Universidad Del Papaloapan

Micronutrient deficiency, or "hidden hunger", affects over 3 billion people globally, compromising health and food security, especially in developing countries.Conventional fertilizers used in agronomic biofortification often show limited nutrient use efficiency and environmental sustainability.This review analyzed recent studies on the application of nano-fertilizers enriched with Zn, Fe, Se, Cu, Co, Ni, and Si for the biofortification of edible crop parts.Nano-biofortification significantly increases nutrient concentrations in grains, fruits, and leaves.For example, foliar application of ZnO nanoparticles increased grain zinc by 82 % (54.6 mg kg^-1) in corn compared to controls.Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles improved iron content in wheat grains by up to 72 % (80 mg kg^-1).Selenium nanoparticles enhanced Se bio-accessibility in soybean sprouts, and CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles improved both bio-accessibility and safety in wheat.Nano-biofortification emerges as a promising strategy to enhance crop nutritional quality, contributing to global food and nutrition security.However, challenges such as production costs, regulatory gaps, and environmental risks must be addressed for safe and scalable implementation.

The recent discovery of new Pt-based minerals has opened up the opportunity to generate new synthetic materials. Here, geologically inspired approaches to designing and synthesizing novel platinum alloys, from ternary to high-entropy alloys (HEAs), are showcased. Empirical mathematical models of thermodynamic parameters were used to predict the formation of solid solutions with single-phase structures in the (Pt_3-xPd_x)(Cu_2-yNi_ySn) system. Five new single-phase compounds, having ordered L1₀-type structures, have been obtained at comparatively low temperatures by solid-state reactions. Two of those phases are new noble metal HEAs, (Pt₂Pd)(Cu_1.7Ni_0.3Sn) and (Pt₂Pd)(Cu_1.4Ni_0.6Sn). Additionally, other three new multiprinciple element alloys (mixture of ordered L1₀-type and disordered FCC-type structures) were also obtained. SEM/EDX measurements gave no indication of chemical inhomogeneities on a micrometer length scale. A phase diagram is proposed. All products are thermally stable at up to 1100 K, and the two-phase samples show a tendency for nitrogen absorption. The results show that using geomimetic approaches in the design and synthesis of novel materials opened new opportunities for future materials design.

Supercritical fluids are widely used in various applications, and their effectiveness depends on understanding the phase equilibrium involved in the processes.The aim of this work is to report the solid-liquid-gas (SLG) phase equilibrium for binary systems comprising carbon dioxide and a linear alkane.In this regard, the pressure-temperature SLG phase equilibrium was measured based on the enhanced first f.p. method from the f.p. of the alkane up to 37.87 MPa.The hydrocarbons studied were octadecane, eicosane, heneicosane, tricosane, tetracosane, hexacosane, dotriacontane, and hexatriacontane, whose f.p. temperatures ranged from 301 to 349.35 K.Relationships between alkane chain length and factors influencing the f.p. were identified.SLG modeling for the CO₂ + alkane systems was performed by the Peng-Robinson and Sanchez-Lacombe equations of state for the available data from octadecane to hexatriacontane.The correlated data agreed with our exptl. data with average absolute deviations lower than 0.33%, with the Sanchez-Lacombe equation yielding the lowest deviation.Standard deviations of the parameters were calculated, and their impact on the modeling was discussed.