Handwriting analysis in forensic science is employed to ascertain whether a questioned document was produced by the same person or to identify individual characteristics. Recently, a significant number of students have increasingly devoted their time to using electronic devices and writing through offline or online applications, potentially influencing their handwriting style. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of Latin handwriting among female students and compare handwriting styles between two different levels of education at Kolej PERMATA Insan. Therefore, 40 female student’s handwriting were analysed based on five characteristics: i-dot shape, letter slanting, shape and size of letters, as well as t-position. As result, no significant differences were found in any of these characteristics between the first year and fifth year students. These findings suggest that handwriting among female students at Kolej PERMATA Insan remains consistent across different batches. This consistency may be influenced by the educational preparation for the examination and peer influence.

As the world has grown in the field of technology, science, education and modernism, many countries have started to educate the young generation about the necessity of knowledge in terms of nanotechnology. In Malaysia, the Ministry of Education has developed a new syllabus in educating secondary level students (Form 1 to Form 5 within age from 13 to 17 years old) called Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah (KSSM). In KSSM, Form 5 students are exposed to nanotechnology in Chemistry subject, an elective subject studied by pure science students. The main objective in introducing this topic is to educate the young generation of the importance of nanotechnology in daily life. Therefore, this study was conducted in order to measure the level of nanotechnology awareness in Kolej GENIUS Insan’s students. The data was collected from 268 students by using online survey form. The results briefly indicated that 72% of respondents agree that they do not receive enough exposure to have a good understanding of nanotechnology. However, 59% of respondents perceive that nanotechnology provides high benefits while 3% believe that this will provide high risks in industry. Moreover, apart of the good efforts of Ministry of Education in including nanotechnology in KSSM syllabus, several ways that were suggested by the respondents to increase the awareness and exposure level of nanotechnology also will be discussed in detail.

Thin film based on gold nanoparticles or AuNPs is typically used as catalyst in the industrial processes due to their high stability and good reusability. In this work, a thin AuNPs-silica composite film was fabricated firstly from sol-gel method by mixing gold(I) pyrazolate complex to medium comprised of ethanol, deionized water, and hydrochloric acid, followed by addition of tetrabutyl orthosilicate as silica source. Next, 70 μL of the sol-gel solution were spin-coated on several type of substrates such as glass, anodized aluminium oxide or AAO, and combination of both to yield gold complex/silica composite thin film. It was found that gold complex/silica composite film fabricated on combination of both AAO-glass substrate gave the best quality based on its surface thickness, layer uniformity and film brittleness. Later, the thin film was selected and subjected to thermal hydrogen reduction at 210 °C for 2 hours to facilitate the formation of gold nanoparticles to give AuNPs/silica_AAO-glass film. Before the heat treatment, the light-brownish colour of the original gold complex/silica_AAO-glass film in daylight will appear as a pinkish red film under UV light, suggesting the interaction between gold atoms as supported by its luminescence spectrum at 692 nm. Upon heat treatment, the resulting AuNPs/silica_AAO-glass film gave a deep-red colour indicating the successful formation of AuNPs. The presence of AuNPs in the film was further confirmed based on its absorption peak at 545 nm, X-ray diffraction pattern at 2θ= 38.20º for d111plane in wide-angle region, transmission electron microscopy images showing a small and sphere shape particles as well as its elemental composition in energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Moreover, scanning electron microscope images of AuNPs/silica_AAO-glass film also suggested that the AAO pores is fully filled with the composite and is in accordance with its surface roughness study via atomic force microscopy analysis.

Metal nanoparticles such as silver and gold with a particle size between 1 to 100 nm can exhibit size-related properties that make it suitable in various applications such as sensors, catalysis, medical and others. For synthesis of metal nanoparticles, common techniques such as photo-catalytic reduction, solvothermal methods and reduction using chemicals not only found to be costly but also consume a significant usage of toxic and hazardous chemicals. Therefore, the need for a ‘greener’ approach that utilize eco-friendly materials (organisms like plants) and processes must be implemented in order to solve this issue. In this study, we aim to use a plant extract from local Sabah tea (Camellia Sinensis) as a reducing agent for synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles. For the preparation of tea extract (Camellia Sinensis), water will be used as the solvent where thetea will be simply immersed and boiled in the water for 20 minutes. For synthesis of silver nanoparticles, the resulting tea extract will be directly added to silver nitrate and gold(III) chloride solution to allow the reduction of Ag(I) to Ag(0) and Au(III) to Au(0) to take place respectively. The successful synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles will be observed based primarily on any physical colour changes. Future studies will involve the potential application of the synthesized metal nanoparticlesin catalytic applications such as degradation of 4-nitrophenol commonly found in industrial wastewater.

Recent advances in the field of biomedical have been remarkably achieved in the last few years, especially in the fabrication of nanomaterials that have various applications. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are carbon-based materials with cylindrical shapes that have an average diameter of less than 2 nanometre (nm) for single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) and multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) with average diameters up to 100 nm. CNTs demonstrate various outstanding and excellent mechanical, electrical, conductivity, thermal properties, high surface area, and high biocompatibility. These remarkable properties have led to the development of CNTs-based materials in the biomedical field. For the past decades, the functionalization of CNTs has been actively researched in order to increase their biocompatibility for application in antibacterial materials, dentistry, drug delivery, and biosensing. The surface functionalization enhances the capabilities, features, and properties by modifying the surface chemistry of CNTs to improve their biocompatibility. The functionalization of CNTs will enable the biomolecule loading on the surface of CNTs, and thus can be used for drug delivery for targeted cells or immobilization support. In this review, we discuss the related literatures on biomedical applications of CNTs such as antibacterial, dental materials, cancer therapy and biosensors from 2007 – 2022. We also review the antibacterial properties between SWCNTs and MWCNTs, functionalized CNTs-reinforced nanocomposite for dental applications, and the ability of CNTs to work as nanocarriers to deliver drugs directly to cancer cells. Moreover, the applications of CNTs-based biosensors in detecting biological and biomedical compounds are also discussed.

The scientific investigation based on the molecular design of aromatic compounds for high-performance chemosensor is challenging. This is because their multiplex interactions at the molecular level should be precisely determined before the desired compounds can be successfully used as sensing materials. Herein, we report on the molecular design of chemosensors based on aromatic structures of benzene as the organic motif of benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamides (BTA), as well as the benzene pyrazole complexes (BPz) side chain, respectively. In the case of BTA, the aromatic benzene acts as the centre to allow the formation of π–π stacking for one-dimensional materials having rod-like arrangements that are stabilized by threefold hydrogen bonding. We found that when nitrate was applied, the rod-like BTA spontaneously formed into a random aggregate due to the deformation of its hydrogen bonding to form inactive nitroso groups for non-optical sensing capability. For the optical chemosensor, the aromatic benzene is decorated as a side-chain of BPz to ensure that cage-shaped molecules make maximum use of their centre providing metal-metal interactions for fluorescence-based sensing materials. In particular, when exposed to benzene, Cu-BPz displayed a blue-shift of its original emission band from 616 to 572 nm (Δ = 44 nm) and emitted bright orange to green emission colours. We also observe a different mode of fluorescence-based sensing materials for Au-BPz, which shows a particular quenching mechanism resulting in 81% loss of its original intensity on benzene exposure to give less red-orange emission (λ = 612 nm). The BTA and BPz synthesized are promising high-performance supramolecular chemosensors based on the non-optical and optical sensing capability of a particular interest analyte.

Synthesis of metal nanoparticles using a green synthesis method has received much attention due to their cost effective and environmental-friendly method. In this work, we aim to synthesize metal nanoparticles such as silver nanoparticles by using ethanolic plant extract of Striga Asiatica(Jarum Mas). Recent works have shown that extract of Striga Asiaticaand Polygala Paniculata contains phytochemical compounds such as carbohydrate and flavonoids that may act as reducing agent for synthesis of silver nanoparticles. For the preparation of ethanolic plant extract, 6 g of fresh Striga Asiaticawas dried and grinded before being subjected to Soxhlet extraction. Later, the ethanolic plant extract will be mixed with water before being added to silver nitrate solution to allow the synthesis of silver nanoparticles to occur. Any observable colour change to the reaction mixture will be observed. The experimental procedure was repeated for preparation of Polygala Paniculataethanolic extract and synthesis of nanoparticles. Nevertheless, it is also very interesting to explore the potential of the collected these ethanolic plant extract as reducing agent for synthesis of other metal nanoparticles such as gold or copper nanoparticles using the same reaction procedure in future.

Gold(I) pyrazolate complex ([Au3Pz3]C10TEG) has been widely studied due to its interesting liquid crystalline properties by exhibiting the discotic hexagonal columnar arrangement. Generally, the liquid crystalline properties of the gold complex were confirmed based on their differential scanning calorimetry thermogram and polarized optical microscopy (POM) images. However, there is still no in-depth study on the phase transition in liquid crystals of [Au3Pz3]C10TEG especially on its structural change at variable temperature. In this study, the resulting liquid crystalline properties of [Au3Pz3]C10TEG upon being heated and cooled was extensively demonstrated via variable-temperature POM (VT-POM) and small angle X-ray scattering (VT-SAXS). Based on the VT-POM images, it was indicated that [Au3Pz3]C10TEG displayed a fan-shaped texture for typical arrangements of discotic hexagonal columnar of liquid crystals. Moreover, VT-SAXS results was in good agreement with the VT-POM images as it showed that [Au3Pz3]C10TEG might consist of two types of stacking system, which are ordered and disordered hexagonal discotic arrangements. Likewise, VT-SAXS analysis also demonstrated that hexagonal columnar mesophase of [Au3Pz3]C10TEG could be recovered even after the heating and cooling for two cycles.