In recent years, the application of dendrimers in biomedicine attracted much attention from scientists. Dendrimers are interesting for biomedical applications because of their characteristics, including: a hyperbranching, well-defined globular structures, excellent structural uniformity, multivalency, variable chemical composition, and high biological compatibility. In particular, the three-dimensional architecture of dendrimers can incorporate a variety of biologically active agents to form biologically active conjugates. This review of dendrimers focuses on their use as protein mimics, drug delivery agents, anticancer and antiviral therapeutics, and in biomedical diagnostic applications such as chemically modified electrodes.
An electro-Fenton-based method was used to promote the regeneration of granular activated carbon (GAC) previously adsorbed with toluene. Electrochemical regeneration experiments were carried out using a standard laboratory electrochemical cell with carbon paste electrodes and a batch electrochemical reactor. For each system, a comparison was made using FeSO4 as a precursor salt in solution (homogeneous system) and an Fe-loaded ion-exchange resin (Purolite C-100, heterogeneous system), both in combination with electrogenerated H2O2 at the GAC cathode. In the two cases, high regeneration efficiencies were obtained in the presence of iron using appropriate conditions of applied potential and adsorption-polarization time. Consecutive loading and regeneration cycles of GAC were performed in the reactor without great loss of the adsorption properties, only reducing the regeneration efficiency by 1% per cycle during 10 cycles of treatment. Considering that, in the proposed resin-containing process, the use of Fe salts is avoided and that GAC cathodic polarization results in efficient cleaning and regeneration of the adsorbent material, this novel electro-Fenton approach could constitute an excellent alternative for regenerating activated carbon when compared to conventional methods.
The removal of methylene blue (MB), a cationic dye and orange II (OII), an anionic dye, from aqueous solution by using carbon nanomaterials as multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNF) as adsorbents was studied in batch experiments. The effect of pH, temperature and surface modification of adsorbent on the removal of MB and OII was also investigated. The removals of OII and MB by adsorption on MWNT were maximum at pH 3.0 and pH 7.0, respectively. However, in the case CNF was employed as adsorbent, the optimum values of pH were 9.0 and 5.0 for OII and MB, respectively. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms are applied to fit the adsorption data of both dyes. Equilibrium data were well described by the typical Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Overall, the study demonstrated that MWNTs and CNFs can effectively remove cationic and anionic dyes as MB and OII from aqueous solutions under these experimental conditions.
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