Cu-Assisted Synthesis of Ultrasharp and Sub-10 nm Gold Nanostars. Applications in Catalysis, Sensing, and Photothermia.

Gold nanostars have shown enormous potential as the main enablers of advanced applications ranging from biomedicine to sensing or catalysis. Their unique anisotropic structure featuring sharp spikes that grow from a central core offers enhanced optical capabilities and spectral tunability. Although several synthesis methods yield NSs of different morphologies and sizes up to several hundred nanometers, obtaining small NSs, while maintaining their plasmonic properties in the near-infrared, has proven challenging and elusive.

Retraction notice to "Biogenic synthesis and cytotoxic effects of silver nanoparticles mediated by white rot fungi" [Heliyon 7 (2021) e06470].

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.

Recent Progress in Graphene- and Related Carbon-Nanomaterial-based Electrochemical Biosensors for Early Disease Detection.

Graphene- and carbon-based nanomaterials are key materials to develop advanced biosensors for the sensitive detection of many biomarkers owing to their unique properties. Biosensors have attracted increasing interest because they allow efficacious, sensitive, selective, rapid, and low-cost diagnosis. Biosensors are analytical devices based on receptors for the process of detection and transducers for response measuring.

Biogenic synthesis and cytotoxic effects of silver nanoparticles mediated by white rot fungi.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were successfully synthesized using silver nitrate via the biological route using the culture filtrate of as well as white rot fungi materials at room temperature. The proposed synthetic technique was applied for the first time for AgNPs preparation via the biological route through a low-cost pathway, which considered as an adequate direction of preparation compared to the commercial methods. This study reports the in vitro cytotoxic effect of biologically synthesized AgNPs in disposing of the human lung cancer cell line (A549) and human breast cancer cell (MCF-7) by using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.

Advances in nanotechnology and antibacterial properties of biodegradable food packaging materials.

A large number of non-biodegradable and non-renewable materials are produced daily for application as food packaging materials. These waste materials have a greatly negative effect on our health and the ecosystem. The idea of a bio-based economy is steadily gaining attention from the scientific, societal, and financial communities, so there are several areas in which the intended approaches can be improved for this reason.

A graphene gold nanocomposite-based 5-FU drug and the enhancement of the MCF-7 cell line treatment.

There is no doubt that cancer is now one of the most formidable diseases in the world; despite all the efforts and research, common treatment routes, including chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and photothermal therapy, suffer from different limitations in terms of their efficiency and performance. For this reason, different strategies are being explored to improve the efficiency of the traditional drugs reported to date. In this study, we have redirected the function of one of these drugs (5-fluorouracil, 5-FU) by combining it with a graphene-gold nanocomposite in different molar ratios that has been exceedingly used for biological research development.

Coated silver nanoparticles: synthesis, cytotoxicity, and optical properties.

Coated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have recently become a topic of interest due to the fact that they have several applications such as in electronic, antimicrobial, industrial, optical, and medical fields as biosensors and drug delivery systems. However, the use of AgNPs in medical fields remains somewhat limited due to their probable cytotoxic effect. Researchers have succeeded in reducing the toxicity of silver particles by coating them with different substances.