Porous, Water-Resistant Multifilament Yarn Spun from Gelatin.

Sustainability, renewability, and biodegradability of polymeric material constantly gain in importance. A plausible approach is the recycling of agricultural waste proteins such as keratin, wheat gluten, casein or gelatin. The latter is abundantly available from animal byproducts and may well serve as building block for novel polymeric products.

Industrial applications of nanoparticles.

Research efforts in the past two decades have resulted in thousands of potential application areas for nanoparticles - which materials have become industrially relevant? Where are sustainable applications of nanoparticles replacing traditional processing and materials? This tutorial review starts with a brief analysis on what makes nanoparticles attractive to chemical product design. The article highlights established industrial applications of nanoparticles and then moves to rapidly emerging applications in the chemical industry and discusses future research directions. Contributions from large companies, academia and high-tech start-ups are used to elucidate where academic nanoparticle research has revolutionized industry practice.

Stable dispersions of azide functionalized ferromagnetic metal nanoparticles.

Ferromagnetic nanoparticles are covalently modified in order to enhance the dispersion stability as well as the antifouling properties. Insertion of an azide moiety allows "click"-reaction of a relevant tag molecule. This and the high saturation magnetization of the presented nanocomposite offer a promising platform for magnetic biosensors.

Labeling milk along its production chain with DNA encapsulated in silica.

The capability of tracing a food product along its production chain is important to ensure food safety and product authenticity. For this purpose and as an application example, recently developed Silica Particles with Encapsulated DNA (SPED) were added to milk at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 100 ppb (μg per kg milk).

PCR quantification of SiO₂ particle uptake in cells in the ppb and ppm range via silica encapsulated DNA barcodes.

There is a strong interest in studying the cellular uptake of silica nanoparticles, particularly at medically relevant concentrations (ppb-ppm range) to understand their toxicology. At present, uptake analysis at these exposure levels is impeded by the high silica background concentration. Here we describe the use of DNA encapsulated within silica particles as a tool to quantify silica nanoparticles in in vitro cell-uptake experiments at low concentrations (down to 10 fg cell(-1)).