Publications by authors named "Dimitrios Zouraris"

Modelling Data (MODA) reporting guidelines have been proposed for common terminology and for recording metadata for physics-based materials modelling and simulations in a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA 17284:2018). Their purpose is similar to that of the Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) model report form (QMRF) that aims to increase industry and regulatory confidence in QSAR models, but for a wider range of model types. Recently, the WorldFAIR project's nanomaterials case study suggested that both QMRF and MODA templates are an important means to enhance compliance of nanoinformatics models, and their underpinning datasets, with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).

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NanoTube Construct is a web tool for the digital construction of nanotubes based on real and hypothetical single-layer materials including carbon-based materials such as graphene, graphane, graphyne polymorphs, graphidiyene and non-carbon materials such as silicene, germanene, boron nitride, hexagonal bilayer silica, haeckelite silica, molybdene disulfide and tungsten disulfide. Contrary to other available tools, NanoTube Construct has the following features: a) it is not limited to zero thickness materials with specific symmetry, b) it applies energy minimisation to the geometrically constructed Nanotubes to generate realistic ones, c) it derives atomistic descriptors (e.g.

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NanoConstruct is a state-of-the-art computational tool that enables a) the digital construction of ellipsoidal neutral energy minimized nanoparticles (NPs) in vacuum through its graphical user-friendly interface, and b) the calculation of NPs atomistic descriptors. It allows the user to select NP's shape and size by inserting its ellipsoidal axes and rotation angle while the NP material is selected by uploading its Crystallography Information File (CIF). To investigate the stability of materials not yet synthesised, NanoConstruct allows the substitution of the chemical elements of an already synthesized material with chemical elements that belong into the same group and neighbouring rows of the periodic table.

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Nanocellulose, either in the form of fibers or crystals, constitutes a renewable, biobased, biocompatible material with advantageous mechanical properties that can be isolated from lignocellulosic biomass. Enzyme-assisted isolation of nanocellulose is an attractive, environmentally friendly approach that leads to products of higher quality compared to their chemically prepared counterparts. Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are enzymes that oxidatively cleave the β-1,4-glycosidic bond of polysaccharides upon activation of O or HO and presence of an electron donor.

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Background: Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are copper-dependent enzymes that oxidatively cleave recalcitrant lignocellulose in the presence of oxygen or hydrogen peroxide as co-substrate and a reducing agent as electron donor. One of the possible systems that provide electrons to the LPMOs active site and promote the polysaccharide degradation involves the mediation of phenolic agents, such as lignin, low-molecular-weight lignin-derived compounds and other plant phenols. In the present work, the interaction of the bulk insoluble lignin fraction extracted from pretreated biomass with LPMOs and the ability to provide electrons to the active site of the enzymes is studied.

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