Luigi Nicolais

University of Naples Federico II | UNINA · Department of Chemical, Materials and Industrial Production Engineering

The transdermal drug delivery (TDD) route has gathered considerable attention for its potential to improve therapeutic efficacy while minimizing systemic side effects. Among transdermal technologies, microneedle (MN) devices have proven to be a promising approach that combines the advantages of traditional needle injections and non-invasive topical...

Recently, polyacetylene (PA) has been receiving renewed scientific attention due to its electrical properties, potentially useful for energy applications (e.g., fabrication of electrodes for rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors), and unique functional characteristics (e.g., gas trap, oxygen scavenger, EMI shielding, etc.). This chemical compo...

Recently, polyacetylene (PA) is receiving a renewed scientific attention due to its electrical properties potentially useful for energy applications (e.g., fabrication of electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors) and unique functional characteristics (e.g., flame retardant, oxygen scavenger, EMI-shielding, etc.). This chemical compound can be o...

Recently, polyacetylene (PA) is receiving a renewed scientific attention due to its electrical properties potentially useful for energy applications (e.g., fabrication of electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors) and unique functional characteristics (e.g., flame retardant, oxygen scavenger, EMI-shielding, etc.). This chemical compound can be o...

Recently, polyacetylene (PA) is receiving a renewed scientific attention due to its electrical properties potentially useful for energy applications (e.g., fabrication of electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors) and unique functional characteristics (e.g., flame retardant, oxygen scavenger, EMI-shielding, etc.). This chemical compound can be o...

Recently, polyacetylene (PA) is receiving a renewed scientific attention due to its electrical properties potentially useful for energy applications (e.g., fabrication of electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors) and unique functional characteristics (e.g., flame retardant, oxygen scavenger, EMI-shielding, etc.). This chemical compound can be o...

Recently, polyacetylene (PA) and polyenes (polyvinylenes) are receiving renewed scientific attention due to their unique physical properties potentially useful also for a number of non-electrical applications (e.g., hydrogen storage, drug delivery, adsorbent of organic compounds in aqueous systems, gas and liquid separation, oxygen absorbent in gas...

Recently, polyacetylene (PA) and polyenes (polyvinylenes) are receiving renewed scientific attention due to their unique physical properties potentially useful also for a number of non-electrical applications (e.g., hydrogen storage, drug delivery, adsorbent of organic compounds in aqueous systems, gas and liquid separation, oxygen absorbent in gas...

Recently, polyacetylene (PA) is receiving a renewed scientific attention because of its unique properties potentially useful also for non-electrical applications (e.g., hydrogen storage, drug delivery, adsorbent of organic compounds in aqueous systems, gas and liquid separation, oxygen absorbent in gas analysis, etc.). Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH) is...

Chronic skin wounds affect more than 40 million patients worldwide, representing a huge problem for healthcare systems. This study elucidates the optimization of an in situ gelling polymer blend powder for biomedical applications through the use of co-solvents and functional excipients, underlining the possibility of tailoring microparticulate powd...

The abatement of iopamidol (IPM), an X-ray iodinated contrast agent, in aqueous solution using powdered activated carbon (PAC) as a sorbent was investigated in the present work. The material was characterized by various analytical techniques such as thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer...

Transdermal drug delivery systems have become an intriguing research topic in healthcare technology and one of the most frequently developed pharmaceutical products in the global market. In recent years, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have made significant progress in developing new solutions in the field. This study sheds light on curren...

Transdermal drug delivery systems have become an intriguing research topic in healthcare technology and one of the most frequently developed pharmaceutical products in the global market. In recent years, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have made significant progress in developing new solutions in the field. This study sheds light on curren...

Natural substances with a complex chemical structure can be advantageously used for functional applications. Such functional materials can be found both in the mineral and biological worlds. Owing to the presence of ionic charge carriers (i.e., extra-framework cations) in their crystal lattice, whose mobility is strictly depending on parameters of...

Designing the foam structures in terms of density and morphology gives the chance to tune their mechanical and functional properties to the specific application. Nowadays, this design has been leveled up by the introduction of graded foams which are characterized by spatially nonuniform densities and/or morphologies. Graded foams have proved superi...

In this paper, alginate/pectin and alginate/pectin/chitosan blend particles, in the form of an in situ forming hydrogel, intended for wound repair applications, have been successfully developed. Particles have been used to encapsulate doxycycline in order to control the delivery of the drug, enhance its antimicrobial properties, and the ability to...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent a skilled class of new antibiotics, due to their broad range of activity, rapid killing, and low bacterial resistance. Many efforts have been made to discover AMPs with improved performances, i.e., high antimicrobial activity, low cytotoxicity against human cells, stability against proteolytic degradation, an...

Biosensing systems based on microneedles can overcome the stratum corneum of the skin, i. e. the outer natural barrier of the human body, without any pain and detect the target analytes directly in the interstitial fluid. Moreover, microneedle-based devices (MNDs) can combine diagnostic sensing and therapeutic administration of drugs in one single...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are excellent candidates to fight multi-resistant pathogens worldwide and are considered promising bio-preservatives to control microbial spoilage through food processing. To date, designing de novo AMPs with high therapeutic indexes, low-cost synthesis, high resistance, and bioavailability, remains a challenge. In thi...

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are organic materials possessing high capacity to absorb and retain large volumes of water, saline and physiological solutions (at least 10–20 times their weight). The most commonly used SAPs are acrylated-based polymers that are not biodegradable or recyclable. To overcome these limits, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) w...

Microneedle devices could play the role of a painless door to the human body. These devices enable high performance in both drug delivery and diagnostic analysis. While there has been a strong effort by the healthcare industry and applied research laboratories, the microneedles platform has not yet reached commercial success in the global market. I...

Mainly designed and realized as a painless alternative to the hypodermic syringe, microneedle‐based devices are currently approaching commercial market placement. The considerable academic and industrial investment in this technology is reflected by a multitude of papers published and patents registered every year, which is also a sign of a field i...

The polymerisation of a furfuryl alcohol-based resin, used as matrix for glass-fiber-reinforced composite materials, was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and an empirical kinetic model of the complex reactive process was developed. The kinetic investigation led to the determination of kinetic constants, activation energies, and r...

Metallic mercaptides are inert organic compounds (i.e., Me x(SR)y) that can be used to make thermoplastic polymers high luminescent to UV-light. Luminescence is strictly required in polymer manufacturing since this characteristic allows detection of polymer pieces by photoelectric sensors. Luminescent Au, CdS, and ZnS nanoparticles can be generated...

The incorporation of nanosized inorganic particles into a polymeric matrix represents the most important problem in the nanocomposite fabrication. Success in manufacturing materials for optical devices can be achived only if the particle aggregation is avoided. This paper describes the preparation of a polymeric nanocomposite containing a well-disp...

Reinforced aluminum is generally fabricated by liquid metal infiltration. The reinforcement degradation produced by molten matrix is the major problem to be considered. The relationship between conversion and thermal exposure time is an important information. In the present paper a method for measuring the conversion by weight determinations is pro...

Thermoset polymers and thermoset based composites are normally polymerized and performed in a step process. This work studies the kinetics behavior of a commercial epoxy system used as matrices of medium and high performance composite materials. The characterization study was performed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and spectroscopic an...

The wetting kinetics of a solid surface by a molten metal decrease with increase of its roughness. The topography of the growing copper coating, produced on carbon fiber surface by electroplating from a sulphat bath, has been studied by scanning electron microscopy. The smoothes surface is produced after 200÷300 milliampere-hour of plating.

Crystalline films of syndiotactic polystyrene (s-PS), a commercially available thermoplastic polymer, having a highly hydrophilic amorphous phase, were achieved by using a mild solid-state sulfonation procedure. Despite the used mild process conditions, an easy and uniform sulfonation of the phenyl rings of the amorphous phase is obtained. The crys...

Among various nanoparticles the gold derivatives (AuNPs) possess many features such as ease of synthesis at a tunable size, chemical stability and flexibility to undergo surface modifications, thus making them good candidates as bio-carrier across central nervous system and target diseased cells. However, a significant gap remains in data regarding...

Composites are combined materials created by the synthetic assembly of two or more components – a selected reinforcing agent and a compatible matrix binder – in order to obtain specific and advanced characteristics and properties. The components of composite do not dissolve or other-wise merge completely into each other, but nevertheless do act in...

Among various nanoparticles the gold derivatives (AuNPs) possess many features such as ease of synthesis at a tunable size, chemical stability and flexibility to undergo surface modifications, thus making them good candidates as bio-carrier across central nervous system and target diseased cells. However, a significant gap remains in data regarding...

Nanostructures have many useful physical and chemical properties that can be advantageously used to provide polymers, resins, and elastomers of important functional characteristics. Polymer embedding of nanostructures originates a quite broad class of novel materials named nanocomposites. Nanocomposite materials based on optical plastics (polystyre...

Intercalated graphite materials allow studying reactions occurring in confined chemical conditions. In this work, we investigate the sulfuric acid intercalated graphite exfoliation process using a simple technique based on the continuous-wave (CW) infrared (IR) laser irradiation of graphite flakes. Using Kissinger and Ozawa methods, the activation...

We describe a simple mechanical approach for low-density polyethylene film coating by multilayer graphene. The technique is based on the exfoliation of nanocrystalline graphite (few-layer graphene) by application of shear stress and allows to obtain thin graphene layers on the plastic substrate. We report on the temperature dependence of electrical...

The gas separation and gas barrier properties of nanocomposite membrane made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) with dispersed graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) were studied by gas phase permeation technique. Structural and morphological analyses indicate that in nanocomposites prepared by film blowing technology: (i) the GNPs are iso-oriented with the...

We have experimentally investigated the expansion mechanism induced by laser irradiation of H2SO4 intercalated graphite. Intercalated graphite materials irradiated by laser allows to study reactions occurring in confined chemical conditions. We find that the laser-assisted reaction process is characterized by a threshold temperature of about 140{\d...

We report on the patterning and reduction of graphene-oxide films by holographic lithography. Light reduction can be used to engineer low-cost graphene-based devices by performing a local conversion of insulating oxide into the conductive graphene. In this work, computer-generated holograms have been exploited to realize complex graphene patterns i...

While nanomedicine has an enormous potential to improve the precision of specific therapy, the ability to efficiently deliver these materials to regions of disease in vivo remains limited. In this study, we describe analyses of (AuNPs)-mmi cellular intake via fluorescence microscopy and its effects on H3K4 and H3K9 histone dimethylation. Specifical...

Nanosized graphite has been oxidized by the Hummers method to give high quality graphite oxide. This reaction is characterized by a very fast kinetic behavior and a high yield. The produced graphite oxide has been conveniently used to pattern graphene by using a standard photolithographic method, and the resulting systems have been characterized by...

Graphene can be conveniently used in the modification of polymer surfaces. Graphene macromolecules are perfectly transparent to the visible light and electrically conductive, consequently these two properties can be simultaneously provided to polymeric substrates by surface coating with thin graphene layers. In addition, such coating process prov...

A simple mechanical technique for polyethylene (LDPE) film coating by a thin graphene layer is here described. This technique is based on the exfoliation of nanocrystalline graphite (few-layer graphene, FLG) by application of shear-stress, and it leads to a thin graphene layer on the plastic substrate with characteristics of good electrical conduct...

The effect of an acrylic bone cement (Palamed® G40) on the dynamic-mechanical performance of spongy bone was assessed by means of dynamic three-point bending tests. All the tests were performed in physiological solution at 37±0.5°C, scanning the frequency from 0.01 to 30 Hz. Samples from proximal human tibial epiphyses were cut along the medial-lat...

A Step-by-step guide to the synthesis and characterization of metal-polymer nanocomposites. Polymer nanocomposites, polymers that are reinforced with nano-sized particles, provide enhanced mechanical, thermal, electrical, and barrier properties. Continued research and development of new polymer nanocomposites promises to provide enhanced materials...

Of the many techniques that have been used to study the structure of metal–polymer nanocomposites, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has undoubtedly been the most useful. This technique is currently used to probe the internal morphology of nanocomposites. The new properties observed in nano-sized metals are produced by quantum-size effects. Th...

A simple approach for the bulk production of carbon nanoscrolls (CNSs) is described. This method is based on the application of shear-friction forces to convert graphite nanoplatelets into carbon nanoscrolls using a bi-axially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) surface. The combined action of shear and friction forces causes the exfoliation of graphite...

Graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) react with elemental sulfur to provide a mechanically stable, spongy material characterized by good electrical conductivity and high surface development; such unique property combination makes these novel nanostructured materials very useful for applications in different technological fields. The carbon-sulfur reaction...

Owing to aurophilic interactions, linear and/or planar Au(I)-thiolate molecules spontaneously aggregate, leading to molecular gold clusters passivated by a thiolate monolayer coating. Differently from the thiolate precursors, such cluster compounds show very intensive visible fluorescence characteristics that can be tuned by alloying the gold clust...

The mechanical properties of GNP/LDPE nanocomposites (graphite nanoplatelets/low density polyethylene) have been investigated, in order to establish the effect of nanoscale reinforcement within the polymer matrix. Results show that the presence of the filler does not involve a change in the microscopic structure of the polymer. However, on a macros...

Nowadays, there is a strong interest in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) since these nanostructured materials have large potential applications in different technological fields. In this work, a very simple approach for synthesizing CNTs in mild conditions has been developed and investigated. In particular, the nanotubes have been obtained by thermal defluo...

A simple technique to prepare plastic color filters based on the surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles has been developed. In particular, silver/polystyrene nanocomposite has been prepared by dissolving silver 1,5-cyclooctadiene-hexafluoroacetylacetonate in amorphous polystyrene, and the obtained solid solution was heated for ca. 10 s a...

In the public transport system, hand-touch surfaces such as seats in buses, trains, trams and airplanes represent a reservoir of bacteria and a potential risk for contamination among passengers. The antimicrobial activity of silver is known since ancient time. In this work natural leather commonly used in the public transport system was treated wit...

The use of fabrics with antibacterial properties for commodity applications can provide numerous advantages such as a reduction in the release of odours due to bacterial proliferation in sweat and a reduction in the development of skin hypersensitivity reactions due to microorganisms trapped into the fabrics. Silver is one of the most effective ant...

Graphene is a novel nanostructured material that can be conveniently used as filler for thermoplastic polymers or thermosetting resins, and the resulting nanocomposite material has unique mechanical and chemical/physical properties. Industrial production of graphene/polymer materials requires the availability of a chemical route to produce massive...

The article discusses the biomimetic approach for composite materials that can be applied in different industrial areas such as biomedical, aerospace, automotive, electronic, textile, and so on. The main font of inspiration to gain principles of biomimetic design, high performances, and multifunctional materials comes from the observation and study...

Lightfast color fi lters (intensively and brightly colored) can be easily produced by dying optical plastics with the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of metal nanoparticles such as silver and gold. Here, color fi lters based on silver nanoparticles embedded in amorphous polystyrene have been prepared by dissolving and thermally decomposing (1,5-cyc...

The successful regeneration of large defects in traumatized and diseased tissues depends on the availability of biodegradable and bioactive biomaterials able to guide the tissue during its repair by offering both a physical support and a control of its biological mechanisms. Recently, a novel class of natural, biodegradable biomaterials has been ob...

A modification of the polyol process has enabled the direct synthesis of nm-sized Ag particles with narrow size distribution and controlled average dimension embedded in a polymeric matrix. Dispersion of colloidal silver was obtained by reduction of silver nitrate in ethylene-glycol in the presence of a polymeric protective agent (i.e., poly(N-viny...