Biosorption of nickel using mixed cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis

 Biosorption of Ni(II) was investigated in this study using dead biomass of gram positive (Bacillus subtilis) and gram negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa).The effects of pH, initial adsorbent dosage, initial metal ion concentration, contact time and temperature were studied in batch experiment. A contact time of 40 min, pH 5.0 and temperature 30oC were found to be optimum. Nickel removal decreased from 77 to 45% as the concentration increased from 50 to 250 mg/L. The Ni(II) removal increased from 45 to 75% as adsorbent dose increased from 0.25 to 1.5 g/L. The Langmuir and freundlich models for dynamics of metal of metal ion uptake proposed in this work fit the experimental data reasonably well. The adsorption capacity (Qo) calculated from Langmuir isotherm was 89.08 mg for Ni (II).

Green synthesis of Iron oxide nanoparticles using Lagenaria siceraria and evaluation of its Antimicrobial activity

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs) with appropriate surface chemistry exhibit many interesting properties that can be exploited in a variety of biomedical applications such as magnetic resonance imaging contrast enhancement, tissue repair, hyperthermia, drug delivery and in cell separation. In this study unexplored Lagenaria siceraria leaves extract was found to be capable in green synthesis of Iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4-NPs) and their characteristics were studied by using UV-visible spectrophotometer, SEM, EDX, XRD, Zeta sizer and FT-IR. Thus synthesized Fe3O4-NPs were naturally stabilized, cubic shaped and in the size range of 30-100 nm. The phytochemicals present in the leaf has a main role as reducing agent that assists to the eco friendly synthesis of Fe3O4-NPs with enhanced antioxidant property. Functional groups present on the NPs are mainly –OH and –COOH (FT-IR) makes it hydrophilic hence NPs does not need any further functional modification for applications. The antimicrobial property of synthesized Fe3O4-NPs was evaluated against Gram negative - Escherchia coli, Gram positive- Staphylococcus aureus, The Zone of inhibition was found to be 10 mm for Escherchia coli, and 8 mm for Staphylococcus aureus. Thus naturally stabilized Fe3O4-NPs with herbal property can be used in various biological applications

Catalytic Reduction of Hazardous Compound (Triethylphosphate) Using Ni Doped CuO Nanoparticles

 Nickel doped Copper oxide nanoparticles were prepared by hydrothermal method for catalytic reduction of Triethylphosphate (TEP). It is a well known toxicant from organophosphorous compounds. The nanoparticles were characterized by DLS, UV, FTIR, XRD, SEM and EDAX. FTIR and UV results reveals that the functional properties and the absorbance of NPs. DLS and SEM results reveals that the size and surface morphology of NPs. XRD and EDAX results confirms the structural purity of Ni dopants were substituted into the cubic CuO NPs and the elemental composition. Ni doped CuO is an efficient catalyst for catalytic reduction of TEP using sunlight irradiation and it was monitored by UV VIS spectrophotometer

Physico-chemical Characteristics of Fine Nano-scaled Carbon Fibers from Bacterial Cellulose

Recently, carbon nanofibers have gained immense attention in research due to its tremendous application. Here, this work highlights a simple, cost effective and reliable method to develop carbon nanofibers (CNF) from biomass. The biomass used is bacterial cellulose (BC) synthesized using Acetobacter xylinus. CNF was developed by freeze drying of BC followed by pyrolysis at different temperatures (300ºC - 900ºC). The conversions of BC to CNF were characterized using SEM, FTIR, TGA and XRD respectively. The results exhibit three dimensional, lightweight, fine nanoscale fibers with a diameter of 10nm which are tend to have hydrophobic and lipophilic characters, due to which it can be used in oil – water separation applications.

Rapid production of therapeutic proteins using plant system

Plant molecular farming is simply defined as the production of proteins therapeutics (PT) in plants, which involves transient gene expression in plants and purification of expressed protein to a great scale for diagnosis, treatment and other applications.  This is therapid,economical, safe and reproducible approach for the production of PTas compared to bacterial and mammalian systems. Protein yield and post-translational modifications are the major roadblocks that can be overcome byhigh expression strategies includes over expression constructs, suitable plant host systems and glycoengineering of proteins. The inherent ability of ideally producing safe, functional protein is the most striking phenomenon recognized by the pharmaceutical industries and developed many therapeutic products within few weeks to meet escalating demands during pandemic/epidemic outbreaks recentl

Synthesis of an ordered mesoporous carbon with graphitic characteristics and its application for dye adsorption

An ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) was prepared by a chemical vapor deposition technique using liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as the carbon source. During synthesis, LPG was effectively adsorbed in the ordered mesopores of SBA-15 silica and converted to a graphitic carbon at 800 °C. X-ray diffraction and nitrogen adsorption/desorption data and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) of the OMC confirmed its ordered mesoporous structure. The OMC was utilized as an adsorbent in the removal of dyes from aqueous solution. A commercial powder activated carbon (AC) was also investigated to obtain comparative data. The efficiency of the OMC for dye adsorption was tested using acidic dye acid orange 8 (AO8) and basic dyes methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RB). The results show that adsorption was affected by the molecular size of the dye, the textural properties of carbon adsorbent and surface-dye interactions. The adsorption capacities of the OMC for acid orange 8 (AO8), methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RB) were determined to be 222, 833, and 233 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption capacities of the AC for AO8, MB, and RB were determined to be 141, 313, and 185 mg/ g, respectively. The OMC demonstrated to be an excellent adsorbent for the removal of MB from wastewater.Web of Scienc