Double emulsion (W/O/W) gel stabilised by polyglycerol polyricinoleate and calcium caseinate as mangiferin carrier: insights on formulation and stability properties

Mangiferin (MGF) is a phenolic compound isolated from mango, but its poor solubility significantly limits its use. In this study, MGF was embedded into the inner aqueous phase of W₁/O/W₂ emulsions. Firstly, the dissolution method of MGF was determined. MGF remained stable in solution with pH 13 at 30 min, and its solubility reached 10 mg mL⁻¹. When the pH of MGF solutions was adjusted from pH 13 to pH 6, MGF did not immediately crystallise, providing sufficient time to construct the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions. Subsequently, the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions were constructed using polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) and calcium caseinate (CAS). The formation and stability of the W₁/O/W₂ emulsions were investigated. The MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised with 1% PGPR and 1% – 3% CAS exhibited a low viscosity, limited loading capacity, and poor stability. Conversely, the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised by 3%PGPR–3%CAS exhibited optimal loading capacity (encapsulation efficiency = 95.31% and loading efficiency = 0.91%) and stability, which was attributed to the fact that high viscosity and gel state retarded the migration of inner aqueous phase. These results indicated that the W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised by PGPR and CAS may be a potential alternative for encapsulating mangiferin.     

Nanogrooved carbon microtubes for wet three‐dimensional printing of conductive composite structures

Recent advances in three‐dimensional (3D) printing have enabled the fabrication of interesting structures which are not achievable using traditional fabrication approaches. The 3D printing of carbon microtube composite inks allows fabrication of conductive structures for practical applications in soft robotics and tissue engineering. However, it is challenging to achieve 3D printed structures from solution‐based composite inks, which requires an additional process to solidify the ink. Here, we introduce a wet 3D printing technique which uses a coagulation bath to fabricate carbon microtube composite structures. We show that through a facile nanogrooving approach which introduces cavitation and channels on carbon microtubes, enhanced interfacial interactions with a chitosan polymer matrix are achieved. Consequently, the mechanical properties of the 3D printed composites improve when nanogrooved carbon microtubes are used, compared to untreated microtubes. We show that by carefully controlling the coagulation bath, extrusion pressure, printing distance and printed line distance, we can 3D print composite lattices which are composed of well‐defined and separated printed lines. The conductive composite 3D structures with highly customised design presented in this work provide a suitable platform for applications ranging from soft robotics to smart tissue engineering scaffolds. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

Full AC analysis of value of DER to the grid and optimal DER scheduling

This paper presents part of the work ComEd and Quanta Technology have performed to quantify the locational and temporal value of DER to avoid distribution grid upgrade investments. It focuses on the formulation of a robust and efficient algorithm for DER optimal dispatch on a distribution feeder to mitigate the violation of current and voltage limits using the allocated cost of capacity and locational marginal value of real and reactive DER injection/withdrawal.     

Simultaneous fractionation of multiple classes of polyphenols from honeybush tea using solid-phase extraction

The structural diversity of polyphenols and the inherent limitations of current extraction techniques pose a challenge to extract polyphenols using a simple and green method. Hence, in this study, a method was developed to simultaneously fractionate multiple classes of polyphenols by only varying ethanol-water solutions. Honeybush tea, which is rich in polyphenols, was selected as a model for this study. Solvent extraction followed by solid-phase extraction (SPE) was developed to obtain a polyphenol-rich fraction from six honeybush samples. Based on a gradient elution programme (10%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 90% (v/v) ethanol-water solution) of SPE, the Strata X cartridge showed a better recovery of most targeted polyphenols under 0.9 mL of the drying volume and 1 mL min⁻¹ of the dispensing speed. The elution programme for fractionating most polyphenols was as follows: single elution with 50% ethanol, followed by twice elution with 70% ethanol. The antioxidant capacity was used to analyse the differences among the polyphenol-rich fractions from six honeybush samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that unfermented C. genistoides (GG) has the greatest antioxidant capacity among the honeybush species studied. Additionally, mangiferin, isomangiferin and vicenin-2 were the main contributors to the antioxidant capacity in six honeybush fractions according to the correlation study.     

Material encapsulation in poly(methyl methacrylate) shell: A review

Material encapsulation is a relatively new technique for coating a micro/nanosize particle or droplet with polymeric or inorganic shell. Encapsulation technology has many applications in various fields including drug delivery, cosmetic, agriculture, thermal energy storage, textile, and self-healing polymers. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is widely used as shell material in encapsulation due to its high chemical stability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, and good mechanical properties. The main approach for micro/nanoencapsulation of materials using PMMA as shell comprises emulsion-based techniques such as emulsion polymerization and solvent evaporation from oil-in-water emulsion. In the present review, we first focus on the encapsulation techniques of liquid materials with PMMA shell by analyzing the effective processing parameters influencing the preparation of PMMA micro/nanocapsules. We then describe the morphology of PMMA capsules in emulsion systems according to thermodynamic relations. The techniques to investigation of mechanical properties of capsule shell and the release mechanisms of core material from PMMA capsules were also investigated. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48039.     

Reversible data hiding based on RSBEMD coding and adaptive multi-segment left and right histogram shifting

By leveraging the secret data coding using the remainder storage based exploiting modification direction (RSBEMD), and the pixel change operation recording based on multi-segment left and right histogram shifting, a novel reversible data hiding (RHD) scheme is proposed in this paper. The secret data are first encoded by some specific pixel change operations to the pixels in groups. After that, multi-segment left and right histogram shifting based on threshold manipulation is implemented for recording the pixel change operations. Furthermore, a multiple embedding policy based on chess board prediction (CBP) and threshold manipulation is put forward, and the threshold can be adjusted to achieve adaptive data hiding. Experimental results and analysis show that it is reversible and can achieve good performance in capacity and imperceptibility compared with the existing methods.     

Interlayer Engineering of Molybdenum Trioxide toward High‐Capacity and Stable Sodium Ion Half/Full Batteries

Orthorhombic molybdenum trioxide (MoO₃) is one of the most promising anode materials for sodium‐ion batteries because of its rich chemistry associated with multiple valence states and intriguing layered structure. However, MoO₃ still suffers from the low rate capability and poor cycle induced by pulverization during de/sodiation. An ingenious two‐step synthesis strategy to fine tune the layer structure of MoO₃ targeting stable and fast sodium ionic diffusion channels is reported here. By integrating partially reduction and organic molecule intercalation methodologies, the interlayer spacing of MoO₃ is remarkably enlarged to 10.40 Å and the layer structural integration are reinforced by dimercapto groups of bismuththiol molecules. Comprehensive characterizations and density functional theory calculations prove that the intercalated bismuththiol (DMcT) molecules substantially enhanced electronic conductivity and effectively shield the electrostatic interaction between Na⁺ and the MoO₃ host by conjugated double bond, resulting in improved Na⁺ insertion/extraction kinetics. Benefiting from these features, the newly devised layered MoO₃ electrode achieves excellent long‐term cycling stability and outstanding rate performance. These achievements are of vital significance for the preparation of sodium‐ion battery anode materials with high‐rate capability and long cycling life using intercalation chemistry.     

超支化镍系催化剂构效关系及催化乙烯齐聚机理

采用1.0G超支化大分子（1.0G）、3-取代水杨醛和NiCl₂·6H₂O为原料，依次经席夫碱反应和络合反应合成了3种新型具有不同取代基位阻的超支化水杨醛亚胺配体及其镍系催化剂，利用红外光谱（FTIR）、核磁共振氢谱（¹H NMR）、紫外光谱（UV-vis）、电喷雾质谱（ESI-MS）及电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）等方法对合成出产物的结构进行表征。考察了配体空间位阻、溶剂种类、助催化剂种类及反应条件对催化乙烯齐聚性能的影响。研究结果表明，配体空间位阻对催化乙烯齐聚性能有较大的影响，当以甲苯为溶剂、甲基铝氧烷（MAO）为助催化剂，在最佳反应条件下，超支化邻苯基水杨醛亚胺镍系催化剂催化乙烯齐聚的活性为2.81×10⁵g/(mol Ni·h)，对高碳烯烃（C₁₀₊）的选择性为34.28%。此外，在超支化水杨醛亚胺镍系催化剂催化性能评价的基础上，对其催化乙烯齐聚的机理进行研究。