This study assessed the biocompatibility of two types of nanogold composites: fibronectin-gold (FN-Au) and collagen-gold (Col-Au). It consisted of three main parts: surface characterization, in vitro biocompatibility assessments, and animal models. To determine the structural and functional differences between the materials used in this study, atomic force microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry were used to investigate their surface topography and functional groups. The F-actin staining, proliferation, migration, reactive oxygen species generation, platelet activation, and monocyte activation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) cultured on the FN-Au and Col-Au nanocomposites were investigated to determine their biological and cellular behaviors. Additionally, animal biocompatibility experiments measured capsule formation and collagen deposition in female Sprague-Dawley rats. The results showed that MSCs responded better on the FN-Au and Col-AU nanocomposites than on the control (tissue culture polystyrene) or pure substances, attributed to their incorporation of an optimal Au concentration (12.2 ppm), which induced significant surface morphological changes, nano topography cues, and better biocompatibility. Moreover, neuronal, endothelial, bone, and adipose tissues demonstrated better differentiation ability on the FN-Au and Col-Au nanocomposites. Nanocomposites have a crucial role in tissue engineering and even vascular grafts. Finally, MSCs were demonstrated to effectively enhance the stability of the endothelial structure, indicating that they can be applied as promising alternatives to clinics in the future.

Self-cleaning surface has attracted much attention in the field of photocatalytic degradation of NO due to its dirt pickup resistance and self-cleaning effect under the action of rainwater. In this review, the factors affecting NO degradation efficiency were analyzed in terms of photocatalyst characteristics and environmental conditions combined with the photocatalytic degradation mechanism. The feasibility of photocatalytic degradation of NO on superhydrophilic, superhydrophobic and superamphiphobic surfaces was discussed. Furthermore, the effect of special surface characteristics of self-cleaning on photocatalytic NO was highlighted and the improvement of the long-term effect using three self-cleaning surfaces on photocatalytic NO was evaluated and summarized. Finally, the conclusion and outlook were proposed related to the self-cleaning surface for photocatalytic degradation of NO. In future research, the comprehensive effects of the characteristics of photocatalytic materials, self-cleaning characteristics and environmental factors on the photocatalytic degradation of NO and the actual application effects of such self-cleaning photocatalytic surfaces should be further clarified in combination with the engineering. It is believed that this review can provide some theoretical basis and support for the development of self-cleaning surfaces in the field of photocatalytic degradation of NO.

Glyphosate, one of the most widely used herbicides, plays an important role in controlling weeds and ensuring crop production. While using glyphosate, adjuvants are commonly added to improve its deposition on weeds and control efficacy. However, changes in weed leaf surface characteristics may reduce glyphosate penetration and contribute to evolved glyphosate resistance. Therefore, it is significant to introduce an improved method for regularizing leaf surface characterization and guide adjuvant selection to improve glyphosate efficacy. In this work, surface characteristics of typical weed leaves have been systematically investigated by 3D surface analysis and scanning electron microscopy, finally quantified by apparent surface free energy (ASFE) due to its comprehensive and quantitative evaluation of leaf surfaces. Moreover, the relationship between the weed leaf surface characteristics and the retention of glyphosate on weeds was established, further related to the control efficacy against weeds. To maximize the utilization rate of glyphosate, the types and concentrations of adjuvants should be regulated according to the ASFE of weeds. Our findings not only regularize the surface properties of weed leaves but also reveal their influencing mechanism on the deposition and biological activity of glyphosate, which provide effective guidance for the use of glyphosate.

This paper presents the results of studies to understand the influence of hybridisation on mechanical and tribological behaviour as well as dry sliding wear of aluminium metal matrix composites. Sillimanite and boron carbide (B4C) were used as primary and secondary reinforcements and pure aluminium was used as the matrix material. The composite was fabricated by using a vacuum assisted stir casting process. Different research instruments were used, including a scanning electron microscope with EDX spectrometer, a surface measurement device, a thermal image analyser, as well as a tribotester. The results show that tensile, impact strength and hardness of the hybridised composites are superior (a step ahead) than unreinforced and primary composites. The wear behaviour of the fabricated specimens was tested for the dry sliding wear behaviour under the load range of 10-50 N with the steps of 20 N for the sliding velocities 0.75, 1.5 and 2.25 m/s over a distance of 1000 m. The wear rate increased with load and decreased as the wt.% of reinforcement increased. The wear rate of the composite with 10 wt.% Al2SiO5 was approximately 44% lower than that of the composite with 5 wt.% Al2SiO5. The same dependence was noted for hybrid composite (5 wt.% Al2SiO5 + 5 wt.% B4C)-the wear rate was approximately 50.8% lower than that of the composite with 5 wt.% Al2SiO5 under the same test condition. The friction coefficient decreased as the weight percentage of the reinforcement (Al2SiO5 and B4C) increased due to the uniform distribution of the reinforcement on the surface of the composites. The main wear mechanism of the studied materials was abrasion wear. The wear mechanism of the composite had tribochemical type. It involved the oxidation and transfer of the material, which formed protective tribolayers ensuring an additional sliding process. The mechanism that played the main role in the wear process of the composites was a combination of abrasive, adhesive and oxidative wear.

This study investigated the surface characteristics and biocompatibility of ultrafine-grain pure titanium (UFG Ti) after sandblasting and acid etching (SLA) treatment to determine an effective method for modification of UFG Ti dental implants. The UFG Ti was processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP). The micromorphology, roughness, and wettability of its surface were studied after SLA modification in different conditions. Rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were subsequently seeded onto the specimens to evaluate the biocompatibility of cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation compared with commercially pure titanium (CP Ti). The results showed that surface characteristics of UFG Ti were affected by the pressure of sandblasting and acid etching time in addition to material properties. The favorable hierarchical porous structure that would benefit cell adhesion was formed on the UFG Ti surface when the pressure of sandblasting was 0.6 MPa and the acid etching time was 5 min; at this time, UFG Ti promoted proliferation and differentiation to a greater extent than CP Ti because of its excellent wettability. From this study, it could be seen that UFG Ti can be used as a dental implant material after proper surface modification.

Nanoparticles (NPs) are highly potent tools for the diagnosis of diseases and specific delivery of therapeutic agents. Their development and application are scientifically and industrially important. The engineering of NPs and the modulation of their in vivo behavior have been extensively studied, and significant achievements have been made in the past decades. However, in vivo applications of NPs are often limited by several difficulties, including inflammatory responses and cellular toxicity, unexpected distribution and clearance from the body, and insufficient delivery to a specific target. These unfavorable phenomena may largely be related to the in vivo protein-NP interaction, termed \"protein corona.\" The layer of adsorbed proteins on the surface of NPs affects the biological behavior of NPs and changes their functionality, occasionally resulting in loss-of-function or gain-of-function. The formation of a protein corona is an intricate process involving complex kinetics and dynamics between the two interacting entities. Structural changes in corona proteins have been reported in many cases after their adsorption on the surfaces of NPs that strongly influence the functions of NPs. Thus, understanding of the conformational changes and unfolding process of proteins is very important to accelerate the biomedical applications of NPs. Here, we describe several protein corona characteristics and specifically focus on the conformational fluctuations in corona proteins induced by NPs.

Spinel oxides, e.g., NiCo2O4, is a promising catalyst for the catalytic oxidation of toluene. Understanding and designing versatile NiCo2O4 spinel is important for low-temperature toluene oxidation. Here, we investigated the surface-characteristic-dependent degradation activity of NiCo2O4 crystals through experiment and characterization. NiCo2O4 nanosheet using ethanol as solvent (named E--NiCo2O4) exposing {110} crystal planes exhibited the lowest temperature toluene oxidation. The T99 of toluene conversion was 256 °C, which is much lower than that of NiCo2O4 nanosheet using ethylene glycol as solvent (named EG--NiCo2O4), NiCo2O4 octahedron (named O--NiCo2O4) and NiCo2O4 truncated octahedron (named TO--NiCo2O4). Characterization using various techniques such as XRD, TEM, BET, XPS, H2-TPR and CO2-TPD showed that Co3+ and surface adsorbed oxygen (Osur) enriched surface, excellent redox properties and effective diffusion of the reaction product reasonably explain the enhancement in catalytic activity over the E--NiCo2O4. The research reveals that the effect of specific crystal planes and solvent was the key factor to govern the activity of low-temperature toluene oxidation.

Anodic oxidation treatment of commercially pure titanium was carried out at the voltages of 10, 30, 50 V in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ solution at the potentiodynamic-aging mode so as to obtain the effects of the anodic potential on the surface characteristic and corrosion resistance of the anodic oxide film. The influences of potential on the surface morphology, the roughness, the crystalline behavior, the chemical composition and the corrosion resistance of the anodic oxide films were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), Raman spectrum, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), potentiodynamic polarization curves and electrode impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results show that increasing anodic potential at the potentiodynamic-aging mode can significantly enhance thickness, flatness, crystallization, chemical stability, and corrosion resistance of anodic oxide film.

The surface properties of implant are responsible to provide mechanical stability by creating an intimate bond between the bone and implant; hence, play a major role on osseointegration process. The current study was aimed to measure surface characteristics of titanium modified by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The results of this study revealed an optimum density of laser energy (140 Jcm-2), at which improvement of osteointegration process was seen. Significant differences were found between arithmetical mean height (Ra), root mean square deviation (Rq) and texture orientation, all were lower for 140 Jcm-2 samples compared to untreated one. Also it was identified that the surface segments were more uniformly distributed with a more Gaussian distribution for treated samples at 140 Jcm-2. The distribution of texture orientation at high laser density (250 and 300 Jcm-2) were approximately similar to untreated sample. The skewness index that indicates how peaks and valleys are distributed throughout the surface showed a positive value for laser treated samples, compared to untreated one. The surface characterization revealed that Kurtosis index, which tells us how high or flat the surface profile is, for treated sample at 140 Jcm-2 was marginally close to 3 indicating flat peaks and valleys in the surface profile.

The surface characteristics of fractured specimens are important in hydraulic fracturing laboratory experiments. In this paper, we present a three-dimensional (3D) scanning device assembled to study these surface characteristics. Cube-shaped rock specimens were produced in the laboratory and subjected to triaxial loading until the specimen split in two in a hydraulic fracturing experiment. Each fractured specimen was placed on a rotating platform and scanned to produce 3D superficial coordinates of the surface of the fractured specimen. The scanned data were processed to produce high-precision digital images of the fractured model, a surface contour map and accurate values of the superficial area and specimen volume. The images produced by processing the 3D scanner data provided detailed information on the morphology of the fractured surface and mechanism of fracture propagation. High-precision 3D mapping of the fractured surfaces is essential for quantitative analysis of fractured specimens. The 3D scanning technology presented here is an important tool for the study of fracture characteristics in hydraulic fracturing experiments.