Heterogeneous catalysis for biodiesel production is a current challenge due to the low activity of solid catalysts, especially caused by diffusional resistances. Hybrid silicas, containing SiO?CTA+ provide high conversions in the transesterification of oils and model molecules, but this activity is limited to the external surface area. The generation of…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
Bigels are a new technology with great potential in the food industry. Their success with drug delivery suggests they may be able to deliver sensitive compounds in foods, such as probiotics and bioactives. The purpose of this study was to develop and characterize a novel, edible bigel system. The bigel…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
Mixtures of the phospholipid 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) and the saponin ?-aescin spontaneously form monodisperse, bilayered discoidal micelles (also known as bicelles or nanodisks) in aqueous solution. Such bicelles form below the melting temperature of DMPC when the phospholipids are in the rigid L?? state and are precursors of spontaneously formed vesicles.…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
Lauric acid (LAH) strongly inhibits the growth of acne-causing bacteria. LAH is essentially water-insoluble and the solubility of laurate (LA) salts are medium and temperature dependent. Hence, LAH/LA preparations are difficult to formulate. Here we fully characterized phospholipid vesicles containing up to 50 mol% LAH. Vesicles of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) containing…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
Surfactant molecules have been extensively used as emulsifying agents to stabilize immiscible fluids. Droplet stability has been shown to be increased when ordered nanoscale phases form at the interface of the two fluids due to surfactant association. Here, we report on using mixtures of a cationic surfactant and long chained…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
The complex multiscale structure of spray dried detergent granules has been characterized using a complementary range of techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), image analysis, wide angle and small angle X-ray scattering (WAXS, SAXS) and X-ray microtomography. A complex composite structure is revealed due to the multiphase nature of the…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com25 November 2019
This work investigates the temperature-dependent micelle formation as well as the micellar structure of the saponin aescin. The critical micelle concentration ( cmc ) of aescin is determined from the concentration-dependent autofluorescence (AF) of aescin. Values between cmcaescin,AF (10°C) = 0.38 ± 0.09 mM and cmcaescin,AF (50°C) = 0.32 ±…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com25 November 2019
Hypothesis Sodium Deoxycholate (NaDC) and Phenylalanine (Phe) are important biological hydrogelators. NaDC hydrogels form by lowering the pH or by increasing the ionic strength. Phe gels form from saturated solution by thermal induction and slow kinetics. The resulting gels hold great potential in medicine and biology as drug carriers and…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com25 November 2019
To study the formation and characterize the structure of mixed complexes of oppositely charged block copolymers and surfactants are of great significance for practical applications, e.g., in drug carrier formulations that are based on electrostatically assisted assembly. In this context, biocompatible block copolymers and biosurfactants (like bile salts) are particularly…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com25 November 2019
In our present work we present an approach which allows one to confine proteins in structurally nearly identical bicontinuous microemulsions with systematically decreasing water domain size. It is shown that sub-diffusive behaviour occurs already at water domain sizes below 13 nm. However, above 13 nm normal diffusion is seen. Moreover,…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com25 November 2019