Preparation and integration of nanostructured titanium dioxide

Nanoparticles: Alternatives Against Drug-Resistant Pathogenic Microbes

Antimicrobial substances may be synthetic, semisynthetic, or of natural origin (i.e., from plants and animals). Antimicrobials are considered "miracle drugs" and can determine if an infected patient/animal recovers or dies. However, the misuse of antimicrobials has led to the development of multi-drug-resistant bacteria, which is one of the greatest challenges for healthcare practitioners and is a significant global threat. The major concern with the development of antimicrobial resistance is the spread of resistant organisms. The replacement of conventional antimicrobials by new technology to counteract antimicrobial resistance is ongoing. Nanotechnology-driven innovations provide hope for patients and practitioners in overcoming the problem of drug resistance. Nanomaterials have tremendous potential in both the medical and veterinary fields. Several nanostructures comprising metallic particles have been developed to counteract microbial pathogens. The effectiveness of nanoparticles (NPs) depends on the interaction between the microorganism and the NPs. The development of effective nanomaterials requires in-depth knowledge of the physicochemical properties of NPs and the biological aspects of microorganisms. However, the risks associated with using NPs in healthcare need to be addressed. The present review highlights the antimicrobial effects of various nanomaterials and their potential advantages, drawbacks, or side effects. In addition, this comprehensive information may be useful in the discovery of broad-spectrum antimicrobial drugs for use against multi-drug-resistant microbial pathogens in the near future.

Electrophoretic deposition of tannic acid-polypyrrolidone films and composites

Thin films of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-tannic acid (TA) complexes were prepared by a conceptually new strategy, based on electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Proof of concept investigations involved the analysis of the deposition yield, FTIR and UV-vis spectroscopy of the deposited material, and electron microscopy studies. The analysis of the deposition mechanism indicated that the limitations of the EPD in the deposition of small phenolic molecules, such as TA, and electrically neutral polymers, similar to PVP, containing hydrogen-accepting carbonyl groups, can be avoided. The remarkable adsorption properties of TA and film forming properties of the PVP-TA complexes allowed for the EPD of materials of different types, such as huntite mineral platelets and hydrotalcite clay particles, TiO2 and MnO2 oxide nanoparticles, multiwalled carbon nanotubes, TiN and Pd nanoparticles. Moreover, PVP-TA complexes were used for the co-deposition of different materials and formation of composite films. In another approach, TA was used as a capping agent for the hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanorods, which were then deposited by EPD using PVP-TA complexes. The fundamental adsorption and interaction mechanisms of TA involved chelation of metal atoms on particle surfaces with galloyl groups, π-π interactions and hydrogen bonding. The films prepared by EPD can be used for various applications, utilizing functional properties of TA, PVP, inorganic and organic materials of different types and their composites.

Hydrothermal Synthesis and Characterisation of Cu Doped TiO2 Nanotubes for Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange

Copper doped titanium dioxide (Cu-TiO2) nanotubes were synthesised by hydrothermal method. The samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nitrogen gas adsorption. The photocatalytic activity of the copper doped titanium dioxide nanotubes was investigated by photodegradation of methyl orange under UV light. The structural and morphological studies showed that, the copper was incorporated into interstitial positions of the TiO2lattice to form a new phase of TiO2(hexagonal). The copper doped TiO2nanotubes possessed high surface area and pore volume, results high photocatalytic activity for degradation of methyl orange (MO).

Integrated nanocatalysts

Despite significant advancements in catalysis research, the prevailing catalyst technology remains largely an art rather than a science. Rapid development in the fields of nanotechnology and materials chemistry in the past few decades, however, provides us with a new capacity to re-examine existing catalyst design and processing methods. In recent years, "nanocatalysts" has become a term often used by the materials chemistry and catalysis community. It refers to heterogeneous catalysts at nanoscale dimensions. Similar to homogeneous catalysts, freestanding (unsupported) nanocatalysts are difficult to separate after use. Because of their small sizes, they are also likely to be cytotoxic and pose a threat to the environment and therefore may not be practical for industrial use. On the other hand, if they are supported on ordinary catalyst carriers, the nanocatalysts would then revert to act as conventional heterogeneous catalysts, since chemists have known active metal clusters or oxide particles in the nanoscale regime long before the nanotechnology era. To resolve this problem, we need new research directions and synthetic strategies. Important advancements in catalysis research now allow chemists to prepare catalytic materials with greater precision. By controlling particle composition, structure, shape, and dimension, researchers can move into the next phase of catalyst development if they can bridge these old and new technologies. In this regard, one way seems to be to integrate active nanostructured catalysts with boundary-defined catalyst supports that are "not-so-nano" in dimension. However, these supports still have available hierarchical pores and cavity spaces. In principle, these devices keep the essence of traditional "catalyst-plus-support" type systems. They also have the advantages of nanoscale engineering, which involves both high level design and integration processes in their fabrication. Besides this, the active components in these devices are small and are easy to integrate into other systems. For these reasons, we refer to the final catalytic devices as integrated nanocatalysts (INCs). In this Account, we describe the current status of nanocatalyst research and introduce the various possible forms of design and types of integration for INC fabrication with increasing compositional and structural complexities. In addition, we discuss present difficulties and urgent issues of this research and propose the integration of the INCs into even more complex "supracatalysts" for future research.

Bottom-up engineering of the surface roughness of nanostructured cubic zirconia to control cell adhesion

Nanostructured cubic zirconia is a strategic material for biomedical applications since it combines superior structural and optical properties with a nanoscale morphology able to control cell adhesion and proliferation. We produced nanostructured cubic zirconia thin films at room temperature by supersonic cluster beam deposition of nanoparticles produced in the gas phase. Precise control of film roughness at the nanoscale is obtained by operating in a ballistic deposition regime. This allows one to study the influence of nanoroughness on cell adhesion, while keeping the surface chemistry constant. We evaluated cell adhesion on nanostructured zirconia with an osteoblast-like cell line using confocal laser scanning microscopy for detailed morphological and cytoskeleton studies. We demonstrated that the organization of cytoskeleton and focal adhesion formation can be controlled by varying the evolution of surface nanoroughness.