High temperature, transparent, superhydrophobic Teflon AF-2400/Indium tin oxide nanocomposite thin films.

The outstanding properties of Teflon AF-2400-chemical, optical, etc-inspired us to make modifications to enhance its hydrophobicity. We prepared an AF-2400/indium tin oxide (ITO) nanocomposite by a spin coating technique at room temperature, using the AF-2400 polymer as the matrix and ITO nanoparticles as the filler. Different ITON concentrations ranging from 3 to 30 mg ml-1 were prepared to study the effect of nanoparticle loading on the films' properties and superhydrophobicity. The effect of spin speed and annealing temperature was also studied. Atomic force microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV-vis analysis were employed to characterize the prepared films. The results indicated that the film's low surface energy and nano/micro-features made it superhydrophobic. Increasing the ITON concentration to 15 mg ml-1 improved the superhydrophobicity of the composite film by increasing the surface roughness. The coating showed superhydrophobic behavior with a static contact angle (SCA) around 152° and contact angle hysteresis less than 2°. The nanocomposite films also exhibited excellent thermal stability, sustaining temperatures as high as 240 °C without losing their superhydrophobic behavior. Three models, Wenzel, Cassie-Baxter, and Shuttleworth-Bailey, were used to predict the SCA. The results confirmed that the latter model gave the best prediction. In addition to superhydrophobicity, the AF-2400/ITON films coated on a glass substrate showed very high transparency-around 95% in the visible and infrared ranges. An effective medium theory, the Bergman representation, was used to simulate the transmittance of the AF-2400/ITON nanocomposites. The measured and simulated transmittance values were in good agreement in the visible range. Based on our results, this coating may be highly useful for many practical applications, including solar cell coatings, chemical resistance protective coatings, and more.

Plasmonic nano surface for neuronal differentiation and manipulation.

Neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries can destroy neurons, resulting in sensory and motor function loss. Transplantation of differentiated neurons from stem cells could help restore such lost functions. Plasmonic gold nanorods (AuNR) were integrated in growth surfaces to stimulate and modulate neural cells in order to tune cell physiology. An AuNR nanocomposite system was fabricated, characterized, and then utilized to study the differentiation of embryonic rat neural stem cells (NSCs). Results demonstrated that this plasmonic surface 1) accelerated differentiation, yielding almost twice as many differentiated neural cells as a traditional NSC culture surface coated with poly-D-lysine and laminin for the same time period; and 2) promoted differentiation of NSCs into neurons and astrocytes in a 2:1 ratio, as evidenced by the expression of relevant marker proteins. These results indicate that the design and properties of this AuNR plasmonic surface would be advantageous for tissue engineering to address neural degeneration.

The cavity perturbation method for evaluating hematocrit via dielectric properties.

The physical parameters of human blood (complex permittivity and conductivity) at microwave frequencies have been investigated to assess the hematocrit (HCT). The cavity perturbation method based on a rectangular cavity operated in TE101mode at frequency 4.212 GHz has been utilized to measure the permittivity of blood with different hematocrit % at a range of temperatures. According to the results, the dielectric constant, loss factor, and conductivity appeared to be influenced by HCT level. Though the dielectric constant is the only parameter that shows clear linear regression decreasing behavior with a correlation value around (R2= 0.93). For thirty healthy donors the dielectric constant decreases from (65.61 ± 1.4 to 44.64 ± 4.0) and from (65.3 ± 1.2 to 48.3 ± 1.88) for men and women, respectively, with increasing hematocrit percentage from 20% HCT up to 95% HCT. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant is also examined in the temperature range 27 °C-50 °C and the results display a slight decrease in dielectric constant with elevation temperature. The temperature-dependence dielectric constant of water and blood samples were fitted to an empirical polynomial with temperature. A comparison of estimated HCT using the cavity technique based on dielectric properties shows a very good agreement with commercially standard HCT measurement methods. Finally, the cavity technique can be applied to measure the hematocrit up to high values based on the dielectric constant with high precision, simplicity, and low cost compared with traditional techniques.

Biosensor Design for the Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells Using the Quartz Crystal Resonator Technique.

A new mass-sensitive biosensing approach for detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) using a quartz crystal resonator (QCR) has been developed. A mathematical model was used to design a ring electrode-based QCR to eliminate the Gaussian spatial distribution of frequency response in the first harmonic mode, a characteristic of QCRs, without compromising the sensitivity of frequency response. An ink-dot method was used to validate the ring electrode fabricated based on our model. Furthermore, the ring electrode QCR was experimentally tested for its ability to capture circulating tumor cells, and the results were compared with a commercially available QCR with a keyhole electrode. An indirect method of surface immobilization technique was employed via modification of the SiO2 surface of the ring electrode using a silane, protein, and anti-EpCAM. The ring electrode successfully demonstrated eliminating the spatial nonuniformity of frequency response for three cancer cell lines, i.e., MCF-7, PANC-1, and PC-3, compared with the keyhole QCR, which showed nonuniform spatial response for the same cancer cell lines. These results are promising for developing QCR-based biosensors for the early detection of cancer cells, with the potential for point-of-care diagnosis for cancer screening.

Quantification of cellular associated graphene and induced surface receptor responses.

The use of graphene for biomedical and other applications involving humans is growing and shows practical promise. However, quantifying the graphitic nanomaterials that interact with cells and assessing any corresponding cellular response is extremely challenging. Here, we report an effective approach to quantify graphene interacting with single cells that utilizes combined multimodal-Raman and photoacoustic spectroscopy. This approach correlates the spectroscopic signature of graphene with the measurement of its mass using a quartz crystal microbalance resonator. Using this technique, we demonstrate single cell noninvasive quantification and multidimensional mapping of graphene with a detection limit of as low as 200 femtograms. Our investigation also revealed previously unseen graphene-induced changes in surface receptor expression in dendritic cells of the immune system. This tool integrates high-sensitivity real-time detection and monitoring of nanoscale materials inside single cells with the measurement of induced simultaneous biological cell responses, providing a powerful method to study the impact of nanomaterials on living systems and as a result, the toxicology of nanoscale materials.