Ir(III) and Ru(II) Complexes in Photoredox Catalysis and Photodynamic Therapy: A New Paradigm towards Anticancer Applications

Individually, photoredox catalysis (PC) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) are well-established concepts that have experienced a remarkable resurgence in recent years, leading to significant progress in organic synthesis for PC and clinical approval of anticancer drugs for PDT. But, very recently, new photoredox catalyst systems based on Ir(III) and Ru(II) complexes have garnered significant interest because they can simultaneously be used as PDT agents apart from their demonstrated PC activity. This highlight discusses the unique PC behavior of emerging Ir(III)- and Ru(II)-based systems while also examining their potential PDT activity in cancer treatment.     

Prediction of human breast and colon cancers from imbalanced data using nearest neighbor and support vector machines

This study proposes a novel prediction approach for human breast and colon cancers using different feature spaces. The proposed scheme consists of two stages: the preprocessor and the predictor. In the preprocessor stage, the mega-trend diffusion (MTD) technique is employed to increase the samples of the minority class, thereby balancing the dataset. In the predictor stage, machine-learning approaches of K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and support vector machines (SVM) are used to develop hybrid MTD-SVM and MTD-KNN prediction models. MTD-SVM model has provided the best values of accuracy, G-mean and Matthew's correlation coefficient of 96.71%, 96.70% and 71.98% for cancer/non-cancer dataset, breast/non-breast cancer dataset and colon/non-colon cancer dataset, respectively. We found that hybrid MTD-SVM is the best with respect to prediction performance and computational cost. MTD-KNN model has achieved moderately better prediction as compared to hybrid MTD-NB (Naïve Bayes) but at the expense of higher computing cost. MTD-KNN model is faster than MTD-RF (random forest) but its prediction is not better than MTD-RF. To the best of our knowledge, the reported results are the best results, so far, for these datasets. The proposed scheme indicates that the developed models can be used as a tool for the prediction of cancer. This scheme may be useful for study of any sequential information such as protein sequence or any nucleic acid sequence.     

Polymer and nanobelt derived nanomaterials: opening doors to revolutionary stadia

ABSTRACT

The state-of-the-art article presents concepts of nanobelt nanofiller, inimitable properties of derived polymeric nanocomposite, applications, and outlook on challenges to gain next generation high-performance materials. Nanobelt is a one-dimensional nanostructured nanomaterial. Owing to minuscule size and high surface area, nanobelt possesses unique structural, optical, electronic, mechanical, and thermal characteristics. Nanobelt exists in various forms such as carbon nanobelt, polymer nanobelt, and inorganic. These nanobelts have been used to develop polymer/nanobelt nanocomposites. Homogeneous dispersion of nanobelt in polymer matrices is desirable to enhance the characteristics of polymer/nanobelt nanocomposite. Consequently, innovations in design, fabrication, and properties of various polymer/nanobelt nanocomposite are summarized. Applications of polymer/nanobelt nanocomposite are reviewed for Li-ion battery, supercapacitor, sensor, membrane, and biomedical arenas.     

Emulsion polymer derived nanocomposite: a review on design and tailored attributes

ABSTRACT

Recently, fabrication of polymeric nanocomposite via emulsion polymerization process has become a research spotlight. This review highlights the capability of emulsion polymerization technique to produce polymeric nanocomposite with tailored nanostructures, advanced properties, and high performance. Initially, overview on emulsion polymerization is presented. Afterward, advances in nanocomposites through the use of nanoparticles in emulsion polymerization have been elaborated. Main focus is given on the influence of graphene, carbon nanotube, carbon black, nanoclay, and inorganic nanoparticles on the essential features of emulsion polymerized nanocomposite. These materials have wide-ranging applications in coatings, adhesives, foaming/anti-foaming agents, packaging, paper/textiles, construction, and drug delivery fields.     

Eco-friendly electronics,based on nanocomposites of biopolyester reinforced with carbon nanotubes: a review

ABSTRACT

Fabrication of electronic materials from nanocomposite of biopolyesters reinforced with carbon nanotubes can be regarded as the effective alternative for conventional nanocomposites consisting of non-biodegradable polymers. Commercial availability of biopolyester-based nanocomposites is limited because of their high cost compared to other polymers, but the factor of their compostable nature is worthless for environmental protection. Such nanocomposites have potential applications in biodegradable sensors, EMI materials, etc. In this review, the current progress of biopolyester/CNTs nanocomposites in the field of biodegradable electronics is reviewed and also the impact of CNTs dispersion on electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of eco composites is stipulated.     

Raman spectroscopy studies of concentrated vanadium redox battery positive electrolytes

Spectroscopic changes in highly concentrated vanadium(V)-sulfate solutions to be used in the vanadium redox battery are consistent with the presence of more than one V(V)-sulfate species. The results of Raman spectroscopy indicate that the major species in highly acidic conditions are VO₂SO₄ ^–, VO₂(SO₄)₂ ^3–, VO₂(HSO₄)₂ ^–, VO₃ ^–, V(V) dimers with V₂O₃ ⁴⁺ and V₂O₄ ²⁺ central units. The nature and amount of these species depends upon the V(V) and total sulfate concentrations as well as on S to V and H⁺ to V ratios in the positive half-cell electrolyte. V(V) forms V₂O₃ ⁴⁺, VO₂(SO₄)₂ ^3– and their copolymer species at higher total sulfate concentrations, which tends to stabilize the vanadium (V) positive electrolyte in the vanadium redox battery. The V(V) and V(IV) species show the least interaction with each other. Ageing of concentrated V(V) solutions at elevated temperature (50 °C) produces decomposition of species causing formation of V₂O₅ precipitates with a decrease in the amount of vanadium polymer.     

Carbon nano onion as versatile contender in polymer compositing and advance application

This review focuses on an inimitable multilayer fullerene material commonly referred as carbon nano onion (CNO). Among carbon nanomaterials, CNO is the least studied form. CNO has unique 0-D structure, small diameter of <10 nm, high electrical conductivity, fine dispersibility, and other superior structural and physical features. Different preparation and functionalization routes have been used for this unique nanocarbon structure. The article summarizes essential available categories of polymer/CNO composite such as polyaniline/CNO, polypyrrole/CNO, polythiophene/CNO, poly(?-caprolactone)/CNO, polystyrene/CNO, poly(diallyldimethyl-ammonium chloride)/CNO, and polyenediyne/CNO. Moreover, significant technical application of CNO-based materials has been discussed in supercapacitor, solar cell, Li-ion battery, dielectric, and biomedical materials.     

Biosynthesis and characterisation of nano‐silica as potential system for carrying streptomycin at nano‐scale drug delivery

A growing trend within nanomedicine has been the fabrication of self‐delivering supramolecular nanomedicines containing a high and fixed drug content ensuring eco‐friendly conditions. This study reports on green synthesis of silica nanoparticles (Si‐NPs) using Azadirachta indica leaves extract as an effective chelating agent. X‐ray diffraction analysis and Fourier transform‐infra‐red spectroscopic examination were studied. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that the average size of particles formed via plant extract as reducing agent without any surfactant is in the range of 100–170 nm while addition of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide were more uniform with 200 nm in size. Streptomycin as model drug was successfully loaded to green synthesised Si‐NPs, sustain release of the drug from this conjugate unit were examined. Prolong release pattern of the adsorbed drug ensure that Si‐NPs have great potential in nano‐drug delivery keeping the environment preferably biocompatible, future cytotoxic studies in this connection is helpful in achieving safe mode for nano‐drug delivery.Inspec keywords: silicon compounds, nanofabrication, nanomedicine, drug delivery systems, nanoparticles, X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectra, scanning electron microscopyOther keywords: nanosilica, streptomycin, nanoscale drug delivery, nanomedicine, silica nanoparticles, Azadirachta indica leaves extract, X‐ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transform‐infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide, SiO₂      

Comparative Review on Structure,Properties, Fabrication Techniques,and Relevance of Polymer Nanocomposites Reinforced with Carbon Nanotube and Graphite Fillers

Owing to their remarkable electrical, mechanical, thermal, catalytic, and optical properties as well as their unique structure, carbon nanotubes and graphite have been exploited to produce high performance and multifunctional composites. The resultant composites are differentiated on the basis of their properties to meet various applications. In the framework of this review article, we have mainly focused on the preparation, structure, and properties of two families of composite materials with an emphasis on the differences between them. Moreover, the current challenges, future prospectives, and applications of carbon nanotubes- and graphite-based materials in sensors and in photovoltaic and energy storage devices (Li-ion battery) have been discussed.     

Synthetic Modular Antibody Construction by Using the SpyTag/SpyCatcher Protein-Ligase System

Efforts to engineer recombinant antibodies for specific diagnostic and therapy applications are time consuming and expensive, as each new recombinant antibody needs to be optimized for expression, stability, bio-distribution, and pharmacokinetics. We have developed a new way to construct recombinant antibody-like “devices” by using a bottom-up approach to build them from well-behaved discrete recombinant antibody domains or “parts”. Studies on antibody structure and function have identified antibody constant and variable domains with specific functions that can be expressed in isolation. We used the SpyTag/SpyCatcher protein ligase to join these parts together, thereby creating devices with desired properties based on summed properties of parts and in configurations that cannot be obtained by using genetic engineering. This strategy will create optimized recombinant antibody devices at reduced costs and with shortened development times.