ABSTRACT
The emerging biomedical applications of selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) require facile and efficient strategy to assess its interactions with cell membrane. In this study, an efficient and reproducible microwave assisted method was used to synthesize SeNPs with controllable size distributions. The physical properties of the emergent structures, such as morphology, structure, and size were studied. The antimicrobial applications of SeNPs were assessed by electrochemical analyses that entailed the systematic acquisition of cyclic voltammetry data. Our results demonstrate a straightforward method to predict the integrity of bacterial cell membranes following the administration of SeNP treatments.
ABSTRACT
In the present work, novel molecularly imprinted polymer porous beads for the selective separation of copper ions have been synthesized by combining two material-structuring techniques, namely, molecular imprinting and oil-in-water-in-oil emulsion polymerization. This method produces monodisperse spherical beads with an average diameter of â¼2-3 mm, in contrast to adsorbents produced in the traditional way of grinding and sieving. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy indicates that the beads are porous in nature with interconnected pores of about 25-50 µm. Brunner-Emmett-Teller analysis shows that the ion-imprinted beads possess a high surface area (8.05 m(2) /g), and the total pore volume is determined to be 0.00823 cm(3) /g. As a result of the highly porous nature and ion-imprinting, the beads exhibit a superior adsorption capacity (84 mg/g) towards copper than the non-imprinted material (22 mg/g). Furthermore, selectivity studies indicate that imprinted beads show splendid recognizing ability, that is, nearly fourfold greater selective binding for Cu(2+) in comparison to the other bivalent ions such as Mn(2+) , Ni(2+) , Co(2+) , and Ca(2+) . The imprinted composite beads prepared in this study possess uniform porous morphology and may open up new possibilities for the selective removal of copper ions from waste water/contaminated matrices.
