In this work, we report a nonaqueous one-step method to synthesize polystyrene macroporous magnetic nanocomposites through high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) formulated with the deep eutectic solvent (DES) composed of urea:choline chloride (U:ChCl, in a 2:1 molar ratio) as the internal phase and co-stabilized with mixtures of Span 60 surfactant and non-functionalized magnetite nanoparticles (FeO NPs). The porous structure and the magnetic and lipophilic properties of the nanocomposite materials were easily tailored by varying the amount of FeO NPs (0, 2, 5 and 10 wt %) and the surfactant Span 60 (0, 5, 10, and 20 wt %) used in the precursor emulsion. The resultant nanocomposite polyHIPEs exhibit high sorption capacity toward different oils (hexane, gasoline, and vegetable oil) due to their high porosity, interconnectivity, and hydrophobic surface.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In the therapy of cancer, several treatments have been designed using nanomaterials, among which gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been featured as a promising antitumoral agent. Our research group has developed the synthesis of gold nanoparticles L-AuNPs and D-AuNPs stabilized with zwitterions of imidazolium (L-1 and D-1) derived from L-methionine and D-methionine. Because the stabilizer agent is chiral, we observed through circular dichroism that AuNPs also present chirality; such chirality as well as the fact that the stabilizing agent contains fragments of methionine and imidazolium that are commonly involved in biological processes, opens up the possibility that this system may have biological compatibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMixtures of a nonionic surfactant and non-functionalized nanohydroxyapatite (NHA) enhanced the stability of oil-in-eutectic mixture high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs). Upon ring opening polymerization of the eutectic mixture composed of l-lactide and ε-caprolactone, biodegradable polyHIPEs with specific cavity sizes and selective interfacial functionalization with NHA are produced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA simple and direct method is described to prepare cationic bis(NHC)-Au(i) complexes containing N-alkyl or N-aryl NHC ligands to generate relevant gold complexes using metallic gold as the starting material.
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