Aqueous Slip Casting of Transparent Aluminum Oxynitride

Highly transparent Aluminum oxynitride (AlON) body has been produced using aqueous slip casting technique. High‐purity alumina and AlN were used as raw materials for the synthesis of single‐phase AlON powder. As‐synthesized AlON powder was surface modified to enable the AlON powders resistant to hydrolysis in water during aqueous slip casting. High solid loaded aqueous AlON slip was prepared for casting followed by drying and sintering to produce transparent AlON. Phase formation and stability was characterized by XRD, pH, and viscosity measurements. AlON powders before and after surface treatments were characterized. Sintered transparent AlON samples were characterized for their mechanical, microstructural, and optical properties. Sintered and polished AlON produced in this study has shown inline transparency up to 80% between 0.22 and 6 μm wavelength region.     

Green Nanosilver as Reinforcing Eco-Friendly Additive to Epoxy Coating for Augmented Anticorrosive and Antimicrobial Behavior

Epoxy resin GY250 representing diglycidyl ethers of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) was reinforced with 1, 3 and 5wt % of surface functionalized silver nanoparticles (F-AgNPs) which were synthesized using Couroupita guianensis leaves extract with a view of augmenting the corrosion control property of the epoxy resin and also imparting antimicrobial activity to epoxy coatings on mild steel. Corrosion resistance of the coatings was evaluated by EIS, potentiodynamic polarization studies and cross scratch tests. AFM, SEM, HRTEM and EDX were utilized to investigate the surface topography, morphology and elemental composition of the coatings on MS specimens. Results showed that the corrosion resistance, hardness and T_g of the DGEBA/F-AgNPs coatings increased at 1wt % of F- AgNPs. The DGEBA/F-AgNPs coatings also offered manifold antimicrobial protection to the MS surfaces by inhibiting the growth of biofilm forming bacteria like P. aeruginosa, B. subtilis, the most common human pathogen E. coli and the most virulent human pathogenic yeast C. albicans.     

Plant products as fumigants for stored-product insect control

Research studies on plant essential oils and their constituents as fumigants, i.e., compounds acting on target insects in the vapour or gaseous phase, against stored-product insects have been reviewed. Fumigant toxicity tests conducted with essential oils of plants (mainly belonging to Apiaceae, Lamiaceae, Lauraceae and Myrtaceae) and their components (cyanohydrins, monoterpenoids, sulphur compounds, thiocyanates and others) have largely focused on beetle pests such as Tribolium castaneum, Rhyzopertha dominica, Sitophilus oryzae and Sitophilus zeamais but little or no attention has been paid towards moths such as Corcyra cephalonica and Sitotroga cerealella. Adults were generally susceptible, whereas, eggs were either tolerant or highly susceptible depending on insect species and the type of essential oil or component. The essential oils proved effective in mixture with CO₂ or ethyl formate. Mode of action studies on monoterpenoids indicate inhibition of acetylcholinesterase enzyme activity as the major site of action. Although, in laboratory tests with adult insects, some of the plant compounds have shown insect toxicity comparable to methyl bromide or chloropicrin, their physical properties such as high molecular weight as well as high boiling point and very low vapour pressure are barriers for application in large-scale fumigations. Plant products, therefore, have the potential for small-scale treatments, space fumigations and as adjuvants for conventional fumigants. The constraints including lack of data for single or multiple components of essential oils on sorption, tainting and residues in food commodities, and registration protocols have been highlighted. The use of egg and pupal stages or preferably mixed-age cultures of target insects in screening tests with any new plant essential oil/compound has also been stressed.     

Prediction of optimum process parameters to achieve eco-friendly desizing of organic cotton fabrics with indigenously produced alpha-amylase and their enzyme kinetics

An attempt has been made to study the desizing of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) starch-based organic cotton fabric using alpha-amylase enzyme with various process parameters such as enzyme concentration, temperature and reaction time. These process variables are selected based on the Box–Behnken design of experiment and the output of experiment resulted in weight loss of the fabric and their results are optimized with minimum error. The test results are analyzed using Design-Expert software 8.0 to predict the optimum process parameters to achieve the required desizing efficiency and their results are compared with actual trials. The alpha-amylase enzyme kinetics are studied at various concentrations, temperatures and reaction times to optimize the desizing process parameters. The performance of desizing was assessed by an iodine test and FTIR results to confirm the degradation of PVA starch in the desized organic cotton fabrics.     

Crystalline selenite substituted carbonated hydroxyapatite nanorods: Synthesis,characterization, evaluation of bioactivity and cytotoxicity

Synthesis of pure and selenite substituted hydroxyapatites (HAP and Se‐HAP with 0.02–0.10 Se) by sol–gel method and evaluation of their morphological features, nature of functional groups, phase purity, in vitro bioactivity and cytotoxicity are addressed. Spectral studies confirm the incorporation of selenite into the HAP lattice, accompanied by an increase in CO₃^2? content to maintain the charge imbalance following replacement of P⁵⁺ with Se⁴⁺, thus making the formation of selenite substituted carbonated HAP. Selenite substitution in the HAP lattice has led to a higher crystallinity and increased the crystallite size. The morphology of HAP is changed from sphere to rod‐like structure upon substitution by selenite and the size of the rod is increased with an increase in the selenite content. Among the Se‐HAPs, a better in vitro bioactivity and cell viability are observed for 0.02 Se‐HAP and 0.04 Se‐HAP while the trend is reversed when the extent of selenite substitution becomes higher.     

Evolution of supramolecular healable composites: a minireview

Efforts to further extend the range of applications of polymer based materials have resulted in the recent production of healable polymers that can regain their strength after damage. Within this field of healable materials, supramolecular polymers have been subject to extensive investigation. By virtue of their reversible non‐covalent interactions, cracks and fractures in such polymers can be readily and repeatedly healed in order to regain key physical properties. However, many supramolecular polymers are relatively weak and elastomeric in nature, which renders them unsuitable for high strength structural applications. To overcome these deficiencies, preliminary studies have shown that it is possible to reinforce supramolecular polymers with microscale and nanoscale fillers to afford composites that are not only stronger and stiffer compared with the polymers alone but also retain their healing abilities. In this minireview we discuss the evolution of these supramolecular composites and their advantages over more conventional, covalent polymeric materials. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry     

Synthesis and optical characteristics of ZnO nanocrystals

Zinc oxide nanomaterials with an average particle size of 20–30 nm are readily synthesized by the reaction of zinc acetate and oxalic acid under hydrothermal conditions. The samples are characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, UV and photoluminescence (PL) studies. The average crystal size of the as prepared ZnO nanopowder is determined by XRD and the values are in good agreement with the TEM analysis. UV absorption spectra revealed the absorption at wavelength < 370 nm indicating the smaller size of ZnO nanoparticles. The quality and purity of ZnO nanomaterial crystalline samples are confirmed by photoluminescence spectra.     

Analytical model for Binding Refresh Request to reduce storage and communication overhead in MIPv6 network

Home agent is a key component of MIPv6 functionality that comprises binding cache to hold the mobile nodes current point of attachment to the Internet. This paper is concerned with binding cache support for home agents within MIPv6 network. Existing binding cache of home agent supports weak cache consistency by using fixed contract length for Binding Refresh Request, which functions reasonably well in normal situations. However, maintaining a strong binding cache consistency in home agent as a crucial exceptional handling mechanism has become more demanding for the following objectives: (i) to adapt increasingly frequent change of care‐of address due to mobile nodes movement detection update; (ii) to provide fine‐grain controls to balance the binding cache load distributions for better delivery services; and (iii) to reduce the overhead allowances around the binding cache. In this paper, we have first verified the effectiveness of Binding Refresh Request contract length, and on the basis of that, two dynamic contract algorithms are suggested to reduce the storage and communication overhead allowances in binding cache. We have also compared our technique with the existing fixed Binding Refresh Request contract length, and our simulation results reveals that the proposed approach provides an effective performance to reduce overhead within the network. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detection of glucose,galactose, and lactose in milk with a microdialysis-coupled flow injection amperometric sensor

A microdialysis-coupled flow injection amperometric Sensor (microFIAS) was used to determine glucose, galactose, and lactose in milk. The sensor is based on enzyme-catalyzed reaction in combination with the three well-established analytical techniques, namely; microdialysis sampling, flow injection analysis (FIA), and amperometric detection. With the multianalyte sensor it was possible to detect glucose and galactose by sequential injection of their corresponding oxidase enzymes: glucose oxidase and galactose oxidase, while lactose was determined by injection of a mixture of beta-galactosidase and glucose oxidase enzymes. The sensor showed a linear response between 0.05 and 10 mM for glucose, between 0.1 and 20 mM for galactose and between 0.2 and 20 mM for lactose, respectively. The relative standard deviation values of the sensor measurements for glucose, galactose, and lactose were 3-4% (n = 3). The sensor measurements for lactose content in milk were compared with a standard method with an infrared spectrophotometer.