An effective nanocomposite of polyaniline and ZnO: preparation,characterizations, and its photocatalytic activity

The polyaniline/zinc oxide (PANI/ZnO) nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization of aniline monomer with ZnO nanomaterials and applied as a photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye. The morphological observations elicited the agglomerations of PANI sheets which occurred due to the interaction between PANI and ZnO nanomaterials in PANI/ZnO nanocomposites. As compared to pristine PANI, the UV–vis spectra exhibited that the absorption peak of π–π* transitions considerably shifted to higher wavelength at 360 nm from 325 nm in the nanocomposites. The photocatalytic activity results indicated the substantial degradation of MB dye by ~76% over the surface of PANI/ZnO nanocomposite catalyst under light illumination. The PANI/ZnO nanocomposites showed three times higher photocatalytic activity to MB dye degradation compared to pristine PANI might due to high photogenerated electron (ē)–hole (h⁺) pairs charge separation.     

Locally Rotationally Symmetric Vacuum Solutions in f(R) Gravity

This paper is devoted to find the Locally Rotationally Symmetric (LRS) vacuum solutions in the context of f(R) theory of gravity. Actually, we have considered the three metrics representing the whole family of LRS spacetimes and solved the field equations by using metric approach as well as the assumption of constant scalar curvature. It is mention here that R may be zero or non-zero. In all we found 10 different solutions.     

Theranostic Nanoplatforms for MRSA Detection and Destruction from Whole Blood

Bloodstream infection with methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other drug‐resistant bacteria kill several million people in the world every year. Detection of drug‐resistant bacteria in the blood stream is clinically important to save lives. Driven by this need, multifunctional theranostic nanoplatforms have been developed for simultaneous targeted imaging and multimodal photodestruction of MRSA in a whole‐blood sample. Experimental data for the whole‐blood sample spiked with MRSA show that the theranostic nanoplatform can be used for fluorescence imaging after magnetic separation even in a 10^?5:1 ratio. A targeted photodynamic and photothermal combined treatment shows that the multimodal treatment regime can dramatically enhance the possibility of destroying MRSA in vitro. Therefore, our developed theranostic nanoplatform have a great potential as a fluorescent marker and as a light absorber for combined therapy in clinical settings. The possible mechanisms and operating principles are discussed for targeted imaging and combined therapeutic actions using theranostic nanoplatform.     

A new approach for modeling of RO membranes using MD-SF-PF model and CFD technique

The modified surface force-pore flow (MD-SF-PF) model is a successful and powerful model for prediction of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane separation. In the MD-SF-PF model, a suitable mass and momentum balances were made through the cylindrical micro porous of the membranes. A one-dimensional potential function in radial direction was used to attain the velocity profile. The obtained nonlinear equations were solved by orthogonal collocation method. In our model, extended MD-SF-PF (Ex-MD-SF-PF) model, the potential function of the MD-SF-PF model was developed as both radial and axial directions. Both Ex-MD-SF-PF and MD-SF-PF models were solved by finite volume and finite difference methods based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. The profiles of velocity and concentration were achieved and thereby the values of separation factors and fluxes for both models were obtained and were compared accordingly. This approach affected only at the end of pore, mainly on the concentration profile and slightly on the velocity profile.     

Synthesis of New Naphthyl Aceto Hydrazone-Based Metal Complexes: Micellar Interactions,DNA Binding,Antimicrobial, and Cancer Inhibition Studies

In the present study, naphthyl acetohydrazide (HL) ligand was prepared and used for the synthesis of new six amorphous transition metal (Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Pb(II), Cd(II)) complexes. All the compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, UV-vis, FT-IR, ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR, and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI). The solubilization study was carried out by estimating the interaction between the metal complexes with surfactants viz. sodium stearate (SS) and Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). UV-Visible spectroscopy was employed to determine partitioning and binding parameters, whereas electrical conductivity measurements were employed to estimate critical micellar concentration (CMC), the extent of dissociation, and free energy of micellization. The CT-DNA interaction of synthesized compounds with DNA represents the major groove binding. The synthesized ligand and metal complexes were also tested against bacterial and fungal strains and it has been observed that Cu(II) complex is active against all the strains except Candida albicans, while Cd(II) complex is active against all bacterial and fungal strains except Pseudomonas. Among all compounds, only the Pd(II) complex shows reasonable activity against cervical cancer HeLa cell lines, representing 97% inhibition.     

Cyclic Peptide–Polymer Complexes and Their Self‐Assembly

Pepped up polymers : The synthesis and properties of novel chiral cyclic peptides designed to complex with suitable polymers through hydrogen bonding are described. A substituted cyclic peptide self‐assembles into supramolecular nanotubes and develops noncovalent interactions with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) by means of its carboxyl side chains.

     

An In Vitro Study of the Interaction of Copper(II) Salicylates with Genomic DNA Using Gel Electrophoresis and Gel Permeation Chromatography

This papers describes the in vitro interaction of copper(II) acetylsalicylate and copper(II) salicylate with genomic DNA isolated from human blood. The two drug substances were found to bind to DNA after incubation with whole blood over night. Bonding was confirmed by detection of separated DNA electrophoresis bands for copper, copper(II) acetylsalicylate, copper(II) salicylate, acetylsalicylic acid and salicylic acid. Drug–DNA interactions were observed during electrophoresis in the form of fragmentation by formation of two bands when compared to controls. Gel permeation chromatography parameters also confirmed the occurrence of fragmentation. The use of gel permeation chromatography parameters as a measure of fragmentation of DNA is discussed. The fragmentation of genomic DNA after incubation with copper(II) acetylsalicylate and copper(II) salicylate suggested that these drug substances might be responsible for cytotoxicity in vivo.     

An Arc Search Infeasible Interior-Point Algorithm for Symmetric Optimization Using a New Wide Neighborhood

In this paper, we propose an infeasible interior-point algorithm for symmetric optimization problems using a new wide neighborhood and estimating the central path by an ellipse. In contrast of most interior-point algorithms for symmetric optimization which search an \(\varepsilon\)-optimal solution of the problem in a small neighborhood of the central path, our algorithm searches for optimizers in a new wide neighborhood of the ellipsoidal approximation of central path. The convergence analysis of the algorithm is shown and it is proved that the iteration bound of the algorithm is \(O ( r\log\varepsilon^{-1} ) \) which improves the complexity bound of the recent proposed algorithm by Liu et al. (J. Optim. Theory Appl., 2013,  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10957-013-0303-y) for symmetric optimization by the factor \(r^{\frac{1}{2}}\) and matches the currently best-known iteration bound for infeasible interior-point methods.     

Electronic structure and UV–Vis spectra simulation of square planar Bis(1-(4-methylphenylazo)-2-naphtol)-Transition metal complexes [M(L)2]x (M = Ni,Pd, Pt,Cu, Ag,and x = − 1, 0, + 1): DFT and TD-DFT study

Structural Chemistry - DFT/B3LYP calculations with full geometry optimizations have been carried out on 1-phenylazo-2-naphthol and their metal complexes of formula M(MePhNap)2 (M?=?Ni,...