Microwave-assisted synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes for enhanced removal of Zn(II) from wastewater

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Removal of toxic metals is one of the biggest challenges in ensuring safe water for all as well as protecting the environment. Novel multi-walled carbon...     

Injectable chitosan-fibrin/nanocurcumin composite hydrogel for the enhancement of angiogenesis

Research on Chemical Intermediates - The work focuses on the development of an injectable chitosan-fibrin (CF) based nanocomposite hydrogel for angiogenic response. The hydrogel base is made of...     

Molecular Understanding of Collagen Stabilization: Interaction of Valeraldehyde with Collagen

The present study explains the molecular level interaction of valeraldehyde with collagen. Valeraldehyde is a monoaldehyde, which involves crosslinking with protein through covalent linkages. The role of valeraldehyde as a crosslinking agent for collagen stabilization was studied. Molecular modeling approaches was used to understand the interaction of collagen like peptide with valeraldehyde, which mimic the aldehyde tanning processes involved in protein stabilization. Crosslinking efficiency of valeraldehyde was found to increase with an increase in concentration due to the higher availability of aldehydic groups involved in crosslinking with collagen. Valeraldehyde interacted collagen membrane showed an increase in thermal stability by 25°C at pH 8. In the presence of valeraldehyde, collagen fibrils nucleation center was shifted from a lower to a higher range. Shift in the nucleation center was observed in the reduction of gelling time. Water accessibility in valeraldehyde interacted collagen membrane was reduced due to a higher crosslinking rate in the collagen. Modified collagen membrane by valeraldehyde at incubation of about 96 h showed higher resistance to collagenolytic activity of 81%. The amino groups reacting appear to be involved in crosslinking with valeraldehyde. Several interaction sites were identified and the docking energy obtained was ?5.539 kcal/mol. The participation of the aldehyde group with amino groups in collagen was observed, which plays a dominant role in the stabilization of peptide by valeraldehyde. It was found that complexes exhibit covalent bonding, hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interaction in the process of stabilization.     

One‐Pot Synthesis of Highly Substituted Polyheteroaromatic Compounds by Rhodium(III)‐Catalyzed Multiple CH Activation and Annulation

A new method for the synthesis of highly substituted naphthyridine‐based polyheteroaromatic compounds in high yields proceeds through rhodium(III)‐catalyzed multiple C? H bond cleavage and C? C and C? N bond formation in a one‐pot process. Such highly substituted polyheteroaromatic compounds have attracted much attention because of their unique π‐conjugation, which make them suitable materials for organic semiconductors and luminescent materials. Furthermore, a possible mechanism, which involves multiple chelation‐assisted ortho C? H activation, alkyne insertion, and reductive elimination, is proposed for this transformation.     

Ag‐CNT Architectures for Attomolar Dopamine Detection and 100‐Fold Fluorescence Enhancements with Cellphone‐Based Surface Plasmon‐Coupled Emission Platform

We report cellphone‐based detection of dopamine with attomolar sensitivity in clinical samples with the use of a surface plasmon‐coupled emission (SPCE) platform. To this end, silver‐coated carbon nanotubes were used as spacer and cavity materials on SPCE substrates to obtain up to 100‐fold fluorescence enhancements. The presence of silver on the carbon nanotubes helped to overcome fluorescence quenching arising due to π–π interactions between the carbon nanotube and rhodamine 6G. The competing adsorption of dopamine versus rhodamine 6G on graphene oxide was utilized to develop this sensing platform.     

Synthesis,spectral, crystal structure,drug-likeness,in silico,and in vitro biological screening of halogen [Cl,Br] substituted N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole derivatives as antimicrobial agents

The N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole derivatives, 3-(4-chlorophenyl)-3,3a,4,5-tetrahydro-N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole-2-carbothioamide (4CLPBIC), 3-(4-bromophenyl)-3,3a,4,5-tetrahydro-N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole-2-carbothioamide (4BRPBIC), and 3-(3-bromophenyl)-3,3a,4,5-tetrahydro-N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole-2-carbothioamide (3BRPBIC), were synthesized by the one-pot green amalgamation of solvent-free granulating methodology procedure at room temperature. The synthesized crystals were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD), FT-IR, FT-Raman, NMR, and UV–Vis techniques. The molecular geometries from XRD experimental values of synthesized compounds 4CLPBIC, 4BRPBIC, and 3BRPBIC in the ground state are compared theoretically by applying the density functional theory (DFT), a method with the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) basis set using Gaussian 09 software. The vibrational assignments of the synthesized compounds were studied based on potential energy distribution (PED) by the VEDA4 program. The scaled DFT/B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) results show the best agreement with the experimental values. Computational ¹H and ¹³C NMR were acquired by utilizing gauge-independent atomic orbital (GIAO) procedure, and chemical shift results are in good agreement with the experimental values. A web-based theoretical investigation was performed to understand the drug-likeness and ADMET properties of the compounds. Molecular docking studies were carried out against bacterial cholesterol inhibitor block and inhibitor of lanosterol-14α-demethylase CYP51 used in the treatment of topical and systemic mycoses in fungal to understand the inhibitory activity of synthesized compounds. The synthesized molecules were also tested for antibacterial and antifungal activities.     

Impurity States in Semimagnetic Quantum Well Wire with Anisotropic Confinement along In-Plane Directions

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics - The effect of shape of the confining potential along two different confined directions in Quantum Well Wire (QWW) on the heavy hole binding energy...     

An improvement to double-step Newton method and its multi-step version for solving system of nonlinear equations and its applications

In this work, we have improved the order of the double-step Newton method from four to five using the same number of evaluation of two functions and two first order Fréchet derivatives for each iteration. The multi-step version requires one more function evaluation for each step. The multi-step version converges with order 3r+5, r≥1. Numerical experiments are done comparing the new methods with some existing methods. Our methods are also tested on Chandrasekhar’s problem and the 2-D Bratu problem to illustrate the applications.     

Effect of digestion time and alkali addition rate on physical properties of magnetite nanoparticles

We investigate the effect of digestion time and alkali addition rate on the size and magnetic properties of precipitated magnetite nanoparticles. It is observed that the time required to complete the growth process for magnetite nanocrystals is very short (approximately 300 s), compared to long digestion times (20-190 min) required for MnO and CdSe nanocrystals. The rapid growth of magnetite nanoparticles suggests that Oswald ripening is insignificant during the precipitation stage, due to the low solubility of the oxides and the domination of a solid-state reaction where high electron mobility between Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions drives a local cubic close-packed ordering. During the growth stage (0-300 s), the increase in the particle size is nominal (6.7-8.2 nm). The effect of alkali addition rate on particle size reveals that the nanocrystal size decreases with increasing alkali addition rate. The particle size decreases from 11 to 6.8 nm as the alkali addition rate is increased from 1 to 80 mL/s. During the size decrease, the lattice parameter decreases from 0.838 to 0.835 nm, which is attributed to an increase in the amount of Fe3+ atoms at the surface due to oxidation. As the alkali addition rate increases, the solution reaches supersaturation state rapidly leading to the formation of large number of initial nuclei at the nucleation stage, resulting in large number of particles with smaller size. When alkali addition rate is increased from 1 to 80 mL/s, the saturation magnetization of the particles decreases from 60 to 46 emu/g due to the reduced particle size.