2D TiO2 nanosheets decorated via sphere-like BiVO4: a promising non-toxic material for liquid phase photocatalysis and bacterial eradication.

An in-depth investigation was conducted on a promising composite material (BiVO4/TiO2), focusing on its potential toxicity, photoinduced catalytic properties, as well as its antibiofilm and antimicrobial functionalities. The preparation process involved the synthesis of 2D-TiO2 using the lyophilization method, which was subsequently functionalized with sphere-like BiVO4. Finally, we developed BiVO4/TiO2 S-scheme heterojunctions which can greatly promote the separation of electron-hole pairs to achieve high photocatalytic performance. The evaluation of concentration- and time-dependent viability inhibition was performed on human lung carcinoma epithelial A549 cells. This assessment included the estimation of glutathione levels and mitochondrial dehydrogenase activity. Significantly, the BiVO4/TiO2 composite demonstrated minimal toxicity towards A549 cells. Impressively, the BiVO4/TiO2 composite exhibited notable photocatalytic performance in the degradation of rhodamine B (k =0.135 min-1) and phenol (k = 0.016 min-1). In terms of photoinduced antimicrobial performance, the composite effectively inactivated both gram-negative E. coli and gram-positive E. faecalis bacteria upon 60-min of UV-A light exposure, resulting in a significant log6(log10CFU/mL) reduction in bacterial count. These promising results can be attributed to the unique 2D morphology of TiO2 modified by sphere-like BiVO4, leading to an increased generation of (intracellular)hydroxyl radicals, which plays a crucial role in treatments of both organic pollutants and bacteria.

V-MXenes for energy storage/conversion applications: Trends and Prospects.

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.

Evolution of Metal Tellurides for Energy Storage/Conversion: From Synthesis to Applications.

Metal telluride (MTe)-based nanomaterials have emerged as a potential alternative for efficient, highly conductive, robust, and durable electrodes in energy storage/conversion applications. Significant progress in the material development of MTe-based electrodes is well-sought, from the synthesis of its nanostructures, integration of MTes with supporting materials, synthesis of their hybrid morphologies, and their implications in energy storage/conversion systems. Herein, an extensive exploration of the recent advancements and progress in MTes-based nanomaterials is reviewed. This review emphasizes elucidating the fundamental properties of MTes and providing a systematic compilation of its wet and dry synthesis methods. The applications of MTes are extensively summarized and discussed, particularly, in energy storage and conversion systems including batteries (Li-ion, Zn-ion, Li-S, Na-ion, K-ion), supercapacitor, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and CO2 reduction. The review also emphasizes the future prospects and urgent challenges to be addressed in the development of MTes, providing knowledge for researchers in utilizing MTes in energy storage and conversion technologies.

Mo-based MXenes: Synthesis, properties, and applications.

Ti-MXene allows a range of possibilities to tune their compositional stoichiometry due to their electronic and electrochemical properties. Other than conventionally explored Ti-MXene, there have been ample opportunities for the non-Ti-based MXenes, especially the emerging Mo-based MXenes. Mo-MXenes are established to be remarkable with optoelectronic and electrochemical properties, tuned energy, catalysis, and sensing applications. In this timely review, we systematically discuss the various organized synthesis procedures, associated experimental tunning parameters, physiochemical properties, structural evaluation, stability challenges, key findings, and a wide range of applications of emerging Mo-MXene over Ti-MXenes. We also critically examined the precise control of Mo-MXenes to cater to advanced applications by comprehensively evaluating the summary of recent studies using artificial intelligence and machine learning tools. The critical future perspectives, significant challenges, and possible outlooks for successfully developing and using Mo-MXenes for various practical applications are highlighted.

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.

Atomic Layer Deposition-A Versatile Toolbox for Designing/Engineering Electrodes for Advanced Supercapacitors.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has become the most widely used thin-film deposition technique in various fields due to its unique advantages, such as self-terminating growth, precise thickness control, and excellent deposition quality. In the energy storage domain, ALD has shown great potential for supercapacitors (SCs) by enabling the construction and surface engineering of novel electrode materials. This review aims to present a comprehensive outlook on the development, achievements, and design of advanced electrodes involving the application of ALD for realizing high-performance SCs to date, as organized in several sections of this paper. Specifically, this review focuses on understanding the influence of ALD parameters on the electrochemical performance and discusses the ALD of nanostructured electrochemically active electrode materials on various templates for SCs. It examines the influence of ALD parameters on electrochemical performance and highlights ALD's role in passivating electrodes and creating 3D nanoarchitectures. The relationship between synthesis procedures and SC properties is analyzed to guide future research in preparing materials for various applications. Finally, it is concluded by suggesting the directions and scope of future research and development to further leverage the unique advantages of ALD for fabricating new materials and harness the unexplored opportunities in the fabrication of advanced-generation SCs.

2D MXenes Nanosheets for Advanced Energy Conversion and Storage Devices: Recent Advances and Future Prospects.

Since the initial MXenes were discovered in 2011, several MXene compositions constructed using combinations of various transition metals have been developed. MXenes are ideal candidates for different applications in energy conversion and storage, because of their unique and interesting characteristics, which included good electrical conductivity, hydrophilicity, and simplicity of large-scale synthesis. Herein, we study the current developments in two-dimensional (2D) MXene nanosheets for energy storage and conversion technologies. First, we discuss the introduction to energy storage and conversion devices. Later, we emphasized on 2D MXenes and some specific properties of MXenes. Subsequently, research advances in MXene-based electrode materials for energy storage such as supercapacitors and rechargeable batteries is summarized. We provide the relevant energy storage processes, common challenges, and potential approaches to an acceptable solution for 2D MXene-based energy storage. In addition, recent advances for MXenes used in energy conversion devices like solar cells, fuel cells and catalysis is also summarized. Finally, the future prospective of growing MXene-based energy conversion and storage are highlighted.

Modulation of Radical Intermediates in Rechargeable Organic Batteries.

Organic materials have been considered as promising electrodes for next-generation rechargeable batteries in view of their sustainability, structural flexibility, and potential recyclability. The radical intermediates generated during the redox process of organic electrodes have profound effect on the reversible capacity, operation voltage, rate performance, and cycling stability. However, the radicals are highly reactive and have very short lifetime during the redox of organic materials. Great efforts have been devoted to capturing and investigating the radical intermediates in organic electrodes. Herein, this review summarizes the importance, history, structures, and working principles of organic radicals in rechargeable batteries. More importantly, challenges and strategies to track and regulate the radicals in organic batteries are highlighted. Finally, further perspectives of organic radicals are proposed for the development of next-generation high-performance rechargeable organic batteries.

Electrophoretic Fabrication of ZnO/CuO and ZnO/CuO/rGO Heterostructures-based Thin Films as Environmental Benign Flexible Electrode for Supercapacitor.

Sustainable fabrication of flexible hybrid supercapacitor electrodes is extensively investigated during the current era to solve global energy problems. Herein, we used a cost-effective and efficient electrophoretic deposition (EPD) approach to fabricate a hybrid supercapacitor electrode. ZnO/CuO and ZnO/CuO/rGO heterostructure were prepared by sol-gel synthesis route and were electrophoretically deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate as a thin uniform layer using 1 V for 20 min at 50 mV/s. ZnO/CuO and ZnO/CuO/rGO heterostructure coated ITOs were then employed as the working electrode in a three-electrode setup for supercapacitor measurements. The fabricated electrodes have been investigated by Galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) to study their charge storage properties. ZnO/CuO revealed a specific capacitance of 1945 F g-1 at 2 mV/s and 999 F g-1 at 5 A g-1. However, an increased specific capacitance of 2305 F g-1 was measured for ZnO/CuO/rGO heterostructure at 2 mV/s and 1235 F g-1 at 5 A g-1. The lower internal resistance was observed for ZnO/CuO/rGO heterostructure, indicating good conductivity of the electrode material. Thus, the overall results of the current study suggest that EPD-assisted ZnO/CuO/rGO heterostructure hybrid electrode possess a substantial potential for energy storage as a supercapacitor.

Polymer hydrogels for stabilization of inorganic nanoparticles and their application in catalysis for degradation of toxic chemicals.

Poly(styrene-N-isopropylmethacrylamide-methacrylic acid) core-shell [P(SNM)CS] microgel particles were synthesised by seed-mediated emulsion polymerisation method. Silver nanoparticles were loaded into shell of P(SNM)CS microgels by in situ reduction of Ag+ ions. Synthesised core-shell microgels and hybrid core-shell microgels were characterised by using Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Visible spectroscopy and Dynamic light scattering (DLS). Stability of Ag nanoparticles within P(SNM)CS system was also investigated over the time using UV-Visible spectroscopy. Catalytic properties of silver nanoparticles loaded microgel system [Ag-P(SNM)CS] were studied by reducing Eosin-Y and Methylene blue with NaBH4 in water. The values of observed rate constant (kobs) were determined under different reaction conditions. The hybrid system was capable to degrade both dyes and may be used for degradation of several other toxic chemicals efficiently.

Effects of combination treatment with tezepelumab and allergen immunotherapy on nasal responses to allergen: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) has been shown to play a central role in the initiation and persistence of allergic responses. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated whether tezepelumab, a human monoclonal anti-TSLP antibody, improved the efficacy of subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy (SCIT) and promoted the development of tolerance in patients with allergic rhinitis. METHODS: We conducted a double-blind parallel design trial in patients with cat allergy. A total of 121 patients were randomized to receive either intravenous tezepelumab plus subcutaneous cat SCIT, cat SCIT alone, tezepelumab alone, or placebo for 52 weeks, followed by 52 weeks of observation. Nasal allergen challenge (NAC), skin testing, and blood and nasal samples were obtained throughout the study. RESULTS: At week 52, the NAC-induced total nasal symptom scores (TNSS) (calculated as area under the curve [AUC0-1h] and as peak score [Peak0-1h] during the first hour after NAC) were significantly reduced in patients receiving tezepelumab/SCIT compared to SCIT alone. At week 104, one year after stopping treatment, the primary end point TNSS AUC0-1h was not significantly different in the tezepelumab/SCIT group compared to SCIT alone, while TNSS Peak0-1h was significantly lower in those receiving combination treatment versus SCIT. Transcriptomic analysis of nasal epithelial samples demonstrated that treatment with the combination of SCIT/tezepelumab, but neither monotherapy, caused persistent downregulation of a gene network related to type 2 inflammation that was associated with improvement in NAC responses. CONCLUSIONS: Inhibition of TSLP augments the efficacy of SCIT during therapy and may promote tolerance after a 1-year course of treatment. (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02237196).

Binder-free cupric-ion containing zinc sulfide nanoplates-like structure for flexible energy storage devices.

Researchers have been enthusiastic about developing high-performance electrode materials based on metal chalcogenides for energy storage applications. Herein, we developed cupric ion-containing zinc sulfide (ZnS:Cu) nanoplates by using a solvothermal approach. The as-synthesized ZnS:Cu nanoplates electrode was characterized and analyzed by using XRD, SEM, TEM, EDS, and XPS. The binder-free flexible ZnS:Cu nanoplates exhibited excellent specific capacitance of 545 F g-1 at a current density of 1 A g-1. The CV and GCD measurements revealed that the specific capacitance was mainly attributed to the Faradaic redox mechanism. Further, the binder-free flexible ZnS:Cu nanoplates electrode retained 87.4% along with excellent Coulombic efficiency (99%) after 5000 cycles. The binder-free flexible ZnS:Cu nanoplates exhibited excellent conductivity, specific capacitance, and stability which are beneficial in energy storage systems. These findings will also open new horizons amongst material scientists toward the new direction of electrode development.

2D MXene-Based Biosensing: A Review.

MXene emerged as decent 2D material and has been exploited for numerous applications in the last decade. The remunerations of the ideal metallic conductivity, optical absorbance, mechanical stability, higher heterogeneous electron transfer rate, and good redox capability have made MXene a potential candidate for biosensing applications. The hydrophilic nature, biocompatibility, antifouling, and anti-toxicity properties have opened avenues for MXene to perform in vitro and in vivo analysis. In this review, the concept, operating principle, detailed mechanism, and characteristic properties are comprehensively assessed and compiled along with breakthroughs in MXene fabrication and conjugation strategies for the development of unique electrochemical and optical biosensors. Further, the current challenges are summarized and suggested future aspects. This review article is believed to shed some light on the development of MXene for biosensing and will open new opportunities for the future advanced translational application of MXene bioassays.

Animal- and Human-Inspired Nanostructures as Supercapacitor Electrode Materials: A Review.

Human civilization has been relentlessly inspired by the nurturing lessons; nature is teaching us. From birds to airplanes and bullet trains, nature gave us a lot of perspective in aiding the progress and development of countless industries, inventions, transportation, and many more. Not only that nature inspired us in such technological advances but also, nature stimulated the advancement of micro- and nanostructures. Nature-inspired nanoarchitectures have been considered a favorable structure in electrode materials for a wide range of applications. It offers various positive attributes, especially in energy storage applications, such as the formation of hierarchical two-dimensional and three-dimensional interconnected networked structures that benefit the electrodes in terms of high surface area, high porosity and rich surface textural features, and eventually, delivering high capacity and outstanding overall material stability. In this review, we comprehensively assessed and compiled the recent advances in various nature-inspired based on animal- and human-inspired nanostructures used for supercapacitors. This comprehensive review will help researchers to accommodate nature-inspired nanostructures in industrializing energy storage and many other applications.

Estimation of Shipping Emissions in Developing Country: A Case Study of Mohammad Bin Qasim Port, Pakistan.

Transportation has the highest dependence on fossil fuels of any sector and accounts for 37% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Maritime transportation is responsible for around 940 million tons of CO2 and approximately 3% of global emissions annually. The significant increase in shipping activities around the globe has magnified the generation of toxic pollutants. In recent years, shipping emissions have received significant attention in developed countries due to global climate change, while in developing countries, researchers are making enormous efforts to tackle this catastrophic and pressing issue. This study considers Muhammad Bin Qasim Port (MBQP), Karachi, Pakistan as a case study. This study employed an activity-based or bottom-up approach with a standard procedure to estimate the various anthropogenic pollutants emissions including particular matters (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), CO2, methane (CH4), non-methane volatile organic compound (NMVOC), and hydrocarbon (HC) under different operational modes, i.e., hoteling, maneuvering, and reduced speed zones. The results indicated that CO2 was the highest contributor with a proportion of 92%, NOx 5%, and SO2 1.5% for all three operational modes. Moreover, the results indicated that container ships account for 64% of overall emissions, followed by tankers for 24%. Regarding the monthly trend, the findings revealed that November and December had the highest emission rates, with over 20% of the total emissions recorded. This study's findings will assist stakeholders and policymakers to prioritize maritime emissions in developing countries.

Pharmacokinetics of ciprofloxacin and fluocinolone acetonide otic solution in pediatric patients.

PURPOSE: To describe the pharmacokinetics (PK) of ciprofloxacin 0.3 % and fluocinolone acetonide 0.025 % otic solution (CIPRO+FLUO), ciprofloxacin 0.3 % otic solution alone (CIPRO), and fluocinolone acetonide 0.025 % otic solution alone (FLUO) administered into the middle ears of pediatric patients with Acute Otitis Media with Tympanostomy Tubes (AOMT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a PK analysis of patients who participated in two multicenter, randomized, double-blind AOMT clinical trials (SALVAT studies CIFLOTIII/10IA02 and CIFLOTIII/10IA04). Each patient received 0.25 mL of CIPRO+FLUO, CIPRO, or FLUO twice a day instilled into the ear canal(s) for 7 days to treat AOMT. Blood samples of patients with unilateral AOMT were collected before the administration of the first dose of study medication at Visit 1 (day 1) and within 1-2 h after the last dose on day 7. Blood samples were analyzed to detect ciprofloxacin and fluocinolone acetonide concentrations using two validated liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) methods, with the lower limit of quantification for ciprofloxacin and fluocinolone acetonide in plasma samples being 1 ng/mL. Thirty randomly selected patients between 10 months and 10 years of age (mean age, 4.4 years) were included in the study. Although all available samples were analyzed, only PK data of the 22 patients with both samples and unilateral disease were considered for study purposes. RESULTS: No detectable concentrations of ciprofloxacin or fluocinolone acetonide in plasma were observed (<1 ng/mL). CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrated negligible systemic exposure to ciprofloxacin and fluocinolone acetonide following topical otic administration in pediatric patients with AOMT.

Public's Mental Health Monitoring via Sentimental Analysis of Financial Text Using Machine Learning Techniques.

Public feelings and reactions associated with finance are gaining significant importance as they help individuals, public health, financial and non-financial institutions, and the government understand mental health, the impact of policies, and counter-response. Every individual sentiment linked with a financial text can be categorized, whether it is a headline or the detailed content published in a newspaper. The Guardian newspaper is considered one of the most famous and the biggest websites for digital media on the internet. Moreover, it can be one of the vital platforms for tracking the public's mental health and feelings via sentimental analysis of news headlines and detailed content related to finance. One of the key purposes of this study is the public's mental health tracking via the sentimental analysis of financial text news primarily published on digital media to identify the overall mental health of the public and the impact of national or international financial policies. A dataset was collected using The Guardian application programming interface and processed using the support vector machine, AdaBoost, and single layer convolutional neural network. Among all identified techniques, the single layer convolutional neural network with a classification accuracy of 0.939 is considered the best during the training and testing phases as it produced efficient performance and effective results compared to other techniques, such as support vector machine and AdaBoost with associated classification accuracies 0.677 and 0.761, respectively. The findings of this research would also benefit public health, as well as financial and non-financial institutions.

Phosphazene Cyclomatrix Network-Based Polymer: Chemistry, Synthesis, and Applications.

Polyphosphazenes are an inorganic molecular hybrid family with multifunctional properties due to their wide range of organic substitutes. This review intends to propose the basics of the synthetic chemistry of polyphosphazene, describing for researchers outside the field the basic knowledge required to design and prepare polyphosphazenes with desired properties. A special emphasis is placed on recent advances in chemical synthesis, which allow not only the synthesis of polyphosphazenes with controlled molecular weights and polydispersities but also the synthesis of novel branched designs and block copolymers. We also investigated the synthesis of polyphosphazenes using various functional materials. This review aims to assist researchers in synthesizing their specific polyphosphazene material with unique property combinations, with the hope of stimulating further research and even more innovative applications for these highly interesting multifaceted materials.

Thermal enhancement in Falkner-Skan flow of the nanofluid by considering molecular diameter and freezing temperature.

The analysis of nanofluids heat transfer over a wedge is very important due to their wider applications in applied thermal engineering, chemical engineering and biomedical engineering etc. Therefore, aim of the study is to explore the heat transport in nanofluid over a wedge (Falkner Skan flow) under viscous dissipation and thermal radiation over a wedge. The proper model formulation is carried out via similarity relations and empirical correlations of the nanofluids. After successful model transformation, numerical scheme (RK technique along with shooting technique) applied and furnished the results over the desired domain under varying effects of preemenant flow parameters. The results revealed that the velocity rises for opposing ([Formula: see text]) and assisting ([Formula: see text]) flows against [Formula: see text] and significant contribution of Ec and imposed thermal radiations (Rd number) observed in thermal performance of the nanofluid. The temperature declines by strengthen [Formula: see text] and optimum decrement is noted for opposing flow. Finally, a comparison is provided for various values of [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) with previously published work under certain restrictions and found an excellent agreement.

The Emergence of 2D MXenes Based Zn-Ion Batteries: Recent Development and Prospects.

Rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) with exceptional theoretical capacity have garnered significant interest in large-scale electrochemical energy storage devices due to their low cost, abundant material, inherent safety, high specific energy, and ecofriendly nature. Metal carbides/nitrides, known as MXenes, have emerged as a large family of 2D transition metal carbides or carbonitrides with excellent properties, e.g., high electrical conductivity, large surface functional groups (e.g., F, O, and OH), low energy barriers for the diffusion of electrolyte ions with wide interlayer spaces. After a decade of effort, significant development has been achieved in the synthesis, properties, and applications of MXenes. Thus, it has opened up various exciting opportunities to construct advanced MXene-based nanostructures for ZIBs with excellent specific energy and power. Herein, this review summarizes the advances across multiple synthesis routes, related properties, morphological and structural characteristics, and chemistries of MXenes for ZIBs. The recent development of MXene-based electrodes is introduced, and electrolytes for ZIBs are elucidated in detail. MXene-based rocking chair ZIBs, strategies to enhance the performance of MXene-based cathodes, suppress the dendrites in MXene-based anodes, and MXene-based flexible ZIBs are pointed out. A rational design and modification of the MXenes as well as the production of composites with metal oxides exhibits promise in solving issues and enhancing the electrochemical performance of ZIBs. Finally, the present challenges and future prospects for MXene-based ZIBs are discussed.