Forgot your password?
New user?
New Window Opens on the Secret Life of Microbes: Scientists Develop First Microbial Profiles of Ecosystems
CAS announces the release of SciFinder Scholar for Mac OS X
Press Releases
Press Releases
| Check out our New Publishers' Select for Free Articles |
Advances in Colloid and Interface Science (v.156, #1-2)
Biological synthesis of metal nanoparticles by microbes by Kannan Badri Narayanan; Natarajan Sakthivel (pp. 1-13).
An array of physical, chemical and biological methods have been used to synthesize nanomaterials. In order to synthesize noble metal nanoparticles of particular shape and size specific methodologies have been formulated. Although ultraviolet irradiation, aerosol technologies, lithography, laser ablation, ultrasonic fields, and photochemical reduction techniques have been used successfully to produce nanoparticles, they remain expensive and involve the use of hazardous chemicals. Therefore, there is a growing concern to develop environment-friendly and sustainable methods. Since the synthesis of nanoparticles of different compositions, sizes, shapes and controlled dispersity is an important aspect of nanotechnology new cost-effective procedures are being developed. Microbial synthesis of nanoparticles is a green chemistry approach that interconnects nanotechnology and microbial biotechnology. Biosynthesis of gold, silver, gold–silver alloy, selenium, tellurium, platinum, palladium, silica, titania, zirconia, quantum dots, magnetite and uraninite nanoparticles by bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, yeasts and viruses have been reported. However, despite the stability, biological nanoparticles are not monodispersed and the rate of synthesis is slow. To overcome these problems, several factors such as microbial cultivation methods and the extraction techniques have to be optimized and the combinatorial approach such as photobiological methods may be used. Cellular, biochemical and molecular mechanisms that mediate the synthesis of biological nanoparticles should be studied in detail to increase the rate of synthesis and improve properties of nanoparticles. Owing to the rich biodiversity of microbes, their potential as biological materials for nanoparticle synthesis is yet to be fully explored. In this review, we present the current status of microbial synthesis and applications of metal nanoparticles.
Keywords: Nanotechnology; Biotechnology; Biosynthesis; Nanoparticles; Microbes; Green chemistry
Critical comparison of molecular mixing and interaction models for liquids, solutions and mixtures by Jarl B. Rosenholm (pp. 14-34).
Surface properties of condensed matter, in particular solids are frequently characterized with probe liquids. The liquids are assigned physico-chemical parameters, such as solubility parameters, surface/interfacial tensions and Hamaker constants. Each parameter has been subdivided into two-to-five van der Waals (London, Debye and Keesom) and Lewis contributions. A critical comparison reveals that each contribution varies considerably distorting the balance between them. Despite this scatter each set of parameters representing a particular molecular interaction shows similar trends. Experimental verification of these multi-parameter contributions in multi-components systems remain, however uncertain.Three models involving solubility parameters, surface/interfacial tensions and Hamaker constants were compared for internal and mutual conceptual consistency. It is shown that Fowkes definition of work of adhesion as interfacial tension contradicts Dupre's definition as work process of adhesion. The exchange energy density (EED) process differs from the work of adhesion process by a factor two for the interfacial average term and for three-component systems the models differ substantially. The processes which are represented by Hamaker constants are in accord with the EED process for two-component systems, but assumed equal to work process of adhesion for three-component systems. Although the process representation is common for all models, it is shown that they represent only a fraction of the total energy balance.
Keywords: Solubility parameter; Cohesive energy density; Exchange energy density; Interaction parameter; Work of adhesion; Work of spreading; Hamaker constant; Dispersive; Polar; Lifshitz; van der Waals; Dipolar; Hydrogen bond; Acid; Base; Total; Interaction; Hildebrand; Hansen; Beerbower; Barton; Dupré; Fowkes; van Oss; Chadhury; Good; Girifalco; Israelachvili; Rosenholm models
On inverse miniemulsion polymerization of conventional water-soluble monomers by Ignác Capek (pp. 35-61).
Inverse monomer miniemulsions can be generated by sonification of the polar monomer, water, stabilizer and costabilizer in organic solvents as the unpolar continuous phase. The inverse miniemulsion obtains its stability by using a combination of effective surfactant and osmotic pressure agent, so called lypophobe, which is practically insoluble in the continuous phase and prevents the minidroplets from Ostwald ripening. Inverse miniemulsions are typically sterically stabilized with a nonionic surfactant blend so as to provide a relatively condensed interface. The monomer droplet nucleation proceeds under an uncomplete coverage of the monomer and polymer particles with surfactant. Inverse monomer miniemulsions can be easily polymerized to latexes by using water and oil-soluble initiators. The rate of inverse miniemulsion polymerization of water-soluble monomers increased with increasing both initiator and emulsifier concentrations. The inverse polymerization is very fast and the high conversion is reached during a few minutes. The dependence of the polymerization rate vs. conversion can be described by a curve with the two rate intervals. The abrupt increase in the polymerization rate can be attributed to the increased number of reaction loci and the gel effect. The partitioning of unsaturated monomers between the aqueous and continuous phases favours the contribution of homogeneous nucleation. The desorption of monomeric radicals from the small polymer particles favours the polymerization in the continuous phase. The miniemulsion polymerization and copolymerization is ideal process for the preparation of composite nanoparticles with different structures. This procedure can be used to develop novel thermally responsive polymer microspheres, for example, based on N-isopropylacrylamide monomer. The composite magnetic nanoparticles are prepared by polymerization of both water-soluble and oil-soluble monomers in the presence of water- and oil-soluble iron oxide nanoparticles. The inverse miniemulsion copolymerization of acrylic acid and sodium acrylate in the presence of inorganic nanoparticles and substances produces poly(acrylic acid-co-sodium acrylate)/inorganic phase composite nanoparticles. The presence of hydrophobic monomer in the miniemulsion system favours the formation of hollow nanoparticles. The composite latex particles owned better thermal stability and higher colloidal stability than pure latex particles.
Keywords: Inverse miniemulsion; Polymerization kinetics; Nanoparticles; Nanocomposites; Lypophobe; Additives
Dynamics of adsorption in micellar and non micellar solutions of derivatives of lysosomotropic substances by Katarzyna Dopierala; Krystyna Prochaska (pp. 62-69).
Dynamics of adsorption in micellar and non micellar solutions of derivatives of lysosomotropic substances was studied. The following compounds were considered in our research work: alkyl N,N-dimethyl-alaninates methobromides (DMALM- n), alkyl N,N-dimethylglycinates methobromides (DMGM- n), fatty acids N,N-dimethylaminoethylesters methobromides (DMM- n), fatty acids N,N-dimethylaminopropylesters methobromides (DMPM-n), fatty acids 1-dimethylamino-2-propyl methobromides (DMP2M-n), and derivatives of aminoesters with double alkyl chains (M2M-n). The examined compounds show interesting biological properties which can be useful, especially in medicine. The exact mechanism of interaction of such compounds with biological membrane is not fully known. However, it is supposed that the presence of micelles has an important role in biological systems. In this paper we show the results of dynamic surface tension measurements in solutions containing the investigated compounds at concentrations above and below cmc.Moreover, we analyzed the influence of the chemical structure of molecules on the diameters of the micelles formed in the solutions. It was found that adsorption dynamics for the studied compounds is strongly affected by the chemical structure of the considered derivatives, especially by the presence of the ester bond, linearity of the molecule, as well as its hydrophobicity. The obtained results show that the structure of the bromide M2M-n with two short hydrocarbon chains favors a faster and more efficient adsorption of the molecules at the air/water interface, compared with compounds having one long alkyl chain. Moreover, the double chained derivatives of the M2M-n type do not form typical spherical micelles but bilayer structures probably exist in these solutions. The micelles present in the solutions influence the dynamics of adsorption drastically. Moreover, the obtained results indicated that the compounds with especially high biological activity form rather small aggregates.
Keywords: Quaternary ammonium salts; Lysosomotropic substances; Micellar solutions; Dynamics of adsorption
Phenomenological approaches in the thermodynamics of mixed micelles with electric charges by Hiroshi Maeda (pp. 70-82).
The stability of mixed micelles in general has been extensively studied by the molecular thermodynamic approaches as well as by the phenomenological or thermodynamic approaches. In this article, phenomenological approaches in the thermodynamics of charged mixed micelles, mostly on ionic/nonionic mixed micelles, are reviewed. The electrostatic interaction constitutes a main contribution to the excess free energy per monomer (in kT unit) gex in the case of ionic/nonionic mixed micelles and the corresponding contribution is generally negative, known as the electric synergism. The origin of the electric synergism is shown to reside in positive curvatures of gex,el (the electric part of gex) when plotted against the mole fraction of the ionic species x. Two types of the micellar Gibbs–Duhem (MGD) relations with (type 1) or without (type 2) the contribution from counterions are discussed to clarify various confusions found in the literature. Effects of varying ionic strengths with the micelle composition in the case of charged mixed micelles without any supporting electrolyte are discussed and a relevant way to correct for the effects is proposed. For ionic/nonionic mixed micelles, the regular solution model (RSM) and some two-parameter models to overcome the limitations inherent to the RSM are discussed. For mixed micelles subject to type 2 MGD relation, hydrogen ion titrations could provide gel experimentally just as in the case of linear polyelectrolytes and for those micelles subject to RSM, the titration curve becomes a straight line. Useful information is presented originating from the thermodynamic analysis on the difference of the intrinsic proton dissociation constants between the micelle and the monomer. An analytical expression of the dependence of the degree of counterion binding on x is discussed in comparison with the molecular thermodynamic results. The Corrin–Harkins relation is compared with the degree of counterion binding for ionic/nonionic mixed micelles. Mixed micelles in the concentration range higher than the critical micelle concentration ( cmc) are discussed for three cases, the general method of Funasaki–Hada, the ideal mixing case, and the RSM.
Keywords: Elecrtrically charged mixed micelles; The micellar Gibbs–Duhem relation; Electric synergism; Hydrogen ion titration; Counterion binding