Mariano Sirignano

Chitosan/Oxidized soot aerogels act as low-cost, regenerable adsorbents for both cationic dye (Rhodamine 6G) and toxic Cr( vi ) removal.

Carbon nanomaterials have been widely applied for cutting edge therapeutic applications as they offer tunable physio-chemical properties with economic scale-up options. Nuclear delivery of cancer drugs has been of prime focus since it controls important cellular signaling functions leading to greater anti-cancer drug efficacies. Better cellular drug uptake per unit drug injection drastically reduces severe side-effects of cancer therapies. Similarly, carbon dots (CDs) uptaken by the nucleus can also be used to set-up cutting edge nano delivery systems. In an earlier paper, we showed the cellular uptake and plasma membrane impact of combustion generated yellow luminescing CDs produced by our group from fuel rich combustion reactors in a one-step tunable production. In this paper, we aim to specifically study the nucleus by establishing the uptake kinetics of these combustion-generated yellow luminescing CDs. At sub-lethal doses, after crossing the plasma membrane, they impact the actin and microtubule mesh, affecting cell adhesion and migration; enter nucleus by diffusion processes; modify the overall appearance of the nucleus in terms of morphology; and alter chromatin condensation. We thus establish how this one-step produced, cost and bulk production friendly carbon dots from fuel rich combustion flames can be innovatively repurposed as potential nano delivery agents in cancer cells.

Despite their hazardous nature, carbonaceous particles (CPs) own very appealing properties, which make them a leading material in numerous applications. A systematic work on the properties of aqueous dispersions containing CPs, cetylpyridinium chloride (CPyCl), and sodium salicylate (NaSal) is here presented. Being CPs not soluble in water, an effective preparation method to obtain stable and homogeneous solutions was developed. Furthermore, a full characterization of the systems was performed by means of UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy, rheology, and interfacial tension measurements. Hydrophobic CPs are hard to disperse in a water matrix. The adoption of CPyCl as solubility enhancer was a sound strategy to finely disperse high concentration of CPs in an aqueous environment. The high CPs concentration involved conferred to the solutions a dark color and peculiar properties, such as UV and visible light radiation absorbance. The addition of NaSal to the CPyCl-CPs water solutions donated to the system robust viscoelasticity. We investigated 100 mM CPyCl aqueous solutions, with 60 and 70 mM NaSal, containing various amounts of CPs (0–9500 ppm). CPs at concentrations beneath 9500 ppm do not influence the system rheological properties. The well-known effect of NaSal on CPyCl solutions remains unaltered even in the presence of CPs at concentrations below 9500 ppm. On the other hand, the addition of 9500 ppm CPs provokes a moderate change in the rheological properties and microstructure of the systems. At a such high concentration, CPs seem to mimic the effect of NaSal on the micellar solutions, acting as a full-fledged hydrophobic salt.