Nanotrac wave 2

Commercially available PSS (with an average molecular weight of 70,000 g mol⁻¹) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Co. A PSS solution with a concentration of 0.4 g mL⁻¹ was prepared by dissolving 400 g of PSS powder into 1 L of DI water at 25 °C. Although PSS has relatively higher solubility than other polymeric substances, its solubility was not as high as ionic salts and therefore some stirring was required. For stirring, a magnetic stirrer was used. The PSS solutions with concentrations of 0.04, 0.08, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.22 g mL⁻¹ that were to be tested were prepared by diluting the 0.4 g mL⁻¹ PSS solution. The following parameters were measured to analyze the physicochemical characteristics of the PSS solution: polarity, osmotic pressure, conductivity, viscosity and particle size. For the measurements of each parameter, an Osmometer (FISKE 210, Advanced instrument INC, USA), Conductivity meter (Orion 4 Star, Thermo Scientific, USA), Viscometer (Vibro viscometer SV-1A, A&D weighing, USA), and Particle size and solution zeta potential analyzer (Nanotrac Wave II, Microtrac, USA) were used accordingly.

Particle sizes were analyzed using laser scattering particle size distribution analyzers of Nanotrac Wave II (when smaller than 1.0 µm, MicrotracBEL Corp., Osaka, Japan) and Microtrac MT3300EXII (when larger than 1.0 µm, MicrotracBEL Corp.). The distribution was measured based on length distributions using 1.60 as a relative refractive index. The mode size, which is the most common size of the particles in the population, was determined for each formulation. The data are the averages of three measurements for each sample.

To evaluate particle size distribution in LPs of PTPS, the volumes of lower phases have been increased with PBS up to 1 mL. The dynamic viscosity values were obtained for all tested samples using an automatic microviscometer Lovis 2000 M/ME (Anton Paar GmbH, Ostfildern, Germany) at 298 K. Four measurements followed by averaging were performed for each sample. Dynamic light scattering was performed with a Nanotrac Wave II instrument (Microtrac Inc., Montgomeryville, PA, USA) at 25 °C; the signal accumulation time was 30 s. The results were processed in FLEX Software (Microtrac Inc., Montgomeryville, PA, USA) taking into account the earlier determined values of the suspension viscosity. Each sample was assayed in triplicate, and results were averaged.

The microparticles’ size was determined by dynamic light scattering using a Nanotrac Wave II instrument (Microtrac, York, PA, USA). The system is equipped with 3 mW helium/neon laser at 780 nm wavelength and measures the particle size with noninvasive backscattering technology, performing particle size analysis in the range of 0.8 nm to 6.5 µm. The samples for analysis were prepared by suspending a small amount of the powder particles in isopropyl alcohol as a dispersing medium. All measurements were performed at 20-s intervals and were repeated three times.

The effect of incorporating La³⁺ and Sm³⁺ in the crystal structure of ZnO nanoparticles was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) with a Cu anode, λ = 1.5406 Å (Empyrean, PANalytical, Westborough, MA, USA). XRD patterns were obtained from 20° to 75° (2θ) with a 0.01° step size. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared ATR-FTIR (Shimadzu, IRAffinity, Columbia, MD, USA) was used to verify the presence of organic compounds. The spectra were recorded in the 4000–400 cm⁻¹ range. The morphological characteristics of nanoparticles were analyzed using FE-SEM (TESCAN, MIRA3 model, Warrendale, PA, USA). Nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements determined the specific surface area (SBET) on a Nova 3200 gas-sorption system. The materials were vacuum-degassed for 20 h at 120 °C to evacuate any gas or humidity. The BJH method was applied to evaluate pore size distribution. Optical properties were analyzed through absorption spectra obtained using a Cary-5000 UV–Vis (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) spectrometer equipped with a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) integration sphere in the 2000–200 nm range. A dynamic light scattering instrument (DLS, Microtrac Nanotrac Wave II, Montgomeryville, PA, USA) was used to calculate the average particle size, size distribution, and ζ-potential in water suspensions (1 mg/mL).

Nano-sized curcumin and resveratrol compound was prepared by Johnpro Biotech (Taipei, Taiwan). The 250 g of curcumin and 250 g of resveratrol with 4500 ml reverse osmosis water was grinded to nanocomposite by high-energy miller for 4.5 h (JBM-C020, Just Nanotech Co., Ltd., Taiwan). Particle sizes were detected by Nanotrac Wave II (Microtrac, USA), with diameter of all nanocomposites measured at roughly 320 nm.