02220nas a2200277   4500008004100000245009200041210006900133260000800202300001400210490000600224520132000230653001301550653002401563653001901587100002201606700001701628700001801645700002501663700002201688700002501710700001901735700002101754700002101775700002601796856012001822       2017                        eng d00aTemplate -free assembly in living bacterial suspension under an external electric field0 aTemplate free assembly in living bacterial suspension under an e  cMAR  a1019-10240 v23 a<p>Although template-assisted self-assembly methods are very popular in materials and biological systems, they have certain limitations such as lack of tunability and switchable functionality because of the irreversible association of cells and their matrix components. With an aim to achieve more tunability, we have made an attempt to investigate the self-assembly behavior of rod-shaped living bacteria subjected to an external alternating electric field using confocal microscopy. We demonstrate that rod-shaped living bacteria dispersed in a low salinity aqueous medium form different types of reversible freely suspended structures when subjected to an external alternating electric field. At low field strength, an oriented phase is observed where individual bacterium orients with its major axis aligned along the field direction. At intermediate field strength, bacteria align in the form of one-dimensional (1D) chains that lie along the field direction. Further, at high field strength, more bacteria associate with these 1D chains laterally to form a two-dimensional (2D) array. At higher bacterial concentration, these field-induced 2D arrays extend to form three-dimensional columnar structures. These results are discussed in the context of previously reported studies on bacterial self-assembly.</p>10aBacteria10aElectric Properties10aSelf- Assembly1 aSamantaray, Kunal1 aBhol, Prachi1 aSahoo, Bhaban1 aBarik, Subrat, Kumar1 aJathavedan, Kiran1 aSahu, Bikash, Ranjan1 aRanjan, Bikash1 aSuar, Mrutyunjay1 aBhat, Suresh, K.1 aMohanty, Priti, Sunda  uhttps://library.ncl.res.in/content/template-free-assembly-living-bacterial-suspension-under-external-electric-field02906nas a2200229   4500008004100000245010500041210006900146260000800215300001200223490000800235520210600243100002802349700001702377700002702394700002102421700002202442700002102464700002402485700002302509700001902532856012502551       2017                        eng d00aThermo-responsive PNIPAM-metal hybrids: an efficient nanocatalyst for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol0 aThermoresponsive PNIPAMmetal hybrids an efficient nanocatalyst f  cOCT  a753-7630 v4203 aMicron size thermoresponsive cross-linked polymeric microgels of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) are used as "microreactor" for embedding metal nanoparticles of different shapes. Using a simple and robust method, we have synthesized various polymer-metal hybrid nanostructures incorporated with Au nanorods (AuNR), Au nanospheres (AuNS) and Ag nanospheres (AgNS). These hybrid nanostructures have been characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), UV-vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and static light scattering (SLS) followed by their catalytic activity. TEM studies directly confirmed the mondispersity of synthesized hybrid microgels and stability of the embedded metal nanoparticles within the microgels. Optical studies confirmed the presence of respective absorption bands that correspond to AuNS, AgNS and AuNR respectively. Extensive DLS studies demonstrated that although these hybrid microgels preserve their thermoresponsive properties, i.e their hydrodynamic radius decreased with increasing temperature, their thermosensitivity were comparatively lesser than pure PNIPAM microgels. Combining with studies using static light scattering, we further found that AuNS and AgNS were inhomogeneously distributed within microgels where the majority of the nanoparticles present within the loosely cross-linked shell. On the other hand AuNR were distributed more homogeneously within the microgels. Catalytic performance of various nanostructures loaded onto PNIPAM microgel beads were evaluated by studying the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol. Complete catalytic conversion using AgNS occurred in similar to 30 min with a first-order rate constant of 0.159 min(-1) having a 7 min induction period. On the other hand no induction period was observed for AuNS and AuNR and the reaction completed in 3-4 min with a first-order rate constant of 1.607 min(-1) and 1.627 min(-1) respectively. Further, PNIPAM-AuNS and PNIPAM-AuNR possess better catalytic activity as well as recyclability compared to that of PNIPAM-AgNS. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.1 aSatapathy, Smith, Sagar1 aBhol, Prachi1 aChakkarambath, Aswathy1 aMohanta, Jagdeep1 aSamantaray, Kunal1 aBhat, Suresh, K.1 aPanda, Subhendu, K.1 aMohanty, Priti, S.1 aSi, Satyabrata  uhttps://library.ncl.res.in/content/thermo-responsive-pnipam-metal-hybrids-efficient-nanocatalyst-reduction-4-nitrophenol