In Situ Microscopic Studies on the Interaction of Multi-Principal Element Nanoparticles and Bacteria

Abstract

Multi-principal element nanoparticles are an emerging class of materials with potential applications in medicine and biology. However, it is not known how such nanoparticles interact with bacteria at nanoscale. In the present work, we evaluated the interaction of multi-principal elemental alloy (FeNiCu) nanoparticles with Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria using the in situ graphene liquid cell (GLC) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) approach. The imaging revealed the details of bacteria wall damage in the vicinity of nanoparticles. The chemical mappings of S, P, O, N, C, and Cl elements confirmed the cytoplasmic leakage of the bacteria. Our results show that there is selective release of metal ions from the nanoparticles. The release of copper ions was much higher than that for nickel while the iron release was the lowest. In addition, the binding affinity of bacterial cell membrane protein functional groups with Cu, Ni, and Fe cations is found to be the driving force behind the selective metal cations’ release from the multi-principal element nanoparticles. The protein functional groups driven dissolution of multielement nanoparticles was evaluated using the density functional theory (DFT) computational method, which confirmed that the energy required to remove Cu atoms from the nanoparticle surface was the least in comparison with those for Ni and Fe atoms. The DFT results support the experimental data, indicating that the energy to dissolve metal atoms exposed to oxidation and/or the to presence of oxygen atoms at the surface of the nanoparticle catalyzes metal removal from the multielement nanoparticle. The study shows the potential of compositional design of multi-principal element nanoparticles for the controlled release of metal ions to develop antibacterial strategies. In addition, GLC-STEM is a promising approach for understanding the nanoscale interaction of metallic nanoparticles with biological structures.

Customized Lanthanide Nanobiohybrids for Noninvasive Precise Phototheranostics of Pulmonary Biofilm Infection

“…In addition, we collected the nanohybrids from the liver (the brightest organ) and performed hydrodynamic size measurement and TEM analysis, which revealed that the morphology of NaNdF 4 @DMS-Aly was significantly altered and the hydrodynamic size was reduced to ∼38 nm (Figure 7C,D). From these observations, we found that the nucleophilic degradation of the DMS shell by −OH and protein-driven silica dissolution in a physiological setting facilitated the removal of nanohybrids after PTT treatment, 36,55,56 which was more conducive to the metabolism of nanohybrids in mice. On the other hand, the protection by silica shell could avoid the direct exposure of NaNdF 4 in vivo and slow down the release of Nd 3+ and F − ions during diagnosis and treatment.…”

Unraveling chemical processes during nanoparticle synthesis with liquid phase electron microscopy and correlative techniques

“…The authors posited that electron transfer from the nanoparticles to the bacteria caused metal cation release. 101 Direct GLC-TEM observations found that the binding affinity of bacteria surface functional groups to different metal cations led to varying degrees of metal cation release and surface diffusion. The metal cations were released at a faster rate when there was higher binding affinity between the metal cations and the bacterial proteins.…”

Emerging high-entropy coordination compounds and their derivatives for energy application

“…on HE-CCs and HE-CC-derived HEMs show a broad opportunity for energy, and many applications are still less explored, such as electro-and chemical sensor, 54 photoelectrocatalysis, gas sensor, 51 degradation of organic pollutants, 28 CO 2 xation 15 and biointeractions. 59 However, especially considering energy storage applications, these HE-CC derived materials offer the advantages of tunable properties, high surface area, and controllable porosity, making them attractive for supercapacitor devices. In addition, based on our futuristic vision it is possible to glimpse the use of other synthesis methodologies especially for the fast and reagent-less preparation of HE-CC-derived materials, where ultrafast synthetic routes using laser-scribing treatment/laser nanometallurgy, end ame spray pyrolysis can be applied.…”