Atomic Simulations of Aurivillius Oxides: Bi3TiNbO9, Bi4Ti3O12, BaBi4Ti4O15 and Ba2Bi4Ti5O18 Doped with Pb,Al, Ga,In, Ta

The Aurivillius oxides were originally of interest for their ferroelectric properties and have recently been explored in the field of oxide ion conductivity. Atomistic simulation methods have been carried out for Bi₃TiNbO₉, Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂, BaBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ and Ba₂Bi₄Ti₅O₁₈ doped with Pb, Al, Ga, In, Ta to determine defect energy in the materials by employing efficient energy minimization procedures. The calculations rest upon the specification of an interatomic potential model, which expresses the total energy of the system as a function of the nuclear coordinates. The Born model framework, which partitions the total energy into long‐range Coulombic interactions and a short‐range term to model the repulsions and van der Waals forces between electron charge clouds, is employed. This is embodied in the GULP simulation code. Dopant solution energy versus ion size trends are found for both isovalent and aliovalent dopant incorporation at Bi and Ta sites. Trivalent dopants (Al, Ga, In) and Pb are more favorable on the Bi site, whereas Ta dopants preferentially occupy the Ti site.     

Nanostructured Lipid Carriers-Hydrogels System for Drug Delivery: Nanohybrid Technology Perspective

Advanced hybrid component development in nanotechnology provides superior functionality in the application of scientific knowledge for the drug delivery industry. The purpose of this paper is to review important nanohybrid perspectives in drug delivery between nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) and hydrogel systems. The hybrid system may result in the enhancement of each component’s synergistic properties in the mechanical strength of the hydrogel and concomitantly decrease aggregation of the NLC. The significant progress in nanostructured lipid carriers–hydrogels is reviewed here, with an emphasis on their preparation, potential applications, advantages, and underlying issues associated with these exciting materials.     

Curvature bounds for the spectrum of a compact Riemannian manifold of constant scalar curvature

Let (M, g) be an n-dimensional compact and connected Riemannian manifold of constant scalar curvature. If the sectional curvatures of M are bounded below by a constant α > 0, and the Ricci curvature satisfies Ric < (n − 1)αδ, δ ≥ 1, then it is shown that either M is isometric to the n-sphere Sⁿ(α) or else each nonzero eigenvalue λ of the Laplacian acting on the smooth functions of M satisfies the following: