Removal of pharmaceutical compounds and toxicology study in wastewater using Malaysian fungal Ganoderma lucidum.

Elevated usage of pharmaceutical products leads to the accumulation of emerging contaminants in sewage. In the current work, Ganoderma lucidum (GL) was used to remove pharmaceutical compounds (PCs), proposed as a tertiary method in sewage treatment plants (STPs). The PCs consisted of a group of painkillers (ketoprofen, diclofenac, and dexamethasone), psychiatrists (carbamazepine, venlafaxine, and citalopram), beta-blockers (atenolol, metoprolol, and propranolol), and anti-hypertensives (losartan and valsartan). The performance of 800 mL of synthetic water, effluent STP, and hospital wastewater (HWW) was evaluated. Parameters, including treatment time, inoculum volume, and mechanical agitation speed, have been tested. The toxicity of the GL after treatment is being studied based on exposure levels to zebrafish embryos (ZFET) and the morphology of the GL has been observed via Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). The findings conclude that GL can reduce PCs from <10% to >90%. Diclofenac and valsartan are the highest (>90%) in the synthetic model, while citalopram and propranolol (>80%) are in the real wastewater. GL effectively removed pollutants in 48 h, 1% of the inoculum volume, and 50 rpm. The ZFET showed GL is non-toxic (LC50 is 209.95 mg/mL). In the morphology observation, pellets GL do not show major differences after treatment, showing potential to be used for a longer treatment time and to be re-useable in the system. GL offers advantages to removing PCs in water due to their non-specific extracellular enzymes that allow for the biodegradation of PCs and indicates a good potential in real-world applications as a favourable alternative treatment.

Green Approaches, Potentials, and Applications of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles in Surface Coatings and Films.

Interest in the use of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) in surface coatings and films has increased as its incorporation can significantly improve the mechanical and antimicrobial properties of coatings and film solutions. In an effort to produce green or eco-friendly products, the potential use of ZnO NPs biosynthesized from natural resources to replace conventional petroleum-derived polymers has been investigated. This review provides an insight into the growing trend of incorporating ZnO NPs into synthetic or semi-synthetic or bio-based polymeric materials via different synthesis methods as well as its characteristics and potential applications in surface coatings and films. The antimicrobial potential of ZnO NPs to inhibit the growth of various types of microorganisms as well as its use in surface coatings or films to impart antimicrobial activities that prevent the spread of microorganisms, especially the COVID-19 virus, was also discussed.

A Review on Current Designation of Metallic Nanocomposite Hydrogel in Biomedical Applications.

In the past few decades, nanotechnology has been receiving significant attention globally and is being continuously developed in various innovations for diverse applications, such as tissue engineering, biotechnology, biomedicine, textile, and food technology. Nanotechnological materials reportedly lack cell-interactive properties and are easily degraded into unfavourable products due to the presence of synthetic polymers in their structures. This is a major drawback of nanomaterials and is a cause of concern in the biomedicine field. Meanwhile, particulate systems, such as metallic nanoparticles (NPs), have captured the interest of the medical field due to their potential to inhibit the growth of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and viruses). Lately, researchers have shown a great interest in hydrogels in the biomedicine field due to their ability to retain and release drugs as well as to offer a moist environment. Hence, the development and innovation of hydrogel-incorporated metallic NPs from natural sources has become one of the alternative pathways for elevating the efficiency of therapeutic systems to make them highly effective and with fewer undesirable side effects. The objective of this review article is to provide insights into the latest fabricated metallic nanocomposite hydrogels and their current applications in the biomedicine field using nanotechnology and to discuss the limitations of this technology for future exploration. This article gives an overview of recent metallic nanocomposite hydrogels fabricated from bioresources, and it reviews their antimicrobial activities in facilitating the demands for their application in biomedicine. The work underlines the fabrication of various metallic nanocomposite hydrogels through the utilization of natural sources in the production of biomedical innovations, including wound healing treatment, drug delivery, scaffolds, etc. The potential of these nanocomposites in relation to their mechanical strength, antimicrobial activities, cytotoxicity, and optical properties has brought this technology into a new dimension in the biomedicine field. Finally, the limitations of metallic nanocomposite hydrogels in terms of their methods of synthesis, properties, and outlook for biomedical applications are further discussed.

A Comparison between Various Polymeric Membranes for Oily Wastewater Treatment via Membrane Distillation Process.

Oily wastewater (OW) is detrimental towards the environment and human health. The complex composition of OW needs an advanced treatment, such as membrane technology. Membrane distillation (MD) gives the highest rejection percentage of pollutants in wastewater, as the membrane only allows the vapor to pass its microporous membrane. However, the commercial membranes on the market are less efficient in treating OW, as they are prone to fouling. Thus, the best membrane must be identified to treat OW effectively. This study tested and compared the separation performance of different membranes, comparing the pressure-driven performance between the membrane filtration and MD. In this study, several ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes (NFS, NFX, XT, MT, GC and FILMTEC) were tested for their performance in treating OW (100 ppm). The XT and MT membranes (UF membrane) with contact angles of 70.4 ± 0.2° and 69.6 ± 0.26°, respectively, showed the best performance with high flux and oil removal rate. The two membranes were then tested for long-term performance for two hours with 5000 ppm oil concentration using membrane pressure-filtration and MD. The XT membrane displayed a better oil removal percentage of >99%. MD demonstrated a better removal percentage; the flux reduction was high, with average flux reduction of 82% compared to the membrane pressure-filtration method, which experienced a lower flux reduction of 25%. The hydrophilic MT and XT membranes have the tendency to overcome fouling in both methods. However, for the MD method, wetting occurred due to the feed penetrating the membrane pores, causing flux reduction. Therefore, it is important to identify the performance and characteristics of the prepared membrane, including the best membrane treatment method. To ensure that the MD membrane has good anti-fouling and anti-wetting properties, a simple and reliable membrane surface modification technique is required to be explored. The modified dual layer membrane with hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties is expected to produce effective separation in MD for future study.

Reply to Ivy et al. Comment on "Khairul Zaman et al. Eco-Friendly Coagulant versus Industrially Used Coagulants: Identification of Their Coagulation Performance, Mechanism and Optimization in Water Treatment Process. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 9164".

We appreciate very much the interest of Ivy et al. in our work [...].

Eco-Friendly Coagulant versus Industrially Used Coagulants: Identification of Their Coagulation Performance, Mechanism and Optimization in Water Treatment Process.

The evaluation of complex organic and inorganic coagulant's performances and their relationships could compromise the surface water treatment process time and its efficiency. In this work, process optimization was investigated by comparing an eco-friendly chitosan with the industrially used coagulants namely aluminum sulfate (alum), polyaluminum chloride (PAC), and aluminum chlorohydrate (ACH) in compliance with national drinking water standards. To treat various water samples from different treatment plants with turbidity and pH ranges from 20-826.3 NTU and 5.21-6.80, respectively, 5-20 mg/L coagulant dosages were varied in the presence of aluminum, ferum, and manganese. Among all, 10 mg/L of the respective ACH and chitosan demonstrated 97% and 99% turbidity removal in addition to the removal of the metals that complies with the referred standard. However, chitosan owes fewer sensitive responses (turbidity and residual metal) with the change in its input factors (dosage and pH), especially in acidic conditions. This finding suggested its beneficial role to be used under the non-critical dosage monitoring. Meanwhile, ACH was found to perform better than chitosan only at pH > 7.4 with half dosage required. In summary, chitosan and ACH could perform equally at a different set of optimum conditions. This optimization study offers precise selections of coagulants for a practical water treatment operation.

Emergence of Polymeric Material Utilising Sustainable Radiation Curable Palm Oil-Based Products for Advanced Technology Applications.

In countries that are rich with oil palm, the use of palm oil to produce bio-based acrylates and polyol can be the most eminent raw materials used for developing new and advanced natural polymeric materials involving radiation technique, like coating resins, nanoparticles, scaffold, nanocomposites, and lithography for different branches of the industry. The presence of hydrocarbon chains, carbon double bonds, and ester bonds in palm oil allows it to open up the possibility of fine-tuning its unique structures in the development of novel materials. Cross-linking, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT), polymerization, grafting, and degradation are among the radiation mechanisms triggered by gamma, electron beam, ultraviolet, or laser irradiation sources. These radiation techniques are widely used in the development of polymeric materials because they are considered as the most versatile, inexpensive, easy, and effective methods. Therefore, this review summarized and emphasized on several recent studies that have reported on emerging radiation processing technologies for the production of radiation curable palm oil-based polymeric materials with a promising future in certain industries and biomedical applications. This review also discusses the rich potential of biopolymeric materials for advanced technology applications.

Surface functionalisation of poly-APO-b-polyol ester cross-linked copolymers as core-shell nanoparticles for targeted breast cancer therapy.

Polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) are commonly used as nanocarriers for drug delivery, whereby their sizes can be altered for a more efficient delivery of therapeutic active agents with better efficacy. In this work, cross-linked copolymers acted as core-shell NPs from acrylated palm olein (APO) with polyol ester were synthesized via gamma radiation-induced reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerisation. The particle diameter of the copolymerised poly(APO-b-polyol ester) core-shell NPs was found to be less than 300 nm, have a low molecular weight (MW) of around 24 kDa, and showed a controlled MW distribution of a narrow polydispersity index (PDI) of 1.01. These properties were particularly crucial for further use in designing targeted NPs, with inclusion of peptide for the targeted delivery of paclitaxel. Moreover, the characterisation of the synthesised NPs using Fourier Transform-Infrared (FTIR) and Neutron Magnetic Resonance (NMR) analyses confirmed the possession of biodegradable hydrolysed ester in its chemical structures. Therefore, it can be concluded that the synthesised NPs produced may potentially contribute to better development of a nano-structured drug delivery system for breast cancer therapy.

Enhancing Morphology and Separation Performance of Polyamide 6,6 Membranes By Minimal Incorporation of Silver Decorated Graphene Oxide Nanoparticles.

Nanomaterials can be incorporated in the synthesis of membrane to obtain mixed-matrix membrane with marked improvement in properties and performance. However, stability and dispersion of the nanomaterials in the membrane matrix, as well as the need to use high ratio of nanomaterials for obvious improvement of membrane properties, remain a major hurdle for commercialization. Hence, this study aims to investigate the improvement of polyamide 6,6 membrane properties with the incorporation of silver nanoparticles decorated on graphene oxide (Ag-GO) nanoplates and at the same time focus is given to the issues above. Graphene oxide nanoplates were synthesized using the modified Hummers' method and decorated with silver before embedded into the polyamide 6,6 matrix. Physicochemical characterizations were conducted on both nanoplates and the mixed-matrix Ag-GO polyamide 6,6 membrane. The issues of Ag agglomeration and leaching were not observed, which could be attributed to the decoration of Ag on GO that helped to disperse the nanomaterials and provided a better anchor point for the attachment of Ag nanoparticles. The synthesized membrane showed marked improvement regarding flux (135% increment) and antifouling (40% lower irreversible fouling), which could be ascribed to the more negative charge of membrane surface (-14 ± 6 to -31 ± 3.8 mV) and hydrophilicity (46% enhancement) of the membranes. With minimal embedment of Ag nanoparticles, the membrane showed superior antibacterial property where the E. coli bacteria could not form a single colony on the membrane surface. Overall, the decoration of Ag on GO nanoplates could be a promising approach to resolve the agglomeration and leaching issues as well as reduce the amount of precious Ag in the synthesis of Ag-GO polyamide 6,6 membrane.