Significant Changes In Structural Properties Research Articles

Efficient green silver nanoparticles-antibiotic combinations against antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains and the consequent surge in infections caused by them have become major public health concerns. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) exhibit antibacterial properties and have wide applications in biomedical sciences. In this study, AgNPs were synthesized in the presence of antibiotics: Ceftazidime (Cft), Cefotaxime (Cef), Ceftriaxone (Cfx), and Cefepime (Cpm), along with the extract of Mentha longifolia. Mentha longifolia-based AgNPs were kept as the control for all experiments. The associated metabolites, structural properties, surface charges, and antibacterial activity of the AgNPs were also evaluated. Overall, a blue-shift of SPR peaks was observed for control AgNPs (λmax = 421 nm, 422 nm, 426 nm, and 406 nm for Cft-AgNPs, Cef-AgNPs, Cfx-AgNPs, and Cpm-AgNPs, respectively), compared to the control (λmax = 438 nm). Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy showed that antibiotic-based AgNPs had distinct peaks that corresponded to the respective antibiotics, which were not observed in the control. XRD analysis showed that there were observed changes in crystallinity in antibiotic-based AgNPs compared to the control. TEM images revealed that all samples had spherical nanoparticles with different sizes and distributions compared to the control. The Zeta potential for extract-based AgNPs was − 33.6 mV, compared to -19.6 mV for Cft-AgNPs, -2 mV for Cef-AgNPs, -21.1 mV for Cfx-AgNPs, and − 24.2 mV for Cpm-AgNPs. The increase in the PDI value for antibiotic-based AgNPs also showed a highly polydisperse distribution. However, the antibiotic-AgNPs conjugates showed significantly higher activity against pathogenic bacteria. The addition of antibiotics to AgNPs brought significant changes in structural properties and antibacterial activities.

Effects of Li addition on the luminescent properties of LiSrPO4:Eu3+ excited with X-ray and ultraviolet radiation

Abstract Li1+xSr0.99PO4:Eu0.01 (x = 0.1, 0.3 or 0.5) phosphors are prepared using glucose with a modified sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy and photoluminescence and X-ray absorption spectroscopy are used to characterize the structural and optical behaviour of the phosphors. LSPOE powders have been successfully synthesized by sol-gel route and confirmed by XRD. A variation in lithium stoichiometry does not contribute to significant changes in structural properties, as probed by XRD. The samples have a partially spherical morphology with a high degree of particle agglomeration. The emission intensity of Eu3+ varies with the increase in Li+ content, in agreement with the variation of the symmetric factor. This behaviour verifies that the Eu3+ ion is in a site of low symmetry. The X-ray absorption near edge structure results reveal that the reduction of Eu3+ to Eu2+ is induced by ionising radiation and the intensity of the X-ray excited optical luminescence emission is inversely proportional to the concentration of lithium.

In Situ Determination of Structure and Fluctuations of Coexisting Fluid Membrane Domains

Biophysical understanding of membrane domains requires accurate knowledge of their structural details and elasticity. We report on a global small angle x-ray scattering data analysis technique for coexisting liquid-ordered (Lo) and liquid-disordered (Ld) domains in fully hydrated multilamellar vesicles. This enabled their detailed analysis for differences in membrane thickness, area per lipid, hydrocarbon chain length, and bending fluctuation as demonstrated for two ternary mixtures (DOPC/DSPC/CHOL and DOPC/DPPC/CHOL) at different cholesterol concentrations. Lo domains were found to be ∼10 Å thicker, and laterally up to 20 Å2/lipid more condensed than Ld domains. Their bending fluctuations were also reduced by ∼65%. Increase of cholesterol concentration caused significant changes in structural properties of Ld, while its influence on Lo properties was marginal. We further observed that temperature-induced melting of Lo domains is associated with a diffusion of cholesterol to Ld domains and controlled by Lo/Ld thickness differences.

Sm3+:Ag NPs assisted modification in absorption features of magnesium tellurite glass

Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) assisted enhancements in absorption and emission cross-section of tellurite glass is the present challenge. The influences of samarium (Sm3+) ions and silver (Ag) NPs ratio on physical and optical absorption properties of melt quench synthesized magnesium tellurite glasses are reported. XRD patterns verify the amorphous nature of glasses. Glass density, molar volume and ionic packing fraction are discerned to be in the range of 4.92–5.0gcm−3, 29.82–30.26cm3mol−1 and 0.452–0.446, respectively. Moderate reduction potential of tellurite glass converted Ag1+ to Ag0 via single step process and NPs are formed. TEM image manifest the existence of NPs of average diameter ∼16.94nm having Gaussian size distribution. The significant changes in structural properties in the presence of Ag NPs are discussed in terms of TeO4 tetrahedra distortion and network depolymerization process. The Sm3+:Ag NPs dependent variation in physical properties are ascribed to the alteration in the number of bridging oxygen to non bridging (NB) one. Enhancement in absorption intensity due to the local field effects of Ag NPs is attributed to the changes in Sm–O bond strength. Optical energy band gap (2.81–3.18eV) and Urbach energy (0.18–0.24eV) are found increase and decrease, respectively with the increase of Sm3+:Ag NPs up to 1.33 then quenches and enhances, respectively thereafter which are related to the changes in cross-link and NBO numbers. The FTIR spectra reveal modification in network structures evidenced from vibrational wave-number shifts of TeO4 and TeO3 structural units. The observed notable increase in HOH vibration mode suggests its helpfulness in promoting the absorption of water and light. It is asserted that the physical, optical and structural properties of magnesium tellurite glass can be tuned by controlling Sm3+:Ag NPs.

Hydrated versus lyophilized forms of porcine extracellular matrix derived from the urinary bladder

Biologic scaffolds composed of naturally occurring extracellular matrix (ECM) are currently in clinical use for the repair and reconstruction of damaged or missing tissues. The material and structural properties of the ECM scaffold are important determinants of the potential clinical applications and these properties may be affected by manufacturing steps, processing steps, and storage conditions. The present study compared the structural properties of hydrated and lyophilized forms of a biologic scaffold derived from the porcine urinary bladder (urinary bladder matrix or UBM). The structural properties evaluated include: maximum load and elongation, maximum tangential stiffness, energy absorbed, suture retention strength, ball-burst strength, and the hydrostatic permeability index. Other properties that were investigated include changes in the water content, structural morphology, and thickness and the ability to support in vitro growth of NIH 3T3 cells. Lyophilization caused no changes in the structural properties evaluated with the exception of a decrease in maximum elongation. NIH 3T3 cells showed invasion of the scaffold when seeded on the abluminal side of both hydrated and lyophilized UBM, and there were more cells present on lyophilized UBM when compared to hydrated UBM devices after the 7-days culture period. Irreversible changes were observed in the microstructure and ultrastructure of lyophilized UBM devices. We conclude that lyophilization affects the overall in vitro cell growth of NIH 3T3 cells and the ultrastructural morphology of UBM devices, but does not result in significant changes in structural properties.

Structure of Fe–Ni and Fe–Ni–S molten alloys by neutron diffraction

The static S(Q) liquid structure factors for binary FexNi100−x, x=90 and 85 and ternary Fe85Ni5S10 molten alloys are investigated by means of the concurrent use of neutron diffraction and Reverse Monte Carlo simulations. The measured g(r) radial distributions reveal atomic orderings varying from that present in the Fe90Ni10 alloy, reminiscent of the ideal b.c.c. structure of solid Fe, to a far more open structure found in Fe85Ni5S10. From data at hand no clear evidence of clustering of sulphur within the Fe–Ni matrix is found but, in contrast, its addition leads to significant changes in structural properties manifested by the loss of the intermediate range order.