Development of cashew gum-based bionanocomposite as a platform for electrochemical trials.

Cashew gum (CG) biopolymer is from natural source, biocompatible, non-toxic, inexpensive, and easily extracted from the exudate of the Anacardium occidentale L. tree, which is abundant in the north and northeast of Brazil. Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBNPs) can be embedded in the natural materials and have been used in several (bio)technological applications. This work presents a new cashew gum-based bionanocomposite containing PBNPs prepared in situ (PBNPs@GC), where the CG biopolymer was used as a matrix to prevent nanoparticles aggregation. Herein, investigate the effect of different CG concentrations about the bionanocomposite properties, and demonstrated it use as potential electrochemical sensor for drugs trials. The PBNPs@CG were characterized using UV-Vis, FTIR, XRD, DLS, zeta potential, TEM and cyclic voltammetry. The CG proved to be a suitable host for the PBNPs synthetized. These PBNPs were spherical, crystalline, stable, with a size of 5.0-15.0 nm, and without agglomeration. The bionanocomposite electrochemical behavior shown their ability to the oxidize some drugs, such as metamizole (MTM), acetaminophen (ACT) and methotrexate (MTX). These results demonstrated the innovative character of these bionanocomposite and encourage their further exploration for applications in nanobiomedicine like electrochemical (bio)sensors.

New Hybrid Nanomaterial Based on Self-Assembly of Cyclodextrins and Cobalt Prussian Blue Analogue Nanocubes.

Supramolecular self-assembly has been demonstrated to be a useful approach to developing new functional nanomaterials. In this work, we used a cobalt Prussian blue analogue (PBA, Co3[Co(CN)6]2) compound and a ß-cyclodextrin (CD) macrocycle to develop a novel host-guest PBA-CD nanomaterial. The preparation of the functional magnetic material involved the self-assembly of CD molecules onto a PBA surface by a co-precipitation method. According to transmission electronic microscopy results, PBA-CD exhibited a polydisperse structure composed of 3D nanocubes with a mean edge length of 85 nm, which became shorter after CD incorporation. The supramolecular arrangement and structural, crystalline and thermal properties of the hybrid material were studied in detail by vibrational and electronic spectroscopies and X-ray diffraction. The cyclic voltammogram of the hybrid material in a 0.1 mol · L(-1) NaCl supporting electrolyte exhibited a quasi-reversible redox process, attributed to Co2+/Co3+ conversion, with an E1/2 value of 0.46 V (vs. SCE), with higher reversibility observed for the system in the presence of CD. The standard rate constants for PBA and PBA-CD were determined to be 0.07 and 0.13 s(-1), respectively, which suggests that the interaction between the nanocubes and CD at the supramolecular level improves electron transfer. We expect that the properties observed for the hybrid material make it a potential candidate for (bio)sensing designs with a desirable capability for drug delivery.