Current trends in biomaterials science address the issue of integrating artificial materials as orthopedic or dental implants with biological materials, e.g., patients’ bone tissue. Problems arise due to the simple fact that any surface that promotes biointegration and facilitates osteointegration may also provide a good platform for the rapid growth of bacterial colonies. Infected implant surfaces easily lead to biofilm formation that poses a major healthcare concern since it could have destructive effects and ultimately endanger the patients’ life. As of late, research has centered on designing coatings that would eliminate possible infection but neglected to aid bone mineralization. Other strategies yielded surfaces that could promote osseointegration but failed to prevent microbial susceptibility. Needless to say, in order to assure prolonged implant functionality, both coating functions are indispensable and should be addressed simultaneously. This review summarizes progress in designing multifunctional implant coatings that serve as carriers of antibacterial agents with the primary intention of inhibiting bacterial growth on the implant-tissue interface, while still promoting osseointegration.

Declines in soil quality and low efficiencies of applied fertilizers has limited agricultural productivity worldwide, inducing necessity for sustainable orientated soil amendments. Glass-matrix-based fertilizers are promising "green technologies" thanks to the controlled release of nutrients due to their engineered chemical durability in a wide solubility range. Beside mentioned inorganic soil support, biochar was found to be an effective organic soil amendment that enhances nutrient/water retention as well as microbial activity, making it a promising tool for sustainable agriculture. In this paper, we have tested two possible "green soil amendments": polyphosphate glass (PG) and plum stone biochar (PS) in a 2% citric acid solution, as well as their use as fertilizers on two-year-old rose plantings. The results have shown quick dissolution of PG: nearly 90% for 48 h at 20 °C that steady increase up to 97% at the 480 h; under the same operating parameters, 7.6% of PS was dissolved increasing to 8% at final investigated time. Higher temperatures resulted in higher dissolution rate. The data obtained within the scope of this study indicates that tested fertilizers have a positive effect on rose plant growth, not only promoting bud formation but also extending the flowering period of roses.

Fruit processing generates huge amounts of waste biomass, which can serve as potential renewable resource for many value-added products. Unfortunately, these reserves are often dumped or incinerated inducing environmental and health risk issues. Thermochemical conversions might transform this waste into a variety of carbon rich products (e.g. biochar). In the same time, tremendous efforts in phosphate release control are done in order to minimize ecosystems eutrophication. In this paper, waste plum stones (PS) were converted into the biochar (PS-B) by slow pyrolysis. Before pyrolysis, PS samples were modified by magnesium salt in order to increase its capacity toward phosphates. The characteristic functional groups of the PS, Mg-modified and phosphate-enriched samples were investigated using FTIR analysis. These analyses confirmed significant aromaticity increase, existence of periclase at modified PS-B surface and additional present of groups related to successful phosphate binding.

Biocomposite hydroxyapatite/poly(vinyl alcohol)/chitosan/gentamicin coatings were fabricated on titanium by electrophoretic deposition process (EPD) from an aqueous suspension using the constant voltage method. Characterization of the deposited coatings was performed by scanning electron microscopy with field emission (FE–SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT–IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) after immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF) at 37 °C. The concentration of the released gentamicin was determined using a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with a mass spectrometer (MS). The release profile confirmed an initial “burst-release effect” with ~ 30% of gentamicin released in the first 48 h, which could be of assistance in the prevention of biofilm formation. Antibacterial activity was proven by the agar diffusion method on Staphylococcus aureus TL and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 bacterial strains. Cytotoxicity was tested by the dye exclusion test (DET) on MRC-5 and L929 fibroblast cell lines, with both coatings expressing nontoxicity. The results showed the high applicability potential of a poly(vinyl alcohol)-based biocomposite coating for medical purposes.