Smart and green interfaces: from single bubbles/drops to industrial environmental and biomedical applications

Plants anatomically engineered by nanomaterials

Anatomical characteristics are essential in determining the stress that affects plants. In addition, they provided a piece of evidence for environmental pollution. The increasing use of nanomaterials (EnNos) in industries, medicine, agriculture, and all fields. Nanomaterials also have many uses as a new science; they have toxic effects that have not been studied well. Therefore, this research was interested in recording recent studies on (EnNos) and their impact on the anatomical characteristics of plants. Moreover, the possibility of using anatomical characteristics as evidence of nano contamination (nanotoxicity) in plants comprises a crucial living component of the ecosystem. Studies on the effect of EnNos (carbon) on plant anatomy indicated that excess EnNos content affects the anatomical structure of the plant from the vital structures of the root, stem and leaves. Toxicological effect on xylem and phylum vessels from toxicological studies to date, Toxicological effects on EnNos of various kinds can be toxic if they are not bound to a substrate or freely circulating in living systems. Different types of EnNos, behavior, and plant capacity generate different paths. Moreover, different, or even conflicting, conclusions have been drawn from most studies on the interactions of EnNos with plants. Therefore, this paper comprehensively reviews studies on different types of carbon EnNos and their interactions with different plant species at the anatomical responses. Keywords: Anatomical characteristics, nanomaterials, nanotoxicity, Fullerene and Carbon Nanotubes

Functional liquid droplets for analyte sensing and energy harvesting

Over the past century, rapid miniaturization of technologies has helped in the development of efficient, flexible, portable, robust, and compact applications with minimal wastage of materials. In this direction, of late, the usage of mesoscale liquid droplets has emerged as an alternative platform because of the following advantages: (i) a droplet is incompressible and at the same time deformable, (ii) interfacial area of a spherical droplet is minimum for a given amount of mass; and (iii) a droplet interface allows facile mass, momentum, and energy transfer. Subsequently, such attributes have aided towards the design of diverse droplet-based microfluidic technologies. For example, the microdroplets have been utilized as micro-reactors, colorimetric or electrochemical (EC) sensors, drug-delivery vehicles, and energy harvesters. Further, a number of recently reported lab-on-a-chip technologies exploit the motility, storage, and mixing capacities of the microdroplets. In view of this background, the review initiates discussion by highlighting the different attributes of the microdroplets such as size, shape, surface to volume ratio, wettability, and contact line. Thereafter, the effects of the surface or body forces on the properties of the droplets have been elaborated. Finally, the different aspects of such liquid droplet systems towards technological adaptations in health care, sensing, and energy harvesting have been presented. The review concludes with a tight summary on the potential avenues for further developments.

Effects of TiO2 Nanoparticles Incorporation into Cells of Tomato Roots

In this study, tomato plants were grown in vitro with and without incorporation of TiO₂ nanoparticles in Murashige and Skoog (MS) growth medium. The aim of this study was to describe the morphological (area and roundness cell) and mechanical (Young’s Modulus) change in the different tissue of tomato root, epidermis (Ep), parenchyma (Pa), and vascular bundles (Vb), when the whole plant was exposed to TiO₂ nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs). light microscopy (LM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) techniques were used to identify changes into the root cells when TiO₂ NPs were incorporated. TiO₂ NPs incorporation produces changes in the area, roundness, and Young’s Modulus of the tomato root. When tomato root is exposed to TiO₂ NPs, the Ep and Vb area size decreases from 260.92 µm² to 160.71 µm² and, 103.08 µm² to 52.13 µm², respectively, compared with the control area, while in Pa tissue the area size was increased considerably from 337.72 mm² to 892.96 mm². Cellular roundness was evident in tomato root that was exposed to TiO₂ NPs in the Ep (0.49 to 0.67), Pa (0.63 to 0.79), and Vb (0.76 to 0.71) area zones. Young’s Modulus in Pa zone showed a rigid mechanical behavior when tomato root is exposed to TiO₂ NPs (0.48 to 4.98 MPa control and TiO₂ NPs, respectively). Meanwhile, Ep and Vb were softer than the control sample (13.9 to 1.06 MPa and 6.37 to 4.41 MPa respectively). This means that the Pa zone was stiffer than Ep and Vb when the root is exposed to TiO₂ NPs. Furthermore, TiO₂ NPs were internalized in the root tissue of tomato, accumulating mainly in the cell wall and intercellular spaces, with a wide distribution throughout the tissue, as seen in TEM.

Effect of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles on growth and physiology of globally important food crops: A critical review

The concentrations of engineered metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have increased in the environment due to increasing demand of NPs based products. This is causing a major concern for sustainable agriculture. This review presents the effects of NPs on agricultural crops at biochemical, physiological and molecular levels. Numerous studies showed that metal and metal oxide NPs affected the growth, yield and quality of important agricultural crops. The NPs altered mineral nutrition, photosynthesis and caused oxidative stress and induced genotoxicity in crops. The activities of antioxidant enzymes increased at low NPs toxicity while decreased at higher NPs toxicity in crops. Due to exposure of crop plants to NPs, the concentration of NPs increased in different plant parts including fruits and grains which could transfer to the food chain and pose a threat to human health. In conclusion, most of the NPs have both positive and negative effects on crops at physiological, morphological, biochemical and molecular levels. The effects of NPs on crop plants vary greatly with plant species, growth stages, growth conditions, method, dose, and duration of NPs exposure along with other factors. Further research orientation is also discussed in this review article.

Biocompatible long-sustained release oil-core polyelectrolyte nanocarriers: From controlling physical state and stability to biological impact

It has been generally expected that the most applicable drug delivery system (DDS) should be biodegradable, biocompatible and with incidental adverse effects. Among many micellar aggregates and their mediated polymeric systems, polyelectrolyte oil-core nanocarriers have been found to successfully encapsulate hydrophobic drugs in order to target cells and avoid drug degradation and toxicity as well as to improve drug efficacy, its stability, and better intracellular penetration. This paper reviews recent developments in the formation of polyelectrolyte oil-core nanocarriers by subsequent multilayer adsorption at micellar structures, their imaging, physical state and stability, drug encapsulation and applications, in vitro release profiles and in vitro biological evaluation (cellular uptake and internalization, biocompatibility). We summarize the recent results concerning polyelectrolyte/surfactant interactions at interfaces, fundamental to understand the mechanisms of formation of stable polyelectrolyte layered structures on liquid cores. The fabrication of emulsion droplets stabilized by synergetic surfactant/polyelectrolyte complexes, properties, and potential applications of each type of polyelectrolyte oil-core nanocarriers, including stealth nanocapsules with pegylated shell, are discussed and evaluated.

Dynamics of drops – Formation, growth, oscillation, detachment, and coalescence

Single drops or bubbles are frequently used for the characterization of liquid-fluid interfaces. Their advantage is the small volume and the various protocols of their formation. Thus, several important methods are based on single drops and bubbles, such as capillary pressure and profile analysis tensiometry. However, these methods are often applied under dynamic conditions, although their principles are defined under equilibrium conditions. Thus, specific attention has to be paid when these methods are used beyond certain limits. In many cases, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have allowed researchers, to extend these limits and to gain important information on the interfacial dynamics. Examples discussed here are the capillary pressure tensiometry used for short time and profile analysis tensiometry for long time dynamic interfacial tension measurements, the oscillating drop methods for measuring dilational visco-elasticity. For measuring the coalescence of two drops the liquid dynamics of the subsequently formed liquid bridges have to be considered. In this paper, a thorough review of important experimental and computational findings, related to the dynamics of drops, including its formation, growth, oscillation, detachment, and coalescence is presented. Emphasis is however on some selected important developments. In addition, the paper tries to predict the main directions of advancement in interfacial research for the near future.

Effects of engineered nanomaterials on plants growth: an overview

Rapid development and wide applications of nanotechnology brought about a significant increment on the number of engineered nanomaterials (ENs) inevitably entering our living system. Plants comprise of a very important living component of the terrestrial ecosystem. Studies on the influence of engineered nanomaterials (carbon and metal/metal oxides based) on plant growth indicated that in the excess content, engineered nanomaterials influences seed germination. It assessed the shoot-to-root ratio and the growth of the seedlings. From the toxicological studies to date, certain types of engineered nanomaterials can be toxic once they are not bound to a substrate or if they are freely circulating in living systems. It is assumed that the different types of engineered nanomaterials affect the different routes, behavior, and the capability of the plants. Furthermore, different, or even opposing conclusions, have been drawn from most studies on the interactions between engineered nanomaterials with plants. Therefore, this paper comprehensively reviews the studies on the different types of engineered nanomaterials and their interactions with different plant species, including the phytotoxicity, uptakes, and translocation of engineered nanomaterials by the plant at the whole plant and cellular level.