Raoult's Formalism in Understanding Low Temperature Growth of GaN Nanowires using Binary Precursor

Growth of GaN nanowires are carried out via metal initiated vapor-liquid-solid mechanism, with Au as the catalyst. In chemical vapour deposition technique, GaN nanowires are usually grown at high temperatures in the range of 900-1100 ^oC because of low vapor pressure of Ga below 900 ^oC. In the present study, we have grown the GaN nanowires at a temperature, as low as 700 ^oC. Role of indium in the reduction of growth temperature is discussed in the ambit of Raoult's law. Indium is used to increase the vapor pressure of the Ga sufficiently to evaporate even at low temperature initiating the growth of GaN nanowires. In addition to the studies related to structural and vibrational properties, optical properties of the grown nanowires are also reported for detailed structural analysis.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, journa

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF METAL NANOPARTICLES SYNTHESIZED FROM HIBISCUS ROSA SINESIS AND THEIR ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY ESTIMATION AGAINST NINE PATHOGENIC BACTERIA

Objective: This study demonstates  a simple, cost effective protocol  for biosynthesis of stable silver (Ag) and gold (Au) nanoparticles from Hibiscus Rosa sinesis and their comparison by applying antibacterial activities against nine pathogenic bacterial species.Methods: Silver (Ag) and gold (Au) nanoparticles were biosynthesized from Hibiscus Rosa sinesis were characterized by UV–VIS spectroscopy, FTIR and TEM. The antibacterial activities  of AgNPs  and AuNPs were evaluated against  9 pathogenic bacterial species  Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Bacillus subtilis Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterobacter aerogens, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Aeromonas hydrophila by the agar disc diffusion method.Results: Synthesized AgNPs  were obtained in 13.01 to 28.14 nm size range, while AuNPs were in  6.32 to 18.19 nm size range. The results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra indicates  that the AuNPs are bound to amine groups and the AgNPs to carboxylate ion groups. The antibacterial activities  of AgNPs,  the zone of inhibition significantly increased with the  increases of concentrations of AgNPs in all pathogenic bacterial species  except  in the case of S. epidermidis at 50%, S. aerogenes and A. hydrophila at 70%, while in case of AuNPs antibacterial activity  was displayed  only against B. subtilis at 20% and 100% concentration.Conclusion: This study suggests that AgNPs exhibits outstanding antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria as compared to AuNPs synthesized from Hibiscus Rosa sinensis leaf extract and insights to their potential applicability as an alternative antibacterial  agent in microbial and human health system to reduce the resistance ability of pathogenic bacteria.  Â

Plant genes and their expression

The transcription of protein encoding genes and their regulation in plant cells shows the signature of a typical eukaryotic system. The major outcome of research in this area is recognition of variability in components assembled to design constitutive or inducible promoters, including those constituting enhancers and boundary elements. Such cis-acting elements respond to diverse intrinsic and extrinsic signals to take care of the needs of sessile plants. While much remains to be defined about the basic transcription machinery in plants, it is expected to follow the pattern as deciphered in animals. At the same time, a large number of genes for regulatory proteins have been cloned leading to information about DNA binding domains, activation domains, nuclear localization signals and oligomerization sites. However, most of this information needs to be tested by experimentation. Availability of transgenic systems in plants and biotechnological needs have given impetus to research for designing tailor-made inducible/ repressible promoters and to manipulate plant processes by deploying transcription factors. While considerable progress has been made, much remains to be learned about the biochemical and molecular basis of regulation of plant gene expression