A symmetric supercapacitor based on a MnFe₂O₄/rGO nanocomposite prepared from expanded graphite.

A green and simple process for preparing the polyethylene glycol passivated fluorescent carbon dots (CDs-PEG) have been studied by a microwave pyrolysis method, using gelatin and PEG as starting materials. This method is very effective for development of carbon-based quantum dots from gelatin with high quantum yield (QY). The synthesized CDs-PEG were found to emit blue photoluminescence (PL) with a maximum QY of 34%. At the following research, we investigated the effect of the presence of PEG on PL intensity, and the result showed that CDs-PEG becomes stronger PL properties than pure CDs from gelatin. The synthesized CDs-PEG were characterized by FTIR, TEM, UV–vis, PL, zeta potential and XRD analyses. The anticancer performance of developed CDs-PEG was evaluated by in vitro tests such as MTT assay and fluorescence microscopy analyses. The examination of CDs-PEG as an anti-cancer drug nanocarrier for methotrexate (MTX) illustrated a better antitumor efficacy than free MTX due to its enhanced nuclear delivery in vitro, which resulting in highly effective tumour growth inhibition and improving targeted cancer therapy in clinical medicine. Graphical Abstract

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the reduction of 4‐nitroaniline (4‐NA) and 2‐nitroaniline (2‐NA) using synthesized copper ferrite nanoparticles (NPs) via facile one‐step hydrothermal method as a heterogeneous nano‐catalyst. Nitroanilines were reduced in the presence and without the catalyst with a constant amount (100 mg) of reducing agent of sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) at room temperature in water to amino compounds. To characterize the functional groups, size, structure, and morphology of as‐prepared magnetic NPs, FTIR, XRD, SEM, and TEM were employed. The UV‐Vis spectrum was utilized to explore the catalytic effect of CuFe₂O₄. The outcomes revealed that the synthesized CuFe₂O₄ as a heterogeneous magnetic nano‐catalyst catalyzed the reduction of 4‐NA and 2‐NA significantly faster than other candidate catalysts. The outcomes demonstrated that the catalyst catalyzed 4‐nitroaniline to para‐phenylenediamine (p‐PDA) and 2‐nitroaniline to ortho‐phenylenediamine (o‐PDA) with a constant rate of 7.49×10⁻² s⁻¹ and 3.19×10⁻² s⁻¹, and conversion percentage of 96.5 and 95.6, in 40 s and 90 s, sequentially. Furthermore, the nanoparticles could be recovered by a magnetic separation method and reused for six consecutive cycles without remarkable loss of catalytic ability.

In this study, we fabricated an economical, non-toxic, and convenient magnetic nanocomposite of CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticles (NPs)/carbon quantum dots (CQDs) of citric acid via the co-precipitation method. Afterward, obtained magnetic nanocomposite was used as a nanocatalyst to reduce the ortho-nitroaniline (o-NA) and para-nitroaniline (p-NA) using a reducer agent of sodium borohydride (NaBH₄). To investigate the functional groups, crystallite, structure, morphology, and nanoparticle size of the prepared nanocomposite, FT-IR, XRD, TEM, BET, and SEM were employed. The catalytic performance of the nanocatalyst was experimentally evaluated based on the ultraviolet–visible absorbance to assess the reduction of o-NA and p-NA. The acquired outcomes illustrated that the prepared heterogeneous catalyst significantly enhanced the reduction of o-NA and p-NA substrates. The analysis of the absorption showed a remarkable decrease for ortho-NA and para-NA at λ_max = 415 nm in 27 s and λ_max = 380 nm in 8 s, respectively. The constant rate (k_app) of ortho-NA and para-NA at the stated λ_max was 8.39 × 10^–2 s⁻¹ and 5.48 × 10^–1 s⁻¹. The most highlighted result of this work was that the CuFe₂O₄@CQD nanocomposite fabricated from citric acid performed better than absolute CuFe₂O₄ NPs, since nanocomposite containing CQDs had a more significant impact than copper ferrite NPs.