This work deals with the development of a green and versatile synthesis of stable mono- and bi-metallic colloids by means of microwave heating and exploiting ecofriendly reagents: water as the solvent, glucose as a mild and non-toxic reducer and polyvinylpirrolidone (PVP) as the chelating agent. Particle size-control, total reaction yield and long-term stability of colloids were achieved with t...

A novel metal-organic particle (MOP) based nanodrug formed by mild self-assembly of chemotherapeutic drugs, including banoxantrone and doxorubicin, through Cu(II)-mediated coordination effects, is reported. In this nanodrug, Cu(II) acts as a bridge to join AQ4N and DOX, and then, self-assembly of [-AQ4N-Cu(II)-(DOX)2-Cu(II)-] n complexes forms nanosized MOPs (referred to as ADMOPs) through mult...

Due to their altered metabolism cancer cells are more sensitive to proteasome inhibition or changes of copper levels than normal cells. Thus, the development of copper complexes endowed with proteasome inhibition features has emerged as a promising anticancer strategy. However, limited information is available about the exact mechanism by which copper inhibits proteasome. Here we show that Cu(I...

The microstructure, hardness evolution, and thermal stability of mechanically alloyed (MA-ed) nanocrystalline Cu–10 wt %Nb solid solution during heat treatment were examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) observations, and microhardness measurement. It is found that the pronounced precipitati...

The single-particle spectrum of nuclei with large neutron excess is predicted by some approaches [1] to become similar to that of a harmonic oscillator with a spin-orbit term (no additional~l2 term) and thus reinforce some of the harmonic oscillator magic numbers. This is the case of N=40, and indeed experimental results accumulating in the past few years [2,3] indicate the presence of a subshe...

In this work, Ag-Cu nanoparticles (with different percentages of copper, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% Cu) were synthesized by wet chemical method. Copper(II) sulfate and silver nitrate were taken as metal precursors, ascorbic acid as reducing agent and anhydride maleic (MA) as a modifier. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and scanning electron mic...