Unmodified Silica Nanoparticles Enhance Mechanical Properties and Welding Ability of Epoxy Thermosets with Tunable Vitrimer Matrix.

Epoxy/silica thermosets with tunable matrix (vitrimers) were prepared by thermal curing of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) in the presence of a hardener-4-methylhexahydrophthalic anhydride (MHHPA), a transesterification catalyst-zinc acetylacetonate (ZAA), and 10-15 nm spherical silica nanoparticles. The properties of the resulting material were studied by tensile testing, thermomechanical and dynamic mechanical analysis. It is shown that at room temperature the introduction of 5-10 wt% of silica nanoparticles in the vitrimer matrix strengthens the material leading to the increase of the elastic modulus by 44% and the tensile stress by 25%. Simultaneously, nanoparticles enhance the dimensional stability of the material since they reduce the coefficient of thermal expansion. At the same time, the transesterification catalyst provides the thermoset with the welding ability at heating, when the chain exchange reactions are accelerated. For the first time, it was shown that the silica nanoparticles strengthen welding joints in vitrimers, which is extremely important, since it allows to repeatedly use products made of thermosets and heal defects in them. Such materials hold great promise for use in durable protective coatings, adhesives, sealants and many other applications.

Modification biological activity of S and R forms of Proteus mirabilis and Burkholderia cepacia lipopolysaccharides by carrageenans.

The modification of biological features of S and R forms of Proteus mirabilis and Burkholderia cepacia LPS by kappa/iota and kappa/beta carrageenans was shown in Limulus activation test, ELISA, human complement activation and apoptotic assay. The role of positively charged substituent Ara4N in lipid A was evaluated as a suspected major domain for interactions with sulphate groups of carrageenans.The experiments obtained by three serological methods indicated that not only lipid A part of LPS but also polysaccharide elements such as core and O-specific chain are involved in interaction with carrageenes. Carrageenans turned out to be non-cytotoxic for A549 cells and were able to inhibit the apoptotic effect caused by lipid A of P. mirabilis and B. cepacia.

Gelling polysaccharide from Chondrus armatus and its oligosaccharides: the structural peculiarities and anti-inflammatory activity.

Structural peculiarities of low molecular weight (LMW) sample obtained by mild acid hydrolysis of κ-carrageenan from Chondrus armatus was investigated by a rapid mass spectrometric method. The selected conditions allowed avoiding excess destruction of 3,6-AnGal residues that was shown by using tandem (MS/MS) mode. Main oligosaccharide fraction with molecular weight 2.3 kg/mol, obtained by mild acid hydrolysis was chosen for the analysis. It was shown that fragments with even degree of polymerization (DP) were mostly built of (-G4S-DA-)n repeating unit, n=1-5. Some fragments with odd DP were shown to contain -DA2S- insertions, being the fragments of ι-type blocks, which were randomly distributed along the polysaccharide chain as single insertions. The anti-inflammatory activity (on acetic acid-induced colitis in mice) of the initial polymer and its derivatives was studied. The anti-inflammatory effect of the polymer was observed at a dose of 5mg/kg. Polysaccharide decreased the degree of colon damage more than twice and area of damage in 40%.

Effects of structural peculiarities of carrageenans on their immunomodulatory and anticoagulant activities.

Biological activity of five carrageenan types - kappa, kappa/beta, kappa/iota, lambda and new type - iks - isolated from the most abundant species belonging to Gigartinaceae and Tichocarpaceae collected from the Pacific coast was investigated. The ability of carrageenans to influence on the cytokine production by human cells is greatly dependent on concentration and structure of polysaccharides. At high concentrations all types of carrageenans increased the level of pro-inflammatory IL-6 and TNF-α, while at low concentration (1-10ng/mL) their activity was insignificant. All types of carrageenans induced the secretion of anti-inflammatory IL-10 in dose-dependent manner. Hybrid kappa/beta-carrageenan showed fairly high activity independent on concentration. At low concentrations (10ng/mL) its activity was more than that of LPS. The structural analysis of polysaccharides suggests that additional sulphate ester residue of lambda-carrageenan increases the concentration of calcium in macrophage cytoplasm and may have an important role in the activation process of the formation of active oxygen forms. Kappa/iota carrageenan possessed for the potential anticoagulant activity, which was extremely strong in low concentration. These results suggest that the immunomodulation and anticoagulant activity of carrageenans depends on the monosaccharide composition of polysaccharides, number, position and distribution of sulphate groups along galactan chain.