temperatures are reprogrammable by physical fabrication schemes, were recently suggested for robotics with the option for self-healing and degradability. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.aat9090 SN - 2470-9476 VL - 3 IS - 18 PB - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schultze, Christiane A1 - Schmidt, Bernd T1 - Prenylcoumarins in One or Two Steps by a Microwave-Promoted Tandem Claisen Rearrangement/Wittig Olefination/Cyclization Sequence JF - The journal of organic chemistry N2 - The one-pot synthesis of 8-prenylcoumarins from 1,1-dimethylallylated salicylaldehydes and the stabilized ylide [(ethoxycarbonyl)methylene]triphenylphosphorane under microwave conditions was found to have a limited scope. The sequence suffers from a difficult and sometimes low-yielding synthesis of the precursors and from a competing deprenylation upon microwave irradiation. This side reaction occurs in particular with electron rich arenes with two or more alkoxy groups at adjacent positions, a prominent substitution pattern in naturally occurring 8-prenylcoumarins. Both limitations of this one-step sequence were overcome by a two-step synthesis consisting of a microwave-promoted tandem allyl ether Claisen rearrangement/Wittig olefination and a subsequent olefin cross metathesis with 2-methyl-2-butene. The cross metathesis step proceeds with a high selectivity and yields exclusively the desired prenyl, rather than the alternative crotyl substituent. Several naturally occurring 8-prenylcoumarins that were previously inaccessible have been synthesized in good overall yields along this route. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.8b00667 SN - 0022-3263 VL - 83 IS - 9 SP - 5210 EP - 5224 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lee, Hui-Chun A1 - Hwang, Jongkook A1 - Schilde, Uwe A1 - Antonietti, Markus A1 - Matyjaszewski, Krzysztof A1 - Schmidt, Bernhard V. K. J. T1 - Toward ultimate control of radical polymerization BT - functionalized metal-organic frameworks as a robust environment for Metal-Catalyzed Polymerizations JF - Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - Herein, an approach via combination of confined porous textures and reversible deactivation radical polymerization techniques is proposed to advance synthetic polymer chemistry, i.e., a connection of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and activators regenerated by electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP). Zn-2(benzene-1,4-dicarboxylate)2(1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]-octane) [Zn-2(bdc)(2)(dabco)] is utilized as a reaction environment for polymerization of various methacrylate monomers (methyl, ethyl, benzyl, and isobornyl methacrylate) in a confined nanochannel, resulting in polymers with control over dispersity, end functionalities, and tacticity with respect to distinct molecular size. To refine and reconsolidate the compartmentation effect on polymer regularity, initiator-functionalized Zn MOF was synthesized via cocrystallization with an initiator-functionalized ligand, 2-(2-bromo-2-methylpropanamido)-1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (Brbdc), in different ratios (10%, 20%, and 50%). Through the embedded initiator, surface-initiated ARGET ATRP was directly initiated from the walls of the nanochannels. The obtained polymers had a high molecular weight up to 392 000. Moreover, a significant improvement in end-group functionality and stereocontrol was observed, entailing polymers with obvious increments in isotacticity. The results highlight a combination of MOFs and ATRP that is a promising and universal methodology to prepare various polymers with high molecular weight exhibiting well-defined uniformity in chain length and microstructure as well as the preserved chain-end functionality. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b00546 SN - 0897-4756 SN - 1520-5002 VL - 30 IS - 9 SP - 2983 EP - 2994 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meiling, Till Thomas A1 - Schürmann, Robin Mathis A1 - Vogel, Stefanie A1 - Ebel, Kenny A1 - Nicolas, Christophe A1 - Milosavljevic, Aleksandar R. A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - Photophysics and Chemistry of Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanodots with High Photoluminescence Quantum Yield JF - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces N2 - Fluorescent carbon nanodots (CNDs) are very promising nanomaterials for a broad range of applications because of their high photostability, presumed selective luminescence, and low cost at which they can be produced. In this respect, CNDs are superior to well-established semiconductor quantum dots and organic dyes. However, reported synthesis protocols for CNDs typically lead to low photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and low reproducibility, resulting in a poor understanding of the CND chemistry and photophysics. Here, we report a one-step synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots (N-CNDs) from various carboxylic acids, Tris, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid resulting in high PLQY of up to 90%. The reaction conditions in terms of starting materials, temperature, and reaction time are carefully optimized and their influence on the photophysical properties is characterized. We find that citric acid-derived N-CNDs can result in a very high PLQY of 90%, but they do not show selective luminescence. By contrast, acetic acid-derived N-CNDs show selective luminescence but a PLQY of 50%. The chemical composition of the surface and core of these two selected N-CND types is characterized among others by high-resolution synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy using single isolated N-CND clusters. The results indicate that photoexcitation occurs in the N-CND core, whereas the emission properties are determined by the N-CND surface groups. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b00748 SN - 1932-7447 VL - 122 IS - 18 SP - 10217 EP - 10230 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Karras, Manfred A1 - Holec, Jan A1 - Bednarova, Lucie A1 - Pohl, Radek A1 - Schmidt, Bernd A1 - Stara, Irena G. A1 - Stary, Ivo T1 - Asymmetric Synthesis of Nonracemic 2-Amino[6]helicenes and Their Self-Assembly into Langmuir Films JF - The journal of organic chemistry N2 - Alternative ways of preparing nonracemic 2-amino[6]helicene derivatives were explored. The enantioselective [2 + 2 + 2] cycloisomerization of a nonchiral triyne under Ni(cod)(2)/(R)-QUINAP catalysis delivered the enantioenriched (+)-(P)-2-aminodibenzo[6]helicene derivative in 67% ee. An ultimate "point-to-helical" chirality transfer was observed in the cyclization of enantiopure triynes mediated by Ni(CO)(2)(PPh3)(2) affording (-)-(M)- or (+)-(P)-7,8-bis(p-tolyl)hexahelicen-2-amine in >99% ee as well as its benzoderivative in >99% ee. The latter mode of stereocontrol was inefficient for a 2-aminobenzo[6]helicene congener with an embedded five-membered ring. The rac-, (-)-(M)-, and (+)-(P)-7,8-bis(p-tolyl)hexahelicen-2-amines formed Langmuir monolayers at the air water interface featuring practically identical surface pressure vs mean molecular area isotherms. The corresponding Langmuir-Blodgett films on quartz or silicon substrates were characterized by UV vis/ECD spectroscopy and AFM microscopy, respectively. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.8b00538 SN - 0022-3263 SN - 1520-6904 VL - 83 IS - 10 SP - 5523 EP - 5538 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kim, Yohan A1 - Heyne, Benjamin A1 - Abouserie, Ahed A1 - Pries, Christopher A1 - Ippen, Christian A1 - Günter, Christina A1 - Taubert, Andreas A1 - Wedel, Armin T1 - CuS nanoplates from ionic liquid precursors-Application in organic photovoltaic cells JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr N2 - Hexagonal p-type semiconductor CuS nanoplates were synthesized via a hot injection method from bis(trimethylsilyl) sulfide and the ionic liquid precursor bis(N-dodecylpyridinium) tetrachloridocuprate( II). The particles have a broad size distribution with diameters between 30 and 680 nm and well-developed crystal habits. The nanoplates were successfully incorporated into organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells as hole conduction materials. The power conversion efficiency of OPV cells fabricated with the nanoplates is 16% higher than that of a control device fabricated without the nanoplates. (C) 2018 Author(s). Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4991622 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 148 IS - 19 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Raju, Rajarshi Roy A1 - Liebig, Ferenc A1 - Klemke, Bastian A1 - Koetz, Joachim T1 - pH-responsive magnetic Pickering Janus emulsions JF - Colloid and polymer science : official journal of the Kolloid-Gesellschaft N2 - We report ultrasonically generated pH-responsive Pickering Janus emulsions of olive oil and silicone oil with controllable droplet size and engulfment. Chitosan was used as a pH-responsive emulsifier. The increase of pH from 2 to 6 leads to a transition from completely engulfed double emulsion droplets to dumbbell-shaped Janus droplets accompanied by a significant decrease of droplet diameter and a more homogeneous size distribution. The results can be elucidated by the conformational change of chitosan from a more extended form at pH 2 to a more flexible form at pH 4-5. Magnetic responsiveness to the emulsion was attributed by dispersing superparamagnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4 with diameter of 13 +/- 2 nm) in the olive oil phase before preparing the Janus emulsion. Incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles leads to superior emulsion stability, drastically reduced droplet diameters, and opened the way to control movement and orientation of the Janus droplets according to an external magnetic field. KW - Janus emulsion KW - Chitosan KW - pH-responsive KW - Magnetic-responsive KW - Cryo-SEM KW - TEM Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-018-4321-z SN - 0303-402X SN - 1435-1536 VL - 296 IS - 6 SP - 1039 EP - 1046 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ferrer, Beatriz A1 - Peres, Tanara Vieira A1 - dos Santos, Alessandra Antunes A1 - Bornhorst, Julia A1 - Morcillo, Patricia A1 - Goncalves, Cinara Ludvig A1 - Aschner, Michael T1 - Methylmercury affects the expression of hypothalamic neuropeptides that control body weight in C57BL/6J mice JF - Toxicological sciences N2 - Methylmercury (MeHg) is an environmental pollutant that affects primarily the central nervous system (CNS), causing neurological alterations. An early symptom of MeHg poisoning is the loss of body weight and appetite. Moreover, the CNS has an important role in controlling energy homeostasis. It is known that in the hypothalamus nutrient and hormonal signals converge to orchestrate control of body weight and food intake. In this study, we investigated if MeHg is able to induce changes in the expression of key hypothalamic neuropeptides that regulate energy homeostasis. Thus, hypothalamic neuronal mouse cell line GT 1-7 was treated with MeHg at different concentrations (0, 0.5, 1, and 5 mu M). MeHg induced the expression of the anorexigenic neuropeptide pro-omiomelanocortin (Pomc) and the orexigenic peptide Agouti-related peptide (Agrp) in a concentration-dependent manner, suggesting deregulation of mechanisms that control body weight. To confirm these in vitro observations, 8-week-old C57BL/6J mice (males and females) were exposed to MeHg in drinking water, modeling the most prevalent exposure route to this metal. After 30-day exposure, no changes in body weight were detected. However, MeHg treated males showed a significant decrease in fat depots. Moreover, MeHg affected the expression of hypothalamic neuropeptides that control food intake and body weight in a gender-and dose-dependent manner. Thus, MeHg increases Pomc mRNA only in males in a dose-dependent way, and it does not have effects on the expression of Agrp mRNA. The present study shows, for first time, that MeHg is able to induce changes in hypothalamic neuropeptides that regulate energy homeostasis, favoring an anorexigenic/catabolic profile. KW - methylmercury KW - hypothalamus KW - neuropeptides KW - control body weight KW - glucose homeostasis Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfy052 SN - 1096-6080 SN - 1096-0929 VL - 163 IS - 2 SP - 557 EP - 568 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schönemann, Eric A1 - Laschewsky, Andre A1 - Rosenhahn, Axel T1 - Exploring the long-term hydrolytic behavior of zwitterionic polymethacrylates and polymethacrylamides JF - Polymers N2 - The hydrolytic stability of polymers to be used for coatings in aqueous environments, for example, to confer anti-fouling properties, is crucial. However, long-term exposure studies on such polymers are virtually missing. In this context, we synthesized a set of nine polymers that are typically used for low-fouling coatings, comprising the well-established poly(oligoethylene glycol methylether methacrylate), poly(3-(N-2-methacryloylethyl-N,N-dimethyl) ammoniopropanesulfonate) (sulfobetaine methacrylate), and poly(3-(N-3-methacryamidopropyl-N,N-dimethyl)ammoniopropanesulfonate) (sulfobetaine methacrylamide) as well as a series of hitherto rarely studied polysulfabetaines, which had been suggested to be particularly hydrolysis-stable. Hydrolysis resistance upon extended storage in aqueous solution is followed by H-1 NMR at ambient temperature in various pH regimes. Whereas the monomers suffered slow (in PBS) to very fast hydrolysis (in 1 M NaOH), the polymers, including the polymethacrylates, proved to be highly stable. No degradation of the carboxyl ester or amide was observed after one year in PBS, 1 M HCl, or in sodium carbonate buffer of pH 10. This demonstrates their basic suitability for anti-fouling applications. Poly(sulfobetaine methacrylamide) proved even to be stable for one year in 1 M NaOH without any signs of degradation. The stability is ascribed to a steric shielding effect. The hemisulfate group in the polysulfabetaines, however, was found to be partially labile. KW - polyzwitterions KW - stability KW - polymer degradation KW - hydrolysis KW - polysulfobetaine KW - polysulfabetaine KW - anti-fouling materials Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10060639 SN - 2073-4360 VL - 10 IS - 6 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reeg, Jette A1 - Heine, Simon A1 - Mihan, Christine A1 - Preuss, Thomas G. A1 - McGee, Sean A1 - Jeltsch, Florian T1 - Potential impact of effects on reproductive attributes induced by herbicides on a plant community JF - Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry N2 - Current herbicide risk assessment guidelines for nontarget terrestrial plants require testing effects on young, vulnerable life stages (i.e., seedling emergence [and subsequent growth] and vegetative vigor [growth and dry wt]) but not directly on the reproduction of plants. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has proposed that effects on reproduction might be considered when evaluating the potential effects on plants. We adapted the plant community model for grassland (IBC-grass) to give insight into the current debate on the sensitivity of reproductive versus vegetative endpoints in ecological risk assessment. In an extensive sensitivity analysis of this model, we compared plant attributes potentially affected by herbicides and the consequences for long-term plant population dynamics and plant diversity. This evaluation was implemented by reducing reproductive as well as vegetative endpoints by certain percentages (e.g., 10-90%) as a theoretical assumption. Plant mortality and seed sterility (i.e., inability of seeds to germinate) were the most sensitive attributes. Our results indicated that effects on seed production at off-field exposure rates must be very strong to have an impact on the risk assessment. Otherwise, effects on seed production are compensated for by the soil seed bank. The present study highlights the usefulness of community level modeling studies to support regulators in their decisions on the appropriate risk assessment endpoints and provides confidence in their assessments. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:1707-1722. (c) 2018 SETAC KW - Ecological risk assessment KW - Ecotoxicology KW - Herbicide KW - Plant reproduction KW - Plant community model KW - Nontarget terrestrial plants Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4122 SN - 0730-7268 SN - 1552-8618 VL - 37 IS - 6 SP - 1707 EP - 1722 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hartwig, Anne A1 - Hass, Roland T1 - Monitoring lactose crystallization at industrially relevant concentrations by photon density wave spectroscopy JF - Chemical engineering & technology N2 - Lactose is of great industrial importance and its production includes the cooling crystallization from highly concentrated solutions. Monitoring the crystallization process is essential to ensure reproducible product quality. Photon density wave (PDW) spectroscopy enables in-line monitoring of highly concentrated processes in liquid dispersions. It was applied to the determination of the solubility and nucleation points of lactose monohydrate in water, sizing of lactose crystals, and to dissolution as well as crystallization monitoring. Other process analytical technologies (focused-beam reflectance measurement, particle vision and measurement) were used as reference, and the comparison indicates that PDW spectroscopy is very robust against probe fouling and is, thus, a useful tool for monitoring crystallization processes in concentrated suspensions. KW - In-line monitoring KW - Lactose KW - Light scattering KW - Photon density wave spectroscopy KW - Process analytical technology Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ceat.201700685 SN - 0930-7516 SN - 1521-4125 VL - 41 IS - 6 SP - 1139 EP - 1146 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Poghosyan, Armen H. A1 - Shahinyan, A. A. A1 - Koetz, Joachim T1 - Self-assembled monolayer formation of distorted cylindrical AOT micelles on gold surfaces JF - Colloids and surfaces : an international journal devoted to the principles and applications of colloid and interface science ; A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects N2 - Self-assembling features of sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (AOT) molecules and micelle adsorption on gold Au (111) surfaces have been examined using molecular dynamics simulation. We argue that AOT micelles display a strong adsorption on gold surfaces resulting in distorted cylindrical micelles attached to the (111) facets. The well protected Au(111) facets decorated by a dense packed elongated ellipsoidal AOT layer hinder the diffusion of the reactant to the (111) facets and could result in the preferential growth of ultra-thin gold nanoplatelets. KW - Surfactant micelles KW - Adsorption KW - Gold surface KW - Molecular dynamics Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2018.02.067 SN - 0927-7757 SN - 1873-4359 VL - 546 SP - 20 EP - 27 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pailles, Christine A1 - Sylvestre, Florence A1 - Escobar, Jaime A1 - Tonetto, Alain A1 - Rustig, Sybille A1 - Mazur, Jean-Charles T1 - Cyclotella petenensis and Cyclotella cassandrae, two new fossil diatoms from Pleistocene sediments of Lake Peten-Itza, Guatemala, Central America JF - Phytotaxa : a rapid international journal for accelerating the publication of botanical taxonomy N2 - While analyzing the fossil diatom flora in one of the longest paleolimnological records (core PI-6) from Lake Peten-Itza, lowland Guatemala, we encountered Aulacoseira Thwaites, Cyclotella (Kutzing) and Discostella (Cleve & Grunow) Houk & Klee species appearing successively in the record. Among them, two new species that are assigned to the genus Cyclotella are described herein. Cyclotella petenensis sp. nov. is characterised by a coarse striation marked by a shadow line and a tangentially undulate central area with an arc of central fultoportulae. Cyclotella cassandrae sp. nov. has an elliptically shaped valve, coarse striae and a scattered ring of central fultoportulae in the central area. Classification and differences to similar taxa in the genus Cyclotella are discussed. KW - Diatom KW - Cyclotella KW - Pleistocene KW - Lake Peten-Itza KW - Guatemala Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.351.4.1 SN - 1179-3155 SN - 1179-3163 VL - 351 IS - 4 SP - 247 EP - 263 PB - Magnolia Press CY - Auckland ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hansen, Poul Erik A1 - Koch, Andreas A1 - Kleinpeter, Erich T1 - Ring current and anisotropy effects on OH chemical shifts in resonance-assisted intramolecular H-bonds JF - Tetrahedron letters N2 - Ring current effects on resonance-assisted and intramolecularly bridged hydrogen bond protons for 10-hydroxybenzo[h]quinoline 1 and a number of related compounds were calculated and the through-space NMR shieldings (TSNMRS) obtained hereby visualized as iso-chemical-shielding surfaces (ICSS) of various size and direction. These calculations revealed that this through-space effect is comparably large (up to 2 ppm) dependent on the position of the intramolecularly bridged OH proton, and therefore, contribute considerably to the chemical shift of the latter making it questionable to use delta(OH)/ppm in the estimation of intramolecular hydrogen bond strength without taking this into account. Furthermore, the anisotropy effects of additional groups on the aromatic moiety (e.g. the carbonyl group in salicylaldehyde or in o-hydroxyacetophenone of ca. 0.6 ppm deshielding) should also be considered. These through-space effects need to be taken into account when using OH chemical shifts to estimate hydrogen bond strength. KW - RA-intramolecular hydrogen bond KW - Through-space NMR shieldings (TSNMRS) KW - Iso-chemical-shielding surfaces (ICSS) KW - Ring current effect KW - Anisotropy effect Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2018.05.006 SN - 0040-4039 VL - 59 IS - 23 SP - 2288 EP - 2292 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ertan, Emelie A1 - Savchenko, Viktoriia A1 - Ignatova, Nina A1 - Vaz da Cruz, Vinicius A1 - Couto, Rafael C. A1 - Eckert, Sebastian A1 - Fondell, Mattis A1 - Dantz, Marcus A1 - Kennedy, Brian A1 - Schmitt, Thorsten A1 - Pietzsch, Annette A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander A1 - Odelius, Michael A1 - Kimberg, Victor T1 - Ultrafast dissociation features in RIXS spectra of the water molecule JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies N2 - In this combined theoretical and experimental study we report on an analysis of the resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra of gas phase water via the lowest dissociative core-excited state |1s−1O4a11〉. We focus on the spectral feature near the dissociation limit of the electronic ground state. We show that the narrow atomic-like peak consists of the overlapping contribution from the RIXS channels back to the ground state and to the first valence excited state |1b−114a11〉 of the molecule. The spectral feature has signatures of ultrafast dissociation (UFD) in the core-excited state, as we show by means of ab initio calculations and time-dependent nuclear wave packet simulations. We show that the electronically elastic RIXS channel gives substantial contribution to the atomic-like resonance due to the strong bond length dependence of the magnitude and orientation of the transition dipole moment. By studying the RIXS for an excitation energy scan over the core-excited state resonance, we can understand and single out the molecular and atomic-like contributions in the decay to the lowest valence-excited state. Our study is complemented by a theoretical discussion of RIXS in the case of isotopically substituted water (HDO and D2O) where the nuclear dynamics is significantly affected by the heavier fragments' mass. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8cp01807c SN - 1463-9076 SN - 1463-9084 VL - 20 IS - 21 SP - 14384 EP - 14397 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - GEN A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - Light responsive soft nano-objects T2 - Abstracts of papers : joint conference / The Chemical Institute of Cananda, CIC, American Chemical Society, ACS Y1 - 2018 SN - 0065-7727 VL - 256 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Öner, Ibrahim Halil A1 - Querebillo, Christine Joy A1 - David, Christin A1 - Gernert, Ulrich A1 - Walter, Carsten A1 - Driess, Matthias A1 - Leimkühler, Silke A1 - Ly, Khoa Hoang A1 - Weidinger, Inez M. T1 - High electromagnetic field enhancement of TiO2 nanotube electrodes JF - Angewandte Chemie : a journal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker ; International edition N2 - We present the fabrication of TiO2 nanotube electrodes with high biocompatibility and extraordinary spectroscopic properties. Intense surface-enhanced resonance Raman signals of the heme unit of the redox enzyme Cytochromeb(5) were observed upon covalent immobilization of the protein matrix on the TiO2 surface, revealing overall preserved structural integrity and redox behavior. The enhancement factor could be rationally controlled by varying the electrode annealing temperature, reaching a record maximum value of over 70 at 475 degrees C. For the first time, such high values are reported for non-directly surface-interacting probes, for which the involvement of charge-transfer processes in signal amplification can be excluded. The origin of the surface enhancement is exclusively attributed to enhanced localized electric fields resulting from the specific optical properties of the nanotubular geometry of the electrode. KW - electromagnetic field enhancement KW - photonic crystals KW - spectro-electrochemistry KW - surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy KW - TiO2 nanotubes Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201802597 SN - 1433-7851 SN - 1521-3773 VL - 57 IS - 24 SP - 7225 EP - 7229 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heck, Christian A1 - Kanehira, Yuya A1 - Kneipp, Janina A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - Placement of Single Proteins within the SERS Hot Spots of Self-Assembled Silver Nanolenses JF - Angewandte Chemie : a journal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker ; International edition N2 - This study demonstrates the bottom-up synthesis of silver nanolenses. A robust coating protocol enabled the functionalization of differently sized silver nanoparticles with DNA single strands of orthogonal sequence. Coated particles 10nm, 20nm, and 60nm in diameter were self-assembled by DNA origami scaffolds to form silver nanolenses. Single molecules of the protein streptavidin were selectively placed in the gap of highest electric field enhancement. Streptavidin labelled with alkyne groups served as model analyte in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) experiments. By correlated Raman mapping and atomic force microscopy, SERS signals of the alkyne labels of a single streptavidin molecule, from a single silver nanolens, were detected. The discrete, self-similar aggregates of solid silver nanoparticles are promising for plasmonic applications. KW - DNA origami KW - protein analysis KW - SERS KW - silver nanoparticles KW - streptavidin Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201801748 SN - 1433-7851 SN - 1521-3773 VL - 57 IS - 25 SP - 7444 EP - 7447 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yan, Wan A1 - Rudolph, Tobias A1 - Nöchel, Ulrich A1 - Gould, Oliver E. C. A1 - Behl, Marc A1 - Kratz, Karl A1 - Lendlein, Andreas T1 - Reversible actuation of thermoplastic multiblock copolymers with overlapping thermal transitions of crystalline and glassy domains JF - Macromolecules : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - Polymeric materials possessing specific features like programmability, high deformability, and easy processability are highly desirable for creating modern actuating systems. In this study, thermoplastic shape-memory polymer actuators obtained by combining crystallizable poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(3S-isobutylmorpholin-2,5-dione) (PIBMD) segments in multiblock copolymers are described. We designed these materials according to our hypothesis that the confinement of glassy PIBMD domains present at the upper actuation temperature contribute to the stability of the actuator skeleton, especially at large programming strains. The copolymers have a phase-segregated morphology, indicated by the well-separated melting and glass transition temperatures for PIBMD and PCL, but possess a partially overlapping T-m of PCL and T-g of PIBMD in the temperature interval from 40 to 60 degrees C. Crystalline PIBMD hard domains act as strong physical netpoints in the PIBMD-PCL bulk material enabling high deformability (up to 2000%) and good elastic recoverability (up to 80% at 50 degrees C above T-m,T-PCL). In the programmed thermoplastic actuators a high content of crystallizable PCL actuation domains ensures pronounced thermoreversible shape changes upon repetitive cooling and heating. The programmed actuator skeleton, composed of PCL crystals present at the upper actuation temperature T-high and the remaining glassy PIBMD domains, enabled oriented crystallization upon cooling. The actuation performance of PIBMD-PCL could be tailored by balancing the interplay between actuation and skeleton, but also by varying the quantity of crystalline PIBMD hard domains via the copolymer composition, the applied programming strain, and the choice of T-high. The actuator with 17 mol% PIBMD showed the highest reversible elongation of 11.4% when programmed to a strain of 900% at 50 degrees C. It is anticipated that the presented thermoplastic actuator materials can be applied as modern compression textiles. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.8b00322 SN - 0024-9297 SN - 1520-5835 VL - 51 IS - 12 SP - 4624 EP - 4632 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kleinpeter, Erich A1 - Koch, Andreas T1 - Stable Carbenes or Betaines? JF - European journal of organic chemistry N2 - The anisotropy effect in H-1 NMR spectroscopy can be readily employed to indicate the position of carbene/betaine mesomeric equilibria. NR2 substituted carbene/betaines tend to adopt betaine structures, whereas in the absence of NR2 substituents, the betaine structures cannot stabilise the structure through both -donation effects of the NMe2 groups and the electronegativity of the nitrogen atoms, and the corresponding carbene-like structures are preferred. These conclusions are supported by calculated bond orders and (C-13)/ppm values. The spatial magnetic properties of isonitriles and carbon monoxide, which can be counted as stable carbenes or, at least, as carbene-analogues, also exist as stable betaine structures, which is again supported by structural and magnetic properties. KW - Carbenes KW - Betaines KW - Mesomerism KW - Through-space NMR shieldings (TSNMRS) KW - NMR spectroscopy KW - Conformation analysis Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.201800462 SN - 1434-193X SN - 1099-0690 VL - 2018 IS - 24 SP - 3114 EP - 3121 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bornhorst, Julia A1 - Kipp, Anna Patricia A1 - Haase, Hajo A1 - Meyer, Soeren A1 - Schwerdtle, Tanja T1 - The crux of inept biomarkers for risks and benefits of trace elements JF - Trends in Analytical Chemistry N2 - Nowadays, the role of trace elements (TE) is of growing interest because dyshomeostasis of selenium (Se), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) is supposed to be a risk factor for several diseases. Thereby, research focuses on identifying new biomarkers for the TE status to allow for a more reliable description of the individual TE and health status. This review mirrors a lack of well-defined, sensitive, and selective biomarkers and summarizes technical limitations to measure them. Thus, the capacity to assess the relationship between dietary TE intake, homeostasis, and health is restricted, which would otherwise provide the basis to define adequate intake levels of single TE in both healthy and diseased humans. Besides that, our knowledge is even more limited with respect to the real life situation of combined TE intake and putative interactions between single TE. KW - Trace elements KW - Copper KW - Zinc KW - Manganese KW - Selenium KW - Biomarker KW - Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry KW - Hyphenated techniques KW - Isotope ratios Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2017.11.007 SN - 0165-9936 SN - 1879-3142 VL - 104 SP - 183 EP - 190 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kasyanenko, Nina A1 - Unksov, Ivan A1 - Bakulev, Vladimir A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - DNA interaction with head-to-tail associates of cationic surfactants prevents formation of compact particles JF - Molecules N2 - Cationic azobenzene-containing surfactants are capable of condensing DNA in solution with formation of nanosized particles that can be employed in gene delivery. The ratio of surfactant/DNA concentration and solution ionic strength determines the result of DNA-surfactant interaction: Complexes with a micelle-like surfactant associates on DNA, which induces DNA shrinkage, DNA precipitation or DNA condensation with the emergence of nanosized particles. UV and fluorescence spectroscopy, low gradient viscometry and flow birefringence methods were employed to investigate DNA-surfactant and surfactant-surfactant interaction at different NaCl concentrations, [NaCl]. It was observed that [NaCl] (or the Debye screening radius) determines the surfactant-surfactant interaction in solutions without DNA. Monomers, micelles and non-micellar associates of azobenzene-containing surfactants with head-to-tail orientation of molecules were distinguished due to the features of their absorption spectra. The novel data enabled us to conclude that exactly the type of associates (together with the concentration of components) determines the result of DNA-surfactant interaction. Predomination of head-to-tail associates at 0.01 M < [NaCl] < 0.5 M induces DNA aggregation and in some cases DNA precipitation. High NaCl concentration (higher than 0.8 M) prevents electrostatic attraction of surfactants to DNA phosphates for complex formation. DAPI dye luminescence in solutions with DNA-surfactant complexes shows that surfactant tails overlap the DNA minor groove. The addition of di- and trivalent metal ions before and after the surfactant binding to DNA indicate that the bound surfactant molecules are located on DNA in islets. KW - azobenzene trimethylammonium bromide KW - head-to-tail surfactant associates KW - DNA KW - ionic strength KW - multivalent ions Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23071576 SN - 1420-3049 VL - 23 IS - 7 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Geroldinger, Gerald A1 - Tonner, Matthias A1 - Fudickar, Werner A1 - De Sarkar, Sritama A1 - Dighal, Aishwarya A1 - Monzote, Lianet A1 - Staniek, Katrin A1 - Linker, Torsten A1 - Chatterjee, Mitali A1 - Gille, Lars T1 - Activation of anthracene endoperoxides in leishmania and impairment of mitochondrial functions JF - Molecules N2 - Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease caused by protozoal Leishmania. Because of resistance development against current drugs, new antileishmanial compounds are urgently needed. Endoperoxides (EPs) are successfully used in malaria therapy, and experimental evidence of their potential against leishmaniasis exists. Anthracene endoperoxides (AcEPs) have so far been only technically used and not explored for their leishmanicidal potential. This study verified the in vitro efficiency and mechanism of AcEPs against both Leishmania promastigotes and axenic amastigotes (L. tarentolae and L. donovani) as well as their toxicity in J774 macrophages. Additionally, the kinetics and radical products of AcEPs’ reaction with iron, the formation of radicals by AcEPs in Leishmania, as well as the resulting impairment of parasite mitochondrial functions were studied. Using electron paramagnetic resonance combined with spin trapping, photometry, and fluorescence-based oximetry, AcEPs were demonstrated to (i) show antileishmanial activity in vitro at IC50 values in a low micromolar range, (ii) exhibit host cell toxicity in J774 macrophages, (iii) react rapidly with iron (II) resulting in the formation of oxygen- and carbon-centered radicals, (iv) produce carbon-centered radicals which could secondarily trigger superoxide radical formation in Leishmania, and (v) impair mitochondrial functions in Leishmania during parasite killing. Overall, the data of different AcEPs demonstrate that their structures besides the peroxo bridge strongly influence their activity and mechanism of their antileishmanial action. KW - Leishmania KW - endoperoxides KW - EPR spectroscopy KW - mitochondria KW - radicals Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23071680 SN - 1420-3049 VL - 23 IS - 7 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Liebig, Ferenc A1 - Moreno, Silvia A1 - Thuenemann, Andreas F. A1 - Temme, Achim A1 - Appelhans, Dietmar A1 - Koetz, Joachim T1 - Toxicological investigations of "naked" and polymer-entrapped AOT-based gold nanotriangles JF - Colloids and surfaces : an international journal devoted to fundamental and applied research on colloid and interfacial phenomena in relation to systems of biological origin ; B, Biointerfaces N2 - Negatively charged ultrathin gold nanotriangles (AuNTs) were synthesized in a vesicular dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (AOT)/phospholipid-based template phase. These "naked" AuNTs with localized surface plasmon resonances in the NIR region at about 1300 nm and special photothermal properties are of particular interest for imaging and hyperthermia of cancerous tissues. For these kinds of applications the toxicity and the cellular uptake of the AuNTs is of outstanding importance. Therefore, this study focuses on the toxicity of "naked" AOT-stabilized AuNTs compared to polymer-coated AuNTs. Polymeric coating consisted of non-modified hyperbranched poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI), maltose-modified poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI-Mal) and heparin. The toxicological experiments were carried out with two different cell lines (embryonic kidney carcinoma cell line HEK293T and NK-cell leukemia cell line YTS). This study revealed that the heparin-coating of AuNTs improved biocompatibility by a factor of 50 when compared to naked AuNTs. Of note, the highest nontoxic concentration of the AuNTs coated with PEI and PEI-Mal is drastically decreased. Overall, this is mainly triggered by the different surface charges of polymeric coatings. Therefore, AuNTs coated with heparin were selected to carry out uptake studies. Their promising high biocompatibility and cellular uptake may open future studies in the field of biomedical applications. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Gold nanotriangles KW - Polymer-coating KW - Toxicity KW - Heparin KW - Cellular uptake Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2018.04.059 SN - 0927-7765 SN - 1873-4367 VL - 167 SP - 560 EP - 567 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fudickar, Werner A1 - Linker, Torsten T1 - Release of Singlet Oxygen from Organic Peroxides under Mild Conditions JF - ChemPhotoChem N2 - Singlet oxygen can be released in the dark in nearly quantitative yield from endoperoxides of naphthalenes, anthracenes and pyridones as an alternative to its generation by photosensitization. Recently, new donor systems have been designed which operate at very low temperatures but which are prepared from their parent forms at acceptable rates. Enhancement of the reactivity of donors is conveniently achieved by the design of the substitution pattern or through the use of plasmonic heating of nanoparticle-bound donors. The most important aim of these donor molecules is to transfer singlet oxygen in a controlled and directed manner to a target. Low temperatures and the linking between donors and acceptors reduce the random walk of oxygen and may force an attack at the desired position. By using chiral donor systems, new stereocenters might be introduced into prochiral acceptors. KW - donor-acceptor systems KW - oxygenation KW - peroxides KW - polycycles KW - retro reactions Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/cptc.201700235 SN - 2367-0932 VL - 2 IS - 7 SP - 548 EP - 558 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Melani, Giacomo A1 - Nagata, Yuki A1 - Wirth, Jonas A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Vibrational spectroscopy of hydroxylated alpha-Al2O3(0001) surfaces with and without water BT - an ab initio molecular dynamics study JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr N2 - Using gradient- and dispersion-corrected density functional theory in connection with ab initio molecular dynamics and efficient, parametrized Velocity-Velocity Autocorrelation Function (VVAF) methodology, we study the vibrational spectra (Vibrational Sum Frequency, VSF, and infrared, IR) of hydroxylated alpha-Al2O3(0001) surfaces with and without additional water. Specifically, by considering a naked hydroxylated surface and the same surface with a particularly stable, "ice-like" hexagonal water later allows us to identify and disentangle main spectroscopic bands of OH bonds, their orientation and dynamics, and the role of water adsorption. In particular, we assign spectroscopic signals around 3700 cm(-1) as being dominated by perpendicularly oriented non-hydrogen bonded aluminol groups, with and without additional water. Furthermore, the thin water layer gives spectroscopic signals which are already comparable to previous theoretical and experimental findings for the solid/(bulk) liquid interface, showing that water molecules closest to the surface play a decisive role in the vibrational response of these systems. From a methodological point of view, the effects of temperature, anharmonicity, hydrogen-bonding, and structural dynamics are taken into account and analyzed, allowing us to compare the calculated IR and VSF spectra with the ones based on normal mode analysis and vibrational density of states. The VVAF approach employed in this work appears to be a computationally accurate yet feasible method to address the vibrational fingerprints and dynamical properties of water/metal oxide interfaces. Published by AIP Publishing. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5023347 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 149 IS - 1 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Saliba, Michael A1 - Correa-Baena, Juan-Pablo A1 - Wolff, Christian Michael A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - Phung, Thi Thuy Nga A1 - Albrecht, Steve A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Abate, Antonio T1 - How to Make over 20% Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells in Regular (n-i-p) and Inverted (p-i-n) Architectures JF - Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are currently one of the most promising photovoltaic technologies for highly efficient and cost-effective solar energy production. In only a few years, an unprecedented progression of preparation procedures and material compositions delivered lab-scale devices that have now reached record power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) higher than 20%, competing with most established solar cell materials such as silicon, CIGS, and CdTe. However, despite a large number of researchers currently involved in this topic, only a few groups in the world can reproduce >20% efficiencies on a regular n-i-p architecture. In this work, we present detailed protocols for preparing PSCs in regular (n-i-p) and inverted (p-i-n) architectures with >= 20% PCE. We aim to provide a comprehensive, reproducible description of our device fabrication , protocols. We encourage the practice of reporting detailed and transparent protocols that can be more easily reproduced by other laboratories. A better reporting standard may, in turn, accelerate the development of perovskite solar cells and related research fields. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b00136 SN - 0897-4756 SN - 1520-5002 VL - 30 IS - 13 SP - 4193 EP - 4201 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Choi, Youngeun A1 - Kotthoff, Lisa A1 - Olejko, Lydia A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - DNA origami-based forster resonance energy-transfer Nanoarrays and their application as ratiometric sensors JF - ACS applied materials & interfaces N2 - DNA origami nanostructures provide a platform where dye molecules can be arranged with nanoscale accuracy allowing to assemble multiple fluorophores without dye-dye aggregation. Aiming to develop a bright and sensitive ratiometric sensor system, we systematically studied the optical properties of nanoarrays of dyes built on DNA origami platforms using a DNA template that provides a high versatility of label choice at minimum cost. The dyes are arranged at distances, at which they efficiently interact by Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET). To optimize array brightness, the FRET efficiencies between the donor fluorescein (FAM) and the acceptor cyanine 3 were determined for different sizes of the array and for different arrangements of the dye molecules within the array. By utilizing nanoarrays providing optimum FRET efficiency and brightness, we subsequently designed a ratiometric pH nanosensor using coumarin 343 as a pH-inert FRET donor and FAM as a pH responsive acceptor. Our results indicate that the sensitivity of a ratiometric sensor can be improved simply by arranging the dyes into a well-defined array. The dyes used here can be easily replaced by other analyte-responsive dyes, demonstrating the huge potential of DNA nanotechnology for light harvesting, signal enhancement, and sensing schemes in life sciences. KW - DNA origami KW - nanoarray KW - FRET KW - ratiometric sensing KW - pH sensing Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.8b03585 SN - 1944-8244 SN - 1944-8252 VL - 10 IS - 27 SP - 23295 EP - 23302 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Goulet-Hanssens, Alexis A1 - Rietze, Clemens A1 - Titov, Evgenii A1 - Abdullahu, Leonora A1 - Grubert, Lutz A1 - Saalfrank, Peter A1 - Hecht, Stefan T1 - Hole Catalysis as a General Mechanism for Efficient and Wavelength-Independent Z -> E Azobenzene Isomerization JF - CHEM N2 - Whereas the reversible reduction of azobenzenes has been known for decades, their oxidation is destructive and as a result has been notoriously overlooked. Here, we show that a chain reaction leading to quantitative Z -> E isomerization can be initiated before reaching the destructive anodic peak potential. This hole-catalyzed pathway is accessible to all azobenzenes, without exception, and offers tremendous advantages over the recently reported reductive, radical-anionic pathway because it allows for convenient chemical initiation without the need for electrochemical setups and in the presence of air. In addition, catalytic amounts of metal-free sensitizers, such as methylene blue, can be used as excited-state electron acceptors, enabling a shift of the excitation wavelength to the far red of the azobenzene absorption (up to 660 nm) and providing quantum yields exceeding unity (up to 200%). Our approach will boost the efficiency and sensitivity of optically dense liquid-crystalline and solid photo-switchable materials. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2018.06.002 SN - 2451-9294 VL - 4 IS - 7 SP - 1740 EP - 1755 PB - Cell Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heiden, Sophia A1 - Wirth, Jonas A1 - Campen, Richard Kramer A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Water molecular beam scattering at alpha-Al2O3(0001) BT - an ab initio molecular dynamics study JF - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces N2 - Recent molecular beam experiments have shown that water may adsorb molecularly or dissociatively on an α-Al2O3(0001) surface, with enhanced dissociation probability compared to “pinhole dosing”, i.e., adsorption under thermal equilibrium conditions. However, precise information on the ongoing reactions and their relative probabilities is missing. In order to shed light on molecular beam scattering for this system, we perform ab initio molecular dynamics calculations to simulate water colliding with α-Al2O3(0001). We find that single water molecules hitting a cold, clean surface from the gas phase are either reflected, molecularly adsorbed, or dissociated (so-called 1–2 dissociation only). A certain minimum translational energy (above 0.1 eV) seems to be required to enforce dissociation, which may explain the higher dissociation probability in molecular beam experiments. When the surface is heated and/or when refined surface and beam models are applied (preadsorption with water or water fragments, clustering and internal preexcitation in the beam), additional channels open, among them physisorption, water clustering on the surface, and so-called 1–4 and 1–4′ dissociation. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b04179 SN - 1932-7447 VL - 122 IS - 27 SP - 15494 EP - 15504 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwarze, Thomas A1 - Riemer, Janine A1 - Holdt, Hans-Jürgen T1 - A Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe for K+ in Water Based on a Phenylaza-18-Crown-6 Lariat Ether JF - Chemistry - a European journal N2 - This work presents two molecular fluorescent probes 1 and 2 for the selective determination of physiologically relevant K+ levels in water based on a highly K+/Na+ selective building block, the o-(2-methoxyethoxy)phenylaza-18-crown-6 lariat ether unit. Fluorescent probe 1 showed a high K+-induced fluorescence enhancement (FE) by a factor of 7.7 of the anthracenic emission and a dissociation constant (K-d) value of 38mm in water. Further, for 2+K+, we observed a dual emission behavior at 405 and 505nm. K+ increases the fluorescence intensity of 2 at 405nm by a factor of approximately 4.6 and K+ decreases the fluorescence intensity at 505nm by a factor of about 4.8. Fluorescent probe 2+K+ exhibited a K-d value of approximately 8mm in Na+-free solutions and in combined K+/Na+ solution a similar K-d value of about 9mm was found, reflecting the high K+/Na+ selectivity of 2 in water. Therefore, 2 is a promising fluorescent tool to measure ratiometrically and selectively physiologically relevant K+ levels. KW - charge transfer KW - crown compounds KW - fluorescence KW - potassium KW - ratiometric sensors Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201802306 SN - 0947-6539 SN - 1521-3765 VL - 24 IS - 40 SP - 10116 EP - 10121 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schürmann, Robin Mathis A1 - Vogel, Stefanie A1 - Ebel, Kenny A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - The physico-chemical basis of DNA radiosensitization BT - implications for cancer radiation therapy JF - Chemistry - a European journal N2 - High-energy radiation is used in combination with radiosensitizing therapeutics to treat cancer. The most common radiosensitizers are halogenated nucleosides and cisplatin derivatives, and recently also metal nanoparticles have been suggested as potential radiosensitizing agents. The radiosensitizing action of these compounds can at least partly be ascribed to an enhanced reactivity towards secondary low-energy electrons generated along the radiation track of the high-energy primary radiation, or to an additional emission of secondary reactive electrons close to the tumor tissue. This is referred to as physico-chemical radiosensitization. In this Concept article we present current experimental methods used to study fundamental processes of physico-chemical radiosensitization and discuss the most relevant classes of radiosensitizers. Open questions in the current discussions are identified and future directions outlined, which can lead to optimized treatment protocols or even novel therapeutic concepts. KW - cancer KW - dissociative electron attachment KW - low-energy electrons KW - radiation therapy KW - radiosensitizers Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201800804 SN - 0947-6539 SN - 1521-3765 VL - 24 IS - 41 SP - 10271 EP - 10279 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jia, He A1 - Gao, Haitao A1 - Mei, Shilin A1 - Kneer, Janosch A1 - Lin, Xianzhong A1 - Ran, Qidi A1 - Wang, Fuxian A1 - Palzer, Stefan A1 - Lu, Yan T1 - Cu2O@PNIPAM core-shell microgels as novel inkjet materials for the preparation of CuO hollow porous nanocubes gas sensing layers JF - Journal of materials chemistry : C, Materials for optical and electronic devices N2 - There has been long-standing interest in developing metal oxide-based sensors with high sensitivity, selectivity, fast response and low material consumption. Here we report for the first time the utilization of Cu2O@PNIPAM core-shell microgels with a nanocube-shaped core structure for construction of novel CuO gas sensing layers. The hybrid microgels show significant improvement in colloidal stability as compared to native Cu2O nanocubes. Consequently, a homogeneous thin film of Cu2O@PNIPAM nanoparticles can be engineered in a quite low solid content (1.5 wt%) by inkjet printing of the dispersion at an optimized viscosity and surface tension. Most importantly, thermal treatment of the Cu2O@PNIPAM microgels forms porous CuO nanocubes, which show much faster response to relevant trace NO2 gases than sensors produced from bare Cu2O nanocubes. This outcome is due to the fact that the PNIPAM shell can successfully hinder the aggregation of CuO nanoparticles during pyrolysis, which enables full utilization of the sensor layers and better access of the gas to active sites. These results point out great potential of such an innovative system as gas sensors with low cost, fast response and high sensitivity. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8tc01995a SN - 2050-7526 SN - 2050-7534 VL - 6 IS - 27 SP - 7249 EP - 7256 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Poghosyan, Armen H. A1 - Shahinyan, A. A. A1 - Koetz, Joachim T1 - Catanionic AOT/BDAC micelles on gold {111} surfaces JF - Colloid and polymer science : official journal of the Kolloid-Gesellschaft N2 - A sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (AOT)/benzyl hexadecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (BDAC) mixed micelle self-organization and adsorption on gold Au(111) surfaces have been investigated using a molecular dynamics approach. The spherical AOT/BDAC mixed micelle is strongly adsorbed on the gold surface and is disoriented to a cylinder-like shape. KW - AOT/BDAC micelles KW - Gold surfaces KW - Molecular dynamics Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-018-4348-1 SN - 0303-402X SN - 1435-1536 VL - 296 IS - 8 SP - 1301 EP - 1306 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stanglmair, Christoph A1 - Neubrech, Frank A1 - Pacholski, Claudia T1 - Chemical routes to surface enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) substrates JF - Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie : international journal of research in physical chemistry and chemical physics N2 - Bottom-up strategies for fabricating SEIRA substrates are presented. For this purpose, wet-chemically prepared gold nanoparticles are coated with a polystyrene shell and subsequently self-assembled into different nanostructures such as quasi-hexagonally ordered gold nanoparticle monolayers, double layers, and honeycomb structures. Furthermore elongated gold nanostructures are obtained by sintering of gold nanoparticle double layers. The optical properties of these different gold nanostructures are directly connected to their morphology and geometrical arrangement - leading to surface plasmon resonances from the visible to the infrared wavelength range. Finally, SEIRA enhancement factors are determined. Gold nanoparticle double layers show the best performance as SEIRA substrates. KW - bottom-up KW - gold nanoparticles KW - self-assembly KW - surface enhanced spectroscopy Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/zpch-2018-1132 SN - 0942-9352 VL - 232 IS - 9-11 SP - 1527 EP - 1539 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rühlmann, Madlen A1 - Büchele, Dominique A1 - Ostermann, Markus A1 - Bald, Ilko A1 - Schmid, Thomas T1 - Challenges in the quantification of nutrients in soils using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy BT - a case study with calcium JF - Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy N2 - The quantification of the elemental content in soils with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is challenging because of matrix effects strongly influencing the plasma formation and LIBS signal. Furthermore, soil heterogeneity at the micrometre scale can affect the accuracy of analytical results. In this paper, the impact of univariate and multivariate data evaluation approaches on the quantification of nutrients in soil is discussed. Exemplarily, results for calcium are shown, which reflect trends also observed for other elements like magnesium, silicon and iron. For the calibration models, 16 certified reference soils were used. With univariate and multivariate approaches, the calcium mass fractions in 60 soils from different testing grounds in Germany were calculated. The latter approach consisted of a principal component analysis (PCA) of adequately pre-treated data for classification and identification of outliers, followed by partial least squares regression (PLSR) for quantification. For validation, the soils were also characterised with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP OES) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. Deviations between the LIBS quantification results and the reference analytical results are discussed. KW - Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) KW - Soil KW - Multivariate data analysis KW - Principal component analysis (PCA) KW - Partial least squares regression (PLSR) Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sab.2018.05.003 SN - 0584-8547 VL - 146 SP - 115 EP - 121 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - GEN A1 - Jay, Raphael J. A1 - Norell, Jesper A1 - Kunnus, Kristjan A1 - Lundberg, Marcus A1 - Gaffney, Kelly A1 - Wernet, Philippe A1 - Odelius, Michael A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander T1 - Dynamcis of local charge densities and metal-ligand covalency in iron complexes from femtosecond resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering T2 - Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-370051 SN - 0065-7727 VL - 256 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mota, Cristiano A1 - Coelho, Catarina A1 - Leimkühler, Silke A1 - Garattini, Enrico A1 - Terao, Mineko A1 - Santos-Silva, Teresa A1 - Romao, Maria Joao T1 - Critical overview on the structure and metabolism of human aldehyde oxidase and its role in pharmacokinetics JF - Coordination chemistry reviews N2 - Aldehyde oxidases are molybdenum and flavin dependent enzymes characterized by a very wide substrate specificity and performing diverse reactions that include oxidations (e.g., aldehydes and azaheterocycles), hydrolysis of amide bonds, and reductions (e.g., nitro, S-oxides and N-oxides). Oxidation reactions and amide hydrolysis occur at the molybdenum site while the reductions are proposed to occur at the flavin site. AOX activity affects the metabolism of different drugs and xenobiotics, some of which designed to resist other liver metabolizing enzymes (e.g., cytochrome P450 monooxygenase isoenzymes), raising its importance in drug development. This work consists of a comprehensive overview on aldehyde oxidases, concerning the genetic evolution of AOX, its diversity among the human population, the crystal structures available, the known catalytic reactions and the consequences in pre-clinical pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies. Analysis of the different animal models generally used for pre-clinical trials and comparison between the human (hAOX1), mouse homologs as well as the related xanthine oxidase (XOR) are extensively considered. The data reviewed also include a systematic analysis of representative classes of molecules that are hAOX1 substrates as well as of typical and well characterized hAOX1 inhibitors. The considerations made on the basis of a structural and functional analysis are correlated with reported kinetic and metabolic data for typical classes of drugs, searching for potential structural determinants that may dictate substrate and/or inhibitor specificities. KW - Drug metabolism KW - Aldehyde oxidase KW - Xenobiotics KW - Molybdoenzymes KW - Non-CYP enzymes KW - Hepatic clearance Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccr.2018.04.006 SN - 0010-8545 SN - 1873-3840 VL - 368 SP - 35 EP - 59 PB - Elsevier CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Karras, Manfred A1 - Dabrowski, Michal A1 - Pohl, Radek A1 - Rybacek, Jiri A1 - Vacek, Jaroslav A1 - Bednarova, Lucie A1 - Grela, Karol A1 - Stary, Ivo A1 - Stara, Irena G. A1 - Schmidt, Bernd T1 - Helicenes as Chirality-Inducing Groups in Transition-Metal Catalysis BT - the first helically chiral Olefin Metathesis Catalyst JF - Chemistry - a European journal N2 - Helical chirality is a novel enantioselectivity-inducing property in transition-metal-catalyzed transformations. The principle is illustrated herein for the example of asymmetric olefin metathesis. This work reports the synthesis of the first helically chiral Ru-NHC alkylidene complex from an aminohelicene-derived imidazolium salt, which was ligated to the first generation Hoveyda-Grubbs catalyst. Kinetic data were acquired for benchmark test reactions and compared to an achiral catalyst. The helically chiral Ru-catalyst was evaluated in asymmetric ring-closing metathesis (RCM) and ring-opening metathesis-cross-metathesis (ROM/CM) reactions, which proceeded with promising levels of enantioselectivity. Extensive NMR-spectroscopic investigations and a DFT geometry optimization were performed. These results led to a topographic steric map and calculation of percent-buried-volume values for each quadrant around the metal center. KW - asymmetric catalysis KW - carbene ligands KW - helicenes KW - metathesis KW - ruthenium Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201802786 SN - 0947-6539 SN - 1521-3765 VL - 24 IS - 43 SP - 10994 EP - 10998 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mehrabi, Pedram A1 - Schulz, Eike A1 - Müller-Werkmeister, Henrike A1 - Persch, Elke A1 - De Gasparo, Raoul A1 - Diederich, Francois A1 - Tellkamp, Friedjof A1 - Pai, Emil F. A1 - Miller, R. J. Dwayne T1 - Time-resolved crystallography via an interlacing approach allows elucidation of milliseconds to seconds time delays T2 - Acta Crystallographica Section A KW - Time-resolved crystallography KW - crystallography KW - enzymology KW - method development Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1107/S205327331809321X SN - 2053-2733 VL - 74 SP - E138 EP - E138 PB - International Union of Crystallography CY - Chester ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holland-Moritz, Henry A1 - Graupner, Julia A1 - Möller, Wolfhard A1 - Pacholski, Claudia A1 - Ronning, Carsten T1 - Dynamics of nanoparticle morphology under low energy ion irradiation JF - Nanotechnology N2 - If nanostructures are irradiated with energetic ions, the mechanism of sputtering becomes important when the ion range matches about the size of the nanoparticle. Gold nanoparticles with diameters of similar to 50 nm on top of silicon substrates with a native oxide layer were irradiated by gallium ions with energies ranging from 1 to 30 keV in a focused ion beam system. High resolution in situ scanning electron microscopy imaging permits detailed insights in the dynamics of the morphology change and sputter yield. Compared to bulk-like structures or thin films, a pronounced shaping and enhanced sputtering in the nanostructures occurs, which enables a specific shaping of these structures using ion beams. This effect depends on the ratio of nanoparticle size and ion energy. In the investigated energy regime, the sputter yield increases at increasing ion energy and shows a distinct dependence on the nanoparticle size. The experimental findings are directly compared to Monte Carlo simulations obtained from iradina and TRI3DYN, where the latter takes into account dynamic morphological and compositional changes of the target. KW - ion beam KW - nanoparticles KW - sputtering KW - Monte Carlo KW - in situ Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/aac36c SN - 0957-4484 SN - 1361-6528 VL - 29 IS - 31 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mertens, Monique A1 - Hilsch, Malte A1 - Haralampiev, Ivan A1 - Volkmer, Rudolf A1 - Wessig, Pablo A1 - Müller, Peter T1 - Synthesis and characterization of a new Bifunctionalized, Fluorescent, and Amphiphilic molecule for recruiting SH-Containing molecules to membranes JF - ChemBioChem N2 - This study describes the synthesis and characterization of an amphiphilic construct intended to recruit SH-containing molecules to membranes. The construct consists of 1)an aliphatic chain to enable anchoring within membranes, 2)a maleimide moiety to react with the sulfhydryl group of a soluble (bio)molecule, and 3)a fluorescence moiety to allow the construct to be followed by fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy. It is shown that the construct can be incorporated into preformed membranes, thus allowing application of the approach with biological membranes. The close proximity between the fluorophore and the maleimide moiety within the construct causes fluorescence quenching. This allows monitoring of the reaction with SH-containing molecules by measurement of increases in fluorescence intensity and lifetime. Notably, the construct distributes into laterally ordered membrane domains of lipid vesicles, which is probably triggered by the length of its membrane anchor. The advantages of the new construct can be employed for several biological, biotechnological, and medicinal applications. KW - DBD dyes KW - fatty acids KW - liposomes KW - maleimide KW - membranes KW - palmitoylation Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.201800268 SN - 1439-4227 SN - 1439-7633 VL - 19 IS - 15 SP - 1643 EP - 1647 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shainyan, Bagrat A. A1 - Suslova, Elena N. A1 - Tran Dinh Phien, A1 - Shlykov, Sergey A. A1 - Kleinpeter, Erich T1 - Synthesis, conformational preferences in gas and solution, and molecular gear rotation in 1-(dimethylamino)-1-phenyl-1-silacyclohexane by gas phase electron diffraction (GED), LT NMR and theoretical calculations JF - Tetrahedron N2 - 1-(Dimethylamino)-1-phenyl-1-silacyclohexane 1, was synthesized, and its molecular structure and conformational properties studied by gas-phase electron diffraction (GED), low temperature C-13 NMR spectroscopy and quantum-chemical calculations. The predominance of the 1-Ph-ax conformer (1-Ph-eq:1-Ph-ax ratio of 20:80%, Delta G degrees (317 K) = -0.87 kcal/mol) in the gas phase is close to the theoretically estimated conformational equilibrium. In solution, low temperature NMR spectroscopy showed analyzable decoalescence of C-ipso and C(1,5) carbon signals in C-13 NMR spectra at 103 K. Opposite to the gas state in the freon solution employed (CD2Cl2/CHFCl2/CHFCl2 = 1:1:3), which is still liquid at 100 K, the 1-Ph-eq conformer was found to be the preferred one [(1-Ph-eq: 1-Ph-ax = 77%: 23%, K = 77/23 = 2.8; -Delta G degrees = -RT In K (at 103 K) = 0.44 +/- 0.1 kcal/mol]. When comparing 1 with 1-phenyl-1-(X)silacylohexanes (X = H, Me, OMe, F, Cl), studied so far, the trend of predominance of the Ph-ax conformer in the gas phase and of the Ph-eq conformer in solution is confirmed. KW - 1-(Dimethylamino)-1-phenyl-1-silacyclohexane KW - Conformational analysis KW - Gas phase electron diffraction KW - Low-temperature d-NMR KW - DFT KW - MP2 KW - M062X/6-311G** calculations Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tet.2018.06.023 SN - 0040-4020 VL - 74 IS - 32 SP - 4299 EP - 4307 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kretzschmar, Jerome A1 - Haubitz, Toni A1 - Huebner, Rene A1 - Weiss, Stephan A1 - Husar, Richard A1 - Brendler, Vinzenz A1 - Stumpf, Thorsten T1 - Network-like arrangement of mixed-valence uranium oxide nanoparticles after glutathione-induced reduction of uranium(VI) JF - Chemical communications N2 - Glutathione (GSH), a ubiquitous intracellular reducing tripeptide, is able to reduce hexavalent uranium, U(VI), to its tetravalent form, U(IV), in aqueous media in vitro, inducing the formation of nanocrystalline mixed-valence uranium oxide particles. After the initial reduction to U(V) and subsequent dismutation, the yielded U(IV) rapidly hydrolyses under near-neutral conditions forming 2-5 nm sized nanoparticles. The latter further aggregate to 20-40 nm chain-like building blocks that finally arrange as network-like structures. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8cc02070a SN - 1359-7345 SN - 1364-548X VL - 54 IS - 63 SP - 8697 EP - 8700 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klopsch, Rebecca A1 - Baldermann, Susanne A1 - Voss, Alexander A1 - Rohn, Sascha A1 - Schreiner, Monika A1 - Neugart, Susanne T1 - Bread enriched with legume microgreens and leaves BT - ontogenetic and baking-driven changes in the profile of secondary plant metabolites JF - Frontiers in chemistry N2 - Flavonoids, carotenoids, and chlorophylls were characterized in microgreens and leaves of pea (Pisum sativum) and lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) as these metabolites change during ontogeny. All metabolites were higher in the leaves for both species. Acylated quercetin and kaempferol sophorotrioses were predominant in pea. Genistein and malonylated chrysoeriol were predominant in lupin. Further, the impact of breadmaking on these metabolites using pea and lupin material of two ontogenetic stages as an added ingredient in wheat-based bread was assessed. In "pea microgreen bread" no decrease of quercetin was found with regard to the non-processed plant material. However kaempferol glycosides showed slight decreases induced by the breadmaking process in "pea microgreen bread" and "pea leaf bread." In "lupin microgreen bread" no decrease of genistein compared to the non-processed plant material was found. Chrysoeriol glycosides showed slight decreases induced by the breadmaking process in "lupin microgreen bread" and "lupin leaf bread." In all breads, carotenoids and chlorophylls were depleted however pheophytin formation was caused. Thus, pea and lupin microgreens and leaves are suitable, natural ingredients for enhancing health-promoting secondary plant metabolites in bread and may even be used to tailor bread for specific consumer health needs. KW - ontogeny KW - microgreen KW - pea KW - lupin KW - flavonoid KW - carotenoid KW - thermal processing of food Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2018.00322 SN - 2296-2646 VL - 6 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fang, Liang A1 - Gould, Oliver E. C. A1 - Lysyakova, Liudmila A1 - Jiang, Yi A1 - Sauter, Tilman A1 - Frank, Oliver A1 - Becker, Tino A1 - Schossig, Michael A1 - Kratz, Karl A1 - Lendlein, Andreas T1 - Implementing and quantifying the shape-memory effect of single polymeric micro/nanowires with an atomic force microscope JF - ChemPhysChem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry N2 - The implementation of shape-memory effects (SME) in polymeric micro- or nano-objects currently relies on the application of indirect macroscopic manipulation techniques, for example, stretchable molds or phantoms, to ensembles of small objects. Here, we introduce a method capable of the controlled manipulation and SME quantification of individual micro- and nano-objects in analogy to macroscopic thermomechanical test procedures. An atomic force microscope was utilized to address individual electro-spun poly(ether urethane) (PEU) micro- or nanowires freely suspended between two micropillars on a micro-structured silicon substrate. In this way, programming strains of 10 +/- 1% or 21 +/- 1% were realized, which could be successfully fixed. An almost complete restoration of the original free-suspended shape during heating confirmed the excellent shape-memory performance of the PEU wires. Apparent recovery stresses of sigma(max,app)=1.2 +/- 0.1 and 33.3 +/- 0.1MPa were obtained for a single microwire and nanowire, respectively. The universal AFM test platform described here enables the implementation and quantification of a thermomechanically induced function for individual polymeric micro- and nanosystems. KW - cyclic thermomechanical testing KW - atomic force microscopy KW - soft matter micro- and nanowires KW - shape-memory effect KW - materials science Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.201701362 SN - 1439-4235 SN - 1439-7641 VL - 19 IS - 16 SP - 2078 EP - 2084 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - GEN A1 - Dani, Alessandro A1 - Taeuber, Karoline A1 - Zhang, Weiyi A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Yuan, Jiayin T1 - Stable covalently photo-cross-linked porous poly(ionic liquid) membrane with gradient pore size T2 - Abstracts of papers : joint conference / The Chemical Institute of Cananda, CIC, American Chemical Society, ACS N2 - Porous polyelectrolyte membranes stable in a highly ionic environment are obtained by covalent crosslinking of an imidazolium-based poly(ionic liquid). The crosslinking reaction involves the UV light-induced thiol-ene (click) chemistry, and the phase separation, occurring during the crosslinking step, generates a fully interconnected porous structure in the membrane. The porosity is on the order of the micrometer scale and the membrane shows a gradient of pore size across the membrane cross-section. The membrane can separate polystyrene latex particles of different size and undergoes actuation in contact with acetone due to the asymmetric porous structure. Y1 - 2018 SN - 0065-7727 VL - 256 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhong, Qi A1 - Mi, Lei A1 - Metwalli, Ezzeldin A1 - Biessmann, Lorenz A1 - Philipp, Martine A1 - Miasnikova, Anna A1 - Laschewsky, Andre A1 - Papadakis, Christine M. A1 - Cubitt, Robert A1 - Schwartzkopf, Matthias A1 - Roth, Stephan V. A1 - Wang, Jiping A1 - Müller-Buschbaum, Peter T1 - Effect of chain architecture on the swelling and thermal response of star-shaped thermo-responsive (poly(methoxy diethylene glycol acrylate)-block-polystyrene)(3) block copolymer films JF - Soft matter N2 - The effect of chain architecture on the swelling and thermal response of thin films obtained from an amphiphilic three-arm star-shaped thermo-responsive block copolymer poly(methoxy diethylene glycol acrylate)-block-polystyrene ((PMDEGA-b-PS)(3)) is investigated by in situ neutron reflectivity (NR) measurements. The PMDEGA and PS blocks are micro-phase separated with randomly distributed PS nanodomains. The (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films show a transition temperature (TT) at 33 degrees C in white light interferometry. The swelling capability of the (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films in a D2O vapor atmosphere is better than that of films from linear PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS triblock copolymers, which can be attributed to the hydrophilic end groups and limited size of the PS blocks in (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3). However, the swelling kinetics of the as-prepared (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films and the response of the swollen film to a temperature change above the TT are significantly slower than that in the PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS films, which may be related to the conformation restriction by the star-shape. Unlike in the PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS films, the amount of residual D2O in the collapsed (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films depends on the final temperature. It decreases from (9.7 +/- 0.3)% to (7.0 +/- 0.3)% or (6.0 +/- 0.3)% when the final temperatures are set to 35 degrees C, 45 degrees C and 50 degrees C, respectively. This temperature-dependent reduction of embedded D2O originates from the hindrance of chain conformation from the star-shaped chain architecture. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8sm00965a SN - 1744-683X SN - 1744-6848 VL - 14 IS - 31 SP - 6582 EP - 6594 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tuncaboylu, Deniz Ceylan A1 - Friess, Fabian A1 - Wischke, Christian A1 - Lendlein, Andreas T1 - A multifunctional multimaterial system for on-demand protein release JF - Journal of controlled release N2 - In order to provide best control of the regeneration process for each individual patient, the release of protein drugs administered during surgery may need to be timely adapted and/or delayed according to the progress of healing/regeneration. This study aims to establish a multifunctional implant system for a local on-demand release, which is applicable for various types of proteins. It was hypothesized that a tubular multimaterial container kit, which hosts the protein of interest as a solution or gel formulation, would enable on-demand release if equipped with the capacity of diameter reduction upon external stimulation. Using devices from poly(epsilon-caprolactone) networks, it could be demonstrated that a shape-memory effect activated by heat or NIR light enabled on-demand tube shrinkage. The decrease of diameter of these shape-memory tubes (SMT) allowed expelling the payload as demonstrated for several proteins including SDF-1 alpha, a therapeutically relevant chemotactic protein, to achieve e.g. continuous release with a triggered add-on dosing (open tube) or an on-demand onset of bolus or sustained release (sealed tube). Considering the clinical relevance of protein factors in (stem) cell attraction to lesions and the progress in monitoring biomarkers in body fluids, such on-demand release systems may be further explored e.g. in heart, nerve, or bone regeneration in the future. KW - Shape-memory polymer KW - On-demand release KW - Proteins KW - Poly(epsilon-caprolactone) networks KW - Near infrared light triggered shape-recovery Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2018.06.022 SN - 0168-3659 SN - 1873-4995 VL - 284 SP - 240 EP - 247 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Li A1 - Razzaq, Muhammad Yasar A1 - Rudolph, Tobias A1 - Heuchel, Matthias A1 - Nöchel, Ulrich A1 - Mansfeld, Ulrich A1 - Jiang, Yi A1 - Gould, Oliver E. C. A1 - Behl, Marc A1 - Kratz, Karl A1 - Lendlein, Andreas T1 - Reprogrammable, magnetically controlled polymeric nanocomposite actuators JF - Material horizons N2 - Soft robots and devices with the advanced capability to perform adaptive motions similar to that of human beings often have stimuli-sensitive polymeric materials as the key actuating component. The external signals triggering the smart polymers’ actuations can be transmitted either via a direct physical connection between actuator and controlling unit (tethered) or remotely without a connecting wire. However, the vast majority of such polymeric actuator materials are limited to one specific type of motion as their geometrical information is chemically fixed. Here, we present magnetically driven nanocomposite actuators, which can be reversibly reprogrammed to different actuation geometries by a solely physical procedure. Our approach is based on nanocomposite materials comprising spatially segregated crystallizable actuation and geometry determining units. Upon exposure to a specific magnetic field strength the actuators’ geometric memory is erased by the melting of the geometry determining units allowing the implementation of a new actuator shape. The actuation performance of the nanocomposites can be tuned and the technical significance was demonstrated in a multi-cyclic experiment with several hundreds of repetitive free-standing shape shifts without losing performance. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8mh00266e SN - 2051-6347 SN - 2051-6355 VL - 5 IS - 5 SP - 861 EP - 867 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yang, Guang A1 - Hu, Rongting A1 - Ding, Hong-ming A1 - Kochovski, Zdravko A1 - Mei, Shilin A1 - Lu, Yan A1 - Ma, Yu-qiang A1 - Chen, Guosong A1 - Jiang, Ming T1 - CO2-switchable response of protein microtubules BT - behaviour and mechanism JF - Materials chemistry frontiers N2 - Recently, we proposed a small molecular inducing ligand strategy to assemble proteins into highly-ordered structures via dual non-covalent interactions, i.e. carbohydrate-protein interaction and dimerization of Rhodamine B. Using this approach, artificial protein microtubules were successfully constructed. In this study, we find that these microtubules exhibit a perfect CO2 responsiveness; assembly and disassembly of these microtubules were nicely controlled by the alternative passage of CO2 and N-2. Upon the injection of CO2, a negative net-charged SBA turns into a neutral or positive net-charged SBA, which elongated, to some extent, the effective distance between SBA and Rhodamine B, resulting in the disassociation of the Rhodamine B dimer. Further experimental and simulation results reveal that the CO2-responsive mechanism differs from that of solubility change of the previously reported CO2-responsive synthetic materials. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8qm00245b SN - 2052-1537 VL - 2 IS - 9 SP - 1642 EP - 1646 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hoang, Hoa T. A1 - Haubitz, Toni A1 - Kumke, Michael Uwe T1 - Photophysics of "Floppy" Dyadsas Potential Biomembrane Probes JF - Journal of fluorescence N2 - In the study a dyad (C6 probe), constructed of two dyes with highly different hydrophobicities, was investigated by steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques in chloroform, methanol, and in phospholipid vesicles, respectively. The dyad was built on two dyes: the lipophilic benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and the hydrophilic sulforhodamine B (SRB). The dyes were linked via a short, but flexible alkyl chain (six C-atoms). Based on their spectroscopic properties, BaP and SRB showed a very efficient non-radiative resonance energy transfer in solution. Incorporation into a lipid bilayer limited the relative flexibility (degree of freedom) between donor and acceptor and was used for the investigation of fundamental photophysical aspects (especially of FRET) as well as to elucidate the potential of the dyad to probe the interface of vesicles (or cells). The location of the two dyes in vesicles and their respective accessibility for interactions with dye-specific antibodies was investigated. Based on the alteration of the anisotropy, on the rotational correlation time as well as on the diffusion coefficient the incorporation of the C6 probe into the vesicles was evaluated. Especially the limitation in the relative movements of the two dyes was considered and used to differentiate between potential parameters, that influence the energy transfer in the dyad. Transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) and pulsed-interleave single molecule fluorescence experiments were performed to better understand the intramolecular interactions in the dyad. Finally, in a showcase for a biosensing application of the dyads, the binding of an SRB-specific antibody was investigated when the dyad was incorporated in vesicles. KW - Forster resonance energy transfer(FRET) KW - Antibody binding KW - Vesicles KW - Anisotropy KW - Fluorescence correlation KW - Single molecule fluorescence KW - Transient absorption KW - Pulsed interleaved excitation Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-018-2286-4 SN - 1053-0509 SN - 1573-4994 VL - 28 IS - 5 SP - 1225 EP - 1237 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schulze, Sven A1 - Wehrhold, Michel A1 - Hille, Carsten T1 - Femtosecond-Pulsed laser written and etched fiber bragg gratings for fiber-optical biosensing JF - Sensors N2 - We present the development of a label-free, highly sensitive fiber-optical biosensor for online detection and quantification of biomolecules. Here, the advantages of etched fiber Bragg gratings (eFBG) were used, since they induce a narrowband Bragg wavelength peak in the reflection operation mode. The gratings were fabricated point-by-point via a nonlinear absorption process of a highly focused femtosecond-pulsed laser, without the need of prior coating removal or specific fiber doping. The sensitivity of the Bragg wavelength peak to the surrounding refractive index (SRI), as needed for biochemical sensing, was realized by fiber cladding removal using hydrofluoric acid etching. For evaluation of biosensing capabilities, eFBG fibers were biofunctionalized with a single-stranded DNA aptamer specific for binding the C-reactive protein (CRP). Thus, the CRP-sensitive eFBG fiber-optical biosensor showed a very low limit of detection of 0.82 pg/L, with a dynamic range of CRP detection from approximately 0.8 pg/L to 1.2 mu g/L. The biosensor showed a high specificity to CRP even in the presence of interfering substances. These results suggest that the proposed biosensor is capable for quantification of CRP from trace amounts of clinical samples. In addition, the adaption of this eFBG fiber-optical biosensor for detection of other relevant analytes can be easily realized. KW - fiber Bragg gratings KW - ultra-fast laser inscription KW - fiber etching KW - nanostructure fabrication KW - fiber-optical sensors KW - aptamers KW - C-reactive protein KW - biomarker Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/s18092844 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 18 IS - 9 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pereira, Rui F. P. A1 - Zehbe, Kerstin A1 - Günter, Christina A1 - dos Santos, Tiago A1 - Nunes, Silvia C. A1 - Almeida Paz, Filipe A. A1 - Silva, Maria M. A1 - Granja, Pedro L. A1 - Taubert, Andreas A1 - de Zea Bermudez, Verónica T1 - Ionic liquid-assisted synthesis of mesoporous silk fibroin/silica hybrids for biomedical applications JF - ACS Omega N2 - New mesoporous silk fibroin (SF)/silica hybrids were processed via a one-pot soft and energy-efficient sol-gel chemistry and self-assembly from a silica precursor, an acidic or basic catalyst, and the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, acting as both solvent and mesoporosity-inducer. The as-prepared materials were obtained as slightly transparent-opaque, amorphous monoliths, easily transformed into powders, and stable up to ca. 300 degrees C. Structural data suggest the formation of a hexagonal mesostructure with low range order and apparent surface areas, pore volumes, and pore radii of 205-263 m(2) g(-1), 0.16-0.19 cm(3) g(-1), and 1.2-1.6 nm, respectively. In all samples, the dominating conformation of the SF chains is the beta-sheet. Cytotoxicity/bioactivity resazurin assays and fluorescence microscopy demonstrate the high viability of MC3T3 pre-osteoblasts to indirect (>= 99 +/- 9%) and direct (78 +/- 2 to 99 +/- 13%) contact with the SF/silica materials. Considering their properties and further improvements, these systems are promising candidates to be explored in bone tissue engineering. They also offer excellent prospects as electrolytes for solid-state electrochemical devices, in particular for fuel cells. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b02051 SN - 2470-1343 VL - 3 IS - 9 SP - 10811 EP - 10822 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haubitz, Toni A1 - Tsushima, Satoru A1 - Steudtner, Robin A1 - Drobot, Björn A1 - Geipel, Gerhard A1 - Stumpf, Thorsten A1 - Kumke, Michael Uwe T1 - Ultrafast Transient Absorption Spectroscopy of UO(2)(2+)and [UO2Cl](+) JF - The journal of physical chemistry : A, Molecules, spectroscopy, kinetics, environment & general theory N2 - For the only water coordinated "free" uranyl (VI) aquo ion in perchlorate solution we identified and assigned several different excited states and showed that the (3)Delta state is the luminescent triplet state from transient absorption spectroscopy. With additional data from other spectroscopic methods (TRLFS, UV/vis) we generated a detailed Jablonski diagram and determined rate constants for several state transitions, like the inner conversion rate constant from the (3)Phi state to the (3)Delta state transition to be 0.35 ps(-1). In contrast to luminescence measurements, it was possible to observe the highly quenched uranyl(VI) ion in highly concentrated chloride solution by TAS and we were able to propose a dynamic quenching mechanism, where chloride complexation is followed by the charge transfer from the excited state uranyl(VI) to chloride. This proposed quenching route is supported by TD-DFT calculations. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.8b05567 SN - 1089-5639 VL - 122 IS - 35 SP - 6970 EP - 6977 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Senf, Deborah A1 - Ruprecht, Colin A1 - Kishani, Saina A1 - Matic, Aleksandar A1 - Toriz, Guillermo A1 - Gatenholm, Paul A1 - Wagberg, Lars A1 - Pfrengle, Fabian T1 - Tailormade polysaccharides with defined branching patterns BT - Enzymatic polymerization of arabinoxylan oligosaccharides JF - Angewandte Chemie : a journal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker ; International edition N2 - The heterogeneous nature of non-cellulosic polysaccharides, such as arabinoxylan, makes it difficult to correlate molecular structure with macroscopic properties. To study the impact of specific structural features of the polysaccharides on crystallinity or affinity to other cell wall components, collections of polysaccharides with defined repeating units are required. Herein, a chemoenzymatic approach to artificial arabinoxylan polysaccharides with systematically altered branching patterns is described. The polysaccharides were obtained by glycosynthase-catalyzed polymerization of glycosyl fluorides derived from arabinoxylan oligosaccharides. X-ray diffraction and adsorption experiments on cellulosic surfaces revealed that the physicochemical properties of the synthetic polysaccharides strongly depend on the specific nature of their substitution patterns. The artificial polysaccharides allow structure-property relationship studies that are not accessible by other means. KW - carbohydrates KW - enzymes KW - glycosynthases KW - structure elucidation KW - synthetic methods Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201806871 SN - 1433-7851 SN - 1521-3773 VL - 57 IS - 37 SP - 11987 EP - 11992 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Uchida, Ryusuke A1 - Binet, Silvia A1 - Arora, Neha A1 - Jacopin, Gwenole A1 - Alotaibi, Mohammad Hayal A1 - Taubert, Andreas A1 - Zakeeruddin, Shaik Mohammed A1 - Dar, M. Ibrahim A1 - Graetzel, Michael T1 - Insights about the Absence of Rb Cation from the 3D Perovskite Lattice BT - Effect on the Structural, Morphological, and Photophysical Properties and Photovoltaic Performance JF - Small N2 - Efficiencies >20% are obtained from the perovskite solar cells (PSCs) employing Cs+ and Rb+ based perovskite compositions; therefore, it is important to understand the effect of these inorganic cations specifically Rb+ on the properties of perovskite structures. Here the influence of Cs+ and Rb+ is elucidated on the structural, morphological, and photophysical properties of perovskite structures and the photovoltaic performances of resulting PSCs. Structural, photoluminescence (PL), and external quantum efficiency studies establish the incorporation of Cs+ (x < 10%) but amply rule out the possibility of Rb-incorporation into the MAPbI(3) (MA = CH3NH3+) lattice. Moreover, morphological studies and time-resolved PL show that both Cs+ and Rb+ detrimentally affect the surface coverage of MAPbI(3) layers and charge-carrier dynamics, respectively, by influencing nucleation density and by inducing nonradiative recombination. In addition, differential scanning calorimetry shows that the transition from orthorhombic to tetragonal phase occurring around 160 K requires more thermal energy for the Cs-containing MAPbI(3) systems compared to the pristine MAPbI(3). Investigation including mixed halide (I/Br) and mixed cation A-cation based compositions further confirms the absence of Rb+ from the 3D-perovskite lattice. The fundamental insights gained through this work will be of great significance to further understand highly promising perovskite compositions. KW - cation miscibility KW - cesium cation KW - perovskite solar cells KW - rubidium cation KW - X-ray diffraction Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201802033 SN - 1613-6810 SN - 1613-6829 VL - 14 IS - 36 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vacogne, Charlotte Dominique A1 - Wei, Chunxiang A1 - Tauer, Klaus A1 - Schlaad, Helmut T1 - Self-assembly of alpha-helical polypeptides into microscopic and enantiomorphic spirals JF - Journal of the american chemical society N2 - Helical structures are ubiquitous in biological materials and often serve a structural purpose. Bioinspired helical materials can be challenging to synthesize and rarely reach the degree of hierarchy of their natural counterparts. Here we report the first example of particles synthesized by direct emulsification of polypeptides found to display spiral morphologies in the dry state. The polypeptides were alpha-helical homo- and copolypeptides of gamma-benzyl glutamate and allylglycine. The chirality of the spirals was controlled by the chirality of the alpha-helices. Notably, right-handed alpha-helical polypeptides (rich in 1, residues) produced clockwise spirals, whereas left-handed alpha-helical polypeptides (rich in D residues) produced the enantiomorphs, i.e., counterclockwise spirals. The disruption of the alpha-helical conformation by the introduction of chiral defects led to less regular spirals and in some cases their suppression. A hypothesis for the transmission of helicity and chirality from a molecular to a higher hierarchical level, involving fibril bundling of coiled alpha-helices, is proposed. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b06503 SN - 0002-7863 VL - 140 IS - 36 SP - 11387 EP - 11394 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tan, Li A1 - Liu, Bing A1 - Siemensmeyer, Konrad A1 - Glebe, Ulrich A1 - Böker, Alexander T1 - Synthesis of thermo-responsive nanocomposites of superparamagnetic cobalt nanoparticlesipoly(N-isopropylacrylamide) JF - Journal of colloid and interface science N2 - Novel nanocomposites of superparamagnetic cobalt nanoparticles (Co NPs) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) were fabricated through surface-initiated atom-transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). We firstly synthesized a functional ATRP initiator, containing an amine (as anchoring group) and a 2-bromopropionate group (SI-ATRP initiator). Oleic acid- and trioctylphosphine oxide-coated Co NPs were then modified with the initiator via ligand exchange. The process is facile and rapid for efficient surface functionalization and afterwards the Co NPs can be dispersed into polar solvent DMF without aggregation. Transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering measurements confirmed the success of ligand exchange. The following polymerization of NIPAM was conducted on the surface of Co NPs. Temperature-dependent dynamic light scattering study showed the responsive behavior of PNIPAM-coated Co NPs. The combination of superparamagnetic and thermo-responsive properties in these hybrid nanoparticles is promising for future applications e.g. in biomedicine. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. KW - Nanoparticles KW - Superparamagnetic KW - Surface-initiated atom-transfer radical KW - polymerization KW - Responsivity Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2018.04.074 SN - 0021-9797 SN - 1095-7103 VL - 526 SP - 124 EP - 134 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Nagel, Oliver A1 - Beta, Carsten A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Non-Gaussianity, population heterogeneity, and transient superdiffusion in the spreading dynamics of amoeboid cells JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies N2 - What is the underlying diffusion process governing the spreading dynamics and search strategies employed by amoeboid cells? Based on the statistical analysis of experimental single-cell tracking data of the two-dimensional motion of the Dictyostelium discoideum amoeboid cells, we quantify their diffusive behaviour based on a number of standard and complementary statistical indicators. We compute the ensemble- and time-averaged mean-squared displacements (MSDs) of the diffusing amoebae cells and observe a pronounced spread of short-time diffusion coefficients and anomalous MSD-scaling exponents for individual cells. The distribution functions of the cell displacements, the long-tailed distribution of instantaneous speeds, and the velocity autocorrelations are also computed. In particular, we observe a systematic superdiffusive short-time behaviour for the ensemble- and time-averaged MSDs of the amoeboid cells. Also, a clear anti-correlation of scaling exponents and generalised diffusivity values for different cells is detected. Most significantly, we demonstrate that the distribution function of the cell displacements has a strongly non-Gaussian shape andusing a rescaled spatio-temporal variablethe cell-displacement data collapse onto a universal master curve. The current analysis of single-cell motions can be implemented for quantifying diffusive behaviours in other living-matter systems, in particular, when effects of active transport, non-Gaussian displacements, and heterogeneity of the population are involved in the dynamics. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8cp04254c SN - 1463-9076 SN - 1463-9084 VL - 20 IS - 35 SP - 23034 EP - 23054 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fudickar, Werner A1 - Linker, Torsten T1 - Release of Singlet Oxygen from Aromatic Endoperoxides by Chemical Triggers JF - Angewandte Chemie : a journal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker ; International edition N2 - The generation of reactive singlet oxygen under mild conditions is of current interest in chemistry, biology, and medicine. We were able to release oxygen from dipyridylanthracene endoperoxides (EPOs) by using a simple chemical trigger at low temperature. Protonation and methylation of such EPOs strongly accelerated these reactions. Furthermore, the methyl pyridinium derivatives are water soluble and therefore serve as oxygen carriers in aqueous media. Methylation of the EPO of the ortho isomer affords the parent form directly without increasing the temperature under very mild conditions. This exceptional behavior is ascribed to the close contact between the nitrogen atom and the peroxo group. Singlet oxygen is released upon this reaction, and can be used to oxygenate an acceptor such as tetramethylethylene in the dark with no heating. Thus, a new chemical source of singlet oxygen has been found, which is triggered by a simple stimulus. KW - anthracenes KW - donor-acceptor systems KW - mild reaction conditions KW - selective oxidations KW - singlet oxygen Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201806881 SN - 1433-7851 SN - 1521-3773 VL - 57 IS - 39 SP - 12971 EP - 12975 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Franz, Alexandra A1 - Többens, Daniel M. A1 - Steckhan, Julia A1 - Schorr, Susan T1 - Determination of the miscibility gap in the solid solutions series of methylammonium lead iodide/chloride JF - Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials N2 - Perovskites are widely known for their enormous possibility of elemental substitution, which leads to a large variety of physical properties. Hybrid perovskites such as CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI(3)) and CH3NH3PbCl3 (MAPbCl(3)) are perovskites with an A([XII])B([VI)X(-)([II)(])structure, where A is an organic molecule, B is a lead(II) cation and X is a halide anion of iodine or chlorine. Whereas MAPbCl(3) crystallizes in the cubic space group Pm (3) over barm, MAPbI(3) is in the tetragonal space group I4/mcm. The substitution of I by Cl leads to an increased tolerance against humidity but is challenging or even impossible due to their large difference in ionic radii. Here, the influence of an increasing Cl content in the reaction solution on the miscibility of the solid solution members is examined systematically. Powders were synthesized by two different routes depending on the I:Cl ratio. High-resolution synchrotron X-ray data are used to establish values for the limits of the miscibility gap which are 3.1 (1.1) mol% MAPbCl(3) in MAPI(3) and 1.0 (1) mol% MAPbI(3) in MAPCl. The establishment of relations between average pseudo-cubic lattice parameters for both phases allows a determination of the degree of substitution from the observed lattice parameters. KW - powder diffraction KW - hybrid perovskites KW - miscibility gap KW - MAPbX3 Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052520618010764 SN - 2052-5206 VL - 74 SP - 445 EP - 449 PB - International Union of Crystallography CY - Chester ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Frede, Katja A1 - Schreiner, Monika A1 - Zrenner, R. A1 - Graefe, Jan A1 - Baldermann, Susanne T1 - Carotenoid biosynthesis of pak choi (Brassica rapa ssp chinensis) sprouts grown under different light-emitting diodes during the diurnal course JF - Photochemical & photobiological sciences N2 - Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are considered the future of greenhouse lighting. This study investigates the carotenoid concentrations of pak choi sprouts after growth under blue, red and white LEDs at six different time points. Furthermore, the diurnal changes of RNA transcripts of key genes of the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway as well as of the carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase 4 (CCD4) gene and of the transcription factor genes elongated hypocotyl 5 (HY5) and circadian clock associated 1 (CCA1) were investigated. The carotenoid concentrations were steady throughout the day, but showed a small maximum in the afternoon. An average total carotenoid concentration of 536 +/- 29 ng mg(-1) DM produced under white LEDs was measured, which is comparable to previously described field-grown levels. The carotenoid concentrations were slightly lower under blue or red LEDs. Moreover, the diurnal RNA transcript rhythms of most of the carotenoid biosynthesis genes showed an increase during the light period, which can be correlated to the carotenoid maxima in the afternoon. Blue LEDs caused the highest transcriptional induction of biosynthetic genes as well as of CCD4, thereby indicating an increased flux through the pathway. In addition, the highest levels of HY5 transcripts and CCA1 transcripts were determined under blue LEDs. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8pp00136g SN - 1474-905X SN - 1474-9092 VL - 17 IS - 10 SP - 1289 EP - 1300 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Erler, Alexander A1 - Riebe, Daniel A1 - Beitz, Toralf A1 - Löhmannsröben, Hans-Gerd A1 - Grothusheitkamp, Daniela A1 - Kunz, T. A1 - Methner, Frank-Jürgen T1 - Detection of volatile organic compounds in the headspace above mold fungi by GC-soft X-radiation-based APCI-MS JF - Journal of mass spectrometr N2 - Mold fungi on malting barley grains cause major economic loss in malting and brewery facilities. Possible proxies for their detection are volatile and semivolatile metabolites. Among those substances, characteristic marker compounds have to be identified for a confident detection of mold fungi in varying surroundings. The analytical determination is usually performed through passive sampling with solid phase microextraction, gas chromatographic separation, and detection by electron ionization mass spectrometry (EI-MS), which often does not allow a confident determination due to the absence of molecular ions. An alternative is GC-APCI-MS, generally, allowing the determination of protonated molecular ions. Commercial atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) sources are based on corona discharges, which are often unspecific due to the occurrence of several side reactions and produce complex product ion spectra. To overcome this issue, an APCI source based on soft X-radiation is used here. This source facilitates a more specific ionization by proton transfer reactions only. In the first part, the APCI source is characterized with representative volatile fungus metabolites. Depending on the proton affinity of the metabolites, the limits of detection are up to 2 orders of magnitude below those of EI-MS. In the second part, the volatile metabolites of the mold fungus species Aspergillus, Alternaria, Fusarium, and Penicillium are investigated. In total, 86 compounds were found with GC-EI/APCI-MS. The metabolites identified belong to the substance classes of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, substituted aromatic compounds, terpenes, and sesquiterpenes. In addition to substances unspecific for the individual fungus species, characteristic patterns of metabolites, allowing their confident discrimination, were found for each of the 4 fungus species. Sixty-seven of the 86 metabolites are detected by X-ray-based APCI-MS alone. The discrimination of the fungus species based on these metabolites alone was possible. Therefore, APCI-MS in combination with collision induced dissociation alone could be used as a supervision method for the detection of mold fungi. KW - APCI KW - gas chromatography KW - mass spectrometry KW - mold fungi KW - soft X-radiation KW - volatile organic compounds Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/jms.4210 SN - 1076-5174 SN - 1096-9888 VL - 53 IS - 10 SP - 911 EP - 920 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Plötz, Per-Arno A1 - Megow, Jörg A1 - Niehaus, Thomas A1 - Kühn, Oliver T1 - All-DFTB Approach to the Parametrization of the System-Bath Hamiltonian Describing Exciton-Vibrational Dynamics of Molecular Assemblies JF - Journal of chemical theory and computation N2 - Spectral density functions are central to the simulation of complex many body systems. Their determination requires making approximations not only to the dynamics but also to the underlying electronic structure theory. Here, blending different methods bears the danger of an inconsistent description. To solve this issue we propose an all-DFTB approach to determine spectral densities for the description of Frenkel excitons in molecular assemblies. The protocol is illustrated for a model of a PTCDI crystal, which involves the calculation of monomeric excitation energies and Coulomb couplings between monomer transitions, as well as their spectral distributions due to thermal fluctuations of the nuclei. Using dynamically defined normal modes, a mapping onto the standard harmonic oscillator spectral densities is achieved. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.8b00493 SN - 1549-9618 SN - 1549-9626 VL - 14 IS - 10 SP - 5001 EP - 5010 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tan, Li A1 - Liu, Bing A1 - Siemensmeyer, Konrad A1 - Glebe, Ulrich A1 - Böker, Alexander T1 - Synthesis of Polystyrene-Coated Superparamagnetic and Ferromagnetic Cobalt Nanoparticles JF - Polymers N2 - Polystyrene-coated cobalt nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized through a dual-stage thermolysis of cobalt carbonyl (Co-2(CO)(8)). The amine end-functionalized polystyrene surfactants with varying molecular weight were prepared via atom-transfer radical polymerization technique. By changing the concentration of these polymeric surfactants, Co NPs with different size, size distribution, and magnetic properties were obtained. Transmission electron microscopy characterization showed that the size of Co NPs stabilized with lower molecular weight polystyrene surfactants (M-n = 2300 g/mol) varied from 12-22 nm, while the size of Co NPs coated with polystyrene of middle (M-n = 4500 g/mol) and higher molecular weight (M-n = 10,500 g/mol) showed little change around 20 nm. Magnetic measurements revealed that the small cobalt particles were superparamagnetic, while larger particles were ferromagnetic and self-assembled into 1-D chain structures. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the grafting density of polystyrene with lower molecular weight is high. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to obtain both superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic Co NPs by changing the molecular weight and concentration of polystyrene through the dual-stage decomposition method. KW - cobalt nanoparticles KW - polystyrene KW - superparamagnetic KW - ferromagnetic KW - molecular weight Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10101053 SN - 2073-4360 VL - 10 IS - 10 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Christian Michael A1 - Frischmann, Peter D. A1 - Schulze, Marcus A1 - Bohn, Bernhard J. A1 - Wein, Robin A1 - Livadas, Panajotis A1 - Carlson, Michael T. A1 - Jäckel, Frank A1 - Feldmann, Jochen A1 - Würthner, Frank A1 - Stolarczyk, Jacek K. T1 - All-in-one visible-light-driven water splitting by combining nanoparticulate and molecular co-catalysts on CdS nanorods JF - Nature Energy N2 - Full water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen on semiconductor nanocrystals is a challenging task; overpotentials must be overcome for both half-reactions and different catalytic sites are needed to facilitate them. Additionally, efficient charge separation and prevention of back reactions are necessary. Here, we report simultaneous H-2 and O-2 evolution by CdS nanorods decorated with nanoparticulate reduction and molecular oxidation co-catalysts. The process proceeds entirely without sacrificial agents and relies on the nanorod morphology of CdS to spatially separate the reduction and oxidation sites. Hydrogen is generated on Pt nanoparticles grown at the nanorod tips, while Ru(tpy)(bpy)Cl-2-based oxidation catalysts are anchored through dithiocarbamate bonds onto the sides of the nanorod. O-2 generation from water was verified by O-18 isotope labelling experiments, and time-resolved spectroscopic results confirmed efficient charge separation and ultrafast electron and hole transfer to the reaction sites. The system demonstrates that combining nanoparticulate and molecular catalysts on anisotropic nanocrystals provides an effective pathway for visible-light-driven photocatalytic water splitting. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0229-6 SN - 2058-7546 VL - 3 IS - 10 SP - 862 EP - 869 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Qi, Wenjing A1 - Zhang, Yufei A1 - Kochovski, Zdravko A1 - Wang, Jue A1 - Lu, Yan A1 - Chen, Guosong A1 - Jiang, Ming T1 - Self-assembly of Human Galectin-1 via dual supramolecular interactions and its inhibition of T-cell agglutination and apoptosis JF - Nano Research N2 - Recently, we proposed a new strategy to construct artificial plant protein assemblies, which were induced by adding a small molecule, based on dual supramolecular interactions. In this paper, we further explored this method by employing Human Galectin-1 (Gal-1) as a building block to form self-assembled microribbons. Two non-covalent interactions, including lactose-lectin binding and dimerization of Rhodamine B (RhB), induced by the small molecule ligand addition, were involved in the crosslinking of the animal protein, resulting in the formation of assemblies. By using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and three-dimensional (3D) tomographic analysis, we arrived at a possible mechanistic model for the microribbon formation. Furthermore, the morphology of protein assemblies could be fine-timed by varying the incubation time, the protein/ligand ratio, and the chemical structures of ligands. Interestingly, the formation of protein microribbons successfully inhibited Gal-1 induced T-cell agglutination and apoptosis. This is because the multivalent and dynamic interactions in protein assemblies compete with the binding between Gal-1 and the glycans on cell surfaces, which suppresses the function of Gal-1 in promotion of tumor progression and metastasis. KW - protein self-assembly KW - supramolecular interactions KW - galectin KW - cell agglutination Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2169-7 SN - 1998-0124 SN - 1998-0000 VL - 11 IS - 10 SP - 5566 EP - 5572 PB - Tsinghua Univ Press CY - Beijing ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Duydu, Yalcin A1 - Basaran, Nursen A1 - Aydin, Sevtap A1 - Ustundag, Aylin A1 - Yalcin, Can Özgür A1 - Anlar, Hatice Gul A1 - Bacanli, Merve A1 - Aydos, Kaan A1 - Atabekoglu, Cem Somer A1 - Golka, Klaus A1 - Ickstadt, Katja A1 - Schwerdtle, Tanja A1 - Werner, Matthias A1 - Meyer, Sören A1 - Bolt, Hermann M. T1 - Evaluation of FSH, LH, testosterone levels and semen parameters in male boron workers under extreme exposure conditions JF - Archives of toxicology : official journal of EUROTOX N2 - Boric acid and sodium borates are currently classified in the EU-CLP regulation as "toxic to reproduction" under "Category 1B", with hazard statement of H360FD. However, so far field studies on male reproduction in China and in Turkey could not confirm such boron-associated toxic effects. As validation by another independent study is still required, the present study has investigated possible boron-associated effects on male reproduction in workers (n = 212) under different boron exposure conditions. The mean daily boron exposure (DBE) and blood boron concentration of workers in the extreme exposure group (n = 98) were 47.17 +/- 17.47 (7.95-106.8) mg B/day and 570.6 +/- 160.1 (402.6-1100) ng B/g blood, respectively. Nevertheless, boron-associated adverse effects on semen parameters, as well as on FSH, LH and total testosterone levels were not seen, even within the extreme exposure group. With this study, a total body of evidence has accumulated that allows to conclude that male reproductive effects are not relevant to humans, under any feasible and realistic conditions of exposure to inorganic boron compounds. KW - Boron exposure KW - Boric acid KW - Reproductive toxicity KW - FSH KW - LH KW - Testosterone KW - Semen parameters Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-018-2296-7 SN - 0340-5761 SN - 1432-0738 VL - 92 IS - 10 SP - 3051 EP - 3059 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Goldhahn, Christian A1 - Schubert, Jonas A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Ferri, James K. A1 - Fery, Andreas A1 - Chanana, Munish T1 - Synthesis of Metal@Protein@Polymer Nanoparticles with Distinct Interfacial and Phase Transfer Behavior JF - Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - In this study, we present a novel and facile method for the synthesis of multiresponsive plasmonic nanoparticles with an interesting interfacial behavior. We used thiol-initiated photopolymerization technique to graft poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) onto the surface of protein-coated gold nanoparticles. The combination of the protein bovine serum albumin with the thermoresponsive polymer leads to smart hybrid nanoparticles, which show a stimuli-responsive behavior of their aggregation and a precisely controllable phase transfer behavior. Three interconnected stimuli, namely, temperature, ionic strength, and pH, were identified as property tuning switches. The aggregation was completely reversible and was quantified by determining Smoluchowski’s instability ratios with time-resolved dynamic light scattering. The tunable hydrophobicity via the three stimuli was used to study interfacial activity and phase transfer behavior of the nanoparticles at an octanol/water interface. Depending on the type of coating (i.e., protein or protein/polymer) as well as the three external stimuli, the nanoparticles either remained in the aqueous phase (aggregated or nonaggregated), accumulated at the oil/water interface, wet the glass wall between the glass vial and the octanol phase, or even crossed the oil/water interface. Such smart and interfacially active nanoparticles with external triggers that are capable of crossing oil/water interfaces under physiological conditions open up new avenues for a variety of applications ranging from the development of drug-delivery nanosystems across biological barriers to the preparation of new catalytic materials. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b02314 SN - 0897-4756 SN - 1520-5002 VL - 30 IS - 19 SP - 6717 EP - 6727 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ehlert, Christopher A1 - Gühr, Markus A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - An efficient first principles method for molecular pump-probe NEXAFS spectra BT - application to thymine and azobenzene JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr N2 - Pump-probe near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (PP-NEXAFS) spectra of molecules offer insight into valence-excited states, even if optically dark. In PP-NEXAFS spectroscopy, the molecule is "pumped" by UV or visible light enforcing a valence excitation, followed by an X-ray "probe" exciting core electrons into (now) partially empty valence orbitals. Calculations of PP-NEXAFS have so far been done by costly, correlated wavefunction methods which are not easily applicable to medium-sized or large molecules. Here we propose an efficient, first principles method based on density functional theory in combination with the transition potential and Delta SCF methodology (TP-DFT/Delta SCF) to compute molecular ground state and PP-NEXAFS spectra. We apply the method to n ->pi* pump/O-K-edge NEXAFS probe spectroscopy of thymine (for which both experimental and other theoretical data exist) and to n -> pi* or pi -> pi* pump/N-K-edge NEXAFS probe spectroscopies of trans-and cis-azobenzene. Published by AIP Publishing. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5050488 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 149 IS - 14 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sun, Zhiyong A1 - Glebe, Ulrich A1 - Charan, Himanshu A1 - Böker, Alexander A1 - Wu, Changzhu T1 - Enzyme-Polymer Conjugates as Robust Pickering Interfacial Biocatalysts for Efficient Biotransformations and One-Pot Cascade Reactions JF - Angewandte Chemie : a journal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker ; International edition N2 - Despite the rapid development of Pickering interfacial catalysis (PIC) at liquid-liquid interfaces with chemocatalysts, the use of unstable biocatalysts at emulsion interfaces remains a technical challenge. Herein, we present a Pickering interfacial biocatalysis (PIB) platform based on robust and recyclable enzyme-polymer conjugates that act as both catalytic sites and stabilizers at the interface of Pickering emulsions. The conjugates were prepared by growing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) on a fragile enzyme, benzaldehyde lyase, under physiological conditions. The mild in situ conjugation process preserved the enzyme structure, and the conjugates were used to emulsify a water-organic two-phase system into a stable Pickering emulsion, leading to a significantly larger interfacial area and a 270-fold improvement in catalytic performance as compared to the unemulsified two-phase system. The PIB system could be reused multiple times. Conjugates of other enzymes were also fabricated and applied for cascade reactions. KW - biphasic catalysis KW - cascade reactions KW - enzyme catalysis KW - enzyme-polymer conjugates KW - Pickering interfacial catalysis Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201806049 SN - 1433-7851 SN - 1521-3773 VL - 57 IS - 42 SP - 13810 EP - 13814 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Turrini, Nikolaus G. A1 - Kroepfl, Nina A1 - Jensen, Kenneth Bendix A1 - Reiter, Tamara C. A1 - Francesconi, Kevin A. A1 - Schwerdtle, Tanja A1 - Kroutil, Wolfgang A1 - Kuehnelt, Doris T1 - Biosynthesis and isolation of selenoneine from genetically modified fission yeast JF - Metallomics : integrated biometal science N2 - Selenoneine, a naturally occurring form of selenium, is the selenium analogue of ergothioneine, a sulfur species with health relevance not only as a purported antioxidant but likely also beyond. Selenoneine has been speculated to exhibit similar effects. To study selenoneine's health properties as well as its metabolic transformation, the pure compound is required. Chemical synthesis of selenoneine, however, is challenging and biosynthetic approaches have been sought. We herein report the biosynthesis and isolation of selenoneine from genetically modified fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe grown in a medium containing sodium selenate. After cell lysis and extraction with methanol, selenoneine was purified by three consecutive preparative reversed-phase HPLC steps. The product obtained at the mg level was characterised by high resolution mass spectrometry, NMR and HPLC/ICPMS. Biosynthesis was found to be a promising alternative to chemical synthesis, and should be suitable for upscaling to produce higher amounts of this important selenium species in the future. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8mt00200b SN - 1756-5901 SN - 1756-591X VL - 10 IS - 10 SP - 1532 EP - 1538 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tadjoung Waffo, Armel Franklin A1 - Yesildag, Cigdem A1 - Caserta, Giorgio A1 - Katz, Sagie A1 - Zebger, Ingo A1 - Lensen, Marga C. A1 - Wollenberger, Ulla A1 - Scheller, Frieder W. A1 - Altintas, Zeynep T1 - Fully electrochemical MIP sensor for artemisinin JF - Sensors and actuators : B, Chemical N2 - This study aims to develop a rapid, sensitive and cost-effective biomimetic electrochemical sensor for artemisinin determination in plant extracts and for pharmacokinetic studies. A novel molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)based electrochemical sensor was developed by electropolymerization of o-phenylenediamine (o-PD) in the presence of artemisinin on gold wire surface for sensitive detection of artemisinin. The experimental parameters, including selection of functional monomer, polymerization conditions, template extraction after polymerization, influence of pH and buffer were all optimized. Every step of imprinted film synthesis were evaluated by employing voltammetry techniques, surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The specificity was further evaluated by investigating non-specific artemisinin binding on non-imprinted polymer (NIP) surfaces and an imprinting factor of 6.8 was achieved. The artemisinin imprinted polymers using o-PD as functional monomer have provided highly stable and effective binding cavities for artemisinin. Cross-reactivity studies with drug molecules showed that the MIPs are highly specific for artemisinin. The influence of matrix effect was further investigated both in artificial plant matrix and diluted human serum. The results revealed a high affinity of artemisinin-MIP with dissociation constant of 7.3 x 10(-9) M and with a detection limit of 0.01 mu M and 0.02 mu M in buffer and plant matrix, respectively. KW - Electro-synthesized molecularly imprinted polymer KW - o-Phenylenediamine KW - Artemisinin KW - Antimalarial drug detection KW - Electrochemical sensor Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2018.08.018 SN - 0925-4005 VL - 275 SP - 163 EP - 173 PB - Elsevier CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Büchner, Dörthe A1 - John, Leonard A1 - Mertens, Monique A1 - Wessig, Pablo T1 - Detection of dsDNA with [1,3]Dioxolo[4,5-f]benzodioxol (DBD) Dyes JF - Chemistry - a European journal N2 - DBD fluorescent dyes have proven to be useful in numerous applications. To widen the range of biological applications, we propose three different types of DBD molecules that have been modified in such a way that DNA interaction becomes probable. After the successful synthesis of all three compounds, we tested their fluorescent properties and their DNA binding abilities. Two of the three probes exhibit an interaction with dsDNA with subsequent fluorescence enhancement. The determined binding constants of the two new DNA dyes are comparable to other minorgroove-binding dyes. Their large Stokes shifts and their long fluorescent lifetimes are outstanding features of these dyes. KW - DNA recognition KW - dyes/pigments KW - fluorescent probes KW - heterocycles KW - scatchard plot Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201804057 SN - 0947-6539 SN - 1521-3765 VL - 24 IS - 60 SP - 16183 EP - 16190 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schulz, Eike C. A1 - Mehrabi, Pedram A1 - Müller-Werkmeister, Henrike A1 - Tellkamp, Friedjof A1 - Jha, Ajay A1 - Stuart, William A1 - Persch, Elke A1 - De Gasparo, Raoul A1 - Diederich, François A1 - Pai, Emil F. A1 - Miller, R. J. Dwayne T1 - The hit-and-return system enables efficient time-resolved serial synchrotron crystallography JF - Nature methods : techniques for life scientists and chemists N2 - We present a ‘hit-and-return’ (HARE) method for time-resolved serial synchrotron crystallography with time resolution from milliseconds to seconds or longer. Timing delays are set mechanically, using the regular pattern in fixed-target crystallography chips and a translation stage system. Optical pump-probe experiments to capture intermediate structures of fluoroacetate dehalogenase binding to its ligand demonstrated that data can be collected at short (30 ms), medium (752 ms) and long (2,052 ms) intervals. KW - Biophysical chemistry KW - Enzymes KW - Molecular biophysics KW - X-ray crystallography Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-018-0180-2 SN - 1548-7091 SN - 1548-7105 VL - 15 IS - 11 SP - 901 EP - 904 PB - Nature Publishing Group (London) CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Riemer, Nastja A1 - Coswig, Christin A1 - Shipman, Michael A1 - Schmidt, Bernd T1 - Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of arenediazonium salts with organoindium or organobismuth reagents JF - Synlett : accounts and rapid communications in synthetic organic chemistry N2 - Arylindium and isolated triarylbismuth compounds generated in situ react as nucleophiles with arenediazonium salts in palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions to give substituted biphenyls. KW - Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of arenediazonium salts with organoindium or organobismuth reagents Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0037-1611001 SN - 0936-5214 SN - 1437-2096 VL - 29 IS - 18 SP - 2427 EP - 2431 PB - Georg Thieme Verlag KG CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hardy, John G. A1 - Bertin, Annabelle A1 - Torres-Rendon, Jose Guillermo A1 - Leal-Egana, Aldo A1 - Humenik, Martin A1 - Bauer, Felix A1 - Walther, Andreas A1 - Cölfen, Helmut A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Scheibel, Thomas R. T1 - Facile photochemical modification of silk protein-based biomaterials JF - Macromolecular bioscience N2 - Silk protein-based materials show promise for application as biomaterials for tissue engineering. The simple and rapid photochemical modification of silk protein-based materials composed of either Bombyx mori silkworm silk or engineered spider silk proteins (eADF4(C16)) is reported. Radicals formed on the silk-based materials initiate the polymerization of monomers (acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, or allylamine) which functionalize the surface of the silk materials with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA), or poly(allylamine) (PAAm). To demonstrate potential applications of this type of modification, the polymer-modified silks are mineralized. The PAA- and PMAA-functionalized silks are mineralized with calcium carbonate, whereas the PAAm-functionalized silks are mineralized with silica, both of which provide a coating on the materials that may be useful for bone tissue engineering, which will be the subject of future investigations. KW - biomaterials KW - chemical modification KW - photochemistry KW - silkworm silk KW - spider silk Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/mabi.201800216 SN - 1616-5187 SN - 1616-5195 VL - 18 IS - 11 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zheng, Botuo A1 - Bai, Tianwen A1 - Tao, Xinfeng A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Ling, Jun T1 - Identifying the Hydrolysis of Carbonyl Sulfide as a Side Reaction Impeding the Polymerization of N-Substituted Glycine N-Thiocarboxyanhydride JF - Biomacromolecules : an interdisciplinary journal focused at the interface of polymer science and the biological sciences N2 - Polypeptoids are noticeable biological materials due to their versatile properties and various applications in drug delivery, surface modification, self-assembly, etc. N-Substituted glycine N-thiocarboxyanhydrides (NNTAs) are more stable monomers than the corresponding N-carboxyanhydrides (NNCAs) and enable one to prepare polypeptoids via ring-opening polymerization even in the presence of water. However, larger amounts of water (>10,000 ppm) cause inhibition of the polymerization. Herein, we discover that during polymerization hydrogen sulfide evolves from the hydrolysis of carbonyl sulfide, which is the byproduct of ring-opening reaction, and reacts with NNTA to produce cyclic oligopeptoids. The capture of N-ethylethanethioic acid as an intermediate product confirms the reaction mechanism together with density functional theory quantum computational results. By bubbling the polymerization solution with argon, the side reaction can be suppressed to allow the synthesis of polysarcosine with high molar mass (M-n = 11,200 g/mol, D = 1.25) even in the presence of similar to 10,000 ppm of water. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.8b01119 SN - 1525-7797 SN - 1526-4602 VL - 19 IS - 11 SP - 4263 EP - 4269 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kutlug, Oezgür A1 - Hass, Roland A1 - Reck, Stephan A1 - Hartwig, Andreas T1 - Inline characterization of dispersion formation of a solvent-borne acrylic copolymer by Photon Density Wave spectroscopy JF - Colloids and surfaces : an international journal devoted to the principles and applications of colloid and interface science ; A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects N2 - Most investigations on phase inversion (PI) of resins upon addition of water have been carried out by dynamic light scattering (DLS), torque, and viscosity measurements. The main problem, however, is analytic discontinuity due to sample removal and a changing matrix due to dilution during the preparation of the aqueous resin dispersions. This work presents Photon Density Wave (PDW) spectroscopy as a tool for the inline characterization of the acetone process for an acrylic copolymer with high acrylic acid (AA) content. PDW spectroscopy revealed different trends for optical properties compared to torque during water feed. Also the absence of PI due to dissolution of copolymer in the solvent/water mixture is observed by PDW spectroscopy. PI for the investigated copolymer did not occour during water feed but during removal of solvent. Different feeding rates of water gave similar trends while a change in temperature and degree of AA neutralization led to changes in optical properties and torque. Thermal processing showed that the optical properties of mixtures prior and after removal of solvent were completely different caused by changes of solubility. KW - Acetone process KW - Dispersion KW - Photon Density Wave spectroscopy KW - Radical polymerization KW - Torque KW - Turbid media Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2018.08.011 SN - 0927-7757 SN - 1873-4359 VL - 556 SP - 113 EP - 119 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Burek, Katja A1 - Krause, Felix A1 - Schwotzer, Matthias A1 - Nefedov, Alexei A1 - Süssmuth, Julia A1 - Haubitz, Toni A1 - Kumke, Michael Uwe A1 - Thissen, Peter T1 - Hydrophobic Properties of Calcium-Silicate Hydrates Doped with Rare-Earth Elements JF - ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering N2 - In this study, the apparent relationship between the transport process and the surface chemistry of the Calcium-Silicate Hydrate (CSH) phases was investigated. For this purpose, a method was developed to synthesize ultrathin CSH phases to be used as a model substrate with the specific modification of their structure by introducing europium (Eu(III)). The structural and chemical changes during this Eu(III)-doping were observed by means of infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS). These alterations of the CSH phases led to significant changes in the surface chemistry and consequently to considerable variations in the interaction with water, as evidenced by measurements of the contact angles on the modified model substrates. Our results provide the basis for a more profound molecular understanding of reactive transport processes in cement-based systems. Furthermore, these results broaden the perspective of improving the stability of cement-based materials, which are subjected to the impact of aggressive aqueous environments through targeted modifications of the CSH phases. KW - Rare-earth elements KW - Europium KW - Luminescence KW - Metal-proton exchange reaction KW - Contact angle KW - Infrared spectroscopy KW - X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b03244 SN - 2168-0485 VL - 6 IS - 11 SP - 14669 EP - 14678 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hänsel, Marc A1 - Barta, Christoph A1 - Rietze, Clemens A1 - Utecht, Manuel Martin A1 - Rueck-Braun, Karola A1 - Saalfrank, Peter A1 - Tegeder, Petra T1 - Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Optical Switching Materials BT - Molecular Engineering toward High Nonlinear Optical Contrasts JF - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces N2 - Combining photochromism and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of molecular switches-functionalized self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) represents a promising concept toward novel photonic and optoelectronic devices. Using second harmonic generation, density functional theory, and correlated wave function methods, we studied the switching abilities as well as the NLO contrasts between different molecular states of various fulgimide-containing SAMs on Si(111). Controlled variations of the linker systems as well as of the fulgimides enabled us to demonstrate very efficient reversible photoinduced ring-opening/closure reactions between the open and closed forms of the fulgimides. Thus, effective cross sections on the order of 10(-18) cm(-2) are observed. Moreover, the reversible switching is accompanied by pronounced NLO contrasts up to 32%. Further molecular engineering of the photochromic switches and the linker systems may even increase the NLO contrast upon switching. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b08212 SN - 1932-7447 SN - 1932-7455 VL - 122 IS - 44 SP - 25555 EP - 25564 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Xiong, Tao A1 - Wlodarczyk, Radoslaw A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Vibrationally resolved absorption and fluorescence spectra of perylene and N-substituted derivatives from autocorrelation function approaches JF - Chemical physics : a journal devoted to experimental and theoretical research involving problems of both a chemical and physical nature N2 - Vibrationally resolved absorption and emission (fluorescence) spectra of perylene and its N-derivatives in gas phase and in solution (acetonitrile) were simulated using a time-dependent approach based on correlation functions determined by density functional theory. By systematically varying the number and position of N atoms, it is shown that the presence of nitrogen heteroatoms has a negligible effect on the molecular structure and geometric distortions upon electronic transitions, while spectral properties change: in particular the number of N atoms is important while their position is less decisive. Thus, the N-substitution can be used to fine-tune the optical properties of perylene-based molecules. KW - Perylene KW - Vibronic spectrum KW - Correlation function KW - Dimer KW - Excimer KW - PCM Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemphys.2018.06.011 SN - 0301-0104 SN - 1873-4421 VL - 515 SP - 728 EP - 736 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Utecht, Manuel Martin A1 - Gaebel, Tina A1 - Klamroth, Tillmann T1 - Desorption induced by low energy charge carriers on Si(111)-7 x 7 BT - first principles molecular dynamics for benzene derivates JF - Journal of computational chemistry : organic, inorganic, physical, biological N2 - We use clusters for the modeling of local ion resonances caused by low energy charge carriers in STM-induced desorption of benzene derivates from Si(111)-7 x 7. We perform Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics for the charged systems assuming vertical transitions to the charged states at zero temperature, to rationalize the low temperature activation energies, which are found in experiment for chlorobenzene. Our calculations suggest very similar low temperature activation energies for toluene and benzene. For the cationic resonance transitions to physisorption are found even at 0 K, while the anion remains chemisorbed during the propagations. Further, we also extend our previous static quantum chemical investigations to toluene and benzene. In addition, an in depth analysis of the ionization potentials and electron affinities, which are used to estimate resonance energies, is given. KW - Born-Oppenheimer MD KW - STM-induced reactions KW - cluster models KW - Si(111)-7x7 Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/jcc.25607 SN - 0192-8651 SN - 1096-987X VL - 39 IS - 30 SP - 2517 EP - 2525 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tan, Li A1 - Liu, Bing A1 - Glebe, Ulrich A1 - Böker, Alexander T1 - Magnetic Field-Induced Assembly of Superparamagnetic Cobalt Nanoparticles on Substrates and at Liquid-Air Interface JF - Langmuir N2 - Superparamagnetic cobalt nanoparticles (Co NPs) are an interesting material for self-assembly processes because of their magnetic properties. We investigated the magnetic field-induced assembly of superparamagnetic cobalt nanoparticles and compared three different approaches, namely, the assembly on solid substrates, at water-air, and ethylene glycol-air interfaces. Oleic acid- and trioctylphosphine oxide-coated Co NPs were synthesized via a thermolysis of cobalt carbonyl and dispersed into either hexane or toluene. The Co NP dispersion was dropped onto different substrates (e.g., transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grid, silicon wafer) and onto liquid surfaces. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning force microscopy, optical microscopy, as well as scanning electron microscopy showed that superparamagnetic Co NPs assembled into one-dimensional chains in an external magnetic field. By varying the concentration of the Co NP dispersion (1-5 mg/mL) and the strength of the magnetic field (4-54 mT), the morphology of the chains changed. Short, thin, and flexible chain structures were obtained at low NP concentration and low strength of magnetic field, whereas they became long, thick and straight when the NP concentration and the magnetic field strength increased. In comparison, the assembly of Co NPs from hexane dispersion at ethylene glycol-air interface showed the most regular and homogeneous alignment, since a more efficient spreading could be achieved on ethylene glycol than on water and solid substrates. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b02673 SN - 0743-7463 VL - 34 IS - 46 SP - 13993 EP - 14002 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yalcinkaya, Hacer A1 - Bressel, Katharina A1 - Lindner, Peter A1 - Gradzielski, Michael T1 - Controlled formation of vesicles with added styrene and their fixation by polymerization JF - Journal of colloid and interface science N2 - Hypothesis: An effective way for fixating vesicle structures is the insertion of monomers and cross-linking agents into their bilayer, and their subsequent polymerization can lead to the formation of polymeric nanocapsules. Particularly attractive here are vesicle systems that form spontaneously well-defined small vesicles, as obtaining such small nanocapsules with sizes below 100 nm is still challenging. Experiments: A spontaneously forming well-defined vesicle system composed of the surfactants TDMAO (tetradecyldimethylamine oxide), Pluronic L35, and LiPFOS (lithium perfluorooctylsulfonate) mixture was used as template for fixation by polymerization. Therefore, styrene monomer was incorporated into the vesicle bilayer and ultimately these structures were fixated by UV induced radical polymerization. Structural alteration of the vesicles upon loading with monomer and the cross-linker as well as the effect of subsequent polymerization in the membrane were investigated in detail by turbidity measurements, dynamic and static light scattering, (DLS, SLS), and small angle neutron scattering (SANS). Findings: The analysis showed the changes on vesicle structures due to the monomer loading, and that these structures can become permanently fixed by the polymerization process. The potential of this approach to produce well-defined nanocapsules starting from a self-assembled system and following polymerization is critically evaluated. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. KW - Template reaction KW - Zwitterionic surfactant KW - Anionic surfactant KW - Styrene KW - Vesicle KW - Small angle neutron scattering KW - Polymerization Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2018.07.097 SN - 0021-9797 SN - 1095-7103 VL - 531 SP - 672 EP - 680 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER -