With the emerging technology in the 21st century, which requires higher electrochemical performances, metal oxide composite electrodes in particular o®er complementary properties of individual materials via the incorporation of both physical and chemical charge storage mechanism together in a single electrode. Numerous works reviewed herein have identi¯ed a wide variety of attractive metal oxide-based composite electrode material for symmetric and asymmetric electrochemical capacitors. The focus of the review is the detailed literature data and discussion regarding the electrochemical performance of various metal oxide composite electrodes fabricated from di®erent con¯gurations including binary and ternary composites. Additionally, projection of future development in hybrid capacitor coupling lithium metal oxides and carbonaceous materials are found to obtain signi¯cantly higher energy storage than currently available commercial electrochemical capacitors. This review describes the novel concept of lithium metal oxide electrode materials which are of value to researchers in developing high-energy and 1430002-1 NANO: Brief Reports and Reviews Vol. 9, No. 6 (2014) enhanced-cyclability electrochemical capacitors comparable to Li-ion batteries. In order to fully exploit the potential of metal oxide composite electrode materials, developing low cost, environment-friendly nanocomposite electrodes is certainly a research direction that should be extensively investigated in the future.

Recent advancements in nanotechnology have improved our understanding of cancer treatment and allowed the opportunity to develop novel delivery systems for cancer therapy. The biological complexities of cancer and tumour micro-environments have been shown to be highly challenging when treated with a single therapeutic approach. Current co-delivery systems which involve delivering small molecule drugs and short-interfering RNA (siRNA) have demonstrated the potential of effective suppression of tumour growth. It is worth noting that a considerable number of studies have demonstrated the synergistic effect of co-delivery systems combining siRNA and small molecule drugs, with promising results when compared to single-drug approaches. This review focuses on the recent advances in co-delivery of siRNA and small molecule drugs. The co-delivery systems are categorized based on the material classes of drug carriers. We discuss the critical properties of materials that enable co-delivery of two distinct anti-tumour agents with different properties. Key examples of co-delivery of drug/siRNA from the recent literature are highlighted and discussed. We summarize the current and emerging issues in this rapidly changing field of research in biomaterials for cancer treatments.

In this study, a biodegradable alternative to synthetic plastics was explored, where gelatinized corn starch was blended with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) using the solution casting method at different ratios. Tensile tests showed that films made of only starch exhibited the lowest tensile strength at 3.66 MPa, which increased as the ratio of PVA in the blend was raised. The water vapor transmission rate was similar even when the starch content was changed. PVA was shown to increase the solubility of the film in water, and starch demonstrated a better ability to absorb water than that of PVA, with the pure starch film swelled up to 167% of its original weight. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis revealed that there was no significant chemical interaction between the starch and PVA which could alter their respective functional groups. Bioplastic films made of only starch showed the least amount of degradation after 3 days when buried in soil, while water uptake in films made of PVA caused it to turn into a sticky gel‐like substance. Chlorella vulgaris exhibited a higher preference for PVA as the substrate when compared to starch. This revealed that C. vulgaris showed promise as a candidate for breaking down the bioplastic films when grown as a heterotroph.

No abstract