Nano-confined synthesis of fullerene mesoporous carbon (C60-FMC) with bimodal pores: XRD, TEM, structural properties, NMR, and protein immobilization

Nanoconfined synthesized crystalline fullerene mesoporous carbon (C60-FMC) with bimodal pore architectures of 4.95 nm and 10-15 nm pore sizes characterized by XRD, TEM, nitrogen adsorption/ desorption isotherm and solid-state NMR, and the material was used for protein immobilization. The solid-state 13C NMR spectrum of C60-FMC along with XRD, BET and TEM confirms the formation of fullerene mesoporous carbon structure C60-FMC. The immobilization of albumin (from bovine serum, BSA) protein biomolecule in a buffer solution at pH 4.7 was used to determine the adsorption properties of the C60-FMC material and its structural changes investigated by FT-IR. We demonstrated that the C60-FMC with high surface area and pore volumes have excellent adsorption capacity towards BSA protein molecule. Protein adsorption experiments clearly showed that the C60-FMC with bimodal pore architectures (4.95 nm and 10-15 nm) are suitable material to be used for protein adsorption

Nano-confined synthesis of highly ordered mesoporous carbon and its performance as electrode material for electrochemical behavior of riboflavin (vitamin B2) and dopamine

Highly ordered mesoporous carbon (MC) has been synthesized from sucrose, a non-toxic and costeffective source of carbon. X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm and transmission electron micrograph (TEM) were used to characterize the MC. The XRD patterns show the formation of highly ordered mesoporous structures of SBA15 and mesoporous carbon. The N2 adsorptiondesorption isotherms suggest that the MC exhibits a narrow pore-size distribution with high surface area of 1559 m2/g. The potential application of MC as a novel electrode material was investigated using cyclic voltammetry for riboflavin (vitamin B2) and dopamine. MC-modified glassy carbon electrode (MC/GC) shows increase in peak current compared to GC electrode in potassium ferricyanide which clearly suggest that MC/GC possesses larger electrode area (1.8 fold) compared with bare GC electrode. The electrocatalytic behavior of MC/GC was investigated towards the oxidation of riboflavin (vitamin B2) and dopamine using cyclic voltammetry which show larger oxidation current compared to unmodified electrode and thus MC/GC may have the potential to be used as a chemically modified electrode.

'Ladd traps' as a visual trap for male and female Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) is Australia's major horticultural insect pest, yet monitoring females remains logistically difficult. We trialled the ‘Ladd trap’ as a potential female surveillance or monitoring tool. This trap design is used to trap and monitor fruit flies in countries other (e.g. USA) than Australia. The Ladd trap consists of a flat yellow panel (a traditional ‘sticky trap’), with a three dimensional red sphere (= a fruit mimic) attached in the middle. We confirmed, in field-cage trials, that the combination of yellow panel and red sphere was more attractive to B. tryoni than the two components in isolation. In a second set of field-cage trials, we showed that it was the red-yellow contrast, rather than the three dimensional effect, which was responsible for the trap's effectiveness, with B. tryoni equally attracted to a Ladd trap as to a two-dimensional yellow panel with a circular red centre. The sex ratio of catches was approximately even in the field-cage trials. In field trials, we tested the traditional red-sphere Ladd trap against traps for which the sphere was painted blue, black or yellow. The colour of sphere did not significantly influence trap efficiency in these trials, despite the fact the yellow-panel/yellow-sphere presented no colour contrast to the flies. In 6 weeks of field trials, over 1500 flies were caught, almost exactly two-thirds of them being females. Overall, flies were more likely to be caught on the yellow panel than the sphere; but, for the commercial Ladd trap, proportionally more females were caught on the red sphere versus the yellow panel than would be predicted based on relative surface area of each component, a result also seen the field-cage trial. We determined that no modification of the trap was more effective than the commercially available Ladd trap and so consider that product suitable for more extensive field testing as a B. tryoni research and monitoring tool.