Browsing by Author "Lugoloobi, Ishaq"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Cellulose Nanocrystals in Cancer Diagnostics and Treatment
    (Journal of Controlled Release, 2021) Lugoloobi, Ishaq; Maniriho, Hillary; Jia, Liang; Namulinda, Tabbisa; Shi, Xiangyang; Zha, Yili
    Cancer is currently a major threat to public health, being among the principal causes of death to the global population. With carcinogenesis mechanisms, cancer invasion, and metastasis remaining blurred, cancer diagnosis and novel drug delivery approaches should be developed urgently to enable management and treatment. A dream break-through would be a non-invasive instantaneous monitoring of cancer initiation and progression to fast-track diagnosis for timely specialist treatment decisions. These innovations would enhance the established treatment protocols, unlimited by evasive biological complexities during tumorigenesis. It is therefore contingent that emerging and future scientific technologies be equally biased towards such innovations by exploiting the apparent properties of new developments and materials especially nanomaterials. CNCs as nanomaterials have undisputable physical and excellent biological properties that enhanced their interest as biomedical materials. This article therefore highlights CNCs utility in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Their extraction, properties, modification, in-vivo/in-vitro medical applications, biocompatibility, challenges and future perspectives are precisely discussed.
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    Fabrication of Lignin/poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Nanocomposites with enhanced Properties via a Pickering Emulsion approach
    (International journal of biological macromolecules, 2020) Lugoloobi, Ishaq; Li, Xiang; Zhang, Yunchong; Mao, Zhiping; Wang, Bijia; Sui, Xiaofeng; Feng, Xueling
    The present-day world still demands for various commercially viable biosourced materials to replace the finite petroleum-derived polymers. Herein, lignin nanoparticles were homogeneously dispersed in the poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) matrix via an economical, simple and environmentally friendly oil-in-water Pickering emulsion approach to form a nanocomposite with improved properties. The prepared lignin/PHB nanocomposites were investigated for their morphological, thermal, optical, rheological and mechanical properties. The lignin nanoparticles proved to be efficient nucleating agents for PHB in that they noticeably increased the crystallization rates of the polymer. PHB film containing 7% lignin demonstrated the optimum improvement in the tensile performance with 13.2% and 43.9% increase in tensile strength and Young's modulus, respectively. This upturn was ascribed to the uniform dispersion of the lignin nanoparticles and the formation of strong interfacial adhesion between the filler and the matrix due to hydrogen bonding interactions. Moreover, lower crystallinity, higher glass transition temperature, improved UV resistance/blocking and higher melt viscosity were achieved in the blends. The synergetic advancement in these properties may be of significant importance for the wider application of bio-sourced PHB in the packaging industry.
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    Hydrophobic and Oleophilic 3D Weft-knitted Spacer Fabrics Coated by Silica Aerogels with five different Concentrations
    (Journal of Industrial Textiles, 2022) Islam, Syed Rashedul; Patoary, Mohammed Kayes; Estifanos, Hewan Dawit; Lugoloobi, Ishaq; Yousif, Alrayah HD; Jiang, Jinhua; Shao, Huiqi
    Silica aerogels were made from tetraethylorthosilicate by the sol-gel method and coated on the 3D weft-knitted spacer fabrics (WKSFs) to compare the interaction of the silica aerogel coating with five various concentrations. SEM, FTIR-ATR, surface roughness, surface energy, and BET analysis were used to observe and characterize the surface morphology, molecular interaction, surface changes, surface tension, and specific surfacearea of fabric samples or sorbents. Consequently, this study investigated the wettability,oil absorption capacity, oil retention capacity, and reusability of untreated and treated 3D WKSF sorbents. The outcomes exposed the excellent hydrophobic and oleophilic properties of all treated 3D WKSF sorbents, showing a greater water contact angle of 145.1 ± 0.42°, and an oil absorption and retention capacity of (7.87 ± 0.09 g/g and 7.53 ± 0.06 g/g) and (89.98 ± 0.79% and 92.48 ± 0.56%) for vegetable oil and engine oil, respectively, with notable reusability, most particularly for sorbent 5, due to the higher silica aerogel add-on %, pore diameter, and pore volume. The findings verified that the chemical composition and fabric structure played an important role in the tremendous hydrophobic and oleophilic behavior. The statistical study on specific surface area, pore diameter, pore volume, surface roughness, water contact angle, oil contact angle, oil absorption capacity, and oil retention capacity also revealed that treated fabrics performed significantly (p < 0.05) in hydrophobic and oleophilic features at the 0.05 level. Hence, these fabrics can be used in industrial usages that need hydrophobic and oleophilic qualities.
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    Influence of the Anode Buffer Layer Materials and the Light Radiation Power on the Efficiency of a Planar p-i-n Perovskite Solar Cell: theory and simulation
    (Journal of Photonics for Energy, 2022) Farhadi, Bita; Zabihi, Fatemeh; Tebyetekerwa, Mike; Lugoloobi, Ishaq; Liu, Aimin
    Planar perovskite solar cell (PSC) measuring 900 nm total thickness is designed and simulated using Silvaco and SCAPS. Silvaco (Atlas 5.16.3.R) photovoltaic simulating system enables the formation of the stacking model and estimation of the physical properties of various functional materials, whereas SCAPS (version. 3.3.07) patterns the photovoltaic metrics including the fill factor (FF), power conversion efficiency (PCE), open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current density (Jsc), maximum voltage (Vm), maximum current (Im), absorption and reflection coefficients, and energy state diagram of the whole device. Alternation of illumination power and use of different buffer materials was utilized as the main tuning strategy. The champion layout was achieved by optimization of the stacking model, material system, and power of illumination, which demonstrated 26.32% PCE, 83.77% FF, Jsc of 26.27  mA  /  cm2, and the exceptional Voc of 1.19 V. This theoretical performance remains stable in 1000  W  /  m2 light radiation. The calculated efficiency and FF were very close to the previously reported experimental data, and this proved the high accuracy of this simulation work. These findings promise a feasible application of PSC in high-efficiency wearable electronics.