Orally ingested nanoparticles may overcome the gastrointestinal barrier, reach the circulatory system, be distributed in the organism and cause adverse health effects. However, ingested nanoparticles have to pass through different physicochemical environments, which may alter their properties before they reach the intestinal cells. In this study, silver nanoparticles are characterised physicochemically during the course of artificial digestion to simulate the biochemical processes occurring during digestion. Their cytotoxicity on intestinal cells was investigated using the Caco-2 cell model. Using field-flow fractionation combined with dynamic light scattering and small-angle X-ray scattering, the authors found that particles only partially aggregate as a result of the digestive process. Cell viabilities were determined by means of CellTiter-Blue® assay, 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole-staining and real-time impedance. These measurements reveal small differences between digested and undigested particles (1-100 µg/ml or 1-69 particles/cell). The findings suggest that silver nanoparticles may indeed overcome the gastrointestinal juices in their particulate form without forming large quantities of aggregates. Consequently, the authors presume that the particles can reach the intestinal epithelial cells after ingestion with only a slight reduction in their cytotoxic potential. The study indicates that it is important to determine the impact of body fluids on the nanoparticles of interest to provide a reliable interpretation of their nano-specific cytotoxicity testing in vivo and in vitro.

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A new high-pressure-low-temperature cell was developed for in situ observations of gas hydrates by powder X-ray diffraction. The experimental setup allows investigating hydrate formation and dissociation as well as transformation processes between different hydrate crystal structures as a function of pressure, temperature, and feed gas composition. Due to a continuous gas flow, the composition of the gas phase is kept constant during the whole experiment. This is crucial for the formation of mixed hydrates formed from feed gas mixtures that contain one or more components in low concentrations. The pressure cell can be used in a pressure range between 0.1 and 4.0 MPa and a temperature range between 248 and 298 K. First results of time-resolved measurements of a mixed structure II CH 4 + iso-C 4 H 10 hydrate and a structure I CO 2 hydrate are presented.

Agglomerated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can easily and in large scale be precipitated from iron salt solutions. Although the process is well known, it is ambiguously either assumed that magnetite or maghemite is obtained. The first part of our study clarifies this question using X-ray absorption spectroscopy. For further processing of the nanoparticles, i.e., for giving them a surface functionality or incorporating them into composites, it is important to break the agglomerates and individualize the particles at first. This can effectively be done with nitric acid treatment. The influence of this process on the particles chemistry and structure was analyzed in great detail using X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption, and small-angle X-ray scattering. In contrast to our expectation, no oxidation from magnetite (Fe3O4) to maghemite (y-Fe2O3) was found; the formal valence of the particles in any case is magnetite (Fe3O4). Instead, an increase in the particles' surface disorder was discovered from X-ray absorption analyses and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The acid treatment roughens and distorts the surface of the nanoparticles which is connected with an increased spin disorder