In this work, we have prepared water-soluble superparamgnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) coated with a dual responsive polymer for targeted delivery of anticancer hydrophobic drug (curcumin) and hyperthermia treatment. Herein, superparamagnetic mixed spinel (MnFe2O4) was used as a core material (15-20 nm) and modified with carboxymethyl cellulose (water-soluble component), folic acid (tagging agent), and dual responsive polymer (poly-N isopropylacrylamide-co-poly glutamic acid) by microwave radiation. Lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the thermoresponsive copolymer was observed to be around 40 °C, which is appropriate for drug delivery. The polymer-SPIONs show high drug loading capacity (89%) with efficient and fast drug release at the desired pH (5.5) and temperature (40 °C) conditions. Along with this, the SPIONs show a very fast increase in temperature (45 °C in 2 min) when interacting with an external magnetic field, which is an effective and appropriate temperature for the localized hyperthermia treatment of cancer cells. The cytocompatibility of the curcumin loaded SPIONs was studied by the methyl thiazol tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and cells were imaged by fluorescence microscopy. To explore the targeting behavior of curcumin loaded SPIONs, a simple magnetic capturing system (simulating a blood vessel) was constructed and it was found that ∼99% of the nanoparticle accumulated around the magnet in 2 min by traveling a distance of 30 cm. Along with this, to explore an entirely different aspect of the responsive polymer, its antibacterial activity toward an E. coli strain was also studied. It was found that responsive polymer is not harmful for normal or cancer cells but shows a good antibacterial property.

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Highly fluorescent carbon dots derived from amino acid showing multifunctional behavior: photocatalytic activity, cell imaging, heavy metal ions sensing and antibacterial property.

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In this study, nanocomposite of graphene oxide and silane modified magnetic nanoparticles (silane@Fe3O4) were synthesized in a form of dendritic structure. For this, silane@Fe3O4 nanoparticle gets sandwiched between two layers of graphene oxide by chemical synthesis route. The synthesized dendritic structure was used as a monomer for synthesis of europium ion imprinted polymer. The synthesis of imprinted polymer was contemplated onto the surface of the vinyl group modified silica fiber by activated generated free radical atom-transfer radical polymerization, that is, AGET-ATRP technique. The synthesized dendritic monomer was characterized by XRD, FT-IR, VSM, FE-SEM, and TEM analyses. The imprinted polymer modified silica fiber was first validated in the aqueous and blood samples for successful extraction and detection of europium ion with limit of detection = 0.050 pg mL(-1) (signal/noise = 3). The imprinted polymer modified silica fiber was also used for preconcentration and separation of europium metal ion from various soil samples of coal mine areas. However, the same silica fiber was also used for wastewater treatment and shows 100% performance for europium removal. The findings herein suggested that dendritic nanocomposite could be potentially used as a highly effective material for the enrichment and preconcentration of europium or other trivalent lanthanides/actinides in nuclear waste management.

The main motif of this work is to fabricate a highly efficient, economic, nanodisc shaped trifunctional electrocatalyst using a tungsten trioxide modified carbon nanosheet decorated with palladium nanoparticles. The beauty of this work is that a special carbon precursor is used for the synthesis of the electrocatalyst, a waste material, i.e., cow dung. The performance of the cow dung derived nanodisc electrocatalyst (Pd@WO3-NDs) toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is compared with three other electrocatalysts (derived from graphene oxide, chitosan, and graphite carbon sources) also, and it is found that Pd@WO3-NDs show superior performance over that of the other three. The electrocatalyst exhibits the lowest onset potential (1.32 V vs NHEs), highest current density (492 mA cm–2), lowest overpotential (113 mV), and lowest Tafel slope (62.8 mV dec–1) for OER; an onset potential of 1.02 V, overpotential of 195.0 mV, and Tafel slope of 53.1 mV dec–1) for ORR; and lowest onset potential (−0.09 V), overpotential (185 mV at 10 mA cm–2), and a small Tafel slope of (58.2 mV dec–1) for HER in the same alkaline solution. In addition, the nanomaterial is successfully applied for the fabrication of rechargeable and all-solid-state zinc–air batteries, which are used to illuminate a 4.0 V light emitting diode (LED) bulb. More importantly, real air cathodes made from the trifunctional Pd@WO3-NDs demonstrated superior performance to state-of-the-art Pt/C catalysts in rechargeable zinc–air batteries. In addition, the same Zn–air battery is further used to power the laboratory-made total alkaline water electrolyzer by employing Pd@WO3-NDs as catalyst on both anode and cathode. The water electrolyzer showed comparable performance rivalling the state-of-art combination of Pt/C and RuO2, which is known to be the best of the bifunctional total-water splitting electrocatalysts reported until date. This remarkable performance of Pd@WO3-NDs indicates their future potential in energy storage and sustainable energy conversion technologies.