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Various industries such as textile, leather, and paper mills discharge huge amount of industrial effluents to the environment containing unconsumed dyes and toxic heavy metal ions which are very harmful and carcinogenic in nature. The increase in water pollution is adversely impacting the ecosystems and human health. Now, it has become a great challenge to treat the contaminated water/wastewater. Photocatalysis and adsorption are the two techniques gaining significant attention for the removal of toxic pollutants from wastewater effectively. In this regard, metal oxide-based nanomaterials and their composites have gained profound attention in photocatalytic degradation as well as adsorptive removal of toxic pollutants from water due to their chemical reactivity, higher surface area, regeneration efficiency, ample adsorption sites, intriguing photocatalytic activity, and cost-effectiveness. However, the conventional methods, employed to synthesize these metal oxide nanocomposites, involve the use of toxic chemicals which again produce secondary pollutants. Among all biological materials, the use of plant biomolecules is found to be the most effective way to synthesize stable nanomaterials, as the phytoconstituents of plants act as reducing, capping, and stabilizing agent. It is experimentally proved that bio-based nanocomposites have tremendous potential towards the degradation of environmental pollutants. Thus, there is a great need to work on the synthesis of some novel plant-based metal oxide nanocomposites and their applications in the field of water treatment. This review mainly discusses the metal oxide nanocomposites synthesized using plant specimens and their various applications towards treatment of water/wastewater.

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In this article, the biosorption of Holmium(III) from aqueous solution was carried out using both raw and acid-treated bark powder of Mangifera indica as bio-sorbents and the results are being compared. Batch experiments were conducted by varying different reaction parameters such as metal concentration, biomass dosage, pH of the metal solution and contact time. The results showed that the acid-treated biomass exhibited higher percentage removal of the metal ion Ho(III) i.e. 93.44% than the untreated bark powder using two times lesser amount of treated bark powder than the untreated one. Kinetics, isotherm and thermodynamic studies of adsorption were carried out. Kinetics of the adsorption process follows the linear form of a pseudo-second-order model. The negative values of Gibbs free energy change (ΔG ◦) indicate the spontaneity of the adsorption process and the positive value of enthalpy change (ΔH ◦) suggests it as an endothermic process. Out of four isotherm models, the equilibrium data were well described by Langmuir adsorption isotherm conforming monolayer coverage. The results suggested that acid-treated bark powder of M. indica can be used as a cost-effective and efficient bio-adsorbent for the adsorption of Holmium(III).

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We designed an electrospinning synthesis protocol to obtain in situ, the mesoporous TiO2 nanofibers, which are surface-decorated with plasmonic AuAg nanoparticles (AuAg-mTNF-H). Such alloy nanoparticles are found to be partially exposed on the surface of the nanofibers. Characterization by HRTEM and EDS confirmed the formation of 1:1 AuAg alloy nanoparticles on the surface of TiO2 nanofibers with heterojunction at the interfaces. On the basis of electron microscopic characterization, we proposed that, during the formation of the nanofibers, the incorporated metal ions with surface capping of negative charges migrated toward the outer surface of the nascent fibers under the influence of high positive voltage required for electrospinning. As a result, after the subsequent thermal treatment, the crystallization of TiO2 nanofibers and the formation of alloy nanoparticles took place, leading to the formation of a deep heterojunction through partial embedment of the nanoparticles. The formation of AuAg alloy also restricted the oxidation of Ag, thus making the nanoparticles highly stable in ambient condition. Accordingly, such unique AuAg-mTNF-H photocatalyst shows strong light absorption property covering the entire range of visible wavelengths with stability. The solar light harvesting property of AuAg-mTNF-H was verified by monitoring solar light induced H2 evolution via water splitting and photodecomposition of MB. In both the cases AuAg-mTNF-H showed excellent H2 evolution and photodecomposition of dye.

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In this paper, we have used HDTMA-Br- and NaOH-treated bark powder of Mangifera indica as bio-sorbents for the removal of dysprosium (III) from its aqueous solution. The adsorption process was investigated at different experimental parameters such as contact time, temperature, pH, adsorbent dose, and initial metal concentration. The amount of chemically modified bark powder required was almost two times lesser than raw bark to get a higher percentage removal of the metal ion. The kinetics results revealed the adsorption process follows the nonlinear form a pseudo-second-order model. The negative values of Gibbs free energy change (∆G°) indicated the spontaneity of the adsorption process. The enthalpy change (∆H°) and entropy change (∆S°) of adsorption were 60.97 kJ/mol and 0.48 J/mol K, respectively signified it as an endothermic process. The maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 55.04 mg/g for sorption of Dy (III) on NaOH-treated bark powder and was better fitted to Langmuier model. It was confirmed to follow physisorption process and the activation energy of the system was found to be 41.07 kJ/mol. The possibility of adsorbent and adsorbate interactions were indicated by the FTIR and SEM/EDX analysis.

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The high demand for rare earth elements (REEs) used in various advanced materials implies demand for increased production of REEs or the recycling of solutions to recover the REEs they contain. In this study, the biosorption of Pr(III) from aqueous solution by bark powder of Terminalia arjuna was examined in a batch system as a function of metal concentration, biosorbent dosage, pH and contact time. Results showed that T. arjuna bark powder has a high affinity for adsorbing Pr(III): more than 90% at pH 6.63. The adsorption of Pr(III) by T. arjuna bark powder was investigated by the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models. The kinetics of the biosorption process was tested with pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models, and the results showed that the biosorption process was better fitted to the pseudo-second-order model. From Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis, it is confirmed that the biomolecules of T. arjuna bark powder are involved in the biosorption process of Pr(III) metal ions.

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A deoxy lupane triterpene carboxylic acid, lup-20(29)-en-24-oic acid (1), was isolated from the active chloroform extract of Finlaysonia obovata, a latex exuding mangrove plant. Its structure was evaluated on the basis of different spectroscopic methods, including extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. Lup-20(29)-en-24-oic acid (1) has shown moderate antimicrobial activity, against some fish pathogens.

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The antibacterial screening of extracts of the leaves of Finlaysonia obovata with hexane, chloroform and alcohol was carried out against fresh water fish pathogenic bacteria viz., Micrococcus Sp. (multidrug resistant strain), Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Vibrio alginolyticus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia Coli, Edwardsiella tarda by disc-assay method. The hexane and chloroform extracts were found active against four and five pathogens, respectively. The highly active chloroform extract was taken up for fractionations, further screening and isolation of secondary metabolites by chromatographic techniques. The triterpene acid Urs-3beta-hydroxy-12-en-27-oic acid (3), which is very rarely found from plant sources is isolated first time from this plant along with known compounds; Lupeol acetate (1) and beta-Sitosterol (2). This article presents for the first time all the spectral data for Urs-3beta-hydroxy-12-en-27-oic acid (3), which showed moderate activity against four pathogens. This is the first report of antibacterial activity of a triterpene against fish pathogens.

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