On the Mechanical Properties of Microfibre-Based 3D Chitinous Scaffolds from Selected Verongiida Sponges.

Skeletal constructs of diverse marine sponges remain to be a sustainable source of biocompatible porous biopolymer-based 3D scaffolds for tissue engineering and technology, especially structures isolated from cultivated demosponges, which belong to the Verongiida order, due to the renewability of their chitinous, fibre-containing architecture focused attention. These chitinous scaffolds have already shown excellent and promising results in biomimetics and tissue engineering with respect to their broad diversity of cells. However, the mechanical features of these constructs have been poorly studied before.

The Loss of Structural Integrity of 3D Chitin Scaffolds from Marine Demosponge after Treatment with LiOH.

Aminopolysaccharide chitin is one of the main structural biopolymers in sponges that is responsible for the mechanical stability of their unique 3D-structured microfibrous and porous skeletons. Chitin in representatives of exclusively marine Verongiida demosponges exists in the form of biocomposite-based scaffolds chemically bounded with biominerals, lipids, proteins, and bromotyrosines. Treatment with alkalis remains one of the classical approaches to isolate pure chitin from the sponge skeleton.

Patentology of chitinous biomaterials. Part II: chitosan.

Cationic chitosan is recognized as the most widely studied derivative of chitin, one of the main and the most evolutionary ancient structural biopolymer in nature. The multi-functionality of chitosan, due to its specific physicochemical properties, biodegradability and biocompatibility, is a fundamental factor in the patentability of this biopolymer in diverse fields of modern science and technology. It is shown that the chitosan-related patents were categorized mainly under biomedical, material science, biotechnology, and chemical directions; while a very small portion of the patents were mentioned under food, cosmetics, environmental protection, and agricultural fields.

A platinum promoted Ag/SBA-15 catalyst effective in selective oxidation of methanol - design and surface characterization.

The aim of this study was better understanding of surface properties of bimetallic (silver-platinum) catalysts and to verify if a very small addition of platinum ( 0.05 wt%) to silver ( 2.0 wt%) loaded on ordered mesoporous silica, SBA-15, would improve the catalytic properties of bimetallic Ag-Pt materials in selective oxidation of methanol to methyl formate.