Exploring the potential of metal and metal oxide nanomaterials for sustainable water and wastewater treatment: A review of their antimicrobial properties

Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) are of particular interest as antimicrobial agents in water and wastewater treatment due to their broad suppressive range against bacteria, viruses, and fungi commonly found in these environments. This review explores the potential of different types of metallic NPs, including zinc oxide, gold, copper oxide, and titanium oxide, for use as effective antimicrobial agents in water and wastewater treatment. This is due to the fact that metallic NPs possess a broad suppressive range against bacteria, viruses, as well as fungus. In addition to that, NPs are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to antibiotics for treating bacterial infections. Despite the fact that most research has been focused on silver NPs because of the antibacterial qualities that are known to be associated with them, curiosity about other metallic NPs as potential antimicrobial agents has been growing. Zinc oxide, gold, copper oxide, and titanium oxide NPs are included in this category since it has been demonstrated that these elements have antibacterial properties. Inducing oxidative stress, damage to the cellular membranes, and breakdowns throughout the protein and DNA chains are some of the ways that metallic NPs can have an influence on microbial cells. The purpose of this review was to engage in an in-depth conversation about the current state of the art regarding the utilization of the most important categories of metallic NPs that are used as antimicrobial agents. Several approaches for the synthesis of metal-based NPs were reviewed, including physical and chemical methods as well as "green synthesis" approaches, which are synthesis procedures that do not involve the employment of any chemical agents. Moreover, additional pharmacokinetics, physicochemical properties, and the toxicological hazard associated with the application of silver NPs as antimicrobial agents were discussed.

Antimicrobial metal-based nanoparticles: a review on their synthesis, types and antimicrobial action

The investigation of novel nanoparticles with antimicrobial activity has grown in recent years due to the increased incidence of nosocomial infections occurring during hospitalization and food poisoning derived from foodborne pathogens. Antimicrobial agents are necessary in various fields in which biological contamination occurs. For example, in food packaging they are used to control food contamination by microbes, in the medical field the microbial agents are important for reducing the risk of contamination in invasive and routine interventions, and in the textile industry, they can limit the growth of microorganisms due to sweat. The combination of nanotechnology with materials that have an intrinsic antimicrobial activity can result in the development of novel antimicrobial substances. Specifically, metal-based nanoparticles have attracted much interest due to their broad effectiveness against pathogenic microorganisms due to their high surface area and high reactivity. The aim of this review was to explore the state-of-the-art in metal-based nanoparticles, focusing on their synthesis methods, types, and their antimicrobial action. Different techniques used to synthesize metal-based nanoparticles were discussed, including chemical and physical methods and "green synthesis" methods that are free of chemical agents. Although the most studied nanoparticles with antimicrobial properties are metallic or metal-oxide nanoparticles, other types of nanoparticles, such as superparamagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles and silica-releasing systems also exhibit antimicrobial properties. Finally, since the quantification and understanding of the antimicrobial action of metal-based nanoparticles are key topics, several methods for evaluating in vitro antimicrobial activity and the most common antimicrobial mechanisms (e.g., cell damage and changes in the expression of metabolic genes) were discussed in this review.

Chemical Gas Sensors Studied at SENSOR Lab, Brescia (Italy): From Conventional to Energy-Efficient and Biocompatible Composite Structures

In this paper, we present the investigations on metal oxide-based gas sensors considering the works performed at SENSOR lab, University of Brescia (Italy). We reported the developments in synthesis techniques for the preparation of doped and functionalized low-dimensional metal oxide materials. Furthermore, we discussed our achievements in the fabrication of heterostructures with unique functional features. In particular, we focused on the strategies to improve the sensing performance of metal oxides at relatively low operating temperatures. We presented our studies on surface photoactivation of sensing structures considering the application of biocompatible materials in the architecture of the functional devices as well.

Highly Sensitive and Selective H2S Chemical Sensor Based on ZnO Nanomaterial

ZnO is worth evaluating for chemical sensing due to its outstanding physical and chemical properties. We report the fabrication and study of the gas sensing properties of ZnO nanomaterial for the detection of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). This prepared material exhibited a 7400 gas sensing response when exposed to 30 ppm of H2S in air. In addition, the structure showed a high selectivity towards H2S against other reducing gases. The high sensing performance of the structure was attributed to its nanoscale size, morphology and the disparity in the sensing mechanism between the H2S and other reducing gases. We suggest that the work reported here including the simplicity of device fabrication is a significant step toward the application of ZnO nanomaterials in chemical gas sensing systems for the real-time detection of H2S.

Growth and properties of ZnO nanorods by RF-sputtering for detection of toxic gases

ZnO polycrystalline nanorods were easily prepared via RF sputtering and proved excellent sensors for H₂S and other toxic/explosive gases.

Porous TiO₂-Based Gas Sensors for Cyber Chemical Systems to Provide Security and Medical Diagnosis

Gas sensors play an important role in our life, providing control and security of technical processes, environment, transportation and healthcare. Consequently, the development of high performance gas sensor devices is the subject of intense research. TiO₂, with its excellent physical and chemical properties, is a very attractive material for the fabrication of chemical sensors. Meanwhile, the emerging technologies are focused on the fabrication of more flexible and smart systems for precise monitoring and diagnosis in real-time. The proposed cyber chemical systems in this paper are based on the integration of cyber elements with the chemical sensor devices. These systems may have a crucial effect on the environmental and industrial safety, control of carriage of dangerous goods and medicine. This review highlights the recent developments on fabrication of porous TiO₂-based chemical gas sensors for their application in cyber chemical system showing the convenience and feasibility of such a model to provide the security and to perform the diagnostics. The most of reports have demonstrated that the fabrication of doped, mixed and composite structures based on porous TiO₂ may drastically improve its sensing performance. In addition, each component has its unique effect on the sensing properties of material.

Metal Oxide Gas Sensors, a Survey of Selectivity Issues Addressed at the SENSOR Lab, Brescia (Italy)

This work reports the recent results achieved at the SENSOR Lab, Brescia (Italy) to address the selectivity of metal oxide based gas sensors. In particular, two main strategies are being developed for this purpose: (i) investigating different sensing mechanisms featuring different response spectra that may be potentially integrated in a single device; (ii) exploiting the electronic nose (EN) approach. The former has been addressed only recently and activities are mainly focused on determining the most suitable configuration and measurements to exploit the novel mechanism. Devices suitable to exploit optical (photoluminescence), magnetic (magneto-optical Kerr effect) and surface ionization in addition to the traditional chemiresistor device are here discussed together with the sensing performance measured so far. The electronic nose is a much more consolidated technology, and results are shown concerning its suitability to respond to industrial and societal needs in the fields of food quality control and detection of microbial activity in human sweat.

Ultrasensitive and label-free detection of creatine based on CdO nanoparticles: a real sample approach

Low-dimensional cadmium oxide nanoparticles (CdO NPs) were prepared by a facile wet-chemical method, which later electrochemically investigated for the determination of selective creatine and measured the analytical sensor parameters such as sensitivity, limit of detection (LOD), linear dynamic range (LDR), long-term stability, and real-sample validation.

A composite structure based on reduced graphene oxide and metal oxide nanomaterials for chemical sensors

A hybrid nanostructure based on reduced graphene oxide and ZnO has been obtained for the detection of volatile organic compounds. The sensing properties of the hybrid structure have been studied for different concentrations of ethanol and acetone. The response of the hybrid material is significantly higher compared to pristine ZnO nanostructures. The obtained results have shown that the nanohybrid is a promising structure for the monitoring of environmental pollutants and for the application of breath tests in assessment of exposure to volatile organic compounds.

MOF–polymer enhanced compatibility: post-annealed zeolite imidazolate framework membranes inside polyimide hollow fibers

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks and polyimide supports improved their affinity during thermal annealing and therefore the separation performance of the membrane.

Reduced graphene oxide/ZnO nanocomposite for application in chemical gas sensors

Coupling of graphene-based materials with metal oxide nanostructures is an effective way to obtain composites with improved gas sensing properties.

Ultrasensitive and selective hydrazine sensor development based on Sn/ZnO nanoparticles

Fabrication of highly sensitive (∼5.0108 μA cm⁻² μM⁻¹) and selective hydrazine chemical sensor based on wet-chemically prepared Sn/ZnO nanoparticles deposited glassy carbon electrodes with a detection limit as low as 18.95 ± 0.02 pM (at an S/N of 3).

Facile synthesis of self-assembled spherical and mesoporous dandelion capsules of ZnO: efficient carrier for DNA and anti-cancer drugs

Idiosyncratic self-assembled dandelion mesoporous capsules have been synthesized with ZnO NPs and NRs. The {(ZnO)_n^δ+–(DOX)_m} and {(ZnO)_n^δ+–(DNA)_m} complexes are very useful for delivery of anticancer drugs and genes, respectively.