Eman M. Abd El-Monaem’s research while affiliated with Alexandria University and other places

Metal–organic frameworks are porous polymeric materials formed by linking metal ions with organic bridging ligands. Metal–organic frameworks are used as sensors, catalysts for organic transformations, biomass conversion, photovoltaics, electrochemical applications, gas storage and separation, and photocatalysis. Nonetheless, many actual metal–organic frameworks present limitations such as toxicity of preparation reagents and components, which make frameworks unusable for food and pharmaceutical applications. Here, we review the structure, synthesis and properties of cyclodextrin-based metal– organic frameworks that could be used in bioapplications. Synthetic methods include vapor difusion, microwave-assisted, hydro/solvothermal, and ultrasound techniques. The vapor difusion method can produce cyclodextrin-based metal–organic framework crystals with particle sizes ranging from 200 nm to 400 μm. Applications comprise food packaging, drug delivery, sensors, adsorbents, gas separation, and membranes. Cyclodextrin-based metal–organic frameworks showed loading efcacy of the bioactive compounds ranging from 3.29 to 97.80%.

The importance of different polymorphic forms of iron oxide nanoparticles attracted a lot of attentions in various applications due to their unique electrical, optical and magnetic properties. Moreover, the excellent biocompatibility, high surface area, spherical shape, tunable nanoscale size and the availability of synthesis route make them desirable in various biological and pharmaceutical applications. To this aim, in this review, different synthesis methods of iron oxide nanoparticles were discussed, also the main characterization techniques used for elucidation of the iron oxide nanoparticles were reviewed. The exploitation of iron oxide nanoparticles-based systems as anticancer, antiviral, antimicrobial agents and its involvement in drug delivery system were reviewed in details. Additionally, the influence of nanoparticles size and the reagent type and conditions utilized in synthesis and their pharmaceutical applications was highlighted.

During the turbulent period of COVID-19, the medical staff is exerting great efforts to preserve humanity. However, the tons of pharmaceutical residues especially antibiotics that is being disposing daily into water bodies may be the seed to an even more ferocious pandemic. Thence, it is inevitable to find out effective strategies for removing these noxious pharmaceutical residues from water. We aimed in this investigation to fabricate easy separable composite microbeads for efficient adsorption of tetracycline (TC) drug. Herein, MIL-125/MIL-53 binary metal organic framework (MOF) was synthetized and incorporated with carbon nanotube (CNT) into alginate (Alg) microbeads to form MIL-125/MIL-53/CNT@Alg composite microbeads. Various tools including FTIR, XRD, SEM, BET, Zeta potential and XPS were applied to characterize the composite microbeads. The results revealed that the adsorption of TC was augmented with rising TC proportion up to 15 wt% in the microbeads matrix. In addition, the adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order and well-fitted to Freundlich and Langmuir models with a maximum adsorption capacity of 294.12 mg/g at 25 ◦C, while the adsorption process was endothermic, randomness and spontaneous. Besides, reusability test signified that MIL-125/MIL-53/CNT@Alg composite microbeads retained admirable adsorption properties for six consecutive cycles, emphasizing its potentiality for removing of pharmaceutical residues.