abstract
Herein, a new and straightforward approach for the fabrication of a stable and multifunctional white light emitting (WLE) hydrogel is reported. For the first time, the utility of such hydrogels for protein packaging with enhanced activity and stability is presented. Initially, a WLE composite with color chromaticity of (0.33, 0.27) is fabricated by engineering the surface of an orange light emitting Mn2+-doped ZnS quantum dot (QD) using a blue-emitting choline-tosylate ionic liquid (IL). The color chromaticity can be tuned by altering the concentration of the IL and excitation wavelengths. The WLE hydrogel is constructed through the conjugation of the WLE QD-IL composite with an alginate biopolymer. Remarkably, the WLE QD-IL composite and WLE hydrogel show preservation of their structural and luminescence properties for an extended time and thus indicate a potential for storage applications. When cytochrome c (Cyt C) is caged within the WLE hydrogel matrix, the peroxidase activity increases by more than 1.7-times compared with native Cyt C and a Cyt C-loaded QD hydrogel at room temperature. Also, Cyt C-immobilized WLE hydrogel shows a 3.5-fold increase in activity (compared with native Cyt C) at a higher temperature (120 degrees C) and in the presence of a denaturation agent.
keywords
CYTOCHROME-C; EMISSION; EXCHANGE
subject category
Materials Science; Optics
authors
Shet, SM; Bisht, M; Pramanik, S; Roy, S; Kumar, TS; Nataraj, SK; Mondal, D; Bhandari, S
our authors
Dibyendu Mondal
Post-doc FellowshipGroups
Projects
CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UID/CTM/50011/2019)
SusPhotoSolutions - Soluções Fotovoltaicas Sustentáveis (SUSPHOTOSOLUTIONS)
acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore, India, for providing infrastructure to conduct this research work. S.B. thanks the Department of Science and Technology (DST/ INSPIRE/04/2017/001910; IFA17-CH287), Government of India, for funding. D.M. thanks the SERB, India (EEQ/2017/000417), for the research grant. S.K.N. thanks DST-Government of India for NANOMISSION PROJECT (SR/NM/NT-1073/2016) and (DST/TMD/HFC/2K18/124(G)). S.B. highly acknowledges Prof. Arun Chattopadhyay for his lab facility. Assistance from CIF, IIT Guwahati, Mihir Manna and Milan Mahadani are acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge NANOMISSION PROJECT SR/NM/NS-20/2014 for FESEM and PXRD characterization facility. This work was partly developed within the scope of the projects CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, POCI-01-0145- FEDER-007679 (FCT Ref. UID/CTM/50011/2019), and SusPhotoSolutions, CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000005.