Synergistic effect of silica nanoparticles and charged surfactants in the formation and stability of submicron oil-in-water emulsions

The influence of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles on the emulsification of a triglyceride oil (Miglyol812) in the presence of charged surfactants (lecithin or oleylamine) and the long term stability of the resultant oil-in-water emulsions are reported. A synergistic effect of nanoparticles and surfactants in improving emulsification and stability to coalescence is evident only when the silica nanoparticles are initially added to the oil phase. When nanoparticles are included from the water phase, no synergistic stabilisation was observed due to electrostatic bridging or unfavourable attachment due to the repulsive electrostatic and hydration forces. Free energies of adsorption for silica nanoparticles at the oil-water interface calculated from experimentally determined interfacial tensions and three phase contact angles can be correlated to long-term emulsion stability only when silica is added from oil phase.     

Efficient one-pot synthesis of novel 6′,9′-dihydro-2H,7′H-spiro[pyrimidine-5,8′-[1,3]dioxolo[4,5-f]quinoline]-2,4,6(1H,3H)-trione derivatives under mild and “green” reaction conditions

In this paper, an efficient method is introduced for the synthesis of 7′,9′-disubstituted 6′,9′-dihydro-2H,7′H-spiro[pyrimidine-5,8′-[1,3]dioxolo[4,5-f]quinoline]-2,4,6(1H,3H)-trione derivatives under mild and “green” reaction conditions. The method is based on one-pot multicomponent reaction of an aldehyde, barbituric acid, and benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-amine in ethanol as a green and environmentally friendly solvent. The reaction has given the products in the highest isolated yield in the presence of acetic acid as catalyst under reflux conditions. Various aldehydes, bearing electron-donating or -withdrawing functionalities have been used under the optimized conditions and successfully gave the desired products (13 examples) in high isolated yields.     

Interactions of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles and classical surfactants at non-polar oil-water interface

The interfacial and bulk properties of submicron oil-in-water emulsions simultaneously stabilised with a conventional surfactant (either lecithin or oleylamine) and hydrophilic silica nanoparticles (Aerosil?380) were investigated and compared with emulsions stabilised by either stabiliser. Emulsions solely stabilised with lecithin or oleylamine showed poor physical stability, i.e., sedimentation and the release of pure oil was observed within 3 months storage. The formation and long-term stability of silica nanoparticle-coated emulsions was investigated as a function of the surfactant type, charge, and concentration; the oil phase polarity (Miglyol?812 versus liquid paraffin); and loading phase of nanoparticles, either oil or water. Highly stable emulsions with long-term resistance to coalescence and creaming were formulated even at low lecithin concentrations in the presence of optimum levels of silica nanoparticles. The attachment energy of silica nanoparticles at the non-polar oil-water interface in the presence of lecithin was significantly higher compared to oleylamine in line with good long-term stability of the former compared to the sedimentation and release of oil in the latter. The attachment energy of silica nanoparticles at the polar oil-water interface especially in the presence of oleylamine was up to five-times higher compared to the non-polar liquid paraffin. The interfacial layer structure of nanoparticles (close-packed layer of particle aggregates or scattered particle flocs) directly related to the free energy of nanoparticle adsorption at both MCT oil and liquid paraffin-water interfaces.     

Spectroscopic studies of dactinomycin and vinorelbine binding to deoxyribonucleic acid and chromatin

Dactinomycin and vinorelbine are anticancer drugs, widely used as chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of various cancers. This study represents an attempt to compare the effect of these drugs on DNA and soluble chromatin employing UV/vis, fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy techniques. The results demonstrated that the absorbance at 260 and 210 nm was decreased and quenching of drugs with DNA and chromatin chromospheres induced reduction of fluorescence emission intensity. Circular dichroism profiles showed that the binding of drugs induced structural changes in both positive and negative extremes of DNA and chromatin revealing release or displacement of histone proteins from chromatin upon dactinomycin binding whereas vinorelbine preceded the chromatin into compaction. The results suggest that dactinomycin shows higher affinity to DNA compared to chromatin, whereas, vinorelbine recognizes the chromatin structure with higher affinity than free DNA. Also chromatin proteins play a fundamental role in drug-chromatin complex process.     

A Simple,Mild and Efficient One‐Pot Synthesis of 2‐Substituted Benzimidazoles in the Presence of H2O2/HCl under Microwave Irradiation

A simple, fast and efficient method for the preparation of several 2‐substituted benzimidazole derivatives is reported. Compounds were synthesized through a rapid one‐pot synthesis via microwave irradiation, starting from aldehydes and o‐phenylenediamine, in the presence of H₂O₂/HCl system in acetonitrile. The significant features of this method are short reaction times, high yields, easy and quick isolation of the products.     

Synthesis of 1,5‐Disubstituted 1H‐Tetrazole Derivatives via a Three‐Component Reaction of Carbodiimides,Isocyanides, and Trimethylsilyl Azide

The three‐component reaction of isocyanides 1 , carbodiimides 2 , and trimethylsilyl azide ( 3 ) occurs at room temperature, and the produced 1,5‐disubstituted 1H‐tetrazole derivatives 4 are formed in 81–98% yields (Scheme 1, Table). The reaction proceeds smoothly and cleanly under mild conditions, and no side reactions are observed.     

Landscape analysis and efficient metaheuristics for solving the n-queens problem

The n-queens problem is a classical combinatorial optimization problem which has been proved to be NP-hard. The goal is to place n non-attacking queens on an n×n chessboard. In this paper, two single-solution-based (Local Search (LS) and Tuned Simulated Annealing (SA)) and two population-based metaheuristics (two versions of Scatter Search (SS)) are presented for solving the problem. Since parameters of heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms have great influence on their performance, a TOPSIS-Taguchi based parameter tuning method is proposed, which not only considers the number of fitness function evaluations, but also aims to minimize the runtime of the presented metaheuristics. The performance of the suggested approaches was investigated through computational analyses, which showed that the Local Search method outperformed the other two algorithms in terms of average runtimes and average number of fitness function evaluations. The LS was also compared to the Cooperative PSO (CPSO) and SA algorithms, which are currently the best algorithms in the literature for finding the first solution to the n-queens problem, and the results showed that the average fitness function evaluation of the LS is approximately 21 and 8 times less than that of SA and CPSO, respectively. Also, a fitness analysis of landscape for the n-queens problem was conducted which indicated that the distribution of local optima is uniformly random and scattered over the search space. The landscape is rugged and there is no significant correlation between fitness and distance of solutions, and so a local search heuristic can search a rugged plain landscape effectively and find a solution quickly. As a result, it was statistically and analytically proved that single-solution-based metaheuristics outperform population-based metaheuristics in finding the first solution of the n-queens problem.     

The intersection problem for 2-(v,5,1) directed block designs

The intersection problem for a pair of 2-$(v,3,1)$ directed designs and 2-$(v,4,1)$ directed designs is solved by Fu in 1983 and by Mahmoodian and Soltankhah in 1996, respectively. In this paper we determine the intersection problem for 2-$(v,5,1)$ directed designs.     

Sol–gel synthesis and characterization of unexpected rod-like crystal fibers based on SiO2–(1-x)CaO–xSrO–P2O5 dried-gel

Sol–gel technique has several benefits for the preparation of glass, and morphology can be better controlled compared to conventional methods. In this research, new sol–gel derived bioactive glasses based on SiO₂–CaO–SrO–P₂O₅ dried-gel were synthesized and characterized. Herein, a series of 58S bioactive glasses with the composition of 60%SiO₂–36%(CaO/SrO)–4%P₂O₅ (mol%) were synthesized, and the effect of adding strontium (Sr) to the glass structure SiO₂–(1-x)CaO–xSrO–P₂O₅ (where x = 0, 0.5, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1) was investigated by gradually substitution of Sr with calcium (Ca). The obtained results indicated that the Sr free sample totally takes amorphous state indicative of the internal disorder, glassy nature and non-crystalline states of this material. Surprisingly, after further addition of Sr to the glass structure, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs showed unexpected significant rod-like crystal fibers, and the major diffraction peaks of Sr(NO₃)₂, SrCO₃ and Sr₂Si₂O₄ became sharper and more apparent up to the final addition of Sr. The complicated and contradictory results underscore the need for better knowledge of how impurities act upon by growing rod-like crystals. In addition, totally understanding the effect of Sr on the morphology of samples from the bottom up is a daunting challenge.     

Kinetic Study of the Electro-Catalytic Oxidation of Hydrazine on Cobalt Hydroxide Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode

Electrocatalytic oxidation of hydrazine was investigated on a cobalt hydroxide modified glassy carbon (CHM-GC) electrode in alkaline solution. The process of oxidation involved and its kinetics were established by using cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry techniques as well as steady state polarization measurements. In cyclic voltammetry (CV) studies, in the presence of hydrazine the peak current increase of the oxidation of cobalt hydroxide is followed by a decrease in the corresponding cathodic current. This indicates that hydrazine is oxidized on the redox mediator that is immobilized on the electrode surface via an electrocatalytic mechanism. A mechanism based on the electrochemical generation of Co(IV) active sites and their subsequent consumption by the hydrazine in question was also investigated.