Removal of heavy metal ions, in particular, divalent nickel ions from natural and wastewater, is of great importance for the environment. Nickel (II) ions are very toxic and provoke many diseases. The purpose of this work was to study the possibility of removing toxic nickel (II) ions from polluted water using an iron (III) chloride (FeCl3) coagulant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbout 5-10% of malignant neoplasms (MN) are hereditary. Carriers of mutations associated with hereditary tumor syndromes (HTS) are at high risk of developing tumors in childhood and young age and synchronous and metachronous multiple tumors. At the same time, this group of diseases remains mainly an oncological problem, and clinical decisions are made only when MNs are detected in carriers of pathogenic mutations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHow is a water-soluble globular protein able to spontaneously cross a cellular membrane? It is commonly accepted that it undergoes significant structural rearrangements on the lipid-water interface, thus acquiring membrane binding and penetration ability. In this study molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been used to explore large-scale conformational changes of the globular viscumin A chain in a complex environment - comprising urea and chloroform/methanol (CHCl/MeOH) mixture. Being well-packed in aqueous solution, viscumin A undergoes global structural rearrangements in both organic media.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCovalent immobilization of enzymes at electrodes via amide bond formation is usually carried out by a two-step protocol, in which surface carboxylic groups are first activated with the corresponding cross-coupling reagents and then reacted with protein amine groups. Herein, it is shown that a modification of the above protocol, involving the simultaneous incubation of tobacco peroxidase and the pyrolytic graphite electrode with the cross-coupling reagents produces higher and more stable electrocatalytic currents than those obtained with either physically adsorbed enzymes or covalently immobilized enzymes according to the usual immobilization protocol. The remarkably improved electrocatalytic properties of the present peroxidase biosensor that operates in the 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFew-layer graphene/TiO2 nanocrystal composites are successfully in situ synthesized at a low temperature of 400 °C using C28H16Br2 as the precursor. Raman mapping images show that the TiO2 nanocrystals are very uniformly dispersed in the composite films, and the in situ coating during the thermal decomposition process will favor the formation of a good interface combination between the few-layered graphene and the TiO2 nanocrystals. The few-layer graphene/TiO2 nanocrystal composites are used as photoanodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), and the conversion efficiency of 8.
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