An overview of atmospheric aerosol and their effects on human health.

Epidemiologic investigations have previously been published in more than 200 papers, and several studies have examined the impacts of particle air pollution on health. The main conclusions now being made about the epidemiological evidence of particle pollution-induced health impacts are discussed in this article. Although there is no universal agreement, most reviewers conclude that particulate air pollution, particularly excellent combustion-cause contamination prevalent in many municipal and manufacturing environments, is a significant risk for cardiopulmonary sickness and mortality. Most epidemiological research has concentrated on the impacts of acute exposure, although the total public health implications of chronic acquaintance's outcome may be more extraordinarily significant. According to some reviewers, prolonged, repeated exposure raises the risk of cardiorespiratory death and chronic respiratory illness. A more general (but still universal) agreement is that short-term particle pollution exposure has been shown to aggravate pre-existing pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases and increase the number of community members who become sick, require medical treatment, or die. Several in-depth studies conducted in the global and Indian regions are addressed.

Surface-Enhanced Biocompatibility and Adsorption Capacity of a Zirconium Phosphate-Coated Polyaniline Composite.

The present study deals with the synthesis, characterization, and testing of a novel composite, zirconium(IV) phosphate-coated polyaniline (ZrPO4@PANI), toward the adsorption- and surface-controlled toxicity applications. Following the synthesis of the ZrPO4@PANI composite using the sol-gel route, various characterization techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction were employed to confirm its surface functionality, morphology and agglomeration, and crystallinity and crystal nature, respectively. The composite was found to be effective toward the adsorptive removal of the methylene blue dye (an organic pollutant) as against the changes in the dye concentration, dose, pH, and so forth. Also, to understand the MB adsorption kinetics, the experimental data were evaluated using the Langmuir and Freundlich models and the results were described in accordance with the Langmuir isotherm model (an adsorption capacity of 120.48 mg/g at ambient temperature). In addition, the tests conducted using pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order kinetic models confirmed the existence of pseudo-second-order rates. Furthermore, the calculation of thermodynamic parameters for the MB adsorption, namely, changes in enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs' free energy, exhibited a spontaneous, feasible, and exothermic nature. Finally, the comparative studies of in vitro toxicity and flow cytometry confirmed that the copresence of ZrPO4 along with PANI significantly improved the biocompatibility. The outcome of the experimental results implies that the composite is capable enough of serving as the safe and low-cost adsorbent, in addition to supporting the effective capping of the surface toxicity of PANI.

Adsorption, Equilibrium Isotherm, and Thermodynamic Studies towards the Removal of Reactive Orange 16 Dye Using Cu(I)-Polyaninile Composite.

To overcome some of the limitations of activated carbon like efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and reusability, the present work deals with Cu(I)-based polyaniline (PANI) composite for the removal of reactive orange 16 (RO16) dye. Following the synthesis and characterization of formed Cu(I)-PANI composite, the batch experiments performed for the removal of RO16 dye indicated that the composite has the capacity to reduce the coloring from RO16. The experiments were conducted for the study of effects against changes in pH, time, and dose at room temperature, where we observed for a pH impact on the dye adsorption capacity in the range of 2-12. Among all, the optimal RO16 removal was found to be 94.77% at a pH of 4 and in addition, the adsorption kinetics confirmed to be pseudo-second-order with more suitability towards the Langmuir isotherm, where it is presumed to be the formation of a monolayer of dye molecule at the homogeneous absorbent surface. The calculated maximum capacity, qm, determined from the Langmuir model was 392.156 mg/g. Further application of isotherms to attain thermodynamic parameters, a slight positive value of ΔS° for RO16 adsorption was observed, meaning that there is an increased randomness in the irregular pattern at the specific Cu(I)-PANI interface for an adsorption process. This mechanism plays an essential role in maintaining the effects of water pollution; and, based on the analysis therefore, it is prominent that the Cu(I)-PANI composite can be employed as a promising and economical adsorbent for the treatment of RO16 and other dye molecules from the sewage in wastewater.

Development of a PANI/Fe(NO3)2 nanomaterial for reactive orange 16 (RO16) dye removal.

Polyaniline-iron(II) nitrate was prepared by the polymerization of aniline hydrochloride with Fe(NO3)2. The as-prepared materials were characterized for surface area and pore volume and were used to remove the reactive orange 16 (RO16) dye from an aqueous solution. Batch studies were conducted as a function of pH (2-12), adsorbent amount (10-100 mg), initial RO16 concentration (100-300 mg L-1), contact time (10-240 min), and temperature (303-323 K). RO16 was removed at high speed, and equilibrium was achieved in 80 min. Langmuir (six linear forms, i.e., L-I-VI) and other isotherm models were explored for their applicability. With the maximum adsorption capacity of 508.7267 mg g-1 and a pH of 4 at 313 K, the adsorption isotherm could be adequately characterised using the Langmuir (L-V) model. The kinetics of the adsorption process were investigated by fitting experimental data to pseudo-second order (PSO) (type-I-VI) and other kinetic models, with the findings indicating that the adsorption closely matched the PSO-I model. For isotherm models, twelve linear error functions were investigated. The absorption process was spontaneous, endothermic, and feasible according to the thermodynamics study (ΔG° = -8.8888 kJ mol-1, ΔH° = 3.1940 kJ mol-1, and ΔS° = 39.8749 J mol-1 K-1). The phototoxicity studies revealed that the untreated dye was highly toxic compared to the treated dye. It was also shown that the material could be recycled substantially, with an RO16 value of 82.8%. The findings also indicated that the PANI/Fe(NO3)2 material was sufficient for RO16 dye adsorption in both model and real water samples.

Biocompatible polylactic acid-reinforced nickel-arsenate composite: Studies of electrochemical conductivity, mechanical stability, and cell viability.

In continuation to our earlier work on nickel (Ni)-arsenate (As) composite, the current work deals with the electrical conductivity and mechanical resistivity of the same composite by means of its further reinforcement with the polylactic acid (PLA) polymer. For the PLA-Ni-As composite, we understand from the electrochemical studies that the conductivity is strongly influenced by the temperature and due to the presence of external electrolyte. The DC electrical conductivity approach used for the temperature dependency provided the information that the conductivity falls in the semiconductor zone ranging at 10-3 S cm-1, thereby indicating that it followed the Arrhenius equation. In addition, we found in terms of the mechanical properties that the PLA-Ni-As composite outperformed the plain, untreated Ni-As composite by reducing the activation energy. For the mechanical resistivity studies we found that the 25% PLA-loaded Ni-As material significantly improved the tensile strength and modulus, elongation at break %, impact properties and also the flexural strength and modulus as against the plain and other combinations due to enhanced interfacial interactions. The cell viability and proliferations studies tested against two different cell lines provided the information that the presence of polymer reduces the toxic response of arsenic material. From the cumulative analysis therefore, we indicate that the PLA-Ni-As composite can be a potential candidate to find its uses in the electrochemical and solar cells, in addition to automotive and aerospace industry.

Sustained drug release and electrochemical performance of ethyl cellulose-magnesium hydrogen phosphate composite.

In this, a sol-gel method was applied to prepare ethyl cellulose-magnesium hydrogen phosphate (EC-MgHPO4) composite that can have potential applications in the sensory, pharmaceutical, and biomedical sectors. The formed composite was thoroughly characterized by making use of the instrumental analysis such as UV-Vis, FT-IR, HRTEM, EDAX, SEM and XRD. For the composite, the other parameters determined includes the water uptake, porosity, thickness, bulk and tapped densities, angle of repose, Carr's index and Hausner ratio. From the results, the material found to exhibit good flowing properties with a Carr's index of 11.11%, Hausner ratio of 1.125, and angle of response of 33°. The EDAX spectrum and HRTEM analysis confirmed for the composite formation and the particles size is investigated to be around 52nm. The surface porosity due to the EC matrices was confirmed by the SEM analysis, which further used for the loading of drug, Proguanil. In addition, the material's conductivity was studied by taking uni-univalent electrolyte solution (KCl and NaCl) indicated that the conductivity follows the order of KCl>NaCl, while the activation energy obtained from Arrhenius method resembled that the conductivity is strongly influenced by the electrolyte type used. We found from the analysis that, with a decrease in the size of hydrated radii of ions, the conductivity of EC-MgHPO4 material also observed to be decreased in the order K+>Na+ and the material proved to be mechanically stable and can be operated over a range of pHs, temperatures, and electrolyte solutions. Further, the drug loading and efficiency studies indicated that the material can trap up to 80% of Proguanil (antimalarial drug) applied for its loading. The Proguanil drug release profiles confirmed for the controlled and sustained release from the EC-MgHPO4 matrix, as the material can release up to 87% of its total loaded drug over a 90min period. Finally, the cell viability and proliferation studies tested against two different cell cultures of BRL-3A rat liver and H9c2 cardiomyoblasts indicated the non-toxic nature and safer applicability of the EC-MgHPO4 (25-500µg/mL, 24h). Overall, the results of the study confirm for the safer applicability of the composite towards biosensor, drug delivery, scaffolding, and bioanalytical (quality control) applications.

Cytotoxic effects of polystyrene-titanium-arsenate composite in cultured H9c2 cardiomyoblasts.

In the present report, we explored the toxicological behaviour of engineered polystyrene-titanium-arsenate (PS-Ti-As) composite using cultured H9c2 cardiomyoblasts in vitro. From in vitro cytotoxicity studies, it appears that the composite can be toxic to the cardiac cells and the value of IC50 investigated to be the highest concentration of 500 µg mL(-1), during 16-24 h of incubation period. The cell morphological studies based on dual staining with acridine orange and ethidium bromide indicates that apoptosis is the dominating pathway of cell death. Furthermore, an enhanced DNA fragmentation, increased reactive oxygen species production and caspase release demonstrates the potential risks associated with the exposure of PS-Ti-As composite to the cardiac cells.