Self-assembly of guanosine and deoxy-guanosine into hydrogels: monovalent cation guided modulation of gelation, morphology and self-healing properties

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (30) ◽  
pp. 4802-4810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bimalendu Adhikari ◽  
Afzal Shah ◽  
Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz

The gelation, morphological, fluorescence and thixotropic properties of the purine nucleoside based hydrogels were found to modulate with metal ions.

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1413
Author(s):  
Manesh Prakash Joshi ◽  
Luke Steller ◽  
Martin J. Van Kranendonk ◽  
Sudha Rajamani

Metal ions strongly affect the self-assembly and stability of membranes composed of prebiotically relevant amphiphiles (protoamphiphiles). Therefore, evaluating the behavior of such amphiphiles in the presence of ions is a crucial step towards assessing their potential as model protocell compartments. We have recently reported vesicle formation by N-acyl amino acids (NAAs), an interesting class of protoamphiphiles containing an amino acid linked to a fatty acid via an amide linkage. Herein, we explore the effect of ions on the self-assembly and stability of model N-oleoyl glycine (NOG)-based membranes. Microscopic analysis showed that the blended membranes of NOG and Glycerol 1-monooleate (GMO) were more stable than pure NOG vesicles, both in the presence of monovalent and divalent cations, with the overall vesicle stability being 100-fold higher in the presence of a monovalent cation. Furthermore, both pure NOG and NOG + GMO mixed systems were able to self-assemble into vesicles in natural water samples containing multiple ions that were collected from active hot spring sites. Our study reveals that several aspects of the metal ion stability of NAA-based membranes are comparable to those of fatty acid-based systems, while also confirming the robustness of compositionally heterogeneous membranes towards high metal ion concentrations. Pertinently, the vesicle formation by NAA-based systems in terrestrial hot spring samples indicates the conduciveness of these low ionic strength freshwater systems for facilitating prebiotic membrane-assembly processes. This further highlights their potential to serve as a plausible niche for the emergence of cellular life on the early Earth.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong Xing ◽  
Haomin Wu ◽  
Ruichun Du ◽  
Qiuhong Zhang ◽  
Xudong Jia

We propose a new concept of “toughening the rigid” by adding metal ions to sacrifice the crystallinity of the rigid domain, which makes the elastomers with high toughness and self-healing...


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (49) ◽  
pp. e2110839118
Author(s):  
Miha Papič ◽  
Urban Mur ◽  
Kottoli Poyil Zuhail ◽  
Miha Ravnik ◽  
Igor Muševič ◽  
...  

Liquid crystals (LCs) form an extremely rich range of self-assembled topological structures with artificially or naturally created topological defects. Some of the main applications of LCs are various optical and photonic devices, where compared to their solid-state counterparts, soft photonic systems are fundamentally different in terms of unique properties such as self-assembly, self-healing, large tunability, sensitivity to external stimuli, and biocompatibility. Here we show that complex tunable microlasers emitting structured light can be generated from self-assembled topological LC superstructures containing topological defects inserted into a thin Fabry–Pérot microcavity. The topology and geometry of the LC superstructure determine the structuring of the emitted light by providing complex three-dimensionally varying optical axis and order parameter singularities, also affecting the topology of the light polarization. The microlaser can be switched between modes by an electric field, and its wavelength can be tuned with temperature. The proposed soft matter microlaser approach opens directions in soft matter photonics research, where structured light with specifically tailored intensity and polarization fields could be designed and implemented.


CrystEngComm ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuehong Wen ◽  
Tianlu Sheng ◽  
Qilong Zhu ◽  
Shengmin Hu ◽  
Chunhong Tan ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (02) ◽  
pp. 1850019
Author(s):  
Huiyuan Yu ◽  
Jiayi Zhu ◽  
Hongbo Ren ◽  
Shuxin Liu

Graphene-based aerogels with a three-dimensional interconnected network were fabricated via the hydrothermal self-assembly and thermal-annealing process. The aerogels were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy and atomic absorption spectroscopy. The graphene-based aerogels showed highly porous structure and adsorption capacity for heavy metal ions. Thus, they would be the promising materials for removal of heavy metal ions from water.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenqiang Chen ◽  
Chen Hou ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Linhui Fu ◽  
Sufeng Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Co3O4@Fe3O4/cellulose was synthesized by in-situ self-assembly strategy coating rod-like MOF-derived Fe3O4 with Co3O4 nanoparticles and blending with cellulose solution, further applied in the visible light-driven photo-Fenton system for PFOA degradation. In addition, Co3O4@Fe3O4/cellulose/Vitrimer was obtained to explore the application of self-healing property in photo-Fenton filed and the result turned out to be good self-healing capacity for small cracks. In comparison, Co3O4@Fe3O4/cellulose can degrade around 94.5% PFOA within 180 min in reaction system, which shows better degradation capacity than others catalyst. Moreover, Co3O4@Fe3O4/cellulose was reused by rinsing with ultra-pure water and the degradation capacity was still 80.4% after five cycles. In this system, the results of Electron paramagnetic resonance analysis (EPR) and scavenger experiment suggested that PFOA degradation was a co-dependent mechanism via photogenerated electrons, photogenerated holes (h+) and various radical species, rather than a single active constituent. The degradation pathway of PFOA also was proposed based on UHPLC-MS analysis.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 269-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Shi ◽  
Fude Cui ◽  
Hongshu Bi ◽  
Yanbo Jiang ◽  
Hang Shi ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 880-881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuyuki Sato ◽  
Kouki Sakamoto ◽  
Wakako Umemoto ◽  
Takeshi Hashimoto ◽  
Takashi Hayashita

Author(s):  
M. Austin Creasy ◽  
Donald J. Leo

Biological systems demonstrate autonomous healing of damage and are an inspiration for developing self-healing materials. Our recent experimental study has demonstrated that a bilayer lipid membrane (BLM), also called a black lipid membrane, has the ability to self-heal after mechanical failure. These molecules have a unique property that they spontaneously self assembly into organized structures in an aqueous medium. The BLM forms an impervious barrier to ions and fluid between two volumes and strength of the barrier is dependent on the pressure and electrical field applied to the membrane. A BLM formed over an aperture on a silicon substrate is shown to self-heal for 5 pressurization failure cycles.


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