A Two-Step Microwave Annealing Process for PAN Pre-Oxidation through a TM-Mode Cavity.

A novel microwave annealing system and a specific processing condition are proposed for the pre-oxidation of carbon fiber. The microwave annealing system consists of a TM-mode resonant cavity and a silicon carbide (SiC) susceptor. The TM-mode cavity enhances the electric field at the center. The SiC susceptor absorbs part of the microwave energy and converts it to heat. The enhanced fields and the SiC susceptor provide both nonthermal and thermal treatments for fibrous materials with various dielectric properties. Furthermore, a two-step microwave annealing process is used to oxidize polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results support the theory that the microwave annealing can achieve a high aromatic index of 66.39% in just 13 min, 9 times faster than the traditional processing time. The results of the Raman spectra also illustrate that the sheath-core factor of the microwave-heated specimen is closer to one than that of the conventional furnace-heated type, which agree with the images of the cross-section area.

Roller-Induced Bundling of Long Silver Nanowire Networks for Strong Interfacial Adhesion, Highly Flexible, Transparent Conductive Electrodes.

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) have been the most promising electrode materials for fabrication of flexible transparent touch panel, displays and many other electronics because of their excellent electrical properties, cost effectiveness, synthesis scalability, and suitability for mass production. Although a few literature reports have described the use of short Ag NWs in fabrication of randomly oriented Ag NW network-based electrode, their electrical conductivities are still far lower than that of Ag films. So far, no any literature report was able to provide any simple solution to fabrication of large-area and mass-manufactural ability to address the issues, such as, conductivity, transparency, electrical current withstand, bending stability, and interfacial adhesion. In the current work, we provide a simple solution to conquer the above-mentioned challenges, and report the development of long Ag NW bundle network electrodes on large area PET films that were coated, aligned, and bundled quickly and simply using a steel roller. Our developed AgNWs-bundle networks had superior performance in optoelectronic properties (sheet resistance 5.8 Ω sq-1; optical transmittance 89% at 550 nm wavelength), electrical current withstand up to 500 mA, and bending stability over 5000 bending cycles, and strong interfacial adhesion.

Apoptosis induced by 2-aryl benzothiazoles-mediated photodynamic therapy in melanomas via mitochondrial dysfunction.

A mild and efficient synthetic development of 2-arylbenzothiazoles 5 mediated by ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) via intramolecular cyclization of N-phenyl-thiobenzamides 4 was achieved. Further compounds 5 were reduced to corresponding amines 6, and their photodynamic therapy (PDT) effect was evaluated on malignant human melanoma A375 cells. Amine 6l plus ultraviolet A (UVA) induced caspase-3 activity, poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase cleavage, M30 positive CytoDeath staining, and subsequent apoptotic cell death. Our data disclosed that treatment of A375 cells with 6l plus UVA resulted in a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨmt), oxidative phosphorylation system (OXPHOS) subunits, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) but an increase in mitochondrial DNA 4977-bp deletion via reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations also showed major ultrastructural alterations of mitochondria. Additionally, 6l plus UVA was also shown to reduce murine melanoma size in a mouse model. The present study supports the hypothesis that 6l-PDT may serve as a potential ancillary modality for the treatment of melanoma.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of thiobenzanilides as anticancer agents.

A series of novel thiobenzanilides is described. These compounds have been previously found to show strong biological activity such as antimycotic and antifungal actions. This is the first demonstration on the mechanism of the anticancer effect of thiobenzanilide agents (4a-c) on human melanoma A375 cells. The cytotoxic studies of compounds 4a-c on human melanoma A375 cells indicate thiobenzanilides induced higher cytotoxicity than nitrobenzanilides (3a-c). In addition, DNA flow cytometric analysis shows that 4a-c displays a significant G2/M phase arrest, which progresses to early apoptosis as detected by flow cytometry after double-staining with annexin V and propidium iodide (PI). Because cellular apoptosis is often preceded by the disruption of mitochondrial function, the assessment of mitochondrial function in 4a-c-treated cells is worthy of investigation. Our data revealed that treatment of A375 cells with 4a-c resulted in the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsi(mt)), a reduction of ATP synthesis, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and activation of caspase-3. Thus, we suggest that 4a-c agents are potent inducers of cell apoptosis in A375 cells.