Search Results (7)

Wound healing is important for skin after deep injuries or burns, which can lead to hospitalization, long-term morbidity, and mortality. In this field, tissue-engineered skin substitutes have therapy potential to assist in the treatment of acute and chronic skin wounds, where many requirements are still unmet. Hence, in this study, a novel type of biocompatible ternary polymer hybrid hydrogel scaffold was designed and produced through an entirely eco-friendly aqueous process composed of carboxymethyl cellulose, chitosan, and polyvinyl alcohol and chemically cross-linked by citric acid, forming three-dimensional (3D) matrices, which were biofunctionalized with L-arginine (L-Arg) to enhance cellular adhesion. They were applied as bilayer skin biomimetic substitutes based on human-derived cell cultures of fibroblasts and keratinocytes were seeded and grown into their 3D porous structures, producing cell-based bio-responsive hybrid hydrogel scaffolds to assist the wound healing process. The results demonstrated that hydrophilic hybrid cross-linked networks were formed via esterification reactions with the 3D porous microarchitecture promoted by foam templating and freeze-drying. These hybrids presented chemical stability, physicochemical properties, high moisture adsorption capacity, surface properties, and a highly interconnected 3D porous structure well suited for use as a skin substitute in wound healing. Additionally, the surface biofunctionalization of these 3D hydrogel scaffolds with L-arginine through amide bonds had significantly enhanced cellular attachment and proliferation of fibroblast and keratinocyte cultures. Hence, the in vivo results using Hairless mouse models (an immunocompromised strain) confirmed that these responsive bio-hybrid hydrogel scaffolds possess hemocompatibility, bioadhesion, biocompatibility, adhesiveness, biodegradability, and non-inflammatory behavior and are capable of assisting the skin wound healing process. Full article

Heterogeneous microstructures in Cu-Mo-W alloy thin films formed by magnetron co-sputtering immiscible elements with concentrated compositions are characterized using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and nanoindentation. In this work, we modified the phase separated structure of a Cu-Mo immiscible system by adding W, which impedes surface diffusion during film growth. The heterogeneous microstructures in the Cu-Mo-W ternary system exhibited bicontinuous matrices and agglomerates composed of Mo(W)-rich phase. This is unique, as these are the slower-diffusing species, contrasting past reports of binary Cu-Mo thin films that exhibited Cu-rich agglomerates. The bicontinuous matrices comprised of Cu-rich and Mo(W)-rich phases exhibited bilayer thicknesses of less than 5 nm. The hardness of these thin films measured using nanoindentation is reported and compared to similar multilayers and nanocomposites in binary systems. Full article

Targeted protein degradation has emerged as an alternative therapy against cancer, offering several advantages over traditional inhibitors. The new degrader drugs provide different therapeutic strategies: they could cross the phospholipid bilayer membrane by the addition of specific moieties to extracellular proteins. On the other hand, they could efficiently improve the degradation process by the generation of a ternary complex structure of an E3 ligase. Herein, we review the current trends in the use of TAC-based technologies (TACnologies), such as PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras (PROTAC), PHOtochemically TArgeting Chimeras (PHOTAC), CLIck-formed Proteolysis TArgeting Chimeras (CLIPTAC), AUtophagy TArgeting Chimeras (AUTAC), AuTophagosome TEthering Compounds (ATTEC), LYsosome-TArgeting Chimeras (LYTAC), and DeUBiquitinase TArgeting Chimeras (DUBTAC), in experimental development and their progress towards clinical applications. Full article

The cathode buffer layer (CBL) plays a crucial role in organic solar cells (OSCs), and it has been challenging to obtain high-quality CBL by using simple and reliable processes. In this paper, the bilayer structure consisting of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) and sol–gel SnO₂ was prepared by the low-temperature (<100 °C) UV-ozone (UVO) sintering process and used as the robust CBL for ternary OSCs based on PTB7-Th:PCDTBT:PC₇₀BM. The results show that the insertion of SnO₂ can effectively fill the cracks and pores on the surface of the ZnO NP film, thereby improving the overall compactness and flatness of the CBL and reducing the defect density inside the CBL. Furthermore, the insertion of SnO₂ slightly improves the transmittance of the CBL to photons with wavelengths in the range of 400–600 nm, and also increases the electron mobility of the CBL thus facilitating the extraction and transport of the electrons. Compared to the devices using UVO-ZnO and UVO-SnO₂ CBLs, the devices with UVO-ZnO/SnO₂ CBL exhibit exceptional performance advantages, the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) reaches 10.56%. More importantly, the stability of the devices with ZnO/SnO₂ CBL is significantly improved, the device (PCE) still maintains 60% of the initial value after 30 days in air. The positive results show that the UVO-ZnO/SnO₂ is an ideal CBL for OSCs, and due to the low-temperature process, it has great application potential in flexible OSCs. Full article

Nitride and carbide ternary coatings improve the wear and corrosion resistance of carbon steel substrates. In this work, Ti-W-N and Ti-W-C coatings were deposited on AISI 1060 steel substrates using reactive radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. The coatings were designed as monolayers, bilayers, and multilayers of 40 periods. The coatings were obtained with simultaneous sputtering of Ti and W targets. The microstructure, composition, and electrochemical properties were investigated by techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and potentiodynamic polarization. XRD results shower a mix of binary TiN and W₂N structures in the Ti-W-N layer, a ternary phase in Ti-W-C layers, in addition of a quaternary phase of Ti-W-CN in the multilayers. The analysis of the XPS demonstrated that the atomic concentration of Ti was more significant than W in the Ti-W-N and Ti-W-C layers. The lowest corrosion rate (0.19 mm/year⁻¹) and highest impedance (~10 kΩ·cm²) out of all coatings were found in n = 40 bilayers. In the simulation of equivalent electrical circuits, it was found that the Ti-W-N coating presented three processes of impedance (Pore resistance + Coating + Inductance). However, the multilayer (n = 40) system presented a major dielectric constant through the electrolyte adsorption; therefore, this caused an increase in the capacitance of the coating. Full article

Bilayer ternary solar cells are a kind of novel organic photovoltaic device with a triple-component active layer but are different from the ternary bulk heterojunction (BHJ) blend. Two binary BHJs with a common acceptor (or donor) are deposited sequentially in this kind of device. Here, we study the fabrication and optimization of bilayer ternary solar cells using metal phthalocyanine donors and fullerene acceptor. The device power conversion efficiency (PCE) shows a significant dependence on the interface between the two binary BHJs. The interface formed by stacking two BHJs directly demonstrates severe restrictions on the device efficiency. We find that the photovoltaic performance of bilayer ternary cells can be improved by inserting a C60 molecular monolayer between the two binary BHJs. The effect of the C60 interfacial layer on charge transport is analyzed based on their transport characteristics under negative bias. A relationship between the C60 interfacial layer and recombination under illumination is discussed. This work reveals a particular influence due to the interface facing three materials in organic solar cells. Full article

$\beta$ -aescin is a versatile biosurfactant extracted from the seeds of the horse chestnut tree Aesculus hippocastanum with anti-cancer potential and is commonly used in the food and pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In this article, wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) is used in order to study the modifications of the structural parameters at the molecular scale of lipid bilayers in the form of bicelles composed of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) and the triterpenoid saponin $\beta$ -aescin. In particular, the impact on the cooperative phase transition and the structural parameters of the DMPC bilayers at different compositions and temperatures is of special interest. Moreover, we show how cholesterol and the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ibuprofen modulate the structural parameters of the $\beta$ -aescin-DMPC assemblies on a molecular scale. Ibuprofen and cholesterol interact with different parts of the bilayer, namely the head-region in the former and the tail-region in the latter case allowing for specific molecular packing and phase formation in the binary and ternary mixtures. Full article