Current Nanomaterials

Electrospinning is a very simple, scalable and affordable technique, widely adopted to produce one-dimensional nanostructures featured by cross-sectional diameters ranging from tens to hundreds of nanometers and by tunable composition, porosity and specific surface area. It allows obtaining nanostructured materials with a large spectrum of suitably engineered physicochemical properties to meet the requirements of a wide variety of advanced applications. For this reason, electrospun nanomaterials have gathered great attention in a multiplicity of fields, including electronics, energy harvesting, generation and storage, food industry, environmental protection and remediation. They have been successfully utilized to manufacture diodes, photodetectors, field-effect transistors, electrochromic devices, solar cells, fuel cells, supercapacitors, batteries, cells for hydrogen production, piezoelectric devices, smart packaging, protective clothing, chemical, biological and gas sensors, photocatalysts for abatement of pollutants, cells for water treatment, membranes for ultrafiltration and oil-adsorption. The recent advances in the electrospinning technology have promoted the exploitation of the huge potential of the electrospun nanomaterials also in biomedicine and biotechnology. A wide range of natural and synthetic biodegradable biopolymers can be electrospun into fibrous mats with tailored properties, such as hierarchical porosity and pore interconnectivity, fiber morphology and alignment, mat texture. Functional additives can be incorporated into the spinnable solution to obtain composite fibers with enhanced performance or stimuli-responsiveness. In addition, the fiber surface can be subsequently processed to acquire further specific biochemical characteristics via the introduction of functional species. This allows obtaining polymer matrixes consisting of randomly-oriented or aligned fibers endowed with suitable requirements for application in healthcare, biopharmaceutics and biomedical engineering, as devices for wound dressing and healing, delivery and controlled release of drugs and therapeutic agents, tissue regeneration and engineering. Since its appearance in the field of biomaterials in 2001, electrospinning has been widely used in each sector of the healthcare-related sciences. Several exhaustive review papers are available in the literature illustrating the outstanding results and impressive advances achieved in the last years in biomedicine and biopharmaceutics. The mini thematic issue entitled “Frontier research applications of electrospun nanomaterials in healthcare” proposes some representative examples to highlight the recent progresses in drug delivery and wound dressing technology. A thematic issue, alone, cannot cover the plethora of biomedical and biopharmaceutical applications for which electrospun nanomaterials are nowadays designed and utilized. This mini thematic issue, including three contributions, merely aims at witnessing the incessant and increasing efforts the Scientific Community devotes to move beyond the current state of the electrospun nanomaterial technology in the field of drug delivery and wound dressing. Poly(ethylene glycol), PEG, and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), PLGA, are safe polymers very frequently utilized in the field of drug delivery. In particular, PEG-functionalized PLGA has significantly reduced systemic clearance, which is particularly important for the development of clinically relevant targeted therapies. The first article in the special issue by Fazio et al. [1] proposes the development of two new drug delivery systems based on electrospun PEGylated-PLGA scaffolds. The scaffolds are co-loaded with silibinin, a flavonolignan with promising anti-neoplastic effects, and two different types of nanoparticles (Au/Ag and Fe2O3), which render PEG-PLGA-SLB systems responsive to different external stimuli. The system PEG-PLGASLB- Au/Ag is designed to release the therapeutic agent in proximity of tumor cells under the localized photothermal effect due to the resonant absorption of visible radiation by Au/Ag nanoparticles, whereas in the system PEG-PLGA-SLB-Fe2O3 the drug delivery is driven by the magnetic field action. Both the optically- and magnetically-activated systems enable the effective and controlled release of silibinin for a definite time interval in the targeted areas. Poly(methacrylic acid), PMAA, is a biocompatible and hydrophilic material, whose carboxylic acid groups can be conjugated with bioactive substances, such as drugs, or inorganic nanoparticles. In biomedical applications, PMAA hydrogel is often utilized to fabricate carrier vessels for delivery of therapeutic cargoes. The second paper in the thematic issue by Neri et al. [2] is focused on the development of a novel smart multi-component drug delivery system, based on stimuli-responsive PMAA-Ag electrospun scaffolds, produced via an UV-enhanced two-step chemical bath process. The performance of the obtained scaffolds is for the first time evaluated in the controlled release of Sorafenib, a therapeutic agent generally used to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma, under the application of heat or light radiation with wavelength close to the Ag surface plasmon resonance. The evaluation tests lead to interesting preliminary results. Electrospun nanofibrous mats are structurally similar to the extracellular matrix in tissues, composed of fibrillar collagen. In particular, polyaniline/chitosan (PANI/CS) electrospun composite dressings are able to promote proliferation of human fibroblasts, potentially leading to the growth of new skin in wounds. They combine the inherent conductivity of PANI and antibacterial, antifungal, mucoadhesive, haemostatic and immunological properties of CS, the N-deacetylated derivative of chitin. The third paper in the thematic issue by Moutsatsou et al. [3] deals with PANI/CS dressings and the evaluation of their antibacterial properties against gram positive and gram negative bacterial strains, namely Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli, respectively. High PANI content in the PANI/CS blend utilized to spin the mats are found to result in increased bactericidal activity against both infective agents. It is my hope that the papers in this mini thematic issue will represent an interesting addition to the existing literature, serving and inspiring all Readers. I would like to express my gratitude to all the Authors for their enthusiastic participation. A special thank-you to all the Reviewers for their valuable contribution in improving the submitted papers.

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With the advent of modern technologies coupled with nanomaterials in the semiconductor industry, ample advancement in the area of optoelectronics and energy storage gadgets is on board. In this era of technology, the advanced optoelectronic devices have become an integral part of human daily activities. The use of nanomaterials can be seen in everyday life such as sensing devices, batteries, supercapacitors and solar energy materials. In order to address the energy crisis of the world, one has to address the “Terawatt challenge” as coined by Richard Smalley, the Nobel Prize winner in 1996 [1-3]. Vesborg et al. reported that not only the performance of material is important but also the selection of “right material” is critical to utilize the idea/device on an industrial scale [3]. This special issue on “Nanomaterials for Optoelectronics Energy Storage Applications” comprises dedicated reviews as well as a research article. The issue covers the experimental as well as the theoretical manuscripts in the area of interest. Ahmad et al. [4] provided an insight into the Recent Advancements in Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of NiO Nanostructures and their Supercapacitor Properties. Haq et al. [5] discussed the Electronic and Optical Properties of Various Polymorphs of ZnO for designing optoelectronic devices. Akram et al. [6] provided a timely review on the topic of Mixed Metal Oxide Composites: Synthesis and Energy Storage Related Applications. I am thankful to all the experts for their contribution to this special issue of Current Nanomaterials. Special thanks to the worthy reviewers for their valuable insight and critical reading of the manuscripts which helped to improve this special issue greatly. I would like to thank the Editor in Chief (EIC) and Editorial team for their constant support and help throughout the processing of this thematic issue.

Nanomedicine is basically the application of nanotechnologies in a healthcare setting to improve the behaviour of drug substances. Today, nanomedicines are used worldwide to improve the treatments and lives of patients suffering from a range of disorders. The nanomedicines currently available are overcoming some of the difficulties experienced by normal medical approaches. Nanomedicines, therefore, can play an important role in ensuring that drug stays in the body for long periods and is targeted specifically to the areas that need treatment. Another important area of nanotechnology/nanomedicine is diagnostics. By studying and identifying individual molecules, it is possible to diagnose disease in time to improve the prognosis for the patient. The potential scope of nanomedicine is broad, and is expected to be eventually involve all aspects of medicine. Over the coming years, the benefits of nanomedicines and new diagnostic tools will be felt by an increasing number of patients with considerable impact on global health. Purva Thatai and Bharti Sapra in “In vitro and ex vivo antifungal potential of formulations containing terbinafine hydrochloride against Candida albicans” showed the in vitro antifungal activity of the developed formulations determined by cup and plate method using Candida albicans. The in vivo investigations involved histological and culture recovery studies after treating the infected animals with different formulations. The results of in vitro studies were found to be in consonance with the findings of in vivo results, which further elucidates the potential of both the developed formulations in the management of onychomycosis. Sunil Khatak and Harish Dureja in “Structural composition of solid lipid nanoparticles for invasive and non– invasive drug delivery” discussed that lipid nanoparticles are able to promote the site of effective delivery, improve bioavailability with minimizing absorption variability in GIT. The SLNs have various advantages over traditional dosage forms such as drug protection and decrease the danger of acute and chronic toxicity. The selection of structural components for SLNs has a significant impact on the development of new therapeutic, diagnostic, and/or theranostic approaches. Canchi et al. in “Design and characterization of polymeric nanoparticles of pioglitazone hydrochloride and study the effect of formulation variables using QbD approach” prepared and characterized the polymeric nanoparticles of Pioglitazone using ɛ-polycaprolactone and studied the effect of various formulation parameters on nanoparticles characteristics. Drug loaded polymeric nanoparticles were produced by nanoprecipitation method, using PCL polymer and pluronic as surfactant. Various process and formulation parameters such as rate and time of stirring, polymer content, surfactant concentration, drug loading were optimized using the factorial design (QbD) approach and reported that polymer-surfactant ratio plays an important role in the design of nanostructure. I want to express my sincere gratitude and appreciations to all who kindly contributed, patiently waited for the peerreviewed, and revised the manuscripts for this special issue to sustain the high quality of this journal. I sincerely acknowledge the editorial board’s productive and appropriate reviews and all the support to publish this special issue. I owe special thanks to Mr. Sarosh Alam for untiring hard work to make the publication of this special issue possible. I hope that all of you will enjoy reading this mini thematic issue.

Nanotechnology is one of the state-of-the-art research areas in the field of engineering. Nanomaterial is being used in several fields of engineering research owing to their exceptional chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. One of the applications of nanotechnology is Nano medicine which ranges from targeted drug delivery through nanomaterial to Nano electronic biosensors. Nano fluidics for efficient heat transfer is another major research area. Nanomaterial integrated MEMS based sensor is also drawing attention of researchers all over the world. Nano composites are already used commercially in various sport products such as tennis racket, bicycles etc. Nanotechnology is being used for fabricating flexible electronic circuit and wearable conductive fabrics. Fuel cells, solar cells and batteries are some of the other major areas where nanotechnology is being useful. More researches are being carried out using nanomaterial in the field of optics, bio and environmental engineering. The main objective of this thematic issue is to present current researches related to nanomaterial. The title of this thematic issue is “Advanced nanomaterial synthesis and their applications for engineering research”. The main topics that have been covered under this issue are as follows, 1. Nano material synthesis and characterization 2. Application of Nanomaterials for manufacturing processes. Dr. Yose et al. [1] contributed to this issue by reporting his study on the improvement of mechanical property of Polyacitic Acid by blending it with blended with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and then filled with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Prof. Ibrahim et al. [2] contributed a research article on the study of Nano-encapsulation of Proteins and Peptides. Finally, Prof. Yeakub et al. contributed a [3] research paper discussing the application of nano fluid as a dielectric medium on machining of Zirconia by Micro Electro Discharge Machining process. I take this opportunity to thank all the researchers for contributing to this special issue of the journal. I would also like to thank all the reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscripts. I would like to thank the Editor in Chief (EIC) for accepting the proposal of this thematic issue.

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