The article explores an in-depth exploration of the diverse range of catalysts that are commonly employed in the field of electrocatalytic HER, such as metals, oxides, sulfides, selenides, carbides, phosphides, nitrides, borides, single-atom catalysts, and carbon-supported catalysts.

Polymer/surfactant mixtures have a wide range of industrial and technological applications, one of them being the use in microencapsulation and emulsion stabilization processes. These mixtures are able to form adsorption layers at the surface of oil droplets and so affect the emulsion stability, which depends on the polyelectrolyte/surfactant nature, concentrations ratio, method of the emulsification, etc. Polyelectrolytes alone show low surface activity in contrast to surfactants, which adsorb at the water/oil interface, making the droplets charged, but they are insufficient to stabilize emulsions. When an oppositely-charged polymer is added to the surfactant solution, a steric barrier is formed, which prevents coalescence and enhances the stability. The present review is devoted to the recent studies of the use of polymer/surfactant mixtures for the encapsulation of active ingredients and stabilization of single and double emulsions. Active ingredients are added to the oil phase prior to emulsification so that any subsequent dissolution of the core, like in other encapsulation protocols, can be omitted. By measuring the interfacial tension and dilational rheology it is possible to find optimum conditions for the emulsion formation and hence for encapsulation. Therefore, such systems have become a prominent approach for the encapsulation of active ingredients.

In drop profile analysis tensiometry, the ratio of drop surfaces area S to volume V is large, i.e., S/V >> 1. In such a case, the concentration of a surfactant within the drop bulk decreases due to adsorption at the drop surface. In contrast, in bubble profile analysis tensiometry, we have S/V << 1 so that depletion due to adsorption is negligible. A protocol is presented to determine the correct adsorption parameters of surfactants from surface tension data measured by bubble and drop profile analysis tensiometry. The procedure is applied to experimental data measured for selected surfactants of different adsorption activities: C₁₀OH, CTAB, Tween 20, and the equimolar mixture SDS + DoTAB. The results show that for surfactants with higher surface activity, the differences between the surface tensions measured with the drops and bubbles profile analysis tensiometry, respectively, are larger, while for less surface-active surfactants, such as SDS, the results obtained from drop and bubble profile experiments are very close. The correction procedure is based on the same set of adsorption parameters used to fit both the experimental data obtained from drop-based measurements (which involve the depletion effects) and those data measured in a way that depletion effects are negligible.

Silicon Oxide nanoparticle (SiO₂-NP) with appropriate surface functionalization has tremendous potential in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) via wettability alternation, interfacial tension reduction, disjoining pressure enhancement, electric charge modification, etc. Prior to the application of SiO₂ to EOR, an effective functionalization and an accurate characterization of the surface properties are indispensable. Though many experimental works have been performed in this area, a systematic review is still lacking. Therefore, a review of the above content is presented. Current research gaps are identified, and future outlooks are indicated. This review provides guidance for SiO₂-NP surface functionalization, characterization, and evaluation.

The current work is devoted to the development of probiotic microencapsulation systems with the co-encapsulation of a plant extract, which can increase the survival of beneficial bacteria and are suitable for potential applications in the enrichment of fermented beverages based on acid whey. The encapsulation process exhibited a high level of effectiveness, achieving 83.0% for Bifidobacterium (BB), 89.2% for Stevia leaf extract (SE), and 91.3% for their combination (BB + SE). The FTIR analysis verified substantial interactions between the encapsulated agents and the polymer matrix, which enhanced the stability of the microcapsules. The BB + SE microcapsules exhibited reduced swelling and moisture content, indicating a denser structure compared to separately encapsulated BB and SE. Comparison of release kinetics of BB, SE and BB + SE loaded microcapsules showed that the combination of active agents has a quicker initial release, reaching 60% release within the first 2 h, and this value increased to 70% after 4 h. The release kinetics studies demonstrated a controlled release of active substances over 24 h. A morphology analysis shows that the surfaces of the dry microcapsules containing BB, SE, and their combination BB + SE have a porous structure. For encapsulated agents, the size of the capsules produced with BB and SE are smaller than those produced with two components (BB + SE), the sizes of which are between 760 µm and 1.1 mm. Modeling of the behavior of microcapsules in a simulated gastrointestinal tract provides information on swelling and active agents release rates as a function of pH in real biological environments. Thus, the new formulations of microcapsules with microorganisms and plant extracts have great potential for the development of fermented whey-based beverages.