Heavy metal contamination of water sources has long been a silent yet potent threat, endangering environmental and human health. Conventional wastewater treatments are costly due to high infrastructure expenses, energy consumption, and chemical usage. These treatments lead to secondary environmental pollution, such as producing toxic sludge, greenhouse gaseous emissions, and residual pollutants discharges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiofertilizers encompass microorganisms that can be applied to plants, subsequently establishing themselves within the plant's rhizosphere or internal structures. This colonization stimulates plant development by enhancing nutrient absorption from the host. While there is growing literature documenting the applications of microalgae-based and bacterial-based biofertilizers, the research focusing on the effectiveness of consortia formed by these microorganisms as short-term plant biofertilizers is notably insufficient.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcetylation of glycerol to yield monoacetin (MAT), diacetin (DAT), and triacetin (TAT) over NiO-supported CeO (NiO/CeO) catalysts is reported. The catalysts were synthesized utilizing a sol-gel technique, whereby different quantities of NiO ( = 9, 27, and 45 wt%) were supported onto the CeO substrate, and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTABr) served as a porogen. The utilization of EDX elemental mapping analysis confirmed the existence of evenly distributed Ni ion and octahedral NiO nanoparticles on the CeO surface through the DRS UV-Vis spectroscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe demand for astaxanthin has been increasing for many health applications ranging from pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, and aquaculture due to its bioactive properties. Haematococcus pluvialis is widely recognized as the microalgae species with the highest natural accumulation of astaxanthin, which has made it a valuable source for industrial production. Astaxanthin produced by other sources such as chemical synthesis or fermentation are often produced in the cis configuration, which has been shown to have lower bioactivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydrazine borane (HB) is a chemical hydrogen storage material with high gravimetric hydrogen density of 15.4 wt%, containing both protic and hydridic hydrogen. However, its limitation is the formation of unfavorable gaseous by-products, such as hydrazine (NH) and ammonia (NH), which are poisons to fuel cell catalyst, upon pyrolysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effects of benzalkonium chloride (BKC) contents on the structure, properties, and ultrafiltration performance of chitosan-based nanocomposite membranes containing poly(ethylene glycol) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (chitosan/BKC/PEG/CNT) were examined. The membranes were prepared by a mixing solution method and phase inversion before being characterized with microscopic techniques, tensile tests, thermogravimetric analysis, water contact angle, and porosity measurements. The performance of the nanocomposite membranes in regard to permeability (flux) and permselectivity (rejection) was examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, researchers have proven that the employment of natural green components in the biogenesis of nanoparticles from microalgae species is one of the ways to delight the global environment issues. The application of nanotechnology with the exploitation of phycochemical produced from algae species is known as 'phyconanotechnology'. The use of biological compounds by microalgae as reducing agents for the synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles has shown promising results such as cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroalgae is an autotrophic organism with fast growth, short reproduction cycle, and strong environmental adaptability. In recent years, microalgae and the bioactive ingredients extracted from microalgae are regarded as potential substitutes for raw materials in the pharmaceutical and the cosmetics industry. In this review, the characteristics and efficacy of the high-value components of microalgae are discussed in detail, along with the sources and extraction technologies of algae used to obtain high-value ingredients are reviewed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOffretite zeolite synthesis in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTABr) is reported. The offretite crystals were synthesized with a high crystallinity and hexagonal prismatic shape after only 72 h of hydrothermal treatment at 180 °C. The CTABr has dual-functions during the crystallization of offretite, viz.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent trend to recover value-added products from wastewater calls for more effective pre-treatment technology. Conventional landfill leachate treatment is often complex and thus causes negative environmental impacts and financial burden. In order to facilitate downstream processing of leachate wastewater for production of energy or value-added products, it is pertinent to maximize leachate treatment performance by using simple yet effective technology that removes pollutants with minimum chemical added into the wastewater that could potentially affect downstream processing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNickel-based catalysts play an important role in the hydrogen-free deoxygenation for the production of biofuel. The yield and quality of the biofuel are critically affected by the physicochemical properties of NiO supported on nanosized zeolite Y (Y65, crystal size of 65 nm). Therefore, 10 wt% NiO supported on Y65 synthesized by using impregnation (IM) and deposition-precipitation (DP) methods were investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSustainable wastewater treatment necessitates the application of natural and green material in the approach. Thus, selecting a natural coagulant in leachate treatment is a crucial step in landfill operation to prevent secondary environmental pollution due to residual inorganic coagulant in treated effluent. Current study investigated the application of guar gum in landfill leachate treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFibrinogen is one of the key proteins that participate in the protein corona composition of many types of nanoparticles (NPs), and its conformational changes are crucial for activation of immune systems. Recently, we demonstrated that the fibrinogen highly contributed in the protein corona composition at the surface of zeolite nanoparticles. Therefore, understanding the interaction of fibrinogen with zeolite nanoparticles in more details could shed light of their safe applications in medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Chem
October 2018
An extractive bioconversion conducted on soluble starch with cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase) enzyme in ethylene oxide-propylene oxide (EOPO)/potassium phosphates liquid biphasic system (LBS) to extract gamma-cyclodextrin (γ-CD) was examined. A range of EOPO (with potassium phosphates) molecular weights was screen to investigate the effect of the latter on the partioning efficency of CGTase and γ-CD. The results show that the optimal top phase γ-CD yield (74.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlgal biomass is known as a promising sustainable feedstock for the production of biofuels and other valuable products. However, since last decade, massive amount of interests have turned to converting algal biomass into biochar. Due to their high nutrient content and ion-exchange capacity, algal biochars can be used as soil amendment for agriculture purposes or adsorbents in wastewater treatment for the removal of organic or inorganic pollutants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEMT-type zeolite nanoparticles (EMT NPs) with particle size of 10-20 nm and external surface area of 200 m/g have shown high selective affinity toward plasma protein (fibrinogen). Besides, the EMT NPs have demonstrated no adverse effect on blood coagulation hemostasis. Therefore, it was envisioned that the EMT NPs could inhibit possible β-amyloid (Aβ)-fibrinogen interactions that result in the formation of structurally abnormal clots, which are resistant to lysis, in cerebral vessels of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe partitioning behavior of immunoglobulin G (IgG) in the aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) composed of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and phosphate was studied. The parameters of ATPS exhibiting the pronounced effects on the partitioning behavior of IgG include phase composition, PEG molecular weight, and the addition of sodium chloride (NaCl). The accumulation of IgG at the interface of the ATPS increased drastically as the tie-line length (TLL) was increased.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is known that carbon nanotubes show desirable physical and chemical properties with a wide array of potential applications. Nonetheless, their potential has been hampered by the difficulties in acquiring high purity, chiral-specific tubes. Considerable advancement has been made in terms of the purification of carbon nanotubes, for instance chemical oxidation, physical separation, and myriad combinations of physical and chemical methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurification of cyclodextrin glycosyl transferase (CGTase) from Bacillus cereus using polyethylene glycol (PEG)-potassium phosphates aqueous two-phase flotation (ATPF) system was studied in this paper. The effects of varying PEG molecular weight, tie-line length (TLL) value, volume ratio (VR), pH value, crude concentration and gas nitrogen flotation time were investigated. The optimal condition for purification of CGTase was attained at 18.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLubricant oils take significant part in current health and environmental considerations since they are an integral and indispensable component of modern technology. Antioxidants are probably the most important additives used in oils because oxidative deterioration plays a major role in oil degradation. Zeolite nanoparticles (NPs) have been proven as another option as green antioxidants in oil formulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe efficiency of zeolite X nanocrystals (FAU-type framework structure) containing different extra-framework cations (Li(+), Na(+), K(+), and Ca(2+)) in slowing the thermal oxidation of palm oil is reported. The oxidation study of palm oil is conducted in the presence of zeolite nanocrystals (0.5 wt %) at 150 °C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, a linear relationship is proposed relating the natural logarithm of partition coefficient, ln K for protein partitioning in poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG)-phosphate aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) to the square of tie-line length (TLL(2)). This relationship provides good fits (r(2) > 0.98) to the partition of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in PEG (1450 g/mol, 2000 g/mol, 3350 g/mol, and 4000 g/mol)-phosphate ATPS with TLL of 25.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrobial lipases are popular biocatalysts due to their ability to catalyse diverse reactions such as hydrolysis, esterification, and acidolysis. Lipases function efficiently on various substrates in aqueous and non-aqueous media. Lipases are chemo-, regio-, and enantio-specific, and are useful in various industries, including those manufacturing food, detergents, and pharmaceuticals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci
September 2013
A relationship is proposed for the interfacial partitioning of protein in poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-phosphate aqueous two-phase system (ATPS). The relationship relates the natural logarithm of interfacial partition coefficient, ln G to the PEG concentration difference between the top and bottom phases, Δ[PEG], with the equation ln G=AΔ[PEG]+B. Results showed that this relationship provides good fits to the partition of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in ATPS which is comprised of phosphate and PEG of four different molecular weight 1450g/mol, 2000g/mol, 3350g/mol and 4000g/mol, with the tie-line length (TLL) in the range of 44-60% (w/w) at pH 7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF