Porous silicon nanoparticles (PSiNPs) are attractive carriers for targeted drug delivery in nanomedicine. For in vivo applications, the biodegradation property of PSiNPs provides a pathway for their safe clearance from the body. Particles sizes of 80-120 nm are of particular interest as they are important for cellular applications, such as drug delivery for cancer therapy, because these nanopar...

The biodegradation of organic substances is a natural yet poorly understood process. Given that biodegradation assessments form an integral part of chemical regulations to assess the persistent of substances this lack of knowledge needs to be addressed. Official references define the biodegradation process as "The biologically mediated degradation or transformation of chemicals usually carried ...

A project for the development of Structure-Activity Relationship for Biodegradation is presented. The aim of the project is to assemble sets of structural rules governing the potential microbial degradability of (classes of) chemicals. These rules will provide tools to take into account the biodegradation aspects of a product--and all precursors in the production process--early in the product d...

Photothermal therapy (PTT) offers many advantages such as high efficiency and minimal invasiveness, but clinical adoption of PTT nanoagents have been stifled by unresolved concerns such as the biodegradability as well as long-term toxicity. Herein, poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) loaded with black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) is processed by an emulsion method to produce biodegradable ...

The main objective of this study was to examine the feasibility of coupling an electrochemical process with a biological treatment for the degradation of sulfamethazine, a biorecalcitrant antibiotic. The electrochemical behavior of sulfamethazine was examined by cyclic voltammetry, showing an electroactivity in oxidation. The pre-treatment was carried out using an electrochemical flow cell invo...

This project was undertaken to study the biodegradability of PLA-KF biocomposite in different conditions; soil burial and immersion in water. The samples were buried in soil for 40 days to investigate the degradability of biocomposites. As for water absorption tests, the samples were immersed in three different types of water which were river water (pH 6), tap water (pH 7) and sea water (pH 7.5...