Environmentally Friendly, High-Performance Fire Retardant Made from Cellulose and Graphite.

Many materials and additives perform well as fire retardants and suppressants, but there is an ever-growing list of unfulfilled demands requiring new developments. This work explores the outstanding dispersant and adhesive performances of cellulose to create a new effective fire-retardant: exfoliated and reassembled graphite (ERG). This is a new 2D polyfunctional material formed by drying aqueous dispersions of graphite and cellulose on wood, canvas, and other lignocellulosic materials, thus producing adherent layers that reduce the damage caused by a flame to the substrates.

Revealing the Role of Tin(IV) Halides in the Anisotropic Growth of CsPbX Perovskite Nanoplates.

CsPbX perovskite nanoplates (PNPLs) were formed in a synthesis driven by SnX (X=Cl, Br, I) salts. The role played by these hard Lewis acids in directing PNPL formation is addressed. Sn disturbs the acid-base equilibrium of the system, increasing the protonation rate of oleylamine and inducing anisotropic growth of nanocrystals.

Materials from renewable resources: new properties and functions.

Sustainable production requires increasing use of raw materials from renewable sources, processed under mild conditions with minimal effluent production. These requirements are satisfied by using materials derived from biomass, in synergy with food and energy production. The possibilities of biomass are continuously enlarged by new findings, as in the intrinsic nanocomposite properties of natural rubber and the amphiphile behavior of cellulose that translated into new functional materials, including high-performance, flexible and conductive non-metallic materials.

Conduction and Excess Charge in Silicate Glass/Air Interfaces.

The glass/air interface shows electrical properties that are unexpected for a widely used electrical insulator. The mobility of interfacial charge carriers under 80% relative humidity (RH) is 4.81 × 10 m s V, 3 orders of magnitude higher than the electrophoretic mobility of simple ions in water and less than 2 orders of magnitude lower than the electron mobility in copper metal.

In vitro immunotoxicological assessment of a potent microbicidal nanocomposite based on graphene oxide and silver nanoparticles.

Graphene oxide (GO) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) can be formed into a hybrid nanomaterial, known as GOAg nanocomposite, which presents high antibacterial activity. The successful translation of this nanomaterial into medical use depends on critical information about its toxicological profile. In keeping with a Safe-by-design approach, we evaluated the immunotoxicity of GOAg using J774 and primary murine macrophages.

Acquisition of anoikis resistance up-regulates syndecan-4 expression in endothelial cells.

Anoikis is a programmed cell death induced upon cell detachment from extracellular matrix, behaving as a critical mechanism in preventing adherent-independent cell growth and attachment to an inappropriate matrix, thus avoiding colonization of distant organs. Cell adhesion plays an important role in neoplastic transformation. Tumors produce several molecules that facilitate their proliferation, invasion and maintenance, especially proteoglycans.

Structural and morphological investigations of β-cyclodextrin-coated silver nanoparticles.

This paper describes the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using an aqueous silver nitrate solution in the presence of glucose as a reducing agent, sodium hydroxide as a reaction catalyst and β-CD as a stabilizer. The structure and the morphology associated to the stabilizing layer around the silver nanoparticles were investigated. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the nanoparticle surface modification by β-CD, demonstrating the interaction between the β-CD rim hydroxyl groups and the AgNP surface.