Gabor Galbacs

University of Szeged · Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry

In this brief report, we present laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) evidence of deuterium (D) production in a 3:1 urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA) and triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) polymer doped with resonant gold nanorods, induced by intense, 40 fs laser pulses. The in situ recorded LIBS spectra revealed that the D/(2D + H) inc...

Background and aims Smoking is recognised as an independent risk factor in the development of chronic pancreatitis (CP). Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) function and ductal fluid and bicarbonate secretion are also known to be impaired in CP, so it is crucial to understand the relationships between smoking, pancreatic duct...

In this study, we compared the applicability of three nanoparticle deposition techniques (spray coating, spark discharge nanoparticle generation, magnetron sputtering) towards elemental mapping by nanoparticle-enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (NE-LIBS). It was found that sputtering followed by a thermal treatment at 550 °C can provide...

Commonly used sample introduction systems for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) are generally not well-suited for single particle ICP-MS (spICP-MS) applications due to their high sample requirements and low efficiency. In this study, the first completely 3D-printed, polymer SIS was developed to facilitate spICP-MS analysis. The...

Spark discharge generators (SDGs) employ controlled gaseous environments to induce spark ablation of non-insulating electrodes, resulting in the formation of various nanostructures in the gas phase. The method offers technological advantages such as continuous particle production, scalable yield, and minimal waste. Additionally, the versatility of...

Selenium (Se) hyperaccumulators are capable of uptake and tolerate high Se dosages. Excess Se-induced oxidative responses were compared in Astragalus bisulcatus and Astragalus cicer. Plants were grown on media supplemented with 0, 25 or 75 μM selenate for 14 days. Both A. bisulcatus and A. cicer accumulated >2000 μg/g dry weight Se to the shoot but...

The present study demonstrates the importance of converting signal intensity maps of organic tissues collected by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to elemental concentration maps and also proposes a methodology based on machine learning for its execution. The proposed methodology employs matrix-matched external calibration supported by a...

A status report is presented about the Nanoplasmonic Laser Induced Fusion Experiment (NAPLIFE). The goal is to investigate and verify plasmonically enhanced phenomena on the surfaces of nanoantennas embedded in a polymer target at laser intensities up to a few times 1016 W/cm2 and pulse durations of 40–120 fs. The first results on enhanced crater f...

The study aimed to find the origin of the high lithium content of groundwater in southeast Hungary. To be concerned with assessing the economic potential of lithium in these waters, it is necessary to investigate the lithium-releasing geochemical processes. For this purpose, granite and pegmatite samples were analysed for lithium content and altera...

This chapter provides a brief overview of the principle of operation and general analytical characteristics, and describes the typical technical aspects of the instrumental setups in use for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been around for about six decades. Although in the early years it was more of a curiosity than an analytical method due to some technical complications, but since the 1990s it has evolved and spread slowly but steadily and by today it has become the established versatile and powerful analytical method...

In this work, the effects of femtosecond laser irradiation and doping with plasmonic gold nanorods on the degree of conversion (DC) of a urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA)–triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) nanocomposite were investigated. The UDMA-TEGDMA photopolymer was prepared in a 3:1 weight ratio and doped with dodecanethiol- (DDT) capped...

We present here a scalable and environmentally friendly gas phase technique employing atmospheric pressure electrical spark discharge plasmas for the production of Au/Co binaries, an effective catalyst system for the decomposition of hydrogen-rich compounds, such as ammonium borane. We demonstrate that Au/Co alloy nanoparticles can be produced via...

Zooplankton identification has been the subject of many studies. They are mainly based on the analysis of photographs (computer vision). However, spectroscopic techniques can be a good alternative due to the valuable additional information that they provide. We tested the performance of several chemometric techniques (principal component analysis (...

The changes in the bonding configuration on the crater walls formed in urethane dimethacrylate based polymer doped with plasmonic gold nanorods upon irradiation with a single-shot high energy femtosecond laser pulse has been studied by Raman spectroscopy. New Raman bands were detected in the 2000-2500 cm-1 region of the Raman spectrum the intensiti...

The consequences of engineered silver nanoparticle (AgNP) exposure and cellular interaction with the immune system are poorly understood. The immunocytes of the Eisenia andrei earthworm are frequently applied in ecotoxicological studies and possess functional similarity to vertebrate macrophages. Hence, we characterized and compared the endocytosis...

Despite being a worldwide problem, responses of crops to zinc (Zn) deficiency is largely unknown. This study examines the effects of limited Zn supply in Brassica napus. The decreased Zn content of the nutrient solution caused reduced tissue Zn concentrations and reduced K, Ca, Mg levels were detected in the leaves. For Ca, Zn, Fe, Mo inhomogeneous...

This study aimed at exploiting the so far unexploited potential of carrying out on-line sample pretreatment steps on microfluidic chips for single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) measurements, and demonstrating their ability to practically facilitate most of the simpler tasks involved in the spICP-MS analysis of nan...

Modern analytical techniques, including laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and Raman spectroscopy, yield multidimensional data, which are most efficiently used in conjunction with chemometric techniques, including multi-block algorithms. In this study, we use several algorithms for the processing of laser-induced breakdown and Raman spectr...

We have successfully demonstrated that although there are significant analytical challenges involved in the qualitative discrimination analysis of sub-mm sized (microfragment) glass samples, the task can be solved with very good accuracy and reliability with the multivariate chemometric evaluation of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) data...

The Alyssum (Brassicaceae) genus contain the greatest number of hyperaccumulators of nickel (Ni). Hyperaccumulator plants accumulate more than 100-foldmetal in their shoots than non-accumulator plants. In this study, we examined the effect of nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs, <100 nm, specific surface area: 76.397 m2/g) treatments on NP uptake a...

The effect of the presence of nanoparticles (NPs) on the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) signal of argon gas was studied experimentally. 10–20 nm diameter gold NPs, produced by a spark discharge nanoparticle generator, were suspended in argon gas. The effect of particle size, number concentration and mass concentration, as well as laser...

Novel small‐molecular analogues the green fluorescence protein (GFP) chromophore were synthesised to expand and improve this fluorophore family and to deepen the understanding of their fluorescence mechanism. The introduction of an aminophenyl substituent and the repositioning of the hydroxyl group, to enable strong intramolecular hydrogen bonding,...

Since its development, the ionophore BAPTA (1,2‐bis(2‐aminophenoxy)‐ethane‐N,N,N’,N’‐tetraacetic acid) has been used unchanged in calcium sensing applications. In this work we present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of novel alterations in the structure of BAPTA, with a focus on the systematic modification of the chain connecting...

The present review attempts to comprehensively overview the progress in the field of nanoparticle-related analytical laser and plasma spectroscopy research, focusing on the results of the past decade. The discussion involves the brief description of the motivation and principle of operation behind all existing technologies. As a novel approach, the...

Spark ablation, a versatile, gas-phase physical nanoparticle synthesis method was employed to fabricate fiber-optic surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensors in a simple single-step process. We demonstrate that spark-generated silver nanoparticles can be simply deposited onto a fiber tip by means of a modified low-pressure inertial impactor,...

In the present work, we performed a combination of non-sequential ray tracing and numerical interferometric simulations to study the effect of the most important optical and experimental parameters on the performance of spatial heterodyne interferometric spectrometers, relevant to their use in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (spatial heterodyn...

Gold/silver bimetallic nanoparticles still attract extensive interest due to their favorable properties e.g. in plasmonics or catalysis. We present here a facile and robust way for the production of clean Au/Ag binary nanoparticles (BNPs) with a total control over the composition via the spark discharge nanoparticle generation technique. With the a...

This study demonstrates that LIBS mapping and spatially resolved local analysis is an efficient and practical approach for the classification of mineral grains (quartz, feldspar, biotite, amphibole) and for prospecting...

In the last few years, LIBS has become an established technique for the assessment of elemental concentrations in various sample types. However, for many applications knowledge about the overall elemental composition is not sufficient. In addition, detailed information about the elemental distribution within a heterogeneous sample is needed. LIBS h...

Two closely-related earthworm species (Eisenia spp.) have long been used as model organisms in ecotoxicology. The same nanoparticles (NPs) may affect the two species differently, not only because of the inherent differences in susceptibility but also due to how the immune system could recognize NPs. In a comparative approach using E. andrei and E....

A simple, one-step gas phase technique for the fabrication of low-cost substrates with tunable plasmonic enhancement is proposed exploiting the unique peculiarities of spark discharge nanoparticle generation in particle mixing and the ease of particle deposition onto glass microfiber filters. The applicability of the spark-based technique to produc...

A new analytical method is proposed for the determination of deuterium (D) by ICP-MS. The method is based on the use of the signal from hydrogen-containing polyatomic ions formed in the inductively coupled plasma. Prior to analytical experiments, a theoretical study was performed to assess the concentration of polyatomic species present in an equil...

A new porosity determination method for nano- and sub-micron particles is proposed, which is based on single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) measurements. The performance of the new method was tested on core-shell Ag-Au, hollow Au and mesoporous SiO2 nanoparticles of different size and porosity and it was found that...

Peptide tags are extensively used for affinity purification of proteins. In an optimal case, these tags can be completely removed from the purified protein by a specific protease mediated hydrolysis. However, the interactions of these tags with the target protein may also be utilized for the modulation of the protein function. Here we show that the...

An assessment of the feasibility of using modified surface enhanced Raman scattering substrates (Ag nanoparticles on indium‑tin-oxide glass) for quantitative nanoparticle-enhanced laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (NELIBS) was carried out. Substrates were prepared with different surface coverage from various nanoparticle sizes, and their laser a...

Some of the zooplankton organisms (viz. several taxa of sea crustaceans) are found to accumulate lithium. Causes and mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are unclear and interesting for marine biologists and oceanographers. The goal of this study was to establish correlations between analytical signals of elements and molecules in animal tissue us...

It has recently been discovered that some zooplankton organisms (viz. several taxa of sea crustaceans) accumulate trace elements like lithium, arsenic and uranium. Causes and mechanisms underlying this phaenomenon are unclear. It is therefore of interest to find out which changes of chemical composition of tissues accompany the accumulation of the...

Spatial heterodyne spectroscopy (SHS) is used for quantitative analysis and classification of liquid samples. SHS is a version of a Michelson interferometer with no moving parts and with diffraction gratings in place of mirrors. The instrument converts frequency-resolved information into a spatially resolved one and records it in the form of interf...

We studied the applicability of Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) as a particle engineering method in the field of drug preformulation. Improving the dissolution and thereby the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble compounds is still a challenging task in pharmaceutical formulation. It was shown earlier that particle size reduction or the developmen...

Hg²⁺ and Cd²⁺ complexation of a short hexapeptide, Ac-DCSSCY-NH2 (DY), was studied by pH-potentiometry, UV and NMR spectroscopies and fluorimetry in aqueous solutions and the Hg²⁺-binding ability of the ligand was also described in immobilized form, where the peptides were anchored to a hydrophilic resin. Hg²⁺ was demonstrated to form a 1:1 complex...

In order to improve the fluorescence properties of the green fluorescent protein chromophore, p‑HOBDI ((5‑(4‑hydroxybenzylidene)‑2,3‑dimethyl‑3,5‑dihydro‑4H‑imidazol‑4‑one), sixteen dihydroimidazolone derivates were synthesized from thiohydantoin and arylaldehydes. The synthesis developed is an efficient, novel, one-pot procedure. The study provide...

The present work demonstrates the capabilities of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in the qualitative analysis of carbonaceous aerosols. The model aerosols studied were generated by laser ablation in a nitrogen flow from five commercial coal samples (lignite, anthracite, Pécs-vasas brown coal, Polish brown coal, Czech brown coal) and con...

Controlled size Pt nanoparticles were anchored onto the surface of 3D mesoporous cobalt-oxide support and was tested in CO2 hydrogenation reactions compared to commercial cobalt-oxide supported Pt nanoparticles prepared by the wet impregnation method as well as SBA-15 silica supported nanoparticles. Designed Pt/mesoporous cobalt-oxide catalysts sho...

In this paper, we study the thermal activation of CO₂ on the surface of small Au nanoparticles supported on TiO₂ and titanate nanotube. We characterize the catalysts with high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and total gold content measurement. We performed catalytic test in flow reactors then we investigate the surface of the c...

Catalyst size affects the overall kinetics and mechanism of almost all heterogeneous chemical reactions. Since the functional sensing materials in resistive chemical sensors are practically the very same nanomaterials as the catalysts in heterogeneous chemistry, a plausible question arises: Is there any effect of the catalyst size on the sensor pro...

Nanoparticles targeting transporters of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) are promising candidates to increase the brain penetration of biopharmacons. Solute carriers (SLC) are expressed at high levels in brain endothelial cells and show a specific pattern at the BBB. The aim of our study was to test glutathione and ligands of SLC transporters as singl...

Very small, green colored, partially mummified remains of a perinate individual were found buried in a ceramic pot with a copper coin in the Late Medieval cemetery of Nyárlőrinc-Hangár út (“Nyárlőrinc 3. lelőhely”) in southern Hungary. The remains must date back to the second half of the nineteenth century AD. In this paper; we present data gathere...

In this study, we present the inherent optical properties of carbonaceous aerosols generated from various coals (hard through bituminous to lignite) and their correlation with the thermochemical and energetic properties of the bulk coal samples. The nanoablation method provided a unique opportunity for the comprehensive investigation of the generat...

The present study investigates how systematic variation of the resistance of the discharge loop influences the nanoparticle output and the electrode erosion of spark discharge generators (SDGs). The size distribution of the nanoparticles, as well as the mass loss of gold electrodes was recorded while varying the total resistance of the discharge lo...

In the present study, the erosion of polished nickel and copper electrode surfaces (with an average roughness of ca. 4.5 nm) exposed to a low number (1-3) of sparks in a spark discharge nanoparticle generator were investigated with the purpose of better understanding the utilization of the energy pumped into the electrodes as well as the processes...

Using the magnetocaloric effect in nanoparticles holds great potential for efficient refrigeration and energy conversion. The most promising candidate materials for tailoring Curie temperature to room temperature are rare-earth based magnetic nanoalloys. However, only few high-nuclearity lanthanide/transition-metal nanoalloys have been produced so...

A systematic investigation of single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) signal profiles recorded with normal (ms-range) and high (μs-range) temporal resolution for spherical and rod-shaped gold nanoparticles was performed. The experiments with nanorods were carried out on hemispherically capped cylindrical particles sy...

The increased demand for high purity nanoparticles of defined geometry necessitates the continuous development of generation routes. One of the most promising physical techniques for producing metal, semiconductor or alloy nanoparticles in the gas phase is spark discharge nanoparticle generation. The technique has a great potential for up-scaling w...