This paper provides an insight of some of the growing number of nano-applications being researched and commercialized in nutraceuticals. Recently, number of applications in dairy and food processing, preservation, packaging and development of functional foods have become based on nanotechnology. Several critical challenges, including discovering of beneficial compounds, establishing optimal intake levels, developing adequate food delivering matrix and product formulation including the safety of the products need to be addressed. In addition the potential negative effects of nanotechnology- based delivery systems on human health need to be considered.

The rapid growth of pharmaceutical industries worldwide demands continuous development of efficient analytical techniques that help not only to detect the presence of the molecules at extremely low concentration levels, but also to detect the structure. Optical spectroscopic techniques are widely used in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing because of their speed and versatility. However, IR and Raman are relatively insensitive. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhances the weak Raman signal, thus, extending the range of available applications. This allows fast, sensitive detection of trace levels of key pharma molecules. However, the use of SERS for analysis requires substrates like silver nanoparticles. In this review, the applications of nano-substrates for SERS will be discussed. The synthesis and fabrication of nanocomposites; such as gold and silver, and nanocomposites will be highlighted. The characterization of the fabricated nanomaterials provide information on structures and properties that could help to improve and control their activity in SERS.

Nanoconfined synthesized crystalline fullerene mesoporous carbon (C60-FMC) with bimodal pore architectures of 4.95 nm and 10-15 nm pore sizes characterized by XRD, TEM, nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherm and solid-state NMR, and the material was used for protein immobilization. The solid-state 13C NMR spectrum of C60-FMC along with XRD, BET and TEM confirms the formation of fullerene mesoporous carbon structure C60-FMC. The immobilization of albumin (from bovine serum, BSA) protein biomolecule in a buffer solution at pH 4.7 was used to determine the adsorption properties of the C60-FMC material and its structural changes investigated by FT-IR. We demonstrated that the C60-FMC with high surface area and pore volumes have excellent adsorption capacity towards BSA protein molecule. Protein adsorption experiments clearly showed that the C60-FMC with bimodal pore architectures (4.95 nm and 10-15 nm) are suitable material to be used for protein adsorption.

Central nervous system (CNS) is vulnerable to various kinds of physical, chemical, metabolic or age-related insults leading to neurodegeneration. Neurodegenerative diseases either caused by aging or following trauma to the CNS results in misery for large number of people across the Globe involving high social costs for them to maintain a good life [1]. Thus, there is an urgent need to find novel solutions to reduce the burden of neurodegenerative disease induced problems in our aging populations. In this context, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is causing huge social burden for the victims as no such therapy available for them to improve their lifetime disabilities [2,3]. This is especially critical to Military personnel who are the victims of brain or spinal cord injuries during combat operations [4]. There are reasons to believe that primary CNS injury could accelerate development of AD or Parkinson’s Diseases (PD) over time apart from post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) [5]. More often our young victims could also be critical following traumatic injuries to their CNS either following motor vehicle accidents or during combat operations in the battlefield [4]. All these young and old populations require a healthy life.

It is well established that synthetic peptides containing a centrally positioned Type-I or Type-II ß-turn can form well folded peptide hairpins (1). Earlier studies from this laboratory have established that D-Pro-Xxx segments nucleate ß-hairpin structures, with formation of a central Type-II ß-turn (2). The octapeptide (Boc-Leu-Phe-Val-Aib-D-Ala-Leu-Phe- Val-OMe) is a rare example of a synthetic peptide hairpin, containing a central Type-I ß-turn. Hairpins with Type-I turns are considerably more twisted than their Type-II counterparts. The Aib-Xxx segment has also been shown to adopt a Type-I ß-turn structure, resulting in incorporation into the centre of a long synthetic, helical peptide (3) (Figures 1,2).

Future electronics technology is expected to develop from rigid to flexible devices, which requires breakthroughs in materials’ properties, especially flexibility, in combination with desirable electrical insulating, semiconducting and metallic properties. Recently emerging 2D materials such as graphene are promising for an active conductive layer in a wide spectrum of flexible electronic devices. Developing optimized dielectrics for the graphene active layer is critical for graphene applications. The advances and limitations of qualitatively different traditional dielectric metal oxide layers (high-k dielectrics Al2O3, HfO2, and ZrO2) used as a gate in graphene field effect transistors on flexible substrates are considered in the first part of the present review. Its second part analyzes properties of novel dielectric materials (h-BN, Y2O3, graphene oxide, fluorinated graphene, composite dielectrics, ion gels) used for graphene transistors. Dielectric layers fabricated from fluorinated graphene or in combination with graphene oxide are the most promising graphene based flexible and transparent electronics.

In the present study, multi wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were chemically functionalized by concentrated nitric acid refluxing for 8 hours to form acid functionalized CNTs (FCNTs). Fourier transformed infrared spectra reveal the formation of carboxylic acid (-COOH) functional groups on the surface of chemically treated CNTs. The increase in intensity of Raman spectra D band relative to G band and enhancement of oxygen to carbon ratio confirm the functionalization and formation of –COOH groups, which in turn increase the dispersibility of CNTs in water, thus rendering them solution processable. The X-ray diffraction pattern and scanning electron microscopy images confirm the structure retention of CNTs even after harsh acid treatment. These functionalized CNTs show good affinity towards cotton fibers and the surface resistivity of FCNTs coated fiber has been found to be ~ 1010 ?/square making them suitable for use as an anti-static material.