Radical generation and bactericidal activity of nanobubbles produced by ultrasonic irradiation of carbonated water.

Our previous study showed that nanobubbles (NBs) encapsulating CO gas have bactericidal activity due to reactive oxygen species (ROS) (Yamaguchi et al., 2020). Here, we report that bulk NBs encapsulating CO can be efficiently generated by ultrasonically irradiating carbonated water using a piezoelectric transducer with a frequency of 1.

Two-dimensional water-molecule-cluster layers at nanobubble interfaces.

Hypothesis: Bulk nanobubbles (NBs) have high surface charge densities and long lifetimes. Despite several attempts to understand the lifetime of NBs, their interfacial layer structure remains unknown. It is hypothesized that a specific interfacial layer exists with a hydrogen bond network that stabilizes NBs.

New Aspects of Bilayer Lipid Membranes for the Analysis of Ion Channel Functions.

The bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) is the main structural component of cell membranes, in which various membrane proteins are embedded. Artificially formed BLMs have been used as a platform in studies of the functions of membrane proteins, including various ion channels. In this review, we summarize recent advances that have been made on artificial BLM systems for the analysis of ion channel functions.

Lateral voltage as a new input for artificial lipid bilayer systems.

In this work, we propose lateral voltage as a new input for use in artificial lipid bilayer systems in addition to the commonly used transmembrane voltage. To apply a lateral voltage to bilayer lipid membranes, we fabricated electrode-equipped silicon and Teflon chips. The Si chips could be used for photodetector devices based on fullerene-doped lipid bilayers, and the Teflon chips were used in a study of the ion channel functions in the lipid bilayer.

Bactericidal Activity of Bulk Nanobubbles through Active Oxygen Species Generation.

We investigated the bactericidal activity of bulk nanobubbles (NBs) using , a model bacterium. Bulk NBs were produced by forcing gas through a porous alumina membrane with an ordered arrangement of nanoscale straight holes in contact with water. NBs with different gas contents, including CO, O, and N, were generated and evaluated for their bactericidal effects.