Water environment

About: Water environment is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 13384 publications have been published within this topic receiving 125138 citations.

Is the replication of somatic coliphages in water environments significant

Abstract: Somatic coliphages are amid several groups of bacteriophages that have been suggested as indicators in water quality assessment. One of the limitations frequently endorsed to somatic coliphages as indicators is that they can replicate in the water environment. This review intends to evaluate the significance of this potential replication. In view of: the threshold densities of somatic coliphages and host bacteria needed for productive infection to occur, the densities of both host cells supporting somatic coliphages replication and these phages in water environments, and the poor contribution of lysogenic induction to the free somatic coliphage numbers in water, it can be concluded that replication of somatic coliphages in waters is very unlikely. Consequently, the contribution of replication in the environment of somatic coliphages is expected to have a non-noticeable influence on the numbers of somatic coliphages detected in water environments. Thus, the replication in the environment should not be argued as a limitation to the use of somatic coliphages as indicators.

Europium-based infinite coordination polymer nanospheres as an effective fluorescence probe for phosphate sensing

Abstract: Although phosphate plays important roles in aquatic ecosystems as an indispensible nutrient, excessive levels are responsible for severe environmental issues. Hence, it is of considerable significance to develop highly sensitive and reliable probes for the detection of phosphate with the purpose of monitoring of water quality security and early-warning of eutrophication occurrence. In this work, uniform europium-based infinite coordination polymer (Eu-ICP) nanospheres are rationally constructed by a facile one-step solvothermal treatment. It is demonstrated that the newly developed sensing platform features excellent fluorescence properties, which can be efficiently quenched by the presence of phosphate ions (Pi). Typically, a good linearity exists between the decrease in fluorescence intensities and the Pi analyte content ranging from 2–100 μM, allowing the reliable determination of Pi concentration. Accordingly, the detection limit is estimated to be 0.83 μM, which is far below the detection requirement of phosphate discharge criteria in the water environment. It is noteworthy that the prepared Eu-ICP probe displays a specific recognition towards Pi, and is hardly affected by other possible existing species in natural water. More importantly, the proposed fluorescent probe can be utilized for reliable determination of Pi concentration in real water with acceptable recoveries, highlighting its feasibility in complicated environmental samples. Further research suggests that the underlying sensing mechanism is based on the strong affinity between europium centers and Pi, resulting in the collapse of the inherent structure of Eu-ICP and the corresponding fluorescence quenching. These findings show that the developed Eu-ICP probe holds great prospect in monitoring water quality and early warning of eutrophication based on the unique features associated with this simple preparation procedure, high selectivity, and excellent sensitivity.

Screening of the structural, topological, and electronic properties of the functionalized Graphene nanosheets as potential Tegafur anticancer drug carriers using DFT method.

Abstract: In the present work, we apply comprehensive theoretical calculations in order to study Tegafur drug adsorption on the nanostructured functionalized Graphene with hydroxyl, epoxide, carbonyl, and carboxyl groups in the water environment. The physical nature of Tegafur adsorption offers advantages in terms of easy desorption of anticancer molecule with no structural or electronic change of the adsorbed drug. By functionalization of Graphene nanosheet with a carbonyl group, a considerable increase on the binding energy between Tegafur drug and the nanosheet is noted. Diminish in energy gap with the adsorption of Tegafur drug on the functionalized nanosheets shows that the reactivity of functionalized complexes increases upon loading of the drug molecule. Besides, the adsorption process yields an increase of the polarity which causes the possibility of the solubility and dispersion of the considered complexes enhances. This result is indicative the suitability of the nanomaterials toward Tegafur drug delivery within the biological environments. The high solvation energy of Tegafur anticancer drug adsorbed functionalized Graphene models enforced their applicability as nanocarriers in the living system. These results are extremely relevant that the chemical modification of Graphene nanosheet using covalent functionalization scheme is an effectual approach for loading and delivery of Tegafur drug molecule within biological systems.