Volume 237, Issue 7

The utilization of a combination of soft and hard materials with a core shell morphology (CSM) represents a distinctive approach for harnessing the properties of a single material. This field has garnered significant attention over the past decade. Core shell systems based on polystyrene offer a remarkable amalgamation of a solid component (polystyrene) and a flexible organic polymer, thereby enhancing the potential for catalysis, biological applications, and environmental studies within the core shell system (CSS). Various configurations of polystyrene-based CSS have been extensively documented in existing literature. The structural design of CSS plays a pivotal role in determining its applicability, which is why a specific morphology is depicted for each unique application. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the latest advancements in the classification, synthesis, properties, characterization, and applications of polystyrene-based CSS. Additionally, it briefly discusses the recent developments in drug delivery, sensing, environmental studies, and catalysis involving polystyrene-based CSS over the past six years.

Poor aqueous solubility results in ineffective drug dissolution and a reduced bioavailability. The poor bioavailability may render even effective medications therapeutically ineffective. Therefore, improving water solubility is necessary in order to enhance drug dissolution and availability at the action site. Drug solubility has been increased using conventional methods, but these methods have many drawbacks, including inconsistent particle size and difficulty in reproducing. Nanotechnology can enable drug targeting and can also offer protection to drugs against degradation. Phytochemicals have some unbelievable benefits when it comes to disease treatment. The integration of phytotherapy and nanotechnology at clinical level will boost pharmacological response and favorable clinical results for the ailing population. The given review is an overview of what may be the consequences, if a drug is poor water soluble and current approaches that further improve these drugs solubility. While such process of solubilization of drugs is also explained. It explains how nanoparticles of drugs, nanocarriers, and lipid-based nano-systems, can be utilized to meet the challenges and which of these methods do already prevail in the market. Finally, it is drawing a line of demarcation and making comparisons between the crude drug formulations and those with enhanced solubility.

A polyacrylamide gel method combined with low temperature calcination technology has been developed to synthesize the BaTiO 3 /CeO 2 heterojunction photocatalysts, which were formed by hybriding the large BaTiO 3 particles and fine CeO 2 nanoparticles with varied mass percent of CeO 2 . Various characterization methods have been used to determine the phase structure, functional group information, elemental composition, microstructure, optical and photocatalytic activity of BaTiO 3 /CeO 2 heterojunction photocatalysts. The introduction of CeO 2 into the host lattice of BaTiO 3 does not change the optical band gap value (Eg = 3.20 eV) of the host lattice. As expected, the BaTiO 3 /CeO 2 heterojunction photocatalysts exhibit highly enhanced and CeO 2 composition-dependent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of oxytetracycline hydrochloride under simulated sunlight irradiation. The BaTiO 3 /5 wt% CeO 2 , BaTiO 3 /10 wt% CeO 2 , and BaTiO 3 /15 wt% CeO 2 showed lower photocatalytic activity, while BaTiO 3 /20 wt% CeO 2 showed highest photocatalytic activity (96.89 %) over the single component BaTiO 3 and CeO 2 photocatalysts with the initial oxytetracycline hydrochloride concentration, photocatalyst content and irradiation time were 100 mg/L, 1.5 g/L and 120 min, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of BaTiO 3 /20 wt% CeO 2 heterojunction photocatalysts is ascribed to the cooperation between Ce 3+ and Ce 4+ , improved charge transfer and separation of electron-hole pairs generated on irradiation with simulated sunlight and proper amount of surface defects or oxygen vacancies on the BaTiO 3 /CeO 2 heterojunction photocatalysts.

Nowadays, solar photocatalysis has received a lot of attention as an effective method for environmental remediation. During the last few decades, textile dyeing and finishing industries produced a large quantity of wastewater discharges with complex compositions. Herein, we first reported CuOCo 3 O 4 @CP was successfully fabricated using a cost-effective, eco-friendly, extremely reliable spray pyrolysis method. Crystal structure, surface texture, elemental purity and optical properties of fabricated thin-films were analyzed using XRD, SEM, EDX, UV–vis spectrophotometers, DLS and FTIR techniques. Functional parameters such as initial dye pH, solar irradiation time, oxidant concentration and initial acid red 73 (AR 73) dye concentration were optimized using statistical design response surface methodology (RSM). The estimation of AR 73 dye was assessed by UV–vis spectroscopy and FTIR study. Resultantly, >94 % AR 73 dye degradation was achieved using CuOCo 3 O 4 @CP under optimum conditions. Meanwhile, water standard parameters reduction like COD (76 %), BOD (64 %), and TOC (60 %) were also executed. In the end, the most important factor reusability of fabricated CuOCo 3 O 4 @CP was also reviewed up to 20 cycles and CuOCo 3 O 4 @CP was sustained up to 10 cycles without any loss of efficiency; 23 % deduction was observed till 20 cycles. Hence, fabricated CuOCo 3 O 4 @CP thin-film has been considered a novel photocatalyst for effluent treatment.

This study focuses on the synthesis of silver/copper bimetallic nanoparticles (Ag/Cu BMNPs) using Seidlitzia stocksii stem aqueous extract. The synthesized product was characterized by powder X-rays diffraction techniques (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy dispersive X-rays spectroscopy (EDX), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The bimetallic nature of the particles was confirmed by XRD whereas the elemental composition was verified by EDX analysis. FTIR and SEM were used to determine the presence of different functionalities and morphology of the prepared BMNPs respectively. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue was analyzed using solar light. Nearly 44 % degradation was observed for 70 min of irradiation with excellent rate constant. Results revealed that the synthesized material is a potential candidate in the field of photocatalysis. Moreover, this may be contributed to presence of BMNPs. It may be concluded that the prepared material could be applied as cost effective and ecofriendly catalyst for the degradation of toxic pollutants from industrial effluents.

Organic dyes used to shade numerous materials on an industrial level causes water pollution. To meet the need for the removal of the dye-laden water the mechanistic methodology is developed in which catalyst (ZnO), oxidizer (H 2 O 2 ), and irradiation of low dose (4 KGy) are involved. Oxidizers and catalysts are characterized for surface morphology by SEM, functional groups by FTIR, crystallinity by XRD, particle size by PSA, and for elemental ratio by EDX. A solution ranging from 2 ppm to 8 ppm of Congo red (CR) dye, ZnO (100 μg) as a catalyst, H 2 O 2 (100 μL), as an oxidizer, and 4 KGy energy radiations were used during the degradation analysis for 30, 60, 90, and 120 min. The enhanced effect is shown by using the oxidizer, catalyst, and irradiation at a time. Moreover, it shows a degradation of 99 % for 2 ppm and 4 ppm within 60 min while 6 ppm almost 99 % within 90 min, and 8 ppm almost 96.76 % within 120 min. The established mechanistic methodology can also be applied to actual aqueous industrial samples.

Heavy metals presence in the potable water is a terrible dilemma notably for emergent countries and could be carcinogenic. Currently, interfacial polymerization (IP) was applied for the production of thin film nanocomposite forward osmosis (TFN-FO) membrane using polyacrylonitrile support. For this purpose, Zn (II)-imidazole metal Organic framework (MOF) was employed as a nanofiller into polymeric membranes this modification was found useful for the removal of heavy metals. Different characterization techniques like scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses were used for the assessment of morphology, elemental arrangement, functional groups and crystalline nature of the prepared FO membrane. It was observed that synthesized Zn-MOF based FO membrane displays high water flux by increasing the number of pores in the membrane. Additionally, this particular FO membrane was custom-made for lower reverse solute flux and concentration polarization. This ensures minimum withdrawal of salt from the draw solution (DS) to the feed solution (FS). So, the prepared Zn-MOF based FO membrane produce synergistic outcomes for the removal of metals and this strategy could possibly be used as novel way for removal of toxic pollutants.

Highly conductive and stable β″-Al 2 O 3 electrolyte powder is achieved via the solid-state reaction technique when sintered at 1200 °C, 1250 °C, 1300 °C, 1350 °C, and 1400 °C temperature, correspondingly. The findings show that the ionic conductivity has improved slightly from 1200 °C to 1400 °C. As the sintering temperature is increased, the EIS curve shows a short curve of resistance. A maximum ionic conductivity of 7.07 × 10 −4  S cm −2 is achieved at 1400 °C (1800 Ω). This is caused by the large β″ contents in Al 2 O 3 , as inspected by the X-ray diffraction results. Furthermore, the morphology of Al 2 O 3 shows less porosity and denser particles within the powder.

In the current work, hydroxyapatite (HAP) particles were synthesized by using Citrus Limon. Pectin was extracted from lemon and was used as stabilizing agent during particles synthesis. HAP particles were synthesized by mixing calcium chloride solution and ammonium dihydrogen phosphate solution and pectin in a definite ratio. Fabrication of silver nanoparticles was carried out in the presence of HAP particles to obtain Ag-HAP hybrid particles. HAP and Ag-HAP systems were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The catalytic activity of Ag-HAP system was evaluated by reducing 4-nitrophenol and by degrading organic dyes (Rhodamine b, Brilliant blue and Methyl orange). The experimental results showed that Ag-HAP hybrid particles have good catalytic activity and may be used for catalysis of different organic reactions.

Herein, Diferuloylmethane (Curcumin) doped in a sol-gel thin film was introduced as a Thorium Th(IV) chemosensor. The suggested chemosensor exhibits a substantial decrease in fluorescence signal upon exposure to an aqueous solution containing Th(IV). To learn more about the coordination mode, sites, and quantum properties, computational work was done using the density functional theory (DFT). A lower predicted formation energy for the curcumin/Th(IV) complex (−9.57 × 10 4  eV) than for the free curcumin (−3.42 × 10 4  eV) has been found. While the dipole moment of the free Curcumin was 9.7955 debye, that of the Curcumin/Th(IV) complex was 40.6876 debye, which was greater. This implies that Curcumin and Th(IV) are well-coordinated. The suggested chemosensor can detect Th(IV) ion in aqueous solution throughout the range of 1.0 × 10 −8 to 9.0 × 10 −7  mol L −1 , at pH 5, with a lower detection limit (LOD) of 2.50 × 10 −8  mol L −1 and a lower quantification limit (LOQ) of 7.58 × 10 −8  mol L −1 . The effects of interference ions were investigated. Applications for determining Th(IV) directly in real samples produced findings that exhibited good agreement with results from inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The suggested chemosensor indicated outstanding performance features for Th(IV) including selectivity, long-term response stability, and high repeatability.