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    A thiazolo[5,4-: D] thiazole-bridged porphyrin organic framework as a promising nonlinear optical material
    (London : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2019) Samal, Mahalaxmi; Valligatla, Sreeramulu; Saad, Nabil A.; Rao, M. Veeramohan; Rao, D. Narayana; Sahu, Rojalin; Biswal, Bishnu P.
    Porphyrin-based porous organic frameworks are an important group of materials gaining interest due to their structural diversity and distinct opto-electronic properties. However, these materials are seldom explored for nonlinear optical (NLO) applications. In this work, we investigate a thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole-bridged porous, porphyrin framework (Por-TzTz-POF) with promising NLO properties. The planar TzTz moiety coupled with integrated porphyrin units enables efficient π-conjugation and charge distribution in the Por-TzTz-POF resulting in a high nonlinear absorption coefficient (β = 1100 cm GW-1) with figure of merit (FoM) σ1/σ0 = 5571, in contrast to analogous molecules and material counterparts e.g. metal-organic frameworks (MOFs; β = ∼0.3-0.5 cm GW-1), molecular porphyrins (β = ∼100-400 cm GW-1), graphene (β = 900 cm GW-1), and covalent organic frameworks (Por-COF-HH; β = 1040 cm GW-1 and FoM = 3534). This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.
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    Graphene oxide functional nanohybrids with magnetic nanoparticles for improved vectorization of doxorubicin to neuroblastoma cells
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2019) Lerra, L.; Farfalla, A.; Sanz, B.; Cirillo, G.; Vittorio, O.; Voli, F.; Grand, M.L.; Curcio, M.; Nicoletta, F.P.; Dubrovska, A.; Hampel, S.; Iemma, F.; Goya, G.F.
    With the aim to obtain a site-specific doxorubicin (DOX) delivery in neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells, we designed an hybrid nanocarrier combining graphene oxide (GO) and magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs), acting as core elements, and a curcumin–human serum albumin conjugate as functional coating. The nanohybrid, synthesized by redox reaction between the MNPs@GO system and albumin bioconjugate, consisted of MNPs@GO nanosheets homogeneously coated by the bioconjugate as verified by SEM investigations. Drug release experiments showed a pH-responsive behavior with higher release amounts in acidic (45% at pH 5.0) vs. neutral (28% at pH 7.4) environments. Cell internalization studies proved the presence of nanohybrid inside SH-SY5Y cytoplasm. The improved efficacy obtained in viability assays is given by the synergy of functional coating and MNPs constituting the nanohybrids: while curcumin moieties were able to keep low DOX cytotoxicity levels (at concentrations of 0.44–0.88 µM), the presence of MNPs allowed remote actuation on the nanohybrid by a magnetic field, increasing the dose delivered at the target site.
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    Tailor-made nanostructures bridging chaos and order for highly efficient white organic light-emitting diodes
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2019) Li, Y.; Kovačič, M.; Westphalen, J.; Oswald, S.; Ma, Z.; Hänisch, C.; Will, P.-A.; Jiang, L.; Junghaehnel, M.; Scholz, R.; Lenk, S.; Reineke, S.
    Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) suffer from notorious light trapping, resulting in only moderate external quantum efficiencies. Here, we report a facile, scalable, lithography-free method to generate controllable nanostructures with directional randomness and dimensional order, significantly boosting the efficiency of white OLEDs. Mechanical deformations form on the surface of poly(dimethylsiloxane) in response to compressive stress release, initialized by reactive ions etching with periodicity and depth distribution ranging from dozens of nanometers to micrometers. We demonstrate the possibility of independently tuning the average depth and the dominant periodicity. Integrating these nanostructures into a two-unit tandem white organic light-emitting diode, a maximum external quantum efficiency of 76.3% and a luminous efficacy of 95.7 lm W−1 are achieved with extracted substrate modes. The enhancement factor of 1.53 ± 0.12 at 10,000 cd m−2 is obtained. An optical model is built by considering the dipole orientation, emitting wavelength, and the dipole position on the sinusoidal nanotexture.
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    Tailoring three-dimensional architectures by rolled-up nanotechnology for mimicking microvasculatures
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015) Arayanarakool, Rerngchai; Meyer, Anne K.; Helbig, Linda; Sanchez, Samuel; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Artificial microvasculature, particularly as part of the blood–brain barrier, has a high benefit for pharmacological drug discovery and uptake regulation. We demonstrate the fabrication of tubular structures with patterns of holes, which are capable of mimicking microvasculatures. By using photolithography, the dimensions of the cylindrical scaffolds can be precisely tuned as well as the alignment and size of holes. Overlapping holes can be tailored to create diverse three-dimensional configurations, for example, periodic nanoscaled apertures. The porous tubes, which can be made from diverse materials for differential functionalization, are biocompatible and can be modified to be biodegradable in the culture medium. As a proof of concept, endothelial cells (ECs) as well as astrocytes were cultured on these scaffolds. They form monolayers along the scaffolds, are guided by the array of holes and express tight junctions. Nanoscaled filaments of cells on these scaffolds were visualized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This work provides the basic concept mainly for an in vitro model of microvasculature which could also be possibly implanted in vivo due to its biodegradability.