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The interest in capsaicinoids increased recently due to its potential for commercial use, including food products, dietary supplements, pharmaceutical, and self-defence products. Hence, there is an urge to develop an efficient qualitative and quantitative method of capsaicinoids so as to protect the consumer right and upright the regulation regarding their concentration in the aforementioned products. Therefore, this mini-review is aimed at assisting readers in choosing the best analytical method for detecting capsaicinoids in a variety of samples, which includes selected recent journals. HPLC, NMR spectroscopy, and electrochemical sensors are among the analytical methods chosen in this review. The advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of each analytical method are thoroughly examined. It also discusses the validation methods such as the accuracy, precision, sensitivity, selectivity, and detection limits of the techniques. This mini-review is believed to benefit not only researchers, but also the related regulatory institutions in the determination of capsaicinoids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 continues to see significant interest as a viable means of both producing important chemical materials and lowering carbon emissions. The primary challenge to making this process economically viable is the design of catalyst, electrode and reactor components that can selectively produce just one of the many possible CO2 reduction products. In this work, we report the use of hydrophobic 1-octadecanethiol coatings at copper coated gas diffusion electrodes to enhance the production of ethylene. This thiol coating gives a substantial increase in the production of ethylene at low current densities as well as a change in the rate determining step, as indicated by the substantial reduction in the Tafel slope. The observed changes to the CO2 reduction reaction indicate that the thiol layer provides a triphasic interface within the gas diffusion electrode catalyst layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we validate a novel cuvette-based approach to measure electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) by employing the hyphenation of a commercial spectrometer and a potentiostat. The new experimental design provides simultaneous acquisition of electrochemical and ECL data, allowing complementary analysis by both techniques. Preliminary analysis of an organometallic ECL standard, tris(2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy)32+), and tripropylamine (TPA), showed excellent reproducibility both in terms of the electrochemistry and the ECL signal. Equally as important, the acquired electrochemistry and ECL from the Ru(bpy)32+/TPA system served as a baseline for evaluating the ECL response of polymerizable ruthenium luminophores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

d-Serine acts as an endogenous co-agonist for N-methyl- d-aspartate receptors at synapses, making it essential for proper brain development and function. This amino acid has also been linked to several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Nevertheless, the primary site and mechanism of d-serine release remains unclear. We recently demonstrated the use of an enzymatic amperometric biosensor for the in vivo quantification of endogenous d-serine release in Xenopus laevis tadpoles. Herein, we investigate the effect of the permselective poly( meta-phenylenediamine) electropolymerization conditions on the biosensor's response time and selectivity. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) is then used with the optimized biosensor to measure localized release of d-serine from a model system. This SECM methodology, which provides high spatial and temporal resolution, could be useful to investigate the primary site and mechanism of d-serine release in other biological samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]