TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Zhiyang A1 - Li, Y. A1 - Frisch, J. A1 - Bär, M. A1 - Rappich, J. A1 - Kneipp, Janina T1 - In situ surface-enhanced Raman scattering shows ligand-enhanced hot electron harvesting on silver, gold, and copper nanoparticles N2 - Hot carriers (electrons and holes) generated from the decay of localized surface plasmon resonances can take a major role in catalytic reactions on metal nanoparticles. By obtaining surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of p-aminothiophenol as product of the reduction of p-nitrothiophenol by hot electrons, different catalytic activity is revealed here for nanoparticles of silver, gold, and copper. As a main finding, a series of different ligands, comprising halide and non-halide species, are found to enhance product formation in the reduction reaction on nanoparticles of all three metals. A comparison with the standard electrode potentials of the metals with and without the ligands and SERS data obtained at different electrode potential indicate that the higher catalytic activity can be associated with a higher Fermi level, thereby resulting in an improved efficiency of hot carrier generation. The concept of such a ligand-enhanced hot electron reduction provides a way to make light-to-chemical energy conversion more efficient due to improved electron harvesting. KW - Ligands KW - Hot electrons KW - SERS KW - p-Nitrothiophenol KW - p-Aminothiophenol PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcat.2020.01.006 VL - 383 SP - 153 EP - 159 PB - Elsevier Inc. CY - Amsterdam, NL AN - OPUS4-50626 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ebel, Kenny A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - Length and Energy Dependence of Low-Energy Electron-Induced Strand Breaks in Poly(A) DNA N2 - The DNA in living cells can be effectively damaged by high-energy radiation, which can lead to cell death. Through the ionization of water molecules, highly reactive secondary species such as low-energy electrons (LEEs) with the most probable energy around 10 eV are generated, which are able to induce DNA strand breaks via dissociative electron attachment. Absolute DNA strand break cross sections of specific DNA sequences can be efficiently determined using DNA origami nanostructures as platforms exposing the target sequences towards LEEs. In this paper, we systematically study the effect of the oligonucleotide length on the strand break cross section at various irradiation energies. The present work focuses on poly-adenine sequences (d(A4), d(A8), d(A12), d(A16), and d(A20)) irradiated with 5.0, 7.0, 8.4, and 10 eV electrons. Independent of the DNA length, the strand break cross section shows a maximum around 7.0 eV electron energy for all investigated oligonucleotides confirming that strand breakage occurs through the initial formation of negative ion resonances. When going from d(A4) to d(A16), the strand break cross section increases with oligonucleotide length, but only at 7.0 and 8.4 eV, i.e., close to the maximum of the negative ion resonance, the increase in the strand break cross section with the length is similar to the increase of an estimated geometrical cross section. For d(A20), a markedly lower DNA strand break cross section is observed for all electron energies, which is tentatively ascribed to a conformational change of the dA20 sequence. The results indicate that, although there is a general length dependence of strand break cross sections, individual nucleotides do not contribute independently of the absolute strand break cross section of the whole DNA strand. The absolute quantification of sequence specific strand breaks will help develop a more accurate molecular level understanding of radiation induced DNA damage, which can then be used for optimized risk estimates in cancer radiation therapy. KW - DNA origami KW - DNA radiation damage KW - DNA strand breaks KW - Low-energy electrons KW - Sequence dependence PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-503563 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21010111 VL - 21 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Switzerland AN - OPUS4-50356 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, C. A1 - Schierack, P. A1 - Gerber, U. A1 - Schröder, C. A1 - Choi, Youngeun A1 - Bald, Ilko A1 - Lehmann, W. A1 - Rödiger, S. T1 - Streptavidin Homologues for Applications on Solid Surfaces at High Temperatures N2 - One of the most commonly used bonds between two biomolecules is the bond between biotin and streptavidin (SA) or streptavidin homologues (SAHs). A high dissociation constant and the consequent high-temperature stability even allows for its use in nucleic acid detection under polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conditions. There are a number of SAHs available, and for assay design, it is of great interest to determine as to which SAH will perform the best under assay conditions. Although there are numerous single studies on the characterization of SAHs in solution or selected solid phases, there is no systematic study comparing different SAHs for biomolecule-binding, hybridization, and PCR assays on solid phases. We compared streptavidin, core streptavidin, traptavidin, core traptavidin, neutravidin, and monomeric streptavidin on the surface of microbeads (10–15 μm in diameter) and designed multiplex microbead-based experiments and analyzed simultaneously the binding of biotinylated oligonucleotides and the hybridization of oligonucleotides to complementary capture probes. We also bound comparably large DNA origamis to capture probes on the microbead surface. We used a real-time fluorescence microscopy imaging platform, with which it is possible to subject samples to a programmable time and temperature profile and to record binding processes on the microbead surface depending on the time and temperature. With the exception of core traptavidin and monomeric streptavidin, all other SA/SAHs were suitable for our investigations. We found hybridization efficiencies close to 100% for streptavidin, core streptavidin, traptavidin, and neutravidin. These could all be considered equally suitable for hybridization, PCR applications, and melting point analysis. The SA/SAH–biotin bond was temperature-sensitive when the oligonucleotide was mono-biotinylated, with traptavidin being the most stable followed by streptavidin and neutravidin. Mono-biotinylated oligonucleotides can be used in experiments with temperatures up to 70 °C. When oligonucleotides were bis-biotinylated, all SA/SAH–biotin bonds had similar temperature stability under PCR conditions, even if they comprised a streptavidin variant with slower biotin dissociation and increased mechanostability. KW - Biopolymers Probes KW - Hybridization KW - Fluorescence KW - Genetics PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b02339 VL - 36 IS - 2 SP - 628 EP - 636 PB - American Chemical Society Publication CY - Washington AN - OPUS4-50357 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marques, T. S. A1 - Schürmann, Robin A1 - Ebel, Kenny A1 - Heck, C. A1 - Smialek, M. A1 - Eden, Sam A1 - Mason, N. A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - Kinetics of molecular decomposition under irradiation of gold nanoparticles with nanosecond laser pulses-A 5-Bromouracil case study N2 - Laser illuminated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) efficiently absorb light and heat up the surrounding medium, leading to versatile applications ranging from plasmonic catalysis to cancer photothermal therapy. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the thermal, optical, and electron induced reaction pathways is required. Here, the electrophilic DNA nucleobase analog 5-Bromouracil (BrU) has been used as a model compound to study its decomposition in the vicinity of AuNPs illuminated with intense ns laser pulses under various conditions. The plasmonic response of the AuNPs and the concentration of BrU and resulting photoproducts have been tracked by ultraviolet and visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy as a function of the irradiation time. A kinetic model has been developed to determine the reaction rates of two parallel fragmentation pathways of BrU, and their dependency on laser fluence and adsorption on the AuNP have been evaluated. In addition, the size and the electric field enhancement of the decomposed AuNPs have been determined by atomic force microscopy and finite domain time difference calculations, respectively. A minor influence of the direct photoreaction and a strong effect of the heating of the AuNPs have been revealed. However, due to the size reduction of the irradiated AuNPs, a trade-off between laser fluence and plasmonic response of the AuNPs has been observed. Hence, the decomposition of the AuNPs might be limiting the achievable temperatures under irradiation with several laser pulses. These findings need to be considered for an efficient design of catalytic plasmonic systems. KW - Kinetics KW - Gold nanoparticles KW - 5-Bromouracil PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5137898 VL - 152 IS - 12 SP - 24712 EP - 24712 PB - AIP Publishing AN - OPUS4-50787 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zancajo, V. M. R. A1 - Lindtner, T. A1 - Eisele, M. A1 - Huber, A. J. A1 - Elbaum, R. A1 - Kneipp, Janina T1 - FTIR Nanospectroscopy Shows Molecular Structures of Plant Biominerals and Cell Walls N2 - Plant tissues are complex composite structures of organic and inorganic components whose function relies on molecular heterogeneity at the nanometer scale. Scattering-type near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) in the mid-infrared (IR) region is used here to collect IR nanospectra from both fixed and native plant samples. We compared structures of chemically extracted silica bodies (phytoliths) to silicified and nonsilicified cell walls prepared as a flat block of epoxy-embedded awns of wheat (Triticum turgidum), thin sections of native epidermis cells from sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) comprising silica phytoliths, and isolated cells from awns of oats (Avena sterilis). The correlation of the scanning-probe IR images and the mechanical phase image enables a combined probing of mechanical material properties together with the chemical composition and structure of both the cell walls and the phytolith structures. The data reveal a structural heterogeneity of the different silica bodies in situ, as well as different compositions and crystallinities of cell wall components. In conclusion, IR nanospectroscopy is suggested as an ideal tool for studies of native plant materials of varied origins and preparations and could be applied to other inorganic–organic hybrid materials. KW - Cells KW - Plants KW - Organic polymers KW - Silica KW - Infrared light PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00271 SN - 0003-2700 VL - 92 IS - 20 SP - 13694 EP - 13701 PB - ACS Publications AN - OPUS4-54445 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -