1.
Nanostructured photoelectrochemical biosensor for highly sensitive detection of organophosphorous pesticides.
Li, X, Zheng, Z, Liu, X, Zhao, S, Liu, S
Biosensors & bioelectronics. 2015;:1-5
Abstract
A sensitive photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensor for detection of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) using the nanocomposite of CdSe@ZnS quantum dots (QDs) and graphene deposited on the ITO coated glass electrode as a photoactive electrode is presented. The integration of CdSe@ZnS/graphene nanocomposite with biomolecules acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as a biorecognition element yields a novel biosensing platform. Under visible light irradiation, the AChE-CdSe@ZnS/graphene nanocomposite can generate a stable photocurrent and the photocurrent is found to be inversely dependent on the concentration of OPs. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the photocurrents were proportional to the logarithm of paraoxon and dichlorvos within the concentration range of 10(-12)-10(-6) M. The detection limits (LOD) of the proposed biosensor for paraoxon and dichlorvos are as low as 10(-14) M and 10(-12) M. The photoelectrochemical biosensor shows good sensitivity, reproducibility, stability, and could be successfully applied to detection of OPs in real fruit samples.
2.
Glycerol-mediated nanostructure modification leading to improved transparency of porous polymeric scaffolds for high performance 3D cell imaging.
Zhao, S, Shen, Z, Wang, J, Li, X, Zeng, Y, Wang, B, He, Y, Du, Y
Biomacromolecules. 2014;(7):2521-31
Abstract
Glycerol is among the most commonly used optical clearing agents for tissues clearance largely due to refractive index (RI) matching between glycerol and the submerged tissues. Here we applied glycerol as structure modifier at both macroscopic (as porogen) and nanoscopic (as nanostructure ameliorant) scales to fabricate transparent porous scaffolds made from poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as well as other widely used biomaterials (e.g., PLGA, PA, or gelatin), whose nanostructures, in the scale of light wavelength, dominantly improved the optical transmittance of the scaffolds even when immersed in RI mismatched medium (e.g., culture medium or water). We further exploited the clearing mechanisms based on Mie scattering theory, illustrating that conformational changes of polymer chains induced by solvent effects of glycerol enhanced the anisotropy (i.e., directional alignment) of the nanostructures, leading to reduced crystallinity and scattering of the resulted PEG scaffolds. Our findings represent the first and systematic demonstration with both experimental and theoretical evidence in effectively clearing porous polymeric scaffolds by mechanisms other than RI matching, which could tackle the limitations of current optical imaging of cells cultured within three-dimensional (3D) opaque porous scaffolds, such as poor visibility, low spatial resolution, and small penetration depth.