Methods of forming a nanocomposite of a base material and a plurality of nanoparticles are provided. In embodiments, the method comprises combining a first input stream of flowing fluid comprising a base material having nucleation sites, a second input stream of flowing fluid comprising a nanoparticle precursor material, and a third input stream of flowing fluid comprising a nanoparticle nucleation agent, to form an output stream of flowing fluid; heating or sonicating or both heating and sonicating the output stream for a period of time; and collecting a nanocomposite formed within the fluid of the output stream, the nanocomposite comprising the base material and a plurality of nanoparticles directly anchored onto a surface of the base material via the nucleation sites. The nanocomposites are also provided.

There is disclosed, a desalination apparatus making use of a particles including covalently bonded functionalized magnetic nanoparticles coupled to a complexing agent. For example, the complexing agent may include a crown ether. The particles are optionally used for removing salt from water, for example sea water. The apparatus optionally includes a magnet for magnetic filtering, concentrating and/or removing the particles and/or contaminant (e.g. salt). In some embodiments, the salt is then separated back from the particles using UV light. The remaining unclarified water may be washed out with the contaminant and/or used for salt production and/or disposed of (e.g. dumped back to the sea). Optionally, the particles are regenerated. For example, the regenerated particulars may be reused for further desalination steps (e.g. further salt removal from the clarified water) to clarify new input water.

A novel system for the analysis of molecules and cells, comprising clusters where a non-magnetic particle is supplemented with magnetic particles to form a characteristic pattern, fingerprint or bar code. Methods and devices for formation of such particles are also disclosed.

A liquid filter article, including: a housing having an inlet, an outlet, and an adsorbent bed there between, the bed comprising: a first stage having a first adsorbent, the first adsorbent including an activated carbon honeycomb infused with a plurality of zero valent iron nanoparticles (“Fe-AC”); and a second stage having a second adsorbent, the second adsorbent being selected from iron oxide particles supported on activated carbon honeycomb (“FEOX-AC”), iron oxide particles supported on activated alumina honeycomb (“FeOX-AA”), or a combination thereof, wherein the first stage is in fluid communication with the second stage. Also disclosed is a method of using the liquid filter article to remediate heavy metals in water.

An insoluble thin hydroxide shell is synthesized on the surface of nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI), using a rate-controlled deprotonation method. The hydroxide coated NZVI remains suspended in aqueous phase better than the prior art and can be used to remove groundwater contaminants.

Disclosed is a process for retrieval of nucleotide sequence. The process includes mixing iron chloride tetrahydrate with iron (III) chloride hexahydrate in solution; adding ammonium hydroxide to the mixture and stirring to form maghemite nanoparticles; stirring the maghemite nanoparticles in a solution with an inorganic acid, a surfactant and a monomer precursor of a conducting polymer; initiating polymerization of the monomer by adding the inorganic acid and an oxidizing agent to the stirred solution and further stirring to yield Polyaniline/maghemite nanocomposites; adding the nanocomposites to an first aqueous solution of the nucleotide sequence and stirring so as to electrostatically interact the nanocomposites with the nucleotide sequence; and weakening the electrostatic interaction between the nanocomposite and the nucleotide sequence to recover the nanocomposite independently of the nucleotide sequence.

The invention relates to a method for separation of biopolymer molecules, particularly biopolymer molecules from the group consisting of mono- a multi-phosphorylated peptides, recombinant peptides/proteins with a polyhistidine tag (His-tag) or with another chemically similar biospecific tag, cysteine-containing peptides/proteins and nucleic acids, in which a biopolymer molecule is bound in a binding solution by a specific binding to a carrier, which contains a core with dimensions in nano- and/or submicro- and/or microscale, which is composed of oxide of at least one transition metal and/or silicon oxide, on whose surface is deposited at least one continuous or non-continuous layer and/or nanoparticles of magnetic metal oxide and/or such nanoparticles are deposited in its inner structure, and subsequently undesirable and non-specifically bound components are washed off at least once from the carrier-bound bio-molecules by a washing solution, whereupon biopolymer molecules are eluted from it by changing pH and/or by using an elution solution. The invention also relates to a carrier for application of this method.

The present invention is directed to a method of removing uranium from a uranium containing aqueous medium. The method comprises a step of contacting the medium with magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The nanoparticles comprise mesoporous silica and iron oxide. The nanoparticles may also comprise a functionalized surface obtained by grafting or covalently bonding a functional molecule to the nanoparticle.

The present invention is within the field of chromatography. More precisely, it relates to a novel chromatography medium, namely a hydrophobic medium provided with different lids excluding molecules over a certain size due to the porosity of the hydrophobic medium and/or the porosity of the lid. The invention also relates to use of the separation medium for purification of large molecules, which do not enter the separation medium, as well as small molecules, which enter the separation medium and are eluted from there.

A method and composition of matter for detecting and decontaminating hazardous chemicals, the composition of matter including: a magnetic material for any of chemisorbing, molecularly dissociating, or decomposing a hazardous chemical, wherein the magnetic material changes its magnetic moment upon any of chemisorption, decomposition, and molecular dissociation of the hazardous chemical and the change in magnetic moment is used to detect the presence of the hazardous chemical, and wherein the hazardous chemical includes any of toxic industrial chemicals, chemical warfare agents, and chemical warfare agent related compounds.