Surfactant-Free One-Pot Synthesis of Homogeneous Trimetallic PtNiCu Nanoparticles with Size Control by Using Glycine.

Homogeneous platinum alloy nanoparticles (NPs) are of great interest to the electrocatalytic community for potential use in various fuel cell electrodes. Increasing the surface area available per unit mass by decreasing the size of NPs while maintaining or improving activity is one of the key tasks of fuel cell catalysis. Achieving both in a synthesis of multielement NPs is still a challenging workup. In this investigation, we report the use of glycine as a size control agent to make ultrasmall homogeneous trimetallic PtNiCu NPs within 2-5 nm range. The mechanistic roles of dimethyl formamide (DMF), formaldehyde, water, and glycine are explored to understand the formation of these small NPs. Interestingly, it was observed that these PtNiCu NPs exhibited substantially enhanced mass activities toward the electro-oxidation of ethanol in comparison to commercial Pt black.

A Diverse View of Science to Catalyse Change.

Valuing diversity leads to scientific excellence, the progress of science and most importantly, it is simply the right thing to do. We can value diversity not only in words, but also in actions.

Ternary CoPtAu Nanoparticles as a General Catalyst for Highly Efficient Electro-oxidation of Liquid Fuels.

Efficient electro-oxidation of formic acid, methanol, and ethanol is challenging owing to the multiple chemical reaction steps required to accomplish full oxidation to CO2 . Herein, a ternary CoPtAu nanoparticle catalyst system is reported in which Co and Pt form an intermetallic L10 -structure and Au segregates on the surface to alloy with Pt. The L10 -structure stabilizes Co and significantly enhances the catalysis of the PtAu surface towards electro-oxidation of ethanol, methanol, and formic acid, with mass activities of 1.55 A/mgPt , 1.49 A/mgPt , and 11.97 A/mgPt , respectively in 0.1 m HClO4 . The L10 -CoPtAu catalyst is also stable, with negligible degradation in mass activities and no obvious Co/Pt/Au composition changes after 10 000 potential cycles. The in situ surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy study indicates that the ternary catalyst activates the C-C bond more efficiently for ethanol oxidation.

Grf10 regulates the response to copper, iron, and phosphate in Candida albicans.

The pathogenic yeast, Candida albicans, and other microbes must be able to handle drastic changes in nutrient availability within the human host. Copper, iron, and phosphate are essential micronutrients for microbes that are sequestered by the human host as nutritional immunity; yet high copper levels are employed by macrophages to induce toxic oxidative stress. Grf10 is a transcription factor important for regulating genes involved in morphogenesis (filamentation, chlamydospore formation) and metabolism (adenylate biosynthesis, 1-carbon metabolism). The grf10Δ mutant exhibited resistance to excess copper in a gene dosage-dependent manner but grew the same as the wild type in response to other metals (calcium, cobalt, iron, manganese, and zinc). Point mutations in the conserved residues D302 and E305, within a protein interaction region, conferred resistance to high copper and induced hyphal formation similar to strains with the null allele. The grf10Δ mutant misregulated genes involved with copper, iron, and phosphate uptake in YPD medium and mounted a normal transcriptional response to high copper. The mutant accumulated lower levels of magnesium and phosphorus, suggesting that copper resistance is linked to phosphate metabolism. Our results highlight new roles for Grf10 in copper and phosphate homeostasis in C. albicans and underscore the fundamental role of Grf10 in connecting these with cell survival.