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Noble-metal nanoparticles have had a substantial impact across a diverse range of fields, including catalysis (1), sensing (2), photochemistry (3), optoelectronics (4,5), energy conversion (6) and medicine (7). Although silver has very desirable physical properties, good relative abundance and low cost, gold nanoparticles have been widely favoured owing to their proved stability and ease of use. Unlike gold, silver is notorious for its susceptibility to oxidation (tarnishing), which has limited the development of important silver-based nanomaterials. Despite two decades of synthetic efforts, silver nanoparticles that are inert or have long-term stability remain unrealized. Here we report a simple synthetic protocol for producing ultrastable silver nanoparticles, yielding a single-sized molecular product in very large quantities with quantitative yield and without the need for size sorting. The stability, purity and yield are substantially better than those for other metal nanoparticles, including gold, owing to an effective stabilization mechanism. The particular size and stoichiometry of the product were found to be insensitive to variations in synthesis parameters. The chemical stability and structural, electronic and optical properties can be understood using first-principles electronic structure theory based on an experimental single-crystal X-ray structure. Although several structures have been determined for protected gold nanoclusters (8-12), none has been reported so far for silver nanoparticles. The total structure of a thiolate-protected silver nanocluster reported here uncovers the unique structure of the silver thiolate protecting layer, consisting of [Ag.sub.2][S.sub.5] capping structures. The outstanding stability of the nanoparticle is attributed to a closed-shell 18-electron configuration with a large energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, an ultrastable 32-silver-atom excavated-dodecahedral (13) core consisting of a hollow 12-silver-atom icosahedron encapsulated by a 20-silver-atom dodecahedron, and the choice of protective coordinating ligands. The straightforward synthesis of large quantities of pure molecular product promises to make this class of materials widely available for further research and technology development (14-18)., Silver thiolate clusters with an aromatic ligand shell and a core diameter of ~1.2 nm have been discovered only recently (19). Electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) identified these as discrete molecular [...]

The electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy (ESI-MS) study of the formation of the homotetrameric hemoglobin H is employed to demonstrate the heterogeneity of various proteins that act as binding catalysts in a large number of reactions. The results of the analysis prove the importance of the long-chain dynamics and heterogeneity of the protein assembly, as the [alpha]-globulins cannot undergo oligomerization to form dimers as opposed to the indiscriminate aggregation.

An unprecedented AgI‐catalyzed efficient method for the coupling of imino ethers and enol diazoacetates through a [3+2]‐cycloaddition/C−O bond cleavage/[1,5]‐proton transfer cascade process is reported. The general class of imino ethers that includes oxazolines, benzoxazoles and benzimidates are applicable substrates for these reactions that provide direct access to fully substituted pyrroles with uniformly high chemo‐ and regioselectivity. High variability in substitution at the pyrrole 2‐, 5‐ and N‐positions characterizes this methodology that also presents an entry point for further pyrrole diversification via facile modification of resulting N‐functional pyrroles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has been conducted on bovine hemoglobin. The authors describe the study of hemoglobin's assembly dynamics which has been carried out via circular dichroism spectroscopy and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry used for monitoring oligomers/monomers equilibria in pH solution.

Proteomic analyses were done on 2 chemosensory appendages of the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum. Proteins in the fore tarsi, which contain the olfactory Haller's organ, and in the palps, that include gustatory sensilla, were compared with proteins in the third tarsi. Also, male and female ticks were compared. Proteins were identified by sequence similarity to known proteins, and by 3-dimensional homology modeling. Proteomic data were also compared with organ-specific transcriptomes from the tick Rhipicephalus microplus. The fore tarsi express a lipocalin not found in the third tarsi or palps. The fore tarsi and palps abundantly express 2 proteins, which are similar to insect odorant-binding proteins (OBPs). Compared with insect OBPs, the tick OBP-like sequences lacked the cysteine absent in C-minus OBPs, and 1 tick OBP-like sequence had additional cysteines that were similar to C-plus OBPs. Four proteins similar to the antibiotic protein microplusin were found: 2 exclusively expressed in the fore tarsi and 1 exclusively expressed in the palps. These proteins lack the microplusin copper-binding site, but they are modeled to have a significant internal cavity, potentially a ligand-binding site. Proteins similar to the dust mite allergens Der p7 and Der f 7 were found differentially expressed in female fore tarsi. A protein exclusively expressed in the fore tarsi has similarities to Neto, which is known to be involved in clustering of ionotropic glutamate receptors. These results constitute the first report of OBP-like protein sequences in ticks and point to several research avenues on tick chemosensory reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]