Is Kraft Pulping the Future of Biorefineries? A Perspective on the Sustainability of Lignocellulosic Product Development.

By reflecting on the history and environmental impact of conventional biorefining, such as kraft pulping, we aim to explore important questions about how natural polymers can be more sustainably sourced to develop bio-products and reduce reliance on plastics. Since the Industrial Revolution, chemical pulping processes have enabled the mass production of cellulosic products from woody biomass. Kraft pulping, which dominates within modern pulp and paper mills, has significantly contributed to environmental pollution and carbon emissions due to sulfurous byproducts and its high water and energy consumption.

Chitin isolation from crustaceans and mushrooms: The need for quantitative assessment.

This review examines key journal articles on the isolation of chitin from mushroom biomass comparing these findings to those related to crustacean chitin. It highlights the need for standardizing chitin characterization, emphasizing that chitin comprises a family of polymers with variations in molecular weight (Mw), degree of acetylation (%DA), and acetylation patterns (P), leading to diverse physicochemical properties and biological activities. The review positions fungi and mushrooms as emerging sources of 'vegan' chitin, being non-animal and free from allergenic proteins.

Alginate/organo-selenium composite hydrogel beads: Dye adsorption and bacterial deactivation.

Post-COVID-19, the risk and spread of germs, coupled with wastewater contamination, have become critical concerns. Wastewater contains waterborne bacteria and various contaminants like dye molecules, threatening water safety. Traditional adsorption methods address pollutant removal or pathogen inactivation separately, but a dual-action solution is increasingly essential.

Anaerobic dynamic membrane bioreactor treating sulfamethoxazole wastewater: advantages of dynamic membrane and its fouling mechanism.

Discharge of improperly treated sulfamethoxazole (SMX) wastewater seriously threats environmental security and public health. Anaerobic dynamic membrane bioreactors (AnDMBRs) technology would be cost-effective for SMX wastewater treatment, considering its low cost and satisfactory treatment efficiency. The performance of AnDMBR, though demonstrated to be excellent in treating many types of wastewaters, was for the first time investigated for treating SMX wastewater.

Design, synthesis, biological evaluation and in silico study of N-(Pyrimidin-2-yl)alkyl/arylamide derivatives as quorum sensing inhibitors against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The emergence of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents poses a serious threat to the effectiveness of treating bacterial illnesses. A major factor contributing to antimicrobial resistance is biofilm formation, driven by quorum sensing (QS). QS suppression inhibits the QS signaling pathway, obstructing cell-to-cell communication.

Design of Chitin Cell Culture Matrices for 3D Tissue Engineering: The Importance of Chitin Types, Solvents, Cross-Linkers, and Fabrication Techniques.

This review focuses on factors and the fabrication techniques affecting the microarchitecture of tissue engineering scaffolds from the second most abundant biopolymer, chitin. It emphasizes the unique potentiality of this polymer in tissue engineering (TE) applications and highlights the variables important to achieve tailored scaffold properties. First, we describe aspects of scaffolds' design, and the complex interplay between chitin types, solvent systems, additives, and fabrication techniques to incorporate porosity, with regard to best practices.

Rethinking the Esterquats: Synthesis, Stability, Ecotoxicity and Applications of Esterquats Incorporating Analogs of Betaine or Choline as the Cation in Their Structure.

Esterquats constitute a unique group of quaternary ammonium salts (QASs) that contain an ester bond in the structure of the cation. Despite the numerous advantages of this class of compounds, only two mini-reviews discuss the subject of esterquats: the first one (2007) briefly summarizes their types, synthesis, and structural elements required for a beneficial environmental profile and only briefly covers their applications whereas the second one only reviews the stability of selected betaine-type esterquats in aqueous solutions. The rationale for writing this review is to critically reevaluate the relevant literature and provide others with a "state-of-the-art" snapshot of choline-type esterquats and betaine-type esterquats.

Upcycling Low-Quality Cotton Fibers into Mulch Gel Films in a Fast Closed Carbon Cycle.

Low-quality cotton fibers, often overlooked as low-value materials, constitute a marginalized waste stream in the cotton industry. This study endeavored to repurpose these fibers into mulch gel films, specifically exploring their efficacy in covering moisture-controlled soil beds. Through a meticulously designed series of processing methods, cellulose/glycerol film was successfully fabricated by regenerating cellulose hydrogels in N,N-dimethylacetamide/lithium chloride solutions, followed by plasticization in glycerol/water solutions and hot pressing.

Bamboo fiber reinforced poly (acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylic)/chlorinated polyethylene via compabilization.

In the quest to enhance the performance of natural fiber-reinforced polymer composites, achieving optimal dispersion of fiber materials within a polymeric matrix has been identified as a key strategy. Traditional approaches, such as the surface modification of natural fibers, often necessitate the use of additional synthetic chemical processes, presenting a significant challenge. In this work, taking poly (acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylic) (ASA) and bamboo fiber (BF) as a model system, we attempt to use the elastomer-chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) as a compatibilizer to tailor the mechanical properties of ASA/CPE/BF ternary composites.

Developing Air-Stable n-Type SWCNT-Based Composites with High Thermoelectric and Robust Mechanical Properties for Wearable Electronics.

Flexible organic thermoelectric generators are gaining prominence in wearable electronics, leveraging body heat as an energy source. Their advancement is hindered by the scarcity of air-stable n-type organic materials with robust mechanical properties. This study introduces two new polymers (HDCN4 and HDCN8), created through polycondensation of paraformaldehyde and diamine-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEGDA) with molecular weights of 4000 and 8000 g/mol into single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs).

Canopeo app as image-based phenotyping tool in controlled environment utilizing Arabidopsis mutants.

Canopeo app was developed as a simple, accurate, rapid, and free tool to analyze ground cover fraction (GCF) from red-green-blue (RGB) images and videos captured in the field. With increasing interest in tools for plant phenotyping in controlled environments, the usefulness of Canopeo to identify differences in growth among Arabidopsis thaliana mutants in a controlled environment were explored. A simple imaging system was used to compare Arabidopsis mutants based on the FLAVIN-BINDING, KELCH REPEAT, F-BOX-1 (FKF1) mutation, which has been identified with increased biomass accumulation.

Ionic Liquids as Designed, Multi-Functional Plasticizers for Biodegradable Polymeric Materials: A Mini-Review.

Measures to endorse the adoption of eco-friendly biodegradable plastics as a response to the scale of plastic pollution has created a demand for innovative products from materials from Nature. Ionic liquids (ILs) have the ability to disrupt the hydrogen bonding network of biopolymers, increase the mobility of biopolymer chains, reduce friction, and produce materials with various morphologies and mechanical properties. Due to these qualities, ILs are considered ideal for plasticizing biopolymers, enabling them to meet a wide range of specifications for biopolymeric materials.

Ionic Liquids: New Forms of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients with Unique, Tunable Properties.

This Review aims to summarize advances over the last 15 years in the development of active pharmaceutical ingredient ionic liquids (API-ILs), which make up a prospective game-changing strategy to overcome multiple problems with conventional solid-state drugs, for example, polymorphism. A critical part of the present Review is the collection of API-ILs and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) prepared to date. The Review covers rules for rational design of API-ILs and tools for API-IL formation, syntheses, and characterization.

A Preliminary Study Exploring the Relationship between Occupational Health Hazards and Gut Microbiota among Firefighters.

Firefighters are exposed to occupational hazards and have a higher prevalence of health issues. The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the immune, endocrine, and neural systems, and disruptions in its composition can impact health outcomes. This pilot study aimed to investigate the potential association between occupational factors, changes in gut microbiota, and the development of adverse health outcomes in firefighters.

Antimicrobial Coatings for Medical Textiles via Reactive Organo-Selenium Compounds.

Bleached and cationized cotton fabrics were chemically modified with reactive organoselenium compounds through the nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SAr) reaction, which allowed for organo-selenium attachment onto the surface of cotton fabrics via covalent bonds and, in the case of the cationized cotton fabric, additional ionic interactions. The resulting textiles exhibited potent bactericidal activity against (99.99% reduction), although only moderate activity was observed against .

Ionic Liquids as Tools to Incorporate Pharmaceutical Ingredients into Biopolymer-Based Drug Delivery Systems.

This mini-review focuses on the various roles that ionic liquids (ILs) play in the development and applications of biopolymer-based drug delivery systems (DDSs). Biopolymers are particularly attractive as drug delivery matrices due to their biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, biodegradability, and strength, whereas ILs can assist the formation of drug delivery systems. In this work, we showcase the different strategies that were explored using ILs in biopolymer-based DDSs, including impregnation of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)-ILs into biopolymeric materials, employment of the ILs to simplify the process of making the biopolymer-based DDSs, and using the ILs either as dopants or as anchoring agents.

Renewable Biopolymers Combined with Ionic Liquids for the Next Generation of Supercapacitor Materials.

The search for biocompatible and renewable materials for the next generation of energy devices has led to increasing interest in using biopolymers as a matrix component for the development of electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). However, using biopolymers as host matrices presents limitations in performance and scalability. At the same time, ionic liquids (ILs) have shown exceptional properties as non-aqueous electrolytes.

Cellulose/nanocellulose superabsorbent hydrogels as a sustainable platform for materials applications: A mini-review and perspective.

Superabsorbent hydrogels (SAH) are crosslinked three-dimensional networks distinguished by their super capacity to stabilize a large quantity of water without dissolving. Such behavior enables them to engage in various applications. Cellulose and its derived nanocellulose can become SAHs as an appealing, versatile, and sustainable platform because of abundance, biodegradability, and renewability compared to petroleum-based materials.

Commercialization of Ionic Liquids in Pursuit of Green Chemistry: Must we Each Become an Entrepreneur?

There will be common challenges to scaling-up any ionic liquids separations technologies which require very large volumes of ionic liquid. Some of these challenges are illustrated in this personal account which chronicles the extraction of chitin from shrimp shell from discovery to current commercialization efforts. The road being taken from discovery in an academic laboratory, through attempts to navigate the scaling-up to commercial scale using the vehicle of a faculty startup company is rewarding, but fraught with roadblocks, detours, and unexpected challenges.

Effect of Microwave Plasma Pre-Treatment on Cotton Cellulose Dissolution.

The utilization of cellulose to its full potential is constrained by its recalcitrance to dissolution resulting from the rigidity of polymeric chains, high crystallinity, high molecular weight, and extensive intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonding network. Therefore, pretreatment of cellulose is usually considered as a step that can help facilitate its dissolution. We investigated the use of microwave oxygen plasma as a pre-treatment strategy to enhance the dissolution of cotton fibers in aqueous NaOH/Urea solution, which is considered to be a greener solvent system compared to others.

Nigella/honey/garlic/olive oil co-loaded PVA electrospun nanofibers for potential biomedical applications.

The current work focuses on the formation of nanofibrous mats without the use of toxic solvents and metallic nanoparticles utilizing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and a blend of nigella, honey, garlic, and olive oil. Using deionized water (DI) water as a solvent, nanofibrous mats composed of PVA/nigella/honey (PNH) and PVA/garlic/honey/olive oil (PGHO) were developed. Methanol extraction was utilized to extract the therapeutic components of nigella sativa.

The efficacy of organo-selenium conjugated cellulose polymer dressing to inhibit Candida albicans biofilm formation.

Selenium covalently bonded to cellulose can catalyze the formation of superoxide radicals. Candida albicans, colonizes epithelial surfaces and can be a fatal infection in immunocompromised people. In this study, we demonstrated the ability of organo-selenium, covalently attached to cotton textile dressings to kill C.

Deep Eutectic Solvents: Alternative Solvents for Biomass-Based Waste Valorization.

Innovative technologies can transform what are now considered "waste streams" into feedstocks for a range of products. Indeed, the use of biomass as a source of biopolymers and chemicals currently has a consolidated economic dimension, with well-developed and regulated markets, in which the evaluation of the manufacturing processes relies on specific criteria such as purity and yield, and respects defined regulatory parameters for the process safety. In this context, ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents have been proposed as environmentally friendly solvents for applications related to biomass waste valorization.

Recent advances in biopolymer-based advanced oxidation processes for dye removal applications: A review.

Over the past few years, synthetic dye-contaminated wastewater has attracted considerable global attention due to the low biodegradability and the ability of organic dyes to persist and remain toxic, causing numerous health and environmental concerns. As a result of the recalcitrant nature of those complex organic dyes, the remediation of wastewater using conventional wastewater treatment techniques is becoming increasingly challenging. In recent years, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have emerged as a potential alternative to treat organic dyestuffs discharged from industries.