Water pollution is a critical environmental issue affecting ecosystems and human health worldwide. Contaminants such as heavy metals, dyes, antibiotics, and microplastics enter water bodies from the disposals of industrial, agricultural, and domestic waste. The development of new and advanced technologies for addressing water remediation has turned out to be a dire need. Protein?inorganic hybrid materials have emerged as innovative solutions for water remediation, leveraging the unique properties of both the proteins and the inorganic components. These hybrid materials connect the biocompatibility and specificity of proteins with that of the structural stability and catalytic capability of the inorganic frameworks. In recent times, protein inorganic hybrids are gaining importance in water remediation due to their ease of synthesis and chemical modification, stability, biocompatibility and biodegradability. This article brings out the recent advancements in the development of two major kinds of protein inorganic hybrid materials, viz., metal phosphate nanoflowers and gels in the context of water purification. The effect of major factors, like, morphology, porosity, pore size and nature, surface area, and the nature of the composite were systematically compared and analyzed to make it beneficial for future researchers in the development of such hybrid materials for water remediation in a sustainable manner. For this, the article addresses the current trends and draws conclusions on future perspectives to support the topic on providing clean and potable water for everyone on the globe

An upper rim tetra-imidazolyl-phenanthroline derivatized calix[4]arene conjugate (L) has been synthesized, and characterized by different analytical, spectral, microscopy and diffraction techniques. The incubation of L with CuSO4.5H2O in PBS buffer (20 mM) for 1 h resulted in the formation of nanoflower material. The L coated copper phosphate nanoflowers (L@CuPNF) were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Powder X-ray diffraction, and by microscopy techniques. The peroxidase mimetic activity of L@CuPNF were performed and the results were compared with that of the simple CuPNF as control. The peroxidase activity has been demonstrated using three different substrates, viz., tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), ortho-phenylenediamine (OPD) and guaiacol. The progress of the oxidation reaction of the model substrates in the presence of L@CuPNF and H2O2 were demonstrated through absorption spectra measured as a function of time. The changes can be qualitatively gauged from the observed visual colour variation. The oxidized species were identified by measuring the ESI-MS spectrum of the reaction mixture. The rate of oxidation of these substrates in presence of H2O2 is higher when L@CuPNF is used as catalyst and this is much greater than the reaction rate observed with that of the simple CuPNF that were not coated with L. All this supports that the coating of L expedited the peroxidase mimetic activity of the nanoflowers

In the era of application-oriented research, laboratory to real life translation is highly regarded and in great demand. This could mean that molecular science developed for sensing and detecting a variety of chemical species awaits conversion to devices. In that, the molecular logic gates are the most promising ones where the information storage and/or data processing can be easily carried out in terms of molecular inputs and electrical response outputs. This would facilitate the simultaneous execution of a diverse array of molecular sensing functions. The recent progress in molecular logic gates based on supramolecular optical receptors, in particular, fluorescent ones, such as calixarene derivatives and carbohydrate conjugates will have a transformative impact on molecular devices and will encourage this science to yield technology. Therefore, this review provides a critical evaluation of recent publications on molecular logic gates based on the derivatives of calixarenes and glyco-conjugates, including several from our own research group, with the view that the corresponding applications are a beneficiary in laboratory-to-device translation. In addition, this review is also expected to assist young researchers in planning their research focus in the broad area of supramolecular-based logic gates targeting some specific applications.