Biomimetic matrices offer a great advantage to understand several biological processes including regeneration. The study involves the development of a hybrid biomimetic scaffold and the uniqueness lies in the use of mucin, as a constituent protein. Through this study, the role of the protein in bone regeneration is deciphered through its development as a 3D model. As a first step towards understanding the protein, the interactions of mucin and collagen are determined by in silico studies considering that collagen is the most abundant protein in the bone microenvironment. Both proteins are reported to be involved in bone biology though the exact role of mucin is a topic of investigation. The in silico studies of collagen–mucin suggest to have a proper affinity toward each other, forming a strong basis for 3D scaffold development. The developed 3D scaffold is a double network system comprising of mucin and collagen and vinyl end functionalized polyethylene glycol. In situ deposition of mineral crystals has been performed enzymatically. Biological evaluation of these mineral deposited scaffolds is done in terms of their bone regeneration potential and a comparison of the two systems with and without mineral deposition is presented.
To achieve advanced functionalities in nanostructured MoSe2 for enhanced electrochemical charge storage and improved photosensing, here we propose an effective strategy, i.e., the substitutional doping of the heteroatom Mn. We achieve a 313% increase in specific capacitance for 6.2% of Mn doping compared to pristine MoSe2 at the scan rate of 5 mV/s in a three-electrode configuration. For a two-electrode arrangement, also superior charge-storage performance is noted. The enhanced electrode performance can be attributed to the increase of electrical conductivity arising due to an increase of electron density for the n-type nature of Mn doping realized via an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study and density functional theory calculation. The latter one also unveils that Mn doping introduces catalytically active sites by disrupting homogeneous charge distribution over the topology of the MoSe2 basal plane contributing to better charge-storage performance. Mn doping-induced shift in the Fermi level of MoSe2 toward the conduction band also minimizes the contact barrier height signifying its improved capabilities for a photosensor device. Additionally, Mn doping causes alleviation of the charge-recombination process resulting in increase of photocarrier separation. As a result, we observe a 187% enhancement in the photocurrent and significantly higher responsivity and detectivity for 6.2% Mn-doped MoSe2 than its pristine counterpart. Our proposed doping strategy to modulate charge storage as well as photoresponse properties demonstrates high potential for MoSe2 along with other two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides in developing next-generation energy-storage and optoelectronic devices.
Graphene, a Dirac material, permits the free flow of electrons on its surface. The interface of graphene with different bio-materials is the emerging interest. In this paper, we describe interfaces of graphene variants and two photosynthetic species (belonging to the class of alphaproteobacteria),Rhodobacter spand Rhodopseudomonas sp, both using photon capture in their respective electron transport process. When grown on graphene oxide (or its exfoliated forms obtained after microwave treatment) the bacterial species show differential pigment excretion patterns, which is a measure of their photon driven electron-transport-chain activity. The responses are measured by hydrodynamic diameters of pigment clusters and steady-state quantum yield and time-dependent fluorescent emission patterns. The responses carry fingerprints of graphene-specific effects on the respective microbes. Interestingly, there is a reciprocal relationship between the size of the pigment cluster formed in the presence of graphene (which varies for the two microbes) and the rate of fluorescence emission change. The report opens up the possibility of developing photo-sensing and light-harvesting devices exploiting the richness and diversity of this interface of the free-flowing electrons of this 2Dmaterial (graphene)and these cells,undergoing graphene-specific dynamics of pigmentation.
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are potential two-dimentional materials as natural partners of graphene for highly responsive van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure photodetectors. However, the spectral detection range of the detectors is limited by the optical bandgap of the TMDC, which acts as a light-absorbing medium. Bandgap engineering by making alloy TMDC has evolved as a suitable approach for the development of wide-band photodetectors. Here, broadband (visible to near-infrared) photodetection with high sensitivity in the near-infrared region is demonstrated in a MoSSe/graphene heterostructure. In the ambient environment, the photodetector exhibits high responsivity of 0.6 × 10 2 A/W and detectivity of 7.9 × 10 11 Jones at 800 nm excitation with a power density of 17 fW/μm 2 and 10 mV source−drain bias. The photodetector shows appreciable responsivity in self-bias mode due to nonuniform distribution of MoSSe flakes on the graphene layer between the source and drain end and the asymmetry between the two electrodes. Time-dependent photocurrent measurements show fast rise/decay times of ∼38 ms/∼48 ms. A significant gate tunability on the efficiency of the detector has been demonstrated. The device is capable of low power detection and exhibits high operational frequency, gain, and bandwidth. Thus, the MoSSe/graphene heterostructure can be a promising candidate as a high-speed and highly sensitive near-infrared photodetector capable of operating at ambient conditions with low energy consumption.
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