Design and Synthesis of Lactose, Galactose and Cholic Acid Related Dual Conjugated Chitosan Derivatives as Potential Anti Liver Cancer Drug Carriers

Cholic acid and galactose or lactose dual conjugated chitosan derivatives were designed and synthesized as potential anti liver cancer drug carriers, their structures were characterized through proton NMR spectra, elemental analysis, size distribution, zeta potential, and scanning electron microscope image studies. The ability of the dual conjugates to enhance the aqueous solubility of the cancer drug sorafenib was evaluated. The entrapment efficiency (EE%) and drug content (DC%) of sorafenib in the inclusion complexes were measured. The chitosan dual conjugate with cholic acid and galactose was found to be best in enhancing the aqueous solubility of sorafenib. The solubility of sorafenib in water has increased from 1.7 µg/mL to 1900 µg/mL which is equal to 1117-fold increase in its solubility due to the inclusion complex with chitosan conjugate.

Experimental Investigation on Organic Matter Orientation Characteristics of Terrestrial and Marine Shale in China

As an essential component in shale, OM (organic matter) grains and their arrangements may play essential roles in affecting the anisotropy of the reservoir. However, OM grains are commonly treated as an evenly distributed isotropic medium in current studies, and few works have been done to investigate their detailed arrangement characteristics. In this study, terrestrial and marine shale samples were collected from three different shale plays in China, and the arrangement characteristics of OM grains in each sample were investigated by SEM (scanning electron microscope) image analysis. The results indicate that OM grains in shale are not evenly distributed in isotropic medium, and their directional alignment is pervasive in both marine and terrestrial shale. OM grains in shale tend to subparallel to the bedding section, and their orientation degree and controlling factors differ among different shales. OM grains in samples from terrestrial C-7(Chang-7 Formation) exhibit the strongest directionality in their arrangement, and OM grains in samples from marine LMX (Longmaxi Formation) shale in the Fuling area also exhibit strong directional alignment. While in samples from marine LMX shale in the Baojing area, their directional alignment is much weaker. Shales with high clay content, high TOC (total organic carbon), low thermal maturity, and flat reservoir structure get more OM grains parallel to the bedding section. The biogenetic texture of graptolite in marine LMX shale is the dominating factor leading to the strong directional alignment of the OM grains. However, syncline structure may disorganize the preformed directional alignment and weaken the directionality of the OM grains, which results in the OM arrangement difference between LMX samples from Fuling and Baojing. While the compaction of the layered clay particles is the dominating mechanism leading to the strong directional alignment of the OM grains in terrestrial shale samples from C-7.

Performance of hybrid SnO2/Li2FeMn3O8 nanostructured electrode for efficient Li ion storage application

Li2FeMn3O8 (LFMO) nanocomposite material for Li-ion battery is synthesized using chemical combustion method. To fabricate a hybrid nanostructure electrode, LFMO is coated on tin oxide (SnO2) nanorods (NR), which is grown using a vapor-liquid solid (VLS) technique on a steel substrate. The surface morphology of the hybrid nanostructure electrode confirms that, single crystalline SnO2 nanorods are grown vertically with spine-like structures, a few microns in length, as evident from field emission scanning electron microscope image. The electrochemical performance of SnO2/LFMO shows very interesting characteristic with enormous charge storage capability. The coin cell shows improved capacity with a higher number of charging and discharging cycles. This SnO2/LFMO hybrid composite electrode shows better specific capacitance value as compared to the pristine SnO2 electrode.

Resistive Switching Behavior of Magnesium Zirconia Nickel Nanorods

To effectively improve the uniformity of switching behavior in resistive switching devices, this study developed magnesium zirconia nickel (MZN) nanorods grown on ITO electrodes through hydrothermal method. The field emission scanning electron microscope image shows the NR formation. Al/MZN NR/ITO structure exhibits forming-free and bipolar resistive switching behaviors. MZN NRs have relatively higher ON/OFF ratio and better uniformity compared with MZN thin film. The superior properties of MZN NRs can be attributed to its distinct geometry, which leads to the formation of straight and extensible conducting filaments along the direction of MZN NR. The results suggest the possibility of developing sol–gel NR-based resistive memory devices.

Deposition of ultrasonic nebulized aerosols onto a hydrophilic surface

The effect of chemical treatment of a metallic substrate on the deposition of aerosols generated by an ultrasonic nebulizer was investigated. A single substrate with areas having different “level” of hydrophilicity (or hydrophobicity) was used as a model surface. The treated (more hydrophilic) area became more negatively-charged based on a surface electric potential meter. A low-pressure analysis method (electron-microscope image) and ordinary pressure methods (Raman spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence) analytical results indicated that in comparison with the untreated area, the treated area trapped more particles in the case of the deposition of “wet” aerosols. In the case of the deposition of more “dry” aerosols, the untreated area trapped more particles rather than that of the treated one. The efficiency of particles deposition not only depended on the degree of hydrophilicity (or hydrophobicity) of the surface but also due to the conditions (wet or dry) of incoming aerosols.

Fabrication of Nanosticks-Like CdS Sensitizer for the Application of Solar Cells

The novelty of this work is to fabricate the Nanosticks (NSs) like CdS sensitizer on the surface of TiO2 electrode by chemical bath deposition (CBD) method with a very high vacuum annealed at 350 °C for 30 min. Whereas, nanocrystalline TiO2 electrodes have been prepared on FTO (SnO2: F) glass by a spin-coating method with high purity (99.99%, Degussa P25) TiO2 powder. The surface of the CdS layer has been covered by NSs like structures which are confirmed by the scanning electron microscope image. The 100 nm of platinum-coated FTO substrate and polysulfide-based electrolyte are used to assemble the Grätzel Solar cell (GSC). The performance of solar cell (SC) based on NSs like CdS has been compared with the nanoparticles (NPs) based CdS sensitized SC, where CdS NPs has synthesized by CBD without any post-annealing. The efficiency of NSs like CdS sensitized SC exhibits 2.44%, which is 2 folds of the efficiency of the CdS NPs sensitized SC. The NSs like CdS sensitized SC shows the highest photocurrent 20.24 mA/cm2 compared to CdS NPs based SC.