Tunable mechanical properties of Mo3Se3-poly vinyl alcohol-based/silk fibroin-based nanowire ensure the regeneration mechanism in tenocytes derived from human bone marrow stem cells.

Silk fibroin (SF) and poly vinyl alcohol (PVA)-based nanomaterial has exceptional attention in regenerative medicine. However, the preparation of SF and PVA-based nanomaterials in the desired form is complex due to their poor mechanical strength, brittleness, and compatibility. To this end, Mo3Se3 is chosen as a bio-nanowire to fabricate by combining PVA and SF to improve the mechanical properties. Physicochemical and structural features of the Mo3Se3-PVA-SF nanowire hydrogel (Mo3Se3-PVA-SF-NWH) were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). Mechanical properties, degradation ratio, hydrophilicity, water uptake capacity, biocompatibility, and biological activity of the hydrogel were also studied. Superior interactions were formed between the reinforcing molecules of Mo3Se3 and PVA/SF in the hydrogel network by introducing Mo3Se3 nanowire (NW) into the hydrogel. Conversely, Mo3Se3 NW imparts mechanical stability and robustness to the blends (hydrogel) with predictable long-term degradation characteristics. It was proven by in vitro biodegradable rate, and swelling behaviour was varied depending on the concentration of Mo3Se3 NW. Mo3Se3 reinforced the hydrogels and found high porosity with superior biocompatibility. Excellent cellular adaptation was analyzed by MTT assay, live/dead staining, western blot, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). It revealed moderate toxicity at a concentration of 0.02% among the control samples. There was no discernible difference in 0.01% and 0.005% of Mo3Se3-PVA-SF-NWH in tenocytes derived from human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSC). Hence, this Mo3Se3-PVA-SF-NWH might be considered biocompatible due to its biological activities and appropriate mechanical properties. Overall, the Mo3Se3-PVA-SF-NWH might be considered a biocompatible scaffold for the possible biomedical applications of tendon tissue engineering.

Synthesis of "Dahlia-Like" Hydrophilic Fluorescent Carbon Nanohorn as a Bio-Imaging PROBE.

Carbon nanohorns (CNH) were synthesized by a simple conventional hydrothermal method in this study. The CNHs were prepared by the chemical oxidation from the carbonation of Nafion (catalyst) with heparin (carbon resource). The formation of CNH involved two major steps, as described followed. First, the formation of carbon nanorice (CNR) was achieved by carbonation and self-assembly of heparin inside the Nafion structure. Second, the further oxidation of CNR resulted the heterogeneous and porous micelle domains showed at the outer layer of the CNR particles. These porous domains exhibited hydrophobic carbon and resulted self-assembly of the CNR to form the structure of CNHs. The resulting CNHs aggregated into a "dahlia-like" morphology with fluorescence in a diameter of 50-200 nm. The "dahlia-like" CNH showed better fluorescence (450nm) than CNR particles because of the presence of more structural defect. These findings suggest that the hydrophilic fluorescent carbon nanohorns (HFCNHs) synthesized in this study have the potential to be used for in vitro bio-imaging.

The Study of Near-Band-Edge Property in Oxygen-Incorporated ZnS for Acting as an Efficient Crystal Photocatalyst.

A wide gap semiconductor material has attracted attention as a heterophotocatalyst because of its light harvesting nature to be used in alternative energy production for the next generation. We, herein, grow and synthesize ZnS(1-x)O x series compounds using the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method with I2 serving as the transport agent. Different crystals, such as undoped ZnS and oxygen-doped ZnS0.94O0.06 and ZnS0.88O0.12, revealed different bright palette emissions that were presented in photoluminescence spectra in our previous report. To study the electron-hole pair interaction of this sample series, the near-band-edge transitions of the sample series were characterized in detail by photoconductivity (PC) experiments. Additional results from surface photovoltage (SPV) spectra also detected the surface and defect-edge transitions from the higher oxygen-doped ZnS crystals. PC measurement results showed a red-shift in the bandgap with increasing incorporation of oxygen on ZnS. Consequently, the samples were subjected to photoirradiation by xenon lamp for the degradation of methylene blue (MNB) by acting as heterophotocatalysts. Undoped ZnS emerged as the best photocatalyst candidate with the fastest rate constant value of 0.0277 min-1. In cubic {111} ZnS [{111} c-ZnS], the polarized Zn+ → S- ions may play a vital role as a photocatalyst because of their strong electron-hole polarization, which leads to the mechanism for degradation of the MNB solution.