Selective encapsulation of hemoproteins from mammalian cells using mesoporous metal oxide nanoparticles

Radially oriented nanostrand electrodes to boost glucose sensing in mammalian blood

Architecture of nanoscale electrochemical sensors for ultra-trace detection of glucose in blood is important in real-life sampling and analysis. To broaden the application of electrochemical sensing of glucose, we fabricated, for the first time, a glucose sensor electrode based on radially oriented NiO nanostrands (NSTs) onto 3D porous Ni foam substrate for monitoring, as well as selective and sensitive sensing of glucose in mammalian blood. The simple, scalable one-pot fabrication of this NST-Ni sensor design enabled control of the pattern of radially oriented NSTs onto 3D porous Ni foam substrate. The radial orientation of NST-Ni electrode onto the interior of the 3D porous substrate with controlled crystal structure size and atomic arrangement along the axis of the strands, intrinsic surface defects, and superior surface properties, such as hydrophilicity, high surface energy, and high density led to highly exposed catalytic active sites. The hierarchical NST-Ni electrode was used to develop a sensitive and selective sensor over a wide range of glucose concentrations among actively competitive ions, chemical species and molecular agents, and multi-cyclic sensing assays. The NST-Ni electrode shows significant glucose sensing performance in terms of unimpeded diffusion pathways, a wide range of concentration detection, and lower limit of detection (0.186 µM) than NiO nanosheet (NS)-Ni foam electrode pattern, indicating the effectiveness of the shape-dependent structural architecture of NST-Ni electrode. In this study, the NST-Ni electrode is fabricated to develop a simple, selective method for detecting glucose in physiological fluids (e.g., mammalian blood).

Nanomembrane Canister Architectures for the Visualization and Filtration of Oxyanion Toxins with One-Step Processing

Nanomembrane canister-like architectures were fabricated by using hexagonal mesocylinder-shaped aluminosilica nanotubes (MNTs)-porous anodic alumina (PAA) hybrid nanochannels. The engineering pattern of the MNTs inside a 60 μm-long membrane channel enabled the creation of unique canister-like channel necks and cavities. The open-tubular canister architecture design provides controllable, reproducible, and one-step processing patterns of visual detection and rejection/permeation of oxyanion toxins such as selenite (SeO3(2-)) in aquatic environments (i.e., in ground and river water sources) in the Ibaraki Prefecture of Japan. The decoration of organic ligand moieties such as omega chrome black blue (OCG) into inorganic Al2O3@tubular SiO2/Al2O3 canister membrane channel cavities led to the fabrication of an optical nanomembrane sensor (ONS). The OCG ligand was not leached from the canister as observed in washing, sensing, and recovery assays of selenite anions in solution, which enabled its multiple reuse. The ONS makes a variety of alternate processing analyses of selective quantification, visual detection, rejection/permeation, and recovery of toxic selenite quick and simple without using complex instrumentation. Under optimal conditions, the ONS canister exhibited a high selectivity toward selenite anions relative to other ions and a low-level detection limit of 0.0093 μM. Real analytical data showed that approximately 96% of SeO3(2-) anions can be recovered from aquatic and wastewater samples. The ONS canister holds potential for field recovery applications of toxic selenite anions from water.