Volume 45, Issue 3

Water treatment plays a crucial role in meeting the growing demand for water and preventing future shortages. The unique and adaptable arbitrary, physical, and chemical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) make them an attractive candidate for use in water treatment. CNTs are employed in environmental applications because of their exceptional adsorbent, mechanical, and chemical characteristics. Functional groups chemically or physically modify pure CNTs, improving their desalination and extraction capabilities. The advantages of CNT-based composites, such as antifouling performance, excellent selectivity, and higher water permeability, reassure us of their effectiveness in water treatment. This review comprehensively discusses the structural features and synthetic methods of CNTs. The functionalization and the pros and cons of functionalized CNT materials are also discussed. Pharmaceutical compounds are often manufactured using batch processes, resulting in the production of various products in wastewater. The occurrence of pharmaceutical compounds in drinking water arises from two distinct origins: the pharmaceutical industry’s manufacturing procedures and the widespread use of pharmaceutical compounds, which leads to their presence in urban and agricultural wastewater. This review discusses role of CNT-based nanomaterials in effectively removing pharmaceutical waste from wastewater through adsorption and photocatalytic processes. Lastly, the future approach is discussed to develop CNT-based nanomaterials better.

Industrial activities generate significant amounts of wastewater containing toxic heavy metals, posing severe environmental and health risks. This review explores the efficient removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater through adsorption techniques. Adsorption stands out as a promising method due to its versatility, cost-effectiveness, and high efficiency in reducing metal concentrations to permissible levels. The review systematically examines various adsorbents used in industrial effluent treatment, including activated carbon, zeolites, and biochars, highlighting their mechanisms and performance in metal ion removal. Factors influencing adsorption efficiency, such as pH, temperature, adsorbent dosage, and metal ion concentration, are critically evaluated. Recent advancements in adsorption technologies, such as hybrid materials and functionalized adsorbents, are discussed in terms of enhancing removal efficiencies and addressing specific challenges in industrial wastewater treatment. This review provides comprehensive insights into the current state of heavy metal removal by adsorption, emphasizing technological advancements, challenges, and future research directions aimed at sustainable and effective wastewater treatment practices.

This review provides a comprehensive examination of strategies aimed at advancing low-temperature electrolysis for sustainable hydrogen production. It begins by exploring the significance and challenges associated with water splitting, followed by an in-depth discussion on the fundamentals of electrochemical water splitting and crucial performance indicators, including reversible hydrogen electrode potential, specific and mass activities, overpotential, Tafel slope, stability and durability, and Faradaic and energy efficiencies. The article then extensively discusses various emerging strategies, such as decoupled water electrolysis, hybrid water electrolysis (including reagent-sacrificing, pollutant-degrading, and value-added types), tandem water electrolysis, microbial electrolysis cells (covering reactor configurations, electrode materials, microbial populations, and substrates), and the application of external stimuli like ultrasonic, magnetic, and super gravity fields. Additionally, the challenges and advancements in seawater electrolysis are reviewed, with a focus on electrocatalysts, seawater electrolyzers, and future directions. Furthermore, the article addresses current challenges in electrolysis and electrolyzer development, offering perspectives on the future of these techniques. By delving into these strategies, this review aims to contribute to the advancement of clean energy technologies and the transition towards a hydrogen-based economy.

Schiff bases are a class of synthetic compounds that form when primary amines combine with aldehydes or ketones. These compounds are incredibly important across various fields, such as biology, catalysis, and optics, due to their diverse features. One notable aspect is their ability to form complexes with transition metals, which opens up a wide range of potential uses, particularly in human systems. In the human body, Schiff base metal complexes display a range of biological actions, including antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, and antimalarial properties. The versatility of Schiff bases in reacting with different transition metals gives these complexes intriguing potential for addressing biological issues and treating diseases. This article explores various examples of Schiff bases, metal complexes, and their associated ligands, highlighting their usefulness in a variety of biological applications. The potential of Schiff base metal complexes as valuable agents in resolving medical difficulties and advancing biomedical research is emphasized.

Organometallic complexes, which include ligands such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbenes, alkyls, phenyls, p-bound alkynes, alkenes, cyclopentadienyls, and arenes, have been extensively utilized in fields like materials chemistry and catalysis. These complexes also offer opportunities for the development of new medications with unique modes of action. Specifically, we are interested in anticancer drugs that can enhance the effectiveness of platinum treatments, broaden their range of action, reduce adverse effects, and prevent resistance. The distinct physiochemical properties of organometallic complexes have made them valuable in homogeneous catalysis, including the production of lead compounds and therapeutic possibilities. Over the past 20 years, a small group of researchers worldwide has explored the medical applications of these compounds’ unique characteristics, such as their structural diversity, potential for ligand exchange, and redox and catalytic properties. The results have been remarkable, and it is anticipated that numerous other organometallic compounds will undergo clinical trials in the coming years in addition to those already underway. In this brief study, we outline the advantages that organometallic metal complexes have over coordination compounds and pure organic molecules.

Schiff bases have proven to be beneficial in medicine and have interesting complexation capabilities with transition metals. The +4, +5, and +6 oxidation states of schiff base metal complexes have been the subject of recent review, which have highlighted their notable cytotoxic effects against various colon cancer cell lines (HT-29, HCT-116, SW-480, Coco-2, CT-26, LT-174, LoVo). Extensive research has focused on schiff base metal complexes in the +4 and +6 oxidation states, exhibiting distinct geometries and significant thermodynamic stability. These studies provide IC 50 values for these complexes in colon cancer cell lines along with comprehensive structural representations that shed light on how different substituents affect cytotoxicity. When compared to schiff base ligands alone, metal complexes of schiff bases have been shown to significantly reduce colon cancer cell invasion and proliferation. The studied literature emphasizes schiff base metal complexe’s potential in biological applications and suggests that more study may be necessary to fully comprehend their biology. To enable more sophisticated multidisciplinary study in this field, future investigations should focus on synthesizing novel complexes with enhanced bioavailability, solubility, and low toxicity.

Heavy metals are toxic, non-biodegradable pollutants that pose serious risks to human health and the environment, even at trace concentrations. The contamination of drinking water and groundwater by heavy metals requires urgent attention. Nanotechnology has advanced significantly over the past decade, offering innovative solutions for water purification, particularly through the adsorption of heavy metal ions using nanomaterials. This study focuses on the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles, their adsorption capacity, and the desorption process. Additionally, the effects of key experimental parameters – such as contact time, ion concentration, pH, temperature, ionic strength, and adsorbent dose – on the removal efficiency of metal ions are examined. The findings underscore the potential of magnetic nanoparticles for effective heavy metal remediation in water.

The Carbon/graphene quantum dots (CQDs/GQDs) have received increasing attention as emerging zero-dimensional (0D) carbon nanomaterials. The CQDs/GQDs were endowed with significant potential in environmental and energy fields, due to the unique photoluminescence, good biocompatibility, excellent electron transfer capability, and low toxicity. Compared with graphite and hydrocarbons, coal and its derivatives are considered as alternative carbon sources for preparing CQDs/GQDs, as their low cost and abundant reserves. Thereby, the important issue of realization the deep processing and functional applications of coal is cracking the C–O bonds that connected the aromatic ring clusters in coal and its derivatives to obtain CQDs/GQDs. This article briefly reviews the synthesis methods and physicochemical properties of coal-based CQDs/GQDs in recent years, focusing on the formation mechanism of coal-based CQDs/GQDs and their functionalization. In addition, their applications in sensing, photocatalysis, electrochemistry and biomedicine are discussed, as well as the prospects for future research. Hopefully, this paper will provide significant support for the design of efficient coal-based carbon nanomaterials and sustainable options for overcoming bottlenecks in coal applications.

1,2,3-triazoles have emerged as important structural motifs in chemical biology, attracting increasing focus in recent years because of their wide range of uses. These compounds can be efficiently synthesized using click reactions. Its versatility makes it valuable in drug discovery and materials science. Significant advancements have been made in recent years in the process of making 1,2,3-triazoles, reflecting the growing curiosity and investment in the area of research. The catalytic performance of transition metals Cu, Ir, Rh, Ru, Ni, Pd, Au, Ag, and Zn, which were used as ligands and salts in the azide–alkyne cycloaddition method of 1,2,3-triazole synthesis, has been covered in this review. Cu-complexes and salts were found to be more effective for selective synthesis among all transition metals. Furthermore, it is determined that some azide–alkyne reactions are entirely catalytic in nature and cannot be carried out as such by switching transition metals.

Lung cancer is the second leading cause of the mortality related to the cancer. So, it is very necessary to explore the novel strategies to eradicate it. Currently, gold based medicinal compounds have emerged as remarkable anticancer agents and expressed strong potential against the lung cancer cell lines. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the history, advancements, and recent state of gold complexes in the treatment of the lung cancer. We discuss the biological evaluation in relation with the chemical structures of numerous gold complexes, including those featuring thiosemicarbazone, N -heterocyclic imine, N -heterocyclic carbenes, steroidyl NHC, CAACs, carbamates, and diphosphanes as ligands. Gold complexes’ cytotoxicity has been assessed and contrasted with that of standard drugs such as auranofin and cisplatin, with a special focus on IC 50 values for evaluating potency. This review targets to deliver a detailed understanding of the potential of the gold complexes in lung cancer therapies, paving way for the future research and clinical applications.