Sharif Digital Repository

Local velocities of bubbles rising in four different nanosilica solutions were investigated experimentally. Also, the density, viscosity, and surface tension of fumed nanosilica and modified nanosilica solutions were measured. Heat treatment and chemical functionalization were used to modify the properties of silica nanoparticles. It was found that the addition of nanosilica affected the hydrodynamics of the rising bubble by increasing the drag friction at the interface. However, environmentally responsive nanosilica particles behaved like surfactant molecules, due to the interfacial activity of hydrophilic and hydrophobic chains. Silica nanoparticles coated with both hydrophilic and... 

Amphiphilic copolymers consist of hydrophilic and hydrophobic monomer units have attracted great technological attention recently, owing to their unique properties and their ability to stabilize various interfaces in aqueous systems. This paper presents a novel and facile approach to produce spherical polyacrylamide, polystyrene and hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide (HM-PAM), as one of the most important type of amphiphilic copolymers, using a continuous aerosol-photopolymerization for the first time. To this end, the monomer droplets were generated by an atomizer, then photopolymerization was initiated ‘‘in flight’’ by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of the aerosol monomer droplets... 

A set of solvents were classified into the switchable-hydrophilicity solvents (SHSs) and non-switchable-hydrophilicity solvents based on forming or not forming a biphasic mixture with water. SHSs have been developed to make the reaction and product separation processes easier. Herein, three classifier algorithms and various feature selection techniques relay on 3D-molecular descriptors to characterize chemicals and forecast their classes were employed. Cfs-SVM method was employed to perform a classification study. The importance of this study helps to understand more about the presence of hydrophobic groups, their position, and their shape in the molecule. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC  

The incorporation of modified β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) into a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm)/chitosan (PNCS) nanohydrogel was studied. β-CD was functionalized with acrylic groups, with different numbers of vinyl bonds added per β-CD molecule. The surfactant-free dispersion polymerization (SFDP) semi-batch method was used to synthesize the nanohydrogel. Increasing the number of vinyl groups per β-CDAC (β-CD acrylate) molecule induced the formation of smaller nanogels with diameters ranging from 142 to 68 nm. The cyclodextrin-modified dual-responsive nanogels obtained presented an LCST (lower critical solution temperature) in aqueous medium at around 31 C. The incorporation of β-CDAC into... 

Liposomes are known to be promising nanoparticles (NPs) for drug delivery applications. Among different types of self-assembled NPs, liposomes stand out for their non-toxic nature, and their possession of dual hydrophilic-hydrophobic domains. Advantages of liposomes include the ability to solubilize hydrophobic drugs, the ability to incorporate different hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs at the same time, lessening the exposure of host organs to potentially toxic drugs and allowing modification of the surface by a variety of different chemical groups. This modification of the surface, or of the individual constituents, may be used to achieve two important goals. Firstly, ligands for active... 

Liposomes are known to be promising nanoparticles (NPs) for drug delivery applications. Among the different types of self-assembled NPs, liposomes stand out for their non-toxic nature and their possession of dual hydrophilic-hydrophobic domains. The advantages of liposomes include the ability to solubilize hydrophobic drugs, the ability to incorporate different hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs at the same time, lessening the exposure of host organs to potentially toxic drugs and allowing modification of the surface by a variety of different chemical groups. This modification of the surface, or of the individual constituents, may be used to achieve two important goals. First, ligands for... 

The purpose of this study was the production of copolymers and terpolymers with highly hydrophilic–hydrophobic properties, using inexpensive and available monomers as potential enhancing oil recovery (EOR) and water production control agents for high-temperature and high-salinity (HTHS) oil reservoirs. For this purpose, several copolymers and terpolymers with different molar percentage of acrylamide/styrene, acrylamide/maleic anhydride, and acrylamide/styrene/maleic anhydride were synthesized by the inverse emulsion polymerization technique. The presence of hydrophobic styrene and hydrophilic maleic anhydride monomers in the copolymer and terpolymer structure, provided some unique properties... 

A set of solvents were classified into the switchable-hydrophilicity solvents (SHSs) and non-switchable-hydrophilicity solvents based on forming or not forming a biphasic mixture with water. SHSs have been developed to make the reaction and product separation processes easier. Herein, three classifier algorithms and various feature selection techniques relay on 3D-molecular descriptors to characterize chemicals and forecast their classes were employed. Cfs-SVM method was employed to perform a classification study. The importance of this study helps to understand more about the presence of hydrophobic groups, their position, and their shape in the molecule. © 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis... 

PEG-modification is a proven method to enhance the hydrophilicity, protein resistance, and anti-biofouling properties of polymer coatings. It is considered as the gold standard interfacial modification technique such that the higher PEG content, the higher hydrophilicity, and lower protein adsorption, i.e., the initial stage of the biofouling process. Nevertheless, increasing the PEG content causes a higher water uptake, which declines the polymer mechanical strength and increases its hydrolytic degradation rate. Thus, an effective strategy to produce a limited-water-absorbing PEG-modified polymer is to force the majority of PEG molecules to migrate towards the interfacial region while the... 

In this research, initially anodization process was used to fabricate ZnO nanorods on Zn substrate and then RF sputtering technique was applied to grow a thin layer of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon) on the coated ZnO nanorods for producing a superhydrophobic surface. According to scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations, ZnO nanorods were formed with average diameter and length of about ∼180 nm and 14 μm, respectively. Superhydrophilic property of ZnO nanorods and superhydrophobic property of PTFE/ZnO nanorods was investigated by water contact angle (WCA) measurements. It was found that the contact angle varied with the PTFE deposition time. The highest contact angle... 

Environmentally responsive surface-modified nanoparticles are colloidal nanoparticles coated with, at least, two physicochemically distinct surface groups. Recent advances in the synthesis and production of nanoparticles have enabled the production of environmentally responsive surface-modified nanoparticles with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface groups. These nanoparticles act like colloidal surfactants. In this paper, environmentally responsive surface-modified silica nanoparticles are synthesized and used for enhancement of oil recovery. For this purpose, silica nanoparticles are coated with polyethylene glycol chains as hydrophilic agent and propyl chains as hydrophobic agent at... 

Electrospun porous membrane; Superhydrophilic surfaces; Superhydrophobic surfaces; Cell culture; Organ on a chip; Flexible membrane; Strong membrane; Surface modications  

onstructing of the scaffolds for cell culture applications has long been of interest for engineering researchers and biologist. In this study, a novel process is utilized for construction of suitable membrane with a high mechanical strength and appropriate surface behavior. Poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is electrospun into fine fibers using poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as the carrier polymer in different weight ratios. Since the surface behavior of all PDMS substrates is moderately hydrophobic (120 < contact angle (CA) < 150), the electrospun membranes with higher PDMS ratios show slightly higher hydrophilicity. Direct plasma treatment is utilized to change the interfacial wettability... 

In the present study, we employ all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the dynamic behaviors and structural properties of the native and modified cellulose chains in the bulk, aqueous, and organic media. Particular attention has been directed to the role of different hydrophobic and hydrophilic functional groups as linear and branched aliphatic and also cyclic pendent groups on the solubility and packing of the cellulose chain. The various properties related to density profile, mean squared displacement, intramolecular entropy, radius of gyration, and radial distribution function were calculated. The results showed that the chain tendency toward crystallinity decreased when... 

In this work, a novel carrier based-on modified graphene oxide was designed for co-delivery of hydrophobic and hydrophilic anticancer drugs (curcumin (Cur) and doxorubicin (DOX) as the model of drugs). The hydroxyl groups at the edges of graphene oxide (GO) sheets were used as the initiation sites for growing poly(epichlorohydrin) (PCH) chains. Then, hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG) was grafted on the hydroxyl end groups of PCH (PCH-g-HPG). Pendant chlorines in the main chain of GO-PCH-g-HPG were replaced with hydrazine. The modification of GO sheets with oxygen-rich polymers increased water solubility of graphene oxide. Doxorubicin was loaded onto the nanocarrier by covalent bonding with... 

Cellular internalization of inorganic, lipidic and polymeric nanoparticles is of great significance in the quest to develop effective formulations for the treatment of high morbidity rate diseases. Understanding nanoparticle–cell interactions plays a key role in therapeutic interventions, and it continues to be a topic of great interest to both chemists and biologists. The mechanistic evaluation of cellular uptake is quite complex and is continuously being aided by the design of nanocarriers with desired physico-chemical properties. The progress in biomedicine, including enhancing the rate of uptake by the cells, is being made through the development of structure–property relationships in... 

In this study, the in-vitro bone regeneration ability of commercial pure titanium (CP-Ti) surface modified via electrospun polyvinylidene/hydroxyapatite (PVP/HA) masking and subsequent Nd-YAG pulsed laser treatment was investigated. The ratio of HA to PVP played a significant role in achieving a perfect homogenous mask on the CP-Ti. In the laser treatment process, the parameter of area scanning speed (ASS) had an important influence on the final surface morphology. A favorable range was defined for this parameter where these two conditions were satisfied: no PVP remaining and no severe substrate melting. Within a favorable range of ASS, as decreasing ASS exchanged the surface structure from... 

The effects of water vapor on CO2/CH4 separation using commercially available poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) and Cardo-type polyimide hollow fiber membranes were investigated. Pure methane and CO2/CH4 mixture permeation experiments were carried out in the absence and presence of water vapor (60% RH). Pure methane permeance decreased in the presence of water vapor for both membrane types. The decrease was 28% for hydrophilic Cardo-type polyimide and 6% for hydrophobic PPO membranes. The decline in the permeance was also observed for CO2/CH4 mixture separation through both membranes. However, selectivities of the two membranes were affected differently by water vapor. The... 

The effects of embedded proteins on the dynamical properties of lipid bilayer membranes are studied in shear flow. Coarse-grained molecular simulations are employed, in which lipids are modeled as short polymers consisting of hydrophilic head groups and hydrophobic tail monomers; similarly, transmembrane proteins are modeled as connected hydrophobic double- or triple-chain molecules with hydrophilic groups at both ends. In thermal equilibrium, rigid proteinlike molecules aggregate in a membrane of flexible lipids, while flexible proteins do not aggregate. In shear flow parallel to the membrane, the monolayers of lipid bilayer slide over each other. The presence of transmembrane proteins... 

The silanization of nanodiamond (ND) was successfully carried out by using the esterification reaction of hydrolyzed vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTS) in alcoholic solution. The surface carboxylic group of ND was first enhanced by thermal oxidation to increase the degree of esterification reaction. The extent of silane functionalization of ND was controlled by varying the weight ratio of VTS and oxidized ND (oxND), from 2:1 to 10:1 (w/w) in the functionalization reaction medium. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the highest degree of silanization occurred at VTS/oxND of 5:1 (w/w), while more silane concentrations resulted in...