Eutectogels: The Multifaceted Soft Ionic Materials of Tomorrow.

Eutectogels, a rising category of soft materials, have recently garnered significant attention owing to their remarkable potential in various domains. This innovative class of materials consists of a eutectic solvent immobilized in a three-dimensional network structure. The use of eco-friendly and cost-effective eutectic solvents further emphasizes the appeal of these materials in multiple applications.

Freezing-Tolerant Supramolecular Adhesives from Tannic Acid-Based Low-Transition-Temperature Mixtures.

Natural polyphenols like tannic acid (TA) have recently emerged as multifunctional building blocks for designing advanced materials. Herein, we show the benefits of having TA in a dynamic liquid state using low-transition-temperature mixtures (LTTMs) for developing freezing-tolerant glues. TA was combined with betaine or choline chloride to create LTTMs, which direct the self-assembly of guanosine into supramolecular viscoelastic materials with high adhesion.

Triggering gold nanoparticles formation on a quartz surface by nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation.

A new direct and straightforward method is proposed to synthesize bare Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) on a quartz surface by nanosecond 532 nm pulsed laser irradiation of a quartz surface in contact with Au(iii) precursor solution. The characterisation by XPS, UV-Vis, SEM and AFM measurements demonstrate the formation of bare Au NPs anchored on the quartz surface with a mean height of 27 ± 10 nm localized in the laser irradiation area. The main features of this approach are their simplicity, quick fabrication and the large surface area covered by Au NPs.

A Plasmonic Approach to Study Protein Interaction Kinetics through the Dimerization of Functionalized Ag Nanoparticles.

Understanding the kinetics of protein interactions plays a key role in biology with significant implications for the design of analytical methods for disease monitoring and diagnosis in medical care, research and industrial applications. Herein, we introduce a novel plasmonic approach to study the binding kinetics of protein-ligand interactions following the formation of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) dimers by UV-Vis spectroscopy that can be used as probes for antigen detection and quantification. To illustrate and test the method, the kinetics of the prototype biotin-streptavidin (Biot-STV) pair interaction was studied.