Bismutsubchloride mit anionischen Clustern und Bismutpolykationen - Synthese, Charakterisierung und Kristallstrukturen

Im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit standen die Darstellung und Charakterisierung ternärer Bismutsubchloride unter Einbau von Übergangsmetallen der 8., 9. und 10. Gruppe. Durch Vorlage eines hohen Chloranteils in der Synthese wurde die "chemische Schere" der Oxidation so stark wirksam, dass in den Verbindungen die gewünschten voneinander isolierten Cluster aus Metallatomen vorlagen. Die Verbindungen Bi12PtCl12, Bi12-xRhCl13-x, Bi12-xIrCl13-x (x < 1) und Bi6,67PtCl12 wurden als Pulver und als Kristalle durch Festkörperreaktionen bei 1273 K in Quarzglasampullen hergestellt. Die schwarz glänzenden, würfelförmigen Kristalle sind luftstabil, in verdünnten Mineralsäuren und in organischen Lösungsmitteln beständig. Die Zusammensetzungen wurden mit EDX-Analysen und Röntgenbeugung am Einkristall bestimmt. Zur weiteren Charakterisierung wurden quantenchemische Rechnungen, ramanspektroskopische Untersuchungen, Messungen der magnetischen Suszeptibilität und der elektrischen Leitfähigkeit durchgeführt. Kristalle der Verbindung Bi12PtCl12 täuschen ein rhomboedrisches Kristallsystem vor, die Struktur konnte in der Raumgruppe P 1 als nahezu perfekter Inversionszwilling eines Achsendrillings gelöst werden. Auf den Eckplätzen der pseudorhomboedrischen Elementarzelle befinden sich [PtBi6Cl12]2- -Cluster und in der Mitte ein (Bi6)2+ -Polykation. Dieses (Bi6)2+ -Polykation in Form eines geöffneten Oktaeders bestätigt experimentell Vorhersagen von Kuznetsov et al. Nach den Regeln von Wade ist das Polykation mit 2 x 6 + 4 = 16 Gerüstelektronen als nido-Cluster zu verstehen. Die Schwerpunkte der Anionen und Kationen fügen sich zu einer dem CsCl-Typ analogen Anordnung zusammen. Mit einer vollständigen Besetzung aller Bismutlagen in der Mitte der Elementarzelle kann Bi12PtCl12 eine Schlüsselrolle zugeordnet werden, die sozusagen den Prototyp für diesen Strukturtyp darstellt. Die weiteren Verbindungen stellen unterbesetzte Varianten dar und können von Bi12PtCl12 abgeleitet werden. Im Verlauf der Untersuchungen zu den ternären Subchloriden in den Systemen wurden wenige Kristalle der binären Verbindung Bi7Cl10 erhalten. Die Tatsache, dass es sich um eine neue binäre Phase im recht stark untersuchten Gebiet Bismut-Chlor handelte führte zu einer neuerlichen, systematischen Überprüfung des Systems Bi/Cl. Mittels thermischer Analysen wurde das Zustandsdiagramm Bi/BiCl3 präzisiert. Bi7Cl10 zersetzt sich bereits bei 190 °C peritektoid in Bi6Cl7 und BiCl3 Bi7Cl10(s) = Bi6Cl7(s) + BiCl3(g). Das Zustandsbarogramm des binären Systems wurde über Gesamtdruckmessungen im Membran-Nullmanometer erstmalig bestimmt. Aus den Druckfunktionen der Bismutchloride sowie aus Messungen der Molwärme von Bi6Cl7 wurden die thermodynamischen Standarddaten abgeleitet. Unter Verwendung dieser Daten wurden thermodynamische Modellierungen der Festkörper-Gasphasen-Gleichgewichte durchgeführt, mit deren Hilfe die Synthese von Bi7Cl10 optimiert werden konnte. Die phasenreine Gasphasenabscheidung von Bi7Cl10 ist aufgrund der Kondensation der dominierenden Gasphasenspezies BiCl und BiCl3 im Existenzbereich der Verbindung oberhalb des Zersetzungspunktes (190 °C) nicht möglich. Im Existenzgebiet von Bi7Cl10 kommt der Transport dann wegen der resultierenden Partialdrücke unmittelbar zum Erliegen. Aus Röntgenbeugungsuntersuchungen an Einkristallen geht hervor, dass Bi7Cl10 bei Raumtemperatur in der tetragonalen Raumgruppe I 41/a c d mit a = 28,235(3) und c = 39,950(4) Å kristallisiert (Z = 64). Analog zu Bi6Cl7 = ((Bi9)5+)[(Bi3Cl14)5-] kann Bi7Cl10 unter Verdopplung der Summenformel als ((Bi9)5+)[(Bi5Cl20)5-] formuliert werden. In der Kristallstruktur sind Polykationen (Bi9)5+, welche die Gestalt zweifach überkappter trigonaler Prismen haben, in ein Chlorobismutat(III)-Raumnetzwerk [(Bi5Cl20)5-] eingebettet. Die Polykationen und das Anionennetzwerk sind deutlich voneinander separiert

White matter differences between healthy young ApoE4 carriers and non-carriers identified with tractography and support vector machines.

The apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) is an established risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous work has shown that this allele is associated with functional (fMRI) changes as well structural grey matter (GM) changes in healthy young, middle-aged and older subjects. Here, we assess the diffusion characteristics and the white matter (WM) tracts of healthy young (20-38 years) ApoE4 carriers and non-carriers. No significant differences in diffusion indices were found between young carriers (ApoE4+) and non-carriers (ApoE4-). There were also no significant differences between the groups in terms of normalised GM or WM volume. A feature selection algorithm (ReliefF) was used to select the most salient voxels from the diffusion data for subsequent classification with support vector machines (SVMs). SVMs were capable of classifying ApoE4 carrier and non-carrier groups with an extremely high level of accuracy. The top 500 voxels selected by ReliefF were then used as seeds for tractography which identified a WM network that included regions of the parietal lobe, the cingulum bundle and the dorsolateral frontal lobe. There was a non-significant decrease in volume of this WM network in the ApoE4 carrier group. Our results indicate that there are subtle WM differences between healthy young ApoE4 carriers and non-carriers and that the WM network identified may be particularly vulnerable to further degeneration in ApoE4 carriers as they enter middle and old age

Mutual Unbiasedness in Coarse-grained Continuous Variables

The notion of mutual unbiasedness for coarse-grained measurements of quantum continuous variable systems is considered. It is shown that while the procedure of "standard" coarse graining breaks the mutual unbiasedness between conjugate variables, this desired feature can be theoretically established and experimentally observed in periodic coarse graining. We illustrate our results in an optics experiment implementing Fraunhofer diffraction through a periodic diffraction grating, finding excellent agreement with the derived theory. Our results are an important step in developing a formal connection between discrete and continuous variable quantum mechanics.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures + Supplemental Material (1 page) v2: Introduction expanded, minor typos correcte

Surface defects reduce Carbon Nanotube toxicity in vitro

The cytotoxicity of two different types of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs)in A549 lung epithelial cells and HepG2 hepatocytes was investigated. One MWCNT still contained iron that was used as a catalyst during production, while the other one had all iron removed in a post-production heat treatment resulting in significantly fewer surface defects. The WST-8 assay was applied to test cell viability. To check the integrity of the cell membrane, we performed the lactate dehydrogenases assay (LDH)and measured the cellular production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Finally, to examine cell proliferation, we conducted a cell cycle analysis. The results showed a dose- and time-dependent decrease in cell viability for both MWCNTs in both cell types. Moreover, a dose- and time-dependent increase in LDH leakage was detected, thereby indicating a decreased membrane integrity. The production of ROS was significantly increased in the case of the heat-treated MWCNTs. The heat-treated MWCNTs showed significantly stronger adverse effects when compared to the non-treated MWCNTs. Additionally, the heat-treated MWCNTs induced a dose-dependent cell cycle arrest in A549 cells. Both MWCNTs induced a significant cytotoxicity, whereby the heat treatment, leading to a decrease in surface defects, further increased the indicated adverse effects. © 2019 The Author

Reduced hippocampal volume in healthy young ApoE4 carriers: an MRI study.

The E4 allele of the ApoE gene has consistently been shown to be related to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The E4 allele is also associated with functional and structural grey matter (GM) changes in healthy young, middle-aged and older subjects. Here, we assess volumes of deep grey matter structures of 22 healthy younger ApoE4 carriers and 22 non-carriers (20-38 years). Volumes of the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, pallidum, putamen, thalamus and brain stem were calculated by FMRIB's Integrated Registration and Segmentation Tool (FIRST) algorithm. A significant drop in volume was found in the right hippocampus of ApoE4 carriers (ApoE4+) relative to non-carriers (ApoE4-), while there was a borderline significant decrease in the volume of the left hippocampus of ApoE4 carriers. The volumes of no other structures were found to be significantly affected by genotype. Atrophy has been found to be a sensitive marker of neurodegenerative changes, and our results show that within a healthy young population, the presence of the ApoE4+ carrier gene leads to volume reduction in a structure that is vitally important for memory formation. Our results suggest that the hippocampus may be particularly vulnerable to further degeneration in ApoE4 carriers as they enter middle and old age. Although volume reductions were noted bilaterally in the hippocampus, atrophy was more pronounced in the right hippocampus. This finding relates to previous work which has noted a compensatory increase in right hemisphere activity in ApoE4 carriers in response to preclinical declines in memory function. Possession of the ApoE4 allele may lead to greater predilection for right hemisphere atrophy even in healthy young subjects in their twenties

Carbon nanomaterials sensitize prostate cancer cells to docetaxel and mitomycin C via induction of apoptosis and inhibition of proliferation

We have previously shown that carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can sensitize prostate cancer (PCa) cells to platinum-based chemotherapeutics. In order to further verify this concept and to avoid a bias, the present study investigates the chemosensitizing potential of CNFs and CNTs to the conventional chemotherapeutics docetaxel (DTX) and mitomycin C (MMC), which have different molecular structures and mechanisms of action than platinum-based chemotherapeutics. DU-145 PCa cells were treated with DTX and MMC alone or in combination with the carbon nanomaterials. The impact of the monotreatments and the combinatory treatments on cellular function was then systematically analyzed by using different experimental approaches (viability, short-term and long-term proliferation, cell death rate). DTX and MMC alone reduced the viability of PCa cells to 94% and 68%, respectively, whereas a combined treatment with CNFs led to less than 30% remaining viable cells. Up to 17- and 7-fold higher DTX and MMC concentrations were needed in order to evoke a similar inhibition of viability as mediated by the combinatory treatments. In contrast, the dose of platinum-based chemotherapeutics could only be reduced by up to 3-fold by combination with carbon nanomaterials. Furthermore, combinatory treatments with CNFs led mostly to an additive inhibition of short- and long-term proliferation compared to the individual treatments. Also, higher cell death rates were observed in combinatory treatments than in monotreatments, e.g., a combination of MMC and CNFs more than doubled the cell death rate mediated by apoptosis. Combinations with CNTs showed a similar, but less pronounced impact on cellular functions. In summary, carbon nanomaterials in combination with DTX and MMC evoked additive to partly synergistic anti-tumor effects. CNFs and CNTs possess the ability to sensitize cancer cells to a wide range of structurally diverse chemotherapeutics and thus represent an interesting option for the development of multimodal cancer therapies. Co-administration of chemotherapeutics with carbon nanomaterials could result in a reduction of the chemotherapeutic dosage and thus limit systemic side effects

Release of Bioactive Molecules from Graphene Oxide-Alginate Hybrid Hydrogels: Effect of Crosslinking Method

To investigate the influence of crosslinking methods on the releasing performance of hybrid hydrogels, we synthesized two systems consisting of Graphene oxide (GO) as a functional element and alginate as polymer counterpart by means of ionic gelation (physical method, −) and radical polymerization (chemical method, −). Formulations were optimized to maximize the GO content (2.0 and 1.15% for − and −, respectively) and Curcumin (CUR) was loaded as a model drug at 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5% (by weight). The physico-chemical characterization confirmed the homogeneous incorporation of GO within the polymer network and the enhanced thermal stability of hybrid vs. blank hydrogels. The determination of swelling profiles showed a higher swelling degree for − and a marked pH responsivity due to the COOH functionalities. Moreover, the application of external voltages modified the water affinity of −, while they accelerated the degradation of − due to the disruption of the crosslinking points and the partial dissolution of alginate. The evaluation of release profiles, extensively analysed by the application of semi-empirical mathematical models, showed a sustained release from hybrid hydrogels, and the possibility to modulate the releasing amount and rate by electro-stimulation of −