Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and their nanocomposites with polymers are potent agents for antibacterial and disinfectant applications. The structural parameters of Ag-NPs, such as size, shape, and surface area, are very critical for developing appropriate formulations for the targeted applications. The impact of these factors on the performance of Ag NPs is analyzed. Ag NPs with a broad spectrum of antibacterial activities have already found applications in wound and burn dressing, food preservation, agricultural ponds, treatment for infected areas, coatings, water treatment, and other biomedical applications. Ag NPs are quite useful against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but their level of toxicity needs careful investigation as their toxicity could be very harmful to human health and the environment. This review discusses the challenges and prospects of various Ag NPs and their composites. The review will enrich the knowledge about the efficiency and mechanism of various Ag nanoparticle-based antibacterial agents.

Three-dimensional porous NiCoP foam supported on Ni foam is a superb bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall seawater splitting, attaining a large current density of 1000 mA cm⁻² at a low cell voltage of 1.97 V with robust stability over 300 hours.

Green upcycling of PET plastics via EG oxidation to formate is achieved using layered Ni–Co₉S₈ nanosheet arrays on nickel foam, with Faraday efficiencies over 90%.

The carbon supercapacitance strongly relies upon the electrolyte’s nature, but the clear-cut structure–performance nexus remains elusive. Herein, a series of bio-carbons with gradually varied pore structure and surface chemistry are derived using a new salt template protocol (with eco-benign KNO₃ as the template, activator, and porogen, and cheap gelatin as the carbon precursor), and are used as model systems to probe the dependence of the electrochemical mechanism of such nanocarbons on two typical electrolytes (KOH and EMIBF₄). By only adjusting the KNO₃ dosage, two pivotal figures of merit of biochar—multiscale porosity and surface functionalization—were finely modulated to construct electric double layers. Electrochemical data clarify that the combined porosity and doping effects all contribute to enhanced supercapacitance, but with only one of the two factors playing the leading role in different electrolytes. Kinetic analysis corroborates the fact that ample heteroatom doping can effectively compensate capacitance by intensive surface redox insertion in KOH, while a suitable pore size dispersion plays a preponderant part in self-amplifying the ion partitioning, and thus dictating a good charge separation in EMIBF₄. A quasi-quantitative model of performance–structure relevance in EMIBF₄ is judiciously conjectured to hint at a superb ion–pore-size compatibility, in which the bi- and mono-layer ion confinement coupling in integrated single and double ion-sized pores is found to be more useful for curbing notorious over-screening effects and for changing the coordination number, Coulombic ordering, and phase conformation of EMIBF₄ in several nm-sized nanopores. This unique energy storage fashion in ion-matching pores promotes the energy density of optimal samples to a novel level of 88.3 Wh kg⁻¹ at 1 kW kg⁻¹, which rivals the overwhelming majority of the reported carbon materials. In short, the comparison case study here reveals a valuable correlation of carbon’s figure of merit and electrolyte type, which may act as a vital rudder to design electrolyte-contingent state-of-the-art supercapacitor materials.

Phage ecology has attracted increasing attention in recent years. Fermented foods have rich and diverse microbial communities, which are not only the creators of the unique flavors in food, but also good hosts for bacteriophages. However, at present, much is known about the bacterial and fungal communities and their functions in fermented foods, but little is known about the bacteriophages that inhabit the bacteria. This article reviews recent findings on phage diversity in fermented foods, highlighting how these organisms influence and relate to the dynamics of microbial communities in fermented foods. The application of bacteriophages in fermented food is also discussed, which will help to better control the food fermentation process in the future and promote its further development by the food industry.

The selective oxidation of organic small molecules not only promotes cathodic hydrogen production, but also acts as an alternative reaction to the anodic oxygen evolution reaction of electrolytic water, producing value-added products at the anode. In this context, a bimetallic Ni–Co based oxide with a controllable ratio is prepared, acting as a high-performance electrocatalyst for the coupling reaction between the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The optimal Ni_0.67Co_0.33O_x nanoparticle (NP) anodic electrode, with Pt wire as the cathode, achieved a current density of 126 mA cm⁻² at a fixed potential of 1.6 V (versus RHE) and an ethanol-to-acetate Faraday efficiency of 85.74%. Additionally, the anodic EOR can be coupled with the hydrogen evolution reaction on the Co₃O₄-based cathode, only requiring a cell voltage of 1.6 V to generate a current density up to 145 mA cm⁻². Further density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that moderate doping of Co atoms helps to reduce the total energy barrier of the dehydrogenation reaction and the energy of the rate-limiting step. Our study provides insightful findings for enhanced hydrogen production with electrochemical conversion into acetate from ethanol in alkaline media.