Current Nanomaterials - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Herbal medicine is central to Indian medicinal treatment, which has been known as Ayurveda traditionally. There are hundreds of herbs that have the qualities to treat several kinds of diseases, even critical and chronic ones. Importantly, these herbs have hardly any side effects. Herbal medicine is manufactured from herbal extracts. Hence, the method of extracting herbal extracts assumes high importance in manufacturing herbal medicines. There are several methods for extracting herbs. However, the novel drug delivery system (NDDS)-nanotechnology has been gaining popularity as a method to extract herbal extracts. NDDS offers miraculous promises as it is a complete processing system that combines the methods of drug formulation (pharmaceutics), biochemistry, molecular biology, and process and technology. In this method, a nano-sized drug release system is used to transmit medicines on the targeted parts of the human body safely. NDDS serves many purposes, such as it minimizes the requirement of frequent supervision to conquer refusal, enhances the remedial worth, minimizes toxicity, and rises bioavailability. There are many advantages to the targeted drug release system, such as it reduces the frequency of the dosages taken by the patients, has a more uniformed effect of the drug, reduces any possibility of side effects, and controls fluctuation in circulating drug levels.

Background: Health is a lively state of the body which adjusts and adopt with the response to various environmental changes. There are several features that can influence the health status of human beings. Therefore, the continuous research study is highly essential to maintain a proper health care system in the community. Objective: The diverse area of innovation was made in nanotechnology for diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, cancer, leukemia, neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's diseases, etc. Nanotechnology generally refers to the materials, devices, and systems in nanoscale which provides considerably improved physical, chemical and biological property. Methods: It is technology which deals with the design, synthesis, characterization of substances, devices and systems by arranging shape and size at their nanometer scale. It involves multidisciplinary research which includes both health science and technology for the treatment of human health. Nanotechnology can be applied at the cellular level in the human body with a high degree of specificity to treat the various diseases. Conclusion: This technology is potentially targeted to diseased tissue to achieve maximum therapeutic efficacy with fewer side effects. Nowadays, the rapidity of revolutionary discoveries in the field of nanotechnology is expected to accelerate in the next decade globally.

Background: ZnS nanoparticles (NPs) are attractive for quantum dots applications because they consist of abundant and non-toxic elements. Their major drawback is that they absorb in the UV region, ultimately limiting their applications. Objective: In the present study, 1D and 2D ZnS NPs have been found. The goal of this study is to find NPs that have absorption in the visible spectrum. Methods: Calculations based on the Density Functional Theory (DFT) have been used to find the optimized geometries. Their absorption spectra have been calculated with the Time-Dependent DFT. Results: Several shapes were examined, such as nanorod, and it is observed that these shapes move the absorption spectra in lower energies, into the visible spectrum, while the 3D NPs have absorption edges in the UV region. Conclusion: NPs with the shape of nanorod in different directions showed that their absorption spectra moved to lower energies well inside the visible spectrum with significantly high oscillator strength. In contrast with the mostly used CdSe NPs, the ZnS NPs are made from more abundant and less toxic elements. Therefore, by making them absorb in the visible region, they may find significant applications in solar cells and other photonic applications.

Background: The cost of effluent treatment is not affordable by small scale industries especially in developing countries. Hence the effluent is discharged without treatment into water bodies. The dyes do not degrade easily and possess a major concern to be addressed. The aquatic life is highly affected and also leads to bio magnification of the chemicals through the food chain. Objective: To synthesize a ternary hybrid structure for enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light. It is intended to reduce toxicity caused by dyeing units. Methods: Synthesized nanomaterials are characterized and used as photocatlyst for the degradation of methylene blue. In degradation experiment known weight of catalyst was added to known volume of an aqueous solution of dye at various concentrations. The solutions are aerated in dark for about 30 min. At the time of irradiation of light, known aliquot of the aqueous mixture was collected at an interval of constant time each from the reaction solution. The catalyst in the mixture was separated by centrifuging the mixture and absorbance was measured. The % of degradation of the dye can be determined knowing initial and final dye concentration. Results: Heterostructures are characterized with analytical tools such as X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Band gap of photocatlyst is calculated by application of UV-Vis spectroscopy. Morphology is seen using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Distribution of constituent structures is observed with energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The structures are used for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye solution under UV and visible light irradiation. Heterostructures showed best performance under visible light. Conclusion: The ternary hybrid nanostructure ZnO-MnO2-Gd2O3 was effectively prepared by a simple solution combustion method. The ternary compound shows wide range of absorption by expanding absorption band both in UV and visible regions. Structures showed better catalytic property under visible light.

Background: Utilization of plant extracts and agricultural waste has a great impact for the synthesis of AgNPs. Banana peels are such important agro waste which attracted us to use for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. The biochemicals present in it have attracted us to use such banana peels. Methods: Thus, we report herein a cost-effective and environment-friendly synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Bhimkal (Musa balbisiana) peel aqueous extract as biological waste. About 5 g of freshly dried peels taken in 100 mL of water were shaken and heated at 80°C for 1 hour. The filtrate from the resultant solution was stored at 4°C and used as reducing as well as stabilizing agent for the preparation of AgNPs from AgNO3. We monitored the formation of silver nanoparticles by various spectroscopic techniques. Results: All the particles are almost spherical in morphology and the diameter of the mostly monodispersed AgNPs is in the range of 30-70 nm with an average size of 44.24 nm. Among the three stages of development (unripe, ripe, and blacken), we have found the ripening stage as most efficient in the highest yielding of AgNPs because of maximum presence of phenol containing biological macromolecules. The synthesized AgNPs showed moderate antibacterial activity against both gram negative bacteria as well as gram positive bacteria. Conclusion: The advantage of our biomimetic route to silver nanoparticles lies in the fact that we utilize peels as biological waste material both for the generation and stabilization of silver nanoparticles.

Background: Zinc oxide nanoparticles prepared from an easy, eco-friendly and cost-effective green combustion technique using an extract of turmeric root has been an immense attractive nanomaterial that is used widely in light emitting display systems, piezoeletricity, electric conductivity, and biological applications. The prepared samples were characterized for their structural and morphological study using various analytical techniques. Results: Crystallite size was calculated by both XRD as well as UV-visible absorption measurements and Crystallite size was found to be 14-36 nm. An equation was developed with the aid of an effective mass model (Brus 1986) to calculate the size of the particle as a function of the peak absorbance wavelength. The energy bandgap of the synthesized sample calculated to be in the range of 4.74 - 5.0 eV by UV-Vis spectra confirms the quantum confinement. ZnO nanocatalyst is used for the synthesis of biodiesel from garcinia gummigutta seed oil has been studied. The environmental friendly procedure was carried for the formylation of amines under solvent-free reaction condition and simple work-up giving pure products with prompt recyclability behavior are the main features of the reaction. Conclusion: In this work, ZnO NPs were synthesised using turmeric root extract as a fuel via green combustion method. It is an environmentally friendly, easy as well as cost-effective method for the synthesis of nanoparticles. ZnO NPs were examined through various equipments such as PXRD, UV-Vis, FTIR, and SEM studies. XRD study show the hexagonal wurtzite structure. it is a good catalyst for the synthesis of biodiesel from the pongamiapinnata oil. It also serves as a catalyst for the Nformylation reactions, which involves the clean procedure under milder reaction conditions with an excellent yield of the desired products.

Background: Deposition of palladium nanoparticles from colloidal solution on various supports produces palladium catalysts with a predetermined size and concentration of the palladium nanoparticles, which allows to study the nanoparticle size effects and support influence on palladium catalytic properties. Objective: The goal of the present work was the development of a preparation method of systems supported on γ-Al2O3 palladium nanoparticles with a controlled size and determination of their thermal stability in oxidizing and reducing atmospheres. Methods: We demonstrated the preparation of Pd/γ-Al2O3 composite by precipitation of the size-controlled palladium nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution from colloidal solution. The composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscope (TEM) methods. Results: The size and size distribution of the nanoparticles supported on γ-Al2O3 were found to be increasing upon precipitation due to strong Pd/γ-Al2O3 interaction. A significant enlargement of the supported nanoparticles occured at 300°C. The aggregation of the nanoparticles was observed at temperatures above 500°C resulting in an increase in their size. Conclusions: Our findings are not only applicable for the preparation of a model Pd supported on the γ-Al2O3 catalyst but could be applicable to the designing of the Pd-containing catalyst for important industrial high-temperature processes.