Structure-function relationships in photosynthetic water oxidation.

Luminescent probing methods were employed to investigate the interaction of the Ti-O chains of polytitanasiloxane with europium ions in the mixture of ethanol and water. The UV-vis absorption, the luminescence intensity, and the luminescence lifetimes of the Eu3+ ions in PTS solutions were all found to increase with the increase of TBT/TEOS molar ratio. The results indicated that the incorporation of TBT can result in the increase of absorption energy of the Ti-O group by near-UV excitation and in the increase of energy transfer to the metal ion, and that the Ti-O chains due to the site binding of Eu3+ ions can expel six to nine solvent molecules from the first coordination solvation shell of the ion. The investigation of the energy transfer from europium to neodymium ions in polytitanasiloxane solutions revealed the formation of aggregates consisting of seven rare earth ions (together with the polytitanasiloxane countercharges).

Deuterium Oxide↗

PubMed2007

Diffusion of nutrients molecules and model drug carriers through mucin layer investigated by magnetic resonance imaging with chemical shift resolution.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with chemical shift resolution is a recent extension of MRI and it provides information about species resolved molecular transport on the macroscopic scale in complex systems. In this contribution, we show that by using this novel method, one can predict the behavior of drug and food molecules when they are in contact with the mucosal layer in the gastrointestinal tract. For the first time, the transport properties of a mixture of nutrients (i.e., a solution of ethanol and glucose) and of a model drug carrier (i.e., an equimolar solution of cationic and nonionic surfactants) through a mucin gel have been investigated. This study shows that transport properties of the diffusing molecules through a mucin gel are dependent on their size and physicochemical properties. In addition, we show that mucin gel acts as an efficient selective barrier. It favors the disintegration of mixed micelles of nonionic and cationic surfactants by stopping the diffusion of cationic surfactants with slightly affecting the diffusion of the nonionic surfactants.

Deuterium Oxide↗

PubMed2006

Artificial neural networks for qualitative and quantitative analysis of target proteins with polymerized liposome vesicles.

We investigate the feasibility of using the luminescence response of polymerized liposomes incorporating ethylenediaminetetraacetate europium(III) (EDTA-Eu(3+)) for monitoring protein concentrations in aqueous media. Quantitative analysis is based on the linear relationship between the luminescence enhancement of the lanthanide ion and protein concentration. Analytical figures of merit are presented for carbonic anhydrase, human serum albumin, gamma-globulins, and thermolysin. Qualitative analysis is based on the luminescence lifetime of the liposome sensor. This parameter, which follows well-behaved single exponential decays and provides characteristic values for each of the four studied proteins, demonstrates the selective potential for protein identification. Then partial least squares-1 and artificial neural networks are compared toward the quantitative and qualitative analysis of human serum albumin and carbonic anhydrase in binary mixtures without previous separation at the concentration levels found in aqueous humor.

Deuterium Oxide↗