PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Yongdong Jin

Publications and source records attributed to Yongdong Jin.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) as an electronic conduction medium: current transport through bR-containing monolayers.

Studying electron transport (ET) through proteins is hampered by achieving reproducible experimental configurations, particularly electronic contacts to the proteins. The transmembrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (bR), a natural light-activated proton pump in purple membranes of Halobacterium salinarum, is well studied for biomolecular electronics because of its sturdiness over a wide range of conditions. To date, related studies of dry bR systems focused on photovoltage generation and photoconduction with multilayers, rather than on the ET ability of bR, which is understandable because ET across 5-nm-thick, apparently insulating membranes is not obvious. Here we show that electronic current passes through bR-containing artificial lipid bilayers in solid "electrode-bilayer-electrode" structures and that the current through the protein is more than four orders of magnitude higher than would be estimated for direct tunneling through 5-nm, water-free peptides. We find that ET occurs only if retinal or a close analogue is present in the protein. As long as the retinal can isomerize after light absorption, there is a photo-ET effect. The contribution of light-driven proton pumping to the steady-state photocurrents is negligible. Possible implications in view of the suggested early evolutionary origin of halobacteria are noted.

Bacteriorhodopsins↗
PubMed2005

Electrochemical thinning of thicker gold film with qualified thickness for surface plasmon resonance sensing.

To meet the requirement of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing, controlling the thickness of the gold film is very important. Here, we report an efficient and simple approach to prepare a SPR-active substrate when the thickness of the gold film is larger than the optimizing 50 nm and smaller than 100 nm. This method is based on anodic electrodissolution of gold in electrolyte containing chloride ions. Using this method, the thickness of gold films can be easily changed at a nanometer scale by controlling the number of potential scans and the concentrations of chloride ions in the electrolyte. At the same time, the influence of gold film thickness on the SPR signal is recorded by SPR in real time. To assess the change of the surface roughness and morphology of gold film through anodic electrodissolution, atomic force microscopy was used. The surface roughness of the same Au film before and after anodic electrodissolution is 1.179 and 2.767 nm, respectively. The change of the surface roughness of Au film brings out a slight angle shift of SPR. This indicates that surface electrodissolution of the gold does not affect the character of the original bulk film and this film can be used for SPR experiments. To confirm our expectation, a simple adsorption experiment of cytochrome c (Cyt c) on the gold film treated with anodic electrodissolution modified by 11-mercaptoundecanic acid was carried out. The angle shift of SPR confirmed the adsorption of Cyt c, and the cyclic voltammetry of Cyt c provided a complementary confirmation for the adsorption of Cyt c. These results show that this approach provides a good way to change the thicker gold film to an optimized thickness of SPR sensing. The great advantage brought by this approach is in that it can convert the waste gold films with greater thicknesses fabricated by the vacuum deposition method or other methods into useful materials as active SPR substrates.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Surface plasmon resonance-mediated colloid gold monolayer junctions.

Because of the localized field amplification that occurs, excitation of surface plasmons (SPs) in metal nanoparticle-based current-carrying nanoelectronic devices is expected to lead to new and interesting applications. We report a simple way to prepare surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-mediated colloid Au monolayer junctions by a wet chemistry and soft top electrode deposition. The SPR-enhanced junction current is observed upon illumination with light of energies close to the nanoparticle plasmon resonance wavelengths. This current is superimposed on tunneling current observed in the absence of surface plasmons.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Designed nanostructured pt film for electrocatalytic activities by underpotential deposition combined chemical replacement techniques.

Multiple-deposited Pt overlayer modified Pt nanoparticle (MD-Pt overlayer/PtNPs) films were deliberately constructed on glassy carbon electrodes through alternately multiple underpotential deposition (UPD) of Ag followed redox replacement reaction by Pt (II) cations. The linear and regular growth of the films characterized by cyclic voltammetry was observed. Atomic force spectroscopy (AFM) provides the surface morphology of the nanostructured Pt films. Rotating disk electrode (RDE) voltammetry and rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) voltammetry demonstrate that the MD-Pt overlayer/PtNPs films can catalyze an almost four-electron reduction of O(2) to H(2)O in air-saturated 0.1 M H(2)SO(4). Thus-prepared Pt films behave as novel nanostructured electrocatalysts for dioxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with enhanced electrocatalytic activities, in terms of both reduction peak potential and peak current, when compared to that of the bulk polycrystalline Pt electrode. Additionally, it is noted that after multiple replacement cycles, the electrocatalytic activities improved remarkably, although the increased amount of Pt is very low in comparison to that of pre-modified PtNPs due to the intrinsic feature of the UPD-redox replacement technique. In other words, the electrocatalytic activities could be improved markedly without using very much Pt by the technique of tailoring the catalytic surface. These features may provide an interesting way to produce Pt catalysts with a reliable catalytic performance as well as a reduction in cost.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Conducting polymer polypyrrole supported bilayer lipid membranes.

Electrochemically synthesized conducting polymer polypyrrole (PPy) film on gold electrode surface was used as a novel support for bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs). Investigations by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) suggest that dimyristoyl-L-alpha-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and dimyristoyl-L-alpha-phosphatidyl-L-serine (DMPS) can form BLMs on PPy film surface but dimyristoyl-L-alpha-phosphatidylglycerol (DMPG) and didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) can not do so, indicating the formation of PPy supported bilayer lipid membranes (s-BLMs) is dependent on the chemical structure of the lipids used. The self-assembly of DMPC induces a smoother topography than the PPy layer with rms roughness decreasing from 4.484 to 2.914 nm convinced by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Impedance spectroscopy measurements confirm that the deposition of BLM substantially increases the resistance of the system indicating a very densely packed BLM structures. The little change of PPy film in capacitance shows that solvent and electrolyte ions still retain within the porous PPy film after BLM deposition. Therefore, the PPy supported BLM is to some extent comparable to conventional BLM with aqueous medium retaining at its two sides. As an example and preliminary application, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) reconstituted into the s-BLM shows the expected protein activity and can transfer electron from or to the underlying PPy support for its response to electrocatalytic reduction of hydrogen peroxide in solution. Thus the system maybe possesses potential applications to biomimetic membrane studies.

Biosensing Techniques↗
PubMed2004

Robust core-shell supramolecular assemblies based on cationic vesicles and ring-shaped [Mo154] polyoxomolybdate nanoclusters: template-directed synthesis and characterizations.

Substantial progress has been made recently in extending the supramolecular assembly of biomimetic structures to vesicle-based sophisticated nanocomposites and mesostructures. We report herein the successful preparation of unilamellar surfactant vesicles coated with a monolayer of ring-shaped [Mo(154)] polyoxometalate (POM) nanoclusters, (NH(4))(28)[Mo(154)(NO)(14)O(448)H(14)(H(2)O)(70)]. approximately 350 H(2)O, by coulomb attractions using preformed didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) surfactant vesicles as templates. The resultant vesicle-templated supramolecular assemblies are robust (they do not disintegrate upon dehydration) both at room-temperature ambient and vacuum conditions, as characterized by conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The flexibility of the complex soft assemblies was also revealed by AFM measurements. The effect of POM-vesicle coulomb attractions on the dimensions of the templating vesicles was also investigated by using dynamic light scattering (DLS). Although origins of the structure stability of the as-prepared supramolecular assemblies are not clear yet, the nanometer scale cavities and the related properties of macroions of the POM clusters may play an important role in it.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of colloidal gold size on the conformational changes of adsorbed cytochrome c: probing by circular dichroism, UV-visible, and infrared spectroscopy.

The conformational changes of bovine heart cytochrome c (cyt c) induced by the adsorption on gold nanoparticles with different sizes have been investigated by electronic absorption, circular dichroism (CD), and Fourier transform infrared spectra. The combination of these techniques can give complementary information about adsorption-induced conformational changes. The results show that there are different conformational changes for cyt c adsorbed on gold nanoparticles with different sizes due to the different interaction forces between cyt c and gold nanoparticles. The colloidal gold concentration-dependent conformation distribution curves of cyt c obtained by analysis of CD spectra using the singular value decomposition least-squares method show that the coverage of cyt c on the gold nanoparticles surface also affects the conformational changes of the adsorbed cyt c.

Adsorption↗