Nanomaterials are the most promising materials for different applications, including biotechnology, life sciences, agriculture, drug delivery, and other research areas. In the field of life sciences, plant and algae growth is an evolving discipline for the agricultural field. It is estimated approximately 40% of crops are damaged annually due to the uncontrolled growth of plants. Therefore it is essential to overcome such challenges, different nanoparticles (NPs) as nutrients are urgently required to develop plants and algae. This chapter covers the impact of various NPs on the growth of seeds and plants. In addition, the molecular interaction of NPs with chloroplast of both species has also been covered.

The development of industrialization and urbanization is responsible for contaminating water resources by releasing uncontrolled pollutants. The development of benign technologies has become the most urgent to conserve water resources. In view of this, the application of nanotechnologies deals with the decontamination of wastewater. Nanobiotechnology has a potential scope and could be utilized as bio-adsorbents to remove the various emerging contaminants such as heavy metals, drugs, and microbes, control release of fertilizers, and other biodiversity-related problems from wastewater. Owing to have tunable structural properties including high surface area, adsorption ability, chemical and thermal stability, the bio-adsorbents demonstrate efficient performance towards wastewater remediation. The present chapter covers the potential role of various bio-synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) in developing bio-adsorbents, structural properties, and application in wastewater treatment. This chapter also compiles the future prospects of nanobiotechnology, and conclusions are discussed in the proceeding units.

The everlasting need for safe drinking water, increasing maintenance costs, consumption of energy, and depletion of natural reserves have forced environmentalists and technologists to develop efficient techniques and suitable devices, which help in meeting global challenges. Therefore, the development of cost-effective sus-tainable porous polymer composite-based adsorbent and membrane sieves, and their use in wastewater treat-ment and other applications, have enormously attracted the interest of industrialists and researchers. The scalability, porosity, tunable surface chemistry, low environmental footprints, and functionalization of porous structures of composite adsorbent and membrane sieves have further enhanced the scope of their potential application in the field of wastewater and other environmental remediation. However, to achieve a deep un-derstanding of their properties, processing, and applications a comprehensive exhaustive literature survey was conducted to report their brief history, classifications, bulk structural characteristics, designing strategies, and principles. The literature related to the construction of various advanced polymer sieves and other aspects of nanocomposite porous adsorbents and membrane sieves has also been discussed. In addition, the chemistry and mechanism involved in molecular separation through various polymer sieves are further reported. The strength of the present review is an attempt to cover the deep insights on sustainable porous adsorbent and membrane sieves, which has not been discussed earlier. The future scopes in relevance of the adsorbent and membrane sieves have also been covered.

Silica aerogels have piqued the interest of researchers because of their distinct nanoporous networks, composed of interconnected silica nanoparticles and high-volume nanosized pores. They are produced using the "sol-gel" process, which involves precursor preparation, gelation, aging, and drying and is a reliable process for making silica aerogels. The hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity of silica aerogels can be attributed to either the synthesis process or the surface silanol groups. Silica aerogels used in marketable and high-tech engineering applications such thermal insulation, separation, coatings, sensing, and catalysis due to their unique features. This article highlights silica aerogels' intrinsic properties, potential applications, and recent scientific advances. Moreover, it provides an overview of the synthesis, processing, and recent applications of aerogels in air purification, such as CO2 capture and VOC removal, and in water treatment, including the removal of oil and toxic organic com-pounds and heavy metal ions. Significant features of the science behind these applications are described, and when relevant, critical issues affecting aerogel application are noted.

Environmental protection from ever-increasing pollution represents the most formidable challenge in this era of technological expansion. With the aim of efficient monitoring and detection of hazardous pollutants, various rapid and effective sensory devices have been designed. The newly emerged 2D nanomaterials, beyond graphene, such as transition metal compounds (TMDs, TMOs, etc.), MXenes, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), phosphorene are some good candidates to serve as efficient sensing platforms as they possess superior physicochemical characteristics which are necessary for sensing applications. Additionally, they provide flexibility toward the modern fabrication technology required to fulfill the demand for next-generation high-performance electrochemical sensors. The mass and electron transport kinetics of 2D nanocomposite electrodes and their interaction mechanism with analytes is mainly governed by electrical conductivity, electrochemical activity, surface chemistries, and active sites. In this chapter, the recent advancements in 2D nanomaterials-based electrochemical sensors for the monitoring of air and water quality have been overviewed. The underlying working principles of different electrochemical sensing techniques followed by the key factors responsible for selectivity and sensitivity are outlined. Then, the performance of different 2D nanocomposite-based electrochemical sensors, in particular, for the detection of various hazardous gases, heavy metal ions, and other inorganic/organic contaminants, etc., have been highlighted.

Over the last few decades, antifouling, protein rejection, and oil-water separations have become a challenge to technologists and environmentalists. In view of this, the proposed work reports formulation, characterization of facile hydrophilic chitosan-graphene oxide modified sustainable non-woven fabric-based sieve membranes (NWF@Cs/Gx) along with their application for antifouling, protein rejection, and multigrade oil-water emulsions separation studies. The surface morphology, diameter size of the fibers, and elemental analysis of the same were characterized with high-resolution microscopes (SEM), EDAX, and spectroscopically. The hydrophilicity of these membranes was investigated using contact angle and water uptake studies that exhibited pure water flux up to 165 L.m(-2).h(-1). These studies further confirmed the multigrade oil/water emulsions separation with 98% efficiency and more than 96% protein (Bovine Serum Albumin) rejection. These studies suggest that the formulated membranes may find application in the field of environmental, biological, and petroleum-based industries.(c) 2022 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vegetable oils (VOs) are superabundant, economic, nontoxic, and biodegradable resource, which are applied for surface coatings for the last two decades. Moreover, the adaptation of the ultramodern techniques coupled with the VOs-based sustainable polymers in the field of surface coatings shows an outstanding physicochemical, physicomechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. On account of this, the present chapter focuses on the classifications, properties, and modifications of the sustainable polymers. Past decade, the theory of environment friendly, solventless, UV curable, waterborne (WB), and hyperbranched (HPs) coatings that are developed from sustainable resources have been discussed. The chapter further highlights the modification of VO-based polymers and their nanocomposites for enduring sustainable and green future. Moreover, the future scopes of these polymers have also been discussed in detail.

The herbicide 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) affects the environment through its moderate toxicity in water bodies and caused water pollution. The aim of this study is to investigate the degraded amount of traditionally used low-cost herbicide e.g.2,4-D from the water by using kinetic parameters with the help of a cost- effective new photo-catalyst Graphene-Polyindole nanocomposites (Gr-PIn NC). This nanocomposite (NC) synthesized by using the sol-gel technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscope (SEM) spectroscopy, which reveals the amorphous character and dispersed form of Polyindole on Graphene layers. Furthermore, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR)-spectra confirm the vibrations phenomenon in polyindole due to the presence of pi-pi (π-π) interactions of graphene carbon double bonds (C=C) between Graphene layers. The Gr-PIn NC rate constant results exhibited almost 99% promising photodegradation efficiency for 2,4-D herbicide in presence of UV-vis. light irradiation via production of highly reactive oxygen species and, where synthesized nanocomposite shows its efficiency as twice than the pure polyindole polymer.

Present work mainly deals with the buckling analysis of inter-ply hybrid composite plate which is made by the combination of one natural and two synthetic unidirectional fabrics and epoxy resin. Finite element method is used to predict the buckling behavior of composite plate with [(0/90)3]S , [(45/-45)3]S , [(30/-60)3]S symmetrical and [(0/90)3]US , [(45/-45)3]US , [(30/-60)3]US un-symmetrical ply orientation and FCA, FAC, CFA, CAF, AFC and ACF ply sequence (order) . Modelling and analysis of composite plate are performed in ANSYS 16.0 software to determine the best ply orientation and sequence of ply under buckling case. It is concluded that symmetric [(0/90)3]s ply orientation and CAF ply sequence is best suited for buckling of composite plate

Nanoporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are three-dimensional porous lattices of inorganic-organic linkers. These materials have tunable physiochemical properties such as high porosity, crystalline nature, chemical, thermal and mechanical stability as well. The fabrication of different MOFs can be approached by synthetic modification methods for instance modulated synthesis and post-synthetic modification. Synthetic modifications develop most stable functionalized MOFs materials, which play the most promising role in different fields such as gas separation, catalysis, gas storage, water treatment, and other different applications.

Present work mainly deals with the bending analysis of inter-ply hybrid composite plate which is made by the combination of one natural and two synthetic unidirectional fabrics and epoxy resin. Finite element method is used to predict the bending behavior of composite plate with [(0/90)(3)](s), [(45/-45)(3)](s),[(30/60)(3)](s) symmetrical and [(0/90)(3)](US) [(45/-45)(3)](US), [(30/-60)3](US) un-symmetrical ply orientation and FCA, FAC, CFA, CAF, AFC and ACF ply sequence (order). Modelling and analysis of composite plate are performed in ANSYS 16.0 software to determine the best ply orientation and sequence of ply under three point bend test on the basis of total deformation.It is concluded that symmetric [(0/90)(3)], ply orientation and CAF ply sequence is best suited for bending of composite plate in terms of lowest total deformation.