Methods have been developed to immobilize proteins onto the surfaces of nanodiamonds with an average size of 5 ( 1 nm. The immobilization started with carboxylation/oxidization of diamonds with strong acids, followed by coating the surfaces with poly-L-lysine (PL) for covalent attachment of proteins using heterobifunctional cross-linkers. The feasibility of this approach is proven with fluorescent labeling of the PL-coated diamonds by Alexa Fluor 488 and subsequent detection of the emission using a confocal fluorescence microscope. Immobilization of proteins onto the surfaces is also demonstrated with yeast cytochrome c, which possesses a free SH group for linkage and a characteristic Soret absorption band for observation.

Carboxylated/oxidized diamond nanoparticles (nominal size 100 nm) exhibit exceptionally high affinity for proteins through both hydrophilic and hydrophobic forces. The affinity is so high that proteins in dilute solution can be easily captured by diamonds, simply separated by centrifugation, and directly analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS). No preseparation of the adsorbed molecules from diamonds is required for the mass spectrometric analysis. Compared to conventional MALDI-TOF-MS, an enhancement in detection sensitivity by more than 2 orders of magnitude is achieved for dilute solution containing cytochrome c, myoglobin, and albumin because of preconcentration of the probed molecules. The lowest concentration detectable is 100 pM for a 1-mL solution. Aside from the enhanced sensitivity, the overall performance of this technique does not show any sign of deterioration for highly contaminated protein solutions, and furthermore, no significant peak broadening and band shift were observed in the mass spectra. The promise of this new method for clinical proteomics research is demonstrated with an application to human blood serum.

No abstract

The chemical reaction dynamics to form cyanoacetylene, HCCCN (X 1Σ+), via the radical–neutral reaction of cyano radicals, CN(X 2Σ+;ν=0), with acetylene, C2H2(X 1Σg+), are unraveled in crossed molecular beam experiments at two collision energies of 21.1 and 27.0 kJ mol−1. Laboratory angular distributions and time-of-flight spectra of the HCCCN product are recorded at m/e=51 and 50. Experiments were supplemented by electronic structure calculations on the doublet C3H2N potential energy surface and RRKM investigations. Forward-convolution fitting of the crossed beam data combined with our theoretical investigations shows that the reaction has no entrance barrier and is initiated by an attack of the CN radical to the π electron density of the acetylene molecule to form a doublet cis/trans HCCHCN collision complex on the A′2 surface via indirect reactive scattering dynamics. Here 85% of the collision complexes undergo C–H bond rupture through a tight transition state located 22 kJ mol−1 above the cyanoacetylene, HCCCN (X 1Σ+) and H(2S1/2) products (microchannel 1). To a minor amount (15%) trans HCCHCN shows a 1,2-H shift via a 177 kJ mol−1 barrier to form a doublet H2CCCN radical, which is 46 kJ mol−1 more stable than the initial reaction intermediate (microchannel 2). The H2CCCN complex decomposes via a rather loose exit transition state situated only 7 kJ mol−1 above the reaction products HCCCN (X 1Σ+) and H(2S1/2). In both cases the geometry of the exit transition states is reflected in the observed center-of-mass angular distributions showing a mild forward/sideways peaking. The explicit identification of the cyanoacetylene as the only reaction product represents a solid background for the title reaction to be included in reaction networks modeling the chemistry in dark, molecular clouds, outflow of dying carbon stars, hot molecular cores, as well as the atmosphere of hydrocarbon rich planets and satellites such as the Saturnian moon Titan.

No abstract