Current Physical Chemistry - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2013

Gold nanorods absorb and scatter light strongly in the near-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, making them ideal tissue contrast agents for imaging techniques such as optical coherence tomography (OCT). Strong interactions occur at the nano-bio interface, such as proteins binding to gold nanorods forming a ‘corona.’ To fulfill the promise of nanorods for applications such as contrast agents, we must better Read More

Raman optical activity (ROA) results in small differences in the Raman spectra of chiral molecules depending on whether left-or right circularly polarized light has been used. Due to its origin in higher order effects ROA is an extremely weak phenomenon, usually 3-5 orders of magnitude smaller than Raman scattering. Here we combine Raman optical activity (ROA) and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and rep Read More

In this mini-review, the rocky road of computational ROA, from a specialist novelty item to the front line of computational chemistry, is outlined. Particular attention is paid to the computational studies of large molecular systems and solvent effects, highlighting how computational ROA is becoming an important tool in structural biology and the detailed analysis of biomacromolecules in solution.

Studying membrane protein function using Xenopus laevis oocytes has been proven to be a successful tool since its introduction more than three decades ago. Due to their great availability, large size and ease of handling, X. laevis oocytes are often superior when compared to other expression systems such as Escherichia coli or eukaryote expression systems. The Xenopus laevis oocyte expression system is able to ef Read More

This study refers to the identification of cytocompatibility of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, which are superhydrophobic or superhydrophilic. The identification of their thermodynamic aspects, for use as biomaterials, especially in the development of scaffolds and other devices for filing and tissue regeneration was also investigated.

Sugar puckering and hydrogen bond networks are the most important properties of nucleosides as either DNA functional moieties or antibiotics. This article studies such the relationship quantum mechanically for two cytidine nucleoside derivatives, 1’, 2’-didehydro-3’, 4’-deoxycytidine (I) and 2’-deoxycytidine (II) with respect to cytidine (III) in isolation. Vibrational infrared (IR) spectroscopy studied using density functional theory Read More

The debromination of deca-bromodiphenyl ester (BDE209) is one of the most important processes in its removal from the environment. Despite numerous experimental studies improved the efficiency of poly brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs’) debromination, few studies focused on the mechanism. This work provides a preliminary investigation on studying the debromination mechanism of BDE209 with density functional Read More

In the present study, the binding of the cationic MnIIITMPyP [meso-tetrakis (4-N-methyl pyridinium) porphyrin] to negatively charged membrane models containing phosphatidylcholine (PC)/ phosphatidylserine (PS) and the porphyrin reactivity with PS-derived peroxides (LOOH) were evaluated. This investigation is relevant due to the participation of PS in cell signaling and apoptosis. Addition of PC/PS liposomes to MnIIITMPyP solu Read More

To the best of our knowledge we here for the first time demonstrate surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to detect a quorum sensing (QS) signal molecule below 1 nM concentration in both ultrapure water and under physiological conditions. Based on our results, SERS shows promise as a highly suitable tool for in situ measurements of low Acyl-Homoserine Lactone (AHL) concentrations in biofilms containing Q Read More

The light-induced isomerization of the retinal chromophore starts the reaction cycles of retinal proteins. We review and discuss some new computations on the role of the retinal methyl groups in determining the structure, dynamics, and protein interactions of the retinal. The torsional potential of the C11=C12 bond suggests that moderate twisting of this bond can be achieved without a significant energetic cost, allowin Read More

In this paper, the Enhanced Homotopy Perturbation Method (EHPM) has been applied along with the Boubaker polynomials Expansion Scheme (BPES) to a system of nonlinear partial differential equations which governs non-isothermal tubular chemical reactors. Theoretical considerations have been discussed in order to illustrate the reliability of the methods. Comparison of EHPM results with those of BPES showed that bot Read More

The structures and rheological properties of Span 80/PEG 400/H2O niosomes are studied by using atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering and rheology techniques. The niosome system at high frequency region is a Newtonian fluid with linear viscoelasticity. The cole-cole plots at low frequency region are not semicircular and the system is not linear viscoelastic. At a mass ratio of Span 80-PEG 400, the viscosity, Read More