The effects of a commercially available porous glass substrate (Corning Porous Glass No.7930) on the heterogeneous nucleation of proteins [hen egg‐white lysozyme (HEWL), thaumatin and apoferritin] have been investigated in order to develop an improved method to facilitate the nucleation of protein crystals. It was found that the porous glass substrate could promote the nucleation at lower supersaturations. The induction time for nucleation decreased, and the crystals obtained from porous glass substrates were larger than those from normal glass substrates. Many pores and channels of 10–100 nm in diameter were observed on the porous glass surface by atomic force microscopy (AFM). It is believed that these pores and channels are crucial for facilitating the nucleation process in this work.

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Fragrance is a class of material commonly used in many consumer products such as food and tobacco. Since most of the fragrance is highly volatile, the successful use of fragrance in practical application requires effective preservation of fragrance with appropriate substrate material. As a low cost and versatile material, polymer holds great promise as a fragrance carrier. In this review, we summarize representative polymer carriers developed recently for sustained and controlled release of fragrance, which include natural polymers and novel synthetic polymers. The results summarized in this mini-review would shed light on the future design of advanced fragrance carrier for various applications.

Millimeter-scale calcium alginate aqueous core capsules (mm-CaSA-Caps) are suitable for embedding of temperature and chemical sensitive substances because of its excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this study, mm-CaSA-Caps were coated with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) via in situ self-polymerization of dopamine (DA) under mild conditions. During the modification process, mm-CaSA-Caps transferred quickly from colorless and transparent capsules to dark and opaque “pearls” in 15 min. The obtained MWNTs-polydopamine- (PDA-) modified mm-CaSA-Caps (mm-MWNTs-PDA@CaSA-Caps) retained the spherical appearance of mm-CaSA-Caps with uniform coating of MWNTs-PDA. Obviously, the MWNTs were easily coated on the mm-PDA@CaSA-Caps due to the strong adhesive property of PDA. As the MWNTs content increased, the stacking density of MWNTs on surface of the mm-MWNTs-PDA@CaSA-Caps raised. The water loss ratio of mm-MWNTs-PDA@CaSA-Caps was enhanced ascribed to increasing the path length of water by raising stacking density of MWNTs. This study provided a new path for enhancement of the barrier property of hydrogel capsules.