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Donadoni E, Siani P, Frigerio G, Milani C, Cui Q, Di Valentin C. The effect of polymer coating on nanoparticles' interaction with lipid membranes studied by coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. Nanoscale 2024. [PMID: 38646798 DOI: 10.1039/d4nr00495g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/23/2024]
Abstract
Nanoparticles' (NPs) permeation through cell membranes, whether it happens via passive or active transport, is an essential initial step for their cellular internalization. The NPs' surface coating impacts the way they translocate through the lipid bilayer and the spontaneity of the process. Understanding the molecular details of NPs' interaction with cell membranes allows the design of nanosystems with optimal characteristics for crossing the lipid bilayer: computer simulations are a powerful tool for this purpose. In this work, we have performed coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations on spherical titanium dioxide NPs conjugated with polymer chains of different chemical compositions. We have demonstrated that the hydrophobic/hydrophilic character of the chains, more than the nature of their terminal group, plays a crucial role in determining the NPs' interaction with the lipid bilayer and the thermodynamic spontaneity of NPs' translocation from water to the membrane. We envision that this computational work will be helpful to the experimental community in terms of the rational design of NPs for efficient cell membrane permeation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edoardo Donadoni
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milan, Italy.
- Department of Chemistry, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Paulo Siani
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milan, Italy.
| | - Giulia Frigerio
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milan, Italy.
| | - Carolina Milani
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milan, Italy.
| | - Qiang Cui
- Department of Chemistry, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milan, Italy.
- BioNanoMedicine Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
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2
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Frigerio G, Donadoni E, Siani P, Vertemara J, Motta S, Bonati L, Gioia LD, Valentin CD. Mechanism of RGD-conjugated nanodevice binding to its target protein integrin α Vβ 3 by atomistic molecular dynamics and machine learning. Nanoscale 2024; 16:4063-4081. [PMID: 38334981 DOI: 10.1039/d3nr05123d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/10/2024]
Abstract
Active targeting strategies have been proposed to enhance the selective uptake of nanoparticles (NPs) by diseased cells, and recent experimental findings have proven the effectiveness of this approach. However, no mechanistic studies have yet revealed the atomistic details of the interactions between ligand-activated NPs and integrins. As a case study, here we investigate, by means of advanced molecular dynamics simulations (MD) and machine learning methods (namely equilibrium MD, binding free energy calculations and training of self-organized maps), the interaction of a cyclic-RGD-conjugated PEGylated TiO2 NP (the nanodevice) with the extracellular segment of integrin αVβ3 (the target), the latter experimentally well-known to be over-expressed in several solid tumors. Firstly, we proved that the cyclic-RGD ligand binding to the integrin pocket is established and kept stable even in the presence of the cumbersome realistic model of the nanodevice. In this respect, the unsupervised machine learning analysis allowed a detailed comparison of the ligand/integrin binding in the presence and in the absence of the nanodevice, which unveiled differences in the chemical features. Then, we discovered that unbound cyclic RGDs conjugated to the NP largely contribute to the interactions between the nanodevice and the integrin. Finally, by increasing the density of cyclic RGDs on the PEGylated TiO2 NP, we observed a proportional enhancement of the nanodevice/target binding. All these findings can be exploited to achieve an improved targeting selectivity and cellular uptake, and thus a more successful clinical outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Frigerio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Edoardo Donadoni
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Jacopo Vertemara
- Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Stefano Motta
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Laura Bonati
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Luca De Gioia
- Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
- BioNanoMedicine Center NANOMIB, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
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3
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Ugolotti A, Dolce M, Di Valentin C. Vitamin C Affinity to TiO 2 Nanotubes: A Computational Study by Hybrid Density Functional Theory Calculations. Nanomaterials (Basel) 2024; 14:261. [PMID: 38334532 PMCID: PMC10856687 DOI: 10.3390/nano14030261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Revised: 01/22/2024] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024]
Abstract
Titanium dioxide nanotubes (TNT) have been extensively studied because of their unique properties, which make such systems ideal candidates for biomedical application, especially for the targeted release of drugs. However, knowledge about the properties of TiO2 nanotubes with typical dimensions of the order of the nanometer is limited, especially concerning the adsorption of molecules that can be potentially loaded in actual devices. In this work, we investigate, by means of simulations based on hybrid density functional theory, the adsorption of Vitamin C molecules on different nanotubes through a comparative analysis of the properties of different structures. We consider two different anatase TiO2 surfaces, the most stable (101) and the more reactive (001)A; we evaluate the role of the curvature, the thickness and of the diameter as well as of the rolling direction of the nanotube. Different orientations of the molecule with respect to the surface are studied in order to identify any trends in the adsorption mechanism. Our results show that there is no preferential functional group of the molecule interacting with the substrate, nor any definite spatial dependency, like a rolling orientation or the concavity of the nanotube. Instead, the adsorption is driven by geometrical factors only, i.e., the favorable matching of the position and the alignment of any functional groups with undercoordinated Ti atoms of the surface, through the interplay between chemical and hydrogen bonds. Differently from flat slabs, thicker nanotubes do not improve the stability of the adsorption, but rather develop weaker interactions, due to the enhanced curvature of the substrate layers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aldo Ugolotti
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy; (A.U.)
| | - Mirko Dolce
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy; (A.U.)
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy; (A.U.)
- BioNanoMedicine Center NANOMIB, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Follereau 3, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
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4
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Donadoni E, Frigerio G, Siani P, Motta S, Vertemara J, De Gioia L, Bonati L, Di Valentin C. Molecular Dynamics for the Optimal Design of Functionalized Nanodevices to Target Folate Receptors on Tumor Cells. ACS Biomater Sci Eng 2023; 9:6123-6137. [PMID: 37831005 PMCID: PMC10646887 DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.3c00942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023]
Abstract
Atomistic details on the mechanism of targeting activity by biomedical nanodevices of specific receptors are still scarce in the literature, where mostly ligand/receptor pairs are modeled. Here, we use atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, free energy calculations, and machine learning approaches on the case study of spherical TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) functionalized with folic acid (FA) as the targeting ligand of the folate receptor (FR). We consider different FA densities on the surface and different anchoring approaches, i.e., direct covalent bonding of FA γ-carboxylate or through polyethylene glycol spacers. By molecular docking, we first identify the lowest energy conformation of one FA inside the FR binding pocket from the X-ray crystal structure, which becomes the starting point of classical MD simulations in a realistic physiological environment. We estimate the binding free energy to be compared with the existing experimental data. Then, we increase complexity and go from the isolated FA to a nanosystem decorated with several FAs. Within the simulation time framework, we confirm the stability of the ligand-receptor interaction, even in the presence of the NP (with or without a spacer), and no significant modification of the protein secondary structure is observed. Our study highlights the crucial role played by the spacer, FA protonation state, and density, which are parameters that can be controlled during the nanodevice preparation step.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edoardo Donadoni
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Giulia Frigerio
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Stefano Motta
- Dipartimento
di Scienze dell’Ambiente e del Territorio, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Jacopo Vertemara
- Dipartimento
di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza
della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Luca De Gioia
- Dipartimento
di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza
della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Laura Bonati
- Dipartimento
di Scienze dell’Ambiente e del Territorio, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
- BioNanoMedicine
Center NANOMIB, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Follereau 3, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
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5
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Siani P, Frigerio G, Donadoni E, Di Valentin C. Modeling Zeta Potential for Nanoparticles in Solution: Water Flexibility Matters. J Phys Chem C Nanomater Interfaces 2023; 127:9236-9247. [PMID: 37223652 PMCID: PMC10201526 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c08988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Revised: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the electrokinetic properties of five mainstream TIPxP water models (namely, TIP3P-FB, TIP3Pm, TIP4P-FB, TIP4P-Ew, and TIP4P/2005) in NaCl aqueous solutions in the presence of a negatively charged TiO2 surface. The impact of solvent flexibility and system geometry on the electro-osmotic (EO) mobility and flow direction was systematically assessed and compared. We found that lack of water flexibility decelerates the forward EO flow of aqueous solutions at moderate (0.15 M) or high (0.30 M) NaCl concentrations, in some special cases to such an extent that EO flow reversal occurs. Zeta potential (ZP) values were then determined from the bulk EO mobilities using the Helmholtz-Smoluchowski formula. The straight comparison against available experimental data strongly suggests that water flexibility improves the ZP determination of NaCl solutions adjacent to a realistic TiO2 surface under neutral pH conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, via
R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
- BioNanoMedicine
Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Giulia Frigerio
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, via
R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
- BioNanoMedicine
Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Edoardo Donadoni
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, via
R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
- BioNanoMedicine
Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, via
R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
- BioNanoMedicine
Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
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6
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Motta S, Siani P, Donadoni E, Frigerio G, Bonati L, Di Valentin C. Metadynamics simulations for the investigation of drug loading on functionalized inorganic nanoparticles. Nanoscale 2023; 15:7909-7919. [PMID: 37066796 DOI: 10.1039/d3nr00397c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Inorganic nanoparticles show promising properties that allow them to be efficiently used as drug carriers. The main limitation in this type of application is currently the drug loading capacity, which can be overcome with a proper functionalization of the nanoparticle surface. In this study, we present, for the first time, a computational approach based on metadynamics to estimate the binding free energy of the doxorubicin drug (DOX) to a functionalized TiO2 nanoparticle under different pH conditions. On a thermodynamic basis, we demonstrate the robustness of our approach to capture the overall mechanism behind the pH-triggered release of DOX due to environmental pH changes. Notably, binding free energy estimations align well with what is expected for a pH-sensitive drug delivery system. Based on our results, we envision the use of metadynamics as a promising computational tool for the rational design and in silico optimization of organic ligands with improved drug carrier properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Motta
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, Università di Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Edoardo Donadoni
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Giulia Frigerio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Laura Bonati
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, Università di Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
- BioNanoMedicine Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
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7
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Bianchetti E, Oliveira AF, Scheinost AC, Di Valentin C, Seifert G. Chemistry of the Interaction and Retention of Tc VII and Tc IV Species at the Fe 3O 4(001) Surface. J Phys Chem C Nanomater Interfaces 2023; 127:7674-7682. [PMID: 37144042 PMCID: PMC10150389 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c00688] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Revised: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
The pertechnetate ion TcVIIO4 - is a nuclear fission product whose major issue is the high mobility in the environment. Experimentally, it is well known that Fe3O4 can reduce TcVIIO4 - to TcIV species and retain such products quickly and completely, but the exact nature of the redox process and products is not completely understood. Therefore, we investigated the chemistry of TcVIIO4 - and TcIV species at the Fe3O4(001) surface through a hybrid DFT functional (HSE06) method. We studied a possible initiation step of the TcVII reduction process. The interaction of the TcVIIO4 - ion with the magnetite surface leads to the formation of a reduced TcVI species without any change in the Tc coordination sphere through an electron transfer that is favored by the magnetite surfaces with a higher FeII content. Furthermore, we explored various model structures for the immobilized TcIV final products. TcIV can be incorporated into a subsurface octahedral site or adsorbed on the surface in the form of TcIVO2·xH2O chains. We propose and discuss three model structures for the adsorbed TcIVO2·2H2O chains in terms of relative energies and simulated EXAFS spectra. Our results suggest that the periodicity of the Fe3O4(001) surface matches that of the TcO2·2H2O chains. The EXAFS analysis suggests that, in experiments, TcO2·xH2O chains were probably not formed as an inner-shell adsorption complex with the Fe3O4(001) surface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico Bianchetti
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via
Roberto Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Augusto F. Oliveira
- Institute
of Resource Ecology, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
(HZDR), Forschungsstelle Leipzig, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
- Theoretische
Chemie, Technische Universität Dresden, Bergstr. 66c, 01062 Dresden, Germany
| | - Andreas C. Scheinost
- Institute
of Resource Ecology, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
(HZDR), Bautzner Landstr.
400, 01328 Dresden, Germany
- The
Rossendorf Beamline (ROBL) European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
(ESRF), Avenue des Martyrs
71, 38043 Grenoble, France
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via
Roberto Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
- BioNanoMedicine
Center NANOMIB, Università di Milano
Bicocca, Via Raoul Follereau
3, 20900 Monza, Italy
| | - Gotthard Seifert
- Theoretische
Chemie, Technische Universität Dresden, Bergstr. 66c, 01062 Dresden, Germany
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Bianchetti E, Perilli D, Di Valentin C. Improving the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Fe 3O 4(001) with Single-Atom Catalysts. ACS Catal 2023; 13:4811-4823. [PMID: 37066046 PMCID: PMC10088028 DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.3c00337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Revised: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 04/18/2023]
Abstract
Doping magnetite surfaces with transition-metal atoms is a promising strategy to improve the catalytic performance toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which governs the overall efficiency of water electrolysis and hydrogen production. In this work, we investigated the Fe3O4(001) surface as a support material for single-atom catalysts of the OER. First, we prepared and optimized models of inexpensive and abundant transition-metal atoms, such as Ti, Co, Ni, and Cu, trapped in various configurations on the Fe3O4(001) surface. Then, we studied their structural, electronic, and magnetic properties through HSE06 hybrid functional calculations. As a further step, we investigated the performance of these model electrocatalysts toward the OER, considering different possible mechanisms, in comparison with the pristine magnetite surface, on the basis of the computational hydrogen electrode model developed by Nørskov and co-workers. Cobalt-doped systems were found to be the most promising electrocatalytic systems among those considered in this work. Overpotential values (∼0.35 V) were in the range of those experimentally reported for mixed Co/Fe oxide (0.2-0.5 V).
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico Bianchetti
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via Roberto Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Daniele Perilli
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via Roberto Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via Roberto Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
- BioNanoMedicine
Center NANOMIB, Università di Milano
Bicocca, Via Raoul Follereau
3, 20900 Monza, Italy
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9
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Kohantorabi M, Wagstaffe M, Creutzburg M, Ugolotti A, Kulkarni S, Jeromin A, Krekeler T, Feuerherd M, Herrmann A, Ebert G, Protzer U, Guédez G, Löw C, Thuenauer R, Schlueter C, Gloskovskii A, Keller TF, Di Valentin C, Stierle A, Noei H. Adsorption and Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 on the Surface of Anatase TiO 2(101). ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2023; 15:8770-8782. [PMID: 36723177 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c22078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
We investigated the adsorption of severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for the current pandemic, on the surface of the model catalyst TiO2(101) using atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, accompanied by density functional theory calculations. Three different methods were employed to inactivate the virus after it was loaded on the surface of TiO2(101): (i) ethanol, (ii) thermal, and (iii) UV treatments. Microscopic studies demonstrate that the denatured spike proteins and other proteins in the virus structure readsorb on the surface of TiO2 under thermal and UV treatments. The interaction of the virus with the surface of TiO2 was different for the thermally and UV treated samples compared to the sample inactivated via ethanol treatment. AFM and TEM results on the UV-treated sample suggested that the adsorbed viral particles undergo damage and photocatalytic oxidation at the surface of TiO2(101) which can affect the structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and denature the spike proteins in 30 min. The role of Pd nanoparticles (NPs) was investigated in the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and TiO2(101). The presence of Pd NPs enhanced the adsorption of the virus due to the possible interaction of the spike protein with the NPs. This study is the first investigation of the interaction of SARS-CoV-2 with the surface of single crystalline TiO2(101) as a potential candidate for virus deactivation applications. Clarification of the interaction of the virus with the surface of semiconductor oxides will aid in obtaining a deeper understanding of the chemical processes involved in photoinactivation of microorganisms, which is important for the design of effective photocatalysts for air purification and self-cleaning materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mona Kohantorabi
- Center for X-ray and Nano Science (CXNS), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Michael Wagstaffe
- Center for X-ray and Nano Science (CXNS), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Marcus Creutzburg
- Center for X-ray and Nano Science (CXNS), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Aldo Ugolotti
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, Milano 20125, Italy
| | - Satishkumar Kulkarni
- Center for X-ray and Nano Science (CXNS), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Arno Jeromin
- Center for X-ray and Nano Science (CXNS), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Tobias Krekeler
- Electron Microscopy Unit, Hamburg University of Technology, Eissendorfer Strasse 42, Hamburg 21073, Germany
| | - Martin Feuerherd
- Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich/Helmholtz Munich, Munich 81675, Germany
- Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States
| | - Alexander Herrmann
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Munich, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, Neuherberg 85764, Germany
| | - Gregor Ebert
- Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich/Helmholtz Munich, Munich 81675, Germany
| | - Ulrike Protzer
- Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich/Helmholtz Munich, Munich 81675, Germany
| | - Gabriela Guédez
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), EMBL Hamburg, Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Christian Löw
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), EMBL Hamburg, Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Roland Thuenauer
- Technology Platform Light Microscopy and Image Analysis (TP MIA), Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology (HPI), Hamburg 20251, Germany
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Christoph Schlueter
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Andrei Gloskovskii
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Thomas F Keller
- Center for X-ray and Nano Science (CXNS), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
- Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, Notkestraße 9-11, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, Milano 20125, Italy
| | - Andreas Stierle
- Center for X-ray and Nano Science (CXNS), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
- Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, Notkestraße 9-11, Hamburg 22607, Germany
| | - Heshmat Noei
- Center for X-ray and Nano Science (CXNS), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestr. 85, Hamburg 22607, Germany
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10
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Bianchetti E, Di Valentin C. Effect of Surface Functionalization on the Magnetization of Fe 3O 4 Nanoparticles by Hybrid Density Functional Theory Calculations. J Phys Chem Lett 2022; 13:9348-9354. [PMID: 36190176 PMCID: PMC9575150 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c02186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Surface functionalization is found to prevent the reduction of saturation magnetization in magnetite nanoparticles, but the underlying mechanism is still to be clarified. Through a wide set of hybrid density functional theory (HSE06) calculations on Fe3O4 nanocubes, we explore the effects of the adsorption of various ligands (containing hydroxyl, carboxylic, phosphonic, catechol, and silanetriol groups), commonly used to anchor surfactants during synthesis or other species during chemical reactions, onto the spin and structural disorder, which contributes to the lowering of the nanoparticle magnetization. The spin-canting is simulated through a spin-flip process at octahedral Fe ions and correlated with the energy separation between O2- 2p and FeOct3+ 3d states. Only multidentate bridging ligands hamper the spin-canting process by establishing additional electronic channels between octahedral Fe ions for an enhanced ferromagnetic superexchange interaction. The presence of anchoring organic acids also interferes with structural disorder, by disfavoring surface reconstruction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico Bianchetti
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, 20125Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, 20125Milano, Italy
- BioNanoMedicine
Center NANOMIB, Università di Milano
Bicocca, 20900Monza, Italy
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11
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Casotto A, Drera G, Perilli D, Freddi S, Pagliara S, Zanotti M, Schio L, Verdini A, Floreano L, Di Valentin C, Sangaletti L. π-Orbital mediated charge transfer channels in a monolayer Gr-NiPc heterointerface unveiled by soft X-ray electron spectroscopies and DFT calculations. Nanoscale 2022; 14:13166-13177. [PMID: 36039896 DOI: 10.1039/d2nr02647c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
With the aim to identify charge transfer channels underlying device development and operation, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Near-Edge X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS), and Resonant Photoelectron Spectroscopy (ResPES) have been employed to characterize a novel heterointerface obtained by the controlled evaporation of a Nickel Phthalocyanine (NiPc) monolayer on a single layer of Graphene (Gr) on SiC substrate. Indeed, the Gr-NiPc interface could be a promising candidate for different applications in the field of photonics, optoelectronics, and sensing, provided that clear information on the charge transfer mechanisms at the Gr-NiPc interface can be obtained. The analysis of the spectroscopic data has shown the effective functionalization and the horizontally-flat disposition of the NiPc complexes over the Gr layer. With this geometry, the main intermolecular interaction experienced by the NiPc species is the coupling with the Gr substrate, through π-symmetry orbitals, as revealed by the different behaviour of the valence band photoemission at resonance with the N K-edge and Ni L3-edge. These results have been supported by the analysis of density functional theory (DFT) calculations, that allowed for a rationalization of the experimental data, showing that charge transfer at the interface occurs from the doubly degenerate eg LUMO orbital, involving mainly N and C (pyrrole ring) pz states, to the holes in the p-doped graphene layer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Casotto
- I-LAMP and Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via della Garzetta 48, 25133 Brescia, Italy.
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
| | - Giovanni Drera
- I-LAMP and Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via della Garzetta 48, 25133 Brescia, Italy.
| | - Daniele Perilli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Sonia Freddi
- I-LAMP and Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via della Garzetta 48, 25133 Brescia, Italy.
- Department of Chemistry, Division of Molecular Imaging and Photonics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Stefania Pagliara
- I-LAMP and Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via della Garzetta 48, 25133 Brescia, Italy.
| | - Michele Zanotti
- I-LAMP and Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via della Garzetta 48, 25133 Brescia, Italy.
| | - Luca Schio
- CNR-IOM, Lab. TASC, s.s. 14 km 163.5, 34149 Trieste, Italy
| | | | - Luca Floreano
- CNR-IOM, Lab. TASC, s.s. 14 km 163.5, 34149 Trieste, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Luigi Sangaletti
- I-LAMP and Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via della Garzetta 48, 25133 Brescia, Italy.
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12
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Donadoni E, Siani P, Frigerio G, Di Valentin C. Multi-scale modeling of folic acid-functionalized TiO 2 nanoparticles for active targeting of tumor cells. Nanoscale 2022; 14:12099-12116. [PMID: 35959762 PMCID: PMC9404434 DOI: 10.1039/d2nr02603a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Strategies based on the active targeting of tumor cells are emerging as smart and efficient nanomedical procedures. Folic acid (FA) is a vitamin and a well-established tumor targeting agent because of its strong affinity for the folate receptor (FR), which is an overexpressed protein on the cell membranes of the tumor cells. FA can be successfully anchored to several nanocarriers, including inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) based on transition metal oxides. Among them, TiO2 is extremely interesting because of its excellent photoabsorption and photocatalytic properties, which can be exploited in photodynamic therapy. However, it is not yet clear in which respects direct anchoring of FA to the NP or the use of spacers, based on polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains, are different and whether one approach is better than the other. In this work, we combine Quantum Mechanics (QM) and classical Molecular Dynamics (MD) to design and optimize the FA functionalization on bare and PEGylated TiO2 models and to study the dynamical behavior of the resulting nanoconjugates in a pure water environment and in physiological conditions. We observe that they are chemically stable, even under the effect of increasing temperature (up to 500 K). Using the results from long MD simulations (100 ns) and from free energy calculations, we determine how the density of FA molecules on the TiO2 NP and the presence of PEG spacers impact on the actual exposure of the ligands, especially by affecting the extent of FA-FA intermolecular interactions, which are detrimental for the targeting ability of FA towards the folate receptor. This analysis provides a solid and rational basis for experimentalists to define the optimal FA density and the more appropriate mode of anchoring to the carrier, according to the final purpose of the nanoconjugate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edoardo Donadoni
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Giulia Frigerio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
- BioNanoMedicine Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
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13
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Freddi S, Perilli D, Vaghi L, Monti M, Papagni A, Di Valentin C, Sangaletti L. Pushing Down the Limit of NH 3 Detection of Graphene-Based Chemiresistive Sensors through Functionalization by Thermally Activated Tetrazoles Dimerization. ACS Nano 2022; 16:10456-10469. [PMID: 35731131 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c01095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
An easy and cost-effective method is presented to functionalize graphene through thermally activated dimerization of 2,5-diaryltetrazoles. Consistently with the experimental spectroscopic results, theoretical calculations demonstrate that during the thermal treatment a dimerization process to tetrazine is energetically more favorable than covalent grafting. Since both the functionalization method by thermal activation and the use of tetrazoles have never been considered before to prepare graphene-based chemiresistors, this represents a promising approach to develop graphene-related sensing platforms. Five different 2,5-diaryltetrazoles have been tested here for the effective functionalization of low-defect graphene layers on silicon nitride. Based on these layers, an array of sensors has been prepared for testing upon ammonia exposure. The tests on the sensing performances clearly show sensitivity to ammonia, extending the current range of ammonia detection with a graphene-based chemiresistor down to the sub-ppm range, as results from a benchmarking with data available in the literature. Furthermore, all sensors perform better than bare graphene. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations, carried out on a model of the best performing layer of the array, provided the theoretical framework to rationalize the sensing mechanism and disclose a dual role played by the tetrazine molecules, (i) acting as ammonia concentrators and (ii) mediating the electron transfer between ammonia and graphene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonia Freddi
- Surface Science and Spectroscopy Lab @ I-Lamp, Department of Mathematics and Physics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via della Garzetta, 25123 Brescia, Italy
- Department of Chemistry, Division of Molecular Imaging and Photonics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Daniele Perilli
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Luca Vaghi
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Mauro Monti
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Antonio Papagni
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Luigi Sangaletti
- Surface Science and Spectroscopy Lab @ I-Lamp, Department of Mathematics and Physics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via della Garzetta, 25123 Brescia, Italy
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14
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Siani P, Frigerio G, Donadoni E, Di Valentin C. Molecular dynamics simulations of cRGD-conjugated PEGylated TiO 2 nanoparticles for targeted photodynamic therapy. J Colloid Interface Sci 2022; 627:126-141. [PMID: 35842963 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.07.045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2022] [Revised: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
The conjugation of high-affinity cRGD-containing peptides is a promising approach in nanomedicine to efficiently reduce off-targeting effects and enhance the cellular uptake by integrin-overexpressing tumor cells. Herein we utilize atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to evaluate key structural-functional parameters of these targeting ligands for an effective binding activity towards αVβ3 integrins. An increasing number of cRGD ligands is conjugated to PEG chains grafted to highly curved TiO2 nanoparticles to unveil the impact of cRGD density on the ligand's presentation, stability, and conformation in an explicit aqueous environment. We find that a low density leads to an optimal spatial presentation of cRGD ligands out of the "stealth" PEGylated layer around the nanosystem, favoring a straight upward orientation and spaced distribution of the targeting ligands in the bulk-water phase. On the contrary, high densities favor over-clustering of cRGD ligands, driven by a concerted mechanism of enhanced ligand-ligand interactions and reduced water accessibility over the ligand's molecular surface. These findings strongly suggest that the ligand density modulation is a key factor in the design of cRGD-targeting nanodevices to maximize their binding efficiency into over-expressed αVβ3 integrin receptors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Giulia Frigerio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Edoardo Donadoni
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy; BioNanoMedicine Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy.
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15
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Siani P, Di Valentin C. Effect of dopamine-functionalization, charge and pH on protein corona formation around TiO 2 nanoparticles. Nanoscale 2022; 14:5121-5137. [PMID: 35302136 PMCID: PMC8969454 DOI: 10.1039/d1nr07647g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) are gaining increasing attention in nanomedicine because of their stimuli responsiveness, which allows combining therapy with diagnosis. However, little information is known about their interaction with intracellular or plasma proteins when they are introduced in a biological environment. Here we present atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations investigating the case study of dopamine-functionalized TiO2 nanoparticles and two proteins that are overexpressed in cancer cells, i.e. PARP1 and HSP90, since experiments proved them to be the main components of the corona in cell cultures. The mechanism and the nature of the interaction (electrostatic, van der Waals, H-bonds, etc.) is unravelled by defining the protein residues that are more frequently in contact with the NPs, the extent of contact surface area and the variations in the protein secondary structures, at different pH and ionic strength conditions of the solution where they are immersed to simulate a realistic biological environment. The effects of the NP surface functionalization and charge are also considered. Our MD results suggest that less acidic intracellular pH conditions in the presence of cytosolic ionic strength enhance PARP1 interaction with the nanoparticle, whereas the HSP90 contribution is partly weakened, providing a rational explanation to existing experimental observations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
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16
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Kosmala T, Baby A, Lunardon M, Perilli D, Liu H, Durante C, Di Valentin C, Agnoli S, Granozzi G. Operando visualization of the hydrogen evolution reaction with atomic-scale precision at different metal–graphene interfaces. Nat Catal 2021. [DOI: 10.1038/s41929-021-00682-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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17
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Siani P, Donadoni E, Ferraro L, Re F, Di Valentin C. Molecular dynamics simulations of doxorubicin in sphingomyelin-based lipid membranes. Biochim Biophys Acta Biomembr 2021; 1864:183763. [PMID: 34506799 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2021.183763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2021] [Revised: 07/22/2021] [Accepted: 08/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most efficient antitumor drugs employed in numerous cancer therapies. Its incorporation into lipid-based nanocarriers, such as liposomes, improves the drug targeting into tumor cells and reduces drug side effects. The carriers' lipid composition is expected to affect the interactions of DOX and its partitioning into liposomal membranes. To get a rational insight into this aspect and determine promising lipid compositions, we use numerical simulations, which provide unique information on DOX-membrane interactions at the atomic level of resolution. In particular, we combine classical molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations to elucidate the mechanism of penetration of a protonated Doxorubicin molecule (DOX+) into potential liposome membranes, here modeled as lipid bilayers based on mixtures of phosphatidylcholine (PC), sphingomyelin (SM) and cholesterol lipid molecules, of different compositions and lipid phases. Moreover, we analyze DOX+ partitioning into relevant regions of SM-based lipid bilayer systems using a combination of free energy methods. Our results show that DOX+ penetration and partitioning are facilitated into less tightly packed SM-based membranes and are dependent on lipid composition. This work paves the way to further investigations of optimal formulations for lipid-based carriers, such as those associated with pH-responsive membranes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulo Siani
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Edoardo Donadoni
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Ferraro
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Francesca Re
- School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, via Raoul Follereau 3, Vedano al Lambro, MB 20854, Italy; BioNanoMedicine Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy; BioNanoMedicine Center NANOMIB, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy.
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18
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Motta S, Siani P, Levy A, Di Valentin C. Exploring the drug loading mechanism of photoactive inorganic nanocarriers through molecular dynamics simulations. Nanoscale 2021; 13:13000-13013. [PMID: 34477783 PMCID: PMC8341096 DOI: 10.1039/d1nr01972d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/01/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Inorganic nanoparticles are gaining increasing attention as drug carriers because they respond to external physical stimuli, allowing therapy to be combined with diagnosis. Their drawback is low drug loading capacity, which can be improved by proper and efficacious functionalization. In this computational study, we take TiO2 spherical nanoparticles as prototype photoresponsive inorganic nanoparticles and we fully decorate them with two different types of bifunctional ligands: TETTs and DOPACs, which present different surface anchoring groups (silanol or catechol) but the same drug tethering COOH group, although in different concentrations (3 vs. 1), thus causing different steric hindrances. Then, we put these two types of nanocarriers in bulk water and in the presence of several DOX molecules and let the systems evolve through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, clearly observing drug loading on the nanocarriers. This comparative MD study allows the investigation of the loading mechanism, performance of a conformational analysis and establishment of the guiding interactions through an energy decomposition analysis. We learn that DOX mostly interacts with the functionalized NPs through electrostatics, as a consequence of the protonated amino group, although several H-bonds are also established both with the ligands and with the oxide surface. Different ligands induce a different electrostatic potential around the NP; therefore, those which lead to the formation of more negative hotspots (here TETTs) are found to favour DOX binding. The leading role of electrostatics can provide a rational explanation for a pH-dependent drug release mechanism that is often invoked for DOX when reaching diseased cells because under anomalous acidic conditions both the NP surface and the carboxylate groups of the ligands are expected to get protonated, which of course would weaken, if not totally quench, the interaction of the nanocarrier with protonated DOX.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Motta
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, Università di Milano BicoccaPiazza della Scienza 120126 MilanoItaly
| | - Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicoccavia R. Cozzi 552015 MilanoItaly
| | - Andrea Levy
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicoccavia R. Cozzi 552015 MilanoItaly
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicoccavia R. Cozzi 552015 MilanoItaly
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19
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Liu H, Siani P, Bianchetti E, Zhao J, Di Valentin C. Multiscale simulations of the hydration shells surrounding spherical Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles and effect on magnetic properties. Nanoscale 2021; 13:9293-9302. [PMID: 33983352 PMCID: PMC8230581 DOI: 10.1039/d1nr01014j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 04/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) are excellent systems in catalysis and in nanomedicine, where they are mostly immersed in aqueous media. Even though the NP solvation by water is expected to play an active role, the detailed structural insight at the nanostructure oxide/water interface is still missing. Here, based on our previous efforts to obtain accurate models of dehydrated Fe3O4 NPs and of their magnetic properties and through multiscale molecular dynamics simulations combining the density functional tight binding method and force field, we unravel the atomistic details of the short range (chemical) and long range (physical) interfacial effects when magnetite nanoparticles are immersed in water. The influence of the first hydration shell on the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of Fe3O4 NPs is revealed by high-level hybrid density functional calculations. Hydrated Fe3O4 NPs possess larger magnetic moment than dehydrated ones. This work bridges the large gap between experimental studies on solvated Fe3O4 NPs and theoretical investigations on flat Fe3O4 surfaces covered with water and paves the way for further study of Fe3O4 NPs in biological environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongsheng Liu
- Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams, Dalian University of Technology, Ministry of Education, Dalian 116024, China and Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Enrico Bianchetti
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Jijun Zhao
- Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams, Dalian University of Technology, Ministry of Education, Dalian 116024, China
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy.
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20
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Soria FA, Di Valentin C. Reactive molecular dynamics simulations of hydration shells surrounding spherical TiO 2 nanoparticles: implications for proton-transfer reactions. Nanoscale 2021; 13:4151-4166. [PMID: 33576363 DOI: 10.1039/d0nr07503e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
In many potential applications, nanoparticles are typically in an aqueous medium. This has strong influence on the stability, optical properties and reactivity, in particular for their functionalization. Therefore, the understanding of the chemistry at the interface between the solvent and the nanoparticle is of utmost importance. In this work, we present a comparative ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamics investigation on spherical TiO2 nanoparticles (NSs) of realistic size, with diameters from 2.2 to 4.4 nm, immersed in a large drop of bulk water. After force field validation for its use for a curved anatase TiO2 surface/water interface, we performed several simulations of the TiO2 nanoparticles of increasing size in a water drop. We found that water can be adsorbed jointly in a molecular and dissociative way on the surface. A Langmuir isotherm indicating an adsorption/desorption mechanism of water on the NS is observed. Regarding the dissociative adsorption, atomistic details reveal two different mechanisms, depending on the water concentration around the NS. At low coverage, the first mechanism involves direct dissociation of a single water molecule, whereas, at higher water coverage, the second mechanism is a proton transfer reaction involving two water molecules, also known as Grotthuss-like mechanism. Thermal annealing simulations show that several water molecules remain on the surface in agreement with the experimental reports. The capacity of adsorption is higher for the 2.2 and 3.0 nm NSs than for the 4.4 nm NS. Finally, a comparative investigation with flat surfaces indicates that NSs present a higher water adsorption capacity (undissociated and dissociated) than flat surfaces, which can be rationalized considering that NSs present many more low-coordinated Ti atoms available for water adsorption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federico A Soria
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
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21
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Siani P, Bianchetti E, Liu H, Di Valentin C. Parametrization of the Fe-O water cross-interaction for a more accurate Fe 3O 4/water interface model and its application to a spherical Fe 3O 4 nanoparticle of realistic size. J Chem Phys 2021; 154:034702. [PMID: 33499628 DOI: 10.1063/5.0035678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The accurate description of iron oxides/water interfaces requires reliable force field parameters that can be developed through comparison with sophisticated quantum mechanical calculations. Here, a set of CLASS2 force field parameters is optimized to describe the Fe-Owater cross-interaction through comparison with hybrid density functional theory (HSE06) calculations of the potential energy function for a single water molecule adsorbed on the Fe3O4 (001) surface and with density functional tight binding (DFTB+U) molecular dynamics simulations for a water trilayer on the same surface. The performance of the new parameters is assessed through the analysis of the number density profile of a water bulk (12 nm) sandwiched between two magnetite slabs of large surface area. Their transferability is tested for water adsorption on the curved surface of a spherical Fe3O4 nanoparticle of realistic size (2.5 nm).
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Enrico Bianchetti
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Hongsheng Liu
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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22
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Perilli D, Fiori S, Panighel M, Liu H, Cepek C, Peressi M, Comelli G, Africh C, Di Valentin C. Mechanism of CO Intercalation through the Graphene/Ni(111) Interface and Effect of Doping. J Phys Chem Lett 2020; 11:8887-8892. [PMID: 32966082 PMCID: PMC7735739 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2020] [Accepted: 09/23/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Molecules intercalate at the graphene/metal interface even though defect-free graphene is impermeable to any atomic and molecular species in the gas and liquid phase, except hydrogen. The mechanism of molecular intercalation is still a big open question. In this Letter, by means of a combined experimental (STM, XPS, and LEED) and theoretical (DFT) study, we present a proof of how CO molecules succeed in permeating the graphene layer and get into the confined zone between graphene and the Ni(111) surface. The presence of N-dopants in the graphene layer is found to highly facilitate the permeation process, reducing the CO threshold pressure by more than one order of magnitude, through the stabilization of multiatomic vacancy defects that are the open doors to the bidimensional nanospace, with crucial implications for the catalysis under cover and for the graphene-based electrochemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Perilli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Sara Fiori
- CNR-IOM,
Laboratorio TASC, S.S.
14 Km 163.5, Basovizza, 34149 Trieste, Italy
- Department
of Physics, University of Trieste, via A. Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
| | - Mirco Panighel
- CNR-IOM,
Laboratorio TASC, S.S.
14 Km 163.5, Basovizza, 34149 Trieste, Italy
| | - Hongsheng Liu
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
- Laboratory
of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams, Dalian University of Technology, Ministry of Education, Dalian 116024, China
| | - Cinzia Cepek
- CNR-IOM,
Laboratorio TASC, S.S.
14 Km 163.5, Basovizza, 34149 Trieste, Italy
| | - Maria Peressi
- Department
of Physics, University of Trieste, via A. Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
| | - Giovanni Comelli
- CNR-IOM,
Laboratorio TASC, S.S.
14 Km 163.5, Basovizza, 34149 Trieste, Italy
- Department
of Physics, University of Trieste, via A. Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
| | - Cristina Africh
- CNR-IOM,
Laboratorio TASC, S.S.
14 Km 163.5, Basovizza, 34149 Trieste, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
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23
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Abstract
![]()
Nanoparticle functionalization
is a modern strategy in nanotechnology
to build up devices for several applications. Modeling fully decorated
metal oxide nanoparticles of realistic size (few nanometers) in an
aqueous environment is a challenging task. In this work, we present
a case study relevant for solar-light exploitation and for biomedical
applications, i.e., a dopamine-functionalized TiO2 nanoparticle
(1700 atoms) in bulk water, for which we have performed an extensive
comparative investigation with both MM and QM/MM approaches of the
structural properties and of the conformational dynamics. We have
used a combined multiscale protocol for a more efficient exploration
of the complex conformational space. On the basis of the results of
this study and of some QM and experimental data, we have defined strengths
and limitations of the existing force field parameters. Our findings
will be useful for an improved modeling and simulation of many other
similar hybrid bioinorganic nanosystems in an aqueous environment
that are pivotal in a broad range of nanotechnological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Stefano Motta
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e della Terra, Università di Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Ferraro
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Asmus O Dohn
- Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark.,Faculty of Physical Sciences and Science Institute, University of Iceland, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, Via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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24
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Datteo M, Ferraro L, Seifert G, Di Valentin C. TETT-functionalized TiO 2 nanoparticles for DOX loading: a quantum mechanical study at the atomic scale. Nanoscale Adv 2020; 2:2774-2784. [PMID: 36132395 PMCID: PMC9417671 DOI: 10.1039/d0na00275e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2020] [Accepted: 05/14/2020] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
In this work, we present a quantum mechanical investigation, based on the self-consistent charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) method, of the functionalization with silane-type ligands (TETT) of a spherical TiO2 nanoparticle of realistic size (2.2 nm containing 700 atoms) to create an efficient nanosystem for simultaneous photodynamic therapy and drug transport. We determine the mechanism of the TETT ligand anchoring and its stability under thermal treatment, through molecular dynamics simulations at 300 K. Then, we build a medium and a full coverage model (22 and 40 TETTs, respectively) and analyze the interaction among TETT ligands and between the ligands and the surface. Finally, on the fully covered nanoparticle, we succeed in localizing two minimum energy structures for an attached doxorubicin anticancer molecule (DOX) and provide the atomistic details for both the covalent and the non-covalent (electrostatic) types of interaction. A future development of this work will be the investigation of the loading capacity of this drug delivery system and of the pH effect of the surrounding aqueous environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Datteo
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca Via R. Cozzi 55 20125 Milano Italy
| | - Lorenzo Ferraro
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca Via R. Cozzi 55 20125 Milano Italy
| | - Gotthard Seifert
- Technische Universität Dresden, Institut für Theoretische Chemie D-01062 Dresden Germany
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca Via R. Cozzi 55 20125 Milano Italy
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25
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Liu H, Perilli D, Dolce M, Di Valentin C. Insight into the Na adsorption on WSe 2xS 2(1-x)monolayers: a hybrid functional investigation. J Phys Condens Matter 2020; 32:395001. [PMID: 32442988 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ab95cf] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 05/22/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Monolayer WSe2has aroused strong interest as a semiconducting 2D material. The tuning of its electronic properties is important for expanding the range of applications. In this work, by hybrid density functional theory calculations, we investigate the effect of Na adsorption on the electronic and magnetic properties of stoichiometric and defective WSe2monolayers and their WSe2xS2(1-x)alloys. Our results suggest that Na adsorption on defective WSe2xS2(1-x)monolayers would split and partially fill the empty defect states in the gap region inducing a local magnetic moment of 1μBper alkaline atom. The efficient tuning of the electronic and magnetic properties of WSe2monolayer by Na adsorption combined with the Se vacancy and S alloying would benefit its wide applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongsheng Liu
- Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams, Dalian University of Technology, Ministry of Education, Dalian 116024, People's Republic of China
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Universit̀ di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Daniele Perilli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Universit̀ di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Mirko Dolce
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Universit̀ di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Universit̀ di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
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26
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Liu H, Bianchetti E, Siani P, Di Valentin C. Insight into the interface between Fe 3O 4 (001) surface and water overlayers through multiscale molecular dynamics simulations. J Chem Phys 2020; 152:124711. [PMID: 32241149 DOI: 10.1063/1.5140268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
In this work, we investigate the Fe3O4 (001) surface/water interface by combining several theoretical approaches, ranging from a hybrid functional method (HSE06) to density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) to molecular mechanics (MM). First, we assess the accuracy of the DFTB method to correctly reproduce HSE06 results on structural details and energetics and available experimental data for adsorption of isolated water, dimers, and trimers up to a water monolayer. Second, we build two possible configurations of a second and a third overlayer and perform molecular dynamics simulations with DFTB, monitoring the water orientation, the H-bond network, and the ordered water structure formation. To make our models more realistic, we then build a 12 nm-thick water multilayer on top of the Fe3O4 (001) surface slab model, which we investigate through MM-molecular dynamics (MD). The water layer structuring, revealed by the analysis of the atomic positions from a long MM-MD run for this large MM model, extends up to about 6-7 Å and nicely compares with that observed for a water trilayer model. However, MM and DFTB MD simulations show some discrepancy due to the poor description of the Fe⋯OH2 distance in MM that calls for further work in the parameterization of the model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongsheng Liu
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Enrico Bianchetti
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Paulo Siani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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27
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Abstract
Iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) are stimuli-responsive materials at the forefront of nanomedicine. Their realistic finite temperature simulations are a formidable challenge for first-principles methods. Here, we use density functional tight binding to open up the required time and length scales and obtain global minimum structures of Fe_{3}O_{4} NPs of realistic size (1400 atoms, 2.5 nm) and of different shapes, which we then refine with hybrid density functional theory methods to accomplish proper electronic and magnetic properties, which have never been accurately described in simulations. On this basis, we develop a general empirical formula and prove its predictive power for the evaluation of the total magnetic moment of Fe_{3}O_{4} NPs. By converting the total magnetic moment into the macroscopic saturation magnetization, we rationalize the experimentally observed dependence with shape. We also reveal interesting reconstruction mechanisms and unexpected patterns of charge ordering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongsheng Liu
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Roberto Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Roberto Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
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28
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Selli D, Motta S, Di Valentin C. Impact of surface curvature, grafting density and solvent type on the PEGylation of titanium dioxide nanoparticles. J Colloid Interface Sci 2019; 555:519-531. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.07.106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2019] [Revised: 07/16/2019] [Accepted: 07/31/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
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29
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Tang ZK, Di Valentin C, Zhao X, Liu LM, Selloni A. Understanding the Influence of Cation Doping on the Surface Chemistry of NaTaO3 from First Principles. ACS Catal 2019. [DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.9b03141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Zhen-Kun Tang
- College of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang 421002, China
- Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, Milano 20125, Italy
| | - Xunhua Zhao
- Texas Materials Institute and Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Li-Min Liu
- School of Physics, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Annabella Selloni
- Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
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30
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Selli D, Tawfilas M, Mauri M, Simonutti R, Di Valentin C. Optimizing PEGylation of TiO 2 Nanocrystals through a Combined Experimental and Computational Study. Chem Mater 2019; 31:7531-7546. [PMID: 31875864 PMCID: PMC6924593 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b02329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2019] [Revised: 08/08/2019] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
PEGylation of metal oxide nanoparticles is the common approach to improve their biocompatibility and in vivo circulation time. In this work, we present a combined experimental and theoretical study to determine the operating condition that guarantee very high grafting densities, which are desirable in any biomedical application. Moreover, we present an insightful conformational analysis spanning different coverage regimes and increasing polymer chain lengths. Based on 13C NMR measurements and molecular dynamics simulations, we show that classical and popular models of polymer conformation on surfaces fail in determining the mushroom-to-brush transition point and prove that it actually takes place only at rather high grafting density values.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei
Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Massimo Tawfilas
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei
Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Michele Mauri
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei
Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Roberto Simonutti
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei
Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei
Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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31
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Kaviani M, Di Valentin C. Rational design of nanosystems for simultaneous drug delivery and photodynamic therapy by quantum mechanical modeling. Nanoscale 2019; 11:15576-15588. [PMID: 31403155 DOI: 10.1039/c9nr03763b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Drug delivery systems are based on reversible interactions between carriers and drugs. Spacers are often introduced to tailor the type of interaction and to keep drugs intact. Here, we model a drug delivery system based on a functionalized curved TiO2 nanoparticle of realistic size (700 atoms - 2.2 nm) by the neurotransmitter dopamine to carry the anticancer chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin (DOX). The multiscale quantum chemical study aims at unraveling the nature and mechanism of the interactions between the components and the electronic properties of the composite system. We simulate the temperature effect through molecular dynamics runs of thermal annealing. Dopamine binds preferentially to low coordinated Ti sites on the nanoparticle through dissociated bidentate and chelate modes involving the diol groups. DOX is tethered by H-bonds, π-π stacking, dipole-dipole interactions and dispersion forces. Comparing different coverage densities of the spacer on the nanoparticle surface, we assess the best conditions for an effective drug transport and release: only at full coverage, DOX does not slip among the dopamine molecules to reach the nanoparticle surface, which is crucial to avoid the formation of stable coordinative bonds with under-coordinated Ti atoms. Finally, given the strong absorption properties and fluorescence of DOX and of the TiO2 photocatalyst, we model the effect of light irradiation through excited state calculations to localize excitons and to follow the charge carrier's life path. This fundamental study on the nature and mechanism of drug/carrier interaction provides a solid ground for the rational design of new experimental protocols for a more efficient drug transport and release and its combination with photodynamic therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moloud Kaviani
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
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32
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Perilli D, Selli D, Liu H, Di Valentin C. Computational Electrochemistry of Water Oxidation on Metal-Doped and Metal-Supported Defective h-BN. ChemSusChem 2019; 12:1995-2007. [PMID: 30600934 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201802499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2018] [Revised: 12/28/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Metal-doped and metal-supported two-dimensional materials are attracting a lot of interest as potentially active electrocatalysts for reduction and oxidation processes. Previously, when a non-regular 2 D h-BN layer was grown on a Cu(111) surface, metal adatoms were found to spontaneously emerge from the bulk to fill the atomic holes in the structure and become available for surface catalysis. Herein, computational electrochemistry is used to investigate and compare the performance of Cu-doped and Cu-supported pristine and defective h-BN systems for the electrocatalytic water oxidation reaction. For the various model systems, the intermediate species of this multistep oxidation process are identified and the free-energy variations for each step of reaction are computed, even for those steps that do not involve an electron or a proton transfer. Both associative and O2 direct evolution mechanisms are considered. On this thermodynamic basis, the potential-determining step, the thermodynamic-determining step, and consequently the theoretical overpotential are determined for comparison with experiments. Small Cu clusters (tetramers) trapped in the h-BN defective lattice on a Cu(111) support are found to be very active for the water oxidation reaction since such systems are characterized by a low overpotential and by a small energy cost for O2 release from the catalyst, which is often observed to be a major limit for other potential electrocatalysts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Perilli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125, Milano, Italy
| | - Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125, Milano, Italy
| | - Hongsheng Liu
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125, Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125, Milano, Italy
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33
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Ronchi C, Selli D, Pipornpong W, Di Valentin C. Proton Transfers at a Dopamine-Functionalized TiO 2 Interface. J Phys Chem C Nanomater Interfaces 2019; 123:7682-7695. [PMID: 30976374 PMCID: PMC6453025 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b04921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2018] [Revised: 06/19/2018] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Despite the many successful syntheses and applications of dopamine-functionalized TiO2 nanohybrids, there has not yet been an atomistic understanding of the interaction of this 1,2-dihydroxybenzene derivative ligand with the titanium dioxide surfaces. In this work, on the basis of a wide set of dispersion-corrected hybrid density functional theory (DFT) calculations and density functional tight binding (DFTB) molecular dynamics simulations, we present a detailed study of the adsorption modes, patterns of growth, and configurations of dopamine on the anatase (101) TiO2 surface, with reference to the archetype of 1,2-dihydroxybenzene ligands, i.e., catechol. At low coverage, the isolated dopamine molecule prefers to bend toward the surface, coordinating the NH2 group to a Ti5c ion. At high coverage, the packed molecules succeed in bending toward the surface only in some monolayer configurations. When they do, we observe a proton transfer from the surface to the ethyl-amino group, forming terminal NH3 + species, which highly interact with the O atoms of a neighboring dopamine molecule. This strong Coulombic interaction largely stabilizes the self-assembled monolayer. On the basis of these results, we predict that improving the probability of dopamine molecules being free to bend toward the surface through thermodynamic versus kinetic growth conditions will lead to a monolayer of fully protonated dopamine molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Costanza Ronchi
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Waranyu Pipornpong
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
- Department
of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
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34
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Abstract
Magnetite has attracted increasing attention in recent years due to its promising and diverse applications in biomedicine. Theoretical modelling can play an important role in understanding magnetite-based nanomaterials at the atomic scale for a deeper insight into the experimental observations. However, calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) are too costly for realistically large models of magnetite nanoparticles. Classical force field methods are very fast but lack of precision and of the description of electronic effects. Therefore, a cheap and efficient quantum mechanical simulation method with comparable accuracy to DFT is highly desired. Here, a less computationally demanding DFT-based method, i.e., self-consistent charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB), is adopted to investigate magnetite bulk and low-index (001) surfaces with newly proposed parameters for Fe-O interactions. We report that SCC-DFTB with on-site Coulomb correction provides results in quantitatively comparable agreement with those obtained by DFT + U and hybrid functional methods. Therefore, SCC-DFTB is valued as an efficient and reliable method for the description magnetite. This assessment will promote SCC-DFTB computational studies on magnetite-based nanostructures that attract increasing attention for medical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongsheng Liu
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Gotthard Seifert
- Theoretische Chemie, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy
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35
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Ougaard Dohn A, Selli D, Fazio G, Ferraro L, Mortensen JJ, Civalleri B, Di Valentin C. Interfacing CRYSTAL/AMBER to Optimize QM/MM Lennard⁻Jones Parameters for Water and to Study Solvation of TiO₂ Nanoparticles. Molecules 2018; 23:molecules23112958. [PMID: 30428551 PMCID: PMC6278561 DOI: 10.3390/molecules23112958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2018] [Revised: 11/01/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are regarded as good candidates for many technological applications, where their functional environment is often an aqueous solution. The correct description of metal oxide electronic structure is still a challenge for local and semilocal density functionals, whereas hybrid functional methods provide an improved description, and local atomic function-based codes such as CRYSTAL17 outperform plane wave codes when it comes to hybrid functional calculations. However, the computational cost of hybrids are still prohibitive for systems of real sizes, in a real environment. Therefore, we here present and critically assess the accuracy of our electrostatic embedding quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) coupling between CRYSTAL17 and AMBER16, and demonstrate some of its capabilities via the case study of TiO2 NPs in water. First, we produced new Lennard–Jones (LJ) parameters that improve the accuracy of water–water interactions in the B3LYP/TIP3P coupling. We found that optimizing LJ parameters based on water tri- to deca-mer clusters provides a less overstructured QM/MM liquid water description than when fitting LJ parameters only based on the water dimer. Then, we applied our QM/MM coupling methodology to describe the interaction of a 1 nm wide multilayer of water surrounding a spherical TiO2 nanoparticle (NP). Optimizing the QM/MM water–water parameters was found to have little to no effect on the local NP properties, which provide insights into the range of influence that can be attributed to the LJ term in the QM/MM coupling. The effect of adding additional water in an MM fashion on the geometry optimized nanoparticle structure is small, but more evident effects are seen in its electronic properties. We also show that there is good transferability of existing QM/MM LJ parameters for organic molecules–water interactions to our QM/MM implementation, even though these parameters were obtained with a different QM code and QM/MM implementation, but with the same functional.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asmus Ougaard Dohn
- Faculty of Physical Sciences and Science Institute, University of Iceland, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland.
| | - Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Gianluca Fazio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Lorenzo Ferraro
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
| | - Jens Jørgen Mortensen
- CAMD, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
| | - Bartolomeo Civalleri
- Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Torino and NIS Centre of Excellence, Via P. Giuria 7, I-10129 Torino, Italy.
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy.
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36
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Fazio G, Selli D, Ferraro L, Seifert G, Di Valentin C. Curved TiO 2 Nanoparticles in Water: Short (Chemical) and Long (Physical) Range Interfacial Effects. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2018; 10:29943-29953. [PMID: 29950088 PMCID: PMC6188221 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b08172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2018] [Accepted: 06/28/2018] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
In most technological applications, nanoparticles are immersed in a liquid environment. Understanding nanoparticles/liquid interfacial effects is extremely relevant. This work provides a clear and detailed picture of the type of chemistry and physics taking place at the prototypical TiO2 nanoparticles/water interface, which is crucial in photocatalysis and photoelectrochemistry. We present a multistep and multiscale investigation based on hybrid density functional theory (DFT), density functional tight-binding, and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics calculations. We consider increasing water partial pressure conditions from ultra-high vacuum up to the bulk water environment. We first investigate single water molecule adsorption modes on various types of undercoordinated sites present on a realistic curved nanoparticle (2-3 nm) and then, by decorating all the adsorption sites, we study a full water monolayer to identify the degree of water dissociation, the Brønsted-Lowry basicity/acidity of the nanoparticle in water, the interface effect on crystallinity, surface energy, and electronic properties, such as the band gap and work function. Furthermore, we increase the water coverage by adding water multilayers up to a thickness of 1 nm and perform molecular dynamics simulations, which evidence layer structuring and molecular orientation around the curved nanoparticle. Finally, we clarify whether these effects arise as a consequence of the tension at the water drop surface around the nanosphere by simulating a bulk water up to a distance of 3 nm from the oxide surface. We prove that the nanoparticle/water interfacial effects go rather long range since the dipole orientation of water molecules is observed up to a distance of 5 Å, whereas water structuring extends at least up to a distance of 8 Å from the surface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianluca Fazio
- Dipartimento di
Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento di
Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Ferraro
- Dipartimento di
Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Gotthard Seifert
- Institut für
Theoretische Chemie, Technische Universität
Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di
Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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37
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Liu H, Di Valentin C. Bulk-terminated or reconstructed Fe 3O 4(001) surface: water makes a difference. Nanoscale 2018; 10:11021-11027. [PMID: 29868664 PMCID: PMC6001776 DOI: 10.1039/c8nr02279h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 05/08/2018] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Surfaces and their interaction with water play an important role in most of materials' applications. Magnetite has attracted continued interest in the fields of catalysis, spintronic devices, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and drug delivery. In this work, water adsorption and its effect on the stability diagram and on the electronic structure of the Fe3O4(001) surface are investigated by hybrid density functional theory calculations combined with an ab initio atomistic thermodynamic approach. We span a wide range of gaseous O2 and vapor H2O partial pressures. At low water pressure, a reconstructed SCV surface model is confirmed to be the most stable model at common working O2 partial pressures. However, at high water coverage, an unexpected stability inversion is observed that makes the hydrated bulk-terminated DBT surface the most favored. These results open up new horizons in Fe3O4 surface chemistry when working in an aqueous environment and are of key importance to develop rational strategies to surface engineering for high performance Fe3O4 nanomaterials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongsheng Liu
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, I-20125 Milano, Italy.
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38
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Abstract
Beyond two-dimensional (2D) materials, interfaces between 2D materials and underlying supports or 2D-coated metal or metal oxide nanoparticles exhibit excellent properties and promising applications. The hybrid interface between graphene and anatase TiO2 shows great importance in photocatalytic, catalytic, and nanomedical applications due to the excellent and complementary properties of the two materials. Water, as a ubiquitous and essential element in practical conditions and in the human body, plays a significant role in the applications of graphene/TiO2 composites for both electronic devices and nanomedicine. Carbon vacancies, as common defects in chemically prepared graphene, also need to be considered for the application of graphene-based materials. Therefore, the behavior of water on top and at the interface of defective graphene on anatase TiO2 surface was systematically investigated by dispersion-corrected hybrid density functional calculations. The presence of the substrate only slightly enhances the on-top adsorption and reduces the on-top dissociation of water on defective graphene. However, at the interface, dissociated water is largely preferred compared with undissociated water on bare TiO2 surface, showing a prominent cover effect. Reduced TiO2 may further induce oxygen diffusion into the bulk. Our results are helpful to understand how the presence of water in the surrounding environment affects structural and electronic properties of the graphene/TiO2 interface and thus its application in photocatalysis, electronic devices, and nanomedicine.
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Shirai K, Fazio G, Sugimoto T, Selli D, Ferraro L, Watanabe K, Haruta M, Ohtani B, Kurata H, Di Valentin C, Matsumoto Y. Water-Assisted Hole Trapping at the Highly Curved Surface of Nano-TiO 2 Photocatalyst. J Am Chem Soc 2018; 140:1415-1422. [PMID: 29325412 PMCID: PMC5916465 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b11061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Heterogeneous photocatalysis is vital in solving energy and environmental issues that this society is confronted with. Although photocatalysts are often operated in the presence of water, it has not been yet clarified how the interaction with water itself affects charge dynamics in photocatalysts. Using water-coverage-controlled steady and transient infrared absorption spectroscopy and large-model (∼800 atoms) ab initio calculations, we clarify that water enhances hole trapping at the surface of TiO2 nanospheres but not of well-faceted nanoparticles. This water-assisted effect unique to the nanospheres originates from water adsorption as a ligand at a low-coordinated Ti-OH site or through robust hydrogen bonding directly to the terminal OH at the highly curved nanosphere surface. Thus, the interaction with water at the surface of nanospheres can promote photocatalytic reactions of both oxidation and reduction by elongating photogenerated carrier lifetimes. This morphology-dependent water-assisted effect provides a novel and rational basis for designing and engineering nanophotocatalyst morphology to improve photocatalytic performances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenji Shirai
- Graduate
School of Science, Department of Chemistry, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Gianluca Fazio
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Universitá
di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, Milano 20125, Italy
| | - Toshiki Sugimoto
- Graduate
School of Science, Department of Chemistry, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
- PRESTO,
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Honcho 4-1-8, Kawaguchi,
Saitama 332-0012, Japan
| | - Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Universitá
di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, Milano 20125, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Ferraro
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Universitá
di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, Milano 20125, Italy
| | - Kazuya Watanabe
- Graduate
School of Science, Department of Chemistry, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Mitsutaka Haruta
- Institute
for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Bunsho Ohtani
- Institute
for Catalysis, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
| | - Hiroki Kurata
- Institute
for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Universitá
di Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, Milano 20125, Italy
| | - Yoshiyasu Matsumoto
- Graduate
School of Science, Department of Chemistry, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
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40
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Smerieri M, Píš I, Ferrighi L, Nappini S, Lusuan A, Vattuone L, Vaghi L, Papagni A, Magnano E, Di Valentin C, Bondino F, Savio L. Synthesis of corrugated C-based nanostructures by Br-corannulene oligomerization. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2018; 20:26161-26172. [DOI: 10.1039/c8cp04791j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The structure and electronic properties of carbon-based nanostructures obtained by metal surface assisted synthesis is highly dependent on the nature of the precursor molecule.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Igor Píš
- Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A
- 34149 Basovizza (TS)
- Italy
- IOM-CNR
- Laboratorio TASC
| | - Lara Ferrighi
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali
- Università di Milano-Bicocca
- 20125 Milano
- Italy
| | | | | | - Luca Vattuone
- IMEM-CNR
- UOS Genova
- 16146 Genova
- Italy
- Dipartimento di Fisica
| | - Luca Vaghi
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali
- Università di Milano-Bicocca
- 20125 Milano
- Italy
| | - Antonio Papagni
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali
- Università di Milano-Bicocca
- 20125 Milano
- Italy
| | - Elena Magnano
- IOM-CNR
- Laboratorio TASC
- 34149 Basovizza (TS)
- Italy
- Department of Physics
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Liu H, Di Valentin C. Band Gap in Magnetite above Verwey Temperature Induced by Symmetry Breaking. J Phys Chem C Nanomater Interfaces 2017; 121:25736-25742. [PMID: 29201266 PMCID: PMC5706067 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b09387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2017] [Revised: 10/24/2017] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Magnetite exhibits a famous phase transition, called Verwey transition, at the critical temperature TV of about 120 K. Although numerous efforts have been devoted to the understanding of this interesting transition, up to now, it is still under debate whether a charge ordering and a band gap exist in magnetite above TV. Here, we systematically investigate the charge ordering and the electronic properties of magnetite in its cubic phase using different methods based on density functional theory: DFT+U and hybrid functionals. Our results show that, upon releasing the symmetry constraint on the density but not on the geometry, charge disproportionation (Fe2+/Fe3+) is observed, resulting in a band gap of around 0.2 eV at the Fermi level. This implies that the Verwey transition is probably a semiconductor-to-semiconductor transition and that the conductivity mechanism above TV is small polaron hopping.
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42
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Selli D, Fazio G, Di Valentin C. Modelling realistic TiO2 nanospheres: A benchmark study of SCC-DFTB against hybrid DFT. J Chem Phys 2017; 147:164701. [DOI: 10.1063/1.4994165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Gianluca Fazio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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43
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Setvin M, Shi X, Hulva J, Simschitz T, Parkinson GS, Schmid M, Di Valentin C, Selloni A, Diebold U. Methanol on Anatase TiO 2 (101): Mechanistic Insights into Photocatalysis. ACS Catal 2017; 7:7081-7091. [PMID: 29034122 PMCID: PMC5634753 DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.7b02003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2017] [Revised: 08/29/2017] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
The photoactivity of methanol adsorbed on the anatase TiO2 (101) surface was studied by a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Isolated methanol molecules adsorbed at the anatase (101) surface show a negligible photoactivity. Two ways of methanol activation were found. First, methoxy groups formed by reaction of methanol with coadsorbed O2 molecules or terminal OH groups are photoactive, and they turn into formaldehyde upon UV illumination. The methoxy species show an unusual C 1s core-level shift of 1.4 eV compared to methanol; their chemical assignment was verified by DFT calculations with inclusion of final-state effects. The second way of methanol activation opens at methanol coverages above 0.5 monolayer (ML), and methyl formate is produced in this reaction pathway. The adsorption of methanol in the coverage regime from 0 to 2 ML is described in detail; it is key for understanding the photocatalytic behavior at high coverages. There, a hydrogen-bonding network is established in the adsorbed methanol layer, and consequently, methanol dissociation becomes energetically more favorable. DFT calculations show that dissociation of the methanol molecule is always the key requirement for hole transfer from the substrate to the adsorbed methanol. We show that the hydrogen-bonding network established in the methanol layer dramatically changes the kinetics of proton transfer during the photoreaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Setvin
- Institute
of Applied Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10/134, 1040 Vienna, Austria
| | - Xiao Shi
- Department
of Chemistry, Princeton University, Frick
Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Jan Hulva
- Institute
of Applied Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10/134, 1040 Vienna, Austria
| | - Thomas Simschitz
- Institute
of Applied Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10/134, 1040 Vienna, Austria
| | - Gareth S. Parkinson
- Institute
of Applied Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10/134, 1040 Vienna, Austria
| | - Michael Schmid
- Institute
of Applied Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10/134, 1040 Vienna, Austria
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento
di Scienza dei Materiali, Università
di Milano-Bicocca, Via
Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Annabella Selloni
- Department
of Chemistry, Princeton University, Frick
Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Ulrike Diebold
- Institute
of Applied Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10/134, 1040 Vienna, Austria
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44
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Ferrighi L, Perilli D, Selli D, Di Valentin C. Water at the Interface Between Defective Graphene and Cu or Pt (111) Surfaces. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2017; 9:29932-29941. [PMID: 28795791 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b06633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
The presence of defects in the graphenic layers deposited on metal surfaces modifies the nature of the interaction. Unsaturated carbon atoms, due to vacancies in the lattice, form strong organometallic bonds with surface metal atoms that highly enhance the binding energy between the two materials. We investigate by means of a wide set of dispersion-corrected density functional theory calculations how such strong chemical bonds affect both the electronic properties of these hybrid interfaces and the chemical reactivity with water, which is commonly present in the working conditions. We compare different metal substrates (Cu vs Pt) that present a different type of interaction with graphene and with defective graphene. This comparative analysis allows us to unravel the controlling factors of water reactivity, the role played by the carbon vacancies and by the confinement or "graphene cover effect". Water is capable of breaking the C-Cu bond by dissociating at the undercoordinated carbon atom of the vacancy, restoring the weak van der Waals type of interaction between the two materials that allows for an easy detachment of graphene from the metal, but the same is not true in the case of Pt, where C-Pt bonds are much stronger. These conclusions can be used to rationalize water reactivity at other defective graphene/metal interfaces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lara Ferrighi
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Daniele Perilli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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45
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Abstract
![]()
A water/(101)
anatase TiO2 interface has been investigated
with the DFT-based self-consistent-charge density functional tight-binding
theory (SCC-DFTB). By comparison of the computed structural, energetic,
and dynamical properties with standard DFT-GGA and experimental data,
we assess the accuracy of SCC-DFTB for this prototypical solid–liquid
interface. We tested different available SCC-DFTB parameters for Ti-containing
compounds and, accordingly, combined them to improve the reliability
of the method. To better describe water energetics, we have also introduced
a modified hydrogen-bond-damping function (HBD). With this correction,
equilibrium structures and adsorption energies of water on (101) anatase
both for low (0.25 ML) and full (1 ML) coverages are in excellent
agreement with those obtained with a higher level of theory (DFT-GGA).
Furthermore, Born–Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (MD) simulations
for mono-, bi-, and trilayers of water on the surface, as computed
with SCC-DFTB, evidence similar ordering and energetics as DFT-GGA
Car–Parrinello MD results. Finally, we have evaluated the energy
barrier for the dissociation of a water molecule on the anatase (101)
surface. Overall, the combined set of parameters with the HBD correction
(SCC-DFTB+HBD) is shown to provide a description of the water/water/titania
interface, which is very close to that obtained by standard DFT-GGA,
with a remarkably reduced computational cost. Hence, this study opens
the way to the future investigations on much more extended and realistic
TiO2/liquid water systems, which are extremely relevant
for many modern technological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Selli
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , Milano, Italy
| | - Gianluca Fazio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , Milano, Italy.,Technische Universität Dresden , Institut für Theoretische Chemie, D-01062 Dresden, Germany
| | - Gotthard Seifert
- Technische Universität Dresden , Institut für Theoretische Chemie, D-01062 Dresden, Germany
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46
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Selli D, Valentin CD. Ab Initio Investigation of Polyethylene Glycol Coating of TiO 2 Surfaces. J Phys Chem C Nanomater Interfaces 2016; 120:29190-29201. [PMID: 28058086 PMCID: PMC5204207 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b09554] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2016] [Revised: 10/24/2016] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
In biomedical applications, TiO2 nanoparticles are generally coated with polymers to prevent agglomeration, improve biocompatibility, and reduce cytotoxicity. Although the synthesis processes of such composite compounds are well established, there is still a substantial lack of information on the nature of the interaction between the titania surface and the organic macromolecules. In this work, the adsorption of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on the TiO2 (101) anatase surface is modeled by means of dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D2) calculations. The two extreme limits of an infinite PEG polymer [-(OCH2CH2) n ], on one side, and of a short PEG dimer molecule [H(OCH2CH2)2OH], on the other, are analyzed. Many different molecular configurations and modes of adsorption are compared at increasing surface coverage densities. At low and medium coverage, PEG prefers to lay down on the surface, while at full coverage, the adsorption is maximized when PEG molecules bind perpendicularly to the surface and interact with each other through lateral dispersions, following a mushroom to brush transition. Finally, we also consider the adsorption of competing water molecules at different coverage densities, assessing whether PEG would remain bonded to the surface or desorb in the presence of the aqueous solvent.
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47
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Smerieri M, Píš I, Ferrighi L, Nappini S, Lusuan A, Di Valentin C, Vaghi L, Papagni A, Cattelan M, Agnoli S, Magnano E, Bondino F, Savio L. Synthesis of graphene nanoribbons with a defined mixed edge-site sequence by surface assisted polymerization of (1,6)-dibromopyrene on Ag(110). Nanoscale 2016; 8:17843-17853. [PMID: 27714142 DOI: 10.1039/c6nr05952j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
By a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy, X-ray spectroscopic techniques and density functional theory calculations, we prove the formation of extended patterns of parallel, graphene nanoribbons with alternate zig-zag and armchair edges and selected width by surface-assisted Ullmann coupling polymerization and dehydrogenation of 1,6-dibromopyrene (C16H8Br2). Besides the relevance of these nanostructures for their possible application in nanodevices, we demonstrate the peculiarity of halogenated pyrene derivatives for the formation of nanoribbons, in particular on Ag(110). These results open the possibility of tuning the shape and dimension of nanoribbons (and hence the correlated electronic properties) by choosing suitably tailored or on-purpose designed molecular precursors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Smerieri
- IMEM-CNR, UOS Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy.
| | - Igor Píš
- Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., S.S. 14 km 163.5, 34149 Basovizza (TS), Italy. and IOM-CNR, Laboratorio TASC, S.S. 14 km 163.5, 34149 Basovizza (TS), Italy
| | - Lara Ferrighi
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Silvia Nappini
- IOM-CNR, Laboratorio TASC, S.S. 14 km 163.5, 34149 Basovizza (TS), Italy
| | - Angelique Lusuan
- IMEM-CNR, UOS Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy. and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Luca Vaghi
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Antonio Papagni
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Mattia Cattelan
- Department of Chemical Science, University of Padova, Via F. Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Stefano Agnoli
- Department of Chemical Science, University of Padova, Via F. Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Elena Magnano
- IOM-CNR, Laboratorio TASC, S.S. 14 km 163.5, 34149 Basovizza (TS), Italy and Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Federica Bondino
- IOM-CNR, Laboratorio TASC, S.S. 14 km 163.5, 34149 Basovizza (TS), Italy
| | - Letizia Savio
- IMEM-CNR, UOS Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy.
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48
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Albanese E, Leccese M, Di Valentin C, Pacchioni G. Magnetic properties of nitrogen-doped ZrO2: Theoretical evidence of absence of room temperature ferromagnetism. Sci Rep 2016; 6:31435. [PMID: 27527493 PMCID: PMC4985629 DOI: 10.1038/srep31435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2016] [Accepted: 07/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
N-dopants in bulk monoclinic ZrO2 and their magnetic interactions have been investigated by DFT calculations, using the B3LYP hybrid functional. The electronic and magnetic properties of the paramagnetic N species, substitutionals and interstitials, are discussed. Their thermodynamic stability has been estimated as a function of the oxygen partial pressure. At 300 K, N prefers interstitial sites at any range of oxygen pressure, while at higher temperatures (700-1000 K), oxygen poor-conditions facilitate substitutional dopants. We have considered the interaction of two N defects in various positions in order to investigate the possible occurrence of ferromagnetic ordering. A very small magnetic coupling constant has been calculated for several 2N-ZrO2 configurations, thus demonstrating that magnetic ordering can be achieved only at very low temperatures, well below liquid nitrogen. Furthermore, when N atoms replace O at different sites, resulting in slightly different positions of the corresponding N 2p levels, a direct charge transfer can occur between the two dopants with consequent quenching of the magnetic moment. Another mechanism that contributes to the quenching of the N magnetic moments is the interplay with oxygen vacancies. These effects contribute to reduce the concentration of magnetic impurities, thus limiting the possibility to establish magnetic ordering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Albanese
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Mirko Leccese
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Gianfranco Pacchioni
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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49
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Ferrighi L, Datteo M, Fazio G, Di Valentin C. Catalysis under Cover: Enhanced Reactivity at the Interface between (Doped) Graphene and Anatase TiO2. J Am Chem Soc 2016; 138:7365-76. [PMID: 27203544 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b02990] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
The "catalysis under cover" involves chemical processes which take place in the confined zone between a 2D material, such as graphene, h-BN, or MoS2, and the surface of an underlying support, such as a metal or a semiconducting oxide. The hybrid interface between graphene and anatase TiO2 is extremely important for photocatalytic and catalytic applications because of the excellent and complementary properties of the two materials. We investigate and discuss the reactivity of O2 and H2O on top and at the interface of this hybrid system by means of a wide set of dispersion-corrected hybrid density functional calculations. Both pure and boron- or nitrogen-doped graphene are interfaced with the most stable (101) anatase surface of TiO2 in order to improve the chemical activity of the C-layer. Especially in the case of boron, an enhanced reactivity toward O2 dissociation is observed as a result of both the contribution of the dopant and of the confinement effect in the bidimensional area between the two surfaces. Extremely stable dissociation products are observed where the boron atom bridges the two systems by forming very stable B-O covalent bonds. Interestingly, the B defect in graphene could also act as the transfer channel of oxygen atoms from the top side across the C atomic layer into the G/TiO2 interface. On the contrary, the same conditions are not found to favor water dissociation, proving that the "catalysis under cover" is not a general effect, but rather highly depends on the interfacing material properties, on the presence of defects and impurities and on the specific reaction involved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lara Ferrighi
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Martina Datteo
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Gianluca Fazio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
| | - Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca , via Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy
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Di Valentin C, Ferrighi L, Fazio G. Theoretical Studies of Oxygen Reactivity of Free-Standing and Supported Boron-Doped Graphene. ChemSusChem 2016; 9:1061-1077. [PMID: 27031193 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201501439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2015] [Revised: 01/07/2016] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Graphene inertness towards chemical reactivity can be considered as an accepted postulate by the research community. This limit has been recently overcome by chemically and physically modifying graphene through non-metal doping or interfacing with acceptor/donor materials (metals or semiconductors). As a result, outstanding performances as catalytic, electrocatalytic, and photocatalytic material have been observed. In this critical Review we report computational work performed, by our group, on the reactivity of free-standing, metal- and semiconductor-supported B-doped graphene towards oxygen, which is at the basis of extremely important energy-related chemical processes, such as the oxygen reduction reaction. It appears that a combination of doping and interfacing approaches for the activation of graphene can open unconventional and unprecedented reaction paths, thus boosting the potential of modified graphene in many chemical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristiana Di Valentin
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125, Milano, Italy.
| | - Lara Ferrighi
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125, Milano, Italy
| | - Gianluca Fazio
- Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125, Milano, Italy
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