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Creators/Authors contains: "Avgeropoulos, Apostolos"

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  1. Herein, this work aims to demonstrate the topological effect on the mechanicalx characteristics of selfassembled block copolymers (BCPs). The lamellae-forming polystyrene- block -polydimethylsiloxane (PSb -PDMS) can be self-assembled into various nanostructured monoliths with the use of PS-selective solvent for solvent annealing, giving diamond, gyroid, and cylinder structures with increasing the swelling degree of PS domain (the effective volume fraction of the PS segment after solvent annealing followed by evaporation). The stiffness of the self-assembled monoliths is scrutinized by nanoindentation test. For intrinsic PS- b -PDMS monolith with lamellar structure, the reduced elastic modulus as calculated from the measured stiffness is 0.91 GPa. By contrast, the PS- b -PDMS monolith with cylinder structure gives a significant reduction in reduced elastic modulus with the value of 0.52 GPa due to the introduced microporosity to the PS domain from solvent annealing using PS-selective solvent, resulting in the lower confrontation for continuous layer-by-layer deformation of hard PS and soft PDMS domains. In the case of gyroid-structured PS- b -PDMS monolith, it is unexpected to exhibit a significant increase in the reduced elastic modulus with a value of 1.6 GPa: note that the effect of microporosity is still significant. Accordingly, the enhancement of the reduced elastic modulus is attributed to the effect of deliberate structuring with network topology ( i.e., three-dimensional co-continuous hard PS and soft PDMS domains) that is able to hold the occurrence of large-scale deformation. In contrast to the gyroid with a three-strut texture, the diamond-structured PS- b -PDMS monolith with a four-strut texture is superior to the gyroid with a reduced elastic modulus of 2.2 GPa, further confirming the suggested topology effect. 
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  2. In the present study, hybrid nanoflowers (HNFs) based on copper (II) or manganese (II) ions were prepared by a simple method and used as nanosupports for the development of effective nanobiocatalysts through the immobilization of lipase B from Pseudozyma antarctica. The hybrid nanobiocatalysts were characterized by various techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The effect of the addition of carbon-based nanomaterials, namely graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes, as well as magnetic nanoparticles such as maghemite, on the structure, catalytic activity, and operational stability of the hybrid nanobiocatalysts was also investigated. In all cases, the addition of nanomaterials during the preparation of HNFs increased the catalytic activity and the operational stability of the immobilized biocatalyst. Lipase-based magnetic nanoflowers were effectively applied for the synthesis of tyrosol esters in non-aqueous media, such as organic solvents, ionic liquids, and environmental friendly deep eutectic solvents. In such media, the immobilized lipase preserved almost 100% of its initial activity after eight successive catalytic cycles, indicating that these hybrid magnetic nanoflowers can be applied for the development of efficient nanobiocatalytic systems. 
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