Encapsulation of a Phase‐Change Material in Nanocapsules with a Well‐Defined Hole in the Wall for the Controlled Release of Drugs

Electrospun Nanofibers: Shaping the Future of Controlled and Responsive Drug Delivery

Electrospun nanofibers for drug delivery systems (DDS) introduce a revolutionary means of administering pharmaceuticals, holding promise for both improved drug efficacy and reduced side effects. These biopolymer nanofiber membranes, distinguished by their high surface area-to-volume ratio, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, are ideally suited for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. One of their standout attributes is the capability to offer the controlled release of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), allowing custom-tailored release profiles to address specific diseases and administration routes. Moreover, stimuli-responsive electrospun DDS can adapt to conditions at the drug target, enhancing the precision and selectivity of drug delivery. Such localized API delivery paves the way for superior therapeutic efficiency while diminishing the risk of side effects and systemic toxicity. Electrospun nanofibers can foster better patient compliance and enhanced clinical outcomes by amplifying the therapeutic efficiency of routinely prescribed medications. This review delves into the design principles and techniques central to achieving controlled API release using electrospun membranes. The advanced drug release mechanisms of electrospun DDS highlighted in this review illustrate their versatility and potential to improve the efficacy of medical treatments.

Phase-change materials-based platforms for biomedicine

Recently, phase-change materials (PCMs) have gathered enormous attention in diverse fields of medicine, particularly in bioimaging, therapeutic delivery, and tissue engineering. Due to the excellent physicochemical characteristics and morphological characteristics of PCMs, several developments have been demonstrated in the construction of diverse PCMs-based architectures toward providing new burgeoning opportunities in developing innovative technologies and improving the therapeutic benefits of the existing formulations. However, the fabrication of PCM-based materials into colloidally stable particles remains challenging due to their natural hydrophobicity and high crystallinity. This review systematically emphasizes various PCMs-based platforms, such as traditional PCMs (liposomes) and their nanoarchitectured composites, including PCMs as core, shell, and gatekeeper, highlighting the pros and cons of these architectures for delivering bioactives, imaging anatomical features, and engineering tissues. Finally, we summarize the article with an exciting outlook, discussing the current challenges and future prospects for PCM-based platforms as biomaterials.

Versatile Polymer Nanocapsules via Redox Competition

Polymer nanocapsules have demonstrated significant value in materials science and biomedical technology, but require complicated and time-consuming synthetic steps. We report here the facile synthesis of monodisperse polymer nanocapsules via a redox-mediated kinetic strategy from two simple molecules: dopamine and benzene-1,4-dithiol (BDT). Specifically, BDT forms core templates and modulates the oxidation kinetics of dopamine into polydopamine (PDA) shells. These uniform nanoparticles can be tuned between ≈70 and 200 nm because the core diameter directly depends on BDT while the shell thickness depends on dopamine. The supramolecular core can then rapidly disassemble in organic solvents to produce PDA nanocapsules. Such nanocapsules exhibit enhanced physicochemical performance (e.g., loading capacity, photothermal transduction, and anti-oxidation) versus their solid counterparts. Particularly, this method enables a straightforward encapsulation of functional nanoparticles providing opportunities for designing complex nanostructures such as yolk-shell nanoparticles.

Highly Efficient Thermal Energy Storage Using a Hybrid Hypercrosslinked Polymer*

In this work, an organic/inorganic hybrid polymer containing siloxyl functional groups was synthesized and applied to encapsulate phase change materials (PCMs). Owing to the mild conditions of the hypercrosslinking reaction, which only requires the addition of a catalytic amount of aqueous alkaline solution, both organic and inorganic PCMs are tolerated. It is noteworthy that the initial homogeneous state of the reaction mixture allowed the ultimate encapsulation rate of the PCMs and the uniform blending of the third nano-additives with the aim of thermal conductivity enhancement. Further study reveals that the presence of this hybrid hydrophobic polymer in a phase change composite endows the latter with a unique self-cleaning property. This novel PCM encapsulation protocol is suitable for nanoparticles including carbon-based nanomaterials, metal oxide nanoparticles, and inorganic oxide nanoparticles. A thermal conductivity enhancement of 600 % was achieved along with 93.7 % light-to-thermal conversion efficiency with a latent heat of 180 J g^-1 without leakage.

Direct Visualization and Semi-Quantitative Analysis of Payload Loading in the Case of Gold Nanocages

Upon incubation with Au nanocages, pyrrole (Py) molecules can enter the cavities by diffusing through the porous walls and then be polymerized to generate a polypyrrole (PPy) coating on the inner surface. The thicknesses of the PPy coating can serve as a direct indicator for the amount of Py molecules that diffuse into the cavity. Py molecules are able to diffuse into the cavities throughout the polymerization process, while a prolonged incubation time increases the amount of Py accumulated on both inner and outer surfaces of the nanocages. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the dimensions of the cavity and the size of the pores in the wall are not critical parameters in determining the loading efficiency, as they do not affect the thickness of the PPy coating on the inner surface. These findings offer direct evidence to support the applications of Au nanocages as carriers for drug delivery and controlled release.