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One of the key challenges of fuel cell technology is to find solid electrolytes which are cheap and environmentally friendly with high proton (H+) conductivities. In this context, designing new materials based on organic cocrystals/salts appears very promising to expand the scope of H+ ion conductors. In our approach, we have synthesized a quaternary organic salt consisting of gallic acid, isoniazid, sulfate (SO42–) ion, and water by a slow evaporation method which exhibits high proton conductivity of 0.2 mS cm–1 at 293 K to serve as a model system. The proton conductivity value observed in our system is comparable and in some cases better than recently published coordination polymers, metal organic frameworks, and covalent organic frameworks. The system crystallizes as monoclinic with space group P21/c (Z′ = 3; Z = 12), which depicts a layered structure with extensive O–H···O and N–H···O hydrogen bonding networks. Further, it exhibits interesting order–disorder phase transitions at both high and low temp...

Biomimetic antibacterial polymers, the functional mimics of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), targeting the bacterial cell membrane have been developed to combat the problem of antibiotic resistance. Amphiphilicity, a balance of cationic charge and hydrophobicity, in these polymers has been shown to be pivotal for their selective interactions with anionic lipid membranes of bacteria instead of zwitterionic mammalian (human erythrocyte) membranes. However, it is unclear if and to what extent hydrogen bonding in amphiphilic antibacterial polymers contributes to this membrane binding specificity. To address this, we employ isosteric substitution of ester with amide moieties that differ in their potency for hydrogen bonding in the side chains of N-alkyl maleimide based amphiphilic polymers. Our studies reveal that amide polymer (AC3P) is a potent antibacterial agent with high membrane-disrupting properties compared to its ester counterpart (EC3P). To understand these differences we performed bio-physical experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations which showed strong interactions of AC3P including hydrogen bonding with lipid head groups of bacterial model lipid bilayers, that are absent in EC3P, make them selective for bacterial membranes. Mechanistic investigations of these polymers in bacteria revealed specific membrane disruptive activity leading to the delocalization of cell division related proteins. This unprecedented and unique concept provides an understanding of bacterial membrane interactions highlighting the role of hydrogen bonding. Thus, these findings will have significant implications in efficient design of potent membrane-active agents.

Partial replacement of Ti4+ by Te4+ ions in calcium copper titanate lattice improved its dielectric behaviour mostly due to cubic-to-tetragonal structural transformation and associated distortion in TiO6 octahedra. The relative permittivity values (23–30 x 103) of Te4+ doped ceramics is more than thrice that of un-doped ceramics (8 x 103) at 1 kHz. A decreasing trend in relative permittivity with increasing temperature (50–300 K) is observed for all the samples. Barrett’s formula, as a signature of incipient ferroelectricity, is invoked to rationalize the relative permittivity variation as a function of temperature. A systematic investigation supported by temperature dependent Raman studies reveal a possible ferroelectric transition in Te4+ doped ceramic samples below 120 K. The possible ferroelectric transition is attributed to the interactions between quasi-local vibrations associated with the micro-clusters comprising TiO6 and TeO6 structural units and indirect dipole-dipole interactions of off-center B–cations (Ti4+ and Te4+) in double perovskite lattice.