Chen, Qiang; Wang, Zhiwei; Zhang, Sumei; Cao, Ya; Chen, Jinyao
Structure Evolution and Deformation Behavior of Polyethylene Film during Biaxial Stretching
The structure evolution and deformation behavior of tenter-frame biaxially oriented polyethylene (TF-BOPE) films were investigated in this study. For sequential biaxial stretching, the original spherulites were broken into small pieces, and the fibrillar structure simultaneously formed during the machine direction (MD) stretching. Subsequently, the single fibrils were pulled away, and…
Unveiling the role of hydrothermal carbon dots as anodes in sodium-ion batteries with ultrahigh initial coulombic efficiency
Xie, Fei; Xu, Zhen; Jensen, Anders C. S.; Ding, Feixiang; Au, Heather; Feng, Jingyu; Luo, Hui; Qiao, Mo; Guo, Zhenyu; Lu, Yaxiang; Drew, Alan J.; Hu, Yong-Sheng; Titirici, Maria-Magdalena
Hard carbon materials are regarded as the most promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) due to their best cost-effectiveness. However, their relatively low specific capacity and initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) compared with the graphite anode in lithium-ion batteries still limit the energy density for further development. Thus, it is…
Enhancing the accessibility to basic sites of as-synthesized silicas applied in catalytic transesterification
Zapelini, Iago W.; Silva, Laura L.; Oliveira, Cristiano L. P.; Cardoso, Dilson
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…