Emerging trends in clinical implications of bio-conjugated silver nanoparticles in drug delivery

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. From nanopharmaceutics to renewable energy, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) present innumerable applications in the contemporary era. However, the associated toxicity to the biosystems limits their application. Effective utilization of AgNPs, therefore, requires their surface conjugation with biologically benevolent moieties that enhance the bio-acceptability of silver-based nanosystems, and supplementary functionalities for further extension of their unique applications. The clinical importance of AgNPs was established long ago, but their clinical utilization has been explored only recently with the phenomenon of bio-conjugation. The biomolecule-conjugated AgNPs present operable solutions for tedious clinical complications of the present era, such as multidrug resistance, designing of pharmaceuticals with improved bioavailability, superior drug delivery vehicles and in situ bio imaging of important metabolites that utilize the biomolecule-anchored surface engineered AgNPs. This review epigrammatically discusses some interesting clinical applications of surface conjugated AgNPs with biomolecules such as peptides, nucleic acids, amino acids and antibodies in the current nanopharmaceutical paradigm

Modulation of optical band gap and conductivity of polyindoles with concentrations of FeCl3 and APS

Conducting Polyindoles (PIn-I and PIn-II) samples were synthesized via chemical oxidative polymerization in aqueous solution at a range of concentrations (0.3–0.9 M) of anhydrous FeCl3 and Ammonium persulfate (APS) at 25 ± 1 °C. Techniques such as FTIR spectrograph confirm various bond absorptions which give the identity of PIns, the morphology has been examined by SEM and XRD, while the thermal analysis of the prepared sample was studied by employing TGA-DSC. UV–Vis spectroscopy has been used to analyze complex optical parameters like band gap, refractive index, dielectric constant, and optical conductivity. The produced PIns exhibit absorption around 340–410 nm and results in the optical band gap in the range of 2.906 to 2.929 eV for the PIn-I series (with FeCl3) and 2.673 to 2.734 eV for the series of PIn-II (with APS). The samples synthesized employing 0.3 M FeCl3 and 0.9 M APS were found to have the lowest optical band gap energies of 2.906 eV and 2.673 eV, respectively. The experimental studies reveal that the optical conductivity, particle size, and crystallinity of PIn can be optimized with the different types of oxidants and their varying concentrations. The results conclude that the oxidizing agents having high reduction potential offer better electron transport and thus lower band gap and high optical conductivity. Due to the above-mentioned optical band gaps and high environmental stability, PIns have potential applications in optical devices