Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Decorated with Dendrimer-Encapsulated Platinum Nanoparticles as Catalytic Immobilization Matrix for Amperometric Sensing of Glutamate.

Herein, we report the functional decoration of single-walled carbon nanotubes (swCNTs) with Pt dendrimer-encapsulated nanoparticles (Pt DENs) (dia. (1.78 ± 0.18) nm) for the amperometric sensing of glutamate. The functional decoration of swCNTs was carried out via electrochemical grafting of Pt DENs onto swCNTs, and subsequent cross-linking of glutamate oxidase (GluOx) enzymes to the grafted Pt DENs on swCNT surfaces. The critical role of Pt DENs as catalytic immobilization matrix allowed both the immobilization of GluOx enzymes while maintaining the enzymatic activity of GluOx, and the electrocatalytic oxidation of H2O2 generated enzymatically in the presence of glutamate. Taking advantage of Pt DENs as catalytic immobilization matrix, the resulting swCNTs films, denoted as GluOx/Pt DEN/swCNTs, were applied as amperometric sensing platforms that display superior analytical characteristics, including sensitivity, selectivity, stability, and reproducibility, to the non-catalytic counterpart (i.e., GluOx/swCNTs), which led to the promising application of GluOx/Pt DEN/swCNTs to the practical analysis of glutamate in real samples.

Photocatalytic applications of paper-like poly(vinylidene fluoride)-titanium dioxide hybrids fabricated using a combination of electrospinning and electrospraying.

A paper-like photocatalyst was fabricated by electrospraying an N,N'-dimethylformamide (DMF) dispersion of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) on a poly(vinylidene fluoride) nanofiber (PVDF NF) mat prepared by electrospinning. Morphological studies revealed that the TiO2 NPs uniformly deposited as clusters on the surface of the PVDF NF mat. The immobilized amount of TiO2 was found to be 2.08, 2.44, 3.80, and 4.73 mg per 45 cm(2) of PVDF-TiO2 hybrids for the electrospraying of 10, 20, 40, and 60 ml of TiO2-DMF, respectively. The hybrid photocatalysts were effective in degrading bisphenol A (BPA), 4-chlorophenol (4-CP), and cimetidine (CMT), which dissolved in both deionized water and secondary wastewater effluents, with activity being proportional to the quantity of TiO2 NPs immobilized. For the highest loading amount of TiO2, BPA, 4-CP, and CMT degraded completely within 100, 100, and 40 min of UV irradiation, respectively. Stable photo-oxidation of CMT was maintained through 10 repeated cycles. During these cycles, it was confirmed that there was no loss of TiO2 NPs by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Our results suggest that effective and stable PVDF-TiO2 hybrid photocatalysts can be fabricated on a large scale by combining electrospinning and electrospraying techniques.