Engineering and application of polysaccharides and proteins-based nanobiocatalysts in the recovery of toxic metals, phosphorous, and ammonia from wastewater: A review.

Global waste production is anticipated reach to 2.59 billion tons in 2030, thus accentuating issues of environmental pollution and health security. 37 % of waste is landfilled, 33 % is discharged or burned in open areas, and only 13.5 % is recycled, which makes waste management poorly efficient in the context of the circular economy. There is, therefore, a need for methods to recycle waste into valuable materials through the resource recovery process. Progress in the field of recycling is strongly dependent on the development of efficient, stable, and reusable yet inexpensive catalysts. In this case, growing attention has been paid to the development and application of nanobiocatalysts with promising features. The main purpose of this review paper is to: (i) introduce nanobiomaterials and describe their effective role in the preparation of functional nanobiocatalysts for the recourse recovery aims; (ii) provide production methods and the efficiency improvement of nanobaiocatalysts; (iii) give a comprehensive description of valued resource recovery for reducing toxic chemicals from the contaminated environment; (iv) describe various technologies for the valued resource recovery; (v) state the limitation of the valued resource recovery; (vi) and finally economic importance and current scenario of nanobiocatalysts strategies applicable for the resource recovery processes.

Self-healing 2D/3D perovskite for efficient and stable p-i-n perovskite solar cells.

Beyond the p-i-n perovskite solar cell's high-power conversion efficiency (PCE), its moisture instability is the most challenging factor in its commercialization. Recently, the innovative use of three and two-dimensional multi-structures, by creating a barrier against the penetration of moisture and oxygen, has played a very influential role in improving the PSC's long-term stability. Here, a new strategy, the anti-solvent quenching method, is used to construct multi-structure perovskite by involving cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as an active agent. The solar cell efficiency is significantly improved during the perovskite formation on the substrate by creating a multidimensional (2D/3D) heterojunction perovskite. The synergistic role of using 2D/3D heterojunction perovskite structures led to the 29.2% improvement (14.58-18.84) in the PCE. The attractive ability of the 2D/3D active layer in self-healing has increased the perovskite's long-term stability under harsh environmental conditions.

The effects of second electron acceptor group on the performance of tetrazole-based nanocrystalline TiO2 sensitizers in DSSCs.

Three new organic sensitizers with two electron acceptor groups were synthesized and applied to nanocrystalline TiO2 solar cells. The ethyl 2-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl) acetate, (2H-tetrazol-5-yl) acrylonitrile and 1H-tetrazole-5-acetic acid moieties were introduced to the triphenylamine as electron acceptor groups. The photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of the solar cells based on the synthesized sensitizers were studied and compared with their counterparts of single electron acceptor type. Quantum chemical calculations were also carried out to consideration of the electronic and optical properties of these dyes. The dye with the (2H-tetrazol-5-yl) acrylonitrile electron acceptors showed the absorption maxima in the longer wavelength, compared to the dyes with ethyl 2-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl) acetate and 1H-tetrazole-5-acetic acid. The solar cell based on the dye with 1H-tetrazole-5-acetic acid showed the highest conversion efficiency of 3.53% (open circuit voltage=569mV, short circuit photocurrent density=11.50mAcm-2, and fill factor of 54% under AM 1.5G conditions). The results also showed that the dyes with two electron acceptor groups gave the higher performance than the dyes with single electron acceptor.