Carbon Quantum Dots from Lemon Waste Enable Communication among Biodevices

A bioinspired method of communication among biodevices based on fluorescent nanoparticles is herein presented. This approach does not use electromagnetic waves but rather the exchange of chemical systems—a method known as molecular communication. The example outlined was based on the fluorescence properties of carbon dots and follows a circular economy approach as the method involves preparation from the juice of lemon waste. The synthesis is herein presented, and the fluorescence properties and diffusion coefficient are evaluated. The application of carbon dots to molecular communication was studied from a theoretical point of view by numerically solving the differential equation that governs the phenomenon. The theoretical results were used to develop a prototype molecular communication platform that enables the communication of simple messages via aqueous fluids to a fluorescence-detecting biodevice receiver

Functionalized Carbon Nanoparticle-Based Sensors for Chemical Warfare Agents

Real-time sensing of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) is, today, a crucial topic to prevent lethal effects of a chemical terroristic attack. For this reason, the development of efficient, selective, ..

Carbon Quantum Dots as Fluorescence Nanochemosensors for Selective Detection of Amino Acids

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Effect of Channel Radius on Fluorescent Nanoparticle Based Molecular Communication

The effect of the communication channel size on the transport and subsequent detection of chemical messengers is investigated on millimetric and micrometric channels. The transport of the information carriers, being characterized by an advective and a diffusive contribution, was simulated by varying the flow velocity and the diffusion coefficient. Then, to evaluate the information quality, the Intersymbol Interference (ISI) between two consecutive signals at a specific release delay was estimated. This allowed us to verify that operating under micrometric channel conditions has a larger flow velocity range to obtain completely separated successive signals and smaller release delays can be used between signals. The theoretical results were confirmed by developing a prototype molecular communication platform operating under microfluidic conditions, which enables communication through fluorescent nanoparticles, namely Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs)

Effect of Channel Radius on Fluorescent Nanoparticle Based Molecular Communication

The effect of the communication channel size on the transport and subsequent detection of chemical messengers is investigated on millimetric and micrometric channels. The transport of the information carriers, being characterized by an advective and a diffusive contribution, was simulated by varying the flow velocity and the diffusion coefficient. Then, to evaluate the information quality, the Intersymbol Interference (ISI) between two consecutive signals at a specific release delay was estimated. This allowed us to verify that operating under micrometric channel conditions has a larger flow velocity range to obtain completely separated successive signals and smaller release delays can be used between signals. The theoretical results were confirmed by developing a prototype molecular communication platform operating under microfluidic conditions, which enables communication through fluorescent nanoparticles, namely Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs)

Effect of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on the Spatial Distribution of Analytes from Point Source

We investigated and overcame the limitations associated with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the chemical mapping of pollutants coming from point source, as in the case of leaks’ detection. In particular, by simulating the pollutant spatial distribution in the absence and presence of a flying drone, we demonstrated that turbulent flows generated by UAVs can significantly limit the spatial accuracy of the mapping and the pollutant source detection. Finally, as this effect markedly depends on the proximity of the UAV to the pollutant source, we experimentally demonstrated that it is possible to overcome it by employing a sufficiently long probe equipped with an aspiration apparatus transporting the sample from the ground to the detector-equipped UAV

A novel SPR based method for measuring diffusion coefficients: From small molecules to supramolecular aggregates

Investigating peptides and proteins conformations in vitro is of paramount importance in biochemistry and cell biology, as the understanding of many physiological pathways and pathological processes, which underscore the onset and progression of “conformational diseases”, is closely dependent on the actual possibility of monitoring the conformation, oligomerization and the specific properties, such as metal-binding features, that proteins adopt in complex systems.In this work, we report a newly designed Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based dispersion analysis, hereby named D-SPR, which allows to measure the diffusion coefficients of molecules with unprecedented easiness and precision. Several small molecules have been tested with this new approach, and the diffusion coefficients obtained are in accordance with the values reported in the literature. A theoretical background is given and the newly designed method has been also applied to carnosine, a dipeptide which has recently attracted great attention by virtues of its anti-oxidative, anti-aggregating and enzyme activating properties. Results clearly show the high performance of the new method, which is based on the newly unveiled SPR capability to measure diffusion coefficients, to give information on carnosine metal-induced oligomerization, expanding the potentiality of commonly used SPR instruments well over the canonic investigation of biomolecular interactions