Volume 2, Issue 4 -

The present capability of rare earth element (REE) analysis has been achieved by the development of two instrumental techniques. The efficiency of spectroscopic methods was extraordinarily improved for the detection and determination of REE traces in various materials. On the other hand, the determination of REEs very often depends on the preconcentration and separation of REEs, and chromatographic techniques are very powerful tools for the separation of REEs. By coupling with sensitive detectors, many ambitious analytical tasks can be fulfilled. Liquid chromatography is the most widely used technique. Different combinations of stationary phases and mobile phases could be used in ion exchange chromatography, ion chromatography, ion-pair reverse-phase chromatography and some other techniques. The application of gas chromatography is limited because only volatile compounds of REEs can be separated. Thin-layer and paper chromatography are techniques that cannot be directly coupled with suitable detectors, which limit their applications. For special demands, separations can be performed by capillary electrophoresis, which has very high separation efficiency.

Biodegradable polymers represent a class of particularly useful materials for many biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Among these types of polyesters, poly(ε-caprolactone) and polylactides are considered very promising for controlled drug delivery devices. These polymers are mainly produced by ring-opening polymerization of their respective cyclic esters, since this method allows a strict control of the molecular parameters (molecular weight and distribution) of the obtained polymers. The most widely used catalysts for ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters are tin- and aluminium-based organometallic complexes; however since the contamination of the aliphatic polyesters by potentially toxic metallic residues is particularly of concern for biomedical applications, the possibility of replacing organometallic initiators by novel less toxic or more efficient organometallic complexes has been intensively studied. Thus, in the recent years, the use of highly reactive rare earth initiators/catalysts leading to lower polymer contamination has been developed. The use of rare earth complexes is considered a valuable strategy to decrease the polyester contamination by metallic residues and represents an attractive alternative to traditional organometallic complexes.

Due to the unique properties of graphene, single layer, bilayer or even few layer graphene peeled off from bulk graphite cannot meet the need of practical applications. Large size graphene with quality comparable to mechanically exfoliated graphene has been synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The main development and the key issues in controllable chemical vapor deposition of graphene has been briefly discussed in this chapter. Various strategies for graphene layer number and stacking control, large size single crystal graphene domains on copper, graphene direct growth on dielectric substrates, and doping of graphene have been demonstrated. The methods summarized here will provide guidance on how to synthesize other two-dimensional materials beyond graphene.

Cellulose, the most abundant polymer of biomass, has an enormous potential as a source of chemicals and energy. However, its nature does not facilitate its exploitation in industry. As an entry point, here, two different strategies to hydrolyse cellulose are proposed. A solid and a liquid acid catalysts are tested. As a solid acid catalyst, zirconia and different zirconia-doped materials are proved, meanwhile liquid acid catalyst is carried out by sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid proved to hydrolyse 78% of cellulose, while zirconia doped with sulfur converted 22% of cellulose. Both hydrolysates were used for fermentation with different microbial strains depending on the desired product: Citrobacter freundii H3 and Lactobacillus delbrueckii, for H 2 or lactic acid production respectively. A measure of 2 mol H 2 /mol of glucose was obtained from the hydrolysate using zirconia with Citrobacter freundii; and Lactobacillus delbrueckii transformed all glucose into optically pure D-lactic acid.

This chapter analyzes the advantages of the use of bioartificial polymers as carriers and the main strategies used for their design. Despite the enormous progresses in this field, more studies are required for the fully evaluation of these nanovectors in complex organisms and for the characterization of the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic of the loaded drugs. Moreover, progresses in polymer chemistry are introducing a wide range of functionalities in the bioartificial polymeric material (BPM) nanostructures leading to a second generation of bioartificial polymer therapeutics based on novel and heterogeneous architectures with higher molecular weight and predictable structures, in order to achieve greater multivalency and increased loading capacity. Therefore, research on bioartificial polymeric nanovectors is an “on-going” field capable of attracting medical interest.