Aim: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2), a pernicious viral disease, causes acute respiratory distress responsible for mortality and morbidity worldwide. To screen differe...

The objective of this research was to produce the smallest possible ZnO nanoparticles through an adapted wet chemical process and subsequently, to fabricate a core–shell structure utilizing polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the shell component. The synthesis, size, and shape of the NPs were confirmed using advanced techniques. The resulting clustered NPs were round and had a size of 9.8 nm. Both plain and core–shell NPs were tested for their antibacterial properties against multi-drug resistant bacteria strains (E. cloacae, E. amnigenus, S. flexneri, S. odorifacae, Citrobacter, and E. coli), with concentrations of 500, 1000, and 1500 μg ml⁻¹ used for testing. Both types of NPs demonstrated antibacterial activity against the tested pathogens, with the core–shell NPs being more effective. The synthesized NPs were biocompatible with human red blood cells, with a low level of hemolysis observed. The biocompatibility of the core–shell NPs was significantly enhanced by the presence of the PEG added as the shell. In addition, their effectiveness as photosensitizers for cancer treatment via photodynamic therapy (PDT) was evaluated. MTT assay was used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of ZnO and PEG-ZnO, and the results showed that these NPs were able to generate ROS inside tumor cells upon irradiation, leading to apoptosis and cell death, making them a promising candidate for PDT.

This work describes an ab initio principle computational examination of the optical, structural, elastic, electronic and mechanical characteristics of aluminum-based compounds AlRF₃ (R = N, P) halide-perovskites. For optimization purposes, we used the Birch–Murnaghan equation of state and discovered that the compounds AlNF₃ and AlPF₃ are both structurally stable. The IRelast software was used to compute elastic constants (ECs) of the elastic properties. The aforementioned compounds are stable mechanically. They exhibit strong resistance to plastic strain, possess ductile nature and anisotropic behavior and are scratch-resistant. The modified Becke–Johnson (Tb-mBJ) approximation was adopted to compute various physical properties, revealing that AlNF₃ and AlPF₃ are both metals in nature. From the density of states, the support of various electronic states in the band structures are explained. Other various optical characteristics have been calculated from the investigations of the band gap energy of the aforementioned compounds. These compounds absorb a significant amount of energy at high levels. At low energy levels, the compound AlNF₃ is transparent to incoming photons, whereas the compound AlPF₃ is somewhat opaque. The examination of the visual details led us to the deduction that the compounds AlNF₃ and AlPF₃ may be used in making ultraviolet devices based on high frequency. This computational effort is being made for the first time in order to investigate the aforementioned properties of these chemicals, which have yet to be confirmed experimentally.