Open Access
Nitrogen doped carbon dots as a photocatalyst based on biomass: a life cycle assessment
(Elsevier, 2023) Rodríguez-Carballo, Gabriela; Moreno-Tost, Ramón; Fernandes, Sónia; Esteves da Silva, Joaquim C.G.; Pinto da Silva, Luís; Castro Galiano, Eulogio; Algarra González, Manuel; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
The effectiveness of various transition metal phosphate-based acid catalysts, including vanadium and niobium, in the hydrothermal synthesis of carbon dots (CDs), has been assessed. Two sources of carbohydrates were employed for this: commercial xylose and liquor of xylose produced by processing olive pits. Catalysts were identified using the NH3-TPD, DTA/TG, XRD, and XPS techniques. The reaction was conducted for 4 h at a temperature of 180 °C. The existence of such nanoparticles, regardless of the carbohydrate source, was confirmed by an analysis of the features and characteristics of CDs nanoparticles. N-doped CDs with increased fluorescence were also created at the same time using a similar hydrothermal technique, and their photocatalytic activity was investigated. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted for both syntheses with the goal of comparing the environmental effects of the synthesis from commercial xylose to the synthesis from biomass. It was revealed that, although energy is the primary driver of both synthesis pathways' effect categories, the fundamental variations that seem to determine their relative sustainability are connected to the nature of the carbon precursor. Regarding the latter, it is determined that electricity has the greatest environmental impact.
Open Access
Nanoporous alumina support covered by imidazole moiety-based ionic liquids: optical characterization and application
(MDPI, 2022) Algarra González, Manuel; López Escalante, María Cruz; Martínez de Yuso, María Valle; Soto, Juan; Cuevas, Ana L.; Benavente, Juana; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
This work analyzes chemical surface and optical characteristics of a commercial nanoporous alumina structure (NPAS) as a result of surface coverage by different imidazolium-based ionic liquids (1-butyl-3-metylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, 3-methyl-1-octylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, or 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate). Optical characteristics of the IL/NPAS samples were determined by photoluminescence (at different excitation wavelengths (from 300 nm to 400 nm), ellipsometry spectroscopy, and light transmittance/reflectance measurements for a range of wavelengths that provide information on modifications related to both visible and near-infrared regions. Chemical surface characterization of the three IL/NPAS samples was performed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which indicates almost total support coverage by the ILs. The IL/NPAS analyzed samples exhibit different photoluminescence behavior, high transparency (<85%), and a reflection maximum at wavelength ~380 nm, with slight differences depending on the IL, while the refractive index values are rather similar to those shown by the ILs. Moreover, the illuminated I–V curves (under standard conditions) of the IL/NPAS samples were also measured for determining the efficiency energy conversion to estimate their possible application as solar cells. On the other hand, a computational quantum mechanical modeling method (DFT) was used to establish the most stable bond between the ILs and the NPAS support.
Open Access
Cellulose polymers with β-amino ester pendant group: design, synthesis, molecular docking and application in adsorption of toxic metals from wastewater
(BioMed Central, 2022) Nairat, Noor; Hamed, Othman; Berisha, Avni; Jodeh, Shehdeh; Algarra González, Manuel; Azzaoui, Khalil; Dagdag, Omar; Samhan, Subhi; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ciencias
Background: Cellulose polymers with multidentate chelating functionalities that have high eficiency for toxic metal ions present in water were designed, synthesized, and analyzed. The synthesis was carried out by reacting microcrystalline cellulose extracted from the solid waste of the olive industry with tert-Butyl acetoacetate (Cell-AA), produced cellulose with β-ketoester functionality was then reacted with aniline and the amino acid glycine to produce Cellβ-AN and Cell-β-GL, respectively. Results: The adsorption efciency of the three polymers toward Pb(II) and various toxic metal ions present in sewage was evaluated as a function of adsorbent dose, time, temperature, pH value, and initial ion concentration to determine optimum adsorption conditions. The three polymers showed excellent efciency toward about 20 metal ions present in a sewage sample collected from the sewer. The adsorption process follows the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model with a second-order of adsorption rate, the calculated qe values (2.675, 15.252, 20.856 mg/g) were close to the experimental qe values (2.133, 13.91, 18.786 mg/g) for the three polymers Cell-AA, Cell-β-AG and Cell-β-AN, respectively. Molecular Dynamic (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations were performed on the three polymers complexed with Pb(II). Conclusion: The waste material of the olive industry was used as a precursor for making the target cellulose polymers with β-Amino Ester Pendant Group. The polymer was characterized by SEM, proton NMR, TGA, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The efcacy of adsorption was quantitative for metal ions present in a real sample of wastewater and the efciency didn’t drop even after 7 cycles of use. The results indicate the existence of strong complexation. The thermodynamic study results showed a spontaneous bonding between of Pb(II) and the polymers pendant groups expressed by the negative value of the Gibbs free energy.
Open Access
Olive industry liquid waste from trash to metal adsorbent for wastewater purifcation
(BMC, 2024) Ishraydeh, Isra; Hamed, Othman; Deghles, Abdalhadi; Jodeh, Shehdeh; Azzaoui, Khalil; Hasan, Abdelfattah; Assali, Mohyeddin; Jaseer, Ataa; Mansour, Waseem; Hacıosmanoğlu, Gül Gülenay; Can, Zehra Semra; Algarra González, Manuel; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
The development of biobased polymeric materials for wastewater purification has become a demand due to the growing need for water free of hazardous metal ions for safe purposes. The organic components of the OLLW including carbohydrates, phenolics, aromatic acids and others are cost-effective and sustainable choices for this application. This work focuses on a method for turning the organic components of liquid waste from the olive industry (OILW) into a foam-based value-added polymer that has several metal ion binding sites. The process of making the target polymers involved reacting the components of the OILW with hexamethylene diisocyante and 1,4-phnyelene diisocynate to create the polymeric materials LHMIDIC and LPDIC that are in foam forms with urethane linkages, respectively. The adsorption competence of the polymeric foams toward Pb(II) was evaluated as a function of various parameters including adsorbent dose, pH, temperature, initial ion concentration and time. The optimum parameters values that led to a quantitative removal of Pb(II) were identified. The obtained thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption by the two foams was spontaneous at room temperature. The isothermal and kinetic values showed that the adsorption by synthesized foams follows a second order kinetic and obeys the Langmuir isothermal model. The foams showed a high tendency for removing multi metal ions present in a real sample of wastewater. The original nature of the starting material used in making the foam, cost and the obtained results showed the potential of using the foam in a large-scale plants of wastewater purification.
Open Access
Efficient and scalable gene delivery method with easily generated cationic carbon dots
(BMC, 2024) Algarra González, Manuel; González-Muñoz, Elena; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
Gene delivery is a complex process with several challenges when attempting to incorporate genetic material efficiently and safely into target cells. Some of the key challenges include not only efficient cellular uptake and endosomal escape to ensure that the genetic material can exert its effect but also minimizing the toxicity of the delivery system, which is vital for safe gene delivery. Of importance, if gene delivery systems are intended for biomedical applications or clinical use, they must be scalable and easy and affordable to manufacture to meet the demand. Here, we show an efficient gene delivery method using a combination of carbon dots coated by PEI through electrostatic binding to easily generate cationic carbon dots. We show a biofunctional approach to generate optimal cationic carbon dots (CCDs) that can be scaled up to meet specific transfection demands. CCDs improve cell viability and increase transfection efficiency four times over the standard of PEI polyplexes. Generated CCDs enabled the challenging transfection protocol to produce retroviral vectors via cell cotransfection of three different plasmids into packing cells, showing not only high efficiency but also functionality of the gene delivery, tested as the capacity to produce infective retroviral particles.
Open Access
Monitoring oocyte-based human pluripotency acquisition using synchrotron-based FTIR microspectroscopy reveals specific biomolecular trajectories
(Elsevier, 2023) Dučić, Tanja; Sánchez-Mata, Alicia; Castillo-Sánchez, Jesús; Algarra González, Manuel; González-Muñoz, Elena; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
The reprogramming of human somatic cells to induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) has become a milestone and a paradigm shift in the field of regenerative medicine and human disease modeling including drug testing and genome editing. However, the molecular processes occurring during reprogramming and affecting the pluripotent state acquired remain largely unknown. Of interest, different pluripotent states have been described depending on the reprogramming factors used and the oocyte has emerged as a valuable source of information for candidate factors. The present study investigates the molecular changes occurring in somatic cells during reprogramming with either canonical (OSK) or oocyte-based (AOX15) combinations using synchrotron-radiation Fourier transform infrared (SR FTIR) spectroscopy. The data acquired by SR FTIR indicates different representation and conformation of biological relevant macromolecules (lipids, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and proteins) depending on the reprogramming combination used and at different stages during the reprogramming process. Association analysis based on cells spectra suggest that pluripotency acquisition trajectories converge at late intermediate stages while they diverge at early stages. Our results suggest that OSK and AOX15 reprogramming operates through differential mechanisms affecting nucleic acids reorganization and day 10 comes out as a candidate hinge point to further study the molecular pathways involved in the reprogramming process. This study indicates that SR FTIR approach contribute unpaired information to distinguish pluripotent states and to decipher pluripotency acquisition roadmaps and landmarks that will enable advanced biomedical applications of iPSCs.
Open Access
Synthesis of hydroxyapatite/polyethylene glycol 6000 composites by novel dissolution/precipitation method: optimization of the adsorption process using a factorial design: DFT and molecular dynamic
(BMC, 2023) Azzaoui, Khalil; Jodeh, Shehdeh; Mejdoubi, E.; Hammouti, B.; Taleb, M.; Ennabety, G.; Berisha, Avni; Aaddouz, M.; Youssouf, M. H.; Shityakov, S.; Sabbahi, Rachid; Algarra González, Manuel; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
In this work, we presented a synthesis of a composite based on HAp and PEG 6000 using a new method of synthesis dissolution precipitation to be applied for application of wastewater purification from toxic metal ions. Multiple characterization methods were used to analyze the morphology and the structure of the well-prepared compounds including FT-IR, Raman, XRD, XPS, TGA and SEM were used to conduct a composite analysis. The adsorption effectiveness of this analysis towards Pb2+ and various other hazardous metal ions found in sewage was assessed. Batch experiments were conducted to optimize the various operational parameters including adsorbent dose, temperature, pH, contact time, and initial concentration. The Langmuir isotherm was used to fit the data, and it predicted monolayer adsorption with a maximum capacity of 67 mg g−1 for HAP PEG600 and 60 mg g−1 for HAp. A pseudo-second-order equation fits the adsorption process well (0.961–0.971). The thermodynamic data support the spontaneous metal bonding to the composite receptor sites. Theoretical calculations showed that the interaction strength is very strong and gets stronger when the PEG6000 is deprotonated. The results presented here are supported by evidence acquired from experiments. Theoretical computation using Monte Carlo (MC) and Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation models showed excellent affinity of prepared foams for the model ion Pb2+ with highly negative adsorption energy values indicating vigorous interactions of Pb2+ with the adsorbate surfaces.
Open Access
Micro sized interdigital capacitor for gases detection based on graphene oxide coating
(Springer, 2023) Vitoria Pascual, Ignacio; Armas, Dayron; Coronel Camones, Carlos Manuel; Algarra González, Manuel; Ruiz Zamarreño, Carlos; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Mukhopadhyay, Subhas C.; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
A micro sized interdigital capacitor sensible to CO2 and NO is studied in this work. The photolithography technique enables to obtain fingers with dimensions of 10 × 500 µm and separated 7 µm between them. The deposition of a film composed of graphene oxide particles as the dielectrics of the capacitor allows to measure the gas concentration of CO2 and NO mixed with N2. The sensors were characterized in a gas chamber with a constant flow, obtaining promising results in changes of capacitance at 100 Hz. The sensors have a good linearity and sensitivity with a R2 = 0.996 and 5.026·10-1 pF/ % v/v for CO2 and R2=0.972 and 1.433·10-1 pF/ppb for NO.
Open Access
Diverse methods with stereoselective induction in the asymmetric Biginelli reaction
(MDPI Publishing, 2024-08-15) Díaz Fernández, Marcos; Algarra González, Manuel; Calvo Losada, Saturnino; Quirante, José Joaquín; Sarabia, Francisco; Pino-González, María Soledad; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
The relevance of the asymmetric Biginelli reaction (ABR) has been increased in this century, due to the pharmacological application of its products. This review focuses predominantly on articles published in the period from 2015 to 2024 on asymmetric synthetic advances in the formation of dihydropyrimidinones (DHPMs), dihydropyrimidinethiones (DHPMTs), and related compounds. The relevant bibliography on general processes in the Biginelli reaction and some methods of separation of isomers have also been referenced.
Open Access
Catalyzed methods to synthesize pyrimidine and related heterocyclic compounds
(MDPI, 2023) Díaz Fernández, Marcos; Calvo Losada, Saturnino; Quirante, José Joaquín; Sarabia, Francisco; Algarra González, Manuel; Pino-González, María Soledad; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
This review covers articles published in the period from 2010 to mid-2022 on synthetic advances in the formation of pyrimidine and related heterocyclic compounds. Special emphasis has been given to the different types of cycloadditions, taking into account the number of their components and leading to the formation of the pyrimidine ring. Due to the large number of publications on the Biginelli reaction and related reactions, this will be dealt with in a separate review in the near future.