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Graphical abstract Highlights • Hyaluronic acid-containing ethosomes was a potential transdermal drug carrier. • Hyaluronic acid improves the stability of the ethosomes. • The ethosomes showed a good transdermal drug delivery effect. Abstract A hyaluronic acid-containing ethosomes (HA-ES) as the transdermal drug delivery system was prepared in this work, and rhodamine B (RB) was used as a model drug to be encapsulated. The obtained HA-ES-RB was then characterized by the surface morphology, entrapment efficiency, drug loading and the stability. Results showed that the prepared HA-ES-RB was spherical and showed good dispersion as well as the stability, with a particle size of below 100 nm. The skin permeation experiments were carried out in vitro with the Franz diffusion cells and the rat dorsal skins were used. It was found that the penetration effect of HA-ES-RB was much better than that of ES-RB. The fluorescence microscopy image showed that HA-ES-RB penetrated into the deepest dermis. The excellent transdermic drug delivery effect of HA-ES-RB maybe attributed from its smaller size, hydration of hyaluronic acid as well as greater potential targeting to skin and skin appendages of liposomal carriers. Moreover, the HA-ES delivery system showed non-cytotoxicity to normal cells, indicating a good biocompatibility. This work provded a hyaluronic acid-containing ethosomes which can offer a quick, high efficient, safe and self-administered transdermal drug delivery system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cellulose acetate is a renewable resource with the characteristics of biodegradation, thermal stability and high strength. • Electrospun CA nanofibers was introduced into the core layer of HPLs as a reinforcing material. • The strength and toughness of HPLs reinforced with CA nanofibers exhibited a remarkable enhancement. • The thermal stability of HPLs with CA nanofibers improved significantly. In the work, the non-woven cellulose acetate (CA) nanofiber mats were prepared via electrospinning, and CA nanofiber were incorporated into the core layer of the high-pressure laminates (HPLs). When the concentration of CA was 16 wt%, SEM images demonstrated that the morphology of the CA nanofiber mat was the best, with an average diameter of 654±246 nm. When CA nanofiber mats were incorporated into the core layer of HPLs, the mechanical properties of the resulted HPLs composites were significantly improved. Specifically, the tensile strength and elongation at break of the nanofiber mats reinforced HPLs composites increased remarkably to 40.8 ±1.1 MPa and 27.9 ± 0.9 %, respectively, which were nearly 6 times and 4.4 times higher than those of the pure HPLs. Furthermore, the incorporation of the CA nanofiber mats also significantly improved the flame retardancy of the HPLs, which was revealed from the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A thioglycolic acid (TGA) assisted hydrothermal process has been developed to synthesize submicron-sized copper sulfide (CuS) hollow spheres via the reaction between copper sulfate (CuSO4) and thioacetamide (CH3CSNH2). X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were employed to characterize the obtained product. Furthermore, the possible mechanism and the critical factors for the TGA-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of the CuS hollow spheres have been preliminarily presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Tiny SiO2 nano-wires (SiO2-NWs) were synthesized on a p-Si (1 1 1) wafer by the chemical-vapor-deposition method. The minimum diameter of the nano-wires was around 9 nm, and the length was longer than 10 μm. The results of transmission electron microscopy shows that the amorphous nano-wires were composed of Si and O with an approximate atomic ratio of 1:2. Furthermore, the photoluminescence behavior of the SiO2-NWs has been also checked. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have been successfully synthesized with titanate-modified palygorskite as catalyst and acetylene as carbon source by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at high temperature. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies showed that there were a lot of carbon nanotubes partially filled with elongated foreign material in their inner cavities. X-ray energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) analyses and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) investigations on the encapsulated material revealed that it was single crystalline iron carbide (Fe3C) derived from ferric precursors in the mineral. The yield of carbon nanotubes was influenced by preparation temperature based on thermal gravimetric analyses (TGA). The relative quantity of Fe3C nanowires was influenced by the temperature and the local structure of nanotubes upon TEM observations. A growth mechanism is also proposed in the paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]