Non-covalent reconfigurable microgel colloidosomes with a well-defined bilayer shell

Microgels are extremely interfacially active and are widely used to stabilize emulsions. However, they are commonly used to stabilize oil-in-water emulsions due to their intrinsic hydrophilicity and initially dispersed in water. In addition, there have been no attempts to control microgel structural layers that are formed at the interface and as a result it limits applications of microgel in advanced materials. Here, we show that by introducing octanol into poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) (PNIPAM-co-MAA) microgels, octanol-swollen microgels can rapidly diffuse from the initially dispersed oil phase onto the water droplet surface. This facilitates the formation of microgel-laden interfacial layers with strong elastic responses and also generates stable inverse water-in-oil Pickering emulsions. These emulsions can be used as templates to produce microgel colloidosomes, herein termed ‘microgelsomes’, with shells that can be fine-tuned from a particle monolayer to a well-defined bilayer. The microgelsomes can then be used to encapsulate and/or anchor nanoparticles, proteins, vitamin C, bio-based nanocrystals or enzymes. Moreover, the programmed release of these substances can be achieved by using ethanol as a trigger to mediate shell permeability. Thus, these reconfigurable microgelsomes with a microgel-bilayer shell can respond to external stimuli and demonstrate tailored properties, which offers novel insights into microgels and promise wider application of Pickering emulsions stabilized by soft colloids.

Inverse W/O Pickering emulsions and reconfigurable microgelsomes with a well-defined bilayer structure are prepared from octanol-swollen PNIPAM-co-MAA microgels and the combination of binary microgels, which promise wider application of soft colloids.     

A Comprehensive Review of Rosmarinic Acid: From Phytochemistry to Pharmacology and Its New Insight

Polyphenolic acids are the widely occurring natural products in almost each herbal plant, among which rosmarinic acid (RA, C₁₈H₁₆O₈) is well-known, and is present in over 160 species belonging to many families, especially the Lamiaceae. Aside from this herbal ingredient, dozens of its natural derivatives have also been isolated and characterized from many natural plants. In recent years, with the increasing focus on the natural products as alternative treatments, a large number of pharmacological studies have been carried out to demonstrate the various biological activities of RA such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-diabetes, anti-virus, anti-tumor, neuroprotection, hepatoprotection, etc. In addition, investigations concerning its biosynthesis, extraction, analysis, clinical applications, and pharmacokinetics have also been performed. Although many achievements have been made in various research aspects, there still exist some problems or issues to be answered, especially its toxicity and bioavailability. Thus, we hope that in the case of natural products, the present review can not only provide a comprehensive understanding on RA covering its miscellaneous research fields, but also highlight some of the present issues and future perspectives worth investigating later, in order to help us utilize this polyphenolic acid more efficiently, widely, and safely.     

Preparation, thermo-optic property and simulation of optical switch based on azo benzothiazole polymer

An azo chromophore molecule 4-[(benzothiazole-2-yl)diazenyl]phenyl-1,3-diamine (BTPD) was prepared with 2-amino benzothiazole and m-phenylenediamine by diazo-coupling reaction. Then, the chromophore molecule BTPD was polymerized with NJ-210 and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) to obtain novel azo benzothiazole polymer (BTPU). The structures of BTPD and BTPU were characterized using the Fourier transform infrared, UV–visible spectroscopy, DSC and TGA. The physical properties of the obtained BTPU were investigated. The refractive index (n) of BTPU was demonstrated at different temperature and wavelength (532, 650 and 850 nm) using attenuated total reflection technique. The transmission loss and dispersion characteristic of BTPU film were investigated using the CCD digital imaging devices and Sellmeyer equation. A Y-branch and 2 × 2 Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) polymeric thermo-optic switches based on the thermo-optic effect of prepared BTPU were proposed and the performance of switches was simulated. The results indicated that the power consumption of the Y-branch thermo-optic switch could be only 0.6 mW. The Y-branch and MZI switching rising and falling times obtained were 8.0 and 1.8 ms.     

Experimental and numerical study on instability structure of the supersonic mixing layer (Mc = 0.5)

The parameters of instability wave of supersonic mixing layer(Mc=0.5,M1=3.5/M2=1.4) are measured by flow visualization and calculated by means of two-dimensional direct numerical simulaitons of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations.In both cases of the mixing layer with harmonic disturbance or not,the comparative results indicate that the wavelength of the two-dimensional wave is equal to the vortex spacing in the streamwise direction because the difference between them is less than 1%.However,the measur...     

第4代航天育种白芷的FTIR分析

针对植物航天育种变异大的特点,利用傅里叶变换红外光谱(FTIR)结合二阶导数谱对第4代航天育种白芷与地面组白芷从整体上对主要组分进行测定和对比分析。结果表明:太空白芷主要活性成分香豆素类组分(1 741cm-1)含量增加,蛋白质(1 459,1 419cm-1)和脂肪(930cm-1)组分含量略有增加;而淀粉、膳食纤维(1 152,1 105,1 080,1 050cm-1)的含量大幅度降低。二阶导数谱中峰强差异更明显,1 279cm-1处揭示出太空白芷含有胺类组分。航天育种有利于选育出变异幅度大的特异质白芷新品种。     

Preparation and characterization of sulfonated poly(phenylene oxide) proton exchange composite membrane doped with phosphosilicate gels

A new class of proton exchange composite membranes made by incorporating phosphosilicate gels into SPPO matrix was prepared and characterized. The thermal stability was evaluated by TGA and DSC, and the amorphous structure information was provided from XRD. The experimental results showed that the composite membranes have good stability to oxidation by Fenton's reagent test, and the membrane dimension is hardly changed, even at high temperature. The hydration number values of the persulfonic acid group of composite membranes were lower than that of Nafion 112 at room temperature, but the water uptake of composite membranes at 80°C was higher than that of Nafion 112. With increasing relative humidity and doping amount, the conductivity of the composite membranes increased. Moreover, the conductivities of water-equilibrated composite membranes were higher than that of Nafion 112 (0.0871 S/cm) at room temperature, and the highest conductivity for the composite membrane was 0.216 S/cm. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterization of synthesized titanium oxide nanoclusters by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Titania represents an important material that has wide applications. The bactericidal efficiency of TiO(2) has been shown to be dependent on the size of the nanoparticles, so it is important to be able to reliably estimate their dimensions. In this study, a stable TiO(2) cluster suspension is produced by the thermal solvent process, and ultrasmall clusters (<1 nm) with different sizes are obtained by size-selection treatment. MALDI-TOF-MS and LDI-TOF-MS are shown to be useful for characterization of these ultrasmall nanoparticles. Peak maxima are found to correlate with nanoparticle size, and the possibility of using these mass spectrometry-based approaches to estimate nanoparticle size is affirmed. The size distributions of TiO(2) nanoparticles obtained from MALDI- and LDI-TOF-MS are in good agreement with parallel TEM observations. Finally, PSD analysis of inorganic nanomaterials is performed and valuable information about the structure of analytes has been obtained.     

Synthesis and optical properties of triangular gold nanoplates with controllable edge length

Gold triangular nanoplates with a uniform size were synthesized by a simple seeds-growth method in a lamellar lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) medium consisting of F127, n-C₄H₉OH and H₂O. The edge length of gold nanoplates can be adjusted from tens to several hundreds nanometers (and even a few micrometers) by varying the concentration of Au³⁺ and the seeds solution volume. The optical properties of the synthesized gold nanoplates were studied. The vis-NIR spectra of the synthesized gold nanoplates exhibited a good linear correlation between the in-plane plasmon resonance λ_max and the average edge length of the corresponding nanoplates.

     

V2O5电致变色薄膜的Raman光谱

近年来,通过向过渡金属氧化物薄膜注入Ｌｉ 制作可调节光透过率的电变色器件已越来越引起广泛的重视[1、2].由于Ｖ2Ｏ5薄膜的稳定性差,限制了它在实际中的应用.因此,为了获得变色效率高、稳定性和可逆性能好的Ｖ2Ｏ5薄膜,使用了多种制备方法,如磁控溅射法[3、6]、电化学沉积法[7、8]、溶胶凝胶法[9、10]、旋涂法[11、12]、真空蒸镀法[13、14]等.但是,无论那种方法都要解决Ｖ2Ｏ5本身在Ｈ2Ｏ或醇等的电解质溶液中电致变色时的溶解问题,通常采用控制薄膜的沉积温度或者退火处理来提高薄膜的电致变色性能[3、4、11].为了探明薄膜结构与电致变色…     

Development,validation and application of a UHPLC–MS/MS method for quantification of the adiponectin-derived active peptide ADP355 in rat plasma

A UHPLC–MS/MS method for the quantification of ADP355, an adiponectin-derived active peptide, was developed and validated. The extraction method employed simple protein precipitation using methanol and chromatographic separation was achieved on anAccucore™ RP-MS C₁₈ column (100 × 2.1 mm, 2.6 μm, 80 Å), using 0.1% formic acid in both water and acetonitrile with gradient elution at the flow rate of 400 μl/min within 4.0 min. Detections were performed under positive ion mode with multiple reaction monitoring ion transitions m/z 1109.2 → 309.8 and 871.4 → 310.1 for ADP355 and Jt003 respectively at unit resolution. The linearity range of the calibration curve was 2–1,000 ng/ml with a lower limit detection of 0.5 ng/ml. The selectivity, linearity, precision, accuracy, recovery, matrix effect and stability were validated, and all items met the requirement of US Food and Drug Administration guidance. This method was successfully applied to an intravenous pharmacokinetic study of ADP355 in rats and the in-vitro stability in rat serum, plasma and whole blood was also assessed.