Effect of precursor pH on structural,magnetic and catalytic properties of CoFe2O4@SiO2 green nanocatalyst

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Cobalt ferrite is a promising material for many therapeutic applications, photo-catalysis, gas detectors, high-density data storage, etc. Optimization of...     

Monitoring of cephalosporin C during bioconversion

A simple method based on Schiff’s base formation betweenp-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde and cephalosporin C is developed for estimation of cephalosporin C. The calibration curve was linear up to 500 μg of cephalosporin C. The application of the method in monitoring bioconversion of cephalosporin C to glutaryl-7-amino cephalosporanic acid is described.     

Beaded reactive polymers 3 effect of triacrylates as crosslinkers on the physical properties of glycidyl methacrylate copolymers and immobilization of penicillin G acylase

Various glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) copolymers were synthesized by suspension polymerization, using pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA), trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA), and trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) as crosslinking comonomers. These copolymers were evaluated for the immobilization of penicillin G acylase. Broad pore-size distribution that was observed was in the range 5-300 nm. Both surface area and pore volume increased with increase in the mole fraction of crosslinking comonomer (increasing crosslink density). The pore volume of the copolymers was more than doubled by including lauryl alcohol as porogen. Binding of penicillin G acylase (PGA) was quantitative on highly crosslinked copolymers. The expression of bound PGA was better on the relatively more hydrophilic GMA-TMPTA and GMA-PETA copolymer supports compared to the GMA-TRIM copolymers. Among the different copolymers studied, GMA-TMPTA copolymer 7411 exhibited highest activity of immobilized penicillin G acylase (167.4 IU/g) with 35.1% expression.     

Effect of different trimethyl silylating agents on the hydrophobic and physical properties of silica aerogels

An essential feature of the ambient pressure dried aerogel manufacturing process is the end-capping of the reactive silanol groups in the silica wet gel. In this report, we have presented the effect of two different trimethyl silylating agents viz. trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) and hexamethyldisilazane (HMDZ) on the hydrophobic and physical properties of ambient pressure dried silica aerogels. The hydrogels were prepared by sol-gel processing of sodium silicate precursor (Na₂SiO₃) in the presence of acetic acid catalyst followed by vapour passing treatment and different solvent exchanging steps. The silylating agent in hexane was used for end-capping of the silanols present on the silica surface of the gel. To study silylation behavior silylating agent/Na₂SiO₃ molar ratio was varied from 2.4 to 5.6. The aerogels have been characterized by density, % of volume shrinkage, porosity, % of optical transmission, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermo-gravimetric and Differential Thermal Analysis (TG-DTA) and contact angle measurements.     

A two-sided Arnoldi algorithm with stopping criterion and MIMO selection procedure

In this paper we introduce a two-sided Arnoldi method for the reduction of high order linear systems and we propose useful extensions, first of all a stopping criterion to find a suitable order for the reduced model and secondly, a selection procedure to significantly improve the performance in the multi-input multi-output (MIMO) case. One application is in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). We consider a thermo-electric micro thruster model, and a comparison between the commonly used Arnoldi algorithm and the two-sided Arnoldi is performed.     

Synthesis of transparent silica aerogels with low density and better hydrophobicity by controlled sol–gel route and subsequent atmospheric pressure drying

In the present paper, attempts have been made to produce transparent silica aerogels with low density and better hydrophobicity by controlled sol–gel route and subsequent atmospheric pressure drying. The hydrogels were prepared by hydrolysis and polycondensation of sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃) in the presence of acetic acid catalyzed water followed by several washing steps with water, methanol and hexane, respectively. The surface modification of the wet gel was carried out using a mixture of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) in hexane. Since, the sol–gel chemistry provides a straightforward method to control the physical and optical properties of the aerogels, the influence of various sol–gel parameters viz. gel washing time, molar ratios of CH₃COOH/Na₂SiO₃ and HMDS/Na₂SiO₃ and silylation period on the physical and optical properties of the aerogels have been investigated. The aerogels have been characterized by bulk density, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric and Differential Thermal Analysis (TG-DTA), Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studies and Contact angle measurements.     

Low-cost Cu-based inorganic hole transporting materials in perovskite solar cells: Recent progress and state-of-art developments

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are rapidly approaching as promising processes toward efficient energy harvesting technologies. High cost and low environmentally stable organic hole transporting materials (HTMs) are the main hurdles in their commercial realization. Perovskite community is actively looking for inorganic HTMs which will potentially yield into a pragmatic solution. Cu-based materials, e.g. Cu-based oxides, halides, and chalcogenides exhibit features like low production cost, suitable band alignment, and high hole mobility Due to these properties, Cu-based materials are being explored as potential HTMs in PSCs. Significant efforts are contributed toward using low-cost Cu-based materials because of high chemical stability, high carrier mobility, low-cost and the possibility of developing a very simple technique. The photo-physical properties, e.g. optical electronic structure, valence band engineering, and carrier mobility are briefly discussed. Detailed insights toward understanding the development of Cu-based HTMs along with their possible pragmatic commercialization aspects are presented. This article highlights the utilization of Cu-based chalcogenide HTM and role of ternary Cu-based chalcopyrite, Pnma ternary chalcogenides, sulvanite and oxychalcogenides in the field of PSC with a brief idea about tailoring their optoelectronic properties. This article will significantly help the community toward the engineering of novel Cu-based HTMs for possible commercialization of PSC technology.