Preliminary Synthesis of Calcium Silicates using Oil Palm Leaves and Eggshells.

A new synthetic procedure is described for the synthesis of calcium silicate derivatives, using natural resources such as eggshell (ES) for calcium and oil palm leaves (OPL) for silica, which do not require prepurification. The reaction is performed by directly converting two weight ratio of the precursors, ES:3OPL and ES:6OPL, to dried-powder form by heat treatment at 900 °C for two hours. The results demonstrate that the concentration of the precursors has an effect on the morphology and crystallinity of the calcium silicate derivatives, mainly Ca2SiO4 and CaSiO3. X-ray diffraction results reveal that the reaction product obtained using a 1:3 ratio is quite pure, and mainly consisted of calcium silicate in the form of Ca2SiO4. The CaSiO3 was also identified in ES:6OPL, together with a small amount of excess non-reacted crystalline silica. Furthermore, a scanning electron microscopy analysis shows that both reaction products have a coarse surface. Copyright © 2020 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Chitosan Based Scaffolds and Their Applications in Wound Healing

Over the last decade, much interest has been developed in biopolymer based materials due to their biocompatible, biodegradable, non-toxic and non-allergenic nature. Chitosan is a unique biopolymer that exhibits outstanding properties, besides biocompatibility and biodegradability. Most of these peculiar properties arise from the presence of primary amines along the chitosan backbone. Many works have been done to obtain chitosan based scaffolds, including surface modifications, the fabrication of chitosan based blends, chitosan based composite scaffolds, and drug-loaded scaffolds. This study provides an overview of the key features of inherent properties of chitosan, their modification, and its use in biomedical engineering particularly toward anti-inflammatory and wound healing

A dynamic electrochemical sensor for europium(III)

1325-1331A new calixarene derivative, i.e., p-tert-butylcalix[4]arene has been used as an excellent ionophore in the construction of a novel PVC based Eu(III)-selective electrode. A master membrane with percentage composition of PVC:DBP:L: NaTPB:: 32:55:4:9 gives the best results. The membrane electrode exhibits a nernstian response with the slope of 19.7±1.0 mV/decade over a wide concentration range of 9.1 × 10-8-1.0 × 10-1 M and with detection limit of 8.8 × 10-8 M. The effects of membrane composition and pH as well as the influence of the anionic additive on the electrode performance have been investigated. The potential response of the resulting sensor is not influenced in the pH range 3.0-9.0. Moreover, the membrane electrode has a good reproducibility (RSD 3%), very fast response time (5 s) and ability to detect Eu(III) among other rare earth metal and common cations. The membrane sensor works satisfactorily up to 40% non-aqueous medium and can be used over a period of 6 months. The sensor has been successfully applied for the determination of Eu(III) in analytical and biological samples (urine and serum) and also acts as an electrode indicator

Water management in alpha methyl styrene-butyl acrylate grafted and sulfonated PEEK membranes

176-181Radiation grafted and sulphonated PEEK (poly ether ether ketone) membranes have been analyzed for water management within the matrix. Grafting is done using alpha methyl styrene-butyl acrylate (AMS/BA) mixture. Membranes exhibit enhanced water content with the increasing ionic content due to higher hydrophilicity. However, the water/ionic site ratio increases significantly with the increasing graft levels. The ionic mobility also increases with increasing graft levels. It is stated that the water management within the hydrophilic membrane matrix plays a key role and is responsible for the high proton mobility at higher graft levels in the membrane. This, in turn, is governed by the physiochemical changes taking place in membranes due to the grafting and sulfonation process. A correlation of the higher water/ionic site ratio arising out of the structural changes in the proton exchange membranes may be developed by radiation grafting of AMS/BA followed by sulfonation

Analysis and Recommendation of Agriculture Use of Distillery Spentwash in Rampur District, India

The potential value and the problems associated with the usage of spentwash in Rampur District were studied and also their environmental impacts were discussed. The studies revealed that, though at higher doses (> 250 m3/ ha) spentwash application is found detrimental to crop growth and soil fertility, its use at lower doses (125 m3/ha) remarkably improves germination, growth and yield of dryland crops. Further, it has been revealed that conjoint application of spentwash and organic amendments (farm yard manure, green leaf manure and bio-compost) is found suitable under dryland conditions. Large amounts of soluble salts have been found to be leached from calcareous and high pH sodic soils amended with spentwash. Notably, application of spentwash has resulted in leaching of high amounts of sodium from high pH sodic soils reflecting its potential in ameliorating these soils. However, exceptionally high loading of the leachate with organic and inorganic contaminants may pose potential risk for groundwater contamination

Studies on Zirconium(IV) Selenomolybdate Gel Based Mg(II) Ion Selective Heterogeneous Membrane Sensor — Determination of Water Hardness

61-66A Mg(II) ion sensor selective araldite zirconium(IV) selenomolybdate membrane sensor is prepared. It exhibits slope 23 mV/decade, which is a sub-Nernstain slope. The sensor shows working concentration range as 1.0 × 10-5 M to 1.0 × 10-1 M and working pH range as 2.5 to 6.0. The selectivity coefficients for 17 metal ions are studied. It can be used in the presence of some solvents up to 10 per cent v/v concentration as well as in the presence of 10-4 to 10-6 M Na-lauryl sulphate surfactant. The membrane electrode is put in the determination of Mg(II) ion content in synthetic samples as well as in hard water samples. The error is found to be within 2 to 6 per cent

A review on plants extract mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticles for antimicrobial applications: A green expertise

Metallic nanoparticles are being utilized in every phase of science along with engineering including medical fields and are still charming the scientists to explore new dimensions for their respective worth which is generally attributed to their corresponding small sizes. The up-and-coming researches have proven their antimicrobial significance. Among several noble metal nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles have attained a special focus. Conventionally silver nanoparticles are synthesized by chemical method using chemicals as reducing agents which later on become accountable for various biological risks due to their general toxicity; engendering the serious concern to develop environment friendly processes. Thus, to solve the objective; biological approaches are coming up to fill the void; for instance green syntheses using biological molecules derived from plant sources in the form of extracts exhibiting superiority over chemical and/or biological methods. These plant based biological molecules undergo highly controlled assembly for making them suitable for the metal nanoparticle syntheses. The present review explores the huge plant diversity to be utilized towards rapid and single step protocol preparatory method with green principles over the conventional ones and describes the antimicrobial activities of silver nanoparticles