Najla Fourati

National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts | CNAM · SATIE Lab

Opening Ceremony Symposium CIMEE 2024

The sixth International Symposium On Materials, Electrochemistry and Environment, October 24-26, LEBANON

Scientific studies prove the increase in global temperatures recorded over the last century has clearly shown that the planet is warming, leading to widespread and rapid changes in the climate of planet Earth. As a result, extreme weather and climate events are becoming more frequent in all regions of the world. This trend will unfortunately contin...

The presence of non-biodegradable, toxic, and harmful organic pollutants in various environmental mediums poses significant threats to ecosystems and human health. This study investigates the impact of transition metal (TM) doping on the photocatalytic performance of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) in degrading methylene blue (MB) dye under su...

This study investigates the feasibility of a simple electrochemical detection of Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 (PCA3) fragments extracted from patients’ urine, using a thiolated single-strand DNA probe immobilized on a gold surface without using a redox probe. To enhance the PCA3 recognition process, we conducted a comparative analysis of the hybridiza...

Pollution, climate change, and overexploitation have led to severe water stress worldwide. According to the United Nations, 2.2 billion people today lack access to safely managed drinking water. Once water is contaminated, removing the pollutants becomes costly and often impossible. Several types of pollutants can be present in freshwater, includin...

In the present work, density functional theory (DFT) was performed to select the most appropriate chelating agent to design Pb2+ imprinted polypyrrole (PPy) polymer. We have therefore selected five molecules able to chelate heavy metal ions: L-Cysteine (L-Cys), glycine (Gly), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), diethylenetriaminepentaacetic aci...

This chapter presents the most relevant applications of surface acoustic wave (SAW) biosensors published between 2019 and the beginning of 2023. These recent studies showed that besides quantifying several types of proteins and detecting bacteria and viruses, SAW biosensors can access cells’ viscous/elastic properties and their adhesion/growth/deta...

Closing session CIMEE23

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a highly contagious pathogenic bacterium that can cause gastrointestinal ulcers and may gradually lead to gastric cancer. H. pylori expresses the outer membrane HopQ protein at the earliest stages of infection. Therefore, HopQ is a highly reliable candidate as a biomarker for H. pylori detection in saliva samples....

Background Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a highly contagious pathogenic bacterium that can cause gastrointestinal ulcers and may gradually lead to gastric cancer. H. pylori expresses the outer membrane HopQ protein at the earliest stages of infection. Therefore, HopQ is a highly reliable candidate as a biomarker for H. pylori detection in sali...

A comparison between molecularly imprinted polymer strategies based on the same monomer for large protein detection is rarely performed. Here, immunoglobulin (IgG) was chosen as a protein model. The first approach is based on the cyclic voltammetry (CV) electropolymerization of a mixture of dopamine monomer and IgG template, while in the second rou...

Engrailed 2 (EN2) is a homeodomain-containing transcription factor expressed in prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines and is secreted into the urines. It is nowadays considered as a promising non-invasive biomarker for PCa early diagnosis. Herein, we report the design of an electrochemical immunosensor for EN2 detection. The biosensor fabrication involv...

Bacterial contamination and biofilm formation generate severe problems in many fields.

The simple and eco-friendly co-precipitation method is used to synthesize nickel molybdate in an aqueous solution at room temperature. The physical properties of NiMoO4 are investigated using several techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), which perfectly fits the crystalline α-form of NiMoO4. Moreover, scanning electron microscope (SEM) image...

The data presented here are related to the article entitled “New contributions to the drug profile of TNFα inhibitor SPD304: affinity, selectivity ADMET considerations” published in the European Journal of pharmacology. As DMSO is usually used as a co-solvent to dissolve low aqueous soluble small molecules, such as SPD304, we have investigated the...

“Warn, inform, and prevent” are three essential elements to remember when designing sensors for real-time and in situ monitoring of organic, inorganic, and macromolecular compounds as well as micro-nanoparticles and microorganisms [...]

This review critically summarizes the knowledge of imprinted polymer-based electrochemical sensors for the detection of pesticides, metal ions and waterborne pathogenic bacteria, focusing on the last five years. MIP-based electrochemical sensors exhibit low limits of detection (LOD), high selectivity, high sensitivity and low cost. We put the empha...

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the first most frequently diagnosed malignancy in man in Europe and is the third major case of males’ cancer-related death. PCa screening and diagnosis are therefore societal and public health issues. Prostate specific antigen is the routine marker, but it is not specific for PCa. Several promising new biomarkers, including...

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is a relevant clinical target for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. Currently, only few small molecules are known as direct inhibitors of TNFα. To date, none of these molecules has shown both an efficient activity and a low toxicity to be considered for clinical trials. The SPD304 is considered as a...

Two polymers were prepared from diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and triglycidyl p-aminophenol (TGAP) epoxy resins, using the same hardener diethylenetriamine (DETA). The obtained polymers were compared in terms of structural, optical, mechanical, thermal and dielectric properties. Dielectric spectroscopy and dynamic mechanical analysis indi...

This mini-review critically summarizes the knowledge of imprinted polymer-based electrochemical sensors, for the detection of pesticides, metal ions and waterborne pathogenic bacteria, focusing on the period the last 5 years (citation of 78 papers published in 2017-2021, ie 63% of total citations). MIP-based electrochemical sensors exhibit low limi...

Several studies were devoted to the design of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)-based sensors for the detection of a given protein. Here, we bring elements that could contribute to the understanding of the interaction mechanism involved in the recognition of a protein by an imprint. For this purpose, a polydopamine (PDA)-MIP was designed for bovi...

The obstacle for the development of a reliable electrochemical technique to trace diethylstilbestrol (DES) lies in the complex electrochemical behavior of this illicit hormone. The present study targeted to thoroughly investigate and understand the electro-oxidation of DES in acetonitrile on gold electrode by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave...

A biomimetic, ion-imprinted polymer (IIP) was prepared by electropolymerization of pyrrole at the surface of gold electrodes decorated with vertically grown ZnO nanorods. The vertical growth of the nanorods was achieved via an ultrathin aryl monolayer grafted by reduction of diazonium salt precursor. Pyrrole was polymerized in the presence of L-cys...

Sensitivity is one of the most important parameters to put in the foreground in all sensing applications. Its increase is therefore an ongoing challenge, particularly for surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors. Herein, finite element method (FEM) simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics software is first used to simulate the physical and electrical proper...

A biomimetic, ion-imprinted polymer (IIP) was prepared by electropolymerization of pyrrole at the surface of gold electrodes decorated with vertically grown ZnO nanorods. The vertical growth of the nanorods was achieved via an ultrathin aryl monolayer grafted by reduction of diazonium salt precursor. Pyrrole was polymerized in the presence of L-cys...

New hybrid compound FeNa0.5H1.5MoO5 was synthetized by hydrothermal method, an ecofriendly, simple and efficient process. The structural/nanostructural and morphological properties of the synthetized particle were determined by means of various characterization technics. Combined scanning electron microscopy and Energy dispersive X-ray analysis rev...

Abstract Epoxy networks of the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A(DGEBA)were prepared using 4, 4′- diaminodiphenyl (44′DDS) and 3, 3′-diaminodiphenyl (33′DDS)sulfone diamines crosslinking hardeners. The structural, linear optical and mechanical properties of the investigated sample were analysed. Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis and wide-angle x-ra...

104 MHz surface acoustic wave sensors, functionalized with two polypyrrole (PPy) imprinted polymers, were designed for lead ion detection in liquid media. The main difference between the two ionic imprinted polymers (IIP) is related to the nature of the chelating agent: L-Cysteine (L-Cys) for the former and acrylic acid (AA) for the latter. Perform...

Rapid and accurate detection of proteins in biological fluids is increasingly required in the biomedical environment. Actually, it is performed with conventional techniques, which are generally run by robotized platforms at centralized laboratories. In this work, molecular dynamics calculations and an experimental procedure were conducted to set up...

ZnO/epoxy nanocomposites were prepared in five different contents (0.25–3.0 wt%). Optical, thermal and dielectric properties have been examined as a function of ZnO nanoparticles. The absorption optical spectra exhibit a broad intense peak assigned to the n–π* (HOMO–LUMO) transitions. Nanocomposite with 3.0 wt% ZnO sample completely blocks UV-light...

Surface acoustic waves (SAW) devices are used in several domains varying from telecommunication and mechanics to chemical and biological sensing. Their ability to function in either liquid or gaseous environments make them devices of choice for the detection of several types of analytes (DNA, antibodies/antigens, gases, pesticides, heavy metals …)...

This study concerns the design of an ion-imprinted polymer (IIP) for the selective detection of mercury II ions. Compared to other electrochemical studies, the originality of this work lies to the fact that the IIP was electropolymerized on ZnO nanorods, which were themselves grown on gold/diazonium modified substrates. This strategy of diazonium s...

Modeling a Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensor response as a chemosensor and not only as just an electronic transducer was performed with COMSOL Multiphysics. For this study, the SAW’s sensing area was functionalized with an ionic imprinted polymer (IIP), designed for the selective detection of lead ions. The idea consists in subdividing the IIP int...

This study concerns the design of surface acoustic wave sensors functionalized with bisphenol S based molecules for lead ions detection. (4-hydroxyphenyl, 4′-benzyloxyphenyl) sulfone (M1), (4-hydroxyphenyl,4′-anthrylmethyloxyphenyl) sulfone (M2) and (4,4′-bis (anthrylmethyloxyphenyl)) sulfone (M3) were synthesized and then drop-coated on the SAWs s...

Introduction: Molecular imprinting technique is widely used for sensitive and selective detection of proteins[1]. This field is nevertheless still in the phase of development, as bio-macromolecules recognition is much more complex than that of small molecules. This study concerns the development of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) based electr...

Surface acoustic wave sensors functionalized with a thin layers of polypyrrole ionic imprinted polymer were designed and realized for the selective detection of lead ions. Polypyrrole films were electrodeposited on gold surface and acrylic acid was used as a chelating agent. Detection of the analyte is ensured by the strong affinity between carboxy...

104 MHz surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors functionalized with new anthracene derivates were designed for the detection of lead ions (Pb²⁺) in liquid media. On the basis on quantum chemical calculations, three anthracene molecules have been synthetized and tested: 4-(9-anthrylmethoxy) benzyl[4-(9-anthrylmethoxy)phenyl]sulfone (BPS-AN); 9-{[4-({[4-...

In this present work, we reported the dye functionalization of CNTs via diazonium interface chemistry for designing new hybrid materials for sensing applications. Towards this end, Neural Red dye diazonium salt (DNR) was spontaneously reacted with MWCNTs in water at room temperature to synthesize CNT-NR nanohybrids and were characterized by an arse...

There is a global debate and concern about the use of glyphosate (Gly) as an herbicide. New toxicological studies will determine its use in the future under new strict conditions or its replacement by alternative synthetic or natural herbicides. In this context, we designed biomimetic polymer sensing layers for the selective molecular recognition o...

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the world. The diagnosis, staging, prognosis and monitoring are usually done with Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). Biosensors have emerging as a novel analytical technology for PSA detection. They provide several advantages for clinical applications and will benefit clinicians, patients and forensic...

This study concerns the development of two molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) based electrochemical sensors for glyphosate detection. In both cases polypyrrole (PPy) was chosen as matrix and glyphosate molecules were the templates. The main difference between the two strategies is related to the investigated electrode: gold surface in the first c...

TNFα is a homotrimeric pro-inflammatory cytokine, whose direct targeting by protein biotherapies has been an undeniable success for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. Despite many efforts, no orally active drug targeting TNFα has been identified so far. In the present work, we identified through combined in silico/in vitro/in vivo appr...

In this study, a surface acoustic wave (SAW) biosensor has been investigated to quantify the affinity and to estimate the binding kinetic between tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and its inhibitor: SPD-304. To the best of our knowledge this is first ever report on real time and label free monitoring of TNF-α/ SPD-304 affinity.

This study aims to present structural and dielectric comparisons between two epoxy polymers. These polymers are realized by curing diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) resin with either aliphatic 1,3-diaminopropane (PDA) or aromatic 4,4′-diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS) hardeners. They are called DGEBA/PDA and DGEBA/DDS. Several complementary techn...

We have investigated the kinetic growth of low temperature GaN nucleation layers (LT-GaN) grown on GaAs substrates with different crystalline orientations. GaN nucleation layers were grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) in a temperature range of 500-600°C on oriented (001), (113), (112) and (111) GaAs substrates. The growth was in-sit...

A surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor functionalized with a thin layer of polypyrrole (PPy) molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was designed for the selective detection of flumequine (FLU), a fluoroquinolone antibiotic usually used in intensive aquaculture. Contrarily to previous studies, in which immunosensors were developed to detect low levels of...

Due to their chemical properties, stabilities and ease of process, conducting polymers (CPs) and semiconducting polymers (SCPs), found a permanent place in chemical and biological sensors. They can either participate in sensing mechanisms or immobilizing the component responsible for sensing the analyte. This article covers main recent applications...

The AC conductivity of an epoxy resin was investigated in the frequency range (Formula presented.) Hz at temperatures ranging from -100 to 120 °C. The frequency dependence of σac was described by the law: (Formula presented.). The study of temperature variation of the exponent (s) reveals two conduction models: the AC conduction dependence upon tem...

The growth of low temperature GaN (LT-GaN) layers on GaAs (0 0 1) substrate was performed by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) at growth temperature range of 500-800 °C. Laser reflectometry (LR) was employed for in situ monitoring of all growth steps. The simulation of experimental time reflectance traces shows that at the first growth stag...

A shear horizontal surface acoustic wave sensor (SH-SAW) operating at 104 MHz was functionalized with a polypyrrole (PPy) molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for selective detection of flumequine (FLU) in aqueous media. In order to prevent the formation of FLU complexes with the gold sensing area of the SH-SAW sensor, a thin blocking polypyrrole la...

Nanometer-scale multilayered coatings were prepared by sequential surface reactions on gold plates. First 4-ethynylphenyl organic layer was electrografted from the parent diazonium tetrafluoroborate salt providing reactive alkynylated gold plate (Au-Y). The latter served for clicking mercaptosilane via a thiol-yne photo-triggered reaction to obtain...

A surface acoustic wave sensor operating at 104 MHz and functionalized with a polypyrrole molecularly imprinted polymer has been designed for selective detection of dopamine (DA). Optimization of pyrrole/DA ratio, polymerization and immersion times permitted to obtain a highly selective sensor, which has a sensitivity of 0.55°/mM (≈550 Hz/mM) and a...