Preparation of In Situ Cross-Linked N-Maleoyl Chitosan-Oxidized Sodium Alginate Hydrogels for Drug Delivery Applications.

Aim: This study was aimed to prepare in situ cross-linked N-maleoyl chitosan - oxidised sodium alginate (MCS - OSA) hydrogel loaded with metronidazole (MTZ) for drug delivery applications.

Methods: The hydrogel was prepared by in situ cross-linking via Schiff base reaction between amine (-NH2) groups from MCS and aldehyde (-CHO) groups from OSA at the different ratio, and the MTZ was loaded into the hydrogels along with the gelatin processes.

Results: The highest drug entrapment efficiency (DEE) was exhibited by MTZ-H3 (5: 5) with DEE of 99.

Self-healing composite hydrogel with antibacterial and reversible restorability conductive properties.

Self-healable PAA/PPy-Fe composite hydrogels have been simply synthesized in one step and utilized for antibacterial and electrical conductivity application. The network of hydrogel is composed of polyacrylic acid (PAA) and Fe ions with interlacing of the second polymeric chain of polypyrrole (PPy). In this study, ammonium persulfate (APS) was utilized to initiate the polymerization of both acrylic acid and pyrrole.

A simple one-pot fabrication of silver loaded semi-interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogels with self-healing and bactericidal abilities.

In the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the development of self-healing hydrogels. However, in most cases, the synthesized self-healing hydrogels possess no antibacterial properties. Further, the preparation of self-healing hydrogels usually requires sophisticated processes and also involves multiple steps.

Direct biodiesel production from wet spent coffee grounds.

Utilization of waste spent coffee grounds (SCG) remains limited and requires pre-treatment before being discarded to avoid pollution to the environment. Lipids contained in SCG could be converted to biodiesel through an transesterification method. Current transesterification of wet SCG biomass, conducted at high reaction temperature to reduce the water effect and reduce reaction time, is energy intensive.