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Aixin Song

Publications and source records attributed to Aixin Song.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Ca2+- and ba2+-ligand coordinated unilamellar, multilamellar, and oligovesicular vesicles.

Ca(2+)- and Ba(2+)-coordinated vesicle phases were prepared in mixed aqueous solutions of tetradecyldimethylamine oxide (C(14)DMAO) and calcium oleate (Ca(OA)(2)) or barium oleate (Ba(OA)(2)). At the right mixing ratios, metal-ligand coordination between Ca(OA)(2) or Ba(OA)(2) and C(14)DMAO results in the formation of molecular bilayers due to the reduction in area per head group. Ca(2+) and Ba(2+) tightly associate to the head groups of surfactants and in this system the bilayer membranes are not shielded by excess salts. The structures of the birefringent samples of the Ca(OA)(2)/C(14)DMAO/H(2)O and Ba(OA)(2)/C(14)DMAO/H(2)O systems were determined by freeze-fracture transmission electron microscopy (FF-TEM), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and rheological measurements to consist of unilamellar, multilamellar, and oligovesicular vesicles. The coordination between C(14)DMAO and Ba(OA)(2) or Ca(OA)(2) plays an important role in the formation of the vesicles, which was easily confirmed by studying the phase behavior of the KOA/C(14)DMAO/H(2)O system in which only the L(1) phase forms, due to the absence of coordination between KOA and C(14)DMAO. A mechanism is proposed that accounts for the formation of these new metal-ligand coordinated vesicles.

Barium↗
PubMed2005

Self-assembled structure in room-temperature ionic liquids.

Self-assembled vesicles, structurally equivalent to some hydrotropes, have been obtained from a Zn2+-fluorous surfactant or in the mixture of Zn2+-fluorous surfactant/zwitterionic surfactant in room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). The existence of bilayers arranged in vesicles in RTILs would be very exciting, open several new possibilities as reaction media, and increase our understanding of the physical and chemical factors for self-assembling systems in RTILs.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Two routes to vesicle formation: metal-ligand complexation and ionic interactions.

Two routes to vesicle formation were designed to prepare uni- and multilamellar vesicles in salt-free aqueous solutions of surfactants. The formation of a surfactant complex between a double-chain anionic surfactant with a divalent-metal ion as the counterion and a single-chain zwitterionic surfactant with the polar group of amine-oxide group is described for the first time as a powerful driving force for vesicle-phases constructed from salt-free mixtures of aqueous surfactant solutions. As a typical example, a Zn(2+)-induced charged complex fluid, vesicle-phase has been studied in aqueous mixtures of tetradecyldimethylamine oxide (C(14)DMAO) and zinc 2,2-dihydroperfluorooctanoate [Zn(OOCCH(2)C(6)F(13))(2)]. This ionically charged vesicle-phase formed due to surfactant complexation has interesting rheological properties and is not shielded by excess salts because there are no counterions in the solution. Such a vesicle-phase of surfactant complex is important for many applications; for example, the vesicle-phase was further used to produce in situ the vesicle-phase of the salt-free cationic/anionic (catanionic) surfactants, C(14)DMAOH(+)-(-)OOCCH(2)C(6)F(13). The salt-free catanionic vesicle-phase could be produced through injecting H(2)S gas into the C(14)DMAO/Zn(OOCCH(2)C(6)F(13))(2) vesicle-phase, because the zwitterionic surfactant C(14)DMAO can be charged by the H(+) released from H(2)S to become a cationic surfactant and Zn(2+) was precipitated as ZnS. After the ZnS precipitates were removed from C(14)DMAO/Zn(OOCCH(2)C(6)F(13))(2) solutions, the final mixed solution does not contain excess salts as do other cationic/anionic surfactant systems. Both the C(14)DMAO-Zn(OOCCH(2)C(6)F(13))(2) complex and the resulting catanionic C(14)DMAOH(+)-(-)OOCCH(2)C(6)F(13) solution are birefringent Lalpha-phase solutions that consist of uni- and multilamellar vesicles. Ring-shaped semiconductor ZnS materials with encapsulated ZnS precipitates and regular spherical ZnS particles were prepared, which resulted in a transition from vesicles composed of metal-ligand complexes to vesicles held together by ionic interactions in the salt-free aqueous systems. This strategy should provide a new method to prepare inorganic materials. The present routes to form vesicles solve a problem: how to prepare nanomaterials using surfactant self-assembly, with structure controlled not by the growing material, but by the phase behavior of the surfactants.

Crystallography, X-Ray↗
PubMed2004

Double-strand hydrolysis of DNA by a magnesium(II) complex with diethylenetriamine.

The development of artificial nucleases that hydrolyze DNA or RNA is of great interest in molecular biology, biotechnology, and medicine. We now report that a magnesium(II) complex of diethylenetriamine (Mg-dien) can effectively promote the double-stranded cleavage of plasmid DNA and the dideoxynucleotide dApdA under physiological conditions of pH and temperature. Experiments performed in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, radical scavengers, or under rigorously anaerobic conditions indicate that DNA cleavage mediated by Mg-dien occurs via a hydrolytic path. Mg-dien efficiently hydrolyzes supercoiled pBR322 DNA and the pseudo-first-order rate constant at 37 degrees C and pH 8.0 is estimated to be 1.60 h(-1). The dinucleotide dApdA hydrolysis, with Mg-dien at 170 microM, shows a rate enhancement factor of ca. 5 x 10(8). 1H and 31P(1H) NMR studies show that Mg-dien effectively hydrolyzes 5'-dAMP to give deoxyadenosine and inorganic phosphate. While Mg2+ has been found at the catalytic sites of many natural nucleases, Mg-dien appears to be the first synthetic Mg2+-containing system capable of hydrolyzing dideoxynucleotides and DNA and thus may provide a simple model system to assist mechanistic studies of naturally occurring nucleases.

DNA↗