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Here, amino acids-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by utilizing the co-precipitation methodology. The synthesized nanoparticles (including alanine, valine, and phenylalanine-functionalized nanoparticles) were characterized by utilizing several analytical techniques. Acquired outcomes validated the successful formation of amino acid-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles. The X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy indicated that phenylalanine-based iron oxide nanoparticles exhibited high crystallinity and better fabrication, respectively, in comparison with other amino acids. This was attributed to the development of high hydrophobic interactions of the phenylalanine with the iron oxide nanoparticles. The photocatalytic efficacy of the iron oxide nanoparticles against the methylene blue was investigated by implementing two different optimization strategies (i.e., traditional one-variable-at-a-time kinetics and advanced response surface methodology). The experiment performed by using phenylalanine-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles as a photocatalyst under optimized conditions revealed that the highest efficacy of 92.91 and 97.12% was obtained by using the one-variable-at-a-time and response surface methodology approaches, respectively, indicating that the latter approach is more effective for the optimization of the understudy reactions. In terms of comparative effectiveness of the reaction parameters, the photocatalyst dose was found to be the most effective emphasizing that special emphasis should be given to this parameter when dealing with the optimization of this reaction on an industrial scale. The total organic carbon analysis further revealed that the mineralization of 90.216% was achieved under optimized reaction conditions. The prepared iron oxide nanoparticles exhibited strong photocatalytic potential for the understudy chemical reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is the most valuable resource of human civilization and other earth beings. Industrial wastes and dyes are the major threat to these water assets. Untreated industrial wastewater drained into the rivers and oceans results in the water pollution. Therefore, prior to release of these industrial effluents into natural water resources, it is necessity of time to make it environment friendly. For this purpose, various physical and chemical methods have been in practice. But, these methods are more time consuming, expensive and less effective. Consequently, in modern nanotechnology era, use of nanoparticles for the treatment of wastewater has been considered as a better option due to their excellent surface properties which facilitate the catalytic degradation of toxic dyes into environmental benign products. Thus, use of some biological materials for the successful fabrication of metal nanoparticles as well as metal oxides nanoparticles and their use as catalyst for various organic reactions are gaining attention nowadays because of their eco-friendliness nature and easy availability. Here, this review article provides the updated role played by phytocompounds present in plants extract toward the preparation of different metal and metal oxide NPs along with their use as catalyst for photo- and chemical degradation of different toxic pollutants present in water sources. Different conditions to optimize the activity of nanomaterials in cleaning water process have also been reviewed critically. Future prospective of green-synthesized nanomaterials role as water cleaner has also been enlighten here in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article encircles the adsorptive characteristics of different parts of neem biomass for the removal of heavy metal ions and dyes from the aqueous medium. Neem is easily available and exhibits different functional groups such as carboxylic and hydroxyl groups. These groups are involved in the extraction of heavy metal ions and dyes from the aqueous medium due to established electrostatic interactions. Change in the reaction conditions such as pH, adsorbate concentration, adsorbent dosage, contact time, adsorbent particles size and temperature of medium also influence the adsorptive capacity of the biomass. Due to ionization of functional groups with the change of pH, pollutants uptake capacity of biomass also changes depending upon the nature of adsorbate and adsorbent. Small particles size provides large surface area for the adsorption of pollutants from the aqueous medium due to the availability of large number of exposed active sites, while temperature change tunes the thermal properties of biomass and alternatively tunes their adsorption capacity. Among different isotherm models, neem biomass-metal adsorption phenomenon mostly follows the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Adsorption of metal ions or dyes on the surface of neem biomass follows the pseudo-second-order kinetics which illustrates the dependence of adsorption rate on the concentration of adsorbate and adsorbent. Yet, this review article also describes that neem biomass can be modified by different chemical methods to enhance the number of functional groups or active sites to increase its adsorptive potential for the pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]