Synthetic dyes are widely used in textile, paper, food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. During industrial processes, some of these dyes are released into the wastewater and their successive release into rivers and lakes produces serious environmental problems. TiO₂ is one of the most widely studied and used photocatalysts for environmental remediation. However, it is mainly active under UV-light irradiation due to its band gap of 3.2 eV, while it shows low efficiency under the visible light spectrum. Regarding the exploration of TiO₂ activation in the visible light region of the total solar spectrum, the incorporation of carbon nanomaterials, such as graphene, in order to form carbon-TiO₂ composites is a promising area. Graphene, in fact, has a large surface area which makes it a good adsorbent for organic pollutants removal through the combination of electrostatic attraction and π-π interaction. Furthermore, it has a high electron mobility and therefore it reduces the electron-hole pair recombination, improving the photocatalytic activity of the semiconductor. In recent years, there was an increasing interest in the preparation of graphene-based TiO₂ photocatalysts. The present short review describes the recent advances in TiO₂ photocatalyst coupling with graphene materials with the aim of extending the light absorption of TiO₂ from UV wavelengths into the visible region, focusing on recent progress in the design and applications in the photocatalytic degradation of synthetic dyes.

In the last decade, metal nanoparticles (NPs) have gained significant interest in the field of biotechnology due to their unique physiochemical properties and potential uses in a wide range of applications. Metal NP synthesis using microorganisms has emerged as an eco-friendly, clean, and viable strategy alternative to chemical and physical approaches. Herein, an original and efficient route for the microbial synthesis of copper NPs using bacterial strains newly isolated from an Antarctic consortium is described. UV-visible spectra of the NPs showed a maximum absorbance in the range of 380–385 nm. Transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that these NPs are all monodispersed, spherical in nature, and well segregated without any agglomeration and with an average size of 30 nm. X-ray powder diffraction showed a polycrystalline nature and face centered cubic lattice and revealed characteristic diffraction peaks indicating the formation of CuONPs. Fourier-transform infrared spectra confirmed the presence of capping proteins on the NP surface that act as stabilizers. All CuONPs manifested antimicrobial activity against various types of Gram-negative; Gram-positive bacteria; and fungi pathogen microorganisms including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans. The cost-effective and eco-friendly biosynthesis of these CuONPs make them particularly attractive in several application from nanotechnology to biomedical science.

In this study, a green and facile thermal reduction of graphene oxide using an eco-friendly system of d-(+)-glucose and NH₄OH for the preparation of reduced graphene oxide was described. The obtained reduced graphene oxide dispersion was characterized by SEM, Dynamic Light Scattering, Raman and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. TiO₂ nanoparticles and reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites were successively prepared and used in the preparation of heterogeneous photocatalysts that were characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy and Photoluminescence Spectroscopy and subsequently tested as visible light photocatalysts for the photodegradation of Alizarin Red S in water as target pollutant. Obtained results of photocatalytic tests regarding the visible light photocatalytic degradation of Alizarin Red S demonstrated that the use of reduced graphene oxide in combination with TiO₂ led to a significant improvement for both adsorption of Alizarin Red S on the catalyst surface and photodegradation efficiencies when compared to those obtained with not doped TiO₂.

In this work, we prepared different morphologies of silver nanoparticles: nanosphere, triangular nanoplates, hexagonal nanoplates, and quasi-spherical shapes, through one-step synthesis. Hydrogen peroxide was used as the oxidizing agent during the reduction of silver nitrate by sodium borohydride, in the presence of tri-sodium citrate and poly-vinyl-pyrrolidone. The obtained silver nanoparticles were fully characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering and Scanning Electron Microscopy, and successfully used as Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) substrates. The effect of shape and morphology on the Raman scattering enhancement was evaluated by using methylene blue as target molecules. The Raman measurements demonstrated that the prepared substrates are reliable and sensitive with analytical enhancement factors, estimated to be around 10⁵ with a concentration of methylene blue 1 μM. When triangular and hexagonal nanoplates were tested with different concentrations of analyte, they demonstrated a good linearity in Raman intensity with a good detection of methylene blue 0.1 μM.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) can be used as a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) colorimetric sensor; the correlation between the SPR phenomenon and the aggregation state of nanoparticle allows the real-time detection of a target molecule. Surface functionalization of NPs with proper molecular baits is often performed to establish the selectivity of the sensor. This work reports on the synthesis of AgNPs under reducing conditions and on the functionalization thereof with mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUA). UV-VIS Spectroscopy confirmed the formation of AgNPs, eliciting a surface plasmon absorption band (SPAB) at 393 nm that shifted to 417 nm upon surface coating. Dynamic light scattering was used to investigate the surface coatings; moreover, pelleted AgNPs@11MUA nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analyzers (EDX), and infrared spectroscopy to corroborate the presence of 11MUA on the surface. Most interestingly, the resulting AgNPs@11MUA selectively detected micromolar levels of Ni²⁺, also in the presence of other cations such as Mn²⁺, Co²⁺, Cd²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Fe²⁺, Hg²⁺, Pb²⁺, and Cr³⁺.