Synthesis of Sustainable Carbon Nanospheres from Natural Bioresources and Their Diverse Applications

Fast and effective removal of textile dyes from the wastewater using reusable porous nano-carbons: a study on adsorptive parameters and isotherms

In the present study, recyclable porous nano-carbons (PNCs) were used to remove textile dyes (mainly methylene blue, methyl orange, and rhodamine B) from an aqueous environment. Due to their high surface area and mesoporous nature, PNCs exhibited extremely fast and efficient adsorption behavior. PNCs synthesized at an elevated temperature of 1000 °C are used in batch experiments, as they showed maximum dye removal with high surface area. Batch mode was used to optimize operational parameters such as initial dye concentration, contact time, adsorbent dose and pH as a function of time. Within ~7 minutes of treatment, PNCs achieved a maximum removal efficacy of ~99 percent for methylene blue. The recyclability of PNCs was investigated, and it retained its efficiency even after seven cycles. The efficacy of PNCs in treating industrial water contaminated with methylene blue dye was assessed. Different adsorption isotherms were carried out to determine maximum amount of dye that can be adsorbed on to surface of PNCs. The maximum adsorption capacity attained using Langmuir isotherm for methylene blue was around 1216.54 mg g^-1. Adsorption kinetics were applied on experimental data to identify the rate of adsorption. It was confirmed that novel onion peel-based porous PNCs were successful in removing methylene blue dye effectively with short duration in comparison with other dyes mainly rhodamine B and methyl orange.

Bioinspired Metal-Free Fluorescent Carbon Nanozyme with Dual Catalytic Activity to Confront Cellular Oxidative Damage

Development of metal-free, recyclable enzyme mimics is challenging and requires key chemical modifications at the molecular level. Here, nitrilotriacetic acid-functionalized carbon nanospheres (LC-CNS@NTA) were prepared from the nitrogen-rich weed Lantana camara (LC) using a simple hydrothermal reaction condition. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies revealed size of ∼160 ± 20 nm for LC-CNS@NTA whereas, the same showed fluorescence emission at ∼520 nm with a ∼63% quantum yield. Furthermore, LC-CNS@NTA showed strong peroxidase (Pxrd) activity toward a wide range of substrate viz., H₂O₂, 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine, and o-phenylenediamine with K_m and V_max values of ∼257 μM and 1.06 μM/s, 282 μM and 1.47 μM/s, and 270.8 μM and 1.647 μM/s, respectively. Interestingly, this also showed catalase (CAT) activity against H₂O₂ with K_m and V_max values of ∼0.374 μM and 1.87 μM/s, respectively. It was observed that LC-CNS@NTA could effectively reduce the oxidative stress-induced cytotoxicity of HEK293 cells via retention of mitochondrial membrane potential, prevention of lipid peroxidation and DNA damage. It was further found that LC-CNS@NTA-treated cells showed reduced level of intracellular protein carbonylation and protein aggregation. The finding of the present study is expected to pave the path for designing engineered metal-free carbon nanozyme with dual enzyme mimic activity.