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Abstract: Hypothesis: Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) are natural nanosized lipid vesicles involved in most intercellular communication pathways. Given their nature, they represent natural cell membrane models, with intermediate complexity between real and synthetic lipid membranes. Here we compare EVs-derived (EVSLB) and synthetic Supported Lipid Bilayers (SLBs) in the interaction with cationic superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs). The aim is twofold: (i) exploit SPIONs as nanometric probes to investigate the features of EVSLBs as novel biogenic platforms; (ii) contribute at improving the knowledge on the behavior of SPIONs with biological interfaces. Experiments: Quartz Crystal Microbalance, X-ray Reflectivity, Grazing-incidence Small-angle X-ray Scattering, Atomic Force Microscopy, Confocal Microscopy data on SPIONs-EVSLB were systematically compared to those on SPIONs challenging synthetic SLBs, taken as references. Findings: The ensemble of experimental results highlights the much stronger interaction of SPIONs with EVSLBs with respect to synthetic SLBs. This evidence strongly supports the hypotheses on the peculiar structure of EVSLBs, with cushioned non-flat areas and extended exposed surface; in addition, it suggests that these features are relevant in the response of biogenic membranes to nano-objects. These findings contribute to the fundamental knowledge on EVSLBs, key for their development both as biomimetic membranes, or as platforms for biomedical applications.
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Jun 2020
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I05-ARPES
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[15822]
Open Access
Abstract: Van der Waals materials offer unprecedented control of electronic properties via stacking of different types of two-dimensional materials. A fascinating frontier, largely unexplored, is the stacking of strongly correlated phases of matter. We study 4Hb-TaS2, which naturally realizes an alternating stacking of 1T-TaS2 and 1H-TaS2 structures. The former is a well-known Mott insulator, which has recently been proposed to host a gapless spin-liquid ground state. The latter is a superconductor known to also host a competing charge density wave state. This raises the question of how these two components affect each other when stacked together. We find a superconductor with a Tc of 2.7 Kelvin and anomalous properties, of which the most notable one is a signature of time-reversal symmetry breaking, abruptly appearing at the superconducting transition. This observation is consistent with a chiral superconducting state.
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Mar 2020
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B18-Core EXAFS
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[17114]
Abstract: Colloidal silica is a nanoparticulate material that could have a transformative effect on environmental risk management at nuclear legacy sites through their use in in-situ installation of injectable hydraulic barriers. In order to utilize such nanoparticulate material as a barrier, we require detailed understanding of its impact on the geochemistry of radionuclides in the environment (e.g. fission products such as Sr and Cs). Here we show, through combining leaching experiments with XAS analyses, that colloidal silica induces several competing effects on the mobility of Sr and Cs. First, cations within the colloidal silica gel compete with Sr and Cs for surface complexation sites. Second, an increased number of surface complexation sites is provided by the silica nanoparticles and finally, the elevated pH within the colloidal silica increases the surface complexation to clay minerals and the silica nanoparticles. XAS analyses show that Sr and Cs complex predominantly with the clay mineral phases in the soil through inner-sphere surface complexes (Sr) and through complexation on the clay basal surfaces at Si vacancy sites (Cs). For binary soil – colloidal silica gel systems, a fraction of the Sr and Cs complexes with the amorphous silica-like surfaces through the formation of outer-sphere surface complexes. Importantly, the net effect of nanoparticulate colloidal silica gel is to increase the retention of Sr and Cs, when compared to untreated soil and waste materials. Our research opens the door to applications of colloidal silica gel to form barriers within risk management strategies at legacy nuclear sites.
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Mar 2020
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I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[22138]
Abstract: Coordination pillared-layer metal-organic frameworks (CPL-MOFs), such as CPL-2, are interesting versatile and porous materials with the potential for gas adsorption and separation. CPL-2 shows the unusual and gradual linker rotation upon the adsorption of ethylene (C2H4) and ethane (C2H6), leading to a fully reversible adsorption isotherm specifically under the conditions studied. Grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations showed that it is impossible to accommodate the experimentally observed loadings of C2H4 and C2H6 in CPL-2 using the crystallographic structure reported in the literature. According to the simulation findings, the pore expansion might be initiated by the clockwise 4,4′-bipyridine (bpy) pillar linker rotation. The pillar rotation leads to the enlarged pore volume, rendering additional adsorption sites, which are not present in the pristine structure. In situ synchrotron PXRD experiments for C2H4 and C2H6 adsorption on CPL-2 confirmed the occurrence of pore expansion in CPL-2 MOF. The combined experimental and simulation study shows for the first time that the linker rotation in CPL-2 can result in a adsorption isotherm without hysteresis. This work developed a real insight into the nature of pillared-layer MOFs, and the revealed structural changes could be potentially exploited to enhance alkene and alkane working capacities of such microporous materials.
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Feb 2020
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I05-ARPES
I09-Surface and Interface Structural Analysis
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Veronika
Sunko
,
F.
Mazzola
,
S.
Kitamura
,
S.
Khim
,
P.
Kushwaha
,
O. J.
Clark
,
M. D.
Watson
,
I.
Markovic
,
D.
Biswas
,
L.
Pourovskii
,
T. K.
Kim
,
T.-l.
Lee
,
P. K.
Thakur
,
H.
Rosner
,
A.
Georges
,
R.
Moessner
,
T.
Oka
,
A. P.
Mackenzie
,
P. D. C.
King
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19479, 17699]
Abstract: A nearly free electron metal and a Mott insulating state can be thought of as opposite ends of the spectrum of possibilities for the motion of electrons in a solid. Understanding their interaction lies at the heart of the correlated electron problem. In the magnetic oxide metal PdCrO2, nearly free and Mott-localized electrons exist in alternating layers, forming natural heterostructures. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, quantitatively supported by a strong coupling analysis, we show that the coupling between these layers leads to an “intertwined” excitation that is a convolution of the charge spectrum of the metallic layer and the spin susceptibility of the Mott layer. Our findings establish PdCrO2 as a model system in which to probe Kondo lattice physics and also open new routes to use the a priori nonmagnetic probe of photoemission to gain insights into the spin susceptibility of correlated electron materials.
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Feb 2020
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I04-Macromolecular Crystallography
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19800]
Open Access
Abstract: Large and flexible ligands gain increasing interest in the development of bioactive agents. They challenge the applicability of computational ligand optimization strategies originally developed for small molecules. Free energy perturbation (FEP) is often used for predicting binding affinities of small molecule ligands, however, its use for more complex ligands remains limited. Herein, we report the structure-based design of peptide macrocycles targeting the protein binding site of human adaptor protein 14-3-3. We observe a surprisingly strong dependency of binding affinities on relatively small variations in substituent size. FEP was performed to rationalize observed trends. To account for insufficient convergence of FEP, restrained calculations were performed and complemented with extensive REST MD simulations of the free ligands. These calculations revealed that changes in affinity originate both from altered direct interactions and conformational changes of the free ligand. In addition, MD simulations provided the basis to rationalize unexpected trends in ligand lipophilicity. We also verified the anticipated interaction site and binding mode for one of the high affinity ligands by X-ray crystallography. The introduced fully-atomistic simulation protocol can be used to rationalize the development of structurally complex ligands which will support future ligand maturation efforts.
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Feb 2020
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I03-Macromolecular Crystallography
I04-Macromolecular Crystallography
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[18069]
Open Access
Abstract: The scavenger receptor cysteine-rich (SRCR) family of proteins comprises more than 20 membrane-associated and secreted molecules. Characterised by the presence of one or more copies of the ∼110 amino-acid SRCR domain, this class of proteins have widespread functions as antimicrobial molecules, scavenger receptors, and signalling receptors. Despite the high level of structural conservation of SRCR domains, no unifying mechanism for ligand interaction has been described. The SRCR protein SALSA, also known as DMBT1/gp340, is a key player in mucosal immunology. Based on detailed structural data of SALSA SRCR domains 1 and 8, we here reveal a novel universal ligand-binding mechanism for SALSA ligands. The binding interface incorporates a dual cation-binding site, which is highly conserved across the SRCR superfamily. Along with the well-described cation dependency on most SRCR domain–ligand interactions, our data suggest that the binding mechanism described for the SALSA SRCR domains is applicable to all SRCR domains. We thus propose to have identified in SALSA a conserved functional mechanism for the SRCR class of proteins.
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Feb 2020
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I07-Surface & interface diffraction
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Donghui
Li
,
Xiaolong
Chen
,
Jinglong
Cai
,
Wei
Li
,
Mengxue
Chen
,
Yuchao
Mao
,
Baocai
Du
,
Joel A.
Smith
,
Rachel C.
Kilbride
,
Mary E.
O'kane
,
Xue
Zhang
,
Yuan
Zhuang
,
Pang
Wang
,
Hui
Wang
,
Dan
Liu
,
Richard A. L.
Jones
,
David G.
Lidzey
,
Tao
Wang
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[22651]
Abstract: Optimizing the components and morphology within the photoactive layer of organic solar cells (OSCs) can significantly enhance their power conversion efficiency (PCE). A new A-D-A type non-fullerene acceptor IDMIC-4F is designed and synthesized in this work, and is employed as the third component to prepare high performance ternary solar cells. IDMIC-4F can form fibrils after solution casting, and the presence of this fibrillar structure in the PBDB-T-2F:BTP-4F host confines the growth of donors and acceptors into fine domains, as well as acting as transport channels to enhance electron mobility. Single junction ternary devices incorporating 10 wt% IDMIC-4F exhibit enhanced light absorption and balanced carrier mobility, and achieve a maximum PCE of 16.6% compared to 15.7% for the binary device, which is a remarkable efficiency for OSCs reported in literature. This non-fullerene acceptor fibril network strategy is a promising method to improve the photovoltaic performance of ternary OSCs.
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Feb 2020
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B18-Core EXAFS
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[17243, 13559]
Abstract: As the dominant radionuclide by mass in many radioactive wastes, the control of uranium mobility in contaminated environments is of high concern. U speciation can be governed by microbial interactions, whereby metal-reducing bacteria are able to reduce soluble U(VI) to insoluble U(IV), providing a method for removal of U from contaminated groundwater. Although microbial U(VI) reduction is widely reported, the mechanism(s) for the transformation of U(VI) to poorly soluble U(IV) phases are poorly understood. By combining a suite of analyses, including luminescence, U M4-edge HERFD-XANES and U L3-edge XANES/EXAFS we show that the microbial reduction of U(VI) by the model Fe(III)-reducing bacterium, Shewanella oneidensis MR1, proceeds via a single electron transfer to form a pentavalent U(V) intermediate which disproportionates to form U(VI) and U(IV). Furthermore, we have identified significant U(V) present in post reduction solid phases, implying that U(V) may be stabilised for up to 120.5 hours.
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Jan 2020
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I19-Small Molecule Single Crystal Diffraction
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[18953]
Open Access
Abstract: Eight alkene-functionalized molybdenum-based spherical Keplerate-type (inorganic fullerene) structures have been obtained via both direct and multistep synthetic approaches. Driven by the opportunity to design unique host-guest interactions within hydrophobic, π-electron rich confined environments, we have synthesized {(NH4)42[Mo132O372(L)30(H2O)72]}, where L = (1) acrylic acid, (2) crotonic acid, (3) methacrylic acid, (4) tiglic acid, (5) 3-butenoic acid, (6) 4-pentenoic acid, (7) 5-hexenoic acid, and (8) sorbic acid. The compounds, which are obtained in good yield (10‑40%), contain 30 carboxylate-coordinated alkene ligands which create a central cavity with hydrophobic character. Extensive Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy studies contribute significantly to the complete characterization of the structures obtained, including both 1D and 2D measurements. In addition, single-crystal X-ray crystallography and subsequently-generated electron density maps are employed to highlight the distribution in ligand tail positions. These alkene-containing structures are shown to effectively encapsulate small alkyl thiols (1-propanethiol (A), 2-propanethiol (B), 1-butanethiol (C), 2-butanethiol (D) and 2-methyl-1-propanethiol (E)) as guests within the central cavity in aqueous solution. The hydrophobically driven clustering of up to 6 equivalents of volatile thiol guests within the central cavity of the Keplerate-type structure results in effective thermal protection, preventing evaporation at elevated temperatures (ΔT ≈ 25 K).
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Jan 2020
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