Advancements in Nanoenabled Membrane Distillation for a Sustainable Water-Energy-Environment Nexus.

The emergence of nano innovations in membrane distillation (MD) has garnered increasing scientific interest. This enables the exploration of state-of-the-art nano-enabled MD membranes with desirable properties, which significantly improve the efficiency and reliability of the MD process and open up opportunities for achieving a sustainable water-energy-environment (WEE) nexus. This comprehensive review provides broad coverage and in-depth analysis of recent innovations in nano-enabled MD membranes, focusing on their role in achieving desirable properties, such as strong liquid-repellence, high resistance to scaling, fouling, and wetting, as well as efficient self-heating and self-cleaning functionalities. The recent developments in nano-enhanced photothermal-catalytic applications for water-energy co-generation within a single MD system are also discussed. Furthermore, the bottlenecks are identified that impede the scale-up of nanoenhanced MD membranes and a future roadmap is proposed for their sustainable commercialiation. This holistic overview is expected to inspire future research and development efforts to fully harness the potential of nano-enabled MD membranes to achieve sustainable integration of water, energy, and the environment.

Electrodes and electrocatalysts for electrochemical hydrogen peroxide sensors: a review of design strategies.

H2O2 sensing is required in various biological and industrial applications, for which electrochemical sensing is a promising choice among various sensing technologies. Electrodes and electrocatalysts strongly influence the performance of electrochemical H2O2 sensors. Significant efforts have been devoted to electrode nanostructural designs and nanomaterial-based electrocatalysts. Here, we review the design strategies for electrodes and electrocatalysts used in electrochemical H2O2 sensors. We first summarize electrodes in different structures, including rotation disc electrodes, freestanding electrodes, all-in-one electrodes, and representative commercial H2O2 probes. Next, we discuss the design strategies used in recent studies to increase the number of active sites and intrinsic activities of electrocatalysts for H2O2 redox reactions, including nanoscale pore structuring, conductive supports, reducing the catalyst size, alloying, doping, and tuning the crystal facets. Finally, we provide our perspectives on the future research directions in creating nanoscale structures and nanomaterials to enable advanced electrochemical H2O2 sensors in practical applications.

Antimicrobial graphene materials: the interplay of complex materials characteristics and competing mechanisms.

Graphene materials (GMs) exhibit attractive antimicrobial activities promising for biomedical and environmental applications. However, we still lack full control over their behaviour and performance mainly due to the complications arising from the coexistence and interplay of multiple factors. Therefore, in this minireview, we attempt to illustrate the structure-property-activity relationships of GMs' antimicrobial activity. We first examine the chemical/physical complexity of GMs focusing on five aspects of their materials characteristics: (i) chemical composition, (ii) impurities and imperfections, (iii) lateral dimension, (iv) self-association (e.g., restacking), and (v) composite/hybrid formation. Next, we briefly summarise the current understanding of their antimicrobial mechanisms. Then, we assign the outlined materials characteristics of GMs to the proposed antimicrobial mechanisms. Lastly, we share our vision regarding the future of research and development in this fast-emerging field.

Surface Functionalization and Targeting Strategies of Liposomes in Solid Tumor Therapy: A Review.

Surface functionalization of liposomes can play a key role in overcoming the current limitations of nanocarriers to treat solid tumors, i.e., biological barriers and physiological factors. The phospholipid vesicles (liposomes) containing anticancer agents produce fewer side effects than non-liposomal anticancer formulations, and can effectively target the solid tumors. This article reviews information about the strategies for targeting of liposomes to solid tumors along with the possible targets in cancer cells, i.e., extracellular and intracellular targets and targets in tumor microenvironment or vasculature. Targeting ligands for functionalization of liposomes with relevant surface engineering techniques have been described. Stimuli strategies for enhanced delivery of anticancer agents at requisite location using stimuli-responsive functionalized liposomes have been discussed. Recent approaches for enhanced delivery of anticancer agents at tumor site with relevant surface functionalization techniques have been reviewed. Finally, current challenges of functionalized liposomes and future perspective of smart functionalized liposomes have been discussed.

3D graphene-based nanostructured materials as sorbents for cleaning oil spills and for the removal of dyes and miscellaneous pollutants present in water.

Oil spills over seawater and dye pollutants in water cause economic and environmental damage every year. Among various methods to deal oil spill problems, the use of porous materials has been proven as an effective strategy. In recent years, graphene-based porous sorbents have been synthesized to address the shortcomings associated with conventional sorbents such as their low uptake capacity, slow sorption rate, and non-recyclability. This article reviews the research undertaken to control oil spillage using three-dimensional (3D) graphene-based materials. The use of these materials for removal of dyes and miscellaneous environmental pollutants from water is explored and the application of various multifunctional 3D oil sorbents synthesized by surface modification technique is presented. The future prospects and limitations of these materials as sorbents are also discussed.