Wound healing improvement by curcumin‐loaded electrospun nanofibers and BFP‐MSCs as a bioactive dressing

Wound healing, one of the most complex processes of the body involving the cooperation of several important biomolecules and pathways, is one of the major therapeutic and economic issues in regenerative medicine. The present study aimed to introduce a novel electrospun curcumin (Cur)‐incorporated chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol/carbopol/polycaprolactone nanofibrous composite for concurrent delivery of the buccal fat pad‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (BFP‐MSCs) and Cur to a full‐thickness wound on the mouse model. Scaffolds were characterized structurally using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fluorescence microscopy imaging and Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, and toxicity of the scaffolds was also evaluated after BFP‐MSC seeding by SEM imaging and 3‐(4,5 dimethyiazol‐2‐1)‐2‐5‐diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Then, its influence on the wound‐healing process was investigated as a wound dressing for a full‐thickness skin defect in mouse model. Results demonstrated that the designed composite scaffolds have the capability for cell seeding and support their growth and proliferation. Macroscopic and histopathological characteristics were evaluated at the end of the 7 and 14 days after surgery, and their results showed that our designed scaffold groups accelerated the wound‐healing process compared with the control group. Among those, scaffold/Cur, scaffold/Cur/BFP‐MSC and scaffold/BFP‐MSC groups demonstrated more wound repair efficacy. These results indicated that the combined grafts can be used to improve the wound‐healing process, and therefore, the electrospun nanofibers presented in this study, Cur and BFP‐MSC together, were demonstrated to have promising potential for wound‐dressing applications.     

Non-isothermal pyrolysis of used lubricating oil and the catalytic effect of carbon-based nanomaterials on the process performance

Pyrolysis is a commonly used method for the recovery of used lubricating oil (ULO), which should be kinetically improved by a catalyst, due to its high level of energy consumption. In this research, the catalytic effects of carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene nanoplatelets on the pyrolysis of ULO were studied through thermogravimetric analysis. First, the kinetic parameters of ULO pyrolysis including activation energy were calculated to be 170.12 and 167.01 kJ mol^?1 by FWO and KAS methods, respectively. Then, the catalytic effects of CNT and graphene nanoplatelets on pyrolysis kinetics were studied. While CNT had a negligible effect on the pyrolysis process, graphene nanoplatelets significantly reduced the temperature of maximum conversion during pyrolysis from 400 to 350 °C, due to high thermal conductivity and homogenous heat transfer in the pyrolysis process. On the other hand, graphene nanoplatelets maximized the rate of conversion of highly volatile components at lower temperatures (<?100 °C), which was mainly due to the high affinity of these components toward graphene nanoplatelets and also the effect of nanoplatelets’ edges which have free tails and can bond with other molecules. Moreover, graphene nanoplatelets decreased the activation energy of the conversion to 154.48 and 152.13 kJ mol^?1 by FWO and KAS methods, respectively.

     

Cascade synthesis of fused polycyclic dihydropyridines by Ni–Zn–Fe hydrotalcite (HT) immobilized on silica-coated magnetite as magnetically reusable nanocatalyst

Research on Chemical Intermediates - An efficient ecofriendly approach has been developed for one-pot multicomponent synthesis of fused polycyclic dihydropyridine (DHP) derivatives. Tandem...     

Highly efficient synthesis of dicoumarols and xanthene derivatives in presence of Brønsted–Lewis acidic ionic liquids catalyst

A series of metal chloride-based acidic ionic liquids have been prepared and used as an efficient catalyst in one-pot multicomponent synthesis of biscoumarins and substituted xanthenes derivatives under solvent-free conditions. Among the acidic ionic liquids, N-methylpyrrolidonium zinc chloride (Hnmp/ZnCl₃)-based Brønsted–Lewis acidic ionic liquids were found to be an effective and recyclable catalyst for a one-pot synthesis of biscoumarins through the domino Knoevenagel–Michael reaction of a variety of aldehydes with 4-hydroxycoumarin in short reaction times. The reactions which occur under relatively mild conditions afforded the biscoumarin derivatives employing a very low loading of catalyst in satisfactory isolated yields and high purity after simple work-up. The Brønsted–Lewis acidic ionic liquid catalyst was reused four times without any variation in yield.     

Ultrasound-assisted photochemical oxidation of unsymmetrically substituted 1,4-dihydropyridines

The combination of ultrasound and photochemistry has been used for the oxidation of unsymmetrical 1,4-dihydropyridines to the pyridine derivatives. An ultrasonic probe of 24 kHz frequency and a Hg-lamp of 100 W have been used for this study. The effect of parameters such as ultrasonic intensity, the presence of oxygen and argon atmospheres and also the separate usage of one of these irradiation sources have been studied. Whereas sonication of these compounds alone did not result in the oxidation of them, the use of ultrasound increases the rate of photo-oxidation. The presence of oxygen decreases or increases the rate of reaction, depending on the type of excited state of 1,4-dihydropyridines involved in the reaction.     

Insight into Heterogeneity Effects in Methane Hydrate Dissociation via Pore-Scale Modeling

A large number (1253) of high-quality streaming potential coefficient (\(C_\mathrm{sp})\) measurements have been carried out on Berea, Boise, Fontainebleau, and Lochaline sandstones (the latter two including both detrital and authigenic overgrowth forms), as a function of pore fluid salinity (\(C_\mathrm{f})\) and rock microstructure. All samples were saturated with fully equilibrated aqueous solutions of NaCl (10\(^{-5}\) and 4.5 mol/dm\(^{3})\) upon which accurate measurements of their electrical conductivity and pH were taken. These \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) measurements represent about a fivefold increase in streaming potential data available in the literature, are consistent with the pre-existing 266 measurements, and have lower experimental uncertainties. The \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) measurements follow a pH-sensitive power law behaviour with respect to \(C_\mathrm{f}\) at medium salinities (\(C_\mathrm{sp} =-\,1.44\times 10^{-9} C_\mathrm{f}^{-\,1.127} \), units: V/Pa and mol/dm\(^{3})\) and show the effect of rock microstructure on the low salinity \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) clearly, producing a smaller decrease in \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) per decade reduction in \(C_\mathrm{f}\) for samples with (i) lower porosity, (ii) larger cementation exponents, (iii) smaller grain sizes (and hence pore and pore throat sizes), and (iv) larger surface conduction. The \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) measurements include 313 made at \(C_\mathrm{f} > 1\) mol/dm\(^{3}\), which confirm the limiting high salinity \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) behaviour noted by Vinogradov et al., which has been ascribed to the attainment of maximum charge density in the electrical double layer occurring when the Debye length approximates to the size of the hydrated metal ion. The zeta potential (\(\zeta \)) was calculated from each \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) measurement. It was found that \(\zeta \) is highly sensitive to pH but not sensitive to rock microstructure. It exhibits a pH-dependent logarithmic behaviour with respect to \(C_\mathrm{f}\) at low to medium salinities (\(\zeta =0.01133 \log _{10} \left( {C_\mathrm{f} } \right) +0.003505\), units: V and mol/dm\(^{3})\) and a limiting zeta potential (zeta potential offset) at high salinities of \({\zeta }_\mathrm{o} = -\,17.36\pm 5.11\) mV in the pH range 6–8, which is also pH dependent. The sensitivity of both \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) and \(\zeta \) to pH and of \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) to rock microstructure indicates that \(C_\mathrm{sp}\) and \(\zeta \) measurements can only be interpreted together with accurate and equilibrated measurements of pore fluid conductivity and pH and supporting microstructural and surface conduction measurements for each sample.     

Influence of molar mass of polymer on the solvent activity for binary system of poly N-vinylcaprolactam and water

The water activity in aqueous solution of poly N-vinyl caprolactam with different molecular weights is measured by isopiestic method at T = 308.15 K. The results show that water activity and vapour pressure of poly N-vinylcaprolactam solution increases with increasing the molecular weight. The Flory-Huggins model, the modified Flory-Huggins model and Freed Flory-Huggins equation + NRTL model are used for correlation of the experimental solvent activity. It is found that the Freed Flory-Huggins + NRTL model is better than the others.     

A theoretical study of 1:1 and 1:2 complexes of acetylene with nitrosyl hydride

Ab initio calculations at MP2 computational level using aug-cc-pVTZ basis set were used to analyze the interactions between 1:1 and 1:2 complexes of acetylene and nitrosyl hydride. The structures obtained have been analyzed with the atoms in molecules and the density functional theory–symmetry adapted perturbation theory methodologies. Four minima were located on the potential energy surface of the 1:1 complex. Twenty-four different structures have been obtained for the 1:2 complexes. Five types of interactions are observed, CH···O, CH···N, NH···π hydrogen bonds and orthogonal interactions between the π clouds of triple bond, or the lone pair of oxygen with the electron-deficient region of the nitrogen atom. Stabilization energies of the 1:1 and 1:2 clusters including basis set superposition error and ZPE are in the range 3–8 and 6–17 kJ mol⁻¹ at MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ computational level, respectively. Blue shift of NH bond upon complex formation in the ranges between 18–30 and 20–96 cm⁻¹ is predicted for 1:1 and 1:2 clusters, respectively. The total nonadditive energy in the 1:2 cluster, calculated as the sum of the supermolecular nonadditive MP2 energy and the three-body dispersion energy, presents values between −1.48 and 1.20 kJ mol⁻¹.