Bioengineering of Cu2O structured macro-biotemplate for the ultra-efficient and selective hand-retrieval of glyphosate from agro-farms.

Glyphosate (Gly) is a massively utilized toxic herbicide exceeding its statutory restrictions, causing adverse environmental and health impacts. Engineered nanomaterials, even though are integral to remediate Gly, their practical use is limited due to time and energy driven purifications, and negative environmental impacts. Here, a 3D wide area (~1.6 ± 0.4 cm2) Cu2O nanoparticle supported biotemplate is designed using fish-scale wastes as a sustainable approach for the ultra-efficient and selective hand-remediation of Gly from real-time samples from agro-farms. While the innate metal binding and reducing ability of collagenous scales aided self-synthesis cum grafting of Cu2O, the selective binding potential of Cu2O to Gly facilitated its hand-retrieval; as assessed using optical characterizations, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Optimization studies revealed extractions of diverse pay-loads of Gly between 0.1 µg/mL to 40 µg/mL per 80 mg biotemplate grafted with ~6.354 µg of sub-5 nm Cu2O and was exponential to the number of Cu2O@biotemplates. Even though pH and surfactant didn't have any impact on the adsorption of Gly to the Cu2O@biotemplates, increase in the ionic strength led to a drastic increase in the adsorption. Density function theory simulations unveiled the involvement of phosphonic and carboxylic groups of Gly for interaction with Cu2O with a bond length of 1.826 Å and 1.833 Å, respectively. Overall, our sustainably generated, cost-efficient, hand-retrievable Cu2O supported biotemplate can be generalized to extract diverse organophosphorus toxins from agro-farms and other sewage embodiments. SYNOPSIS: Glyphosate is an excessively applied herbicide with potent health hazards and carcinogenicity. Thus, a hand removable Cu2O-supported biotemplate to selectively and efficiently remediate glyphosate from irrigation water is developed.

Sustainable Bioengineering of Gold Structured Wide-Area Supported Catalysts for Hand-Recyclable Ultra-Efficient Heterogeneous Catalysis.

Metal nanoparticles grafted within inert and porous wide-area supports are emerging as recyclable, sustainable catalysts for modern industry applications. Here, we bioengineered gold nanoparticle-based supported catalysts by utilizing the innate metal binding and reductive potential of eggshell as a sustainable strategy. Variable hand-recyclable wide-area three-dimensional catalysts between ∼80 ± 7 and 0.5 ± 0.1 cm2 are generated simply by controlling the size of the support. The catalyst possessed high-temperature stability (300 °C) and compatibility toward polar and nonpolar solvents, electrolytes, acids, and bases facilitating ultra-efficient catalysis of accordingly suspended substrates. Validation was done by large-volume (2.8 liters) dye detoxification, gram-scale hydrogenation of nitroarene, and the synthesis of propargylamine. Moreover, persistent recyclability, monitoring of reaction kinetics, and product intermediates are possible due to physical retrievability and interchangeability of the catalyst. Finally, the bionature of the support permits ∼76.9 ± 8% recovery of noble gold simply by immersing in a royal solution. Our naturally created, low-cost, scalable, hand-recyclable, and resilient supported mega-catalyst dwarfs most challenges for large-scale metal-based heterogeneous catalysis.

Nanomagnet-facilitated pharmaco-compatibility for cancer diagnostics: Underlying risks and the emergence of ultrasmall nanomagnets.

Cancer therapy is a fast-emerging biomedical paradigm that elevates the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of a nanovector for identification, monitoring, targeting, and post-treatment response analysis. Nanovectors of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) are of tremendous significance in cancer therapy because of their inherited high surface area, high reactivity, biocompatibility, superior contrast, and magnetic and photo-inducibility properties. In addition to a brief introduction, we summarize various progressive aspects of nanomagnets pertaining to their production with an emphasis on sustainable biomimetic approaches. Post-synthesis particulate and surface alterations in terms of pharmaco-affinity, liquid accessibility, and biocompatibility to facilitate cancer therapy are highlighted. SPION parameters including particle contrast, core-fusions, surface area, reactivity, photosensitivity, photodynamics, and photothermal properties, which facilitate diverse cancer diagnostics, are discussed. We also elaborate on the concept of magnetism to selectively focus chemotherapeutics on tumors, cell sorting, purification of bioentities, and elimination of toxins. Finally, while addressing the toxicity of nanomaterials, the advent of ultrasmall nanomagnets as a healthier alternative with superior properties and compatible cellular interactions is reviewed. In summary, these discussions spotlight the versatility and integration of multi-tasking nanomagnets and ultrasmall nanomagnets for diverse cancer theragnostics.

Fish-scale waste to portable bioactive discs: a sustainable platform for sensitive and reliable blood group analysis.

Blood group analysis has evolved from conventional "test-tube" to ingenious "lab-on-a-chip" micro/paper-fluidic devices for identifying blood phenotypes. Despite the rapid and economical fabrication of these devices, they require Whatman paper that is obtained by cutting down trees and plastic usage involving complex and sophisticated facilities, making scalable manufacturing laborious and expensive. Most importantly, deforestation and plastic incineration pose great threats to the biotic and abiotic environments. Here, we have developed a blood grouping strip utilizing fish-scale waste and household cardboard-waste generated origami as an affordable and sustainable strategy. The naturally inherited hydrophilicity of fish scale with a contact angle of 89° could succinctly auto-stabilize low-volume antisera without the aid of additives. Moreover, unlike paperfluidics, antisera absorption, as well as RBC-antisera agglutination upon blood introduction, happens on the spot with no capillary wicking. The merits of our technique are: it requires a low amount of blood (3 µL), eliminates additional image processing and assays, is equipment-free, and aids accurate blood typing as a visual hemagglutination readout. Additionally, a high tensile strength of ∼85 ± 5 MPa and the shelf-endurance of the bio-disc allowed us to use the simplest cardboard origami as a shield, obviating plastic and fiber generated fancy shields, making our device portable and simultaneously biodegradable. Our novel bio-disc blood analysis was tested with anonymous blood samples (n = 200), with an accuracy comparable to a standard blood group assay. This zero-cost paper, plastic-free eco-friendly blood group analyser derived from biodegradable food and cardboard waste as a resourceful technique has huge potential in various sensors and point-of-care diagnostics, especially in impoverished areas with limited or no lab facilities.