Poly (methyl methacrylate) grafted wheat straw for economical and eco-friendly treatment of oily wastewater

Cellulose - The sustainable development of oil–gas and petrochemical industries necessitates the development of cost-effective and eco-friendly technologies to treat mass-produced oily...     

Surfactant mediated electrodeposition of copper nanostructures for environmental electrochemistry: influence of morphology on electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The development of materials with high active surface area/surface modification is of great interest in electrochemistry due to their widespread...     

Electro catalytic generation of reactive species at diamond electrodes and applications in microbial inactivation

Use of robust and safe water disinfection technologies which are inexpensive and energy-efficient are need of the hour to combat the problem of inadequate access of safe and clean drinking water. Energy and chemically intensive water treatment technologies warrant the need for a safe and environmentally sound treatment technology. Electrochemical disinfection or electrodisinfection (ED) is experiencing a great resurgence among the scientific communities owing to its novel use of electrode materials and electric current in an inexpensive and energy-efficient way for achieving the inactivation of microorganisms. Among the various electrodes used in the ED, boron-doped diamonds emerge as a sustainable alternate for their ability to electro generate strong potent oxidants which result in effective pathogen control in drinking water. ED for disinfecting waters occurs via generation of the reactive species which act in the bacterial inactivation mechanisms. In this mini-review, a critical discussion on the fundamentals and applications of promising electrochemical methods using boron-doped diamond anodes (namely electrochemical oxidation), evidencing their advantages for the remediation of drinking water infected with waterborne agents, is given.     

Indium-doped ZnOas efficient photosensitive material for sunlight driven hydrogen generation and DSSC applications: integrated experimental and computational approach

Electricity generation using simple and cheap dye-sensitized solar cells and photocatalytic water splitting to produce future fuel, hydrogen, directly under natural sunlight fascinated the researchers worldwide. Herein, synthesis of indium-doped wurtzite ZnO nanostructures with varying molar percentage of indium from 0.25 to 3.0% with concomitant characterization indicating wurtzite structure is reported. The shift of (002) reflection plane to higher 2θ degree with increase in indium-doping thus is a clear evidence of doping of indium in zinc oxide nanoparticles. Surface morphological as well as microstructural studies of In@ZnO exhibited generation of ZnO nanoparticles and nanoplates of diameter 10–30 nm. The structures have been correlated well using computational density functional (DFT) studies. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy depicted the extended absorbance of these materials in the visible region. Hence, the photocatalytic activity towards hydrogen generation from water under natural sunlight as well as efficient DSSC fabrication of these newly synthesized materials has been demonstrated. In-doped ZnO exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity towards hydrogen evolution (2465 μmol/h/g) via water splitting under natural sunlight. DSSC fabricated using 2% In-doped ZnO exhibited an efficiency of 3.46% which is higher than other reported In-doped ZnO based DSSCs.

     

Synthesis,antioxidant activity,and α-glucosidase enzyme inhibition of α-aminophosphonate derivatives bearing piperazine-1,2,3-triazole moiety

A novel series of piperazine-1,2,3-triazole bearing dimethyl(((2-(4-((1H-1,2,3-triazole-4-yl)methyl)piperazin-1-yl)ethylamino)(2-hydroxyaryl)methyl)phosphonate derivatives have been prepared via copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition (CuAAC) (Click Reaction) and Schiff base reactions. The synthesized compounds were confirmed by spectral characterization (¹H, ¹³C and ³¹P NMR, and mass). The title compounds were evaluated for in vitro alpha glucosidase enzyme inhibition and in vitro antioxidant activity using DPPH and H₂O₂ methods.     

One-pot multicomponent synthesis of N-sulfonyl amidines using magnetic separable nanoparticles-decorated N-heterocyclic carbene complex with copper

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Magnetic separable nanoparticles-decorated N-heterocyclic carbene complex with copper (MNP[1-Methyl benzimidazole]NHC@Cu) has been prepared by covalent grafting...     

Imaging of Bacterial and Fungal Cells Using Fluorescent Carbon Dots Prepared from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Carica papaya</Emphasis> Juice

In this paper, we have described a simple hydrothermal method for preparation of fluorescent carbon dots (C-dots) using Carica papaya juice as a precursor. The synthesized C-dots show emission peak at 461 nm with a quantum yield of 7.0 %. The biocompatible nature of C-dots was confirmed by a cytotoxicity assay on E. coli. The C-dots were used as fluorescent probes for imaging of bacterial (Bacillus subtilis) and fungal (Aspergillus aculeatus) cells and emitted green and red colors under different excitation wavelengths, which indicates that the C-dots can be used as a promising material for cell imaging.     

Design and pharmacophoric identification of flavonoid scaffold-based aromatase inhibitors

Aromatase is a crucial enzyme for the catalysis of aromatization reaction at the last and rate-limiting step involved in the conversion of androgenic substrates to an estrogenic substrate. A hormone-dependent breast cancer in postmenopausal woman can be cured by inhibition of estrogen biosynthesis by the help of aromatase inhibitors (AIs). The mode of interactions of flavonones with the active site of aromatase has been studied in search of potent and selective AIs as a substitute of the natural steroidal ligand. Structure-based computational approach namely, molecular docking simulations were performed to investigate the structural features of the docked complex of aromatase and flavonoid ligands. A nonsteroidal flavonoid pharmacophore showing electrostatic and steric features for selective binding within the main pocket of the catalytic active site of aromatase has been identified as an outcome of the study. The binding affinity of quercetin and isoflavone were predicted within aromatase. Isoflavone was used as a negative control to compare its binding affinities with the selected dataset. The predicted binding affinity of negative control isoflavone was in accordance with its in vitro AI efficacy. Isoflavone showed poor binding affinity and ranked last in terms of MolDock score (−86.309 kcal/molÅ) compared to dataset molecules. The generated pharmacophoric information will be helpful for the synthetic chemist to design and synthesize selective AIs with comparable binding affinity to the natural steroidal ligand.     

Solidification of semicrystalline polymers using a variable interface temperature model

Solidification of semicrystalline materials often occurs in significantly undercooled melts. The crystal growth process in such melts is convoluted due to the fact that the interface between the solid and liquid domains of the microscopic crystals is at an unknown temperature. However, it is possible to let the temperature of this interface be unspecified and solve the problem with a semianalytical method if the growth velocity is prescribed. Solutions for the temperature profiles in both solid and liquid phases are presented in this work, along with the interface temperature, for phase change processes controlled by the kinetics of crystallization rather than diffusion processes, which is typical for polymers. The method is used for one-dimensional problems in cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical geometries that correspond to commonly found microstructures. It is found that the temperature of the interface is significantly below the equilibrium melting point and a quasi steady-state regime is reached rapidly. Comparison with the classical Neumann's solution shows that the temperature profiles are similar but the position of the interface differs considerably. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Extreme and critical transition events in the memristor based Liénard system

The European Physical Journal Special Topics - We study extreme and critical events in the forced Liénard systems with charge control memristor. It has been found that the system exhibits...