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We report the use of bis-catecholic polymers as candidates for obtaining effective, tunable gatekeeping coatings for mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) intended for drug release applications. In monomers, catechol rings act as adhesive moieties and reactive sites for polymerization, together with middle linkers which may be chosen to tune the physicochemical properties of the resulting coating. Stable and low-toxicity coatings (pNDGA and pBHZ) were prepared from two bis-catechols of different polarity (NDGA and BHZ) on MSN carriers previously loaded with rhodamine B (RhB) as a model payload, by means of a previously reported synthetic methodology and without any previous surface modification. Coating robustness and payload content were shown to depend significantly on the workup protocol. The release profiles in a model physiological PBS buffer of coated systems (RhB@MSN@pNDGA and RhB@MSN@pBHZ) showed marked differences in the “gatekeeping” behavior of each coating, which correlated qualitatively with the chemical nature of their respective linker moieties. While the uncoated system (RhB@MSN) lost its payload almost completely after 2 days, release from RhB@MSN@pNDGA was virtually negligible, likely due to the low polarity of the parent bis-catechol (NDGA). As opposed to these extremes, RhB@MSN@pBHZ presented the most promising behavior, showing an intermediate release of 50% of the payload in the same period of time., This work was supported by Projects MAT2015-70615-R from the Spanish Government and by FEDER funds. ICN2 acknowledges support from the Severo Ochoa Program (MINECO, Grant SEV-2013-0295) and the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. UCM acknowledges support by the European Research Council (Advanced Grant VERDI; ERC-2015-AdG Proposal No. 694160) and Project MAT2015-64831-R.

Platinum nanoparticles ( d Pt = 1.0–1.2 nm) supported on single CeO 2 and La 2 O 3 metal oxides and Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2− δ solid solution were prepared to investigate for the first time the effect of La 3+ -doping of ceria on important mechanistic and kinetic aspects of the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction, namely: (i) the concentration and chemical structure of active adsorbed reaction intermediates present in the C-path and H-path of WGS at 250 and 300 °C, (ii) the chemical nature of inactive species formed during WGS, and (iii) the prevailing mechanistic path among “redox” and “associative” both proposed in the literature. For this, steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis (SSITKA) experiments coupled with in situ DRIFTS and mass spectrometry were performed to follow the H-path (use of D 2 O) and C-path (use of 13 CO) of the WGS. In addition, other transient isotopic experiments using operando methodology (use of DRFTS and mass spectrometry) were designed to follow with time on stream the reactivity toward water of the various adsorbed species formed under WGS. It is proposed that on Pt/Ce 1− x La x O 2− δ ( x = 0.0, 0.2 and 1.0) the WGS reaction follows both the “redox” and “associative” mechanisms but the extent of participation of each mechanism to the overall WGS reaction rate depends on the support chemical composition. The WGS kinetic rate (μmol CO g −1 s −1 ) increased by a factor of 2.0 and 2.8 at 300 °C on 0.5 wt% Pt supported on Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2− δ compared to CeO 2 and La 2 O 3 , respectively. This was explained by (i) the larger concentration of active surface intermediates formed around each Pt nanoparticle (larger extent of reactive zone) and (ii) the higher reactivity of sites ( k , s −1 ) responsible for CO 2 and H 2 formation on Pt/Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2− δ compared to Pt/CeO 2 and Pt/La 2 O 3 . Active OH groups is suggested to be formed on defect sites (Ce 3+ □ s ) of Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2− δ as a consequence of the introduction of La 3+ into the ceria lattice, the latter enhancing the concentration of labile oxygen and its surface mobility, important characteristics of the “redox” mechanism.