An electrochromic ionic liquid: design, characterisation and performance in a solid state platform

This work describes the synthesis and characteristics of a novel electrochromic ionic liquid (IL) based on a phosphonium core tethered to a viologen moiety. When integrated into a solid-state electrochromic platform, the viologen modified IL behaved as both the electrolyte and the electrochromic material. Platform fabrication was achieved through in situ photo-polymerisation and encapsulation of this novel IL within a hybrid sol-gel. Important parameters of the platform performance, including its coloration efficiency, switching kinetics and optical properties were characterised using UV/Vis spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry in tandem. The electrochromic platform exhibits a coloration efficiency of 10.72 cm2C-1, and a varied optical output as a function of the incident current. Despite the rather viscous nature of the material, the platform exhibited approximately two orders of magnitude faster switching kinetics (221 seconds to reach 95 % absorbance) when compared to previously reported electrochromic ILs (18,000 seconds)

How Nice was the Future of the Nuclear Energy

Espoirs décevants et utopie de l'utilisation de l'énergie nucléair

Scope and efficacy of the broad-spectrum topical antiseptic choline geranate.

Choline geranate (also described as Choline And GEranic acid, or CAGE) has been developed as a novel biocompatible antiseptic material capable of penetrating skin and aiding the transdermal delivery of co-administered antibiotics. The antibacterial properties of CAGE were analyzed against 24 and 72 hour old biofilms of 11 clinically isolated ESKAPE pathogens (defined as Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumanii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter sp, respectively), including multidrug resistant (MDR) isolates. CAGE was observed to eradicate in vitro biofilms at concentrations as low as 3.56 mM (0.156% v:v) in as little as 2 hours, which represents both an improved potency and rate of biofilm eradication relative to that reported for most common standard-of-care topical antiseptics in current use. In vitro time-kill studies on 24 hour old Staphylococcus aureus biofilms indicate that CAGE exerts its antibacterial effect upon contact and a 0.1% v:v solution reduced biofilm viability by over three orders of magnitude (a 3log10 reduction) in 15 minutes. Furthermore, disruption of the protective layer of exopolymeric substances in mature biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus by CAGE (0.1% v:v) was observed in 120 minutes. Insight into the mechanism of action of CAGE was provided with molecular modeling studies alongside in vitro antibiofilm assays. The geranate ion and geranic acid components of CAGE are predicted to act in concert to integrate into bacterial membranes, affect membrane thinning and perturb membrane homeostasis. Taken together, our results show that CAGE demonstrates all properties required of an effective topical antiseptic and the data also provides insight into how its observed antibiofilm properties may manifest