The intraperitoneal injection of silica-gel into rats (30 to 40 mg. of silica per rat of 200 g) produces a nephrotic syndrome. Amongst the pathological characteristics of this syndrome are an epithelial degeneration in the proximal part of the nephron and an increase of the silica content of the whole kidney. In all silica-treated animals, pronounced lesions of the urinary tubule with degenerat...

Abstract Phagocytosis is a biological process that plays key role in host defense and tissue homeostasis. Efficient approaches for realtime imaging of phagocytosis are highly desired but limited. Herein, an AIE-active near-infrared fluorescent probe, named TBTCP , was developed fluorescence lifetime phagocytosis. could selectively label the cell plasma membrane with fast staining, wash-free pro...

In the past, the two major biomineralization motifs, biosilicification and biocalcification, were considered as two discrete processes. However, there is increasing evidence of the existence of an inextricable relationship between biosilica and calcium-based biominerals. The recent discovery of a unique silica–chitin–aragonite biocomposite in one genus of demosponges (Verongida) introduces a no...

Abstract Our previously reported exploration (Journal of Membrane Science 565 (2018) 241–253) on the differences between fouling in reverse osmosis (RO) and forward (FO), used alginate as a foulant with initial conditions that ensured starting fluxes were same. That study found for cellulose triacetate (CTA) membrane extent fouling, based analysis resistance, was greater when part FO system. He...

Host-Guest chemistry based on mesoporous silica materials has attracted increasing attention in the past two decades. Potential applications for these functionalized materials are in the fields of controlled drug delivery, catalysis, separation or encapsulation of functional biomolecules. The present work is focused on the synthesis of nanosized, mesoporous drug delivery devices, which are able...

We report a robust and versatile membrane protein based system for selective uptake and release of ions from nanoporous particles sealed with ion-tight lipid bilayers of various compositions that is driven by the addition of ATP or a chemical potential gradient. We have successfully incorporated both a passive ion channel-type peptide (gramicidin A) and a more complex primary sodium ion transpo...

Recently, osmotic distillation (OD) has emerged as an alternative process for the concentration and purification of heat sensitive components. However, OD performance was severely affected by membrane fouling wetting, which could be minimized through surface roughness creation energy modification. This study incorporated silica nanoparticles coated tridecafluro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyl-1-trietho...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of noxious effects of amorphous silica nanoparticles on human endothelial cells. METHODS Nanoparticle uptake was examined by transmission electron microscopy. Electrochemical nanosensors were used to measure the nitric oxide (NO) and peroxynitrite (ONOO(-)) released by a single cell upon nanoparticle stimulation. The downst...

Thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes containing MCM-41 silica nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by the interfacial polymerization (IP) process. An m-phenylenediamine (MPD) aqueous solution and an organic phase with trimesoyl chloride (TMC) dissolved in isooctane were used in the IP reaction, occurring on a nanoporous polysulfone (PSU) support layer. Isooctane was introduced as the organic...

Hybrid polymer-inorganic membranes were prepared by crosslinking poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), maleic acid (MA) and silica via an aqueous sol-gel route. Membrane characterisation results revealed silica nanoparticles (<10 nm) were well dispersed in the polymer matrix and significantly reduced swelling of the membrane. The membranes were tested for pervaporation separation of aqueous salt solution ...