Phytofabrication of silver nanoparticles from Limonia acidissima leaf extract and their antimicrobial,antioxidant and its anticancer prophecy

Green synthesis of nanoparticles by eco-friendly methods is a recent technique which draws the attention of researchers because of the reward over many conventional chemical methods. The present work focuses on aqueous Limonia acidissima leaf extract in synthesizing silver nanoparticles and its applications in a simple way. The silver nanoparticles formed were characterized by Infrared, Ultra violet-visible, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopic, and atomic force microscopic techniques. The powder X-ray diffraction studies and transmission electron microscopic images reveal that the silver nanoparticles synthesized were approximately 10–40 nm and have a spherical structure. The nanoparticles were assayed for their antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activity. The antimicrobial studies for the silver nanoparticles show a maximum zone of inhibition of 8.8 mm for Bacillus subtilis bacteria and 8.5 mm for Candida albicans fungi at 3 and 1 μg/mL respectively. In-silico ADMET studies reveal that the toxicity, bioactivity, pharmacokinetics and drug-likeness properties of Limonia acidissima leaf extract is good. The molecular docking studies show that the microbial activity is high for Bacillus subtilis and Candida albicans showing the coincidence of the in silico and in vitro studies as expected. The free radical scavenging activity of nanoparticles is 80 for 100 μg/mL. The 50% of inhibition of silver nanoparticles against human breast cancer cell lines is 18 μg/mL. It is evident that silver nanoparticles would be helpful in treating cancer cell lines and have great perspectives in the biomedical sector.     

Rhodium‐Catalyzed Oxidative Benzannulation of N‐Pivaloylanilines with Internal Alkynes through Dual C−H Bond Activation: Synthesis of Highly Substituted Naphthalenes

An efficient method was developed for the synthesis of highly substituted naphthalenes through rhodium‐catalyzed oxidative benzannulation of N‐pivaloylanilines with internal alkynes. The benzannulation reaction proceeded smoothly through dual C?H bond activation to produce the corresponding highly substituted naphthalene products in satisfactory to good yields.     

Effect of added donor ligands on the selective oxygenation of organic sulfides by oxo(salen)chromium(V) complexes

Oxo(salen)chromium(V) complexes, [(salen)Cr^VO]⁺, oxidize organic sulfides selectively to sulfoxides in high yield. This oxygenation reaction is catalyzed by ligand oxides (LO's), pyridine N-oxide, 4-picoline N-oxide, 4-phenyl pyridine N-oxide and triphenylphosphine oxide. The rate is accelerated by 10-20 times with an increase in yield of sulfoxide in less reaction time. This catalytic activity is highly sensitive to the nature of the substituent in the phenyl ring of ArSMe and in the 3- and 5-position of the salen ligand. The reaction constant (ρ) value obtained with the ligand oxide catalyzed reaction is low compared to the value in the absence of LO. The strong binding and catalytic activity of ligand oxides on the oxo(salen)chromium(V) ion oxygenation is explained in terms of binding constants and a mechanism involving the electrophilic attack of [(salen)Cr^VO]⁺-LO adduct on the sulfur centre of phenyl methyl sulfide.     

Kinetic stability of complex molecular clusters

This investigation is concerned with modeling the evaporation, or decay, of n-nonane molecular clusters. We use a unique cluster decay model that was first developed to estimate the decay time scale of argon clusters using molecular-dynamics simulations. In this study we seek to enhance the model so that it represents a more complex cluster decay dynamic, suitable for n-nonane clusters. Experimental measurements of nucleation rates of n-nonane droplets have been used to deduce the rate at which a molecule escapes from the cluster. Typically for an n-nonane cluster containing 40 molecules, at an experimental temperature of 225 K, the empirical decay time, which is the inverse of the decay rate, is estimated to be 50 ns. For this time scale, the direct observation of n-nonane cluster decay from a molecular-dynamics trajectory is not feasible, since decay events are so rare. However, the cluster decay model uses a combination of molecular dynamics and stochastic dynamics in order to resolve the problem associated with long decay time scales. The model is based on a Langevin treatment that views cluster decay as single-particle escape from a confining potential of mean force. It is used to predict kinetic decay times of n-nonane clusters. We discover this result differs significantly from a classically derived decay time scale determined from a continuum thermodynamic treatment of the population balance equations of clusters. However, the dynamically generated results obtained from the kinetic decay model compare more favorably than the classical results with the empirical decay times that are deduced from experimental measurements of n-nonane clusters.     

Diastereoselective synthesis and spin-dependent photodecarbonylation of di(3-phenyl-2-pyrrolidinon-3-yl)ketones: synthesis of nonadjacent and adjacent stereogenic quaternary centers

A diastereoselective procedure to obtain N-para-methoxybenzyl bis-alpha,alpha'-3-(3-phenyl-2-pyrrolidinone)yl substituted ketones with non-adjacent quaternary stereocenters, DL-2 and meso-3 was followed by a photoinduced, spin-dependent, and diastereoselective decarbonylation to give compounds DL-4 and meso-5, with adjacent all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers.     

Synthesis, spectroscopic, redox, catalytic and antimicrobial properties of some ruthenium(II) Schiff base complexes

A new series of mixed ligand semicarbazone or thiosemicarbazone complexes of Ru(II) having the general formula [RuCO(EPh₃)(B)L] (where E = P or As; B = PPh₃, AsPh₃ or Pyridine; L = dibasic tridentate ligand derived by the condensation of ethylacetoacetate/methylacetoacetate and thiosemicarbazide/semicarbazide) have been synthesized and characterized by physico-chemical, spectroscopic and electrochemical studies. A comparative study on the catalysis of oxidation of benzyl alcohol, cyclohexanol, cinnamyl alcohol, n-butanol, n-propanol and iso-butyl alcohol has been done with N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide and molecular oxygen as co-oxidants. Catalytic activity studies of the complexes in coupling reactions have been carried out. The antibacterial properties of the complexes have also been examined.     

Asymmetric induction during electron transfer mediated photoreduction of carbonyl compounds: role of zeolites

Photochemistry of 17 aryl alkyl ketones included within cation exchanged zeolites has been examined. In solution five of the 17 ketones undergo intramolecular hydrogen abstraction reaction even in the presence of a chiral amine and the rest are photoreduced to the corresponding alcohol. Within zeolites all 17 ketones yielded in presence of a chiral amine, the corresponding alcohol as the major product. When a chiral amine was used as the coadsorbent within alkali ion exchanged zeolites, enantiomerically enriched alcohol was formed in all cases. The best chiral induction was obtained with phenyl cyclohexyl ketone (enantiomeric excess: 68%). 1H-13C Cross Polarization Magic Angle Spinning (CP-MAS) experiments, with a model ketone (perdeuterated acetophenone) and chiral amine (pseudoephedrine) included within MY zeolites, suggested that the cation brings the reactant and the chiral amine closer. The role of the cation in such a process is also revealed by the computation results. The results presented here highlight the importance of a supramolecular structure in forcing a closer interaction between a reactant and a chiral inductor that could be used to achieve asymmetric induction in photoproducts.     

TSL and EPR studies of SrBPO5 doped with CeO2and co-doped with CeO2 and Sm2O3

Thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) investigations were carried out on gamma irradiated SrBPO₅ samples doped with CeO₂ and co-doped with CeO₂ and Sm₂O₃. On gamma-irradiation at room temperature, BO₃ ^2–, O₂ ^– and O^– radicals were produced. It was seen that the O^– radical ion disappeared in the sample annealed at 500 K. It is proposed that the recombination between trapped electrons and O^– radical ions results in transfer of recombination energy to the impurity centre Ce³⁺ resulting in TSL glow peak at 485 K. In the case of co-doped samples energy transfer occurs between Ce³⁺ to Sm³⁺ resulting in increase in the intensity of glow peak at 485 K.The authors are grateful to Dr. V. K. Manchanda, Head, Radiochemistry Division, BARC for his keen interest and encouragement during the course of this work.     

Effect of potassium addition on bimetallic PtSn/θ-Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> catalyst for dehydrogenation of propane to propylene

PtSn/θ-Al₂O₃ catalysts with different amounts of K (0.14, 0.22, 0.49, 0.72, and 0.96 wt%) are prepared to investigate the K effects on the PtSn catalyst in propane dehydrogenation (PDH). KPtSn catalyst with 0.xx wt% K, 0.5 wt% Pt and 0.75 wt% Sn is designated as xx-KPtSn. PDH was performed at 873 K and a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 53,000 mL/g_cat h. The temperature-programmed desorption (NH₃-TPD), temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and CO chemisorption of the KPtSn catalysts with K added revealed the potassium addition blocked the acid sites, promoted the reduction of Sn oxide and decreased the Pt dispersion. The formations of cracking products and higher hydrocarbons on acid sites were suppressed by the K effect of blocking the acid sites. In contrast, K addition at more than 0.72 wt% rather increased cracking products and the amount of coke, resulting in the severe deactivation of catalysts. The high cracking products on the KPtSn catalysts with the high amount of K should not be related to the acid sites, because the acid sites were monotonously decreased with an increase in the amount of K. Instead, the potassium affected the characteristics of PtSn. The interaction between Pt and Sn could be weakened by enriching the reduced Sn, because the K component promoted the reduction of Sn oxide in the TPR experiments. Therefore, the 14-KPtSn catalyst with the low amount of K exhibits the highest stability and selectivity among the prepared KPtSn catalysts due to the compromise of the advantageous (blocking the acid sites) and bad (weakening the interaction between Pt and Sn) effects of the K addition in PDH.