A co-assembly process for high strength and injectable dual network gels with sustained doxorubicin release performance.

Adopting a non-covalent co-assembly strategy shows great potential in loading drugs efficiently and safely in drug delivery systems. However, finding an efficient method for developing high strength gels with thixotropic characteristics is still challenging. In this work, by hybridizing the low molecular weight gelator fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl-phenylalanine (Fmoc-F) (first single network, 1st SN) and alginate (second single network, 2nd SN) into a dual network (DN) gel, gels with high strength as well as thixotropy were prepared efficiently.

Fe Single-Atom Catalyst for Cost-Effective yet Highly Efficient Heterogeneous Fenton Catalysis.

High energy consumption in pyrolyzing precursors for catalyst preparation would limit the application of nitrogen-doped carbon-based single-atom catalysts in actual pollutant remediation. Herein, we report an Fe single atom (7.67 wt %) loaded polyaniline catalyst (Fe-PANI) prepared via a simple impregnation process without pyrolysis.

Tailoring co-assembly loading of doxorubicin in solvent-triggering gel.

Noncovalent interactions are ubiquitous, endowing high feasibility on assembly and disassembly of gel network structure. Loading anticancer drugs in low molecular weight gelator (LMWG)-based gel through a noncovalently co-assembly process shows advantages of high efficacy, thixotropy, and controllable release. Drug-loaded fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl-phenylalanine (Fmoc-F)/DMSO/HO-doxorubicin (DOX) gels were fabricated by an effective solvent-triggering method dominated by solvated Fmoc-F with DMSO.

Domination of H-Bond Interactions in the Solvent-Triggering Gelation Process.

Gels prepared with the solvent-triggering method are attractive for their easy and fast preparation; however, the role of solvents in this process remains unclear, which hinders the efficient and accurate control of desired gel properties. In this study, the role of solvents in the solvent-triggering gelation process is studied using 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc)-protected diphenylalanine (Fmoc-FF) as the gelator. Density functional theory (DFT)-based calculations and corresponding wavefunction analyses are conducted to identify the H-bonding interaction sites between the molecules.