Wirelessly Powered Drug-Free and Anti-Infective Smart Bandage for Chronic Wound Care.

We present a wirelessly powered ultraviolet-C (UVC) radiation-based disinfecting bandage for sterilization and treatment in chronic wound care and management. The bandage contains embedded low-power UV light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the 265 to 285 nm range with the light emission controlled via a microcontroller. An inductive coil is seamlessly concealed in the fabric bandage and coupled with a rectifier circuit to enable 6.

Porous silicon pillar structures/photosynthetic reaction centre protein hybrid for bioelectronic applications.

Photosynthetic biomaterials have attracted considerable attention at different levels of the biological organisation, from molecules to the biosphere, due to a variety of artificial application possibilities. During photosynthesis, the first steps of the conversion of light energy into chemical energy take place in a pigment-protein complex, called reaction centre (RC). In our experiments photosynthetic reaction centre protein, purified from Rhodobacter sphaeroides R-26 purple bacteria, was bound to porous silicon pillars (PSiP) after the electropolymerisation of aniline onto the surface.

Detection of Singlet Oxygen Formation inside Photoactive Biohybrid Composite Material.

Photosynthetic reaction center proteins (RCs) are the most efficient light energy converter systems in nature. The first steps of the primary charge separation in photosynthesis take place in these proteins. Due to their unique properties, combining RCs with nano-structures promising applications can be predicted in optoelectronic systems.

Sensing photosynthetic herbicides in an electrochemical flow cell.

Specific inhibitory reactions of herbicides with photosynthetic reaction centers bound to working electrodes were monitored in a conventional electrochemical cell and a newly designed microfluidic electrochemical flow cell. In both cases, the bacterial reaction centers were bound to a transparent conductive metal oxide, indium-tin-oxide, electrode through carbon nanotubes. In the conventional cell, photocurrent densities of up to a few μA/cm could be measured routinely.

Assessing the capacity of zero valent iron nanofluids to remediate NAPL-polluted porous media.

A variety of aqueous suspensions (nanofluids) of zero-valent nano-particles (nZVI) are prepared by wet chemistry techniques, their stability and longevity is evaluated by physic-chemical methods of characterization, and their reactivity toward the dechlorination of per-chloro-ethylene (PCE) is examined with tests in batch reactors. For assessing the mobility, longevity and reactivity of nZVI suspensions (nanofluids), under flow-through conditions, visualization multiphase flow and transport tests are performed on a glass-etched pore network. The nZVI breakthrough curves are constructed by measuring the transient variation of the iron concentration in the effluent with atomic absorption spectroscopy.

Structural and Functional Hierarchy in Photosynthetic Energy Conversion-from Molecules to Nanostructures.

Basic principles of structural and functional requirements of photosynthetic energy conversion in hierarchically organized machineries are reviewed. Blueprints of photosynthesis, the energetic basis of virtually all life on Earth, can serve the basis for constructing artificial light energy-converting molecular devices. In photosynthetic organisms, the conversion of light energy into chemical energy takes places in highly organized fine-tunable systems with structural and functional hierarchy.

Photosynthetic machineries in nano-systems.

Photosynthetic reaction centres are membrane-spanning proteins, found in several classes of autotroph organisms, where a photoinduced charge separation and stabilization takes place with a quantum efficiency close to unity. The protein remains stable and fully functional also when extracted and purified in detergents thereby biotechnological applications are possible, for example, assembling it in nano-structures or in optoelectronic systems. Several types of bionanocomposite materials have been assembled by using reaction centres and different carrier matrices for different purposes in the field of light energy conversion (e.

Photosynthetic reaction centers/ITO hybrid nanostructure.

Photosynthetic reaction center proteins purified from Rhodobacter sphaeroides purple bacterium were deposited on the surface of indium tin oxide (ITO), a transparent conductive oxide, and the photochemical/-physical properties of the composite were investigated. The kinetics of the light induced absorption change indicated that the RC was active in the composite and there was an interaction between the protein cofactors and the ITO. The electrochromic response of the bacteriopheophytine absorption at 771 nm showed an increased electric field perturbation around this chromophore on the surface of ITO compared to the one measured in solution.

Porous silicon/photosynthetic reaction center hybrid nanostructure.

The purified photosynthetic reaction center protein (RC) from Rhodobacter sphaeroides R-26 purple bacteria was bound to porous silicon microcavities (PSiMc) either through silane-glutaraldehyde (GTA) chemistry or via a noncovalent peptide cross-linker. The characteristic resonance mode in the microcavity reflectivity spectrum red shifted by several nanometers upon RC binding, indicating the protein infiltration into the porous silicon (PSi) photonic structure. Flash photolysis experiments confirmed the photochemical activity of RC after its binding to the solid substrate.

Light-harvesting bio-nanomaterial using porous silicon and photosynthetic reaction center.

Porous silicon microcavity (PSiMc) structures were used to immobilize the photosynthetic reaction center (RC) purified from the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides R-26. Two different binding methods were compared by specular reflectance measurements. Structural characterization of PSiMc was performed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy.

Insight into cellular response of plant cells confined within silica-based matrices.

The encapsulation of living plant cells into materials could offer the possibility to develop new green biochemical technologies. With the view to designing new functional materials, the physiological activity and cellular response of entrapped cells within different silica-based matrices have been assessed. A fine-tuning of the surface chemistry of the matrix has been achieved by the in situ copolymerization of an aqueous silica precursor and a biocompatible trifunctional silane bearing covalently bound neutral sugars.