Large-pore coralline mesoporous silica microparticles (CMS) were synthesized using the triblock polymer PEG-b-PEO-b-PEG and a hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the coralline morphology of the fabricated materials. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method and the Barrett–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) model confirmed the existence of large pores (20 nm) and of a tremendous specific surface area (663.865 m²·g⁻¹) and pore volume (0.365 cm³·g⁻¹). A novel pH-sensitive multiamine-chain carboxyl-functionalized coralline mesoporous silica material (CMS–(NH)₃–COOH) was obtained via a facile “grafting-to” approach. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) validated the effective interfacial functionalization of CMS with carboxyl and multiamine chains. The encapsulation and release behavior of the dual drug (gefitinib (GB) and doxorubicin (DOX)) was also investigated. It was found that CMS–(NH)₃–COOH allows rapid encapsulation with a high loading capacity of 47.36% for GB and 26.74% for DOX. Furthermore, the release profiles reveal that CMS–(NH)₃–COOH can preferably control the release of DOX and GB. The accumulative release rates of DOX and GB were 32.03% and 13.66%, respectively, at a low pH (pH 5.0), while they reduced to 8.45% and 4.83% at pH 7.4. Moreover, all of the modified silica nanoparticles exhibited a high biocompatibility with a low cytotoxicity. In particular, the cytotoxicity of both of these two drugs was remarkably reduced after being encapsulated. CMS–(NH)₃–COOH@GB@DOX showed tremendously synergistic effects of the dual drug in the antiproliferation and apoptosis of A549 human cancer cells in vitro.

Mineral surface wettability and its regulation by the adsorption of collectors have an important influence on the flotation performance. The adsorption behavior of C₁₈ fatty acid with different unsaturation and its effect on rhodochrosite wettability was investigated with surface tension, contact angle, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. The results indicated that rhodochrosite hydrophobicity increased with the increasing concentration of fatty acid, along with the maximum contact angle (θ_max) between hemimicelle concentration (HMC) and critical micelle concentration (CMC). Oleic acid (OA), linoleic acid (LA), and α-linolenic acid (ALA) had a higher θ_max than stearic acid (SA), but the value decreased with the increase of C=C bond number. Besides, preferential adsorption of unsaturated fatty acids on the liquid-air interface can be attributed to the molecule’s steric hindrance resulting from C=C double bond, and the θ kept almost invariant with a higher value of Γ_LG than Γ_SL until HMC. The oriented monolayer and bilayer structure of fatty acids formed gradually on rhodochrosite surface with increasing concentration. However, the θ_max may not necessarily correspond to the beginning of bilayer formation. Cylindrical monolayer and bilayer micelles of SA molecules were observed on rhodochrosite surface at HMC and CMC, respectively. While bilayer structures of unsaturated fatty acids formed before complete coverage of monolayer on rhodochrosite surface because of surface heterogeneity. This work provided a good understanding on the adsorption mechanism of fatty acid on rhodochrosite for flotation.

Herein, dual-mesoporous structure silica (with pore sizes from 2 to 4 nm and from 4 to 16 nm) simultaneously modified with amino and carboxyl groups was successfully synthesized. Doxorubicin (DOX) and cisplatin (Pt) were loaded onto the interior of the spherical mesoporous silica carrier material, and the macromolecular model drug bovine serum albumin (BSA) was loaded onto the outer layer using aminoguanidine-cyclodextrin as a blocking agent; moreover, folic acid (FA) was introduced to achieve targeted functionalization. Thus, a multi-drug and protein therapy system was constructed with a targeting functionality and pH stimulation-responsive controlled release system. Drug-loaded testing results showed that the amino and carboxyl-functionalized nanoparticles displayed high degrees of drug loading for DOX, Pt and BSA. The loading rate of BSA reached 33%. In vitro drug release experiments confirmed that this drug carrier system could achieve “zero pre-release”. The cytotoxicity of the dual-drug system was significantly higher than those of the single-load drug delivery systems although it decreased the toxicity of the drug itself towards the HeLa cells. The multi-drug and protein therapy system with targeting functionality showed better synergistic targeted therapeutic effects for HeLa cells. All the experiments show that the combination of multi-drugs and protein is a promising strategy.

The level of radionuclides is an important index for the preparation of building materials from industrial solid waste. In order to investigate the radiological hazard of five kinds of typical general industrial solid wastes in Guizhou, China, including fly ash (FA), red mud (RM), phosphorus slag (PS), phosphogypsum (PG), and electrolytic manganese residue (EMR), the radiation intensity and associated radiological impact were studied. The results show that concentrations of ²³⁸U, ²³⁵U, ²³²Th, ²²⁶Ra, ²¹⁰Pb, and ⁴⁰K for different samples vary widely. The concentration of ²³⁸U was both positively correlated with ²³⁵U and ²²⁶Ra, and the uranium contents in the measured samples were all of natural origin. The radiation levels of PG, EMR, EMR-Na (EMR activated by NaOH), and EMR-Ca (EMR activated by Ca(OH)₂) were all lower than the Chinese and the world’s recommended highest levels for materials allowed to be directly used as building materials. The values of the internal and external illumination index (I_Ra and I_γ, respectively) for FA and RM were higher (I_Ra > 1.0 and I_γ > 1.3 for FA, I_Ra > 2.0 and I_γ > 2.0 for RM). The radium equivalent activity (Ra_eq), indoor and outdoor absorbed dose (D_in and D_out, respectively), and corresponding annual effective dose rate (E_in and E_out) of RM, PS, and FA were higher than the recommended limit values (i.e., 370 Bq/kg, 84 nGy/h, 59 nGy/h, 0.4 mSv/y, and 0.07 mSv/y, respectively), resulting from the higher relative contribution of ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th. The portion of RM, FA, and PS in building materials should be less than 75.44%, 29.72%, and 66.01%, respectively. This study provides quantitative analysis for the safe utilization of FA, RM, PS, PG, and EMR in Guizhou building materials.