The rise of antibiotic resistance is a growing worldwide human health issue, with major socioeconomic implications. An understanding of the interactions occurring at the bacterial membrane is crucial for the generation of new antibiotics. Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) made from reconstituted lipid vesicles have been used to mimic these membranes, but their utility has been restricted by the simplistic

Lysozyme is widely known to promote the formation of condensed silica networks from solutions containing silicic acid, in a reproducible and cost-effective way. However, little is known about the fate of the protein after the formation of the silica particles. Also, the relative arrangement of the different components in the resulting material is a matter of debate. In this study, we investigate the

Textured hydrophobic surfaces that repel liquid droplets unidirectionally are found in nature such as butterfly wings and ryegrass leaves and are also essential in technological processes such as self-cleaning and anti-icing. In many occasions, surface textures are oriented to direct rebounding droplets. Surface macrostructures (>100 μm) have often been explored to induce directional rebound. However

A poly(N,N′-dimethylacrylamide) (PDMAC) precursor is chain-extended via reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) aqueous dispersion polymerization of diacetone acrylamide (PDAAM) to produce PDMAC77-PDAAM40 spherical nanoparticles. Post-polymerization core-crosslinking of such nanoparticles was performed at 20 °C, and the resulting covalently stabilized nanoparticles survive exposure

Leucine on silica constitutes an interesting system from the point of view of origins of life studies since leucine coadsorbed on SiO2 together with glutamic acid can give rise to rather long linear polypeptides upon activation. It is also an ideal system to test methods of molecular characterization of biomolecules deposited on mineral surfaces since it combines a small-scale model of peptides and

Perpendicular arrangements in hierarchical nanostructures show superior mechanical properties and provide great opportunities for the development of advanced membranes because different channels are connected by the perpendicular blocks. To obtain these perpendicular hierarchical nanostructures, we use a simple ABC-star terpolymer because of the existence of a conjunction point by using the A block

Gels prepared with the solvent-triggering method are attractive for their easy and fast preparation; however, the role of solvents in this process remains unclear, which hinders the efficient and accurate control of desired gel properties. In this study, the role of solvents in the solvent-triggering gelation process is studied using 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc)-protected diphenylalanine (Fmoc-FF)

Non-amphiphilic polycations have recently been recognized to hold excellent antimicrobial potential with great mammalian cell compatibility. In a recent study, the excellent broad-spectrum bactericidal efficacy of a quaternary ammonium-substituted cationic pullulan (CP4) was demonstrated. Their selective toxicity and nominal probability to induce the acquisition of resistance among pathogens fulfill

As a nanozyme, gold nanoparticles have some advantages compared with natural enzymes, such as stable structure, adjustable catalytic activity, multifunctionality, and recyclability. Due to their special dimension, they are easy to aggregate rapidly and lose their catalytic performance when exposed to normal saline or special pH environment. To avoid such a situation, Au@PNIPAm nanozymes with core–shell

A modified many-body dissipative particle dynamics (mDPD) model is rigorously calibrated to achieve realistic fluid–fluid/solid interphase properties and applied for mesoscale flow simulations to elucidate the transport mechanisms of heptane liquid and water, respectively, through pore networks formed by packed silica nanoparticles with a uniform diameter of 30 nm. Two million CPU core hours were used

Colloidal photolithography is a versatile advanced technique for fabricating periodic nanopatterned arrays, with patterns carved exclusively on photoresist films deposited on solid substrates in a typical photolithographic process. In this study, we apply colloidal photolithography to polystyrene (PS) films half-covered with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) colloids at the air–water interface and demonstrate

Radiation on aqueous solutions can induce water radiolysis with products of radicals, H2, H2O2, and so on, and their consequent biological effects have long been interested in radiation chemistry. Unlike the decomposition of water by electric current that produces a significant number of bubbles, the gas products from the radiolysis of water are normally invisible by bare eyes, little is known on whether

Surface area estimation using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis has been beset by difficulties. The BET model has been applied routinely to systems that break its basic assumptions. Even though unphysical results arising from force-fitting can be eliminated by the consistency criteria, such a practice, in turn, complicates the simplicity of the linearized BET plot. We have derived a general

In this study, a superhydrophobic coating on glass has been prepared through a single-step aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) process. During the process, an aerosolized precursor containing polydimethylsiloxane, epoxy resin, and stearic acid functionalized Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles was deposited onto the glass at 350 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy