A facile microemulsion template route for producing hollow silica nanospheres as imaging agents and drug nanocarriers.

Hollow silica nanospheres with uniform size distribution and tuneable shell thickness were synthesized through a one-step reverse microemulsion method at room temperature within 24 h. These hollow nanospheres demonstrated effective encapsulation ability for FITC, Eu-complexes, iron oxide nanoparticles and chemotherapy drugs for potential imaging and drug delivery applications.

Biocompatibility and growth of human keratinocytes and fibroblasts on biosynthesized cellulose-chitosan film.

Bacterial cellulose (BC)-chitosan (BCC) films made via bio-co-polymerization by Acetobacter xylinum were developed and characterized for physical and biological properties. With the incorporation of chitosan MW 3 x 10(4) and 8 x 10(4) into bacterial cellulose, the modified films (BCC-MW 30,000 and BCC-MW 80,000, respectively) became denser, with a smaller average pore size of 13.1-15.