Calamine and Coal tar ointment

Topical treatments are essential approaches to skin diseases but are associated with poor adherence. Topical vehicles have the primary purpose of ensuring drug effectiveness (by modulating drug stability and delivery, as well as skin properties) but have a marked impact on treatment outcomes as they influence patient satisfaction and, consequently, adherence to topical treatments. There is also a wide variety of vehicles available for topical formulations, which can complicate the decisions of clinicians regarding the most appropriate treatments for specific skin disorders. One of the possible strategies to improve topical-treatment adherence is the implementation of patient-centric drug-product design. In this process, the patient's needs (e.g., those related to motor impairment), the needs associated with the disease (according to the skin lesions' characteristics), and the patient's preferences are taken into consideration and translated into a target product profile (TPP). Herein, an overview of topical vehicles and their properties is presented, along with a discussion of the patient-centric design of topical dermatological medicines and the proposal of TPPs for some of the most common skin diseases.

Abstract licence: CC BY

As a by-product of coal chemical industry, it is very suitable to be used as carbon precursor to prepare carbon materials because of its rich aromatic hydrocarbons. However, the preparation of carbon materials often uses a lot of metal oxides and strong alkali, which will not only cause corrosion to the equipment, but also produce wastewater. Herein, the mixture of bicarbonate and hydrogen oxalate was used as template and activator to synthesize porous carbon nanosheets, which presents high specific surface area of 784.8 m2 g−1 and multiple ion transport channels. Due to those merits, the PCNS2 cathode displays superior zinc ion storage performance, such as high specific capacity of 210.1 F g−1, excellent energy density and power output of 83.3 Wh kg−1 and 17.2 kW kg−1 and long cycle life with capacity retention of 98.57% after 11,000 cycles. This work provides an avenue to prepare porous carbon nanosheets for energy storage devices.

Abstract licence: CC BY 4.0

AbstractIn this experiment, a fixed bed of pyrolysis was used to conduct pyrolysis with coal and a mixture of coal and catalyst, and the distribution and composition of tar products were studied. The pyrolysis of raw coal was carried out at different temperatures and at different constant temperature times, and the effects of pyrolysis temperature and constant temperature pyrolysis time on tar product formation from raw coal pyrolysis were studied. γ-Al2O3 was used as the carrier, and 4 kinds of alkaline earth metal oxides (MgO, CaO, SrO, BaO), 3 kinds of subgroup metal oxides (Fe2O3, Co2O3, NiO) and 5 kinds of VIII metal oxides (Cr2O3, MnO2, CuO, ZnO, MnO2) were selected as active components. The supported γ-Al2O3 catalyst was prepared by the method of equal volume impregnation and roasting in a muffle furnace. The γ-Al2O3 catalyst was characterized by means of XPS, BET and SEM, and the mechanism of the mixed pyrolysis of coal with different metal oxide supported catalysts to generate tar was studied. The results showed that: (1) under the conditions of 450 °C, 500 °C, 550 °C and 600 °C, the maximum tar yield was 0.32 g at 600 °C, and the tar yield was higher at constant temperature for 15 min than at final temperature of 600 °C, with an increase of 15.63%. (2) Fe2O3/γ-Al2O3 catalyst resulted in the highest tar yield of 0.75 g, which was 134.38% higher than that of coal pyrolysis. (3) From the increase of light oil and phenol oil and the decrease of anthracene oil and asphalt, Co2O3/γ-Al2O3, Fe2O3/γ-Al2O3 and Cr2O3/γ-Al2O3 can improve the tar quality better.

Abstract licence: CC BY 4.0

The impact of permanent dam opening on the fate of organic contaminants was studied in the specific case of the Orne River industrial deposits. In the downstream part of the Orne River, the river banks were mainly constituted of steelmaking wastes accumulated for decades. Coring was performed before and after the permanent dam opening (performed in November 2019). The core layers were analysed for grain size, element content, mineralogy and PAC concentrations and distributions. The fine grain size, the high iron content (20-35 %), the presence of high temperature iron phases, the high zinc and lead contents were the main characteristics of these steelmaking sludges and came along with high polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations. The relative enrichment in low molecular weight PAHs associated to the abundance of furans signed the contribution of coal tar in specific layers. Element and grain size results revealed the erosion of about 12 cm of material during the first year of opening. Oxidative conditions were clearly demonstrated by the presence of gypsum along the entire length of the cores collected in 2020 and the years after. Comparing PAC features in the cores collected before and after dam opening, PAH concentrations did not show significant variations, but the molecular distribution of PACs presented significant changes, mainly in the first 30 cm. Indeed, the depletion of oxygenated PACs suggested the preferential leaching of these polar molecules. Leaching might have been enhanced by opening circumstances and/or the intense flood occurring few months after dam opening. Several PAC ratios were used to confirm the leaching and oxidative processes.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-SA