Effect of gold electronic state on the catalytic performance of nano gold catalysts in n-octanol oxidation

UIDB/50006/2020 project VIU-RSCBMT-65/2019 project 18-29-24037 (Russia) MINECO project CTQ2017-86170-R (Spain)This study aims to identify the role of the various electronic states of gold in the catalytic behavior of Au/MxOy/TiO2 (where MxOy are Fe2O3 or MgO) for the liquid phase oxidation of n-octanol, under mild conditions. For this purpose, Au/MxOy/TiO2 catalysts were prepared by deposition-precipitation with urea, varying the gold content (0.5 or 4 wt.%) and pretreatment conditions (H2 or O2), and characterized by low temperature nitrogen adsorption-desorption, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), scanning transmission electron microscopy-high angle annular dark field (STEM HAADF), diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared (DRIFT) spectroscopy of CO adsorption, temperature-programmable desorption (TPD) of ammonia and carbon dioxide, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Three states of gold were identified on the surface of the catalysts, Au0, Au1+ and Au3+, and their ratio determined the catalysts performance. Based on a comparison of catalytic and spectroscopic results, it may be concluded that Au+ was the active site state, while Au0 had negative effect, due to a partial blocking of Au0 by solvent. Au3+ also inhibited the oxidation process, due to the strong adsorption of the solvent and/or water formed during the reaction. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations confirmed these suggestions. The dependence of selectivity on the ratio of Brønsted acid centers to Brønsted basic centers was revealed.publishersversionpublishe

Detecting Defects in Composite Polymers by Using 3D Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometry

The technique of 3D scanning laser Doppler vibrometry has recently appeared as a promising tool of nondestructive evaluation of discontinuity-like defects in composite polymers. The use of the phenomenon of local defect resonance (LDR) allows intensifying vibrations in defect zones, which can reliably be detected by means of laser vibrometry. The resonance acoustic stimulation of structural defects in materials causes compression/tension deformations, which are essentially lower than the material tensile strength, thus proving a nondestructive character of the LDR technique. In this study, the propagation of elastic waves in composites and their interaction with structural inhomogeneities were analyzed by performing 3D scanning of vibrations in Fast Fourier Transform mode. At each scanning point, the in-plane (x, y) and out of plane (z) vibration components were analyzed. The acoustic stimulation was fulfilled by generating a frequency-modulated harmonic signal in the range from 50 Hz to 100 kHz. In the case of a reference plate with a flat bottom hole, the resonance frequencies for all (x, y, and z) components were identical. In the case of impact damage in a carbon fiber reinforced plastic sample, the predominant contribution into total vibrations was provided by compression/tension deformations (x, y vibration component) to compare with vibrations by the z coordinate. In general, inspection results were enhanced by analyzing total vibration patterns obtained by averaging results at some resonance frequencies

Oxidation of a wood extractive betulin to biologically active oxo-derivatives using supported gold catalysts

Betulin is transformed into its oxo-derivatives by liquid-phase oxidation over Au catalysts in mild conditions

Nanoparticles Partially Restore Bacterial Susceptibility to Antibiotics

The growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics is one of the main public health problems nowadays. The influence of silver nanoparticle (AgNP) pretreatment of 220 cows with mastitis on the susceptibility of Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria to 31 antibiotics was studied. The obtained results were compared with the previous results for Escherichia coli, Streptococcus dysgalactiae, and Staphylococcus aureus. For all four bacteria, an increase in susceptibility (9.5–21.2%) to 31 antibiotics after cow treatment with AgNPs was revealed, while after first-line antibiotic drug treatment as expected, the susceptibility decreased (11.3–27.3%). These effects were explained by (1) the increase in the contribution of isolates with efflux effect after antibiotic treatments and its decrease after AgNP treatment and (2) the changes in bacteria adhesion and anti-lysozyme activity after these treatments. The effect of the increasing antibacterial activity of antibiotics after AgNP treatment was the most pronounced in the case of E. coli and was minimal in the case of S. epidermidis. With AgNP treatment, the time of recovery decreased by 26.8–48.4% compared to the time of recovery after treatment with the first-line antibiotic drugs. The AgNP treatment allows for achieving the partial restoration of the activity of antibiotics

Revealing the Second and the Third Causes of AgNPs Property to Restore the Bacterial Susceptibility to Antibiotics

The increase in bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a global problem for public health. In our previous works, it was shown that the application of AgNPs in cow mastitis treatment increased S. aureus and S. dysgalactiae susceptibility to 31 antibiotics due to a decrease in the bacterial efflux effect. The aim of the present work was to shed light on whether the change in adhesive and anti-lysozyme activities caused by AgNPs also contribute to the restoration of bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics. In vivo sampling was performed before and after cow mastitis treatments with antibiotics or AgNPs. The isolates were identified, and the adhesive and anti-lysozyme activities were assessed. These data were compared with the results obtained for in vitro pre-treatment of reference bacteria with AgNPs or antibiotics. The present study revealed that bacterial treatments in vitro and in vivo with AgNPs: (1) decrease the bacterial ability to adhere to cells to start an infection and (2) decrease bacterial anti-lysozyme activity, thereby enhancing the activity of lysozyme, a natural “antibiotic” present in living organisms. The obtained data contribute to the perspective of the future application of AgNPs for recovering the activity of antibiotics rapidly disappearing from the market

Silver Nanoparticles Targeting the Drug Resistance Problem of <i>Streptococcus dysgalactiae</i>: Susceptibility to Antibiotics and Efflux Effect

The present work is a continuation of our translational research focusing on the use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to solve the global problem of antibiotic resistance. In vivo fieldwork was done with 300 breeding farm cows with serous mastitis. Ex vivo assays revealed that after cow treatment with the antibiotic drug Spectromast LCTM, S.dysgalactiae susceptibility to 31 antibiotics dropped by 22.9%, but after treatment with Argovit–CTM AgNPs, it was raised by 13.1%. This was explained by the fact that the percentage of isolates with an efflux effect after Spectromast LC treatment resulted in an 8% increase, while Argovit-C-treatment caused a 19% decrease. The similarity of these results to our previous results on S. aureus isolates from mastitis cows treated with the antibiotic drug Lactobay and Argovit–CTM AgNPs was shown. So, mastitis treatments with Argovit-CTM AgNPs can partially return the activity of antibiotics towards S.dysgalactiae and S. aureus, while, in contrast, treatments with antibiotic drugs such as Spectromast LC and Lactobay enhance bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The results of this work strengthen the hope that in the future the use of AgNPs as efflux pump inhibitors will recover the activity of antibiotics, and thus will preserve the wide spectrum of antibiotics on the market

Study of Electric and Magnetic Properties of Iron-Modified MFI Zeolite Prepared by a Mechanochemical Method

Zeolites are materials of undeniable importance for science and technology. Since the properties of zeolites can be tuned after the inclusion of additional chemical species into the zeolitic framework, it is necessary to study the nature of zeolites after modification with transition metals to understand the new properties that were obtained, and with this information, novel applications can be proposed. This paper reports a solvent-free approach for the rapid synthesis of zeolites modified with iron and/or iron oxide particles. The samples were characterized, and their electrical and magnetic properties were investigated

Prospects for the use of nanostructured silver preparations for the control of infectious diseases, including COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted significant gaps in human protection from infection. There is a real and fairly high probability of new infections that pose a danger to humans. To combat (prevention and treatment) this kind of infections, new types of drugs are needed, which differ in their mechanism of action from existing antimicrobial agents and vaccines, and thus complement them. These drugs should have complex universal activity against pathogens, regardless of their type (bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa) and, in general, increase the resistance of the macroorganism to infection by pathogenic agents, stimulate nonspecific immunity, both general and local. In this regard, preparations of nanostructured silver are promising. The properties of silver nanoparticles depend on their structure, shape, size, morphology, ligand environment and preparation method. Argovit represents nanosilver formulation with optimized biochemical and toxicological characteristics. Argovit effectiveness for combating infectious pathogens in various fields of medicine was shown for: intestinal infections of various etiologies; acute respiratory viral infections and associated bacterial complications; purulent surgery, diabetic foot; drug resistant forms of tuberculosis; viral infections caused by both DNA and RNA viruses. In the clinic, argovit effectiveness in protection from coronavirus infection and for treatment of the early stages of COVID-19 disease on volunteers was shown

Green oxidation of n-octanol on supported nanogold catalysts: Formation of gold active sites under combined effect of gold content, additive nature and redox pretreatment

The combined influence of gold content (0.5 or 4 wt. %), modifying additives (La or Ce oxides) and redox pretreatments (H2 or O2) on catalytic properties and formation of active sites of Au/TiO2 in the selective oxidation of n‐octanol under mild conditions was studied. Samples were characterized by BET, XRD, EDX, ICP, TEM, STEM‐HAADF, CO2‐TPD, H2‐TPR and XPS methods. The order of catalytic activity depended on the support nature for all treated samples, as follows: Au/La2O3/TiO2>Au/CeO2/TiO2>Au/TiO2. The catalytic activity enhanced with the increase of gold loading in the samples with hydrogen pretreatment, while after the oxidative pretreatment of the catalysts the opposite dependence of the activity with the gold content was found. This catalytic behavior was explained by a change in the surface concentration of monovalent gold ions, which seemed to be the active sites. The most active catalyst, 0.5 % Au/La2O3/TiO2, pretreated in oxidative atmosphere, had the highest surface concentration of monovalent gold ions