For the first time, we incorporated mesoporous micro-silica (5 μm, pore size ¼ 50 nm) as a filler in epoxy resin aiming to enter polymer into the pore of the silica. As expected, the thermal stability of the composite increased remarkably, followed by noteworthy thermal degradation kinetics when compared to the controlled cured epoxy resin. Composites were prepared by the direct dispersion of modified nano-silica, modified mesoporous microsilica, unmodified mesoporous micro-silica, non-porous micro-silica, and irregular micro-silica of various pore sizes as fillers in diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy resin via ultra-sonication and shear mixing, followed by oven-curing with 4,4-diaminodiphenyl sulfone. DSC and TGA analyses demonstrated a higher glass transition temperature (increased by 3.65-5.75 C) and very high activation energy for thermal degradation (average increase ¼ 46.2%) was obtained for the same unmodified silica composite compared to pure epoxy, respectively.
The antidiabetic, hypoglycemic and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) activities of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) were assessed in mice. ZnONPs were prepared by reacting Zn(NO3)2.6H2O and NaOH solution at 70°C with continuous stirring and then characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Diabetes was induced by the intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) in mice, and then the blood glucose levels were determined by the glucose oxidase method. The experimental results revealed that ZnONPs suggestively (p<0.001) declined the blood glucose levels (39.79%), while these reductions were 38.78% for the cotreatment of ZnONPs and insulin, and 48.60% for insulin, respectively. In the hypoglycemic study, ZnONPs (8 and 14 mg/kg b.w) reduced approximately 25.13 and 29.15% of blood glucose levels, respectively. A similar reduction was found in the OGTT test, which is also a dose- and time-dependent manner. Overall, ZnONPs possess a potential antidiabetic activity, which could be validated by further mechanistic studies.
BackgroundPresent study has been conducted to know the anthelmintic activity of polyaniline coated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized from Momordica charantia fruit extract.MethodsBy reduction of AgNO3 in presence of NaBH4, silver nanoparticles were prepared. After mixing silver nanoparticles and extracts, coating was given on nanoparticles using polyaniline. Prepared nanoparticles were characterized by Visual, UV, FTIR spectroscopy, SEM techniques, and TEM analysis.ResultsThe FTIR results implied that AgNPs were successfully synthesized and capped with bio-compounds present in the extract. The result showed that death times of worm were 35.12 ± 0.5 and 59.3 ± 0.3 minutes for M. charantia extract and Ag-nanoparticles individually. But when these two combined together, paralysis and death time fall drastically which were only 6.16 ± 0.6 and 9.1 ± 0.4 minutes respectively. Albendazole tablet was used as standard, which made worms death in 3.66 ± 0.1 minutes.ConclusionAg-Extract NPs showed strong anthelmintic activity against worm. This study has paved the way for further research to design new anthelmintic drug from the combination of M. charantia and AgNPs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12906-016-1219-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
An approach for preparing highly conductive poly(methyl methacrylate)–reduced graphene oxide (PMMA/rGO) composites by in situ polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer in the presence of iron metal induced deoxygenated rGO is reported. The obtained PMMA/rGO exhibited excellent electrical properties with a percolation threshold as low as 0.1 wt.% and electrical conductivity of 14 S/m at only 0.8 wt.% rGO loading. Moreover, with only 0.4 wt.% rGO content, the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the prepared PMMA/rGO composite was enhanced by 16°C which corresponds to 17% improvement when compared to that of the neat PMMA. Furthermore, tensile strength increased by 26% as compared to that of the neat PMMA.
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