Porphyrins developed for photoinactivation of microbes in wastewater.

Photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) is extensively studied as a strategic method to inactivate pathogenic microbes in wastewater for addressing the limitations associated with chlorination, ozonation, and ultraviolet irradiation as disinfection methods, which generally promote the development of resistant genes and harmful by-products such as trihalomethanes. PACT is dependent on photons, oxygen, and a photosensitizer to induce cytotoxic effects on various microbes by generating reactive oxygen species. Photosensitizers such as porphyrins have demonstrated significant microbial inactivation through PACT, hence now explored for wastewater phototreatment. This review aims to evaluate the efficacy of porphyrins and porphyrin-conjugates as photosensitizers for wastewater photoinactivation. Concerns relating to the application of photosensitizers in water treatment are also evaluated. This includes recovery and reuse of the photosensitizer when immobilized on solid supports.

Fabrication of a Schottky Device Using CuSe Nanoparticles: Colloidal versus Microwave Digestive Synthesis.

Herein we report on a nearly ideal Schottky diode device fabricated from Cu(2-x)Se nanoparticles synthesized using the microwave digestive method. The thermionic theory using data extracted from the experimental I-V curve resulted in the ideality factor of 4.35 and the barrier height of 0.895 eV whilst the Cheung's method resulted in the ideality factor, barrier height and series resistance of 1.04, 0.00259 eV and 0.870 Ω respectively. The Cheung's method is thought to be the most accurate as it takes into account the series resistance. The obtained values therefore are indicative of good diode behaviour of the device and this is a highly sought after goal in all electronic materials development.

A facile route for the synthesis of poly(N-vinylcarbazole)/manganese sulphide quantum dots nanocomposites with enhanced optical properties.

This communication describes a facile route for the synthesis of manganese sulphide (MnS) quantum dots (QDs) contained in poly(N-vinyl carbazole) (PNVC) nanocomposites. MnS QDs were synthesized using the single-source precursor method by thermolysing tetramethylthiuram disulfide manganese complex in hexadecylamine (HDA). Two different methods were used for the synthesis of MnS QD incorporated PNVC nanocomposites. The first method entailed the stirring of a mixture of MnS QDs and PNVC in chloroform (CHCl3) at room temperature and the second method was the refluxing of MnS QDs and PNVC solution in CHCl3 at an elevated temperature. A field emission electron microscope (FESEM) study revealed that the dispersion of MnS QDs in a PNVC matrix was improved in the case of nanocomposites prepared by the second method. The optical properties of pure PNVC were significantly altered for the case of nanocomposite prepared by the second route.