Laser Heating Tunability by Off‐Resonant Irradiation of Gold Nanoparticles

Temperature changes in the vicinity of a single absorptive nanostructure caused by local heating have strong implications in technologies such as integrated electronics or biomedicine. Herein, the temperature changes in the vicinity of a single optically trapped spherical Au nanoparticle encapsulated in a thermo‐responsive poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) shell (Au@pNIPAM) are studied in detail. Individual beads are trapped in a counter‐propagating optical tweezers setup at various laser powers, which allows the overall particle size to be tuned through the phase transition of the thermo‐responsive shell. The experimentally obtained sizes measured at different irradiation powers are compared with average size values obtained by dynamic light scattering (DLS) from an ensemble of beads at different temperatures. The size range and the tendency to shrink upon increasing the laser power in the optical trap or by increasing the temperature for DLS agree with reasonable accuracy for both approaches. Discrepancies are evaluated by means of simple models accounting for variations in the thermal conductivity of the polymer, the viscosity of the aqueous solution and the absorption cross section of the coated Au nanoparticle. These results show that these parameters must be taken into account when considering local laser heating experiments in aqueous solution at the nanoscale. Analysis of the stability of the Au@pNIPAM particles in the trap is also theoretically carried out for different particle sizes.     

Combined bioaugmentation and biostimulation to cleanup soil contaminated with high concentrations of atrazine

We developed a joint bioaugmentation and biostimulation approach for the clean up of soil contaminated with high (168.7 and 337.4 microg g(-1)) concentrations of the herbicide atrazine (2-chloro-4-(ethylamino)-6-isopropylamino-s-triazine). Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP (P. ADP) was used for bioaugmentation (approximately 10(7) cells g(-1) soil), and citrate (concentration range 5.8-40 mg g(-1) soil) and succinate (6.2-30.8 mg g(-1)) were used for biostimulation. The study soil had indigenous potential for atrazine mineralization (54.4 +/- 2% of 168.7 microg g(-1) mineralized after 67 day), but rapid mineralization only took place after a prolonged acclimation phase (approximately 28 days). Inoculation with P. ADP alone resulted in a limited improvement in mineralization (e.g., 30.6 +/- 1% mineralization of 168.7 microg g(-1) of atrazine in inoculated soil cf. < 0.5% in noninoculated in 7 days). Quantification of surviving numbers of P. ADP revealed a 10-fold decline from initial levels. However, bioaugmentation together with citrate or succinate biostimulation markedly increased P. ADP cell survival and atrazine mineralization (e.g., addition of 11.6 mg g(-1) of citrate increased mineralization of 337.4 microg g(-1) of atrazine from < 2 to 79.9 +/- 1% in 13 days). A critical parameter in determining the extent of atrazine mineralization by P. ADP was C(s):N(atz) (soluble carbon to atrazine nitrogen ratio): C(s):N(atz) > 40 was required for maximal atrazine mineralization. We suggest our observations may be used as a framework for rational bioremediation of field soils contaminated with atrazine.