Chemistry

Activated charcoal is often found in toothpaste to whiten teeth, in face masks to clear the skin and as a food supplement to remove ‘toxins’ from the gut. My project investigated the effects of activated charcoal on the absorption of medicines by measuring the conductivity and Total Dissolved Solids of solutions. I created solutions of medicines with deionized water; either with or without activated charcoal, filtered the solutions and measured the change in conductivity in order to ascertain if the drugs were still available to be absorbed. My results showed that conductivity and TDS are both reduced after the addition of activated charcoal. This indicates that it is adsorbing medicine particles and removing them from the liquids, thus interfering with their absorption in the body.

Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and type 2 diabetes have been linked to the formation of amyloids, large aggregates formed by missfolded proteins. Studies show that a so called oligomer forms as an intermediate in the reaction when smaller peptides form amyloids and it has been hypothesised that these oligomers are the main causes for the diseases. However, research on the oligomers is hindered by difficulties in capturing them. The goal with our study was to tackle this problem. Using a method referred to as Trap-and-Seed, we were able to consistently produce and capture relatively large quantities of oligomers in less than 30 minutes. The oligomer concentration also seemed to be predictable, a necessary criterion if the method is to be used on a larger scale.

The sodium ion battery has limited usage of cathode materials due to its large ionic radii. Prussian Blue Analogues (PBA) have appropriate structure to storage sodium ion but low specific capacity and structural stability cause hardship for commercialization. To solve this problem, It have been preferred to improve the performance by substituting R-site metal. In this study, however, we changed the P-site ion to optimize PBA. we synthesized PBA with 5 different transition metals and the Fe[Co3(CN)6] exhibits a specific capacity of 625mAh/g at 0.1C. Furthermore, the result suggests the tendency between Jahn-Teller effect and reversibiltiy of cells. We believed this work provides the possibility of PBA as cathode materials for sodium ion battery and opens new perspectives for optimizing PBA.

It is not spoken so much about Iodine in the world. But lode, in the nature represented like iodine is as important for our body as every single needed element. In my work, I was determined iodine anion in mineral water. There are not some exact value for available quantity in mineral water and many of producers does not mentioned quantity of iodine, which is contained in each mineral water.There are not any qualified method to determine iodine in water. In old database I found out some old spectrophotometry method and I started with modifying this method according necessary parameters.After this process we determined iodine in water. According our results and qualified results our method was correct. The found results may be dangerous to people with Thyroid gland problems.

Aldol condensation of aldehydes is one of the most demanded reactions for the formation of a connection between two carbon atoms. Products obtained with its help are widely used in various areas of the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and petroleum industries. Aldol-croton condensation of propyonaldehyde allows to obtain products that can improve the quality of motor fuel, and valuable intermediates for organic synthesis.The scientific novelty of the results obtained is that the process has been heterogenized. A new pathway for the formation of heterogeneous catalysts on titanium (IV) oxide has been proposed. A unique method for selectively proceeding the reaction to obtain 2-methyl – 2-pentenal by using 5% AA (Norleucine) on TiO2 as a catalyst is proposed.

Taking into account the benefits and adverse effects of using prednisone acetate – anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic cortisone derivative – we studied its effects in combination with salt. Salt affects the growth of plantlets at a concentration of 5%. Higher values are obtained in the case of plants treated with a mixture of prednisone acetate and microwaved non-iodised kitchen salt compared to those treated with prednisone acetate and non-iodised kitchen salt. People under medication with prednisone acetate could consume small amounts of salt subjected to microwaves. Using MM +, Monte Carlo, a RMS gradient of less than 0.1 is obtained for Complex Pred. Na: K1 after Run Steps 100. The pH of the treated seeds decreases to 24 hours.

Mycotoxins are small compounds, which consist of by-products of fungal metabolism, and that can be found in various food consumables of our diet. When ingested, these chemical substances may cause various diseases and, in extreme cases, the death of contaminated individuals. Therefore, it seems to be essential to develop an easy and effective method that enables the detection of some of these toxins in our body. In order to tackle this issue, this project’s main purpose was to create a non-invasive, easy-to-use and 3D printed kit, which is able to detect the presence of a biomarker of Aflatoxin B1 (a type of mycotoxin) – entitled AKR7A3 – in human urine samples. The detection procedure chosen for the kit is similar to a Membrane Based Antibody Array, a colorimetric procedure.

One of the most common cause of deaths are various tumor diseases. Tumor cells often appears to be not vulnerable for some drugs. That is why developing therapies which includes many diffrent mechanisms of work are very important.In my studies I was trying to synthesize iron oxide extrimelly small rounded shaped particles which could handle three different mechanisms of killing tumor cells. Firstly they have special magnetic properties which, allows us to local incresing temperature thanks to variable magnetic field. So we could in some way „boil“ cells. Secondly I tried to admixture radioactive element. And thirdly I connected the particles with antitumor drug. In my project I was sythesizing those particles and investigated their properties and also how they interact with cells.

Synthesis of Novel Betulin-Triazole Conjugates.Miķelis Putnieks, Roberts Reikmanis.This paper studies effectiveness of different synthetic routes to acquire betulinaldehyde and the use of it in further derivatization to obtain novel betulin-triazole conjugates.Aim: Explore how acquire novel betulin-triazole conjugates effectively from Betulin using multi-step synthesis and to explore their physical properties.The results of the scientific research paper: In the course of this work there has been done the synthesis of betulinaldoxyme using two different routes, in total there have been done 9 syntheses followed by synthesis of four novel betulin-triazole conjugates.High school scientific research paper was developed in RTU Institute of Technology of Organic Chemistry.

Vegetables substrates, because of their antioxidant powers, are being used by pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food fields.We analysed the quali-quantitative composition of total flavonoids, anthocyanins, flavanols and HCTA retrieved from leaves of Prunus Pissardii (a very common plant in Europe), which provided the most significant amount of antioxidants. With the retrieved extract we produced a cream, which allowed us to exploit Prunus antioxidant and antiradical powers. To improve cutaneous absorption we decided to encapsulate the antioxidants inside liposomal nanocarriers, used as drug delivery system. Our project has a high eco-sustainability as the chosen vegetal substrates are waste materials, thus reducing their cost for the disposal, following the rules of circular economy.

In the event of a maritime oil spill, good advice is hard to come by. While traditional binding agents can absorb crude oil on the surface, they are expensive and have a limited effect. Paul Kunisch and Thomas Derra are on the hunt for better sorbents. They impregnated pulp with ASA, an industrial sizing agent that resembles well-known oil binding agents in its structure. Its traditional use is to make paper water-repellent. The young researchers’ experiments were successful: Their ASA-impregnated sawdust, cellulose fibre granules and non-woven fabrics are cost-efficient and even have a better sorption capacity than commercially available agents. Chromatographic measurements demonstrated that the new sorbents remove not only crude oil, but also hydrocarbons from deeper water layers.

Chemotherapy has a bad reputation for severe side effects and this problem is one of the major challenges for modern medicine. Targeted drug delivery has become popular for its main advantage to differentiate between healthy cells and cancerous ones. However, targeted drug delivery still has problems to overcome and one of them is the need of new, promising materials for drug encapsulation.We present novel polymer, which forms micelles in aqueous solution and provides a hydrophobic reservoir for Water-Insoluble Drugs. We claim to achieve complete biodegradability and non-toxicity of micelles as well as high stability below CMC and long blood circulation time. We desire our project to play a role in the development of targeted drug delivery systems and to bring socio-scientific benefits.

Particulate pollution has led to catastrophic health and environmental consequences. As a result, new approaches have been done to increase the efficiency of the air filtration equipment. Here a novel nanofibrous air filter made via electrospinning process is demonstrated, which has attractive attributes of high filtering efficiency and low resistance to air flow. The filter could be manufactured with a transparency of 90 % and an efficiency of > 85% under intense smoke exposure. Consequently, the filter could be applied as a muzzle, an alternative for catalytic converters of car exhausts or fabric filters used in the treatment of factories emissions. Additionally, the filter is made from hydrophilic polyacrylonitrile which makes it recyclable and efficient in humid circumstances.

When our teachers asked us to find out a project, we immediately thought about environmental problems which is a great challenge. Further we thought about the pollution of our oceans and how could we struggle against it. We know that there are a lot of polluting substances in the water and that those have a devastating impact on the marine wildlife. We’re thinking here about plastics bottles, bags or oil and many more. We decided to set our research on oil. So, we created a boat filled with active carbon. This one can adsorb the oil floating on the surface of the water and, therefore, can help to reduce the pollution of the oceans. One more interesting thing is that active carbon is made from natural stuff and it can be reactivated several times, so it is reusable.