User:Rangas4/sandbox

Basic Description

Nanosponges are nanoparticles, often a synthesized carbon containing polymer, that are porous in structure and can therefore be targeted to absorb small amounts of matter or toxin. Nanosponges are often used in medicine as a drug delivery systems or as a way of damage control after a medical injury. These are also used in environmental application to clean up the ecosystem by performing tasks like purifying water of metal deposits. Nanosponges can be found in nature but are more after synthetically made and implemented for use.

Environmental Application

Purification of Wastewater

Some nanosponges are made to be eco-friendly and have a high concentration of carboxyl groups. They are used to remove metal deposits that are deposited into wastewater into the oceans for organisms to absorb and detrimentally build up in their tissue. The concentration of heavy metals grows going up the food chain as organism eat other organisms. Being at the top of the food pyramid, humans are most at risk for the detrimental effects of these metals in our food. These effects include allergic reactions, insomnia, vision problems and can be as extreme as to cause mental disability, dementia, and kidney disease. Unlike many organic pollutants, heavy metals can be removed or destroyed. These nanomaterials are sustainable filtering materials that will bind to metals and remove them from wastewater before they disperse into the ecosystem. Using nanosponges has a higher efficiency and lower cost than alternative cleaning methods like ion exchange resins, activated carbon, or other biological agents. Porous materials produced from renewable and low cost sources like cellulose, chitin, or starch are one of the most promising class of absorbents in terms of effectiveness.

Cyclodextrins (CDs) and amylose are derived from starches and are well known for their peculiar structural features leading to complex properties. The internal cavities in these CDs allow sites for hydrophobic or very weakly hydrophilic molecules. In order to properly bind metal to these CDs, dextrins must be chemically changed by adding an acidic functional group . These functional groups are allowed to undergo deprotonation in an aqueous media so the reaction of these with the hydroxyl groups in dextrin allow negatively charged insoluble polymers to be created . These polymers are what are known as nanosponges for their porous characteristic and are able to bond to both organic molecules and metal deposits. These nanosponges can easily be separated from the water after cleaning through simple filtration since they are insoluble in all solvents.

One type of nanosponges begin researched are prepared with beta Cyclodextrins and a linear pea starch derivative called linecaps. Beta cyclodextrins are used due to low cost and medium sized pores allowing for a broad range of guest molecules to be collected. Additionally, it is favored over dextrin polymers as it can interact with transition metals also. Primary and secondary hydroxyl groups can act as coordination sites with some metal ions and CDs can coordinate more than one ion at a time. These two components are reacted with citric acid in water to create the nanosponges using sodium hypophosphate monohydrate as a catalyst for the reaction. These nanosponges were compared to the performance of nanosponges synthesized in the same manner substituting PDMA (pyromellitate substance) for citric acid.

A high number of crosslinks were introduced into the synthesis process in order to allow for a maximum amount of carboxyl groups. This allowed for a higher complexation ability of these nanosponges to other molecules. A high degree of cross linking generally lead to low swellable polymers which are more suited for water treatment as the water will not take up the space meant for metal waste and can more easily be filtered from water after cleaning. Higher contact time lead to higher efficiency of cleaning of nanosponges in wastewater.

It was found at high metal concentrations, pyromellitate was able to absorb more metal deposits. At low concentrations, the both performed near identical. However, in the presence of interfering sea water, citrate nanosponges were able to selectively absorb more metal than the PDMA nanosponges allowing it to be more effective in cleanup of metal from salt water. Although the research of these citric acid nanosponges is still undergoing revision and development, they show promise for being s sustainable way to clean metal deposits from the ecosystem.

Current Research

Brain Injury Reduction

Nanosponges have been tested experimentally on mice and have been shown to reduce swelling from brain or head injury. When an injury occurs, tissue in the area of injury will swell and immune cells will race to the damages area. When this injury is in the head, this racing of immune cells will lead to swelling in the brain and can be dangerous because the brain is contained within the cell and therefore there is no place for it to move leading to pressure in the head that can be detrimental. Research suggest nanoparticles can be injected into the head as a way to distract immune cells from rushing to the brain which will reduce swelling.

After head injury, mice were left to be for two to three hours and subsequently injected with biodegradable nanoparticles made from an unspecified but FDA approved polymer which is commonly used in some dissolving sutures. Instead of rushing to the head, some immune cells called monocytes ran towards these nanosponges instead of the brain. The monocytes engulfed the nanoparticles and the cells as well as the nanoparticles are then sent to the spleen for elimination in the body. Because the elimination of these particles can happen so fast, researchers were able to inject mice once more two to three days later to combat inflammation that might come back slowly after injury. Mice with this treatment fared better in recovery than those that did not receive this injection and the injured spot reduced to half its size in mice with the nanoparticle treatment. Mice’s vision cells performed better in response to light and were able to better walk across a ladder after recovering showing improvement in behavior and motor function.

Other potential therapies to treat trauma rely on drugs or other cargo to be sent alongside the nanoparticles however this study was done using bare nanoparticles making it cheaper and safer in trial as less material is injected into the organism.

Researchers are cautious to advance this study on humans due to the differences between a mouse and human brain. Factors like severity of injury and general recovery time will determine the effects of sending these nanoparticles inside the body. The way the brain suffers involve more bodily reactions that simply this immune response and if accumulation of nanoparticles if not removed from the body fast enough, they may spread to other parts of the body and cause toxic damage.