Medical Nitric Oxide-Releasing Nanoporous Organic Polymers as Topical Therapeutic Agents
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Chemistry and Chemical Eng
Abstract
The chronic wound treatment is a particularly challenging clinical problem, which has been highlighted as unmet need of the National Health Service (NHS) patients by the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in 2013. In fact, currently no efficacious methods exist. The chronic wounds mostly leg ulcers, pressure ulcers, and diabetic foot ulcers adversely affect patients' quality of life, costs the NHS £2-3 billion annually for wound treatments. Therefore, if we develop a simple and effective method which can accelerate chronic wound healing and reduce the treatment cost, which would be very attractive.
Nitric oxide (NO), a well-known air pollutant produced from combustion processes, has been found to play important roles as a regulator and mediator of numerous processes in the nerve, immune, and cardiovascular systems. These findings encourage pathways to utilise the beneficial functions of NO gas to tackle a variety of challenging medical issues, one of which is the treatment of chronic wounds. Wound care research has indicated the outstanding effectiveness of gaseous NO in accelerating chronic wound healing by in vitro and in vivo studies. However, delivering NO gas is very challenging task because of its gaseous nature and toxicity. This requires developing a specific 'vehicle' capable of carrying the desired amounts of NO to the local wound sites and discharging the NO in a safe and controllable manner. To address this challenge, we propose a new method based on nanoporous porous organic polymer (POP) as new generation of gaseous nitric oxide delivery 'vehicle' to fulfil our ambitions.
POPs are a new class of nanoporous materials which have been widely investigated in recent years, for example the conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) developed by Cooper et al. The facile synthesis of POP materials is by assembling organic molecular building blocks into two or three dimensional porous networks through carbon-carbon coupling or cyclic condensation reactions. The POPs possess diverse porous structures and functionalities as well as relatively high chemical stability, which have attracted increasing research interests in gas adsorption/storage/separation and heterogeneous catalysis, and show promising potential for drug delivery for therapeutics. In this project, we will explore new POP materials suitable for storing high capacities of NO gas. With POPs' reacting with NO gas to form diazeniumdiolate structures in the frameworks, the NO gas is expected to be 'chemically compressed' in the porous networks. In this manner, high capacity of NO storage is reached, which ensures a controllable delivery of a desired amount of NO to the local wound sites. Furthermore, the quantity of NO stored in the POPs will be optimised through adjusting the concentration of active functionalities and the NO loading conditions. The NO releasing characteristic profiles will be adjusted through judiciously choosing molecular building blocks and synthesis conditions to tune the pore size and the hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of frameworks. We will systematically characterise the POP material structures, analyse the stored NO species and simulate the NO releasing kinetics. Relevant information obtained will be used for understanding the effects of POP structures , properties and synthesis conditions on the formation of diazeniumdiolates, so as to assess the performance of different POP materials, and optimise the material formulation and synthesis conditions. The results obtained from this project will become the foundations for manufacturing prototype therapeutic products in the future. By the end of this project, it is anticipated to develop a new promising NO gas delivery technology targeted for accelerating chronic wound healing.
Nitric oxide (NO), a well-known air pollutant produced from combustion processes, has been found to play important roles as a regulator and mediator of numerous processes in the nerve, immune, and cardiovascular systems. These findings encourage pathways to utilise the beneficial functions of NO gas to tackle a variety of challenging medical issues, one of which is the treatment of chronic wounds. Wound care research has indicated the outstanding effectiveness of gaseous NO in accelerating chronic wound healing by in vitro and in vivo studies. However, delivering NO gas is very challenging task because of its gaseous nature and toxicity. This requires developing a specific 'vehicle' capable of carrying the desired amounts of NO to the local wound sites and discharging the NO in a safe and controllable manner. To address this challenge, we propose a new method based on nanoporous porous organic polymer (POP) as new generation of gaseous nitric oxide delivery 'vehicle' to fulfil our ambitions.
POPs are a new class of nanoporous materials which have been widely investigated in recent years, for example the conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) developed by Cooper et al. The facile synthesis of POP materials is by assembling organic molecular building blocks into two or three dimensional porous networks through carbon-carbon coupling or cyclic condensation reactions. The POPs possess diverse porous structures and functionalities as well as relatively high chemical stability, which have attracted increasing research interests in gas adsorption/storage/separation and heterogeneous catalysis, and show promising potential for drug delivery for therapeutics. In this project, we will explore new POP materials suitable for storing high capacities of NO gas. With POPs' reacting with NO gas to form diazeniumdiolate structures in the frameworks, the NO gas is expected to be 'chemically compressed' in the porous networks. In this manner, high capacity of NO storage is reached, which ensures a controllable delivery of a desired amount of NO to the local wound sites. Furthermore, the quantity of NO stored in the POPs will be optimised through adjusting the concentration of active functionalities and the NO loading conditions. The NO releasing characteristic profiles will be adjusted through judiciously choosing molecular building blocks and synthesis conditions to tune the pore size and the hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of frameworks. We will systematically characterise the POP material structures, analyse the stored NO species and simulate the NO releasing kinetics. Relevant information obtained will be used for understanding the effects of POP structures , properties and synthesis conditions on the formation of diazeniumdiolates, so as to assess the performance of different POP materials, and optimise the material formulation and synthesis conditions. The results obtained from this project will become the foundations for manufacturing prototype therapeutic products in the future. By the end of this project, it is anticipated to develop a new promising NO gas delivery technology targeted for accelerating chronic wound healing.
Planned Impact
The proposed research aims to tackle the treatment of chronic wounds, which has been identified by the UK's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) as one of the unmet needs of the NHS and a major clinical challenge worldwide. The impacts of this project will be realised through development of a novel method to effectively deliver biologically active nitric oxide gas which targets the healing of chronic wounds. This is an application-oriented cross-disciplinary research with promising potentials to be commercialised in the future to meet the unmet needs in the treatment of chronic wounds. The success of this research will attract significant R&D investments in the future. The relevant pathways to economic, societal and academic impacts will be achieved through collaborations, commercialisation, disseminations at conferences etc. These will publicise the research and forms the initial step to ultimately improve the quality of life of patients who suffer from chronic wounds (such as diabetics), and potentially save the NHS a large amount of costs associated with treating such problematic wounds. Undoubtedly the proposed research is of significant national importance. The realisation of its commercialisation over a 5 -10 year time frame will create wealth and contribute to the success of the UK economy.
Different from other existing methods, the proposed new concept utilises the advantageous properties of nanoporous organic frameworks to deliver high amounts of deliverable nitric oxide gas in a controllable, cost effective and safe manner to accelerate chronic wound healing. The UK is a leader in the research of porous organic polymeric frameworks (Cooper et al) and the porous metal organic framework materials (MOFs) - based nitric oxide delivery (Morris et al). The advantage of the proposed research is merging two existing technologies and developing a new research direction, which will involve relevant knowledge and technology transfer and the use of modern techniques to characterise materials. This work will enhance UK's competitive edge internationally on the frontier research of nitric oxide delivery for wound healing. The success of this project will promote worldwide academic advancement; it will significantly impact the research on material chemistry and material therapeutic applications, and thus encourage scientists to develop other effective methods to tackle gaseous nitric oxide delivery on the basis established by this research.
Furthermore, the researchers on this project will be thoroughly trained in a cross-disciplinary environment. Disseminating research results at national and international conferences and in high impact journals, engaging in public education, and build-up of national and international collaborations through visiting academics and healthcare companies etc., will all help to expand the academic impacts of the proposed research.
Different from other existing methods, the proposed new concept utilises the advantageous properties of nanoporous organic frameworks to deliver high amounts of deliverable nitric oxide gas in a controllable, cost effective and safe manner to accelerate chronic wound healing. The UK is a leader in the research of porous organic polymeric frameworks (Cooper et al) and the porous metal organic framework materials (MOFs) - based nitric oxide delivery (Morris et al). The advantage of the proposed research is merging two existing technologies and developing a new research direction, which will involve relevant knowledge and technology transfer and the use of modern techniques to characterise materials. This work will enhance UK's competitive edge internationally on the frontier research of nitric oxide delivery for wound healing. The success of this project will promote worldwide academic advancement; it will significantly impact the research on material chemistry and material therapeutic applications, and thus encourage scientists to develop other effective methods to tackle gaseous nitric oxide delivery on the basis established by this research.
Furthermore, the researchers on this project will be thoroughly trained in a cross-disciplinary environment. Disseminating research results at national and international conferences and in high impact journals, engaging in public education, and build-up of national and international collaborations through visiting academics and healthcare companies etc., will all help to expand the academic impacts of the proposed research.
Organisations
- Queen's University Belfast (Lead Research Organisation)
- Synfuels China Technology (Collaboration)
- Shanxi Medical University (Collaboration)
- ASTON UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- Taiyuan University of Technology (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE (Collaboration)
- Newcastle University (Collaboration)
- China University of Petroleum, Beijing (Collaboration)
People |
ORCID iD |
Bo Xiao (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Zhang C
(2018)
Ethyne-Reducing Metal-Organic Frameworks to Control Fabrications of Core/shell Nanoparticles as Catalysts
in ACS Catalysis
Chen S
(2018)
Molecular simulation and experimental investigation of CO 2 capture in a polymetallic cation-exchanged 13X zeolite
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Qiu Y
(2023)
Ultraviolet Light Responsive N -Nitroso Polymers for Antibacterial Nitric Oxide Delivery
in Macromolecular Rapid Communications
Gregg S
(2017)
Functionalised solids delivering bioactive nitric oxide gas for therapeutic applications
in Materials Today Communications
Xue C
(2018)
Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO 2 gas adsorption capacity
in Microporous and Mesoporous Materials
Sharon Gregg (Smyth)
(2019)
Nanoporous and Functionalised Framework Materials for the Delivery of Bioactive Nitric Oxide
Xiao Bo
(2017)
Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for Gas Adsorption
Sharon Smyth
(2017)
Nanoporous Frameworks for Bioactive Nitric Oxide Delivery
Description | Through the research funded by this grant, we have developed a series of porous organic polymers (POPs) . These polymers contain amine functional groups as active centers that are able to interact with nitric oxide, and therefore nitric oxide is stored in the functionalised polymers. The release of nitric oxide is triggered by means of light irradiation or water (in PBS solution). We have systematically studied the nitric oxide releasing kinetics at ambient temperature (25-30 oC) , and found the kinetics is related to the polymers' pore structure, chemical composition and functional groups, and also the forms of nitric oxide present in polymers. Temperature influences the nitric oxide releasing. At a high temperature starting from 150 oC, the nitric oxide is released from polymers, which show a high thermal stability of the nitric oxide stored. That means the polymer-nitric oxide donors are very stable at normal use temperature, such as applying the materials for the topical therapy in the future. At room temperature, the nitric oxide releasing can be controlled for a long time. For example, we have developed a type of polymer- nitric oxide donors having the light-responsive property. When switching on light irradiation, nitric oxide will gradually release from polymers. Once switching light irradiation off, the nitric oxide releasing stopped. This provides an opportunity for us to combine this method with the light therapy and meanwhile control the nitric oxide releasing time. Using porous organic polymers for nitric oxide delivery is a new method. The chemically stable polymers can be readily formulated into different types of products in the future for therapeutic applications. The capacity of nitric oxide storage can be adjusted by changing the polymer's structure. This is till under investigation in our group. |
Exploitation Route | The main original research objectives are to prove the concept of using porous organic polymers for developing a new technology or method for bioactive nitric oxide delivery. In general we have achieved the objectives and obtained considerable results, although the research is quite challenging. We also have met the problems such that the postdoc researcher has a short-term contract (only one year) and requires to take time to get used to this frontier research; the available facilities are very limited; purchase processing was very slow etc, However, we still achieved the desired results and have verified our proposed ideas. It demonstrates that using porous organic polymer to deliver nitric oxide in a controllable manner is feasible. We have collected the polymer structure information, tried to understand the relationship between the polymer structure and the storage and release of nitric oxide. The part of results have been disseminated at conferences, which have promoted our research impact. As a result, we are attracting new research partners, students for studying PhD or taking internship, and international researchers for carrying out research work in my group. Next stage is to collaborate research partners in biology and medicine to investigate the cytotoxicity of polymer donors and their antimicrobial function, improve material performance according to practical use through optimisation of polymer structures. We are intended to apply for patent in near future and commercialise this technology. We are seeking industrial partners to combine our technology into the light therapy, and an extensive collaboration with others in the material science and applications to understand the influence of polymer structures on their properties. Since the derived functional porous polymers contain amine functional groups, it will be potential for CO2 capture applications. Their porous nature enables this type o polymeric materials finding a role in gas adsorption or separation. These amine functional groups are also catalytic active, they can act as the active sites of organocatalysts for green synthesis. We have published the similar preliminary results in journal. This type of polymers are being further studied to understand their catalytic property in collaboration with our research partner Synfuel. In general we are seeking collaboration with others to promote the use of this technology. |
Sectors | Chemicals Education Electronics Energy Healthcare Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
Description | Study of novel porous materials |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | The Synfuel usually conducted research on conventional catalysts for FT conversion, After a few times of academic visits and giving seminar, now Synfuel begins to collaborate wit us to explore novel catalysts or adsorbents based on MOFs and porous polymers for energy conversion and healthcare applications. I have provided two day training for PhD students in Synfuel in synthesis and characterisation of porous polymeric materials. One group in Synfuel led by Prof Cheng has been assigned to carry out research focused on synthesis of porous polymeric materials and study of material adsorption of bioactive gases. |
Description | CO2RE Flex-Fund |
Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | RAS5698 |
Organisation | Aston University |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2022 |
End | 05/2023 |
Description | CSC funding |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Leeds |
Department | China Scholarship Council |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2017 |
End | 12/2018 |
Description | Chinese Scholarship Council Fellowship |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Leeds |
Department | China Scholarship Council |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2016 |
End | 03/2017 |
Description | Research facility grant |
Amount | £8,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Queen's University Belfast |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start |
Description | SCI-CSCST travel grant |
Amount | £600 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start |
Description | UK-China workshop grant |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | British Council |
Department | British Council - Newton Fund |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2018 |
End | 08/2018 |
Title | method for delivering bioactive nitric oxide |
Description | A new method developed by our group is using porous polymeric materials for storing bioactive nitric oxide. The nitric oxide stored in polymers can be thus released in a controllable manner. Depending on the structure of nitric oxide interacting with polymers, the nitric oxide can be released by light irradiation or water. The polymers can be formulated into various healthcare products, such as wound dressing, to accelerate diabetic chronic wound healing or to be used for antimicrobial applications. This method differs from that of using metal organic frameworks or zeolites as the nitric oxide donors which rely on the metals as the storage active centres. It avoids the risk of metal leaching. |
Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | We have disseminated our findings at conferences and seminars. Our results have attracted much more attentions, which have us finding new research partners in the field of biology and biomedical research (Aston university) and in the field of catalysis (SynFuel ltd). |
Title | Nitric oxide storage and release analyses |
Description | The data were collected and analyzed by postdoctoral researcher and postgraduate students who submitted report and theses. The data include synthesis of polymers for NO delivery and characterisation. The first order kinetics has been used for assessing the nitric oxide releasing profiles from different NO delivery polymers. |
Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The data have been continuously used by the following phD students, based on which new Photo-responsive polymers that can deliver bioactive nitric oxide accurately by light irradiation. |
Description | Collaboration |
Organisation | Aston University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Our research and contribution are focused on the development of new types of nanoporous organic polymers. I have organised a series of meetings for discussing the routes of polymer synthesis, analysing the problems present in synthesis experiments. One postdoctoral researcher, two visiting associate professors, one PhD student, two MPhil students, and one MEng student have been working on this project. They have obtained a variety of training from safety to the use of facilities such as NMR, XRD, IR, TGA, UV-vis, SEM. We use the facilities available in our school to characterise our samples. ASEP analytical centre in school also provides measurements of BET surface area and elemental analysis. We have used the EPSRC national service for the solid state NMR to identify nitrogen and carbon moieties in frameworks. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our partners have brought a variety of expertises into this project. They provided valuable advice on the characterisation of materials and research supports. For example, Newcastle University provided a flowing microcalorimetry instrument to us for measuring the interaction heat of material surface with solvents. It also allows us to access the gas adsorption instrument that has been used to obtain nitric oxide gas isotherms to assess material adsorption performance. Aston university has provided 10 autoclaves to us for carrying on polymeric material synthesis, and also provide service to do image analysis using the digital microscope. Taiyuan university has sent an associate professor working in our group, who brought research funding and provided training to students. He also did synthesis experiment of porous materials and wrote four manuscripts, one of which have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Material Chemistry A, recently. An associate professor from China University of Petroleum joined my group in 2017. Synfuels research institute has a wide range of facilities for the characterisation of materials. It provide us with analysis service for free. We have collaborated to write a manuscript for publishing results in the journal. in 2018, Synfuel also sends a PhD student supported by the Council of Scholar China to join our team. A long term research collaboration has been established. |
Impact | Our collaboration is multi-disciplinary. We have collaborated for publishing a few papers such as "Functionalised solids delivering bioactive nitric oxide gas for therapeutic applications" in Materialstoday Communication (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2017.07.007); "Encapsulation of phase change materials using rice-husk-char" in Applied Energy (10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.08.102); " Unique allosteric effect driven rapid adsorption of carbon dioxide on a new ionogel [P4444][2-Op]@MCM-41 with excellent cyclic stability and loading-dependent capacity" in Journal of Material Chemistry A (10.1039/C6TA10693E); "Zeolite-cage-lock strategy for in situ synthesis of highly nitrogen-doped porous carbon for selective separation of carbon dioxide gas" in RSC Advances (DOI: 10.1039/c6ra26997d); "Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in the field of CO2 adsorption"Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in Microporous and mesoporous materials (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2018.01.031). The results of the synthesis of polymeric materials in relation to this project have been collected. A relevant manuscript is under revision. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboration |
Organisation | China University of Petroleum, Beijing |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Our research and contribution are focused on the development of new types of nanoporous organic polymers. I have organised a series of meetings for discussing the routes of polymer synthesis, analysing the problems present in synthesis experiments. One postdoctoral researcher, two visiting associate professors, one PhD student, two MPhil students, and one MEng student have been working on this project. They have obtained a variety of training from safety to the use of facilities such as NMR, XRD, IR, TGA, UV-vis, SEM. We use the facilities available in our school to characterise our samples. ASEP analytical centre in school also provides measurements of BET surface area and elemental analysis. We have used the EPSRC national service for the solid state NMR to identify nitrogen and carbon moieties in frameworks. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our partners have brought a variety of expertises into this project. They provided valuable advice on the characterisation of materials and research supports. For example, Newcastle University provided a flowing microcalorimetry instrument to us for measuring the interaction heat of material surface with solvents. It also allows us to access the gas adsorption instrument that has been used to obtain nitric oxide gas isotherms to assess material adsorption performance. Aston university has provided 10 autoclaves to us for carrying on polymeric material synthesis, and also provide service to do image analysis using the digital microscope. Taiyuan university has sent an associate professor working in our group, who brought research funding and provided training to students. He also did synthesis experiment of porous materials and wrote four manuscripts, one of which have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Material Chemistry A, recently. An associate professor from China University of Petroleum joined my group in 2017. Synfuels research institute has a wide range of facilities for the characterisation of materials. It provide us with analysis service for free. We have collaborated to write a manuscript for publishing results in the journal. in 2018, Synfuel also sends a PhD student supported by the Council of Scholar China to join our team. A long term research collaboration has been established. |
Impact | Our collaboration is multi-disciplinary. We have collaborated for publishing a few papers such as "Functionalised solids delivering bioactive nitric oxide gas for therapeutic applications" in Materialstoday Communication (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2017.07.007); "Encapsulation of phase change materials using rice-husk-char" in Applied Energy (10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.08.102); " Unique allosteric effect driven rapid adsorption of carbon dioxide on a new ionogel [P4444][2-Op]@MCM-41 with excellent cyclic stability and loading-dependent capacity" in Journal of Material Chemistry A (10.1039/C6TA10693E); "Zeolite-cage-lock strategy for in situ synthesis of highly nitrogen-doped porous carbon for selective separation of carbon dioxide gas" in RSC Advances (DOI: 10.1039/c6ra26997d); "Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in the field of CO2 adsorption"Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in Microporous and mesoporous materials (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2018.01.031). The results of the synthesis of polymeric materials in relation to this project have been collected. A relevant manuscript is under revision. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboration |
Organisation | Synfuels China Technology |
Country | China |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Our research and contribution are focused on the development of new types of nanoporous organic polymers. I have organised a series of meetings for discussing the routes of polymer synthesis, analysing the problems present in synthesis experiments. One postdoctoral researcher, two visiting associate professors, one PhD student, two MPhil students, and one MEng student have been working on this project. They have obtained a variety of training from safety to the use of facilities such as NMR, XRD, IR, TGA, UV-vis, SEM. We use the facilities available in our school to characterise our samples. ASEP analytical centre in school also provides measurements of BET surface area and elemental analysis. We have used the EPSRC national service for the solid state NMR to identify nitrogen and carbon moieties in frameworks. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our partners have brought a variety of expertises into this project. They provided valuable advice on the characterisation of materials and research supports. For example, Newcastle University provided a flowing microcalorimetry instrument to us for measuring the interaction heat of material surface with solvents. It also allows us to access the gas adsorption instrument that has been used to obtain nitric oxide gas isotherms to assess material adsorption performance. Aston university has provided 10 autoclaves to us for carrying on polymeric material synthesis, and also provide service to do image analysis using the digital microscope. Taiyuan university has sent an associate professor working in our group, who brought research funding and provided training to students. He also did synthesis experiment of porous materials and wrote four manuscripts, one of which have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Material Chemistry A, recently. An associate professor from China University of Petroleum joined my group in 2017. Synfuels research institute has a wide range of facilities for the characterisation of materials. It provide us with analysis service for free. We have collaborated to write a manuscript for publishing results in the journal. in 2018, Synfuel also sends a PhD student supported by the Council of Scholar China to join our team. A long term research collaboration has been established. |
Impact | Our collaboration is multi-disciplinary. We have collaborated for publishing a few papers such as "Functionalised solids delivering bioactive nitric oxide gas for therapeutic applications" in Materialstoday Communication (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2017.07.007); "Encapsulation of phase change materials using rice-husk-char" in Applied Energy (10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.08.102); " Unique allosteric effect driven rapid adsorption of carbon dioxide on a new ionogel [P4444][2-Op]@MCM-41 with excellent cyclic stability and loading-dependent capacity" in Journal of Material Chemistry A (10.1039/C6TA10693E); "Zeolite-cage-lock strategy for in situ synthesis of highly nitrogen-doped porous carbon for selective separation of carbon dioxide gas" in RSC Advances (DOI: 10.1039/c6ra26997d); "Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in the field of CO2 adsorption"Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in Microporous and mesoporous materials (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2018.01.031). The results of the synthesis of polymeric materials in relation to this project have been collected. A relevant manuscript is under revision. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboration |
Organisation | Taiyuan University of Technology |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Our research and contribution are focused on the development of new types of nanoporous organic polymers. I have organised a series of meetings for discussing the routes of polymer synthesis, analysing the problems present in synthesis experiments. One postdoctoral researcher, two visiting associate professors, one PhD student, two MPhil students, and one MEng student have been working on this project. They have obtained a variety of training from safety to the use of facilities such as NMR, XRD, IR, TGA, UV-vis, SEM. We use the facilities available in our school to characterise our samples. ASEP analytical centre in school also provides measurements of BET surface area and elemental analysis. We have used the EPSRC national service for the solid state NMR to identify nitrogen and carbon moieties in frameworks. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our partners have brought a variety of expertises into this project. They provided valuable advice on the characterisation of materials and research supports. For example, Newcastle University provided a flowing microcalorimetry instrument to us for measuring the interaction heat of material surface with solvents. It also allows us to access the gas adsorption instrument that has been used to obtain nitric oxide gas isotherms to assess material adsorption performance. Aston university has provided 10 autoclaves to us for carrying on polymeric material synthesis, and also provide service to do image analysis using the digital microscope. Taiyuan university has sent an associate professor working in our group, who brought research funding and provided training to students. He also did synthesis experiment of porous materials and wrote four manuscripts, one of which have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Material Chemistry A, recently. An associate professor from China University of Petroleum joined my group in 2017. Synfuels research institute has a wide range of facilities for the characterisation of materials. It provide us with analysis service for free. We have collaborated to write a manuscript for publishing results in the journal. in 2018, Synfuel also sends a PhD student supported by the Council of Scholar China to join our team. A long term research collaboration has been established. |
Impact | Our collaboration is multi-disciplinary. We have collaborated for publishing a few papers such as "Functionalised solids delivering bioactive nitric oxide gas for therapeutic applications" in Materialstoday Communication (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2017.07.007); "Encapsulation of phase change materials using rice-husk-char" in Applied Energy (10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.08.102); " Unique allosteric effect driven rapid adsorption of carbon dioxide on a new ionogel [P4444][2-Op]@MCM-41 with excellent cyclic stability and loading-dependent capacity" in Journal of Material Chemistry A (10.1039/C6TA10693E); "Zeolite-cage-lock strategy for in situ synthesis of highly nitrogen-doped porous carbon for selective separation of carbon dioxide gas" in RSC Advances (DOI: 10.1039/c6ra26997d); "Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in the field of CO2 adsorption"Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in Microporous and mesoporous materials (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2018.01.031). The results of the synthesis of polymeric materials in relation to this project have been collected. A relevant manuscript is under revision. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboration |
Organisation | University of Newcastle |
Country | Australia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Our research and contribution are focused on the development of new types of nanoporous organic polymers. I have organised a series of meetings for discussing the routes of polymer synthesis, analysing the problems present in synthesis experiments. One postdoctoral researcher, two visiting associate professors, one PhD student, two MPhil students, and one MEng student have been working on this project. They have obtained a variety of training from safety to the use of facilities such as NMR, XRD, IR, TGA, UV-vis, SEM. We use the facilities available in our school to characterise our samples. ASEP analytical centre in school also provides measurements of BET surface area and elemental analysis. We have used the EPSRC national service for the solid state NMR to identify nitrogen and carbon moieties in frameworks. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our partners have brought a variety of expertises into this project. They provided valuable advice on the characterisation of materials and research supports. For example, Newcastle University provided a flowing microcalorimetry instrument to us for measuring the interaction heat of material surface with solvents. It also allows us to access the gas adsorption instrument that has been used to obtain nitric oxide gas isotherms to assess material adsorption performance. Aston university has provided 10 autoclaves to us for carrying on polymeric material synthesis, and also provide service to do image analysis using the digital microscope. Taiyuan university has sent an associate professor working in our group, who brought research funding and provided training to students. He also did synthesis experiment of porous materials and wrote four manuscripts, one of which have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Material Chemistry A, recently. An associate professor from China University of Petroleum joined my group in 2017. Synfuels research institute has a wide range of facilities for the characterisation of materials. It provide us with analysis service for free. We have collaborated to write a manuscript for publishing results in the journal. in 2018, Synfuel also sends a PhD student supported by the Council of Scholar China to join our team. A long term research collaboration has been established. |
Impact | Our collaboration is multi-disciplinary. We have collaborated for publishing a few papers such as "Functionalised solids delivering bioactive nitric oxide gas for therapeutic applications" in Materialstoday Communication (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2017.07.007); "Encapsulation of phase change materials using rice-husk-char" in Applied Energy (10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.08.102); " Unique allosteric effect driven rapid adsorption of carbon dioxide on a new ionogel [P4444][2-Op]@MCM-41 with excellent cyclic stability and loading-dependent capacity" in Journal of Material Chemistry A (10.1039/C6TA10693E); "Zeolite-cage-lock strategy for in situ synthesis of highly nitrogen-doped porous carbon for selective separation of carbon dioxide gas" in RSC Advances (DOI: 10.1039/c6ra26997d); "Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in the field of CO2 adsorption"Large uniform copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal-organic-framework particles from slurry crystallization and their outstanding CO2 gas adsorption capacity" in Microporous and mesoporous materials (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2018.01.031). The results of the synthesis of polymeric materials in relation to this project have been collected. A relevant manuscript is under revision. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboration with Newcastle University |
Organisation | Newcastle University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We synthesised a few new types of porous polymers, which have been used for storage of nitric oxide gas. Some of these polymers have been passed to Prof Thomas's group for characterisation. |
Collaborator Contribution | Prof Thomas's group has kindly contributed IGA facility time for measuring the nitric oxide adsorption over our polymer samples. A few interesting results have been obtained. Prof Thomas kindly agreed a long term collaboration with us through providing IGA adsorption facility time for our sample characterisation. |
Impact | Currently, our collaboration with Newcastle university has been focused on material synthesis and characterisation. We have derived a few porous polymers, but we have not such equipment as IGA adsorption analyser. From the collaboration the isotherms of nitric oxide adsorption in polymers have been obtained. A kinetic effect on nitric oxide adsorption has been observed. Further understanding of this phenomenon is required. It gives such information as that a direct exposure of nitric oxide to the amine functionalised polymers can physically store a large number of nitric oxide gas in pore, which can be readily released. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Shanxi Medical University |
Organisation | Shanxi Medical University |
Country | China |
Sector | Hospitals |
PI Contribution | My research team developed a few new polymeric NO delivery vectors that can release the bioactive nitric oxide by photo irradiation. |
Collaborator Contribution | Shanxi medical university has done antimicrobial tests on our materials. |
Impact | A manuscript based on our research results (syntheses of polymers with nitroso groups, characterization of polymers, NO-releasing kinetics under UV light irradiation, biological tests) has been prepared, will be submitted for publication soon. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | collaboration with School of Life and Health Sciences, aston university |
Organisation | Aston University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have developed a few "proof of concept" polymeric materials that have been assessed by their antimicrobial species storage and release. The preliminary results are now being used for writing a new proposal. |
Collaborator Contribution | This partner is organising a proposal writing, we are working together and have completed drafting a proposal for a application for EPSRC research grant. This partnership is long term, in near future we are to apply our technology for a new type of wound dressing formulation. |
Impact | We are collaborating for writing a research grant proposal. A draft version has been completed and is under revision, which is for application for an EPSRC grant. This collaboration is multi-disciplinary. This partner is expertise in biological studies of cells and wound healing. We are in the biomaterial synthesis and characterisation. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Title | nitric oxide releasing polymers |
Description | We have developed a few new biopolymers. These polymers are able to release bioactive nitric oxide through light irradiation or water triggering. The proof of concept research supported by this grant has approved that the derived materials are potential for future therapeutic applications, such as chronic wound healing ,through formulating into wound addressing. The releasing of nitric oxide from the light responsive polymers can be exactly controlled by light irradiation at 236-400nm. The EPSRC grant was the main source supporting for development of this new method for nitric oxide delivery. So far, we have reach to a stage of successfully completing the proof of concept, next stage will be focused on optimisation of material structures through improving synthesis conditions in order to improve the storage capacity. |
Type | Therapeutic Intervention - Drug |
Current Stage Of Development | Initial development |
Year Development Stage Completed | 2017 |
Development Status | Under active development/distribution |
Impact | This research has attract much attentions to the researchers in the field of biomaterials, catalysis and adsorption for healthcare and energy utilisation. A few international self funding students have applied for conducting relevant research for their PhD/MPhil degrees. They will continue to contribute the development of nitric oxide delivery technology. |
Title | Nanoporous polymers |
Description | Four new types of nanoporous organic polymers containing amine functionalities have been synthesized. Followed by nitrosation, these polymers have been incorporated with nitroso groups bound to amine -NH-, to form a series of nitroso- functionalised compounds. Their porous nature allows a control of interesting species mass transferring along the pore channel. This would influence the nitric oxide release kinetics. The nitroso groups bound to the amines are sensitive to light. Under the UV irradiation, the N-N bond is cleaved to release nitric oxide gas. |
Type Of Technology | New Material/Compound |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | This is a new property for POP materials we found during this project, that is, the POPs materials can be converted into photoactive materials that release bioactive nitric oxide gas under light irradiation for antimicrobial applications and wound healing. That means the POPs can be combined with light therapy in the future without any concerns about the amine leaching. This method extends the potential application of nanoporous organic polymers (POPs) into a new field for drug delivery for topical light therapy. Currently, most application studies of POPs have been focused on their CO2 adsorption performance. |
Description | 13th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC13) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This is a very successful international conference that was focused on the materials sciences and industrial applications. We have submitted conference papers and posters and gave oral presentation, which have shown our research progress in development of nitric oxide delivery by means of porous organic polymers. Many participants have shown their interests in our cut edge work through asking questions in meeting room, discussion and visiting our poster. Some of them have given many good suggestions and asked for collaboration in the future. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | 23rd CSCST-SCI conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | A poster has been presented to show our new results. A few of POP materials developed have shown their photosensitivity property. Under UV irradiation nitric oxide gas can be released. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | 24th Annual SC-CSCST conference-Novel Materials and Surface for Future Engineering |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This activity was mainly supported by SCI, the Education Section of Chinese Embassy in London, the UK Fluids Network (UKFN) and Northumbria University.The theme of the conference was Novel Materials and Surfaces for Future Engineering. Materials, surfaces and fluids are extremely important elements and building blocks for chemistry and chemical engineering. In modern industry, novel materials and novel surfaces play key roles in the chemical industry, and bring added value to everyday life and society. Without them, new technologies that are changing the world such as electrical vehicles, solar panels, biomedical and healthcare devices, would not be possible or affordable. The purpose of this activity was to provide an opportunity for Chinese researchers in the UK and other researchers to discuss the most up-to-date and emergent research opportunities and challenges in materials and surfaces. It covered a wide range of important topics in the chemical industry, such as microfluidics, surface and interfaces, novel processes, heat and mass transfer, photochemistry, electrochemistry and so on. Topics of novel materials, such as Precision Synthetic Macromolecules, Phase Change Materials, BioCatalysis, Supramolecules, Hydrogels, nano materials and biomaterials, attracted a lot of interest and discussion. Approximately 130 researchers registered for the event, including researchers and industry experts from the UK, Ireland and mainland China. We presented our research work in this conference and won two prizes, One is the second prize for oral presentation " Functionalised Porous Organic Polymers for Bioactive Nitric Oxide Delivery", one is the first prize for poster "Ultraviolet light sensitive porous N-nitroso polymers controlling delivery of antimicrobial nitric oxide for topical therapy". Our work has interested in other researchers. They asked lots of questions and discussed the potentials of such method for antimicrobial studies or different types of biomaterial preparation. We has established a relationship with the researcher from Surrey University who is in the field of molecular modelling the antimicrobial function of materials, is now seeking research collaboration. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.soci.org/news/chinese/24th-annual-sci-cscst-conference |
Description | Academic visiting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Synfuel in Beijing belongs to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has a high reputation in the study of material sciences and industrial applications. I was invited to give a seminar talk of one and a half hours on development of porous polymeric materials for bioactive nitric oxide. About 50 postgraduate students, engineers and researchers attended the seminar. This seminar talk attracted much interests in extending their research into porous materials such as porous organic polymers and MOFs. Our group and Synfuel has built up a good relationship, and start to collaborate in studying porous polymers and MOFs as novel catalysts for production of synthesised oil, and biomaterials for API delivery, and also adsorbents for removal of pollutants. Synfuel will also support PhD students to work in our group in the future. We also collaborate to prepare grant applications and publish papers in in high impact journal. One paper has been submitted to ACS catalysis. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | CSCST forum |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | This CSCST forum was at School of Chemical Engineering, Surrey University. About 15 people attended this event. They came from Aston University, UCL, Queen's University Belfast, Surrey University, Oxford University, Imperial College etc. The purpose of this event was to build up and enhance research collaboration, seeking research partners for future application of research funding, and also shared the experience with early researchers for further career development. Through this event, I found one group at Surrey University which studies drug delivery is our potential partner. We have agreed to collaborate to seek an opportunity for applying for research funding. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Invited talk to Students of Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara India |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | I gave this topic "Metal-organic frameworks for therapeutic applications" at International E-Conference on 'Advanced Materials for Biomedical Applications', Department of Chemistry, Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara India. The audiences are faculty staffs and postgraduate and undergraduate students. They are very interested in my research topic. One student was applying for Newton funding for her studying in my group for a PhD degree. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Session Chair, conference organisation committee |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Session Chair of 27th CSSA-SCI conference organisation committee. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Sigma Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | I was invited to give a talk to the audience, most of them are undergraduate and postgraduate students and a few professors. They are very interested in my research topic about the nitric oxide gas storage and delivery for topical therapy. Usually, they knew the nitric oxide gas as the air pollutant, now they were surprised that nitric oxide gas plays lots of important functions in human body. They hence asked lots of questions in related to the selection of materials, material characterisation, delivery method and potential applications. They also questioned about this storage method for hydrogen storage and CO2 capture, since the materials contain basic amine functionalities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.sigmasymposium.nl/2016/programme |
Description | Supergen Bioenergy Hub Annual Assembly 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | This activity is more focused on the discussion of biochemical processing in relation to the energy utilisation. The committee has proposed to extend the future research into any biological research. Through discussion, we introduced our current work on porous materials for biological study and energy utilisation. A few of participants have shown their interests in our work. This will extend their research expertise into healthcare, also increases our opportunity to extend our experience and knowledge obtained from current work into a different research field. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | The 22nd Annual CSCST-SCI conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I gave an invited presentation about our current work on the nitric oxide storage and delivery. Many people showed their interests in this research topic and asked lots of questions about the effectiveness of this method, the possibility of development of product used in human body, and potential applications for drug delivery and also for fuel gas storage and carbon capture. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | UK-China workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | This UK-China workshop was supported by British Council and National Natural Science Foundation of China, which is focused on the academic research exchange and the industrial applications of new technologies. The participants from the UK was selected by the British Council. The participants have many years of research experience in materials sciences and energy utilisation. I was selected by British Council to attend this three -day workshop. have shown other researchers the role of porous polymeric materials in biological studies and energy storage. This activity allowed me to build up a relationship with other groups, in particular Prof Ding group in Birmingham University. It is possible to collaborate together and combine both research expertise in material research and gas storage in the future. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://energysuperstore.org/esrn/event/uk-china-workshop-on-efficient-energy-utilisation-2017-china/ |
Description | academic visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The intended purpose of visiting Prof. Griffin and Dr Wang in School of Life & Health Sciences of Aston University is to establish a partnership and seek a long term collaboration in biological study of biomaterials developed by our group. We have discussed the details of a research project and drafted a research grant proposal. This is crucial step for us to assess our material performance. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | academic visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The purpose of this visit was intended to establish a link with Prof Tao at Warwick University, We discussed the collaboration in material synthesis and characterisation, in particular the light responsive polymers in antimicrobial applications. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | academic visiting in DUT |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I was invited to give a seminar talk at Dalian University of technology. About 6 professors and 20 postgraduate students attended the two hours seminar. After seminar, I have discussed with individual group about the research collaboration in material development and catalysis. they have shown great interests in our work in porous organic polymers as organocatalysts for chemical conversion. The group of Carbon materials has shown interests in collaboration to develop novel MOF membrane system for gas separation or electrochemical processing. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |