Herbal extract stabilized green synthesis of nanoparticles is an alternative reducing agent for chemical synthesis. In this manuscript, green synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has been performed using aqueous extract of black tea. The effect of tea extract concentration on the morphology of the particles was studied. Formation, functional groups, crystalline phase, and morphology changes of the nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis spectrophotometer, Fourier transforms spectrometer, an X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive diffraction (EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) coupled with selected area diffraction. Antibacterial activity AuNPs were studied against bacteria. It was found that as the concentration of the tea extract increased, the shape of the particles changed and finally became spherical at high concentrations. The results of this research reveal the antibacterial activity of AuNPs.

The incorporation of S-g-C₃N₄ into CuNPs resulted in enhanced electrochemical performance. The introduction of sulfur facilitated the formation of a highly conductive network within the composite material, enabling effective charge transfer and improved specific capacitance. The g-C₃N₄ matrix served as a support network, controlling the accumulation of CuNPs and delivering stability during electrochemical cycling. The optimized S-g-C₃N₄/CuNPs composite showed superior electrochemical performance, high specific capacitance, and enhanced cycling stability. In this study, a facile and scalable synthesis method was employed to fabricate S-g-C₃N₄/CuNPs composite materials on GCE. The resulting composites were characterized using different optical and microscopic techniques. The electrochemical performance of the nanocomposites was assessed via using different techniques such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) techniques. The S-g-C₃N₄/CuNPs nanocomposite exhibited excellent electrochemical properties with a specific capacitance of 1944.18 F/g at a current density of 0.5 A/g and excellent cycling stability. The resultant composite material exhibits excellent electrochemical performance, making it an advantageous nominee for energy storage applications needing high power density, extended cycling life, and steadfast performance.

This study aimed to create and describe mucoadhesive nimodipine solid lipid nanoparticles as buccal tablets by altering the amounts of three polymers: Carbopol 934, Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and Hydroxyethyl cellulose. The Nimodipine-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) were formulated by high shear homogenization and ultrasonication process using palmitic and stearic acid as the lipid matrix and Tween-80 as the surfactant. The swelling properties of all formulations were investigated, and it was discovered that all formulations have a good swelling index at 6 hours. The surface pH of each batch varied between 5.6 and 6.1. The mucoadhesive strengths (15.3-29.5 g) varied with polymer concentrations, particularly Carbopol 934. All batches had considerably different dissolution profiles, ranging from a maximum release of 89.08% (at 8h in batch NT3) to a minimum release of 80.32% (at 8h in batch NT2). SLN formulations had the best results in both Entrapment efficiency and In-vitro drug release, showing that SLN may be a promising delivery strategy for improving Nimodipine release.

Optical coherence tomography is a well-known technique for the optical imaging biological tissues. However, the depth scanning range of high-resolution optical coherence tomography is restricted by its depth of focus. In this study, a Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) Microlens Array (MLA) is employed to overcome the depth-of-focus limitation of optical coherence tomography. The ZnSe material with a low Abbe number and high chromatic dispersion extends the depth of focus with transverse resolution. The ZnSe MLA focused the incident light (from visible to near-infrared (NIR) region) on multiple focal planes with the uniform distribution of light over a biological tissue. The MLA is designed using Zemax OpticStudio software and fabricated via a single-point diamond-turning based on Slow Tool Servo (STS) configuration. STS machining has the unique advantage of offering larger degrees of freedom with no additional baggage, thereby reducing the setup time. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the STS machining process in fabricating ZnSe MLA with desired accuracies. The characterization of fabricated MLA using Coherence Correlation Interferometry (CCI) depicts uniform lenslets with no structural and positional distortion, with a total error of 32 nm within the tolerance limit.

Reducing CO₂ net emissions is one of the most pressing goals in tackling the current global warming emergency. Therefore, the development of carbon recycling strategies has resulted in the application of heterogeneous catalysts toward the electro/photocatalysis reduction of CO₂ into hydrocarbons with potential reusability. Their morphology is among the properties that affect the performance and selectivity of catalysts towards this reaction. Nanostructuring methods offer popular strategies for catalytic applications since they allow an increase in the area/volume ratio and versatile control over surface physicochemical properties. In this review, we summarize studies that report the use of versatile synthesis techniques for obtaining nanostructured metallic and semiconductor materials with application in the electro/photocatalytic reduction of CO_2. Enhancing mechanisms to the catalytic CO₂ reduction yield, such as improved charge carrier separation efficiency, defect engineering, active site concentration, and localized plasmonic behavior, are described in conjunction with the control over the morphologies of the nanostructured platforms. Special attention is given to ZnO and silicon-based matrices as candidates for developing abundant and non-toxic catalytic materials. Therefore, this work represents a guide to the efforts made to design electro/photocatalytic systems that can contribute significantly to this field.

Plastics have become one of the most concerning pollutants today. They are non-biodegradable and potentially carcinogenic and lead to the generation of microplastics categorised as an emerging pollutant. Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 microns in size. They are reported in various parts of the biosphere including human blood and tissues of various organs. Industrial and domestic effluents are two major contributing sources of microplastics in the ecosystem. A large volume of microplastics escape from the filtration processes of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). This review studies the various removal methods for these pollutants in large-scale as well as lab-scale models and the present state of art facilities available to deal with it.

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are receiving increasing attention from individual scientists and research companies as promising materials for biomedical applications. MNPs can be synthesized by many different methods. Before proceeding to the synthesis process, the cost of using it and the practicality of the synthesis conditions are well investigated. Especially in their use in the biomedical field, features such as not containing toxic substances, high biocompatibility, and low particle size are desired. However, the use of magnetic nanoparticles in biomedical applications is limited due to various difficulties such as particle agglomeration and oxidation of magnetic cores of MNPs. To overcome these challenges, MNPs can be coated with various natural and synthetic polymers to alter their morphological structure, magnetic character, biocompatibility, and especially surface functional groups. Therefore, this review focuses on the synthesis of MNPs by different methods and the effects of these synthesis methods on magnetic properties and size, their modifications with natural and synthetic polymers, and the use of these polymer-coated MNPs in biomedical fields such as targeted drug release, enzyme immobilization, biosensors, tissue engineering, magnetic imaging, and hyperthermia. The review article also provides examples of advanced biomedical applications of polymer-coated MNPs and perspectives for future research to promote polymer-coated MNPs. To this end, we aim to highlight knowledge gaps that can guide future research to improve the performance of MNPs for different applications.

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Functional coatings provide durability to the bulk material and add other value-added properties which enhance the surface's mechanical, electrical, optical, and many other properties. The functional response of these coatings stems from the ambiance, which can be made to sense in response to a sharp change in the temperature, pH, moisture, active ions, or mechanical stresses. Recently, many efforts have been made to impart multi-functionality within a single coating, i.e., to achieve hydrophobicity and antifouling characteristics, which can be achieved by combining an appropriate coating material with a geometric nanopattern. Such coatings are poised to shape the future of the transport, healthcare, and energy sectors, including marine, aeronautics, automobile, petrochemical, biomedical, electrical and electronic industries. This perspective sheds light on the design specifications and requirements to fabricate functional coatings and critically discusses the fabrication methods, working principles, and case studies to survey various applications with a particular focus on anti-corrosion and self-cleaning applications.