In situ Observation of Desorption Reaction of Cytochrome c from Solid/Liquid Interfaces with Slab Optical Waveguide Spectroscopy.

An automated solution exchange (SE) mechanism has been introduced to slab optical waveguide spectroscopy to estimate the protein immobilizing ability of a slab optical waveguide (SOWG) surface. In each SE process, SOWG spectral change in absorbance at peak position of cytochrome c (cyt.c) Soret band at 409 nm was observed to analyze the desorption ratio of cyt.c adsorbed on SOWG surface. Continuous SE processes for 100 times have successfully brought us a kind of master desorption curve of cyt.c, which was well fitted by a double exponential equation, indicating the existence of three kinds of adsorbed states, including weakly adsorbed, strongly adsorbed, and immobilized cyt.c. The present results showed that around 30 times SE processes were enough to anticipate the ratio of desorbed and immobilized amounts of cyt.c adsorbed on SOWG surface.

Rapid transformation from spherical nanoparticles, nanorods, cubes, or bipyramids to triangular prisms of silver with PVP, citrate, and H2O2.

Rapid sphere-to-prism (STP) transformation of silver was studied in aqueous AgNO(3)/NaBH(4)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/trisodium citrate (Na(3)CA)/H(2)O(2) solutions by monitoring time-dependent surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bands in the UV-vis region, by examining transmission electron microscopic (TEM) images, and by analyzing emitted gases during fast reaction. Roles of PVP, Na(3)CA, and H(2)O(2) were studied without addition of a reagent, with different timing of each reagent's addition, and with addition of H(2)O(2) to mixtures of spheres and prisms. Results show that prisms can be prepared without addition of PVP, although it is useful to synthesize smaller monodispersed prisms. A new important role of citrate found in this study, besides a known role as a protecting agent of {111} facets of plates, is an assistive agent for shape-selective oxidative etching of Ag nanoparticles by H(2)O(2). The covering of Ag nanoparticles with carboxylate groups is necessary to initiate rapid STP transformation by premixing citrate before H(2)O(2) addition. Based on our data, rapid prism formation starts from the consumption of spherical Ag particles because of shape-selective oxidative etching by H(2)O(2). Oxidative etching of spherical particles by H(2)O(2) is faster than that of prisms. Therefore, spherical particles are selectively etched and dissolved, leaving only seeds of prisms to grow into triangular prisms. When pentagonal Ag nanorods and a mixture of cubes and bipyramids were used as sources of prisms, rod-to-prism (RTP), cube-to-prism (CTP), and bipyramid-to-prism (BTP) transformations were observed in Ag nanocrystals/NaBH(4)/PVP/Na(3)CA/H(2)O(2) solutions. Shape-selective oxidative etching of rods was confirmed using flag-type Ag nanostructures consisting of a triangular plate and a side rod. These data provide useful information for the size-controlled synthesis of triangular Ag prisms, from various Ag nanostructures and using a chemical reduction method, having surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bands at a desired wavelength.

Multidigestion in continuous flow tandem protease-immobilized microreactors for proteomic analysis.

Proteolysis by sequence-specific proteases is the key step for positive sequencing in proteomic studies integrated with mass spectrometry (MS). The conventional method of in-solution digestion of protein is a time-consuming procedure and has limited sensitivity. In this study, we report a simple and rapid system for the analysis of protein sequence and protein posttranslational modification by multienzymatic reaction in a continuous flow using the enzyme (trypsin, chymotrypsin, or alkaline phosphatase)-immobilized microreactor. The feasibility and performance of the single microreactor and tandem microreactors that were connected by the different microreactors were determined by the digestion of nonphosphoprotein (cytochrome c) and phosphoproteins (ß-casein and pepsin A). The single microreactor showed rapid digestion compared with that of in-solution digestions. Multiple digestion by the tandem microreactors showed higher sequence coverage compared with that by in-solution or the single microreactor. Moreover, the tandem microreactor that was made by using the combination of protease-immobilized microreactor and phosphatase-immobilized microreactor showed the capability for phosphorylation site analysis in phosphoproteins without the use of any enrichment strategies or radioisotope labeling techniques. This approach provides a strategy that can be applied to various types of linking microreactor-based multienzymatic reaction systems for proteomic analysis.

Plasmon-enhanced photocurrent generation from self-assembled monolayers of phthalocyanine by using gold nanoparticle films.

The effect of localized electric fields on the photocurrent responses of phthalocyanine that was self-assembled on a gold nanoparticle film was investigated by comparing the conventional and the total internal reflection (TIR) experimental systems. In the case of photocurrent measurements, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of a thiol derivative of palladium phthalocyanine (PdPc) were prepared on the surface of gold-nanoparticle film that was fixed on the surface of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) substrate via a polyion (PdPc/AuP/polyion/ITO) or on the ITO surface (PdPc/ITO). Photocurrent action spectra from the two samples were compared by using the conventional spectrometer, and were found that PdPc/AuP/polyion/ITO gave considerably larger photocurrent signals than PdPc/ITO under the identical concentration of PdPc. In the case of the TIR experiments for the PdPc/AuP/polyion/ITO and the PdPc/AuP/Glass systems, incident-angle profiles of photocurrent and emission signals were correlated with each other, and they were different from that of the PdPc/ITO system. Accordingly, it was demonstrated that the photocurrent signals were certainly enhanced by the localized electric fields of the gold-nanoparticle film.

Surface modification of gold nanorods with synthetic cationic lipids.

Colloidal gold nanorods (GNRs), which were passivated with cationic cerasome-forming lipids having triethoxysilyl groups, were obtained in the aqueous phase by sonication of the mixture of lipids and GNRs.

Observation of fluidic behavior in a polymethylmethacrylate-fabricated microchannel by a simple spectroscopic analysis.

An easy-to-use and low cost microreactor made of polymethylmethacrylate was mechanically fabricated with a microchannel (200 microm x 200 microm). The laminar flow behavior was investigated by visualizing the flow of red and green aqueous solutions. Digitized color images from a CCD camera were analyzed by resolving the color in RGB mode. Numeric data from red and green color components in the images could reveal the fluidic behavior in the microchannel because the spatial spectroscopic information corresponds to the color solution flows. Effects of corner shapes in a turn, flow rate and surface roughness were observed on the mixing of the laminar flows. A right angle turn and unevenness of +/-10% of the inner wall surface almost mixed the two color laminar flows.