Determination of Toxic Elements in Cannabinoid and Opioid Drugs and Their Impact on Addicts' Health: A Comparative Study.

Drug addiction is associated with significant health risks, including cardiovascular complications, cancer, and mental disorders. Illicit drugs, such as cannabinoids and opioids, including prescription medications, are widely consumed and have profound health consequences. Understanding the health effects of the toxic elements in these substances is critical for overdose prevention and effective recovery strategies. This study aimed to determine toxic elements, including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and nickel (Ni), in cannabinoid and opioid drugs and in biological samples (whole blood, scalp hair, and serum) from 311 male drug abuse patients aged 15-60 years with a history of drug abuse. The participants were categorized into three age groups. The comparative analysis involved 113 reference subjects of the same age groups. The sample preparation employed microwave-assisted acid digestion, and the toxic elements were quantified using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Accuracy was ensured using certified reference materials for hair, whole blood, and serum samples. Drug-addicted subjects had significantly higher concentrations of toxic elements (arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and nickel) in biological samples than referent subjects (p > 0.001). Elevated levels of these toxic elements may increase susceptibility to infections, possibly due to malnutrition, drug-related effects, and additional contaminants. These findings necessitate further studies to explore the long-term health outcomes, potential treatment options, and broader socioeconomic impacts of substance abuse. This study serves as a baseline for future research in this critical public health field.

Recent trends in wastewater treatment by using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and their composites: A critical view-point.

Respecting the basic need of clean and safe water on earth for every individual, it is necessary to take auspicious steps for waste-water treatment. Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are considered as promising material because of their intrinsic features including the porosity and high surface area. Further, structural tunability of MOFs by following the principles of reticular chemistry, the MOFs can be functionalized for the high adsorption performance as well as adsorptive removal of target materials. However, there are still some major concerns associated with MOFs limiting their commercialization as promising adsorbents for waste-water treatment. The cost, toxicity and regenerability are the major issues to be addressed for MOFs to get insightful results. In this article, we have concise the current strategies to enhance the adsorption capacity of MOFs during the water-treatment for the removal of toxic dyes, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals. Further, we have also discussed the role of metallic nodes, linkers and associated functional groups for effective removal of toxic water pollutants. In addition to conformist overview, we have critically analyzed the MOFs as adsorbents in terms of toxicity, cost and regenerability. These factors are utmost important to address before commercialization of MOFs as adsorbents for water-treatment. Finally, some future perspectives are discussed to give directions for potential research.

Bioremediation of Neonicotinoid Pesticide, Imidacloprid, Mediated by Bacillus cereus.

Imidacloprid, a toxic pesticide of the chloronicotinyl category, is employed extensively in agricultural fields, and its exposure causes serious health issues. Biodegradation is considered to be a green and economical approach to remediate pesticides. Herein, imidacloprid degradation efficiency of Bacillus sp. is highlighted, among which Bacillus cereus exhibited the greatest degradation; optimization of experimental variables (pH, imidacloprid and agitation time) via Box-Behnken factorial design and analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed 92% biodegradation at the initial substrate concentration of 0.03 mM, aerobically in 11 days under favorable pH 7. The subsequent metabolites, identified through liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, were 5-hydroxy imidacloprid, imidacloprid-guanidine and 6-chloronicotinic acid.

Functionalized Fe3O4-based methyl methacrylate Pickering PolyHIPE composites costabilized by fluorinated block copolymer for oil/water separation.

High internal phase emulsion (HIPE) technology has been emerged as a prodigious source to create tailor-made porous structures. This type of emulsion contains significantly higher amount of water in it, which is only possible with special type of stabilizers. Most specifically, the monomers with sufficiently high solubility in water such as methyl methacrylate (MMA) make it more cumbersome to stabilize in the form of HIPE. Here we have reported the combination of stabilizers including fluorinated block copolymer Poly (2-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate-b-Poly(trifluoroethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA-b-PTFEMA) and humic acid modified iron-oxide (HA-Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) to stabilize HIPE, which resulted in highly porous and interconnected products. Fluorinated block copolymers with inherent hydrophobic nature along with iron oxide nanoparticles increased the water repellency of MMA based polymeric monoliths. Increasing the amount of stabilizer increased the porosity and BET specific surface area to 83.8% and 27 ± 0.8 µm, respectively. The prepared porous materials demonstrated hydrophobic characteristics while adsorbing oil from the surface of water up to 16 g/g. Moreover, the adsorbed oil from the prepared monolith was recovered by using simple centrifugation method without damaging the structure. This research opens new avenues to prepare more useful oil and water separation materials such as membranes, pollutant adsorbers, and so on.

Template-based textural modifications of polymeric graphitic carbon nitrides towards waste water treatment.

The composite materials based on graphitic carbon nitrides (g-C3N4) are remarkably better semiconductors, but the inherent photocatalytic performance in its generic synthesis form is not up to the mark. Eminence efforts have been made to improve its performance and photocatalytic efficiencies. Recently, extensive investigations have been performed to develop their texturally modified and highly porous structures to get around the big flaws of bulk g-C3N4. One significant disadvantage is the increase in the polycondensation while preparation at 550 °C results in g-C3N4 materials with restricted specific surface area (SSA) (<10 m2/g) and no textured pores. Textural modification has emerged as an efficient and progressive way to improve optical and electronic characteristics. The final texture and shape of CN are influenced by the precursor's interaction with the template. Researchers are interested in developing CN materials with high SSA and changeable textural properties (pore volume and pore size). Based on the literature review it is concluded that the soft templating approach is relatively simple, and straightforward to induce textural changes in the g-CN type materials. This review focused on improving the textural properties of bulk g-C3N4 via templating method, and the major advances in the modified g-C3N4 materials for the treatment of wastewater. The procedures and mechanisms of numerous approaches with varying morphologies are thoroughly explained.

Identification of Catalytic Active Sites for Durable Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell: Catalytic Degradation and Poisoning Perspectives.

Recent progress in synthetic strategies, analysis techniques, and computational modeling assist researchers to develop more active catalysts including metallic clusters to single-atom active sites (SACs). Metal coordinated N-doped carbons (M-N-C) are the most auspicious, with a large number of atomic sites, markedly performing for a series of electrochemical reactions. This perspective sums up the latest innovative and computational comprehension, while giving credit to earlier/pioneering work in carbonaceous assembly materials towards robust electrocatalytic activity for proton exchange membrane fuel cells via inclusive performance assessment of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). M-Nx -Cy are exclusively defined active sites for ORR, so there is a unique possibility to intellectually design the relatively new catalysts with much improved activity, selectivity, and durability. Moreover, some SACs structures provide better performance in fuel cells testing with long-term durability. The efforts to understand the connection in SACs based M-Nx -Cy moieties and how these relate to catalytic ORR performance are also conveyed. Owing to comprehensive practical application in the field, this study has covered very encouraging aspects to the current durability status of M-N-C based catalysts for fuel cells followed by degradation mechanisms such as macro-, microdegradation, catalytic poisoning, and future challenges.

Metallic nanoparticles for catalytic reduction of toxic hexavalent chromium from aqueous medium: A state-of-the-art review.

The ever increasing concentration of toxic and carcinogenic hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) in various environmental mediums including water-bodies due to anthropogenic activities with rapid civilization and industrialization have become the major issue throughout the globe during last few decades. Therefore, developing new strategies for the treatment of Cr(VI) contaminated wastewaters are in great demand and have become a topical issue in academia and industry. To date, various techniques have been used for the remediation of Cr(VI) contaminated wastewaters including solvent extraction, adsorption, catalytic reduction, membrane filtration, biological treatment, coagulation, ion exchange and photo-catalytic reduction. Among these methods, the transformation of highly toxic Cr(VI) to benign Cr(III) catalyzed by metallic nanoparticles (M-NPs) with reductant has gained increasing attention in the past few years, and is considered to be an effective approach due to the superior catalytic performance of M-NPs. Thus, it is a timely topic to review this emerging technique for Cr(VI) reduction. Herein, recent development in synthesis of M-NPs based non-supported, supported, mono-, bi- and ternary M-NPs catalysts, their characterization and performance for the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) are reviewed. The role of supporting host to stabilize the M-NPs and leading to enhance the reduction of Cr(VI) are discussed. The Cr(VI) reduction mechanism, kinetics, and factors affecting the kinetics are overviewed to collect the wealthy kinetics data. Finally, the challenges and perspective in Cr(VI) reduction catalyzed by M-NPs are proposed. We believe that this review will assist the researchers who are working to develop novel M-NPs catalysts for the reduction of Cr(VI).

Recent Advances in Synthesis and Applications of Single-Atom Catalysts for Rechargeable Batteries.

The rapid development of flexible and wearable optoelectronic devices, demanding the superior, reliable, and ultra-long cycling energy storage systems. But poor performances of electrode materials used in energy devices are main obstacles. Recently, single-atom catalysts (SACs) are considered as emerging and potential candidates as electrode materials for battery devices. Herein, we have discussed the recent methods for the fabrication of SACs for rechargeable metal-air batteries, metal-CO2 batteries, metal-sulfur batteries, and other batteries, following the recent advances in assembling and performance of these batteries by using SACs as electrode materials. The role of SACs to solve the bottle-neck problems of these energy storage devices and future perspectives are also discussed.

The synthesis of a BiOCl x Br1-x nanostructure photocatalyst with high surface area for the enhanced visible-light photocatalytic reduction of Cr(vi).

The photocatalytic reduction of poisonous Cr(vi) to environmentally friendly Cr(iii) driven by visible-light is highly foreseen. The construction of heterojunctions is a promising and solid strategy to tune the photocatalytic performance of BiOCl in the visible region. Herein, for the first time, we report Cr(vi) reduction by a BiOCl0.8Br0.2 composite produced via a facile in situ synthetic process at room temperature while making use of PVP (MW = 10 000). In this study, a series of BiOCl x Br1-x nanocomposites with different concentrations of chlorine and bromine have been prepared. The results show that BiOCl0.8Br0.2 has crystalline lattice, a large surface area (147 m2 g-1), a microporous structure (0.377 cm3 g-1), and very high chemical stability. It is revealed that the BiOCl0.8Br0.2 composite is much more active than those synthesized using different molar concentrations of chlorine and bromine. The DRS analysis and high photocurrent suggested that BiOCl0.8Br0.2 possessed absorption properties under visible light, which is beneficial for the efficient generation and separation of electron-hole pairs. In addition, we evaluated the photocatalytic activity of BiOCl0.8Br0.2 on the reduction of Cr(vi) under visible light irradiation and found that the obtained composite material exhibited a higher photocatalytic activity than single BiOCl or BiOBr without any decline in the activity after five cycles and is the best performing photocatalyst among those tested.

Highly Uniform and Porous Polyurea Microspheres: Clean and Easy Preparation by Interface Polymerization, Palladium Incorporation, and High Catalytic Performance for Dye Degradation.

Owing to their high specific surface area and low density, porous polymer materials are of great importance in a vast variety of applications, particularly as supports for enzymes and transition metals. Herein, highly uniform and porous polyurea microspheres (PPM), with size between 200 and 500 µm, are prepared by interfacial polymerization of toluene diisocyanate (TDI) in water through a simple microfluidic device composed of two tube lines, in one of which TDI is flowing and merged to the other with flowing aqueous phase, generating therefore TDI droplets at merging. The polymerization starts in the tube while flowing to the reactor and completed therein. This is a simple, easy and effective process for preparation of uniform PPM. Results demonstrate that the presence of polyvinyl alcohol in the aqueous flow is necessary to obtain uniform PPM. The size of PPM is readily adjustable by changing the polymerization conditions. In addition, palladium is incorporated in PPM to get the composite microspheres Pd@PPM, which are used as catalyst in degradation of methylene blue and rhodamine B. High performance and good reusability are demonstrated. Monodispersity, efficient dye degradation, easy recovery, and remarkable reusability make Pd@PPM a promising catalyst for dye degradation.