Zapelini, Iago W.; Silva, Laura L.; Oliveira, Cristiano L. P.; Cardoso, Dilson
Enhancing the accessibility to basic sites of as-synthesized silicas applied in catalytic transesterification
Heterogeneous catalysis for biodiesel production is a current challenge due to the low activity of solid catalysts, especially caused by diffusional resistances. Hybrid silicas, containing SiO?CTA+ provide high conversions in the transesterification of oils and model molecules, but this activity is limited to the external surface area. The generation of…
Immobilisation of ?-galactosidase within a lipid sponge phase: structure, stability and kinetics characterisation
Gilbert, Jennifer; Valldeperas, Maria; Dhayal, Surender K.; Barauskas, Justas; Dicko, Cedric; Nylander, Tommy
In the formulation of an active enzyme enclosed in a matrix for controlled delivery, it is a challenge to achieve a high protein load and to ensure high activity of the protein. For the first time to our knowledge, we report the use of a highly swollen lipid sponge (L3)…
Studying Excipient Modulated Physical Stability and Viscosity of Monoclonal Antibody Formulations Using Small-Angle Scattering
Xu, Amy Yuanyuan; Castellanos, Maria Monica; Mattison, Kevin; Krueger, Susan; Curtis, Joseph E.
Excipients are substances that are added to therapeutic products to improve stability, bioavailability, and manufacturability. Undesirable protein-protein interactions (PPI) can lead to self-association and/or high solution viscosity in concentrated protein formulations that are typically greater than 50 mg/mL. Therefore, understanding the effects of excipients on nonspecific PPI is important for
Tuning Pore Dimensions of Mesoporous Inorganic Films by Homopolymer Swelling
Reid, Barry; Alvarez-Fernandez, Alberto; Schmidt-Hansberg, Benjamin; Guldin, Stefan
The functionality and applications of mesoporous inorganic films are closely linked to their mesopore dimensions. For material architectures derived from a block copolymer (BCP) micelle coassembly, the pore size is typically manipulated by changing the molecular weight corresponding to the pore-forming block. However, bespoke BCP synthesis is often a costly…
Tandem catalysis in multicomponent solvent-free biofluids
Atkins, Dylan Luke; Berrocal, José Augusto; Mason, Alexander Francesco; Voets, Ilja Karina
Enzymes are widely employed to reduce the environmental impact of chemical industries as biocatalysts improve productivity and offer high selectively under mild reaction conditions in a diverse range of chemical transformations. The poor stability of biomacromolecules under reaction conditions is often a critical bottleneck to their application. Protein engineering or…
A Cross-Method Comparison of Sub-10 nm Nanoparticle Size Distribution
Yang, Ye; Liao, Suiyang; Luo, Zhi; Qi, Runzhang; Mac Fhionnlaoich, Niamh; Stellacci, Francesco; Guldin, Stefan
Accurate nanoparticle (NP) size determination is essential across research domains, with many functions in nanoscience and biomedical research being size-dependent. Although transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is capable of resolving a single NP down to the sub-nm scale, the reliable representation of entire populations is plagued by challenges in providing statistical…
Fragmentation of 1,2-Polybutadiene-block-Poly(ethylene oxide) Micelles in Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids
Early, Julia T.; Lodge, Timothy P.
The effect of solvent selectivity on the fragmentation kinetics of spherical micelles formed by a 1,2-polybutadiene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) BO copolymer in five 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide-based ionic liquids (ILs), (, where n = methyl, ethyl, butyl, hexyl, and octyl) was investigated by temperature-jump dynamic light scattering (T-jump DLS),
Reproducible Preparation of Proteopolymersomes via Sequential Polymer Film Hydration and Membrane Protein Reconstitution
Loo, Siew-Leng; Siti, Winna; Thiyagarajan, Monisha; Torres, Jaume; Wang, Rong; Hu, Xiao
Film rehydration method is commonly used for membrane protein (MP) reconstitution into block copolymer (BCP), but the lack of control in the rehydration step formed a heterogeneous population of proteopolymersomes that interferes with the characterization and performance of devices incorporating them. To improve the self-assembly of polymersomes with simultaneous MP…
Nanofibril Organization in Silk Fiber as Inspiration for Ductile and Damage-Tolerant Fiber Design
Lin, Shihui; Ye, Chao; Zhang, Wenwen; Xu, Anchang; Chen, Shixian; Ren, Jing; Ling, Shengjie
Ductile and damage-tolerant fibers (DDTFs) are desired in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, and biomedical engineering because of their ability to prevent the catastrophic sudden structural/mechanical failure. However, in practice, design and fabrication of DDTFs remain a major challenge due to finite fiber size and limited processing techniques. In this regard,…
Efficient Anti-solvent-free Spin-Coated and Printed Sn-Perovskite Solar Cells with Crystal-Based Precursor Solutions
He, Lintao; Gu, Hao; Liu, Xiaolong; Li, Pengwei; Dang, Yangyang; Liang, Chao; Ono, Luis K.; Qi, Yabing; Tao, Xutang
Tin-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs), with more consummate optical band gaps, lower exciton-binding energies, and higher charge-carrier mobility, have not attracted tremendous research efforts compared with the lead-based ones that have a record power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 24.2%. The major challenges for Sn-based research are significantly low open-circuit voltage,…