Spectroscopic Characterization of Mitochondrial G-Quadruplexes

Guanine quadruplexes (G4s) are highly polymorphic four-stranded structures formed within guanine-rich DNA and RNA sequences that play a crucial role in biological processes. The recent discovery of the first G4 structures within mitochondrial DNA has led to a small revolution in the field. In particular, the G-rich conserved sequence block II (CSB II) can form different types of G4s that are thought to play a crucial role in replication. In this study, we decipher the most relevant G4 structures that can be formed within CSB II: RNA G4 at the RNA transcript, DNA G4 within the non-transcribed strand and DNA:RNA hybrid between the RNA transcript and the non-transcribed strand. We show that the more abundant, but unexplored, G6AG7 (37%) and G6AG8 (35%) sequences in CSB II yield more stable G4s than the less profuse G5AG7 sequence. Moreover, the existence of a guanine located 1 bp upstream promotes G4 formation. In all cases, parallel G4s are formed, but their topology changes from a less ordered to a highly ordered G4 when adding small amounts of potassium or sodium cations. Circular dichroism was used due to discriminate different conformations and topologies of nucleic acids and was complemented with gel electrophoresis and fluorescence spectroscopy studies.

Mott–Hubbard insulating state for the layered van der Waals $$\hbox {FePX}_3$$ (X: S, Se) as revealed by NEXAFS and resonant photoelectron spectroscopy

A broad family of the nowadays studied low-dimensional systems, including 2D materials, demonstrate many fascinating properties, which however depend on the atomic composition as well as on the system dimensionality. Therefore, the studies of the electronic correlation effects in the new 2D materials is of paramount importance for the understanding of their transport, optical and catalytic properties. Here, by means of electron spectroscopy methods in combination with density functional theory calculations we investigate the electronic structure of a new layered van der Waals $$\hbox {FePX}_3$$ FePX 3 (X: S, Se) materials. Using systematic resonant photoelectron spectroscopy studies we observed strong resonant behavior for the peaks associated with the $$3d^{n-1}$$ 3 d n - 1 final state at low binding energies for these materials. Such observations clearly assign $$\hbox {FePX}_3$$ FePX 3 to the class of Mott–Hubbard type insulators for which the top of the valence band is formed by the hybrid Fe-S/Se electronic states. These observations are important for the deep understanding of this new class of materials and draw perspectives for their further applications in different application areas, like (opto)spintronics and catalysis.

Carbon Dioxide Capture Chemistry of Amino Acid Functionalized Metal-Organic Frameworks in Humid Flue Gas

Metal-organic framework-808 has been functionalized with 11 amino acids (AA) to produce a series of MOF-808-AA structures. The adsorption of CO2 under flue gas conditions revealed that glycine- and DL-lysine-functionalized MOF-808 (MOF-808-Gly and -DL-Lys) have the highest uptake capacities. Enhanced CO2 capture performance in the presence of water was observed and studied using single-component sorption isotherms, CO2/H2O binary isotherm, and dynamic breakthrough measurements. The key to the favorable performance was uncovered by deciphering the mechanism of CO2 capture in the pores and attributed to the formation of bicarbonate as evidenced by 13C and 15N solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies. Based on these results, we examined the performance of MOF-808-Gly in simulated coal flue gas conditions and found that it is possible to capture and release CO2 by vacuum swing adsorption. MOF-808-Gly was cycled at least 80 times with full retention of performance. This study significantly advances our understanding of CO2 chemistry in MOFs by revealing how strongly bound amine moieties to the MOF backbone create the chemistry and environment within the pores, leading to the binding and release of CO2 under mild conditions without application of heat.

Newly Synthesized Micro-Nano Transition Metal Complexes of Hexadecanoic Acid as Anti-Microbial Agents: Synthesis, Characterization, and Biological Investigations

The synthesis of several metal complexes of d-block elements of hexadecanoic acid (palmitic acid) and its antimicrobial activity was reported in this study. UV-Vis and FT-IR spectroscopy studies were used to characterize and confirm the produced metal complexes by the shift in the absorbance and the formation of M-O linkage. The X-ray diffraction method was mainly used to examine the crystallographic faces of the complexes based on the transition metals. Thermal gravimetric investigation revealed that all metal palmitate complexes had high thermal stability in the range of 250-300°C. The metal complexes of hexadecanoic acid were examined for microbicidal activity against diverse bacterial strains and fungal pathogens using the agar well diffusion method. The copper palmitate complex presented excellent antibacterial activity among the other metal complexes. These outcomes suggest of using fatty acid metal complexes as a suitable candidate in several biomedical applications.

Opportunities and challenges of applying advanced X-ray spectroscopy to actinide and lanthanide N-donor ligand systems

N-donor ligands such as n-Pr-BTP [2,6-bis(5,6-dipropyl-1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)pyridine] preferentially bind trivalent actinides (An3+) over trivalent lanthanides (Ln3+) in liquid–liquid separation. However, the chemical and physical processes responsible for this selectivity are not yet well understood. Here, an explorative comparative X-ray spectroscopy and computational (L 3-edge) study for the An/Ln L 3-edge and the N K-edge of [An/Ln(n-Pr-BTP)3](NO3)3, [Ln(n-Pr-BTP)3](CF3SO3)3 and [Ln(n-Pr-BTP)3](ClO4)3 complexes is presented. High-resolution X-ray absorption near-edge structure (HR-XANES) L 3-edge data reveal additional features in the pre- and post-edge range of the spectra that are investigated using the quantum chemical codes FEFF and FDMNES. X-ray Raman spectroscopy studies demonstrate the applicability of this novel technique for investigations of liquid samples of partitioning systems at the N K-edge.

Rhodamine 6G based efficient chemosensor for the trivalent metal ions (Al3+, Cr3+ and Fe3+) upon single excitation with applications in combinational logic circuits and memory devices

A new rhodamine 6G based chemosensor (L3), has been synthesized and characterized by 1H, 13C, IR and Mass spectroscopy studies. It exhibits an excellent selective and sensitive CHEF based recognition...

Фазовый состав и структура пленки BiFeO-=SUB=-3-=/SUB=-, выращенной на подложке MgO(001) методом ВЧ-катодного распыления в атмосфере O-=SUB=-2-=/SUB=-

The crystal structure and Mossbauer spectroscopy studies results for BiFeO3 film growth on the MgO(001) single crystal substrate are present in the paper. It been shown that film have high crystal perfection and low defectiveness which results in appearing of narrow lines during the θ-2θ and φ scanning and the small (lower than 0.7°) disorientation of film and substrate crystal axes. It is been revealed that unit cell of BiFeO3/MgO(001) heterostructure possess monoclinic symmetry and deformation of unit cell is negligible. The Mossbauer study shows that magnetic subsystem of film has spatial spin-modulated structure with zero value of anharmonicity parameter (m). This indicate that at room temperature the magnetic anisotropy changes from the "easy axis" type to "easy plane" type.