V-MXenes for Energy Storage/Conversion Applications.

MXenes, a two-dimensional (2D) material, exhibit excellent optical, electrical, chemical, mechanical, and electrochemical properties. Titanium-based MXene (Ti-MXene) has been extensively studied and serves as the foundation for 2D MXenes. However, other transition metals possess the potential to offer excellent properties in various applications. This comprehensive review aims to provide an overview of the properties, challenges, key findings, and applications of less-explored vanadium-based MXenes (V-MXenes) and their composites. The current trends in V-MXene and their composites for energy storage and conversion applications have been thoroughly summarized. Overall, this review offers valuable insights, identifies potential opportunities, and provides key suggestions for future advancements in the MXenes and energy storage/conversion applications.

Recent Trends and Advances in Additive-Mediated Composting Technology for Agricultural Waste Resources: A Comprehensive Review.

Agriculture waste has increased annually due to the global food demand and intensive animal production. Preventing environmental degradation requires fast and effective agricultural waste treatment. Aerobic digestion or composting uses agricultural wastes to create a stabilized and sterilized organic fertilizer and reduces chemical fertilizer input. Indeed, conventional composting technology requires a large surface area, a long fermentation period, significant malodorous emissions, inferior product quality, and little demand for poor end results. Conventional composting loses a lot of organic nitrogen and carbon. Thus, this comprehensive research examined sustainable and adaptable methods for improving agricultural waste composting efficiency. This review summarizes composting processes and examines how compost additives affect organic solid waste composting and product quality. Our findings indicate that additives have an impact on the composting process by influencing variables including temperature, pH, and moisture. Compost additive amendment could dramatically reduce gas emissions and mineral ion mobility. Composting additives can (1) improve the physicochemical composition of the compost mixture, (2) accelerate organic material disintegration and increase microbial activity, (3) reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia (NH3) emissions to reduce nitrogen (N) losses, and (4) retain compost nutrients to increase soil nutrient content, maturity, and phytotoxicity. This essay concluded with a brief summary of compost maturity, which is essential before using it as an organic fertilizer. This work will add to agricultural waste composting technology literature. To increase the sustainability of agricultural waste resource utilization, composting strategies must be locally optimized and involve the created amendments in a circular economy.

Therapeutic Intervention of Serine Protease Inhibitors against Hepatitis C Virus.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a globally prevalent and hazardous disorder that is responsible for inducing several persistent and potentially fatal liver diseases. Current treatment strategies offer limited efficacy, often accompanied by severe and debilitating adverse effects. Consequently, there is an urgent and compelling need to develop novel therapeutic interventions that can provide maximum efficacy in combating HCV while minimizing the burden of adverse effects on patients. One promising target against HCV is the NS3-4A serine protease, a complex composed of two HCV-encoded proteins. This non-covalent heterodimer is crucial in the viral life cycle and has become a primary focus for therapeutic interventions. Although peginterferon, combined with ribavirin, is commonly employed for HCV treatment, its efficacy is hampered by significant adverse effects that can profoundly impact patients' quality of life. In recent years, the development of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) has emerged as a breakthrough in HCV therapy. These agents exhibit remarkable potency against the virus and have demonstrated fewer adverse effects when combined with other DAAs. However, it is important to note that there is a potential for developing resistance to DAAs due to alterations in the amino acid position of the NS3-4A protease. This emphasizes the need for ongoing research to identify strategies that can minimize the emergence of resistance and ensure long-term effectiveness. While the combination of DAAs holds promise for HCV treatment, it is crucial to consider the possibility of drug-drug interactions. These interactions may occur when different DAAs are used concurrently, potentially compromising their therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, carefully evaluating and monitoring potential drug interactions are vital to optimize treatment outcomes. In the pursuit of novel therapeutic interventions for HCV, the field of computational biology and bioinformatics has emerged as a valuable tool. These advanced technologies and methodologies enable the development and design of new drugs and therapeutic agents that exhibit maximum efficacy, reduced risk of resistance, and minimal adverse effects. By leveraging computational approaches, researchers can efficiently screen and optimize potential candidates, accelerating the discovery and development of highly effective treatments for HCV, treatments.

Technological Advancement in ω-3 Fatty Acids: Their Therapeutic Functions and Novel Delivery Strategies.

Being an important dietary component, omega-3 (ω-3) fatty acids are essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, which play a crucial role in the normal growth and development of an individual. ω-3 fatty acids have been reported to possess therapeutic activities against several diseases, including cardiovascular, neurological, cancer, etc. Due to the unsaturation, ω-3 fatty acids are highly reactive and prone to oxidation, which is the biggest hurdle in their administration, as oxidation produces a foul smell and reduces their therapeutic efficacy. Although numerous supplementation strategies have been developed to enhance the bioavailability, targeted drug delivery, and therapeutic potential, the rate of compliance is low due to difficulty in swallowing and unpleasant aftertaste. To cope with these problems, several novel drug delivery approaches have been developed, which may be used as an alternative to enhance the effectiveness of ω-3 fatty acids when administered alone or in combination therapy. This review focuses on how novel drug delivery approaches can be used to overcome the ω-3 fatty acids stability issues and how to maximize its therapeutic activity.

High pressure CO2 adsorption onto Malaysian Mukah-Balingian coals: Adsorption isotherms, thermodynamic and kinetic investigations.

CO2 sequestration into coalbed seams is one of the practical routes for mitigating CO2 emissions. The adsorption mechanisms of CO2 onto Malaysian coals, however, are not yet investigated. In this research CO2 adsorption isotherms were first performed on dry and wet Mukah-Balingian coal samples at temperatures ranging from 300 to 348 K and pressures up to 6 MPa using volumetric technique. The dry S1 coal showed the highest CO2 adsorption capacity of 1.3 mmol g-1, at 300 K and 6 MPa among the other coal samples. The experimental results of CO2 adsorption were investigated using adsorption isotherms, thermodynamics, and kinetic models. Nonlinear analysis has been employed to investigate the data of CO2 adsorption onto coal samples via three parameter isotherm equilibrium models, namely Redlich Peterson, Koble Corrigan, Toth, Sips, and Hill, and four parameter equilibrium model, namely Jensen Seaton. The results of adsorption isotherm suggested that the Jensen Seaton model described the experimental data well. Gibb's free energy change values are negative, suggesting that CO2 adsorption onto the coal occurred randomly. Enthalpy change values in the negative range established that CO2 adsorption onto coal is an exothermic mechanism. Webber's pore-diffusion model, in particular, demonstrated that pore-diffusion was the main controlling stage in CO2 adsorption onto coal matrix. The activation energy of the coals was calculated to be below -13 kJ mol-1, indicating that adsorption of CO2 onto coals occurred through physisorption. The results demonstrate that CO2 adsorption onto coal matrix is favorable, spontaneous, and the adsorbed CO2 molecules accumulate more onto coal matrix. The observations of this investigation have significant implications for a more accurate measurement of CO2 injection into Malaysian coalbed seams.

A Review of Multifunction Smart Nanoparticle based Drug Delivery Systems.

Cancer nano-therapeutics are rapidly evolving and are often used to overcome a number of concerns with traditional drug delivery methods, including non-specific drug targeting and distribution, low oral bioavailability, and poor hydrophilicity. Modern nano-based targeting techniques have been developed as a result of advances in nano vehicle engineering and materials science, which may bring people with cancer a new hope. Clinical trials have been authorized for a number of medicinal nanocarriers. Nanocarriers with the best feasible size and surface attributes have been developed to optimize biodistribution and increase blood circulation duration. Nanotherapeutics can carry preloaded active medicine towards cancerous cells by preferentially leveraging the specific physiopathology of malignancies. In contrast to passive targeting, active targeting strategies involving antigens or ligands, developed against specific tumor sites, boost the selectivity of these curative nanovehicles. Another barrier that nanoparticles may resolve or lessen is drug resistance. Multifunctional and complex nanoparticles are currently being explored and are predicted to usher in a new era of nanoparticles that will allow for more individualized and customized cancer therapy. The potential prospects and opportunities of stimuli-triggered nanosystems in therapeutic trials are also explored in this review.

Photocatalysis and perovskite oxide-based materials: a remedy for a clean and sustainable future.

The massive use of non-renewable energy resources by humankind to fulfill their energy demands is causing severe environmental issues. Photocatalysis is considered one of the potential solutions for a clean and sustainable future because of its cleanliness, inexhaustibility, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Significant efforts have been made to design highly proficient photocatalyst materials for various applications such as water pollutant degradation, water splitting, CO2 reduction, and nitrogen fixation. Perovskite photocatalyst materials are gained special attention due to their exceptional properties because of their flexibility in chemical composition, structure, bandgap, oxidation states, and valence states. The current review is focused on perovskite materials and their applications in photocatalysis. Special attention has been given to the structural, stoichiometric, and compositional flexibility of perovskite photocatalyst materials. The photocatalytic activity of perovskite materials in different photocatalysis applications is also discussed. Various mechanisms involved in photocatalysis application from wastewater treatment to hydrogen production are also provided. The key objective of this review is to encapsulate the role of perovskite materials in photocatalysis along with their fundamental properties to provide valuable insight for addressing future environmental challenges.

Flexible Memory Device Composed of Metal-Oxide and Two-Dimensional Material (SnO2/WTe2) Exhibiting Stable Resistive Switching.

Two-terminal, non-volatile memory devices are the fundamental building blocks of memory-storage devices to store the required information, but their lack of flexibility limits their potential for biological applications. After the discovery of two-dimensional (2D) materials, flexible memory devices are easy to build, because of their flexible nature. Here, we report on our flexible resistive-switching devices, composed of a bilayer tin-oxide/tungsten-ditelluride (SnO2/WTe2) heterostructure sandwiched between Ag (top) and Au (bottom) metal electrodes over a flexible PET substrate. The Ag/SnO2/WTe2/Au flexible devices exhibited highly stable resistive switching along with an excellent retention time. Triggering the device from a high-resistance state (HRS) to a low-resistance state (LRS) is attributed to Ag filament formation because of its diffusion. The conductive filament begins its development from the anode to the cathode, contrary to the formal electrochemical metallization theory. The bilayer structure of SnO2/WTe2 improved the endurance of the devices and reduced the switching voltage by up to 0.2 V compared to the single SnO2 stacked devices. These flexible and low-power-consumption features may lead to the construction of a wearable memory device for data-storage purposes.