Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) are produced endogenously in our body, or introduced through external factors, such as pollution, cigarette smoke, and excessive sunlight exposure. In normal conditions, there is a physiological balance between pro-oxidant species and antioxidant molecules that are able to counteract the detrimental effect of the former. Nevertheless, when this homeostasis is disrupted, the resulting oxidative stress can lead to several pathological conditions, from inflammation to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we report on the recent developments of different polymeric formulations that are able to reduce the oxidative stress, from natural extracts, to films and hydrogels, and finally to nanoparticles (NPs).

produce potable water, [2] to substitute the current technologies. The available technologies require large centralized infrastructure and high energy consumption limiting their applicability especially in the offshore areas, small villages, or remote off-grid regions. [3] A valuable alternative for an effective, low-cost, and easy to implement technology for potable water production has been recently demonstrated to be solar steam generation. [4] In this process, solar energy is exploited to generate steam from the water through a photothermal process, by using diverse porous materials based on plasmonic, [5] semiconductors, [6] and carbon-based systems, [7][8][9] which are able to absorb solar light and efficiently transform it into heat. [5,7] Carbon-based materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, or nanofibers are widely used as components of porous materials for a solar steam generation because of their broad light absorption, good stability, and large surface area. [10,11] Nevertheless, these materials are typically expensive, their fabrication involves noxious chemicals (e.g., the liquid-phase exfoliation process), and their production and handling present diverse difficulties. [10,11] Alternatively, biobased, [9,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] and food-waste [16,[20][21][22] carbonized materials have been successfully prepared following straightforward methods, resulting in cost-effective materials with favorable properties for an ideal photothermal system. In fact, they possess an outstanding ability of light absorption, highly porous structure and hydrophilicity, and good photothermal properties, all essential for efficient solar-driven steam production. [12,13] Therefore, due to their inherent properties, biowaste materials have a huge potential to be successfully used in this application and their further processing and exploration are continuously growing. [23] In fact, apart from their favorable properties, carbonized biobased materials are economical and are available in great abundance, making this approach an optimal sustainable solution to counter the forthcoming water shortage problem.Animal bone is categorized among the most abundant biowaste materials. According to a recent report, the global meat industry produces 130 billion kg of animal bone per annum with over 10% produced in the European Union. [24] The animal bone's composition is a valuable source for the development of diverse materials for advanced applications. Specifically, bone is Interfacial solar steam generation is an emerging strategy to improve the global freshwater supply. Herein, for the first time, a plausible alternative based on bone waste is presented for low-cost solar steam generation and seawater desalination. This is accomplished via the exploration of the appropriate carbonization conditions for the successful bone transformation into a porous carbonbased photothermal material. The carbonized bone (CB) not only is composed of inherent interlinked mesoporous microchannels for efficient water transportation but ...

Agricultural pesticides can become persistent environmental pollutants and their use is destined to be reduced. Consequently, weed control is shifting to green products and strategies. A combined approach, made of pelargonic acid based herbicide spraying and interspecific competition (i.e. seeding of plants species competing for growth against weeds) could boost the weeding effect. In case of the contemporary seeding and spraying, needed to reduce costs, seed coating is necessary as barrier to herbicide toxic effects but, at the same time, the coating has to be endowed with the right features to allow germination. This work aims to verify the feasibility of using cellulose acetate/cardanol (CA/Card) as seed coating polymer–plasticizer blend and to identify possible relationship between material features and germination rate. For these purposes, untreated and pelargonic acid herbicide treated coated seeds coated through solvent evaporation methods (CA/Card ratios from 0/0 to 100/0) were subjected to germination test. Coatings were characterized through SEM, EDX, media uptake, DSC and mechanical analysis with and without conditioning in seeding conditions. Germination test showed that 70/30 seeds, treated and untreated with herbicide, presented the best germination rate. Germination assays showed that coating presence reduced and slowed (without stopping) seeds germination equally with and without herbicide treatment. Consequently, was possible to conclude that CA/Card coatings allowed germination and presented a barrier effect against herbicide. Thus coating resulted suitable for seed coating in herbicide spraying/interspecific combined applications. No strong correlations were found between material features and germination, but it is plausible to hypothesize that both water absorption and mechanical properties of the coating play an important role and have to be optimized to improve germination rate avoiding difficulty in sprouting. Finally, the study opened a new perspective in the use of cellulose acetate for seed coating from waste sources such as cigarette filters. Graphic Abstract