Facile and Efficient Phase-Selective Powder Polymer Organogelator for Oil Spill Remediation.

Phase-selective organogelators that gel oils from oil/water mixtures are useful to remediate oil spills on water. We designed and synthesized polymer organogelators, poly(styrene-co-10-undecenoic acid) with five different 10-undecenoic acid contents that could be added as powders at room temperature to gel oils with different viscosities. The morphologies and mechanical strengths of the gels were investigated using field-emission electron microscopy and rheological measurements, respectively. The gels formed porous fibrillar structures and had high stiffness. Fourier transformm infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies of these gels showed that hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces helped create three-dimensional networks. The straightforward synthesis procedure, room-temperature conditions, and easy powder delivery make poly(styrene-co-10-undecenoic acid) an attractive alternative to existing oil spill response methods.

Polystyrene magnetic nanocomposite blend: An effective, facile, and economical alternative in oil spill removal applications.

Finding an efficient and economical method to remediate oil spills on water is a priority worldwide. In this article, we propose a solution to this problem using polystyrene magnetic nanocomposite blends composed of polystyrene chains grafted on the surface of silica coated on iron oxide nanoparticles and polystyrene. The hydrophobic and oleophilic magnetic polymer nanocomposite collected oil from the water surface quickly and efficiently. However, when the magnetic polymer nanocomposite was blended with polystyrene, the resulting material also absorbed oil efficiently from the water surface. The blending technique made it easier to prepare the absorbent and dramatically decreased its cost. These new absorbents absorbed oil up to 5 times their own weight in only 5 minutes. The excellent hydrophobicity, low density, and easy magnetic separation makes these new absorbents a promising alternative to recover oil from spilled in fresh and marine water.

Enrichment of low abundance DNA/RNA by oligonucleotide-clicked iron oxide nanoparticles.

Detection of low abundance target DNA/RNA for clinical or research purposes is challenging because the target sequences can be hidden under a large background of human genomic or non-human metagenomic sequences. We describe a probe-based capture method to enrich for target sequences with DNA-clicked iron oxide nanoparticles. Our method was tested against commercial capture assays using streptavidin beads, on a set of probes derived from a common genotype of the hepatitis C virus. We showed that our method is more specific and sensitive, most likely due to the combination of an inert silica coating and a high density of DNA probes clicked to the nanoparticles. This facilitates target capture below the limits of detection for TaqMan qPCR, and we believe that this method has the potential to transform management of infectious diseases.