Herein, we report on a new Cu-based MOF material, Cu(2)(dhtp), structurally homologous to the honeycomb-like M(2)(dhtp) series. This has been crystallized under solvothermal conditions using copper nitrate and 2,5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid as an organic linker, being the nature of the co-solvent in the synthesis media an important variable over the final physical properties of the material. The presence of isopropanol as a co-solvent leads to the formation of a pure crystalline phase with textural properties comparable to M(2)(dhtp) homologues. The interesting results in CO(2) adsorption properties of this new material, especially its isosteric heat of adsorption, make it a suitable MOF to be further evaluated under real conditions of industrial CO(2) capture.

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In the present study, we report the delivery of anti-cancer drug curcumin to cancer cells using mesoporous silica materials. A series of mesoporous silica material based drug delivery systems (S2, S4 and S6) were first designed and developed through the amine functionalization of KIT-6, MSU-2 and MCM-41 followed by the loading of curcumin. The curcumin loaded materials were characterized with several physico-chemical techniques and thoroughly screened on cancer cells to evaluate their in vitro drug delivery efficacy. All the curcumin loaded silica materials exhibited higher cellular uptake and inhibition of cancer cell viability compared to pristine curcumin. The effective internalization of curcumin in cancer cells through the mesoporous silica materials initiated the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species and the down regulation of poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) enzyme levels compared to free curcumin leading to the activation of apoptosis. This study shows that the anti-cancer activity of curcumin can be potentiated by loading onto mesoporous silica materials. Therefore, we strongly believe that mesoporous silica based curcumin loaded drug delivery systems may have future potential applications for the treatment of cancers.

Transesterification of refined and crude vegetable oils was carried out with a sulfonic acid-modified mesostructured catalyst. This catalyst has yielded fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) purity over 95 wt % for oil conversion close to 100% under best reaction conditions (temperature 180 °C, methanol/oil molar ratio 10, and catalyst loading 6 wt % with regard to the amount of oil). Interestingly, high methanol concentration leads to a detrimental effect on the catalyst activity. Regardless of the presence of free fatty acids, the sulfonic acid-modified mesostructured catalyst showed high activity toward simultaneous esterification and transesterification. These sulfonated mesostructured materials are promising catalysts for preparation of biodiesel, but some aspects related to the tuning of the adsorption properties of the silica surface and the enhancement of the catalyst's reusability must be addressed in future work.

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