In the present study the biosorption characteristics of Cd (II) and Zn (II) ions from monocomponent aqueous solutions by Agaricus bisporus macrofungus were investigated. The initial metal ion concentrations, contact time, initial pH and temperature were parameters that influence the biosorption. Maximum removal efficiencies up to 76.10% and 70.09% (318K) for Cd (II) and Zn (II), respectively and adsorption capacities up to 3.49 and 2.39mg/g for Cd (II) and Zn (II), respectively at the highest concentration, were calculated. The experimental data were analyzed using pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order kinetic models, various isotherm models in linear and nonlinear (CMA-ES optimization algorithm) regression and thermodynamic parameters were calculated. The results showed that the biosorption process of both studied metal ions, followed pseudo second-order kinetics, while equilibrium is best described by Sips isotherm. The changes in morphological structure after heavy metal-biomass interactions were evaluated by SEM analysis. Our results confirmed that macrofungus A. bisporus could be used as a cost effective, efficient biosorbent for the removal of Cd (II) and Zn (II) from aqueous synthetic solutions

Plasticized poly(lactic acid) (PLA) samples with embedded Cu-doped ZnO powder functionalized with Ag nanoparticles composites were prepared by melt blending processing technique. The effect of ZnO:Cu/Ag nanoparticles on the properties of plasticized PLA was investigated in terms of structural (by Attenuated total reflectance – Fourier Transform Infrared – ATR-FT-IR, X–Ray Diffraction analysis – XRD) and morphological (using Scanning Electron Microscopy – SEM and Transmission Electron Microscopy – TEM examination) modifications, thermal (Differential Scanning Calorimetry – DSC), mechanical (transmittance, tensile strength), barrier antimicrobial properties and also in respect to migration of Cu, Zn an Ag nanoparticles into food simulants. It was found that the increase of nanoparticle content (from 0.5 to 1.5 wt%) of PLA formulations leads to the increase of the degree of crystallinity of PLA. The overall migration of all samples into three food simulants was below 10 mg·dm–2, accepted value according to EU Regulation No 10/2011 for plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. Based on the obtained results it can conclude that the optimum composition is PLA/ZnO:Cu/Ag 0.5, this bionanocomposite offering suitable mechanical and thermal properties, good barrier properties to ultraviolet light, water vapour, oxygen and carbon dioxide, antibacterial activity and low migration amount of nanoparticles into food simulants

The detection of Raman signals inside living cells is a topic of great interest in the study of cell biology mechanisms and for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. This work presents the synthesis and characterization of flower-shaped gold nanoparticles and demonstrates their applicability as SERS-active tags for cellular spectral detection. The particles were synthesized by a facile, rapid new route that uses ascorbic acid as a reducing agent of gold salt. Two triarylmethane dyes which are widely used as biological stains, namely malachite green oxalate and basic fuchsin, were used as Raman-active molecules and the polymer mPEG-SH as capping material. The as-prepared SERS-active nanoparticles were tested on a human retinal pigment epithelial cell line and found to present a low level of cytotoxicity and high chemical stability together with SERS sensitivity down to picomolar particle concentrations.