Selective isolation and eradication of E. coli associated with urinary tract infections using anti-fimbrial modified magnetic reduced graphene oxide nanoheaters - Halouane, Fatima; Jijie, Roxana; Meziane, Dalila; Li, Chengnan; Singh, Santosh K.; Bouckaert, Julie; Jurazek, Jean; Kurungot, Sreekumar; Barras, Alexandre; Li, Musen; Boukherroub, Rabah; Szunerits, Sabine (Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 2017)
The fast and efficient elimination of pathogenic bacteria from water, food or biological samples such as blood remains a challenging task. Magnetic isolation of bacteria from complex media holds particular promise for water disinfection and other biotechnological applications employing bacteria. When it comes to infectious diseases such as urinary tract infections, the selective removal of the pathogenic species in complex media such as human serum is also of importance. This issue can only be accomplished by adding pathogen specific targeting sites onto the magnetic nanostructures. In this work, we investigate the potential of 2-nitrodopamine modified magnetic particles anchored on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposites for rapid capture and efficient elimination of E. coli associated with urinary tract infections (UTIs) from water and serum samples. An optimized magnetic nanocarrier achieves a 99.9% capture efficiency even at E. coli concentrations of 1 x 10(1) cfu mL(-1) in 30 min. In addition, functionalization of the nanostructures with poly(ethylene glycol) modified pyrene units and anti-fimbrial E. coli antibodies allowed specific elimination of E. coli UTI89 from serum samples. Irradiation of the E. coli loaded nanocomposite with a near-infrared laser results in the total ablation of the captured pathogens. This method can be flexibly modified for any other pathogenic bacteria, depending on the antibodies used, and might be an interesting alternative material for a magnetic-based body fluid purification approach.

Silver sequestration of halides for the activation of Pd(OAc) 2 catalyzed Mizoroki-Heck reaction of 1,1 and 1,2 - Disubstituted alkenes: Ag Sequestration for Pd catalyzed Heck reaction- disubstituted alkenes - Bangar, Pronnoy G.; Jawalkar, Priyanka R.; Dumbre, Swapnil; Patil, Dharmaraj; Iyer, Suresh (Applied Organometallic Chemistry, 2017)
A ligand free catalytic system consisting of Pd(OAc)2 (cat) and stoichiometric quantities of silver salts, AgOAc or AgBF4, exhibit high efficiency in the Mizoroki-Heck arylation, transforming aryl iodides and 1,1 as well as 1,2 disubstituted alkenes into 1,1,2 – trisubstituted aryl alkenes in excellent yields in very short reaction times.
Keywords: 1; 1-disubstituted alkenes; 2-disubstituted alkenes; AgBF4; AgOAc; Mizoroki-Heck reaction

Solubility limits of ceria-zirconia-lanthana solid-solutions - Abbas, Zenab; Surendran, Mythili; Anjana, P. A.; Jidev, P. K.; Dasari, Harshini; Naidu, Sudhakar N.; Anandhan, S.; Bhat, Udaya K.; Babu, Uday Bhaskar G.; Dasari, Hari Prasad (International Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering and Material Sciences (ICEMS), 2017)
We demonstrate, the solubility limits of Ceria-Zirconia-Lanthana (CZLa) solid-solutions with the increase in heat-treatment temperature from 600 degrees C to 1300 degrees C. CZLa nano-crystalline samples were successfully synthesized by EDTA-Citrate complex method and were characterized by Raman Spectroscopy (RS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis. With an increase in temperature, it is noticed that the solubility limit is decreased in CZLa system. At 600 degrees C, a very good solubility is observed in CZLa system and is confirmed from RS analysis. At higher heat-treatment temperatures (1000 and 1300 degrees C), with an increase in La content, Zr precipitated in the CZLa system and is confirmed from RS analysis. The reason for such kind of behavior in this CZLa system is clearly explained in this work. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Ceria-Zirconia Lanthana; EDTA-Citrate method; Raman spectroscopy; solubility limit; XRD

Spectroscopic and reactivity comparisons of a pair of bTAML complexes with Fe-V=O and Fe-IV=O units - Pattanayak, Santanu; Jasniewsk, Andrew J.; Rana, Atanu; Draksharapu, Apparao; Singh, Kundan K.; Weitz, Andrew; Hendrich, Michael; Que, Lawrence, Jr.; Dey, Abhishek; Sen Gupta, Sayam (Inorganic Chemistry, 2017)
In this report we compare the geometric and electronic structures and reactivities of [Fe-V(O)](-) and [Fe-IV(O)](2-) species supported by the same ancillary nonheme biuret tetraamido macrocyclic ligand (bTAML). Resonance Raman studies show that the Fe-O vibration of the [Fe-IV(O)](2-) complex 2 is at 798 cm(-1), compared to 862 cm(-1) for the corresponding [Fe-V(O)](-) species 3, a 64 cm(-1) frequency difference reasonably reproduced by density functional theory calculations. These values are, respectively, the lowest and the highest frequencies observed thus far for nonheme high-valent Fe-O complexes. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis of 3 reveals an Fe-O bond length of 1.59 angstrom, which is 0.05 angstrom shorter than that found in complex 2. The redox potentials of 2 and 3 are 0.44 V (measured at pH 12) and 1.19 V (measured at pH 7) versus normal hydrogen electrode, respectively, corresponding to the [Fe-IV(O)](2-)/[Fe-III(OH)](2-) and [Fe-V(O)](-)/[Fe-IV(O)](2-) couples. Consistent with its higher potential (even after correcting for the pH difference), 3 oxidizes benzyl alcohol at pH 7 with a second-order rate constant that is 2500-fold bigger than that for 2 at pH 12. Furthermore, 2 exhibits a classical kinteic isotope effect (KIE) of 3 in the oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde versus a nonclassical KIE of 12 for 3, emphasizing the reactivity differences between 2 and 3.

Structural and dynamics studies of the TetR family protein, CprB from Streptomyces coelicolor in complex with its biological operator sequence - Bhukya, Hussain; Jana, Asis K.; Sengupta, Neelanjana; Anand, Ruchi (Journal of Structural Biology, 2017)
In Streptomycetes, tetracycline repressor family of transcription regulators (TetR-FTRs) controls various biological processes including antibiotic biosynthesis, cellular morphology and innate resistance. Here, we focus on understanding the structural basis of transcription regulation by CprB, a member of TetR-FTRs from S. coelicolor. CprB is implicated as a receptor of gamma-butyrolactones, a class of quorum sensing molecules, responsible for initiating secondary metabolic pathways. In order to understand the molecular mechanism of DNA recognition, the X-ray structure of CprB in complex with its biological relevant operator sequence was solved to a resolution of 3.95 angstrom. Furthermore, to refine and compliment the results, atomistic molecular dynamics simulations were carried out using the X-ray structure as the template. The studies reveal that CprB binds to DNA as dimer of dimers with this mode of interaction results in minimal distortion in the DNA, enabling these proteins to recognize multiple sequences with varying affinity. Another crucial finding from our simulation results was that the positively charged N-terminal arm of CprB brings extra stability to the protein-DNA complex by interacting with the minor-groove of the DNA and anchoring itself to the phosphate backbone. Corroborating electrophoretic mobility shift assay and fluorescence anisotropy experiments showed that the mutant AN6-CprB exhibited about 7-8 fold reduced DNA binding. Comparison with other TetR-FTRs reveals that this strategy is also employed by over 25% of TetR-FTRs, where N-terminal anchoring mechanism is used to enhance selectivity for a particular DNA sequence. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Structural, magnetic, dielectric and magnetodielectric properties of Bi1-xCaxFe1-xMnxO3 in the morphotropic phase boundary region - Manjunath, B.; Thakuria, P.; Joy, P. A. (Materials Research Express, 2017)
Structural, magnetic, dielectric and magnetodielectric properties of Ca and Mn co-substituted bismuth ferrite, Bi1-xCaxFe1-xMnxO3 (0 <= x <= 0.4) are reported. Structural studies by Rietveld refinement of XRD patterns revealed rhombohedral R3c structure for x <= 0.11 and orthorhombic Pbnm structure for x >= 0.2. For compositions in the range 0.11 < x < 0.2, mixed phase behaviour is observed showing a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) region. Magnetisation at room temperature increases with increasing Ca and Mn content, showing weak ferromagnetism. Coercivity and remanence initially increase and then decrease with increasing x, showing a maximum for x = 0.175 in the MPB region. Dielectric constant also shows a maximum value in the mixed phase region. Magnetodielectric (MD) studies revealed positive MD for the R3c phase and a negative MD for the Pbnm phase, showing a maximum MD (similar to 1%) for x approximate to 0.1 and crossover at x approximate to 0.175. The studies show strong interplay between the structure and properties, suggesting tuneable bismuth ferrite based compositions for magnetoelectric applications.

Structural phases, magnetic properties and Maxwell-Wagner type relaxation of CoFe2O4/Sr2Co2Fe12O22 ferrite composites - Patel, Chirag K.; Solanki, Neha P.; Singh, Charanjeet; Jotania, Rajshree B.; Chauhan, Chetna C.; Kulkarni, Shailja D.; Shirsath, Sagar E. (Materials Research Express, 2017)
CoFe2O4 (S:Y-1:0) and Sr2Co2Fe12O22 (S:Y-0:1) ferrites were synthesized separately by using chemical coprecipitation technique and calcined at 1000 degrees C for 5 h. The mixed ferrite composites (S:Y-3:7, 4:6, 5:5, 6:4 and 7:3) were prepared by physical mixing of individual ferrite powders in required weight proportions. The prepared composites were heated at 1150 degrees C for 5 h in a muffle furnace and then slowly cooled to room temperature. The prepared ferrites were characterized using various instrumental techniques like FTIR, XRD, SEM, VSM and dielectric measurements. The x-ray diffraction studies of pure Sr2Co2Fe12O22 ferrite sample show the presence of M and Y-type hexagonal phases, while the composites consist of spinel and Y-type phases. FTIR spectra of all samples show two bands of Fe-O stretching vibrations. VSM results of composites reveal that the values of the saturation magnetization (M-s) vary from 50.44 emu g(-1) to 31.21 emu g(-1), while remanent magnetization values found from 11.18 emu g(-1) to 3.70 emu g(-1). A higher value of coercivity (H-c = 562 emu g(-1)) is observed in the composite S:Y-3:7 but Mr/Ms ratio of pure and composites is found to be less than 0.5. The dielectric behavior is explained using Maxwell-Wegner type interfacial polarization and N. Rezlescu's model.

Studies on the role of unsaturation in the fatty acid surfactant molecule on the thermal conductivity of magnetite nanofluids - Lenin, Ramanujam; Joy, Pattayil Alias (Journal of colloid and interface science, 2017)
To study the role of unsaturation in the surfactant molecule on the thermal conductivity of magnetite nanofluids, four different fatty acid (stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids with different degree of unsaturation) coated magnetite nanoparticles of comparable size are prepared and dispersed in toluene. It is found that the nanofluid with the saturated fatty acid coated nanoparticles show larger viscosity than the fluid with the unsaturated fatty acid coated particles at all concentrations. Thermal conductivity studies show enhancement only above a critical concentration for all fluids. The critical concentration for thermal conductivity enhancement varies with the surfactant, possibly due to the difference in the degree of aggregation of the nanoparticles in the fluid, because of the difference in the conformation of the surfactant molecules on the nanoparticle's surface. The experimental thermal conductivity follows the Maxwell model at higher concentrations. From the overall studies, it is observed that the thermal conductivity of the fluids with aggregated or assembled nanoparticles shows slightly larger enhancement than that of the fluids with isolated particles. However, in the presence of a magnetic field, the fluids with isolated nanoparticles showed relatively larger enhancement, possibly due to the easy response of the isolated magnetite nanoparticles to the applied field. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Chains; Dynamics; Enhancement; Fields; Fluids; Forces; gold nanoparticles; Magnetic fluid; Nanofluid; Surfactant; Unsaturation; Conformation; Thermal conductivity; Viscosity; Self-assembled Monolayers

Studies on use of sodium poly acrylate (SPA) for low salt animal skinpreservation - Sandhya, K. V.; Brindha, Velappan; Abinandan, Sudharsanam; Vedaraman, N.; John, Sundar V.; Suresha, P. R.; Badiger, Manohar; Chinnaraj, Velappan kandukalpatti; Muralidharan, C. (IULTCS CONGRESS 2017, 2017)
In this study, commercial sodium poly acrylate (SPA) is used along with sodium chloride for low salt skin preservation. SPA is a super-absorbent polymer which can absorb water many times of its own weight.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 1,2,4-triazole-3-thione and 1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thione as anti-mycobacterial agents - Sonawane, Amol; Rode, Navnath D.; Nawale, Laxman U.; Joshi, Rohini R.; Joshi, Ramesh A.; Likhite, Anjali P.; Sarkar, Dhiman (Chemical Biology & Drug Design, 2017)
Resistance among dormant mycobacteria leading to multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extremely-drug resistant(XDR) tuberculosis is one of the major threats. Hence, a series of 1,2,4-triazole-3-thione and 1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thione derivatives (4a-5c) have been synthesised and screened for their anti-tubercular activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra (H37Ra). Thetriazolethiones4b and 4v showed high anti-tubercular activity (both MIC and IC50) against the dormant H37Ra by in vitro and ex vivo. They were shown to have more specificity towards mycobacteria than other gram-negative and gram- positive pathogenic bacteria. The cytotoxicity was almost insignificant up to 100 μg/mL against THP-1, A549 and PANC-1 human cancer cell lines, and solubility was high in aqueous solution, indicating the potential of developing these compounds further as novel therapeutics against tuberculosis infection.

Synthesis, biological evaluation, and molecular docking studies of novel 3-aryl-5-(alkyl-thio)-1H-1,2,4-triazoles derivatives targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis - Rode, Navnath D.; Sonawane, Amol D.; Nawale, Laxman; Khedkar, Vijay M.; Joshi, Ramesh A.; Likhite, Anjali P.; Sarkar, Dhiman; Joshi, Rohini R. (Chemical Biology & Drug Design, 2017)
A small library of new 3-aryl-5-(alkyl-thio)-1H-1,2,4-triazoles was synthesized and screened for the antimycobacterial potency against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra strain and Mycobacterium bovis BCG both in active and dormant stage. Among the synthesized library, 25 compounds exhibited promising anti-TB activity in the range of IC(50)0.03-5.88g/ml for dormant stage and 20 compounds in the range of 0.03-6.96g/ml for active stage. Their lower toxicity (>100g/ml) and higher selectivity (SI=>10) against all cancer cell lines screened make them interesting compounds with potential antimycobacterial effects. Furthermore, to rationalize the observed biological activity data and to establish a structural basis for inhibition of M.tuberculosis, the molecular docking study was carried out against a potential target MTB CYP121 which revealed a significant correlation between the binding score and biological activity for these compounds. Cytotoxicity and in vivo pharmacokinetic studies suggested that 1,2,4-triazole analogues have an acceptable safety index, in vivo stability and bio-availability.

Synthesis of gamma-WO3 thin films by hot wire-CVD and investigation of its humidity sensing properties - Jadkar, Vijaya; Pawbake, Amit; Waykar, Ravindra; Jadhavar, Ashok; Date, Abhijit; Late, Dattatray; Pathan, Habib; Gosavi, Suresh; Jadkar, Sandesh (Physica Status Solidi A-Applications and Materials Science, 2017)
In this study, monoclinic tungsten oxide (gamma-WO3) have been grown in a single step using HW-CVD method by resistively heating W filaments in a constant O-2 pressure. The formation of gamma-WO3 was confirmed using low angle-XRD and Raman spectroscopy analysis. Low angle-XRD analysis revealed that as-deposited WO3 film are highly crystalline and the crystallites have preferred orientation along the (002) direction. HRTEM analysis and SAED pattern also show the highly crystalline nature of WO3 with d spacing of similar to 0.38 nm, having an orientation along the (002) direction. Surface topography investigated by SEM analysis shows the formation of a uniform and homogeneous cauliflower like morphology throughout the substrate surface without flaws and cracks. A humidity sensing device incorporating WO3 is also fabricated, which shows a maximum humidity sensitivity factor of similar to 3954% along with a response time of similar to 14 s and a recovery time of similar to 25 s. The obtained results demonstrate that it is possible to synthesize WO3 in a single step by HW-CVD method and to fabricate a humidity sensor by using it. (C) 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Synthesis of orthorhombic-molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3) thin films by hot wire-CVD and investigations of its humidity sensing properties - Jadkar, Vijaya; Pawbake, Amit S.; Waykar,Ravindra G.; Jadhavar, Ashok Arjun; Mayabadi, Azam; Date, Abhijit; Late, Dattatray J.; Pathan, Habib M.; Gosavi, Suresh W.; Jadkar, Sandesh R. (Journal of Materials Science Materials in Electronics, 2017)
In present work, we report synthesis of orthorhombic-molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO 3) thin films using home-build hot wire-CVD (HW-CVD) method simply by heating the Mo filament in a controlled O 2 atmosphere. The formation of α-MoO 3 was confirmed by low angle-XRD and Raman spectroscopy. Low angle-XRD analysis revealed that α-MoO 3 crystallites have orientations along (110), (101) and (111) directions while Raman spectroscopy analysis shows two prominent vibrational modes ~819 and ~994 cm −1 associated with Mo 2–O and Mo=O respectively. SEM and TEM analysis show the formation of nano-sheets like morphology of α-MoO 3 thin films. The SAED pattern shows highly crystalline nature of α-MoO 3. The humidity-sensing properties were investigated at room temperature by fabricating the two probe device. The humidity sensing results showed n-type behavior of α-MoO 3. The maximum humidity sensitivity of ~6957% along with response time of ~66 s and recovery time of ~5 s were observed for α-MoO 3 thin film humidity sensor device. Our results have opened up a new avenue to grow α-MoO 3 for humidity sensor applications.

Synthesis, structure and DNA interaction studies of bisphosphoramides: theoretical and experimental insights - Goud, E. Veerashekhar; Sivaramakrishna, Akella; Vijayakrishna, Kari; Rao, C. V. S. Brahmmananda; Khedkar, Vijay M.; Jha, Prakash C. (Inorganica Chimica Acta, 2017)
New bisphosphoramides (having phenyl (EDAPOPh(2)) and ethoxy (EDADEP) substituents attached to phosphoryl groups bridged with ethylenediamine spacer) are synthesized and structurally characterized by spectroscopic techniques as well as elemental analysis. The molecular structure of EDAPOPh(2) was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction technique. The interaction of these bisphosphoramides with calf thymus DNA (ct-DNA) is investigated using UV-Visible absorption and fluorescence spectral data as well as the DFT calculations. These studies reveal that EDAPOPh(2) and EDADEP interact with DNA in a partial intercalation mode. The intrinsic binding constants K-b of two different bisphosphoramides with ct-DNA were determined by fluorescence spectroscopy as 2.08 x 10(4) and 3.86 x 10(4) M-1 respectively. The results indicated that the two compounds bind to ct-DNA with different binding affinities, i.e. EDAPOPh(2) > EDADEP. The binding mechanism of these bisphosphoramides to ct-DNA is also discussed. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bisphosphoramides; crystal structure; DNA interaction; Molecular docking

Targeted quantification of the glycated peptides of human serum albumin - Garikapati, Vannuruswamy; Korwar, Arvind M.; Jagadeeshaprasad, Mashanipalya G.; Kulkarni, Mahesh J. (Methods in Molecular Biology, 2017)
Glycated human serum albumin (HSA) serves as an important marker for monitoring the glycemic status. Developing methods for unambiguous identification and quantification of glycated peptides of HSA using high-throughput technologies such as mass spectrometry has a great clinical significance. The following protocol describes the construction of reference spectral libraries for Amadori-modified lysine (AML), N(ε)-(carboxymethyl) lysine (CML)-, and N(ε)-(carboxyethyl)lysine (CEL)-modified peptides of synthetically modified HSA using high-resolution mass spectrometers. The protocol also describes work flows, for unambiguous identification and quantification of glycated modified peptides of HSA in clinical plasma using standard spectral libraries by various mass spectrometry approaches such as parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion spectra (SWATH), and MSE.

Template -free assembly in living bacterial suspension under an external electric field - Samantaray, Kunal; Bhol, Prachi; Sahoo, Bhaban; Barik, Subrat Kumar; Jathavedan, Kiran; Sahu, Bikash Ranjan; Bikash Ranjan; Suar, Mrutyunjay; Bhat, Suresh K.; Mohanty, Priti Sunda (ACS Omega, 2017)
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.
Keywords: Bacteria; Electric Properties; Self- Assembly

Total synthesis of tetrahydroisoquinoline-based bioactive natural products laudanosine, romneine, glaucine, dicentrine, and their unnatural analogues isolaudanosine and isoromneine - Jangir, Ravi; Argade, Narshinha P. (Synthesis-Stuttgart, 2017)
Starting from suitably substituted homophthalic acids, total synthesis of titled alkaloids have been demonstrated in very good yields. The obtained natural products laudanosine and romneine were utilized to accomplish synthesis of two isoquinoline-based alkaloids glaucine and dicentrine. Base-induced selective generation of two different types of benzylic carbanions, their coupling reactions with 3,4-dimethoxybenzyl mesylate, and the regioselective iodination followed by intramolecular aryl-aryl coupling reactions to form the fused biaryl systems were the strategic steps.

Transcriptional transitions in alphonso mango (Mangifera indica L.) during fruit development and ripening explain its distinct aroma and shelf life characteristics - Deshpande, Ashish B.; Anamika, Krishanpal; Jha, Vineet; Chidley, Hemangi G.; Oak, Pranjali S.; Kadoo, Narendra Y.; Pujari, Keshav H.; Giri, Ashok P.; Gupta, Vidya S. (Scientific Reports, 2017)
Alphonso is known as the "King of mangos" due to its unique flavor, attractive color, low fiber pulp and long shelf life. We analyzed the transcriptome of Alphonso mango through Illumina sequencing from seven stages of fruit development and ripening as well as flower. Total transcriptome data from these stages ranged between 65 and 143 Mb. Importantly, 20,755 unique transcripts were annotated and 4,611 were assigned enzyme commission numbers, which encoded 142 biological pathways. These included ethylene and flavor related secondary metabolite biosynthesis pathways, as well as those involved in metabolism of starch, sucrose, amino acids and fatty acids. Differential regulation ( p-value <= 0.05) of thousands of transcripts was evident in various stages of fruit development and ripening. Novel transcripts for biosynthesis of mono-terpenes, sesqui-terpenes, di-terpenes, lactones and furanones involved in flavor formation were identified. Large number of transcripts encoding cell wall modifying enzymes was found to be steady in their expression, while few were differentially regulated through these stages. Novel 79 transcripts of inhibitors of cell wall modifying enzymes were simultaneously detected throughout Alphonso fruit development and ripening, suggesting controlled activity of these enzymes involved in fruit softening.

Tubulointerstitial nephritis antigen-like 1 protein is downregulated in the placenta of pre-eclamptic women - Mary, Sheon; Kulkarni, Mahesh J.; Mehendale, Savita S.; Joshi, Sadhana R.; Giri, Ashok P. (Clinical Proteomics, 2017)
Background: Tubulointerstitial nephritis antigen-like 1 protein (TINAGL1), is a matricellular protein, known to play role in cell adhesion and cell receptor interaction. Research related to TINAGL1 is limited to cell culture and animal models. Demonstration of TINAGL1 as a positive regulator of angiogenesis and its expression in the decidua of postimplantation mouse uterus, prompted us to validate its expression in human placenta during impaired angiogenesis in pre-eclamptic condition. Methods: Placental tissue from normotensive (n = 25) and pre-eclamptic (n = 25) pregnancies were used to study the differentially expressed proteins by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and TINAGL1 protein was validated with Western blotting. Results: A total of 55 protein spots were differentially expressed (fold change > 1.5, p < 0.05), of which 27 were upregulated and 28 were downregulated in the pre-eclamptic placenta. TINAGL1 was found to be downregulated in pre-eclamptic compared to normotensive pregnant women. Conclusion: This is the first study reporting TINAGL1 to be present in human placenta and differentially expressed in pre-eclamptic condition. The functional role of TINAGL1 in association to human pregnancy needs to be explored further.

Tuning of the magnetostrictive properties of cobalt ferrite by forced distribution of substituted divalent metal ions at different crystallographic sites - Anantharamaiah, P. N.; Joy, P. A. (Journal of Applied Physics, 2017)
Comparative studies have been made to understand the role of different crystallographic site preferences of the substituted non-magnetic divalent metal ions in the magnetostrictive properties of cobalt ferrite, by substitution of Zn2+ and/or Mg2+ for Fe3+ in CoMgxFe2-xO4, CoZnxFe2-xO4, and CoMgx/2Znx/2Fe2-xO4 (0.0 <= x <= 0.2). Detailed Raman spectral and magnetic characterizations are made to extract the information on the tetrahedral/octahedral site preferences of Zn and Mg in the spinel lattice of cobalt ferrite. The structural, microstructural, magnetic, Raman spectral, and magnetostrictive parameters of the studied compositions show distinguishable variations for x< 0.1 and x >= 0.1. Co-substitution of a small amount of Mg and Zn for Fe in CoMgx/2Znx/2Fe2-xO4 (x < 0.1) showed relatively larger strain sensitivity, [d lambda/dH](max) (-2.6 x 10(-9) mA(-1) for x = 0.05), higher than that for the Mg-substituted samples (-2.05 x 10(-9) mA(-1) for x = 0.05) and comparable to that for the Zn-substituted samples (-2.47 x 10(-9) mA(-1) for x = 0.05), without much drop in the maximum value of magnetostriction, lambda(max) (-189 ppm for x = 0.05) compared to that for the unsubstituted counterpart (-221 ppm). The results show that it is possible to obtain high strain sensitivity (at fields < 50 kA/m), along with high magnetostriction strain at low magnetic fields (similar to 250 kA/m), by tuning the distribution of the substituted cations in the tetrahedral and octahedral sites of the cobalt ferrite lattice. Published by AIP Publishing.

Two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy reveals cosolvent-composition-dependent crossover in intermolecular hydrogen bond dynamics - Kashid, Somnath M.; Jin, Geun Young; Chakrabarty, Suman; Kim, Yung Sam; Bagchi, Sayan (Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2017)
Cosolvents have versatile composition-dependent applications in chemistry and biology. The simultaneous presence of hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), an industrially important amphiphilic cosolvent, when combined with the unique properties of water, plays key roles in the diverse fields of pharmacology, cryoprotection, and cell biology. Moreover, molecules dissolved in aqueous DMSO exhibit an anomalous concentration-dependent nonmonotonic behavior in stability and activity near a critical DMSO mole fraction of 0.15. An experimental identification of the origin of this anomaly can lead to newer chemical and biological applications. We report a direct spectroscopic observation of the anomalous behavior using ultrafast twodimensional infrared spectroscopy experiments. Our results demonstrate the cosolventconcentration-dependent nonmonotonicity arises from nonidentical mechanisms in ultrafast hydrogen-bond-exchange dynamics of water above and below the critical cosolvent concentration. Comparison of experimental and theoretical results provides a molecular-level mechanistic understanding: a distinct difference in the stabilization of the solute through dynamic solute solvent interactions is the key to the anomalous behavior.

Ultrananocrystalline diamond decoration on to the single wall carbon nano tubes - Sinha, B.; Late, D.; Jejurikar, S.M. (Applied Surface Science, 2017)
We have demonstrated the decoration of the ultrananocrystalline diamonds on single walled carbon nanotubes using a hot filament assisted chemical vapor deposition. Study reveals the critical influence of the filament to substrate distance on the formation of ultrananocrystalline diamonds on to the single walled carbon nanotubes. It is also observed that etching of carbon nanotubes, due to the presence of unavoidable atomic hydrogen throughout the chemical vapor deposition processes, can be significantly reduced by adjusting the filament to substrate distance. Morphological and structural investigations performed using high resolution transmission electron microscope suggests the growth of ultrananocrystalline diamond is subsequent to the formation of crystalline sp2 carbon layer on the nanotube wall, enabling us to suggest a growth model. The composite synthesized can be thought not only to use as a fuel cell catalyst support but also as chemical sensors, bio-sensors and micro electromechanical systems (MEMS).
Keywords: Carbon nanotubes; Composite Coating; Electron microscopy (STEM; Nanostructures; TEM and SEM)

Unusual role of the aromatic solvent in single site Al(I) chemistry: insights from theory - Jain, Shailja; Vanka, Kumar (Chemistry - A European Journal, 2017)
The single site activation of strong σ bonds (such as that of H-H, P-H and N-H) remains a significant challenge in main group chemistry, with only a few cases reported to date. In this regard, recent exciting experiments done with Al(I) complexes hold significance, because they, too, have been seen to activate a variety of strong σ bonds. Such chemistry is generally seen to occur in aromatic solvents. The current computational studies with density functional theory (DFT) reveal the interesting reason for this: it is seen that an explicit aromatic solvent molecule acts as a catalyst by converting the Al(I) complex to Al(III) during the process. Different cases of σ bond activation by Al(I) complexes have been investigated and the efficiency for the H-X (X=H, NHtBu, PPh2) bond activation in the presence of an explicit benzene solvent molecule has been seen to be orders of magnitude higher than in its absence. The current work therefore reveals the chemistry of Al(I) complexes to be richer and more complex than realized to date, and shows it to be dependent on metal-solvent cooperativity, the first known example of its kind in main group chemistry.

Valorization of potato peel: a biorefinery approach - Pathak, P. D.; Mandavgane, S. A.; Puranik, N. M.; Jambhulkar, S. J; Kulkarni, B. D. (Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 2017)
Potato is the fourth main crop consumed worldwide and is an important constituent in the human diet. Consequently, potato is widely used in food-processing industries. However, these industries generate massive amounts of potato peel (PP) as a by-product, which is usually considered a waste, and is discarded. Interestingly, recent research suggests that PP is a valuable source of bioactive compounds, which can be converted into value-added products. In this study, we review the physicochemical composition and valorization of PP. In addition to being used as a dietary fiber or medicine, the value-added products obtained by the fermentation of PP have multiple uses, including their use as adsorbents, biocomposites and packaging materials. These products can also be used in energy production, biopolymer film development, corrosion inhibition and the synthesis of cellulose nanocrystals. The biorefinery approach for PP will increase the value of this waste by producing an array of value-added products and reducing extensive waste generation.
Keywords: Bioactive compounds; Biorefinery; Potato peel; Valorization; Value-added products

Vapor-liquid equilibrium data for binary mixtures of acetic acid plus anisole, acetone plus anisole, and isopropanol plus anisole at pressure 96.15 kPa - Mali, Nilesh A.; Mali, Pawan K.; Patil, Asmita P.; Joshi, Sunil S. (Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 2017)
In this work, the vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data have been generated at the local atmospheric pressure of 96.15 kPa for the binary systems acetic acid + anisole, acetone + anisole, and isopropanol + anisole. A circulation type apparatus was designed and developed with few modifications in one of the stills proposed in the literature. For the validation of the new apparatus, VLE data were generated for the known system of N,N-DMF + aniline and compared with the literature data. The VLE data, generated in Txy form for all pairs, were found to be consistent through the point-to-point consistency test. Activity coefficient models, Wilson, NRTL, and UNIQUAC, were fitted to these data using an objective function of minimizing the sum of deviation between experimental and calculated total pressures to estimate the binary interaction parameters. The model predictions with estimated parameters were compared with the experimental data and found appropriate.

Vapor-liquid equilibrium data for binary mixtures of dimethyl carbonate with methyl acetate, ethyl acetate, n-propyl acetate, isopropyl acetate, n-butyl acetate, and isoamyl acetate at 93.13 kPa - Mali, Nilesh A.; Yadav, Satyajeet S.; Ghuge, Pravin D.; Joshi, Sunil. S. (Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 2017)
Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data was measured at the local atmospheric pressure of 93.13 kPa for the binary systems of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) with methyl acetate, ethyl acetate, n-propyl acetate, isopropyl acetate, n-butyl acetate, and isoamyl acetate using a dynamic recirculation still. VLE data was generated in the form of T-x,y and was checked for thermodynamic consistency using the Herington area test, Van Ness test, and mean absolute deviation between experimental and calculated total pressure and vapor phase composition. Data for all pairs meet the criteria for thermodynamic consistency and were found suitable for process modeling. Binary interaction parameters for the Wilson, nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL), and universal quasichemical (UNIQUAC) activity coefficient models were determined using the objective function of minimizing the deviation between the experimental and the calculated vapor phase composition and total pressure. For all binary systems, Wilson, NRTL, and UNIQUAC models gave good predictions. Azeotropic behavior was observed for the isopropyl acetate-DMC pair at 357.8 K and 0.6 mole fraction of isopropyl acetate.

Viable alternative in vitro system and comparative metabolite profiling of different tissues for the conservation of ceropegia karulensis - Pandey, M.; Jayaramaiah, R.H.; Dholakia, B.B; Punekar, S.A.; Giri, A.P. (Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture, 2017)
Abstract: Ceropegia karulensis is an endemic and critically endangered plant of the Western Ghats from India. Exploitation of the tubers and poor regeneration from seed has narrowed distribution and propagation of the species. There is a need to develop in vitro propagation methods for C. karulensis to alleviate these problems. Here, we optimized callus induction, somatic embryogenesis and microtuberization from different seedling explants viz. cotyledonary leaf and root. The environmental scanning electron microscopy was used to observe somatic embryonic origin and their developmental stages. Highest callus proliferation was recorded with 2 µM 6-benzylaminopurine and 1 µM 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Somatic embryos derived from cotyledonary leaf explants were more proliferative than root explants. The combination of 2 µM 6-benzylaminopurine, 2 µM naphthalene acetic acid and 7% sucrose in MS media resulted in highest microtuberization. Further, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry based metabolic profiling was carried out from native wild plants and in vitro callus tissues which identified various phytochemicals such as alkaloids, fatty acids, esters alcohols, etc. Multivariate analysis revealed the chemical disparities, where considerable variations were observed between native wild type and in vitro tissues, but no significant differences were found among in vitro callus from both root and cotyledonary explants. Overall, our results suggested that the production of various secondary metabolites found in C. karulensis was not affected by in vitro propagation and could be utilized in the conservation strategies for this plant. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]
Keywords: alkaloids; Metabolites

Water mediated deactivation of Co3O4 naonrods catalyst for CO oxidation and resumption of activity at and above 373 K: electronic structural aspects by NAPPES - Jain, Ruchi; Reddy, Kasala Prabhakar; Ghosalya, Manoj Kumar; Gopinath, Chinnakonda S. (Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2017)
The catalytic activity of the Co3O4 nanorods (NRs) for the CO oxidation reaction and the effect of water on the catalytic reaction have been explored with near-ambient pressure photoelectron spectroscopy (NAPPES) and mass spectral analysis. Comparative NAPPES studies have been employed to understand the elucidation of the catalytic reaction pathway and the evolution of various surface species. The results confirm the suppression of the CO oxidation activity on the Co3O4 NRs in the presence of water vapor. Various type of surface species, such as CO(ads), hydroxyl, carbonate, formate, are found to be present on the catalyst surface depending on the reaction conditions. Vibrational features of CO, O-2, and CO, were observed and shift in binding energy of these features under the reaction conditions directly suggests a change in work function of the catalyst surface. Under dry conditions, CO couples with labile 0 atoms to form CO2; however, under wet conditions, CO predominantly interacts with surface OH groups resulting in the formation of carbonate and formate intermediates. In situ studies of oxidation of CO on Co3O4 shows that CO oxidation depends not only on surface Co3+ concentration but also influenced by Co-3/Co' ratio on the catalyst surface. The carbonate was found to be a reaction inhibitor at room temperature; however, it acts as an active intermediate at 375 K and above. Above the boiling point of water, Co3O4 NR surfaces begin to show the oxidation activity even in the presence of water vapor. The intrinsic role of intermediate species was used to derive a possible reaction mechanism under different reaction conditions.
Keywords: Ambinent-temprature; carbon monoxide; Gas Shift; H Activation; In-situ; Low-temprature oxidation; Molecular-beam; Performance enhancement; Ray Photoelectron-Spectroscopyu; Thin-films

Albumin abundance and its glycation Status determine hemoglobin glycation - Jagadeeshaprasad, Mashanipalya G.; Venkatasubramani, Vinashya; Unnikrishnan, Ambika G.; Kulkarni, Mahesh J. (ACS Omega, 2018)
Diabetes diagnosis and management majorly depend upon the measurement of glycated hemoglobin (HbAlc) levels. Various factors influence HbAlc levels such as the use of various analytical methods and the presence of various clinical conditions. Plasma albumin levels were known to be negatively associated with HbAlc. However, the precise mechanism by which they affect HbAlc is not well' understood. Therefore, we have studied the influence of albumin levels and its glycation status on hemoglobin glycation using erythrocyte culture experiments. Erythrocytes maintained at low albumin concentration exhibited relatively increased albumin and hemoglobin glycation as compared to that in those maintained at higher albumin concentration. Increase in albumin glycation may decrease its ability to protect hemoglobin glycation. This was demonstrated by treatment of erythrocytes with N(epsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine-modified serum albumin (CMSA), which failed to protect hemoglobin glycation; instead, it increased hemoglobin glycation. The inability of CMSA to reduce hemoglobin glycation was due to the lack of free lysine residues of albumin, which was corroborated by using N(epsilon-(acetyI)lysine serum albumin (AcSA) and clinical diabetic plasma. This is the first study which demonstrates that the modification of lysine residues of albumin impairs its ability to inhibit hemoglobin glycation. Furthermore, correlation studies between HbAlc and albumin levels or relative albumin fructosamine from clinical subjects supported our experimental finding that albumin abundance and its glycation status influence hemoglobin glycation. Therefore, we propose albumin level and its glycation status to be quantified in conjunction with HbAlc for better management of diabetes.

Au26: a case of fluxionality/co-existence - Joshi, Krati; Krishnamurty, Sailaja (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2018)
The Au26 cluster is one of the widely studied gold clusters in the size range of n = 21–30. It has been proposed in a more recent combined experimental and theoretical study that the neutral Au26 cluster is fluxional. The fluxionality of a cluster is relevant to its catalytic applications. In this context, to explore the extent of fluxionality, Born Oppenheimer Molecular Dynamical (BOMD) simulations are carried out on experimentally and theoretically proposed fluxional Au26 conformations (three compact or core–shell structures and a high symmetry cage structure). The simulations reveal that the high energy golden tube outperforms the ground state structure (compact C2v conformation) as well as the other two low-symmetry compact conformations in terms of thermal stability. The enhancement in the thermal stability is explained on the basis of structural integrity imposed by the open skeleton of shortest bond distances within Au26-Tube. In addition to this, the homogeneous distribution of charges and the strong s–d hybridization exhibited by FMOs are seen to play a pivotal role in increasing the stability of Au26-Tube. The present investigation also reveals that the characteristic fluxionality proposed to exist in the Au26 system is noted only above 400 K and it is missing at room temperature. The simulations also bring forth the question of how relevant a ground state conformation is at working temperatures.

Balancing antimicrobial performance with hemocompatibility in amphiphilic homopolymers - Zhu, Zhiyuan; Jeong, Gookyeong; Kim, Seung-Jin; Gadwal, Ikhlas; Choe, Youngson; Bang, Joona; Oh, Min-Kyu; Khan, Anzar; Rao, Jingyi (Journal of Polymer Science Part A- Polymer Chemistry, 2018)
This work establishes amphiphilic polymethacrylates as new antimicrobial candidates that can be synthesized through a combination of controlled free radical polymerization and sequential postpolymerization modification protocols. When conjugated with a polyethylene glycol segment, the block copolymers exhibit a balanced performance between high antibacterial activity and high hemocompatibility.

Carbon fabric based solar steam generation for waste water treatment - Higgins, M. W.; Rahmaan, Shakeel A. R.; Devarapalli, Rami Reddy; Shelke, Manjusha V.; Jha, Neetu (Solar Energy, 2018)
Decontamination of waste water is one of the most practical techniques to tackle the worldwide clean water shortage. In recent times, solar steam based decontamination of contaminated water has been attested as a potential sustainable strategy to get clean water using renewable resources. Herein, we report the utilization of Carbon fabric and Titanium Nanorods on Carbon Fabric for solar steam based water purification techniques. The performance of Carbon Fabric was tested under different conditions and the results proved that Carbon Fabric has excellent light to heat conversion capabilities in both real and ideal conditions. Owing to the excellent performance of Carbon Fabric, it was used for purification of different types of contaminated water. About 99.9% of salt and 87% of organic contaminants were removed from saline water and organic waste water respectively, using a simple low cost carbon fabric based homemade prototype. We also present the application of Titanium Nanorods on carbon fabric for the efficient removal of dye molecules like Rhodamine B from contaminated water using solar driven interfacial steam generation mechanism.
Keywords: Desalination; Dye degradation; Solar steam; Waste water treatment

Chiral amino-acid-amide based ionic liquids as a stereoselective organocatalyst in asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone at room-temperature - Javle, Balasaheb R.; Kinage, Anil K. (Chemistryselect, 2018)
Chiral Ionic Liquids (CILs) of amino acid amide were synthesized and used as novel organo catalyst for Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation (ATH) of acetophenone at room temperature. The developed CILs show very high yield and excellent enantio-selectivity in transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone.

Cloning and characterization of trehalase: a conserved glycosidase from oriental midge, Chironomus ramosus - Shukla, Ekta; Thorat, Leena; Bendre, Ameya D.; Jadhav, Santosh; Pal, Jayanta K.; Nath, Bimalendu B.; Gaikwad, Sushama M. (3 Biotech, 2018)
Insect trehalase is a multiferous enzyme, crucial for normal physiological functions as well as under stress conditions. In this report, we present a fundamental study of the trehalase gene segment (1587 bp) from Chironomus ramosus (CrTre) encoding for 529 amino acids, using appropriate bioinformatics tools. C. ramosus, a tropical midge is an emerging animal model to investigate the consequences of environmental stresses. We observed that CrTre belongs to GH family 37 in the CAZy database and possess 57-92% identity to dipteran trehalases. In silico characterization provided information regarding the structural, functional and evolutionary aspects of midge trehalase. In the phylogenetic tree, CrTre clustered with the soluble dipteran trehalases. Moreover, domain functional characterization of the deduced protein sequence by InterProScan (IPR001661), ProSite (PS00927 and PS00928) and Pfam (PF01204) indicated presence of highly conserved signature motifs which are important for the identification of trehalase superfamily. Furthermore, the instability index of CrTre was predicted to be < 40 suggesting its in vivo stability while, the high aliphatic index indicated towards its thermal stability (index value 71-81). The modelled 3D tertiary structure of CrTre depicts a (alpha/alpha)(6) barrel toroidal core. The catalytic domain of the enzyme comprised Glu424 and Asp226 as the putative active site residues. Interestingly, the conserved motifs were observed to be formed by the flexible loopy regions in the tertiary structure. This study revealed essential sequence features of the midge trehalase and offers better insights into the structural aspects of this enzyme which can be correlated with its function.
Keywords: Conserved motifs; Homology modelling; Midges; Secondary structure; trehalose

Close loop separation process for the recovery of Co, Cu, Mn, Fe and Li from spent lithium-ion batteries - Dutta, Deblina; Kumari, Archana; Panda, Rekha; Jha, Soni; Gupta, Divika; Goel, Sudha; Jha, Manis Kumar (Separation and Purification Technology, 2018)
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are essential energy source used in advanced electronic gadgets for getting constant and continuous power supply. Huge amount of spent LIBs are generated after their end use. LIBs contain metals, organics and plastics which require proper treatment before disposal. Keeping in view of stringent environmental regulations, limited natural resources and energy crisis, adopting recycling will not only protect the environment and pacify the gap between demand and supply but also conserve the natural resources. Present paper reports a complete process for the recycling of LIBs to recover metals and materials as value added products fulfilling zero waste concept. Initially, the spent LIBs were crushed and beneficiated by wet scrubbing process to separate cathodic material, plastic and metallic fractions. The cathodic material contained 20% Co and 2.4% Li along with other impurities (Mn, Fe, Cu). The cathodic material obtained from different LIBs were homogenized and put to leaching studies to optimize various process parameters viz. effect of leachant concentration, temperature, time, etc. About 97% Co and 99.99% Li were leached using 2 M H2SO4 and 10% H2O2 at room temperature, in 2 h maintaining pulp density 75 g/L. Kinetics for leaching of Co fitted well with Chemical reaction control dense constant size cylindrical particles model, i.e. 1 - (1 - X)(1/2) = Kct. The leach liquor obtained was further processed to recover Mn and Fe using (NH4)(2)S2O8 as a precipitant whereas 99.99% Cu was extracted using LIX 84 IC at eq. pH 2, O/A ratio 1/1 and mixing time 5 min. Further, from the leach liquor depleted with Mn, Fe and Cu, similar to 98% Co was extracted using 20% Cyanex 272 at pH 4.8 in 10 min maintaining phase ratio (O/A) 1/1 in two stages, leaving Li in the raffinate. From the pure Co solution, value added products as metal and salt were produced using electrowinning/evaporation/precipitation techniques. The TCLP test of leached residue shows the presence of metals within permissible limit and the effluent generated was treated in an effluent treatment plant (ETP) with standard procedure and recycled to the system. The developed clean process is economical as well as environment friendly and has potential to be translated in industry after scale-up studies.

Cobalt-doped Ba2In2O5 brownmillerites: an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction in alkaline medium - Jijil, C. P.; Patil, I. M.; Kakade, B.; Nandini Devi, R. (ACS omega, 2018)
A series of compounds with cobalt doping in the indium site of Ba2In2O5 brownmillerites exhibited excellent oxygen reduction activity under alkaline conditions. Doping (25%) retains the brownmillerite structure with disorder in the O3 site in the two-dimensional alternate layer along the ab plane. Further substitution of cobalt in the indium site leads to the loss of a brownmillerite structure, and the compound attains a perovskite structure. Cobalt-doped samples exhibited far better oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity when compared to the parent Ba2In2O5 brownmillerite. Among the series of compounds, BaIn0.25Co0.75O3−δ with the highest Co doping and oxygen vacancies randomly distributed in the lattice exhibited the best ORR activity. BaIn0.25Co0.75O3−δ showed a 40 mV positive shift in the onset potential with better limiting current density and a nearly four-electron-transfer reduction pathway when compared to the parent Ba2In2O5 brownmillerite.

Composite thin film of simultaneously formed carbon and SnO2 QDs for supercapacitance application - Jadhav, Aarti; Patil, Sagar; Patil, Kashinath Rangu; Sathaye, Shivaram Dattatray; Rode, Chandrashekhar Vasant (New Journal of Chemistry, 2018)
Composite material with uniform size and structure is a critical asset that decides its properties like charge transfer, thermal, photoluminescence, mechanical, etc. and consequently the applications. Here for the first time, we report the concept of flame/combustion at liquid-liquid interface to synthesize in situ, thin film formation of composite consisting of two or more quantum dots. Synthesis of thin films of a composite containing C and SnO2 QDs having particle sizes below 3 nm was successfully done. As compared to a single quantum dots system, the formed composite showed significantly improved specific capacitance due to the synergistic effect arising from strong interaction between C and SnO2 QDs. This was confirmed by XPS, UV visible spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectra. Moreover, it was confirmed that even after 1000 charge/discharge cycles, the interaction between C and Sn remained unaltered; indicating significant stability of capacitance. Some of the advantages of this method include one step, eco-friendly process at ambient conditions. The generality of the method was established by synthesizing C-ZnO and C-TiO2 composite thin film. This new approach can be extended to form many other valuable composite thin films for various applications.

Continuous flow synthesis of micron size silica nanoparticles: parametric study and effect of dosing strategy - Jundale, Rajashri; Bari, Atul; Thara, Chinnu; Kulkarni, Amol (Journal of Flow Chemistry, 2018)
This work for the first time reports continuous flow synthesis of silica nano-particles of size over 1 mu m using a simple tubular reactor. The systematic approach involves the study of effect of various parameters like: ammonia concentration, water concentration, electrolyte concentraton, temperature, solvent, residence time and mode of TEOS injection over a wide range. A combination of ethanol and butanol was used as the medium with relatively lower polarity. Various process parameters were optimized to obtain highly monodispersed particles of size up to 600 nm and high yield (up to 90%). Attempts of reducing the reaction time by increasing temperature or concentrations of any of the reagents resulted in significant polydispersity and even in the formation of random shape agglomerates. At the optimized conditions almost complete conversion of TEOS happenned within 40 min and further growth of particles was achieved by adding TEOS using multipoint injection approach. While multipoint dosing resulted in the formation of very small number of secondary particles, the larger particles continued to grow beyond 800 nm. Further reduction in the polarity of reaction medium was achieved by adding 20% v/v of toluene, which without changing homogeneity of the solution resulted in particles as large as 0.9-1.1 mu m.
Keywords: Flow synthesis; Multipoint injection; silica; TEOS; Tubular reactor

Controlled release nanocomposite microcapsules for agricultural applications - Shanmuganathan, Kadhiravan; Shukla, Parshuram; Jagtap, Siddheshwar; Patil, Vishal; Sapre, Aditya (256th National Meeting and Exposition of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS) - Nanoscience, Nanotechnology and Beyond, 2018)

Convenient synthesis of the enantiomerically pure (S)-2,4-dihydroxybutyl-4-hydroxybenzoate using hydrolytic kinetic resolution - More, N. A.; Jadhao, N. L.; Garud, D. R.; Gajbhiye, J. M. (Synthetic Communications, 2018)
(S)-2,4-Dihydroxybutyl-4-hydroxybenzoate was prepared in an extremely simple and practical way with high enantiomeric excess (99% ee) using Jacobsen’s Hydrolytic Kinetic Resolution technique as a key step and source of chirality.

De novo transcriptome analysis of the egg parasitoid Trichogramma chilonis Ishii (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae): a biological control agent - Kerima, O.Z.; Niranjana, P.; Vinay Kumar, B.S.; Ramachandrappa, R.; Puttappa, S.; Lalitha, Y.; Jalali, S.K.; Ballal, C.R.; H. V. Thulasiram (Gene Reports, 2018)
Trichogramma chilonis Ishii is an endoparasitic wasp widely used as a biological control agent of economically important pests. However, absence of genetic information on T. chilonis hampers further research, especially at the molecular level. Here, we performed the first RNA-Seq of the adult T. chilonis. A total of 18,372,639 high-quality reads were generated using Illumina pair-ended sequencing platform. De novo assembly resulted into 24,488 transcripts, with mean length and N50 values of 1444.2 bp and 2667 bp, respectively. Of the transcripts, 14,643 exhibited putative homology with class Insecta proteins from UniPROT database. To understand the contig functions, gene descriptions, gene ontology and cluster of orthologous group annotations were analyzed. Following functional annotation, a number of transcripts encoding detoxification, target receptor action and olfaction- related proteins were identified and analyzed. In addition, 4520 transcripts containing simple sequence repeats, ranging from dinucleotide to hexanucleotide repeats were discovered, with trinucleotide being the most enriched repeats. This new sequence resource will shed light on various molecular mechanisms in T. chilonis and related species.

Design and synthesis of 2-amino-thiophene-tethered ureidopenicillin analogs with potentantibacterial and antitubercular activity - Wagh, Mahendra A.; Baravkar, Sachin B.; Jedhe, Ganesh S.; Borkute, Rachna; Choudhari, Amit S.; Sarkar, Dhiman; Sanjayan, Gangadhar J. (ChemistrySelect, 2018)
Ureidopenicillins are a class of penicillins which are antibiotics active against gram-negative bacteria. Herein, we report the synthesis of 2-aminothiophene-tethered ureidopenicillin analogues and their in vitro antibacterial and antitubercular activity. Intriguingly, unlike the reported ureidopenicillins which are active against gram-negative bacteria, the synthesised 2-aminothiophene-tethered ureidopenicillins were significantly active against Gram-positive bacterial strains and showed moderate inhibition towards gram-negative bacterial strains. Among all the analogs, compound 1b containing 2-aminothiophene moiety with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC): 0.29, 0.32, > 10, > 10 mg/ml for Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, respectively, showed better anti-bacterial profile as compared to cephalexin and equipotent to ampicillin and amoxicillin on gram-positive bacterial strains. All the derivatives were also screened for anti-TB activity against mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra. Among the series, cycloocta-thiophene-tethered cephalexin analog 3c displayed excellent antitubercular activity with MIC values 0.78 mg/ml. Low cytotoxicity and high selectivity index indicate the efficacy of 3c against mycobacterial infections. The results from present study offer a novel approach to modify the existing drug class of ureidopenicillins to yield antimicrobials with promising utility.

Distribution of water in the pores of periodic mesoporous organosilicates - a proton solid state MAS NMR study - Veena, V. S.; Illath, Kavya; Lazar, Anish; Vinod, C. P.; Ajithkumar, T. G.; Jayanthi, S. (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2018)
Solid state proton (H-1) magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR has been employed to study the distribution of confined water in ethane substituted periodic mesoporous organosilicate (PMOE) materials. Proton spectra acquired at different hydration levels are analysed and interpreted in terms of water clusters of various sizes and distributions of water layers on the pore surface. For comparison, we also performed similar experiments on SBA-15. The formation of larger clusters at lower hydration suggests that the pores of PMOE are getting filled with water at lower hydration levels than those in SBA-15. For PMOE, the simultaneous presence of two major resonances in the ranges 3.6-4.1 ppm and 4.4-5.2 ppm and their behaviour upon hydration imply a water layer distribution that is the sum of two contributions, corresponding to fully filled and partially filled pores or pore segments. Furthermore, the behaviour mentioned above suggests that both radial and axial filling mechanisms play a significant role in the hydration process. For SBA-15, as a function of hydration, we observed a smooth variation in the proton chemical shift of the main dynamic resonance. In accordance with previous studies, this is attributed to the gradual increase in the average thickness of water layers with an increase in hydration, and to a pore filling mechanism that is predominantly radial.

Effect of alkali and alkaline earth metal on Co/CeO2 catalyst for the water gas shift reaction of waste derived synthesis gas - Lee, Yeol-Lim; Jha, Ajay; Jang, Won-Jun; Shim, Jae-Oh; Rode, Chandrashekhar V.; Jeon, Byong-Hun; Bae, Jong Wook; Roh, Hyun-Seog (Applied Catalysis A-General, 2018)
We prepared a series of alkali (Na and K) and alkaline earth metal (Ca and Ba) promoted Co/CeO2 catalysts to investigate the effect of the promoter on the catalytic performance of the catalyst in the high-temperature water gas shift (WGS) reaction of waste derived synthesis gas. Interestingly, alkali metal promoted catalysts deactivated rapidly compared to alkaline earth metal promoted catalysts. Alkaline earth metal promoted catalysts showed relatively higher stability (>50 h) even at a very high gas hourly space velocity of 143,000 h(-1). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results reveal that the higher stability of the alkaline earth metal promoted catalysts was due to the strong resistance to sintering, showing a relatively small crystallite size of metallic cobalt compared to the alkali metal promoted catalysts after WGS reaction.
Keywords: Alkaline earth metal; Co/CeO2; High temperature water-gas shift; Sintering resistance; stability; Waste derived synthesis gas

Effect of support on the catalytic activity of WOx promoted Pt in green diesel production - Janampelli, Sagar; Darbha, Srinivas (Molecular Catalysis, 2018)
Platinum and WOx-promoted platinum supported on SiO2-Al2O3, Al2O3, AlPO4-5 and ZrO2 catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation method and investigated for deoxygenation of oleic acid (OA, a representative fatty acid) producing diesel-range hydrocarbons. Support and WOx influenced the textural, electronic and catalytic properties of Pt. WOx promoted the deoxygenation activity through hydrodeoxygenation pathway. Structure-activity correlations revealed that metallicity of Pt and acidity of the catalyst are crucial in determining the catalytic performance and product selectivity. Among the catalysts tested, 4Pt-8WO(x)/ZrO2, having adequate metal dispersion and electron rich Pt (desired for hydrogen splitting), reduced WOx species (W5+;-desired for OA activation) and less amount of strong acid sites (desired to avoid hydrocracking) showed highest catalytic deoxygenation performance (OA conversion = 100 mol% and C18 hydrocarbon selectivity = 89.4% at 260 degrees C and 20 bar H-2 pressure). The study reveals that support plays a crucial role in determining the catalytic performance of platinum. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of titration time on the catalytic performance of Cu/CeO2 catalysts for water-gas shift reaction - Na, Hyun-Suk; Shim, Jae-Oh; Jang, Won-Jun; Jeon, Kyung-Won; Kim, Hak-Min; Lee, Yeol-Lim; Lee, Da-We; Yoo, Seong-Yeun; Bae, Jong Wook; Rode, Chandrashekhar V.; Roh, Hyun-Seog (Catalysis Today, 2018)
We herein report the preparation of ceria (CeO2) via a simple precipitation method for use as a catalyst support in the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction. More specifically, we optimized the titration time required to obtain highly active CeO2-supported catalysts for the WGS reaction. As such, Cu was employed as the active metal coupled with the CeO2 support. Notably, the CeO2-0 supported Cu catalyst (where the precipitant was immediately injected into a cerium nitrate solution) exhibited the highest CO conversion at a gas hourly space velocity of 36,050 h(-1). This high catalytic activity of the Cu/CeO2-0 catalyst was mainly due to its high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, enhanced Cu dispersion, high number of oxygen vacancies, and enhanced reducibility.

Efficient method for synthesis of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and fructose using Pd/CC catalyst under aqueous conditions - Rathod, Pramod V.; Jadhav, Vrushali H. (ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2018)
Pd/CC catalyst was synthesized from readily available biomass-derived D-glucose. The catalyst was characterized using various techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, scanning electron microscopy, C-13 cross polarization NMR, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis. This catalyst showed excellent catalytic activity toward the synthesis of industrially important 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and fructose. The process is simple, efficient, green, and industrially feasible. Oxidation of HMF proceeded in 85% yield, and dehydration of fructose followed by oxidation gave 64% yield of FDCA with 100% purity using Pd/CC catalyst and molecular O-2 as an oxidizing agent under aqueous reaction conditions. The one pot two step procedure is highly efficient for synthesis of FDCA from fructose as it avoids isolation of HMF and requires a single catalyst for two different steps. FDCA finds utility in next-generation bioplastic poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PEF), which is a replacement for fossil-fuel-based poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET).

Efforts to access the potent antitrypanosomal marine natural product janadolide: synthesis of des- tert -butyl janadolide and its biological evaluation - Athawale, Paresh R.; Jachak, Gorakh; Shukla, Anurag; Shanmugam, Dhanasekaran; Reddy, Srinivasa (ACS Omega, 2018)
To identify novel antitrypanosomal agents based on Janadolide, a potent macrocyclic polyketide–peptide hybrid, a macrolactonization strategy was explored. We prepared des-tert-butyl Janadolide and evaluated its antitrypanosomal activity. Our findings suggest that the tert-butyl group is necessary for the desired bioactivity.

Electrochemically synthesized faceted CuInTe2 nanorods as an electron source for field emission applications - Lakhe, Manorama G.; Joshi, Padmshree; Choudhary, Ram J.; Ganesan, V.; Joag, Dilip S.; Chaure, Nandu B. (New Journal of Chemistry, 2018)
Herein, CuInTe2 (CIT) thin films with faceted nanorod-like morphology have been synthesized on a flexible molybdenum foil using a water-based low-cost electrodeposition technique. The co-deposition potential for CIT was optimized using cyclic voltammetry with respect to that of the Ag/AgCl reference electrode, and films were deposited from -0.6 V to -0.9 V at the working temperature of 75 degrees C. The as-prepared CIT films exhibited an amorphous nature, whereas the RTP-annealed films exhibited a highly crystalline chalcopyrite nature as a function of the growth potential. A red shift was observed in the Raman spectra of the as-deposited films that shifted towards the original position upon annealing. The Cu/In ratio obtained by the EDS analysis was found to decrease systematically upon increasing the growth potential. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies revealed the presence of Cu+, Cu2+ satellites, In3+, Te2-, and Te4+ states of Cu, In, and Te. The field emission study showed a maximum current density of 1.74 mA cm(-2), which was attainable at an applied electric field of 1.5 V mu m(-1). The turn-on field was found to be 0.92 V mu m(-1), comparable to that of the carbon nanofibres. The emitter exhibited stable electron emission over a period of 3 hours. The faceted CIT nanorods with columnar growth are a potential candidate for application as an electron source, and herein, the field emission of CIT nanorods is reported for the first time.

Elucidating efficacy of biomass derived nanocomposites in water and wastewater treatment - Kirti, Saumaya; Bhandari, Vinay M.; Jena, Jyotsnarani; Bhattacharyya, Arnab S (Journal of environmental management, 2018)
In the present study, two synthesis methods of nanocomposites-one involving a mixture of biomass and the other using chemical modification were investigated to evaluate practical application of green approach in pollution control, specifically for water and wastewater treatment. Newer multifunctional superparamagnetic nanocomposites using biomaterials such as unripened fruit of Cassia fistula (Golden shower) and Aloe vera were developed as an example of green approach while chemical modification was illustrated using n-octanol. Two specific model applications were studied for the developed materials-dye removal (Methyl Blue and Congo Red) and disinfection-demonstrating antimicrobial property. To elucidate the multifunctional character, the texture, morphology and composition of the prepared bionanocomposites were studied. The surface area values were 6.2 and 9.8 m(2)/g for Aloe vera and octanol based nanocomposites while the average pore diameters were 1.79 nm and 5.7 nm respectively, indicating presence of highly developed micropores in the first material having a honeycomb shape and the later showing excellent staircase type formation with larger pores. A very high dye removal to the extent of 100% was obtained that can be attributed largely to the functionalities imparted from Cassia fistula compared to ingredients from Aloe vera and octanol. The nanomaterials could be completely separated with absolute ease by applying simple magnetic field. Also, successful application of the developed materials in disinfection, removal of E. coif, was demonstrated with a very high efficiency of over 95%. The biomass derived nanocomposites exhibit excellent pollutant removal and disinfection properties, even at very low nanoparticle content; octanol based material indicating similar to 5 times lowered cost, while the Aloe vera based bionanocomposites have potential for cost reduction to the extent of 10 times as compared to only magnetite nanoparticles, thereby highlighting techno-economical alternative in water and wastewater treatment.

Enhanced strain sensitivity in magnetostrictive spinel ferrite Co1-xZnxFe2O - Bhame, Shekhar D.; Joy, P. A. (Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 2018)
We report the magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of spinel oxide system Co1-xZnxFe2O4 (CZF series) where x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5. All the composition were prepared by conventional solid state synthesis method and exhibited pure spinel phase formation. The lattice parameters showed gradual increase indicating uniform distribution Zn ions in cobalt ferrite lattice. The magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization and coercive field were drastically affected with Zn substitution showing enhanced saturation magnetization and a sharp decrease in the coercivity. The room temperature magnetostrictive properties showed a promising 30% enhancement in the slope of magnetostriction curve for x = 0.2 composition and a reasonable magnetostrictive strain of 110 ppm indicating its suitability as a promising magnetostrictive material. (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enthalpic interactions in aqueous strong electrolytes upon addition of ionic liquids - Jain, Preeti; Kumar, Anil (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2018)
The present study deals with the inter-ionic interactions between strong electrolytes and ionic liquids based on the thermodynamic properties such as excess partial molar enthalpy, H-IL(E), relative apparent molar enthalpy, phi(L), and the enthalpic interaction parameters. The thermodynamic properties of the systems are the key indicators to understand the interionic interactions. We have conducted a systematic investigation of the enthalpic behavior of aqueous solution of salts and ionic liquids and their mixtures. The present study also emphasizes how the H-IL(E) values for the mixture of aqueous solution of ionic liquids and salts deviate from linearity as compared to those of the constituent aqueous ionic liquid or salt. This deviation from linearity for the H-IL(E) values has been discussed here.

Environmental impact study of bagasse valorization routes - Mandavgane, Sachin Arvind; Joglekar, Saurabh; Tandulje, Akshay P.; Kulkarni, Bhaskar D. (Waste and Biomass Valorization, 2018)
India is the world’s second largest sugarcane producer and a major manufacturer of molasses-derived ethanol. The sugarcane produced is widely used in the production of sugar and 1G ethanol. Though sugar and 1G ethanol are the major concerns, there is still a huge amount of bagasse waste generated in the sugar factories. This bagasse has also some end use value, as it can be utilized for production of methanol, 2G ethanol and electricity. Even though the technology for production of these value added products is well established, it is important to analyze the social, economical and environmental impacts associated with these production processes. This work compares the environmental impacts of various sugarcane conversion processes on life cycle basis. The functional unit used is one tonne of sugarcane cultivated in field. Four routes identified for bagasse conversion- conversion of bagasse to methanol (Route 1), conversion of bagasse to ethanol via 2 stage dilute acid process (Route 2), conversion of bagasse to ethanol via enzymatic process (Route 3) and electricity production from bagasse (Route 4). On comparison of these routes on midpoint indicators such as global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP) and ozone depletion potential (ODP) and photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP), it is observed that the methanol production is having the highest environmental indicator values. Even though ethanol production processes and cogeneration process are having nearly similar results, it can be said that cogeneration process is the more eco-friendly one.
Keywords: Bagasse valorization; Environmental impact; LCA; Midpoint indicators

Evaluation of humidity sensor based on PVP-RGO nanocomposites - Bhangare, Bhagyashri; Jagtap, Shweta; Ramgir, Niranjan; Waichal, Rupali; Muthe, K. P.; Gupta, S. K.; Gadkari, Sanjay C.; Aswal, D. K.; Gosavi, Suresh (IEEE sensors journal, 2018)
his paper describes the humidity sensing properties of one step in situ synthesized poly (N-vinyl pyrrolidone)- reduced graphene oxide (PVP-RGO) nanocomposites. Different PVP-RGO nanocomposites were obtained by varying PVP/GO weight %ratio as x/50 mg, wherein x = 25, 50, and 75 mg, respectively. The real-time adsorption kinetics of the water molecules during the humidity sensing were also discussed using Elovich model, pseudo first and second order equations. The increase in humidity response of 1.5 PVP-RGO nanocomposite is attributed to the presence of large amount of oxygen functionalities. The above observation was corroborated using spectroscopic analysis. The optimized PVP-RGO nanocomposite showed faster response kinetics with response and recovery times of 10 and 20 s, respectively. The present humidity sensor shows remarkable linearity over the range of 20-90%RH. More specifically, sensitivity was correlated with oxygen functionalities created due to variation of PVP during the functionalization of RGO nanosheets.

Exploiting functionalities of biomass in nanocomposite development: application in dye removal and disinfection along with process intensification - Kirti, Saumaya; Bhandari, Vinay M.; Jena, Jyotsnarani; Sorokhaibam, Laxmi Gayatri; Bhattacharyya, Arnab S. (Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 2018)
A green synthesis of multifunctional superparamagnetic nanocomposites using the whole unripened fruit of Cassia fistula (Golden shower) with potential for removal of both cationic and anionic dyes and antimicrobial property is reported for the first time in the present work. A natural medium in the form of clarified butter was used to enhance the multifunctional character. The surface morphology, textural characteristics and composition of the prepared nanoparticles and composites were studied to understand the multifunctional nature. The dye removal was investigated for four different dyes, namely methyl blue, Congo red, rhodamine-B and auramine. Iron nanoparticles were largely effective in the removal of acidic dyes, while the magnetic nanocomposites were effective for the removal of both acidic and basic dyes which can be attributed to the functionalities imparted from Cassia fistula and clarified butter. The dye removal behavior can be significantly enhanced (similar to 50%) using process intensification-adsorption coupled with acoustic cavitation, which also indicated a reduced adsorbent loading as compared to the conventional adsorptive dye removal. The nanomaterials were completely separated from dye solution with absolute ease of separation by applying simple magnetic field. Also, the developed materials were useful in disinfection of E. coli with a high efficiency of 90% confirming significant antimicrobial property at lower concentrations.

Facile and solvent-free domino synthesis of new quinolidinyl-2,4-thiazolidinones: antifungal activityand molecular docking - Subhedar, Dnyaneshwar D.; Shaikh, Mubarak H.; Tupe, Santosh G.; Deshpande, Mukund V.; Khedkar, Vijay M.; Jha, Prakash C.; Shingate, Bapurao B. (Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry, 2018)
Objective: We have synthesized new quinolidinyl-thiazolidinones via Knoevenagel condensation-alkylation reaction, catalyzed by [Et3NH][HSO4]. The present approach offers several advantages such as higher yields, eco-friendly reaction condition and economic availability of the catalyst. Method: The newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antifungal activity against six fungal strains. Some of the synthesized conjugates displayed good to moderate antifungal activity. Conclusion: Again, the molecular docking study performed against the fungal sterol 14 alpha-demethylase (CYP51) showed an excellent binding affinity towards the enzyme which could rationalize the promising antifungal activity portrayed by these derivatives and provides a platform for structure based drug design.

Flexible and free-standing reduced graphene oxide thick films with PMMA stabilized silver nanoparticles, as a potential probe for cancer thermal therapy - Asha, S.; Nimrodh Ananth, A.; Jose, S. P.; Rajan, M. A. J. (Biomedical physics and engineering express, 2018)
hermal therapy is an efficient, cost-effective method for treating different types of cancers and hence flexible, light weight, biocompatible heating materials with low power consumption are of utmost importance. Partially reduced flexible, robust and bio-compatible thick graphene oxide films with, mostly edge functionalized Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and in situ grown silver nanoparticles were prepared using simple soak and dry strategy. Larger distribution of silver nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 2.5 nm were anchored towards the edges of these thick films. The electrothermal (Joule heating) performance were found to increase in the presence of silver nanoparticles due to decrease in sheet resistance (0.33 × 104 Ωm) and increase in electron-phonon interaction. These free-standing, flexible films exhibited stable Joule heating behavior under repeated voltage on/off cycles. In-vitro studies performed on breast cancer cells in the presence of the prepared films, with an external applied voltage of 10 VDC, shows 67% cell death. This work proves the potentiality of thick heterogeneous (partially) reduced graphene oxide films towards site specific destruction of solid tumors by utilizing its Joule heating properties.

Functionalized carbon nanotube reinforced polymer nanocomposite microcapsules with enhanced stiffness - Jagtap, Siddheshwar B.; Patil, Vishal D.; Suresh, Karthika; Ram, Farsa; Mohan, Muthu Subramanian; Rajput, Shatruhan S.; Patil, Shivprasad; Shukla, Parshuram G.; Shanmuganathan, Kadhiravan (Colloids and Surfaces A-Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 2018)
Microcapsules with tunable mechanical properties are highly desirable in pressure sensitive applications. We report here a facile approach to prepare polyurea/multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) nanocomposite microcapsules (MICs) with enhanced stiffness. A model compound dimethyl phthalate (DMP) was used as core material. MWCNTs were modified with reactive functional groups namely carboxyl (-COOH), amines (-NH2), and isocyanates (-NCO) to ensure a stronger interface between polymer wall and MWCNTs. Functionalization of MWCNTs was corroborated by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to study the surface morphology of MICs. The presence of MWCNTs in the microcapsule wall was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). MICs with functionalized MWCNTs show almost 100% increase in stiffness with respect to pristine capsules. All MICs show 92-97 +/- 1% encapsulation efficiency. The approach used in this paper can be broadly utilized to tune the mechanical properties of the microcapsules.

GA3 application in grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) modulates different sets of genes at cluster emergence, full bloom, and berry stage as revealed by RNA sequence-based transcriptome analysis - Upadhyay, Anuradha; Maske, Smita; Jogaiah, Satisha; Kadoo, Narendra Y.; Gupta, Vidya S. (Functional & Integrative Genomics, 2018)
In grapes (Vitis vinifera L.), exogenous gibberellic acid (GA3) is applied at different stages of bunch development to achieve desirable bunch shape and berry size in seedless grapes used for table purpose. RNA sequence-based transcriptome analysis was used to understand the mechanism of GA3 action at cluster emergence, full bloom, and berry stage in table grape variety Thompson Seedless. At cluster emergence, rachis samples were collected at 6 and 24 h after application of GA3, whereas flower clusters and berry samples were collected at 6, 24, and 48 h after application at full bloom and 3–4 mm berry stages. Seven hundred thirty-three genes were differentially expressed in GA3-treated samples. At rachis and flower cluster stage respectively, 126 and 264 genes were found to be significantly differentially expressed within 6 h of GA3 application. The number of DEG reduced considerably at 24 h. However, at berry stage, major changes occurred even at 24 h and a number of DEGs at 6 and 24 h were 174 and 191, respectively. As compared to upregulated genes, larger numbers of genes were downregulated. Stage-specific response to the GA3 application was observed as evident from the unique set of DEGs at each stage and only a few common genes among three stages. Among the DEGs, 67 were transcription factors. Functional categorization and enrichment analysis revealed that several transcripts involved in sucrose and hexose metabolism, hormone and secondary metabolism, and abiotic and biotic stimuli were enriched in response to application of GA3. A high correlation was recorded for real-time PCR and transcriptome data for selected DEGs, thus indicating the robustness of transcriptome data obtained in this study for understanding the GA3 response at different stages of berry development in grape. Chromosomal localization of DEGs and identification of polymorphic microsatellite markers in selected genes have potential for their use in breeding for varieties with improved bunch architecture.
Keywords: Bunch architecture; GA3 response; Microsatellite markers; RNA seq; Transcription factors; Vitis vinifera

Genetic and phytochemical investigations for understanding population variability of the medicinally important tree Saraca asoca to help develop conservation strategies - Hegde, Satisha; Pai, Sandeep Ramchandra; Bhagwat, Rasika M.; Saini, Archana; Rathore, Poonam Kanwar; Jalalpure, Sunil Satyappa; Hegde, Harsha Vasudev; Sugunan, Attayoor Purushottaman; Gupta, Vidya S.; Kholkute, Sanjiva D.; Roy, Subarna (Phytochemistry, 2018)
Saraca asoca (Roxb.) De Wilde (Caesalpiniaceae) is a highly traded IUCN red listed tree species used in Ayurvedic medicines for the treatment of various disorders, especially gynaecological problems. However, information about the genetic variations between populations and corresponding variation in specialized metabolites of S. asoca remains unclear. To address this issue, we analysed 11 populations of S. asoca with 106 accessions collected from Western Ghats of India using ISSR markers along with selected phytocompounds using RP-HPLC. Twenty primers were screened, out of which seven were selected for further analysis based on generation of clear polymorphic banding patterns. These seven ISSR primers produced 74 polymorphic loci. AMOVA showed 43% genetic variation within populations and 57% among the populations of S. asoca. To estimate the genetic relationships among S. asoca populations, UPGMA and Bayesian Models were constructed, which revealed two clusters of similar grouping patterns. However, excluding minor deviations, UPGMA and dissimilarity analysis showed close association of genotypes according to their geographical locations. Catechin (CAT), epicatechin (EPI) and gallic acid (GA) were quantified from bark and leaf samples of corresponding genotypes collected from 106 accessions. ROC plots depicted the sensitivity and specificity of the concentrations of tested phytocompounds at various cut-off points. Although, multiple logistic regression analysis predicted some association between few loci with GA, EPI and CAT, but PCA for phytochemical data failed to distinguish the populations. Overall, there were no significant trends observed to distinguish the populations based on these phytocompounds. Furthermore, the study advocates the delineate provenance regions of S. asoca genotypes/chemotype snapshots for in-situ conservation and ex-situ cultivation.

Global transcriptome analysis of grapevine ( Vitis vinifera L.) leaves under salt stress reveals differential response at early and late stages of stress in table grape cv. Thompson Seedless - Upadhyay, Anuradha; Gaonkar, Tulsi; Upadhyay, Ajay Kumar; Jogaiah, Satisha; Shinde, Manisha P.; Kadoo, Narendra; Gupta, Vidya Shrikant (Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 2018)
Among the different abiotic stresses, salt stress has a significant effect on the growth and yield of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.). In this study, we employed RNA sequence based transcriptome analysis to study salinity stress response in grape variety Thompson Seedless. Salt stress adversely affected the growth related and physiological parameters and the effect on physiological parameters was significant within 10 days of stress imposition. A total of 343 genes were differentially expressed in response to salt stress. Among the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) only 42 genes were common at early and late stages of stress. The gene enrichment analysis revealed that GO terms related to transcription factors were over-represented. Among the DEGs, 52 were transcription factors belonging to WRKY, EREB, MYB, NAC and bHLH families. Salt stress significantly affected several pathways like metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, membrane transport development related pathways etc. 343 DEGs were distributed on all the 19 chromosomes, however clustered regions of DEGs were present on chromosomes 2, 5, 6 and 12 suggesting probable QTLs for imparting tolerance to salt and other abiotic stresses. Real-time PCR of selected genes in control and treated samples of grafted and own root vines demonstrated that rootstock influenced expression of salt stress responsive genes. Microsatellite regions were identified in ten selected salt responsive genes and highly polymorphic markers were identified using fifteen grape genotypes. This information will be useful for the identification of key genes involved in salt stress tolerance in grape. The identified DEGs could also be useful for genome wide analysis for the identification of polymorphic markers for their subsequent use in molecular breeding for developing salt tolerant grape genotypes.

Hydrothermal synthesis of rGO-PbBi2Se4 composite and investigation of its structural, chemical and field emission properties - Aher, Rahul; Bhorde, Ajinkya; Sharma, Priyanka; Nair, Shruthi; Borate, Haribhau; Pandharkar, Subhash; Rondiya, Sachin; Chaudhary, Minakshi; Gopinath, Chinnakonda; Suryawanshi, Sachin; More, Mahendra; Jadkar, Sandesh (Journal of Materials Science-Materials in Electronics, 2018)
In the present study we report the one step facile synthesis of pristine lead bismuth selenide (PbBi2Se4) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and its composites with PbBi2Se4. Formation of pristine PbBi2Se4 and rGO-PbBi2Se4 composite were confirmed by X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The surface morphology and topography investigated by using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy revealed the formation of nano-flowers pristine PbBi2Se4. After coupling pristine PbBi2Se4 with rGO the surface morphology shows the formation of sharp vertically protruded nano-sheets/nano-flaks originated from the nano-flowers. Finally, the field emission properties of pristine PbBi2Se4 and rGO-PbBi2Se4 composite have been investigated. It has been observed that the rGO-PbBi2Se4 composite emitter exhibited excellent field emission properties with low turn-on field (similar to 2.8 V/A mu m for 10 A mu A/cm(2)), high emission current density (similar to 1288 A mu A/cm(2) at 3.9 V/A mu m) and superior current stability (similar to 4.5 h for similar to 1 A mu A) compare to pristine PbBi2Se4 emitter. Thus, the facile one step synthesis approach and robust nature of rGO-PbBi2Se4 composite emitter can provide prospects for the future development of large-area emitter applications such as flat-panel-display and vacuum micro/nanoelectronics devices.

In situ phase transformation synthesis of unique Janus Ag2O/Ag2CO3 heterojunction photocatalyst with improved photocatalytic properties - Jo, Wan-Kuen; Kumar, Santosh; Yadav, Poonam; Tonda, Surendar (Applied Surface Science, 2018)
Herein, Ag2O/Ag2CO3 nanocomposite with unique Janus morphology was synthesized by a facile ion-exchange followed by an in situ phase transformation method with precise control of its nucleation and growth processes. Contrary to conventional synthetic procedures of Janus architectures, the present Janus system was constructed without the need for surfactants or toxic chemicals. Most importantly, the visible-light-absorbing Janus Ag2O/Ag2CO3 nanocomposite exhibits a remarkable performance toward the degradation of Rhodamine B and 4-chlorophenol, far superior to that observed for bare Ag2CO3. The obvious enhancement of the photocatalytic performance of this nanocomposite is mainly attributed to the intimate Ag2O/Ag2CO3 interface created by its exceptional Janus architecture, which in turn allows for rapid charge transfer processes. Additionally, the Janus system exhibited a high photostability during recycling experiments with no significant change in the degradation activity. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.

In vitro propagation of Digitalis lanata Ehrh. through direct shoot regeneration - A source of cardiotonic glycosides - Bhushan Bhusare; John, C. K.; Bhatt, V. P.; Nikam, T. D. (Industrial Crops and Products, 2018)
An efficient method for the in vitro propagation of Digitalis lanata Ehrh. through direct organogenesis from leaf and petiole explants has been standardised. MS basal medium supplemented with cytokinins BAP, KIN, TDZ either alone or along with auxins IAA and NAA at different concentrations were tried. TDZ at 4.54 and 6.81 μmol/l were optimum for direct regeneration of shoots from leaf (4.4 ± 0.6 shoots/explant), and petiole (3.0 ± 0.8 shoots/explant) explants respectively. Among the various concentrations of auxins IAA, IBA and NAA tried for rooting, the best response occurred on MS basal medium supplemented with 17.13 μmol/l IAA. On greenhouse transfer about 60% of the plantlets survived. In vitro raised plantlets were morphologically similar to mother plants. Cardiotonic glycosides digoxin and digitoxin were extracted by modified methods and estimated by HPLC. There were no significant differences in digoxin and digitoxin content in leaves of naturally grown and in vitro raised plants. The method for in vitro propagation of D. lanata through direct organogenesis from leaf and petiole explants reported here will be of great use for the rapid and large scale clonal propagation, production of biomass for extraction of cardiotonic glycosides, ex situ conservation, and improvement through conventional plant breeding and transgenic methods.

Integrated host-pathogen metabolic reconstructions - Raghunathan, Anu; Jamshidi, Neema (Methods in Molecular Biology, 2018)
The science and art of Genome scale metabolic network reconstructions have been explicitly documented in the literature for organisms across all the three kingdoms of life. Constraints-based models derived from such reconstructions have been used to assess metabolic phenotypes of their complex connections to genotype accurately. The problem of infectious disease is complex due to the multifactorial response of the host to the pathogen. Systems biology approaches and modeling allow one to study, understand, and predict emergent properties of such complex responses. The integration of the host and pathogen metabolic networks and the subsequent merger of their stoichiometric matrices is nontrivial and requires understanding of both pathogen and host metabolism and physiologies. The protocol here describes the detailed process of network and stoichiometric matrix merger using a salmonella-mouse macrophage model. The protocol also discusses the interfacial and objective functions required to actually embark on the analysis of host-pathogen interaction models.

Interconverting hydrogen-bonding and weak n -> pi* interactions in aqueous solution: A direct spectroscopic evidence - Deb, Pranab; Jin, Geun Young; Singh, Santosh K.; Moon, Juran; Kwon, Hyejin; Das, Aloke; Bagchi, Sayan; Kim, Yung Sam (Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2018)
Molecular structure and function depend on myriad noncovalent interactions. However, the weak and transient nature of noncovalent interactions in solution makes them challenging to study. Information on weak interactions is typically derived from theory and indirect structural data. Solvent fluctuations, not revealed by structure analysis, further complicate the study of these interactions. Using 2D infrared spectroscopy, we show that the strong hydrogen bond and the weak n -> pi* interaction coexist and interconvert in aqueous solution. We found that the kinetics of these interconverting interactions becomes faster with increasing water content. This experimental observation provides a new perspective on the existence of weak noncovalent interactions in aqueous solution.

Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium data for binary systems of anisole with methyl acetate, ethyl acetate, n-propyl acetate, and isopropyl acetate at 93.9 kPa - Bhoi, Bharat R.; Mali, Nilesh A.; Joshi, Sunil S. (Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 2018)
The present work reports experimental isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium data at 93.9 kPa pressure using a dynamic recirculation still for four binary pairs of acetates with anisole. The suitability of the experimental data for modeling was established by performing the Herington area test, Van Ness test, and mean absolute deviation test. Binary interaction parameters necessary for process modeling were derived through the regression of the VLE data for Wilson, NRTL, and UNIQUAC activity coefficient models with a suitable objective function. VLE data in the form of T-x, y plots indicates no formation of azeotropes for all pairs.

KLTL-MCM-41 micro-mesoporous composite as a solid base for the hydrogenation of sugars - Tangale, Nilesh P.; Niphadkar, Prashant S.; Joshi, Praphulla N.; Dhepe, Paresh L. (Catalysis Science & Technology, 2018)
An approach to the synthesis of KLTL-MCM-41 micro-mesoporous composites of varying SiO2/Al2O3 molar ratio (20-8) was designed by following green technology. The synthesis was based on the recycling of waste mother liquor containing preformed KLTL zeolite crystals and unutilized reagents. The micro-mesoporous composites consist of KLTL zeolite crystals preformed through hydrothermal treatment in the first step. In the second step, the siliceous mother liquor was transformed into mesoporous MCM-41. The physico-chemical properties of the KLTL-MCM-41 micro-mesoporous composites were determined by PXRD, ICP-OES, FTIR, CO2-TPD, Al-27 MAS-NMR, TEM-EDX, HRTEM, and N-2 adsorption-desorption measurements. The mesopores properties of the KLTL-MCM-41 composites depended on the SiO2/Al2O3 molar ratio. The characterization results led to the following conclusions with decreasing SiO2/Al2O3 molar ratio: 1) decreasing order of the mesophase, 2) decreasing wall thickness of the mesopores, and 3) decreasing BET surface area and pore volume. Al-27 MAS-NMR spectra showed that only tetrahedrally coordinated aluminium was contained in zeolite KLTL. Moreover, the total amount and the strength of the basic sites of the KLTL-MCM-41 micro-mesoporous composites owing to the exchangeable potassium content (Al/K ratio approximate to 1) decreased in the order: 8 MMC > 10 MMC > 15 MMC > 20 MMC. The catalytic activity of the synthesized micro-mesoporous samples as a solid base was tested for the hydrogenation of xylose to sugar alcohols

Lipase catalyzed synthesis of antimicrobial andrographolide derivatives - Patil, Harshal S.; Jadhav, Dipesh; Paul, Ajay; Mulani, Fayaj Alam; Karegaonkar, Shrikant J.; Thulasiram, Hirekodathakallu V. (Data in Brief, 2018)
In this data article we describe screening of various lipases for the regioselective acylation of Andrographolide. Each lipase was screened with seven acyl donors. Amano lipase AK from Pseudomonas fluorescens was used for the synthesis of two new acylated andrographolide derivatives. Two new compounds, andrographolide-14-propionate and andrographolide-14-caproate were characterized by various spectral studies. These two derivatives showed more antimicrobial activity than andrographolide.

Magnetically tunable liquid dielectric with giant dielectric permittivity based on core-shell superparamagnetic iron oxide - Vinayasree, S.; Nitha, T. S.; Tiwary, C. S.; Ajayan, P. M.; Joy, P. A.; Anantharaman, M. R. (Nanotechnology, 2018)
A liquid dielectric based on a core-shell architecture having a superparamagnetic iron oxide core and a shell of silicon dioxide was synthesized. The frequency dependence of dielectric properties was evaluated for different concentrations of iron oxide. The dependence of magnetic field on the dielectric properties was also studied. Aqueous ferrofluid exhibited a giant dielectric constant of 6.4 x 10(5) at 0.1 MHz at a concentration of 0.2 vol% and the loss tangent was 3. The large rise in dielectric constant at room temperature is modelled and explained using percolation theory and Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars type polarization. The ferrofluid is presumed to consist of nanocapacitor networks which are wired in series along the lateral direction and parallel along longitudinal direction. On the application of an external magnetic field, the chain formation and its alignment results in the variation of dielectric permittivity.

Mechanical activation in reduced graphite oxide/boron nitride nanocomposite electrocatalysts for significant improvement in dioxygen reduction - Patil, Indrajit M.; Jijil, Chamundi P.; Lokanathan, Moorthi; Swami, Anita; Kakade, Bhalchandra (Sustainable Energy & Fuels, 2018)
A nanocomposite of reduced graphite oxide (rGO) with hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is prepared using a simple hydrothermal method. Significant enhancement in the surface area of the composite is mainly due to the pre-mechanical activation of pristine GO. The structural and morphological study reveals the formation of a homogeneous nanocomposite and masking of rGO sheets over micron sized h-BN particles respectively. Interestingly, the as-synthesized GOBN2-BM composite (nanocomposite of 2 wt% h-BN with mechanically activated GO) catalyst exhibits significant oxygen electroreduction kinetics in terms of onset potential (E-onset = 0.89 V), half-wave potential (E-1/2 = 0.74 V) and limiting current density (J(L) = 4.4 mA cm(-2)) with a single step similar to 4-electron transfer pathway in alkaline medium. Though the composite catalysts exhibit higher overpotential (110 mV) than state-of-the-art Pt/C catalysts, they are much superior to previously reported carbon or h-BN based nanocomposite electrocatalysts. Importantly, the GOBN2-BM nanocomposite shows excellent tolerance towards both methanol oxidation and CO poisoning. Moreover, the nanocomposite catalysts show substantially higher stability than Pt/C catalysts even after 5000 cycles under similar conditions. Additionally, they show a better relative current stability (95% retention) than that of a Pt/C catalyst, signifying immense selectivity and durability towards oxygen electroreduction kinetics. The electrocatalytic oxygen reduction activity of the nanocomposite is mainly attributed to the high surface area (thanks to mechanical activation of GO, leading to increased pore distribution) as well as the synergistic mechanism between the h-BN and carbon network of rGO. Hence, it could be a potential cathode catalyst to replace precious-metal based catalysts in alkaline fuel cells.

Mechanism of nickel(II)-catalyzed C(2)-H alkynylation of indoles with alkynyl bromide - Khake, Shrikant M.; Jain, Shailja; Patel, Ulhas N.; Gonnade, Rajesh G.; Vanka, Kumar; Punji, Benudhar (Organometallics, 2018)
The nickel system (THF)(2)NiBr2/phen has recently been shown as an efficient catalyst for the C-H bond alkynylation of diverse heteroarenes with (triisopropylsilyl)alkynyl bromide via monodentate chelation assistance. Herein, we report an extensive mechanistic investigation for the direct alkynylation of indoles involving the well-defined nickel catalyst, which features a coordinative insertion pathway of alkynyl bromide with the Ni(II) catalyst. Catalytic relevant nickel complexes, (phen)NiCl2 (5), (phen)(2)NiCl2 (6) and [(phen)(3)Ni].NiCl4 (7) were isolated, and the complexes 6 and 7 were structurally characterized. Well-defined complexes were as competent as the in situ generated catalyst system (THF)(2)NiBr2/phen for the alkynylation of indoles. Various controlled studies and reactivity experiments were performed to understand the probable pathway for the alkynylation reaction. Kinetics analysis highlights that the complex (phen)NiX2 acts as a precatalyst, and the involvement of substrate indole and LiO'Bu are essential for the generation of the active catalyst. Deuterium labeling and kinetic studies suggest that the process involving C-H cleavage and carbo-nickelation of indole is a crucial rate influencing step. Reactivity study of various alkynyl compounds with nickel-species highlights a migratory insertion route for the reaction. DFT calculations firmly support the experimental findings and suggest the coordinative insertion pathway of alkynyl bromide rather than oxidative addition toward the nickel(II) center.

Mechanistic aspects of pincer nickel(II)-catalyzed C-H bond alkylation of azoles with alkyl halides - Patel, Ulhas N.; Jain, Shailja; Pandey, Dilip K.; Gonnade, Rajesh G.; Vanka, Kumar; Punji, Benudhar (Organometallics, 2018)
The quinolinyl-based pincer nickel complex, kappa(N),kappa(N),kappa(N)-{C9H6N-(mu-N)-C6H4-NMe2}NiCl [((NNNMe2)-N-Q)-NiCl; (1)] has recently been demonstrated to be an efficient and robust catalyst for the alkylation of azoles with alkyl halides under copper-free conditions. Herein, we report the detailed mechanistic investigation for the alkylation of azoles catalyzed by ((NNNMe2)-N-Q)NiCl (1), which highlights an iodine atom transfer (IAT) mechanism for the reaction involving a Ni-II/Ni-III process. Deuterium labeling experiments indicate reversible cleavage of the benzothiazole C-H bond, and kinetic studies underline a fractional negative rate order with the substrate benzothiazole. The involvement of an alkyl radical during the alkylation is validated by radical clock and external additive experiments. An active intermediate species ((NNNMe2)-N-Q)Ni(benzothiazolyl) (5a) has been isolated and structurally characterized. The complex ((NNNMe2)-N-Q)Ni(benzothiazoly1) (5a) is found to be the resting state of catalyst 1. Kinetic analysis of electronically different intermediates suggests that the step involving the reaction of 5a with alkyl iodide is crucial and a rate-influencing step. DFT calculations strongly support the experimental findings and corroborate an IAT process for the alkylation reaction.

Membrane-induced organization and dynamics of the N-terminal domain of chemokine receptor CXCR1: insights from atomistic simulations - Kharche, Shalmali; Joshi, Manali; Sengupta, Durba; Chattopadhyay, Amitabha (Chemistry and Physics of Lipids, 2018)
The CXC chemokine receptor 1 (CXCR1) is an important member of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family in which the extracellular N-terminal domain has been implicated in ligand binding and selectivity. The structure of this domain has not yet been elucidated due to its inherent dynamics, but experimental evidence points toward membrane-dependent organization and dynamics. To gain molecular insight into the interaction of the N-terminal domain with the membrane bilayer, we performed a series of microsecond time scale atomistic simulations of the N-terminal domain of CXCR1 in the presence and absence of POPC bilayers. Our results show that the peptide displays a high propensity to adopt a beta-sheet conformation in the presence of the membrane bilayer. The interaction of the peptide with the membrane bilayer was found to be transient in our simulations. Interestingly, a scrambled peptide, containing the same residues in a randomly varying sequence, did not exhibit membrane-modulated structural dynamics. These results suggest that sequence-dependent electrostatics, modulated by the membrane, could play an important role in folding of the N-terminal domain. We believe that our results reinforce the emerging paradigm that cellular membranes could be important modulators of function of G protein-coupled receptors such as CXCR1.
Keywords: All atom MD simulations; beta-sheet; CXCR1; Membrane interaction; N-terminal

Metal oxide-promoted hydrodeoxygenation activity of platinum in pt-mox/al2o3 catalysts for green diesel production - Janampelli, Sagar; Darbha, Srinivas (Energy & Fuels, 2018)
Catalytic deoxygenation of fatty acids into renewable hydrocarbons (green diesel) was investigated over 4Pt-8MO(x)/Al2O3 (M = Mo, Re, W, and Sn) catalysts prepared by the wet impregnation method. Platinum deposited on MOx-modified gamma-Al2O3 showed higher catalytic hydrodeoxygenation activity than that of the "neat" Pt/Al2O3 catalyst. The promotional effect of metal oxides (MOx) decreased in the following order: MoOx > ReOx > WOx > SnOx. Characterization studies revealed that metal oxides affect the textural and electronic properties of Pt. Supported Pt facilitated the reduction of these metal oxides. Synergy and electronic contact between Pt and MOx determined the catalytic deoxygenation performance. Fatty acid conversion increased with increasing metallic nature (decreasing binding energy) of Pt. Hydrodeoxygenation product selectivity correlated with the extent of metal oxide reduction. Among the catalysts, 4Pt-8MoO(x)/Al2O3 had the optimum dispersion, electron-rich Pt, and reduced Mo5+ species, enabling quantitative conversion of oleic acid with 93.5% octadecane selectivity at a temperature as low as 220 degrees C and 20 bar hydrogen pressure. Metal oxide switched the mechanism of deoxygenation from decarbonylation/decarboxylation to hydrodeoxygenation. Fatty acids, methyl oleate, and vegetable oil were deoxygenated with equal efficiency over this catalyst. Catalysts were reusable in recycling studies only at higher temperature (320 degrees C) and not at lower temperature (260 degrees C), perhaps due to strong sticking of reactant molecules at lower temperature on the catalyst surface than at higher temperature.

Metal-free synthesis of 3-thiocyanatobenzothiophenes by eosin Y photoredox-catalyzed cascade radical annulation of 2-alkynylthioanisoles - Tambe, Shrikant D.; Jadhav, Mahesh S.; Rohokale, Rajendra S.; Kshirsagar, Umesh A. (European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2018)
A convenient, efficient, metal-free synthesis of 3-thiocyanatobenzothiophenes has been developed that uses eosin Y in a visible-light-mediated photoredox-catalyzed anion oxidation of the ammonium salt of thiocyanate and proceeds through the cascade radical annulation of 2-alkynylthioanisole at room temperature. The present protocol requires visible light as a green energy source, an organic dye as the photocatalyst, and oxygen as a green oxidant to provide a mild route with a broad substrate scope for the formation of potentially bioactive 3-substituted benzothiophene derivatives in good yields.

Metamagnetism in nanosheets of Co-II-MOF with T-N at 26 K and a giant hysteretic effect at 5 K - Gupta, Kriti; Dadwal, Arun; Rana, Shammi; Jha, Plawan Kumar; Jain, Anil; Yusuf, S. M.; Joy, Pattayil A.; Ballav, Nirmalya (Inorganic Chemistry, 2018)
Herein, we have synthesized at room-temperature two-dimensional nanosheets of a MOF comprised of cobalt(II) ion with benzenedicarboxylic acid ligand, which exhibited unusual magnetic properties. Direct-current magnetic susceptibility revealed an anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) transition at 26 K (Neel temperature, T-N) followed by a canting of the spin moments along with the concomitant appearance of a sigmoidal-shaped magnetization versus field (M-H) curve at 15 K. Such a canted AFM ordering led to nonzero remnant magnetization with a remarkably high coercive field of similar to 10 kOe at 5 K. Metamagnetism was further: substantiated by the alternating-current magnetic susceptibility measurements.

Methanol oxidation reaction on Pt based electrocatalysts modified ultramicroelectrode (UME): Novel electrochemical method for monitoring rate of CO adsorption - Joshi, Vrushali S.; Poudyal, Durgasha C.; Satpati, Ashis K.; Patil, Kashinath R.; Haram, Santosh K. (Electrochimica Acta, 2018)
Novel fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) based method has been developed to study methanol oxidation reaction on Pt nanoparticles (PtNPs) based catalysts. To support the cyclic voltammetry measurements at higher scan rates, micron-sized electrode geometries viz. PtNPs loaded on the single strand of carbon fiber (SSCF) and PtNPs decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), loaded on commercial ultramicroelectrode (UME) have been employed. Deconvolution of the voltammograms obtained during methanol oxidation revealed three major anodic peaks. These peaks have been plausibly attributed to the electron transfer processes viz. methanol oxidation into CO/other intermediates, oxidation of these intermediates into CO2 and adsorption of un-oxidized CO on the catalyst surface. The peaks due to CO adsorption have been elucidated as a function of scan rates. The area under the peak as a function of time has been correlated to the rate of CO adsorption on these catalysts. The average rate of CO adsorption in methanol oxidation at Pt-SSCF and Pt-MWCNTs/UME are estimated to be 1.08 x 10(-8) mol cm(-2) s(-1) and 13.5 x 10(-8) mol cm(-2) s(-1) respectively. This novel method is proposed to generalize to any electrocatalysts of interest. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Microbacterium telephonicum sp nov., isolated from the screen of a cellular phone - Rahi, Praveen; Kurli, Rashmi; Pansare, Aabeejjeet N.; Khairnar, Mitesh; Jagtap, Shubhangi; Patel, Nisha B.; Dastager, Syed G.; Lawson, Paul A.; Shouche, Yogesh S. (International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 2018)
A cultivation-based study of the microbial diversity of cellular phone screens led to the isolation of a Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, rod-shaped and non-endospore-forming bacterium, designated S2T63(T), exhibiting phenotypic and genotypic characteristics unique to the type strains of closely related species. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the strain is a member of Microbacterium, and most closely related to Microbacterium aurantiacum IFO 15234(T) and Microbacterium kitamiense Kitami C2(T). The DNA-DNA relatedness values of the strain S2T63(T) to M. aurantiacum KACC 20510(T), M. kitamiense KACC 20514(T) and Microbacterium laevaniformans KACC 14463(T) were 65% (+/- 4), 29.5% (+/- 3) and 55.9% (+/- 4), respectively. The genomic DNA G+C content was 71.8 mol%. The major fatty acids were anteiso C-15:0, iso-C-16 : 0, C-16 : 0 and anteiso-C-17 : 0. The main polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified polar lipids. The peptidoglycan contained the amino acids glycine, lysine, alanine and glutamic acid, with substantial amounts of hydroxy glutamic acid detected, which is characteristic of peptidoglycan type B1 alpha. The predominant menaquinones were MK-12 and MK-13. Rhamnose, fucose and galactose were the whole-cell sugars detected. The strain also showed biofilm production, estimated by using crystal violet assay. Based on the results of the phenotypic and genotypic characterizations, it was concluded that the new strain represents a novel species of the genus Microbacterium, for which the name Microbacterium telephonicum is proposed, with S2T63(T) (=MCC 2967 T = KACC 18715 T = LMG 29293(T)) as the type strain.
Keywords: actinobacteria; bio-film; MALDI-TOF MS; mobile phone

Modeling and simulation of a fluidized bed gasifier - Jain, A. A.; Mehra, A.; Ranade, V. V. (ASIA-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2018)
A mathematical model to simulate continuous gasification of coal particles in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor is presented. Material and energy balance equations have been formulated based on the 2-phase theory. Well-known correlations have been used to estimate the hydrodynamics. Devolatilization, heterogeneous reactions, and homogenous reactions have been included in the model. The model is used to simulate 29 experimental data sets from the published literature. The model predictions agree very well with the experimental data by adjusting the particle size. After establishing agreement with the data, the model was used to investigate influence of various operating parameters on overall performance (carbon conversion and the gross calorific value of generated gas). Thermodynamic analysis (using the minimization of the Gibbs free energy approach) has also been discussed. The presented model and results provide useful tool and insight on design and operation of fluidized bed gasifier.

New strategy toward a dual functional nanocatalyst at ambient conditions: influence of the Pd-Co interface in the catalytic activity of Pd@Co core-shell nanoparticles - Jain, Ruchi; Gopinath, Chinnakonda S. (ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018)
Bimetallic nanostructures with a combination of noble and nonnoble metals hold promise for improving catalyst activity and selectivity. Here, we report the synthesis of Pd@Co (PC) core shell morphology nanoparticles with three different ratios of palladium (Pd) and cobalt (Co), and a possibility to fine tune the ratio of core and shell thickness. PC exhibits superior and selective hydrogenation as well as oxidation catalytic activity at ambient or near-ambient conditions. Various characterization techniques have been employed to confirm the core shell morphology. Without any pre-treatment or activation, fresh catalysts with different Pd to Co ratios, that is, 2:1, 1:1, and 1:2, were subjected to olefin (phenylacetylene) hydrogenation and oxidation (styrene to styrene oxide) reaction. The catalytic activity results demonstrate that the 1:1 ratio of Pd/Co is the most active composition for controlled and stepwise reduction of phenyl acetylene to styrene and then to ethyl benzene; 1:1 Pd/Co shows 100% styrene conversion in 30 min. with an order of magnitude higher turnover frequency than other catalysts. The 1:1 PC ratio is also the most active composition for selective oxidation of styrene to styrene oxide. NAPXPS (near-ambient pressure XPS) results show that the active sites for catalytic hydrogenation and oxidation reaction are Co and Co3+, respectively. However, the superior catalytic performance can be attributed to Co (for reduction) or Co3+ (for oxidation), and the Pd Co interface plays a critical role in stabilizing the required functional character. NAPXPS results confirm that the superior catalytic performance can be attributed not only to Co or Co3+, but also to the Pd Co interface. The electronic effect and synergism between Co and Pd helps Co to stabilize in different oxidation states depending on the reaction conditions, and making it a dual functional catalyst.

Nitrosporeusine analogue ameliorates Chandipura virus induced inflammatory response in CNS via NF kappa b inactivation in microglia - Verma, Abhishek Kumar; Waghmare, Trushnal S.; Jachak, Gorakhnath R.; Philkhana, Satish Chandra; Reddy, D. Srinivasa; Basu, Anirban (PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2018)
Chandipura Virus (CHPV), a negative-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Rhabdoviridae family, has been previously reported to bring neuronal apoptosis by activating several factors leading to neurodegeneration. Following virus infection of the central nervous system, microglia, the ontogenetic and functional equivalents of macrophages in somatic tissues gets activated and starts secreting chemokines, thereby recruiting peripheral leukocytes into the brain parenchyma. In the present study, we have systemically examined the effect of CHPV on microglia and the activation of cellular signalling pathways leading to chemokine expression upon CHPV infection. Protein and mRNA expression profiles of chemokine genes revealed that CHPV infection strongly induces the expression of CXC chemokine ligand 10 (CXCL10) and CC chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5) in microglia. CHPV infection triggered the activation of signalling pathways mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinases, including p38, JNK 1 and 2, and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB). CHPV-induced expression of CXCL10 and CCL5 was achieved by the activation of p38 and NF-kappaB pathways. Considering the important role of inflammation in neurodegeneration, we have targeted NF-kappaB using a newly synthesised natural product nitrosporeusine analogue and showed incapability of microglial supernatant of inducing apoptosis in neurons after treatment.

Nucleic aptamer modified porous reduced graphene oxide/MoS2 based electrodes for viral detection: application to human papillomavirus (HPV) - Chekin, Fereshteh; Bagga, Komal; Subramanian, Palaniappan; Jijie, Roxana; Singh, Santosh K.; Kurungot, Sreekumar; Boukherroub, Rabah; Szunerits, Sabine (Sensors and Actuators B-Chemical, 2018)
Next to graphene nanomaterials, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) offers large surface area that can enhance its biosensing performance. In this work, we investigate the performance of glassy carbon (GC) electrodes modified successively with porous reduced graphene oxide (prGO) and molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) for the sensitive and selective detection of the L1-major capsid protein of human papilloma virus (HPV). Owing to the difficulties to perform serological assays and HPV culture efficiently, tools based on molecular recognition are becoming of great importance. We developed here an electrochemical sensor for HPV upon covalent functionalization of the electrode with an aptamer Sc5-c3, a RNA aptamer targeted against the HPV-16 L1 protein. Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and an optimized sensor interface, a linear relationship between the peak current density of a redox couple such as [Fe(CN)6]4- and the concentration of HPV-16 L1 proteins in the range of 0.2-2 ng mL(-1) (3.5 pM-35.3 pM) could be reached with a detection limit of 0.1 ng mL(-1) (1.75 pM). Cross-reactivity studies demonstrated high selectivity over potential interfering species such as HPV-16 E6, opening new opportunities of the developed concept for the development of point of care devices. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

One pot synthesis and biological evaluation of some new pyridine-3,5-dicarbonitrile derivatives - Joshi, Hitendra; Shah, Nirav; Sakar, Dhiman; Desai, N. C.; Jadeja, Krunalsinh A. (ChemistrySelect, 2018)
We have developed eco-friendly route for the synthesis of title compounds by using simple compounds like aromatic aldehydes, malononitrile, 4-bromothiophenol and NaHCO3. In continuation to this, a series of pyridine-3,5-dicarbonitriles were synthesized with excellent yields and assessed for their invitro antitubercular and antimicrobial activity. The results of the antimicrobial study showed potent antimicrobial activity as compared to the standard drugs (Chloramphenicol and Griseofulvin). It was noticed that the presence of electron donating groups significantly increases the antibacterial activity of the newly synthesized compounds. The title compounds further evaluated for antitubercular activity and from the promising results, they were found to possess significant biological activity against M. tuberculosis.
Keywords: 3; 4-Arylpyridine; 5-dicarbonitriles; Antimicrobial; Antitubercular; Catalyst

Oxidative NHC catalysis for the generation of imidoyl azoliums: synthesis of benzoxazoles - Patra, Atanu; James, Anjima; Das, Tamal Kanti; Biju, Akkattu T. (Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2018)
N-Fleterocyclic carbene (NHC)-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of aldimines generated from 2-amino phenols and aromatic aldehydes leading to the synthesis of 2-arylbenzoxazoles under mild conditions is presented. The reaction proceeds via the generation of the aza-Breslow intermediates from imines and NHC, which under oxidative conditions form the key imidoyl azoliums and a subsequent intramolecular cyclization furnishes the product. The reaction tolerates a broad range of functional groups, and the products are formed in generally good yields.

Photocatalysis enabling acceptorless dehydrogenation of diaryl hydrazines at room temperature - Sahoo, Manoj K.; Saravanakumar, Krishnasamy; Jaiswal, Garima; Balaraman, Ekambaram (ACS Catalysis, 2018)
Aromatic azo compounds are privileged structural motifs, and they exhibit a myriad of pharmaceutical as well as industrial applications. Here, we report a catalytic acceptorless dehydrogenation of diarylhydrazine derivatives to access a wide variety of aryl-azo compounds with the removal of molecular hydrogen as the sole byproduct. This distinctive reactivity has been achieved under dual catalytic conditions by merging the visible-light active [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+) as the photoredox catalyst and Co(dmgH)(2)(py)Cl as the proton-reduction catalyst. The reaction proceeds smoothly under very mild and benign conditions and operates at ambient temperature. This dual catalytic approach is highly compatible with many different functional groups and has a broad substrate scope. We have also demonstrated the reversible hydrogen storage and release phenomenon on hydrazobenzene/azobenzene couple to show the utility of these compounds as hydrogen storage materials. Further diversification of azobenzene was shown by a transition metal-catalyzed azo-group-directed ortho-C-H bond functionalization.
Keywords: acceptorless dehydrogenation; Azo benzene; dual catalysis; Hydrogen; photoredox catalysis

Porous reduced graphene oxide modified electrodes for the analysis of protein aggregation. Part 2: Application to the analysis of calcitonin containing pharmaceutical formulation - Vasilescu, Alina; Ye, Ran; Boulahneche, Samia; Lamraoui, Sabrina; Jijie, Roxana; Medjram, Mohamed Salah; Gaspar, Szilveszter; Singh, Santosh K.; Kurungot, Sreekumar; Melinte, Sorin; Boukherroub, Rabah; Szunerits, Sabine (Electrochimica Acta, 2018)
In part 1 (A. Vasilescu et al., Porous reduced graphene oxide modified electrodes for the analysis of protein aggregation. Part 1: Lysozyme aggregation at pH 2 and 7.4 Electrochem. Acta, 254 (2017) 375 -383) we proposed porous reduced graphene oxide coated glassy carbon electrode (GC/prGO) in combination with differential pulse voltammetry as a new analytical tool for aggregation studies of proteins. Lysozyme was used as a model to follow its aggregation by electrochemical means at pH 2 and pH 7.4, leading to the formation of amyloid and amorphous aggregates, respectively. Part 2 of this work widens the scope of this approach by investigating a biopharmaceutical product, as the aggregation of peptide based drugs affects their therapeutic activity and can induce allergic reactions in patients. The salmon polypeptide calcitonin (sCT) was chosen as an example of a bioactive peptide with limited pharmaceutical potential due to a tendency to form cytotoxic aggregates and amyloid fibrils. For practical applications, screen printed electrodes (SPE) and flexible electrodes (FE) modified with polydiallyldimethylammonium (PDDA) and prGO by using the layer-by-layer deposition technique have been developed for the detection of sCT. The results indicate that these electrodes can differentiate between formation of amyloid aggregates of calcitonin (2 mg mL(-1)) in citrate buffer to no aggregation in acetate buffer. It was further demonstrated that these electrodes are able to analyze a pharmaceutical drug product of low potency, Miacalcic (8.3 mu g mL(-1)), where no aggregation was observed. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Calcitonin; Disposable electrodes; Electrochemistry; Porous reduced graphene oxide; Protein aggregation

Refractive index and vapor-liquid equilibrium data for the binary systems of anisole with xylene isomers at 93.13 kPa - Yadav, Satyajeet S.; Mali, Nilesh A.; Joshi, Sunil S. (Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 2018)
Phase equilibrium behavior of binary systems of anisole with xylene isomers was analyzed experimentally. An apparatus which establishes equilibrium conditions through continuous circulation of equilibrium vapor condensate and equilibrium liquid was used. Experimental data comprising refractive indices of binary mixtures, equilibrium compositions of vapor and liquid, and equilibrium temperature are reported for all binary systems. Thermodynamic consistency of vapor-liquid equilibrium data was established for using the Herington, Van Ness and absolute mean deviation tests. Interaction parameters of activity coefficient models, Wilson, nonrandom two liquid, and universal quasichemical, which are important for accounting nonideal behavior in process modeling, are also estimated through regression of the respective binary VLE data. Although VLE data shows that binary systems are nonazeotropic in nature, a pinch in the T-x,y plot indicates that separation of all binary system using distillation may need a significant number of stages.

Regioselective and efficient enzymatic synthesis of antimicrobial andrographolide derivatives - Patil, Harshal S.; Jadhav, Dipesh D.; Paul, Ajay; Mulani, Fayaj A.; Karegaonkar, Shrikant J.; Thulasiram, Hirekodathakallu V. (Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2018)
Labdane diterpene andrographolide (1) is a major constituent of Andrographis paniculata and known to exhibit wide spectrum of biological activities. In this study, regioselective monoesters of (1) have been synthesized by using Amano lipase AK (Pseudomonas fluorescens) as a biocatalyst. Amano lipase AK was able to execute highly efficient esterification of hydroxyl group attached to C-14 carbon of (1) in presence of acyl donors. Among the various synthesized derivatives including two novel compounds such as andrographolide-14-propionate (3) and andrographolide-14-caproate (5) displayed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus with low minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) 4 mu g/mL and 16 mu g/mL respectively. Furthermore, they have shown low hemolysis activity at their respective MIC and increase in the permeability of the bacterial cell membrane as delineated by FITC uptake and SEM imaging studies. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Acylation; Andrographolide; Antimicrobial activity; biocatalysis; Hemolysis; Lipase; Natural product

Selective N-acetylation with concurrent S-oxidation of o-amino thiol at ambient conditions over Ce doped ZnO composite nanocrystallites - Jagtap, Rohidas; Sakate, Sachin; Pardeshi, Satish (Molecular Catalysis, 2018)
The oxidative S-S coupling of thiol to disulfide is an imperative chemical transformation in the domain of biological processes and also finds numerous chemical applications. The CeO2 and ZnO are significant catalysts for oxidation of thiol to disulfide and N-acetylation of amines respectively. Dithiobis(phenylene)bis(benzyldeneimine) moiety containing N-acetyl and disulfide functional groups is a potential antimicrobial agent with Leishmanicidal and antihyperlipidemic activities. Herein, we report a synchronized catalytic application of Ce doped ZnO (Ce-ZnO) and CeO2-Ce-ZnO composites for selective synthesis of Dithiobis(phenylene)bis(benzyldeneimine) from o-amino thiol. The Ce-ZnO samples were synthesized by simple co precipitation method by calcination of hydroxide precursors at 400 degrees C to get 0-10% Ce-ZnO nanocrystallites. The formation of CeO2-Ce-ZnO composite material was observed beyond 1.5% Ce concentration. The synthesized materials were well characterized by IR, XRD, DRS spectroscopy and SEM-EDS analysis. The application of Ce doped ZnO as an efficient catalyst towards the selective N-acetylation and concurrent S-oxidation of o-amino thiol to afford Dithiobis(phenylene)bis(benzyldeneimine) at ambient temperature in acetonitrile was deliberated. Among all screened catalysts, the maximum selectivity was found for 7.5% Ce-ZnO as CeO2-Ce-ZnO composite catalyst. Lewis acidic property of catalyst supported probable mechanism for achieved dual transformations. Also, the 7.5% Ce-ZnO catalyst has demonstrated a versatile S-S coupling ability for variety of thiol substrates with excellent stability.

Selective oxidation of cyclohexane to cyclohexanone using chromium oxide supported mesoporous MCM-41 nanospheres: probing the nature of catalytically active chromium sites - Betsy, Kurisingal J.; Nayak, Chandrani; Lazar, Anish; Krishnan, Athira; Bhattacharyya, Dibyendu; Jha, Shambhu N.; Vinod, Chathakudath P. (ChemCatChem, 2018)
Highly dispersed chromium oxide supported mesoporous MCM-41 nanosphere catalysts have been synthesized using a simple wet impregnation method. This work is devoted to a systematic study to reveal the active Cr sites in chromium oxide supported MCM-41 nanosphere catalysts for the selective oxidation of cyclohexane to cyclohexanone. To probe the nature of the active species, we synthesized 0.5-10wt% Cr loaded catalysts and characterized them by using XRD, UV/Vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis, X-ray absorption near edge structure analysis, N-2 sorption analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, (SiNMR)-Si-29 spectroscopy, SEM, and TEM. The liquid-phase oxidation of cyclohexane to cyclohexanone (99% selectivity) was performed under mild reaction conditions, and the results reveal clearly that the 5wt% Cr loaded catalyst was optimum for the reaction. The initial composition of isolated Cr3+ species in the catalyst is the major factor that influences the enhanced activity for cyclohexane oxidation.
Keywords: chromium; heterogeneous catalysis; Nanostructures; Oxidation; supported catalysts

Sensitive electrochemical detection of cardiac troponin I in serum and saliva by nitrogen-doped porous reduced graphene oxide electrode - Chekin, Fereshteh; Vasilescu, Alina; Jijie, Roxana; Singh, Santosh K.; Kurungot, Sreekumar; Iancu, Madalina; Badea, Gabriela; Boukherroub, Rabah; Szunerits, Sabine (Sensors and Actuators B-Chemical, 2018)
Cardiovascular diseases pose one of the highest mortality risks among all diseases in developed countries, steadily increasing the burden on the health systems. Early diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases has consequently become highly important to decrease mortality and to use more adapted therapeutic decisions. We demonstrate here the utility of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-prGO) for detecting and quantifying of cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a key human cardiac protein biomarker, under physiologically relevant conditions. Non-covalent modification of N-prGO by 1-pyrenecarboxylic acid (py-COOH) and poly(ethylene glycol) modified pyrene (py-PEG) ligands allowed the covalent integration of Tro4 aptamer, known for its high selectivity towards cTnI. Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), a label-free electrochemical sensor for cTnI for concentrations down to 1 pgmL(-1) in human serum could be obtained. This sensitive detection arises from the integration of a porous nanomaterial with excellent electrochemical properties being easily amendable to site-specific surface modification. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Silicon oxidation by NAPPES: From dangling bonds to oxygen islands to 2D SiOx layer to the onset of bulk SiO2 formation - Ghosalya, Manoj Kumar; Jain, Ruchi; Reddy, Kasala Prabhakar; Gopinath, Chinnakonda S. (Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2018)
Valence band and core level photoelectron spectral measurements at near-ambient pressures (NAP; up to 0.5 mbar) were made in the presence of molecular oxygen to explore the various oxidation stages of silicon surfaces. Dangling bonds feature observed on clean Si-surfaces in the valence band at ultrahigh vacuum decreases dramatically due to oxygen adsorption between ambient temperature and up to 400 K at 0.1 mbar of O-2 pressure. The adsorption of oxygen on dangling bonds appears to be localized as islands; this reflects in the surface heterogeneous character and also responsible for the broadening in the oxygen gas phase vibrational features. This is further supported by an increase in the work function and can be correlated to the presence of Hofer (molecular) precursor. When the temperature was increased to 500 K, molecular precursor species dissociates to form Si-=-0 species. This is fully supported by the change in the Si work function as well as from the observation of oxidized Si species from Si 2p core level spectra. At >= 600 K, the Si-=-0 species dissociates to form a uniform 2D oxide layer on the silicon surface, which is characterized by the reappearance of sharp vibration features for gas-phase O-2 molecules. This layer is also quite stable up to 800 K and without any further oxidation in the bulk. On increasing the temperature to 850 K at 0.2 mbar oxygen pressure, bulk Si oxidation begins and the work function increases drastically by 1 eV. An angle-dependent Si 2p spectra recorded map out the presence of elemental Si to Si4+ from bulk to the surface, respectively. A simple model is proposed to show the various stage of silicon oxidation. A continuous change in the work function and electronic states observed due to gas-lattice (O-2-Si) interaction indicates the implications for surface-dependent phenomena, such as heterogeneous catalysis, electrochemistry, 2D layered materials.

Specific stereoisomeric conformations determine the drug potency of cladosporin scaffold against malarial parasite - Das, Pronay; Babbar, Palak; Malhotra, Nipun; Sharma, Manmohan; Jachak, Goraknath R.; Gonnade, Rajesh G.; Shanmugam, Dhanasekaran; Harlos, Karl; Yogavel, Manickam; Sharma, Amit; Reddy, D. Srinivasa (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2018)
The dependence of drug potency on diastereomeric configurations is a key facet. Using a novel general divergent synthetic route for a three-chiral center antimalarial natural product cladosporin, we built its complete library of stereoisomers (cladologs) and assessed their inhibitory potential using parasite-, enzyme-, and structure-based assays. We show that potency is manifest via tetrahyropyran ring conformations that are housed in the ribose binding pocket of parasite lysyl tRNA synthetase (KRS). Strikingly, drug potency between top and worst enantiomers varied 500-fold, and structures of KRS-cladolog complexes reveal that alterations at C3 and C10 are detrimental to drug potency whereas changes at C3 are sensed by rotameric flipping of glutamate 332. Given that scores of antimalarial and anti-infective drugs contain chiral centers, this work provides a new foundation for focusing on inhibitor stereochemistry as a facet of antimicrobial drug development.

Spin state engineered ZnxCo3-xO4 as an efficient oxygen evolution electrocatalyst - Ramsundar, Rani Mohan; Pillai, Vijayamohanan Kunjukrishna; Joy, Pattayil Alias (Physical Chemistry Chemuical Physics, 2018)
Oxygen evolution is the key step in the oxidation of water in electrolyzers and photoelectrochemical cells for the production of hydrogen. Developing a non-precious metal oxide catalyst with good electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is very challenging. In this work, nanostructured ZnxCo3-xO4 has been shown as an efficient catalyst with a low overpotential for the OER in 0.1 M KOH solution. Substitution of Co2+ in the spinel oxide Co3O4 with Zn2+ creates a higher number of high-spin Co3+, which is found to be directly correlated with the OER activity of ZnxCo3-xO4. Zn0.8Co2.2O4 (x = 0.8) with the optimum amount of Co2+/Co3+ and high-spin Co3+ content showed a very low overpotential of approximate to 250 mV, at 10 mA cm(-2), with a turnover frequency of approximate to 3 x 10(-3) s(-1) for the OER. The high Faradaic efficiency along with the stability of Zn0.8Co2.2O4 and electrocatalytic activity comparable with that of precious metal oxides indicate that this composition is a promising catalyst for water oxidation.

Structural and magnetic properties of La2Ni1-xCoxMnO6 compounds - Pramanik, Debabrata; Mukherjee, S.; Dan, Shovan; Nandy, A.; Pradhan, S. K.; Dasgupta, Papri; Poddar, Asok; Mukherjee, Manabendra; Manjunath, B.; Joy, P. A. (Materials Research Bulletin, 2018)
Single phase monoclinic La2Ni1-xMnO6 (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.8) compounds, henceforth, referred as LNCxMO (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.8) have been prepared by Sol-gel technique. The structural study and redox titration suggest that the samples are both La and O deficient. The generated atomic models using Rietveld refined structural parameters show octahedral distortion In the double perovskite structure. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study has been used to determine the predominant valence states of Ni, Mn and Co ions. LNCxMO (x = 0.2, 0.4) are found to be Heisenberg ferromagnets whereas LNC0.8MO is a phase segregated system. In LNC0.4MO and LNO0.8MO, at temperatures above T-c, chi(-1)(T) curve shows the characteristics of Griffiths phase. The study of ac susceptibility and Isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) discard the possibility of any glassy state at low temperatures. The antiphase boundaries (APBs), antisite disorders (ASDs) and oxygen vacancies play important roles in this system.

Structural characterization and magnetic properties of undoped and copper-doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles prepared by the octanoate coprecipitation route at very low dopant concentrations - Kamta Tedjieukeng, H.M.; Tsobnang, P.K.; Fomekong, R.L.; Etape, E.P.; Joy, P.A.; Delcorte, A.; Lambi, J.N. (RSC Advances, 2018)
Nanoparticles of undoped and copper-doped cobalt ferrite Co1−xCuxFe2O4 at very low dopant concentrations (x = 0; 0.02; 0.04; 0.06; 0.08) were successfully synthesized by pyrolysis of the corresponding hetero metal octanoate precursors obtained via coprecipitation using the octanoate ligand as precipitating agent. The precursors were then characterized by FTIR, ICP-AES and TG-DTA analyses and the results reveal the formation of a copper-cobalt-iron hydroxooctanoate represented by the formula [Co1−xCuxFe2(C8H15O2)6(OH)2·2H2O]. The decomposition products obtained upon pyrolysis in air at 400 °C for 3 h were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS and VSM analyses. FTIR and XRD analyses showed the formation of a single phase mixed spinel ferrite while TEM analysis showed that the particles have a spherical shape with a mean size of 20 nm and form spherical agglomerates with sizes reaching 500 nm in some cases as the SEM images show. The chemical states of the metallic species in the samples were revealed by XPS to be Cu2+, Co2+ and Fe3+. These results combined with XRD confirmed the mixed spinel structure, Co1−xCuxFe2O4 in which Cu2+ ions substitute Co2+ ions in tetrahedral sites for x lower than 0.06 and in octahedral sites for x between 0.06 and 0.08. Magnetic parameters such as saturation magnetization (Ms), coercivity (Hc), remanent magnetization (Mr), magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant (K) and reduced magnetization (Mr/Ms), obtained from magnetic hysteresis loops measured at room temperature, are in agreement with this mixed spinel structure and also indicate that these materials are ferromagnetic and could be good candidates for applications in biomedicine and in microwave devices.

Structural elucidation of the binary mixtures of [emim][bf4] and [bmim][bf4] in ethyl-substituted solvents by isothermal titration calorimeter. - Jain, Preeti (ChemistrySelect, 2018)
In order to address the issue whether both ionic liquids and solvents influence the enthalpy of their solutions, highly accurate excess partial molar enthalpy, urn:x-wiley:23656549:media:slct201800976:slct201800976-math-0001 values have been measured using Isothermal Titration Calorimeter (ITC). Therefore, thermodynamic behavior has been observed in the mixtures containing ionic liquids. It essentially depends on the molecular structure of the constituents of the mixture. The hydrogen bonding between ionic liquids and ethyl‐substituted solvents (2‐ethoxyethanol, ethylene glycol, diethylamine, ethyl acetate and N,N‐ diethylacetamide) may lead to strong ion‐solvent interactions. In the present study, an effort has been made to quantify various interactions between ionic liquid and solvent, based on the urn:x-wiley:23656549:media:slct201800976:slct201800976-math-0002 values. Linear solvation free relation shows dependence of limiting excess partial molar enthalpies, urn:x-wiley:23656549:media:slct201800976:slct201800976-math-0003 upon the solvent properties. Structural orientation of solvent molecules and ionic liquids also described by the urn:x-wiley:23656549:media:slct201800976:slct201800976-math-0004 values. The ion‐ion, ion‐solvent interactions have also been investigated in terms of the enthalpic interaction parameters, urn:x-wiley:23656549:media:slct201800976:slct201800976-math-0005 and relative apparent molar enthalpy, φL of ionic liquid‐ethyl‐substituted solvent systems.

Subtle interaction between Ag and O 2 : a near ambient pressure UV photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-UPS) investigations - Ghosalya, Manoj Kumar (Journal of Chemical Sciences, 2018)
The Ag-O2 interaction, which is at the center-stage of Ag-catalyzed partial oxidation reactions, is studied with NAP-UPS up to 0.2 mbar O2 pressure between 295 and 550 K. Three temperature regimes were identified for distinct Ag-O2 interaction, which are (a) 295–390 K, where mainly dissociative chemisorption of O2 happens, (b) 390–450 K, where diffusion of O-atoms into the sub-surfaces of Ag is prominent, and (c) >450 K, where metastable oxide forms on polycrystalline Ag surfaces. The work function (WF) of Ag changed from 4.95 (≤390 K) to 5.30 eV (390–450 K), and then to 5.7 eV (≥450 K) at 0.1 mbar O2 pressure. Oxygen population in the sub-surfaces imparts crucial modifications to Ag at 390–450 K; it makes the surface to be electron-deficient that relates to the change in the WF of Ag and facilitates the formation of space charge layer on Ag surface. Oxygen adsorbed on such modified Ag-surfaces is electrophilic in nature, and this appears at a higher binding energy in core level XPS than the chemisorbed oxygen on metallic Ag. This is supported by angle-dependent NAP-XPS studies. The subsurface population of oxygen in Ag no longer persists at >410 K when the O2 supply is removed. A high ratio of antibonding/bonding O 2p bands suggests the unique silver-oxygen interaction under the measurement conditions.
Keywords: Electronic Structure; epoxidation; heterogeneous catalysis; Surface Science

Surface colonized silver nano particles over chitosan poly-electrolyte micro-spheres and their multi-functional behavior - Prakash, B. (Materials Research Express, 2018)
hitosan/tripolyphosphate polyelectrolyte (TPP) microspheres, decorated and surface functionalized with silver nanoparticles (NPs) of average diameter of 15 nm, were synthesized following a simple two-step procedure. These Ag NP-functionalized polyelectrolyte microspheres (Ag-CSPMs) are found to be biocompatible and enhancing the reactive oxygen species in curcumin with excellent anti-bacterial activity for selected Gram-positive and negative bacterial strains, making them much attractive relative to bare surface counterparts; the well-stabilized silver NPs do not form any agglomerations on the surface of the chitosan microspheres. They also show excellent cytotoxic behavior towards MCF7 cell lines, showing a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 32 μg ml-1. Therefore, Ag-CSPMs exhibit multi-functional ability having potential towards theranostics applications.
Keywords: antibacterial properties; Chitosan; Cytotoxicity; reactive oxygen species; silver nanoparticles; theranostics

Sustainability assessment of brick work for low-cost housing: a comparison between waste based bricks and burnt clay bricks - Joglekar, S. N. (Sustainable Cities and Society, 2018)
Manufacturing of bricks, using clay or fly ash, is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions as their manufacturing involves utilization of coal and cement. To overcome this limitation, alternative construction materials are developed by author using industrial and agro wastes like cotton mill waste, recycled paper mill waste, and rice husk ash. This work aims at performing a sustainability assessment of burnt clay bricks and bricks made of industrial and agro wastes used for brickwork in a low-cost house. The criteria considered for the assessment are economic, environmental, social, and technical aspects for manufacture of bricks and use of different bricks for brickwork. For the evaluation of environmental criterion, a life cycle assessment (LCA) tool is used. Overall sustainability index (SI) is calculated for alternatives based on the various criteria using MIVES approach. The relative SIs of clay and fly ash bricks, were 0.25 and 0.26, respectively. Overall, bricks made of industrial and agro wastes are found more sustainable with the highest SI for cotton waste bricks (0.94). Sensitivity analysis also confirmed that brickwork from waste based bricks is more sustainable compared to brickwork made from clay brick or fly ash brick.
Keywords: Life cycle assessment; Low cost housing; Multicriteria decision; Sustainability index; Sustainable construction material

Synthesis, biological evaluation, and molecular docking study of pyridine clubbed 1,3,4-oxadiazoles as potential antituberculars - Desai, N. C. (Synthetic Communications, 2018)
A series of pyridine clubbed 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives were efficiently synthesized, characterized by standard spectral techniques and evaluated for their in vitro antitubercular activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) H37Ra and Mycobacterium bovis BCG in active and dormant state using an established methods. Compounds 5a, 5m, and 5t were identified as the most active compounds against MTB. Molecular docking was performed against MTB enoyl-ACP (CoA) reductase (FabI/ENR/InhA) enzyme to predict the binding modes and affinity. The theoretical predictions from molecular docking could establish a link between the observed biological activity and the binding affinity shedding light into specific bonded and non-bonded interactions influencing the activity. The active compounds were studied for cytotoxicity against three cell lines and were found to be non-cytotoxic. Specificity of these compounds was checked by screening them for their antibacterial activity against four bacterial strains.
Keywords: antibacterial activity; antituberculosis activity; cytotoxicity activity

Synthesis of biomass waste derived activated carbon-NBR composites for automobile application - Jadhav, A.; Mohanraj, G.T.; Gokarn, A.; Mayadevi, S. (Chemistry and Chemical Technology, 2018)
This paper reports on usability of activated carbon obtained from areca nut shell, coconut shell, and coconut leaves as a filler to prepare NBR based composite for automobile based application. The carbon was activated by phosphoric acid (H3PO4) as dehydrating agent. The stoichiometric ratio of biomass and phosphoric acid was found to be 3:1 for the batch size of 300 g. As compared to commercially available carbon filler, the activated carbon derived from biomass waste responded better to the petrol swelling test. Among three biomass waste sources, namely, areca nut shell, coconut shell, and coconut leaves, activated carbon derived from coconut shell was appeared to be the best for percent swelling and percent deviation in hardness. The results obtained are confirmed by proximate analysis.
Keywords: activated carbon; composites; hardness; NBR; Phosphoric acid

Synthesis of ecofriendly fluorescent carbon dots and their biomedical and environmental applications - Joshi, Preeti Nigam; Mathias, Anjelica; Mishra, Abhishek (Materials Technology, 2018)
Green Synthesis of nanoparticles is an emerging field with enormous advantages over conventional synthesis methods. Herein we have reported a green method for the preparation of water soluble polydisperse carbon dots (c-dots) from Cocos nucifera frond pinnae by a modified version of the `single step hydrothermal carbonization'. C-dots having blue emission were obtained with this method and we further evaluated the effect of metal ions interactions on c-dots, as a sharp decrease in photoluminescence was observed. The synthesized c-dots were found bioactive against B.subtilis, M. smegmatis and S. aureus as determined by the well diffusion assay. We also explored nanotheranostic applications of c-dots as biosensor matrix in DNA hybridization sensor for pancreatic cancer and in bioimaging of cancer cells. This study demonstrated that c-dots can be explored for numerous biomedical and environmental applications in a variety of fields owing to the cost effective synthesis, biocompatibility and excellent physico-chemical properties.
Keywords: Carbon dots; differential pulse voltammetry; DNA hybridization sensor; green synthesis; Pancreatic Cancer

Temperature dependent electron transport behavior of poly (methyl methacrylate)/silver functionalized reduced graphene oxide films - Asha, S. (AIP Conference Proceedings, 2018)
Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and silver functionalized reduced graphene oxide film were prepared and were investigated using FTIR and Raman. Electron transport behavior of these samples, at low temperature were studied. The prepared film exhibited a temperature dependent electron transport, at higher temperatures Arrhenius-like temperature dependence of resistance was observed indicating band like electron transport with a small thermal activation energy. At further lower temperatures hopping mechanism of conduction was observed due to the presence of defects. The conduction due to band-like electron transport at higher temperature is attributed to the easier excitation of charge carriers to the conduction band, whereas at lower temperatures conduction occurs through hopping mechanism due to localized states around Fermi level in the presence of defects.

Thermal conductivity studies on magnetite nanofluids coated with short-chain and long-chain fatty acid surfactants - Lenin, R.; Dadwal, A.; Joy, P. A. (Bulletin of Materials Science, 2018)
The effect of the length of surfactant molecules on the surface of the nanoparticles on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids is studied. Magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles of comparable sizes are stabilized with short-chain capric acid (C9H19COOH) and long-chain stearic acid (C17H35COOH) molecules. Thermal conductivity of the two surfactant-coated magnetite nanoparticles dispersed in toluene is measured as a function of the concentration of the particles in the fluids and in the presence of a magnetic field. Studies showed that the critical concentration for thermal conductivity enhancement is lower for stearic-acid-coated fluid as compared with the capric-acid-coated fluid. Comparable enhancement in the thermal conductivity is observed at higher concentrations of the particles. Relatively larger enhancement in the thermal conductivity is observed for the capric-acid-coated fluid in a magnetic field. The difference in the enhancement in the thermal conductivity, depending on the chain length of the surfactant, is explained in terms of the inter-particle magnetic interactions and formation of clusters.

Total synthesis of the potent anti-inflammatory natural product solomonamide A along with structural revision and biological activity evaluation - Jachak, Gorakhnath R.; Athawale, Paresh R.; Agarwal, Heena; Barthwal, Manoj Kumar; Lauro, Gianluigi; Bifulco, Giuseppe; Reddy, D. Srinivasa (Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2018)
Herein, we report the total synthesis of solomonamide A along with its structural revision for the first time. The natural product possesses very potent anti-inflammatory activity, and it contains a macrocyclic peptide having four consecutive stereocenters on an unnatural amino acid component. The key features in the present synthesis include the application of an Evans aldol reaction, ligand-free Heck macrocyclization and chemoselective oxidations. The challenging task of fixing the stereochemistry of OH at the C5-position was accomplished with the help of DFT calculations, applying a quantum-mechanical (QM)/NMR combined approach. Biological evaluation in a mouse paw edema model revealed that a low dose (0.3 mg kg(-1)) of the synthesized solomonamide A showed 74% reduction at 6 h, which was comparable to a high dose (10 mg kg(-1)) standard drug dexamethasone effect (75% at 6 h). Thus, we further confirmed the revised structure of solomonamide A.

Tripeptides derived from reactive centre loop of potato type II protease inhibitors preferentially inhibit midgut proteases of Helicoverpa armigera - Saikhedkar, Nidhi S.; Joshi, Rakesh S.; Bhoite, Ashwini S.; Mohandasan, Radhika; Yadav, Amit Kumar; Giri, Ashok P. (Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2018)
Potato type II protease inhibitors (Pin-II PIs) impede the growth of lepidopteran insects by inhibiting serine protease-like enzymes in the larval gut. The three amino acid reactive centre loop (RCL) of these proteinaceous inhibitors is crucial for protease binding and is conserved across the Pin-II family. However, the molecular mechanism and inhibitory potential of the RCL tripeptides in isolation of the native protein has remained elusive. In this study, six peptides corresponding to the RCLs of the predominant Pin-II PIs were identified, synthesized and evaluated for in vitro and in vivo inhibitory activity against serine proteases of the polyphagous insect, Helicoverpa armigera. RCL peptides with sequences PRN, PRY and TRE were found to be potent inhibitors that adversely affected the growth and development of H. armigera. The binding mechanism and differential affinity of the RCL peptides with serine proteases was delineated by crystal structures of complexes of the RCL peptides with trypsin. Residues P1 and P2 of the inhibitors play a crucial role in the interaction and specificity of these inhibitors. Important features of RCL peptides like higher inhibition of insect proteases, enhanced efficacy at alkaline gut pH, longer retention and high stability in insect gut make them suitable molecules for the development of sustainable pest management strategies for crop protection.
Keywords: Helicoverpa armigera; Protease; protease inhibitor; Reactive centre loop peptides

Unravelling the nucleophilicity of buten tides for 1,6-conjugate addition to p-quinone methides: a direct access to diversely substituted butenolide-derived diarylmethanes - Sharma, Brijesh M.; Shinde, Dinesh R.; Jain, Ruchi; Begari, Eeshwaraiah; Satbhaiya, Shruti; Gonnade, Rajesh G.; Kumar, Pradeep (Organic Letters, 2018)
A Lewis acid catalyzed regioselective C-C bond is constructed through beta-addition of deconjugated butenolides with p-quinone methides in a 1,6-conjugate addition manner. Interestingly, Lewis acid catalyzed vinylogous Mukaiyama-Michael reaction of silyloxyfurans with p-QMs proceeds selectively through the alpha or gamma position exclusively. The reaction is mild with broad substrate scope, thus allowing easy access to a wide range of bis-arylated alpha-/beta-/gamma-substituted butenolides.

Vapour–liquid equilibrium study of binary mixtures of aniline with isopropanol, n -butanol and ethylene glycol at the local atmospheric pressure - Mali, P.K.; Mali, N.A.; Yadav, S.S.; Joshi, S.S. (Indian Chemical Engineer, 2018)
The present work analyses the vapour–liquid equilibrium (VLE) behaviour of the binary systems of aniline with isopropanol, n-butanol and ethylene glycol. The isobaric VLE data have been generated at the local atmospheric pressure of 96.15 kPa for all the binary systems of aniline. A dynamic type vapour–liquid circulating VLE still was used for generating the data. Calibration curves were generated using mole fraction and refractive index data for all pairs for composition measurement. The VLE data, generated in T-x,y form for all pairs, were found thermodynamically consistent through the Herington area test and the mean absolute deviation test. Activity coefficient models, Wilson, NRTL and UNIQUAC, were fitted to the data to estimate binary interaction parameters using an objective function of minimising the deviation between the experimental and the calculated total pressure and vapour composition. The experimental data were compared with the model predictions with the estimated parameters and the model predictions were found appropriate. The binary system of aniline and ethylene glycol was found to exhibit azeotropic behaviour at 0.61 mole fraction aniline and 445.1 K.

X-ray crystal structures and anti-breast cancer property of 3-tert-butoxycarbonyl-2-arylthiazolidine-4-carboxylic acids - Jagtap, Rohidas M.; Thorat, Shridhar H.; Gonnade, Rajesh G.; Khan, Ayesha A.; Pardeshi, Satish K. (New Journal of Chemistry, 2018)
Diastereomeric `2RS, 4R'-2-arylthiazolidine-4-carboxylic acids (ATCAs) were synthesized and their resolution to chiraly pure N-BOC derivatives was attempted by column chromatography. The absolute stereochemistry of the resolved compounds was ascertained by X-ray single crystal structures. Further application of the synthesized compounds was studied for their in vitro anti-breast cancer activity against MCF7 cell line using DOX as a standard by MTT assay method. Cell morphology analysis was carried out by fluorescence microscopy. The compounds containing `2S' absolute configuration in thiazolidine ring and presence of 2-NO2, 2,6-Cl groups on `2R'-aryl substituent showed significant antibreast cancer activity where some of the compounds were found to be more active than DOX in terms of induced apoptosis mode of MCF7 cell death.

1,6-Conjugate-addition-induced [2+1] annulation of para-quinone methides and pyrazolones: synthesis of bis-spiro compounds with contiguous quaternary spiro-centers - Kale, Someshwar B.; Jori, Popat K.; Thatikonda, Thanusha; Gonnade, Rajesh G.; Das, Utpal (Organic Letters, 2019)
A diastereoselective formal 1,6-conjugate-addition-mediated [2 + 1] annulation reaction using p-quinone methides and pyrazolones has been described. The corresponding bis-spiro[cyclohexadienone-cyclopropane-pyrazolone] compounds were obtained in very good yield under mild reaction conditions.

[8+3]-cycloaddition of tropones with azaoxyallyl cations - Roy, Tony; Jacob, Anu; Bhattacharjee, Subrata; Biju, Akkattu T. (Chemistry-An Asian Journal, 2019)
Although azaoxyallyl cations are widely used as 1,3-dipoles for various cycloaddition reactions leading to nitrogen-containing heterocycles, their application in higher-order cycloaddition reaction remains scarce. Herein, we present the [8+3]-cycloaddition reaction of tropones with in situ generated azaoxyallyl cations allowing the one-step construction of cycloheptatriene-fused 1,4-oxazinones in moderate to good yields. This base-promoted new carbon-oxygen and carbon-nitrogen bond-forming reaction takes place under mild conditions in the absence of transition metal catalysts.
Keywords: 1; 4-oxazinones; azaoxyallyl cations; heterocycles; tropones; [8+3] cycloaddition

Access to a stereoisomer library of solomonamide macrocycles - Jachak, Gorakhnath R.; Athawale, Paresh R.; Choudhury, Rahul; Kashinath, K.; Reddy, D. Srinivasa (Chemistry-An Asian Journal, 2019)
In an attempt towards understanding stereo-structure activity relationships (SSARs), we have prepared eight possible stereoisomers of solomonamide macrocycles, in particular, by changing the stereochemical pattern of non-peptide fragment AHMOA. Here, we have demonstrated different ways to construct three contiguous chiral centers present in solomonamide B macrocycle using substrate/reagent-controlled methods. These methods involve Brown crotylation, NHK reaction and Evans aldol addition as key steps to synthesize key non-peptide fragment. Further, these non-peptide fragments were converted to their corresponding macrocycles via ligand-free intramolecular Heck reaction.
Keywords: Crotylation; Heck reaction; Inflammation; Macrocycles; Stereochemistry

Allenoate prenucleophiles: a triply diastereoselective approach to beta-hydroxy esters containing all-carbon alpha-quaternary centers - Maki, Samantha L.; Maity, Pradip; Dougherty, Shannon; Johns, Jennifer; Lepore, Salvatore D. (Organic Letters, 2019)
Allenyl esters activated by titanium(IV) underwent additions to a wide range of aldehydes in high regio- and diastereoselectivities leading to products containing an all carbon quaternary center bearing an alpha-vinyl group that was installed with high selectivity for the Z-geometry. An aldol product was also converted to an indanone offering a new route to this important compound class. Product triple diastereoselectivity has been rationalized using a concerted transition-state model.

Alternating electric-field-induced assembly of binary mixtures of soft repulsive ionic microgel colloids - Jathavedan, Kiran; Bhat, Suresh K.; Mohanty, Priti S. (Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2019)
An external alternating electric field is used to study the assembly of a binary mixture of Poly(N-isopro pylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) microgels in their swollen form at hydrodynamic size ratio 2:1 under deprotonated state. The AC field experiments were carried out at a fixed frequency of 100 kHz in the fluid regime for three number density ratios 1:3, 1:1 and 3:1 of big-to-small microgels using a confocal microscope. Strings with different types of co-assembly structures such as buckled, ring, flame and sandwich have been observed at low and intermediate field strengths at ratio 1:3, 1:1. In buckled and ring type, one or two small particles sit at the contact of two big particles and in the flame type, small particles arrange like a cone at end of the string. In the sandwich structure, several double small particle layers lie in between big particles. At high field strength, aggregation of strings and a phase separation into individual aggregates of strings from both big and small microgels have been observed. At higher ratio 3:1, the string formation is mostly dominated by big particles. Our experimental results are discussed with the recent simulation and experimental works on AC field induced structures in binary hard sphere mixtures. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: assembly; dipolar interactions; Microgels; Soft colloids

Amino acid amide based ionic liquid as an efficient organo-catalyst for solvent-free knoevenagel condensation at room temperature - Burate, Pralhad A.; Javle, Balasaheb R.; Desale, Pranjal H.; Kinage, Anil K. (Catalysis Letters, 2019)
Ionic liquids of amino acid amide were synthesized and used as an efficient catalyst for solvent-free Knoevenagel condensation. Synthesized ionic liquids are an environmentally benign, inexpensive, metal free and plays the dual role of solvent as well as an efficient catalyst for Knoevenagel condensation. A wide range of aliphatic, aromatic and heteroaromatic aldehydes easily undergo condensation with malononitrile and ethyl cyanoacetate. The reaction proceeds at room temperature without using any organic solvent and is very fast with good to excellent yield. Additionally, the catalyst is easily separable and recyclable without loss of activity. [GRAPHICS] .
Keywords: Acrylonitrile; Amino acid amide; Cyanoacrylate; Ionic liquid; Knoevenagel condensation; Solvent-free

Au based Ni and Co bimetallic core shell nanocatalysts for room temperature selective decomposition of hydrous hydrazine to hydrogen - Jain, P.; Anila, K. A.; Vinod, C. P. (ChemistrySelect, 2019)
Nickel and Cobalt bimetallic catalysts with Au as core metal has been synthesized and demonstrated for hydrazine decomposition reaction for producing hydrogen. Gold-cobalt and gold nickel bimetallic system belonging to the class of strained structures with high lattice mismatch of approximately 14% are demonstrated for synergistic effects atypical of monometallic counterparts for the selective decomposition of hydrous hydrazine to H-2 with N-2 as the other product at room temperature.
Keywords: (HDR); Au@Co.; Au@Ni.; Bimetallic; catalyst.; core; decomposition; Hydrazine; nanoparticles.; reaction; shell

Biosynthesized Co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles based anode for lithium-ion battery application and investigating the influence of dopant concentrations on its performance - Kashale, A. A.; Rasal, A. S.; Kamble, G. P.; Ingole, V. H.; Dwivedi, P. K.; Rajoba, S. J.; Jadhav, L. D.; Ling, Y. C.; Chang, J. Y.; Ghule, A. V. (Composites Part B: Engineering, 2019)
TiO2 is a good alternative anode material for lithium-ion battery application because of its incomparable high structural stability and safety during the charge/discharge cycles. However, the low intrinsic conductivity of TiO2 has been a limiting factor affecting its cycling and rate capability performance. Here in this work, we present Co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles based anode with good reversibility, cycling stability and rate capability performance for its envisaged application in lithium-ion battery. The Co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with different Co concentrations (3%, 5%, and 7%) are synthesized using simple and economic biomediated green approach, wherein TiCl4 and Co precursors are allowed to react in Bengal gram bean extract containing biomolecules which act as natural capping agents to control the size of nanoparticles. Among the pure TiO2 and different Co-doped TiO2 samples, the 7% Co-doped TiO2 anode show the highest capacity of 167 mAh g−1 (88.3%) after 100 cycles at the 0.5C current density. The Co-doped TiO2 shows higher and stable coulombic efficiency up to 100 GCD cycles indicating good reversibility. Based on the results, it is expected that the Co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles might be contributing to the enhanced electronic conductivity providing an efficient pathway for fast electron transfer.

Cadmium sulfide nanostructures: influence of morphology on the photocatalytic degradation of erioglaucine and hydrogen generation - Shenoy, Sulakshana; Jang, Eunyong; Park, Tae Joo; Gopinath, Chinnakonda S.; Sridharan, Kishore (Applied Surface Science, 2019)
Size and shape of inorganic materials are known to have great effects on their physical and chemical properties. Here, for the first time we report the visible light driven photocatalytic degradation of erioglaucine - a stable organic dye molecule in the presence of chemically synthesized nanoscale CdS with 1D (nanorods), 2D (nanosheets) and 3D (hierarchical) morphology. Visible light driven photocatalytic degradation efficiency of both 1D and 3D CdS in the removal of erioglaucine are identical. Surprisingly, with 5 min of sonication, the highly crystalline 3D CdS stacked with many thin nanowires containing numerous active surface sites exhibited fourfold enhanced photodegradation efficiency in comparison to 1D and 2D CdS. Scavenger studies revealed that electrons and superoxide radicals are primary reactive species involved in the photodegradation of erioglaucine, while cyclic photodegradation studies revealed the good stability of 3D CdS against photocorrosion. Further, the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution studies also revealed the excellent activity of 3D CdS in comparison to 1D and 2D CdS. Thus, we find that the morphology indeed influences the photocatalytic activity. These results reveal that 3D CdS nanostructures investigated in the present work are efficient photocatalysts that could be fine-tuned for both environmental remediation and hydrogen generation applications.
Keywords: Cadmium sulfide; Erioglaucine; Hydrogen evolution; Nanostructures; Photocatalysis

Can the solvent enhance the rate of chemical reactions through C-H/pi interactions? insights from theory - Jain, Shailja; Vanka, Kumar (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2019)
The current computational study with density functional theory (DFT) shows that the rate of chemical reactions can be influenced through non-covalent C-H/p interactions between substrates and the solvent. It is shown that intramolecular carbon-carbon interaction and CO2 activation by a low valent silicon complex are both favourably affected by the explicit presence of the solvent toluene, due to C-H/p interactions between toluene and the silicon complex. Furthermore, ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations demonstrate that even if the C-H/p interacting solvent molecule is displaced from the complex, another would quickly take its place, thus maintaining the interaction. Hence, the current work shows how non-covalent interactions between solvent and substrate can enhance the rate of the reaction and expands our understanding of the role and influence of the solvent in effecting important chemical transformations.

C-H functionalization of indoles by 3d transition-metal catalysis - Jagtap, Rahul A.; Punji, Benudhar (Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2019)
Over the past decade, the use of 3d transition metal for the regioselective C-H bond functionalization of indoles has significantly increased. Particularly, advances in manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel and copper catalysis have demonstrated the selective C(2)-H and C(3)-H arylation, alkenylation, alkynylation and alkylation to a greater extent. Similarly, the C-O and C-N bond-forming reactions are manifested via direct C-H bond activation by these earth-abundant metals. The emergence of 3d metals in selective functionalization of the biologically relevant indoles and related heteroarenes would make this protocol more attractive for practical applications. Herein, we provide a brief overview of 3d transition metal-catalyzed (mostly Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu) C-H functionalization of indoles and related heteroarenes.
Keywords: 3d transition metal; C-H functionalization; Indole; indoline

Cubic palladium nanorattles with solid octahedron gold core for catalysis and alkaline membrane fuel cell applications - Singh, Prem; Sonika; Gangadharan, Pranav K.; Khan, Ziyauddin; Kurungot, Sreekumar; Jaiswal, Amit (ChemCatChem, 2019)
Herein, we report the synthesis of palladium nanorattles (Au-Pd NRTs) comprising of a gold octahedral core caged within a thin porous cubic palladium shell. The introduction of core-shell and porous architecture was realized by combining seed mediated and galvanic replacement reaction techniques. Next, we examined the catalytic efficiency of the nanocatalyst in comparison with solid palladium nanocube (Pd-NC) of similar size for the degradation of p-nitrophenol and organic dyes. The rate constant of Au-Pd NRTs was found nearly 12 times higher than the Pd-NCs. Further, we exploited our catalyst for electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and observed its high intrinsic ORR activity. Compared with commercialized Pt/C, the Au-Pd NRT displayed nearly comparable onset and half-wave potential values and excellent durability upon potential cycling. The system level validation in a single-cell mode of alkaline exchange membrane fuel cell also confirms the efficiency of the present catalyst to serve as a potential cathode catalyst for realistic device applications.
Keywords: alkaline exchange membrane fuel cell; electrocatalysis; nanorattles; ORR; Pd nanoparticle

Cyanuric-chloride-mediated synthesis of 2-Aryl-3-tert-butoxycarbonyl-thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid anilides: mechanistic, X-ray crystal structures and cytotoxicity studies - Jagtap, Rohidas M.; Shaikh, Samir R.; Gonnade, Rajesh G.; Raheem, Shabnam; Rizvi, Masood A.; Pardeshi, Satish K. (ChemistrySelect, 2019)
The `2R,4R'-2-aryl thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid anilides (ATCAAs) were synthesized using cyanuric chloride (CC) as a clean and substoichiometric acid-amine coupling agent under optimized reaction conditions. The diesterphenol intermediate based mechanism is proposed and supported by spectral characterization of the intermediate. The single crystal X-ray structures of acid substrate (2R,4R)-3-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-2-(2-methoxyphenyl)thiazolidine-4-carbox ylic acid (3 a) and anilides (R)-tert-butyl 4-(2-fluorophenylcarbamoyl)thiazolidine-3-carboxylate (4 b), (2R,4R)-tert-butyl 2-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-4-(m-tolylcarbamoyl)thiazolidine-3-carboxylate (6 b) confirmed the formation of chiral anilides. The synthesized library of anilides [(R)-tert-butyl 4-Aryl thiazolidine-3-carboxylate and (2R,4R)-tert-butyl 2-Aryl-4-Aryl thiazolidine-3-carboxylate] 4 a-6 f was screened for their in vitro anti cancer, neuronal and neuroprotective studies. The anilides 4 b, 4 g, 5 d, 5 h, 6 c and 6 f (where the aryl=2-fluorophenylcarbamoyl, 4-chlorophenylcarbamoyl, 2-methoxyphenyl, 2,5-dichlorophenylcarbamoyl, 2,6-dichlorophenyl, 4-chlorophenylcarbamoyl respectively)were found to be less cytotoxic towards N2 A, SHSY-5Y neuronal cell lines in their differentiated and undifferentiated forms, and also exhibited dose dependant anti-inflammatory properties for a possible identification towards neurodegenerative and inflammatory disorders.
Keywords: Acid-amine coupling; Cyanuric chloride; Cytotoxicity; Mechanistic investigations; Single crystal x-ray structure

C‐F bond activation by saturated NHC: mesoionic compound formation and its unprecedented adduct with B(C6F5)3 - Pait, M.; Kundu, G.; Tothadi, S.; Karak, S.; Jain, S.; Vanka, K.; Sen, S. S. (Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 2019)
The reaction of SIPr, [1,3‐bis(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)‐imidazolin‐2‐ylidene] (1), with C6F6 led to the formation of an unprecedented mesoionic compound (2). The formation of 2 is made accessible by deprotonation of the SIPr backbone with simultaneous elimination of HF. The C−F bond para to the imidazolium ring in 2 is only of 1.258(4) Å, which is the one of the shortest structurally authenticated C−F bonds known to date. The liberation of HF during the reaction is unequivocally proved by the addition of one more equivalent of SIPr, which leads to the imidazolium salt with the HF2− anion. To functionalize 2, the latter reacted with B(C6F5)3 to give an unusual donor–acceptor compound, where the fluoride atom from the C6F5 moiety coordinates to B(C6F5)3 and the carbanion moiety remains unaffected. Such coordination susceptibility of the fluoride atom of a nonmetallic system to a main‐group Lewis acid (Fnon‐metal→BR3) is quite unprecedented.
Keywords: C-F activation; carbanions; N-heterocyclic carbenes; structure elucidation; Ylides

Design and synthesis of aromatic polyesters bearing pendant clickable maleimide groups - Nagane, Samadhan S.; Kuhire, Sachin S.; Jadhav, Uday A.; Dhanmane, Sushilkumar A.; Wadgaonkar, Prakash P. (Journal of Polymer Science Part A-Polymer Chemistry, 2019)
A bisphenol bearing pendant maleimide group, namely, N-maleimidoethyl-3, 3-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1-isobenzopyrrolidone (PPH-MA) was synthesized starting from phenolphthalein. Aromatic (co)polyesters bearing pendant maleimide groups were synthesized from PPH-MA and aromatic diacid chlorides, namely, isophthaloyl chloride (IPC), terephthaloyl chloride (TPC), and 50:50 mol % mixture of IPC and TPC by low temperature solution polycondensation technique. Copolyesters were also synthesized by polycondensation of different molar proportions of PPH-MA and bisphenol A with IPC. Inherent viscosities and number-average molecular weights of aromatic (co)polyesters were in the range of 0.52-0.97 dL/g and 20,200-32,800 g/mol, respectively indicating formation of medium to reasonably high-molecular-weight polymers. C-13 NMR spectral analysis of copolyesters revealed the formation of random copolymers. The 10% weight loss temperature of (co)polyesters was found in the range 470-484 degrees C, indicating their good thermal stability. A selected aromatic polyester bearing pendant maleimide groups was chemically modified via thiol-maleimide Michael addition reaction with two representative thiol compounds, namely, 4-chlorothiophenol and 1-adamantanethiol to yield post-modified polymers in a quantitative manner. Additionally, it was demonstrated that polyester containing pendant maleimide groups could be used to form insoluble crosslinked gel in the presence of a multifunctional thiol crosslinker. (c) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019, 57, 630-640
Keywords: crosslinking; maleimide group; modification; polyesters; thiol-maleimide

Designing multifunctional MOFs using an inorganic motif [Cu3(μ3-OH)(μ-Pyz)] as SBU and their properties - Akhtar, S.; Bala, S.; De, A.; Das, K. S.; Adhikary, A.; Jyotsna, S.; Poddar, P.; Mondal, R. (Crystal Growth & Design, 2019)
In a continuation of our interest in pyrazole-based multifunctional metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), we report herein the construction of a series of Cu(II) MOFs using pyrazole and various 5-substituted isophthalic acids. The central theme is to generate MOFs using the crystal engineering strategy of spacer and node; however, for the node we have introduced a well-known inorganic motif, a [Cu-3(mu(3)-OH)(mu-Pyz)(3)] unit. The appearance of the SBU in five MOFs confirms the robustness and reproducibility of the motif with some interesting structures of various dimensionality ranging from 1D helical and 2D herringbone grid to a complex 3D framework. The deployment of bent acids brings chirality via helicity in the system, as further confirmed by solid-state CD spectra. A detailed investigation of the porous MOFs reveals their importance as zeolite analogues for environment remediation. MOF-1-MOF-5 show some interesting photodegradation of harmful organic dyes. MOF-4 and MOF-5 show impressive selective CO2 gas sorption properties. Furthermore, magnetic properties associated with the trinuclear and hexanuclear SBUs of MOF-1 and MOF-3-MOF-5 have also been investigated.

Diastereoselective multi-component tandem condensation: synthesis of 2-amino-4-(2-furanone)-4H-chromene-3-carbonitriles - Gupta, Vijay; Sahu, Debashish; Jain, Shailja; Vanka, Kumar; Singh, Ravi P. (Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2019)
A general strategy for a one-pot stereoselective synthesis of 2-amino-4-(2-furanone)-4H-chromene-3-carbonitriles by reaction of salicylaldehyde, malononitrile and butenolides via a tandem Knoevenagel/Pinner/vinylogous Michael condensation is presented. The beta,gamma-butenolides gave a syn-selective MCR adduct with a dr up to 11.5 : 1. The mechanistic insight into the MCR was obtained by DFT calculations.

Differential dynamics underlying the Gln27Glu population variant of the beta(2)-adrenergic receptor - Bhosale, Sumedha; Nikte, V. Siddhanta; Sengupta, Durba; Joshi, Manali (Journal of Membrane Biology, 2019)
The beta (2)-adrenergic receptor (beta (2)AR) is a membrane-bound G-protein-coupled receptor and an important drug target for asthma. Clinical studies report that the population variant Gln27Glu is associated with a differential response to common asthma drugs, such as albuterol, isoproterenol and terbutaline. Interestingly, the 27th amino acid is positioned on the N-terminal region that is the most flexible and consequently the least studied part of the receptor. In this study, we probe the molecular origin of the differential drug binding by performing structural modeling and simulations of the wild-type (Gln) and variant (Glu) receptors followed by ensemble docking with the ligands, albuterol, isoproterenol and terbutaline. In line with clinical studies, the ligands were observed to interact preferentially with the Glu variant. Our results indicate that the Glu residue at the 27th position perturbs the network of electrostatic interactions that connects the N-terminal region to the binding site in the wild-type receptor. As a result, the Glu variant is observed to bind better to the three ligands tested in this study. Our study provides a structural basis to explain the variable drug response associated with the 27th position polymorphism in the beta (2)AR and is a starting step to identify genotype-specific therapeutics.
Keywords: beta(2)-Adrenergic receptor; G-protein-coupled receptor; GPCR; molecular dynamics; Pharmacogenetics; SNP

Dimedone-based rigid organic scaffold for organizing symmetrical helical peptide chains. - Madica, Krishnaprasad; Lakshmi, Jerripothula K.; Madhu, Suresh; Nadimpally, Krishna Chaitanya; Gonnade, Rajesh; Jagadeesh, Bharatam; Sanjayan, Gangadhar J. (ChemistrySelect, 2019)
We describe herein design, synthesis and conformational investigations of polypeptides attached on a rigid dimedone template. Two identical peptide chains are attached on a single carbon containing dimedone as a scaffold. Dimedone assists in controlling the secondary interactions through strong intramolecular helical C-12 and C-15 membered bifurcated hydrogen bonding on both the peptide chains along with propagating the helical architecture of the peptide chains attached. There exists a C-6 hydrogen bonding for the single stranded peptides attached to dimedone. Extensive structural investigations involving single crystal X-ray diffraction, solution-state NMR and CD studies of oligopeptides have been undertaken.
Keywords: dimedone; Helical; hydrogen bonding; Peptides; template

Direct solar-to-hydrogen generation by quasi-artificial leaf approach: possibly scalable and economical device - Patra, Kshirodra Kumar; Bharad, Pradnya Arunrao; Jain, Vanshika; Gopinath, Chinnakonda S. (Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2019)
Often, a disadvantage in one area of science may become an advantage in another area. In contrast, a successful concept in one area could work for a complementary area of research too. These two philosophies have been successfully used for solar hydrogen generation and they underscore the necessity to connect relevant concepts. We, herein, report a quasi-artificial leaf (QuAL) device in a wireless configuration with a TiO2/Mn-CdS composite and NiCu as a co-catalyst for possibly scalable as well as commercially viable solar hydrogen production under one sun conditions. The device works at no applied potential and generates 10.5 mL h(-1) (16 mL h(-1)) H-2 with Ni5Cu2.5 alloy (Pt) as a co-catalyst, which corresponds to a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.8% (7.3%). The significant resemblance of NiCu alloy to Pt in terms of its electrochemical activity and electronic structure makes the device more economical. While the millisecond lifetime of electrons in Mn-CdS is known to help for white light emission, the same factor helps to greatly improve charge utilization for H-2 production in the QuAL device. In contrast, the reabsorption of emitted light is a vexing problem in emission applications; however in the present work, reabsorption is successfully utilized to enhance hydrogen yield. Spectroscopy techniques combined with electrocatalytic studies were employed and the results correlated with solar hydrogen generation, demonstrating this as a new pathway to design better solar-light-harvesting architectures.

Direct Z-scheme g-C3N4/FeWO4 nanocomposite for enhanced and selective photocatalytic CO2 reduction under visible light - Bhosale, Reshma; Jain, Srashti; Vinod, Chathakudath Prabhakaran; Kumar, Santosh; Ogale, Satishchandra (ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2019)
Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to renewable solar fuels is considered to be a promising strategy to simultaneously solve both global warming and energy crises. However, development of a superior photocatalytic system with high product selectivity for CO2 reduction under solar light is the prime requisite. Herein, a series of nature-inspired Z-scheme g C3N4/FeWO4 composites are prepared for higher performance and selective CO2 reduction to CO as solar fuel under solar light. The novel direct Z-scheme coupling of the visible light-active FeWO4 nanoparticles with C3N4 nanosheets is seen to exhibit excellent performance for CO production with a rate of 6 mu mol/g/h at an ambient temperature, almost 6 times higher compared to pristine C3N4 and 15 times higher than pristine FeWO4. More importantly, selectivity for CO is 100% over other carbon products from CO, reduction and more than 90% over. H-2 products from water splitting. Our results clearly demonstrate that the staggered band structure between FeWO4 and C3N4 reflecting the nature-inspired Z-scheme system not only favors superior spatial separation of the electron hole pair in g-C3N4/FeWO4 but also shows good reusability. The present work provides unprecedented insights for constructing the direct Z-scheme by mimicking the nature for high performance and selective photocatalytic CO2 reduction into solar fuels under solar light.
Keywords: C3N4; CO2 reduction; FeWO4; Photocatalysis; solar fuels; Z-scheme

Distribution and bioprospecting potential of actinobacteria from Indian mangrove ecosystems - Manikkam, Radhakrishnan; Pati, Premalata; Thangavel, Shanmugasundaram; Venugopal, Gopikrishnan; Joseph, Jerrine; Ramasamy, Balagurunathan; Dastager, Syed G. (Microbial Diversity in Ecosystem Sustainability and Biotechnological Applications, 2019)
Actinobacteria are the ecologically and economically important prokaryotes with the unprecedented ability to produce novel metabolites. They are widely distributed in nature due to their physiological and metabolic versatility. Actinobacteria from marine ecosystem are recognized as a promising source for novel bioactive metabolites. Notably, mangroves are the most fertile and productive marine ecosystem due to their ecophysiological conditions and vast microbial diversity. At the global level, there are many novel actinobacteria which have been reported from mangrove ecosystems and also explored for their bioprospecting potential. However, in India, microbiologists have explored actinobacteria from selected mangrove ecosystems for the past five decades with special reference to culturable diversity and antimicrobial, antimycobacterial, anticancer, and enzymatic activities. So far, around 22 rare actinobacterial genera have been reported from the Indian mangrove ecosystems. However, several other novel actinobacteria with promising bioprospecting potential are yet to be explored. Hence, research on actinobacteria in the Indian mangrove ecosystem is still in its infancy. This chapter will describe the exploratory research work carried out on the importance, diversity, antimicrobial and enzymatic activity, biodegradation, and nanotechnological potency of actinobacteria from the Indian mangrove ecosystems. This chapter will enable researchers to identify the gaps to be bridged for further research on Indian mangrove actinobacteria and exploit their potential to the maximum benefit to mankind.

Dry molten globule-like intermediate during the base-induced unfolding of a multidomain protein (vol 19, pg 20307, 2017) - Acharya, Nirbhik; Mishra, Prajna; Jha, Santosh Kumar (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2019)

Dry reforming of methane in DBD plasma over Ni-based catalysts: influence of process conditions and support on performance and durability - Ray, Debjyoti; Nepak, Devadutta; Janampelli, Sagar; Goshal, Partha; Subrahmanyam, Ch (Energy Technology, 2019)
The conversion of greenhouse gases, H-2 and CO selectivity, H-2/CO ratio, and carbon formation in the dry reforming reaction over Ni-supported ZSM-5, Al2O3, and TiO2 are tested under thermal, plasma, and plasma-thermal conditions. It is observed that the dielectric nature, specific surface area, and acid-base properties of the support influence the performance during the DRM reaction. Typical results indicate that the best activity and syngas yield are achieved with 15Ni/Al2O3 under plasma conditions, possibly due to the high dielectric constant and surface area of Al2O3 and nanosize of Ni. In the thermal condition, the highest conversion of 73% and 68% for CH4 and CO2, respectively, is achieved over 15Ni/ZSM-5 at 500 degrees C. Plasma-assisted thermal conditions provide the highest conversion due to the activation of reactants and their partial conversion in the plasma zone before entering into the catalytic zone. The plasma-assisted thermocatalytic conversions of CH4 and CO2 reach the best values of 76% and 71%, respectively, on 15Ni/ZSM-5. Under the same conditions, 68% and 65% conversion of CH4 and CO2, respectively, is achieved with 15Ni/Al2O3 where the selectivity for H-2 and CO is 45% and 58%, respectively.
Keywords: DBD plasma; Dry reforming; reaction conditions; supported catalysts; Syngas

Effect of co-substitution of Co2+ and V5+ for Fe3+ on the magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 - Anantharamaiah, P. N.; Joy, P. A. (Physica B: Condensed Matter, 2019)
Different chemical compositions in Co1+2xVxFe2-3xO4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) have been synthesized by the conventional solid-state reaction method and processed under identical conditions. The materials are investigated to assess the impact of change in the oxidation states of metal ions on structural and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite. Rietveld refinement of the X-ray diffraction patterns revealed a single phase nature of all compositions with cubic spinel structure. The cubic lattice parameter was found to decrease non-linearly from 8.393 Å for x = 0 to 8.377 Å for x = 0.1, due to the effect of ionic size and valency of the substituted metal ions. Sintered co-substituted compositions exhibited smaller grains against unsubstituted counterpart, due to low melting point of raw material V2O5. Strong experimental evidence of V substitution for Fe at the tetrahedral sites of the spinel ferrite has been extracted from the Raman spectral analysis. Saturation magnetization (Ms) was observed to decrease from 452 kA/m for x = 0–411 kA/m for x = 0.1. Coercivity (Hc) and magnetocrystalline anisotropy (K1) were also found to follow the same trend. Variation of the structural and magnetic parameters is attributed to the changes in the oxidation state of Co from 2 + to 3 + as it is confirmed from the results of XPS analysis.

Effect of processing conditions on the rheological properties of blends of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene with high‐density polyethylene - Chaudhuri, K.; Poddar, S.; Pol, H.; Lele, A.; Mathur, A.; Srinivasa Rao, G.S.; Jasra, R. (Polymer Engineering and Science, 2019)
Blends of high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) with small amounts of ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) were prepared by melt mixing in a twin‐screw microcompounder. Two types of UHMWPE differing in their states of chain entanglement were used. The blend composition, time of mixing, and rotation speed of the screws were varied. Rheological properties of the blends were studied in oscillatory shear and uniaxial elongational tests. Reduction in phase angle measured in dynamic shear rheology and increase in extensional strain hardening were found to be useful indicators for quantifying the extent of mixing of the two components. Although the disentangled UHMWPE showed reasonable mixing with HDPE during typical residence times of melt compounding operations, the entangled UHMWPE remained essentially undissolved. The extent of mixing increased with mixing time and screw speed. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2018. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers

Efficient bifunctional reactivity of K-doped CrO(OH) nanosheets: exploiting the combined role of Cr(iii) and surface -OH groups in tandem catalysis - Vernekar, Dnyanesh; Ratha, Satyajit; Rode, Chandrashekhar; Jagadeesan, Dinesh (Catalysis Science & Technology, 2019)
This work reports the bifunctional catalytic activity of layered K-doped alpha-CrO(OH). The combined action of the redox active Cr(III) and the surface hydroxyl groups was efficiently used to carry out 2-3 oxidation reactions in tandem followed by condensation/coupling reactions in one pot. Oxidation of benzyl alcohol followed by Knoevenagel condensation or coupling reactions forming C-C and C-N linkages in one pot is demonstrated. The catalyst has been characterized using XRD, IR, TGA, CO2-TPD, cyclic voltammetry, XPS and microscopic techniques to gain insight into the nature of active sites. The role of O- and O2- on the CrO(OH) catalyst in the bifunctional activity was studied using analytical techniques. Recyclability and leaching tests confirmed that K-alpha-CrO(OH) is a stable and environmentally safe catalyst.

Efficient broad-band emission from contorted purely corner-shared one dimensional (1D) organic lead halide perovskite - Biswas, Anupam; Bakthavatsalam, Rangarajan; Shaikh, Samir R.; Shinde, Aparna; Lohar, Amruta; Jena, Satyam; Gonnade, Rajesh G.; Kundu, Janardan (Chemistry of Materials, 2019)

Embedding S=1/2 Kagome-like lattice in reduced graphene oxide - Gupta, Kriti; Jha, Plawan Kumar; Dadwal, Arun; Debnath, Anil K.; Jaiswal, Ishan; Rana, Shammi; Joy, Pattayil A.; Ballav, Nirmalya (Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2019)
An elegant platform to explore frustrated magnetism is the kagome spin lattice. In this work, clinoatacamite, a naturally occurring S = 1/2 kagome-like antiferromagnetic insulator, is synthesized in water at ambient pressure for the first time from a cuprous chloride (CuCl) precursor whereby Cu(I) was spontaneously oxidized to Cu(II) in the form of clinoatacamite [Cu-2(OH)(3)Cl] with a simultaneous reduction of graphene oxide (GO) to reduced graphene oxide (rGO) in one pot. A stable nanocomposite of phase-pure clinoatacamite nanocrystals embedded in the rGO matrix was isolated. The clinoatacamite-rGO nanocomposite was determined to be magnetically active with a markedly enhanced coercive field of similar to 2500 Oe at S K as well as electronically active with a conductivity value of similar to 200 S.m(-1) at 300 K. Our results illustrate an avenue of combining exotic magnetic and electronic lattices without impeding their individual characteristics and synergistically generating a new class of magnetic semiconductors.

Exploring battery-type ZnO/ZnFe2O4 spheres-3D graphene electrodes for supercapacitor applications: advantage of yolk-shell over solid structures - Jhajharia, Suman Kumari; Manappadan, Zinoy; Selvaraj, Kaliaperumal (ChemElectroChem, 2019)
Recently, a ZnO/ZnFe2O4 composite has been reported to be a promising material for energy storage, owing to its large specific capacity and good redox activity. However, due to the inability to accommodate its strong volumetric variations during operation, it fails to retain its capacitance, which remains as a significant hitch. Herein, we present our attempt towards solving this through a binder-free electrode design comprising a porous yolk-shell ZnO/ZnFe2O4 composite matrixed inside a 3D network of graphene, which, in turn, is grown on Ni foam. The design exhibits a four-fold increase in its specific capacitance, yielding 1334 F g(-1) (specific capacity of 370.5 mAh g(-1)) at a current density of 0.5 A g(-1) in comparison to that of the ZnO/ZnFe2O4 electrodes (309 F g(-1) (85.8 mAh g(-1)) at 0.5 A g(-1)) comprising solid metal oxide spheres. The major advantage of the design is the well-defined yolk-shell architecture that provides free space for volume expansion during long cycling processes and channels for ionic transportation; whereas, the conductive 3D graphene network and porous Ni foam facilitate electronic conduction. The availability of free space in yolk-shell sphere electrodes facilitates the capacitance retention of up to 80 % beyond 5000 cycles at a current density of 1 A g(-1), which is in contrast to the capacitance retained by the solid spheres of only approximately 60 %. These results directly demonstrate the significant consequence of the yolk-shell architecture-based binder-free design and its promising potential in high-performing supercapacitors and batteries.
Keywords: binder-free electrodes; graphene hydrogels; Supercapacitors; volume expansion; yolk-shell spheres

Facilitator roles of viruses in enhanced insect resistance to biotic stress - Jagdale, Shounak S.; Joshi, Rakesh S. (Current Opinion in Insect Science, 2019)
Virus-insect interactions are primarily parasitic, yet diverse mutualistic interactions, some of which are symbiogenic, also occur. These viruses can modify insect physiology and behavior so that hosts can gain resistance against various biotic challenges like pathogen and parasites. In the recent past, many insect mutualistic viruses have been reported. Viruses can show symbiogenic interactions with some insects, which have been explored at the molecular level. However, understanding about molecular mechanisms for many of the mutualistic viruses is still enigmatic. Exploration of these interactions and its mechanism can shed light on phenomenon of virus mediated biotic stress resistance in insects.

Ferets diameter estimation of activated carbon for effluent treatment application - Jadhav, Abhijit; Mohanraj, Govindraj; Gokarn, Ashok; Mayadevi, Susheeladevi (Journal of the Indian Chemical Society, 2019)
In this paper, activated carbon was produced of by chemical activation with phosphoric acid of agricultural wastes such as Arecanut shell of 25 micronmeter at 400 degrees C by slow pyrolysis. The BET surface area and iodine number surface area is calculated and compared. The FTIR spectra show the presence of activated carbon. The TGA revealed, activated carbon is thermally stable at 480 degrees C. The SEM shows the incorporation of activated carbon particles leads to the systematic change in morphology of activated carbon. Surface area plot shows the details of morphological change caused by iodine number surface area. Ferets diameter is estimated to know circularity of the particle. Methylene blue number, acid adsorption value is calculated to know adsorption capacity of the carbon. Thus results proves selection of ferets diameter, activation temperature, and impregnation ratio is important in determining the quality of activated carbon obtained and its use in industrial waste water treatment.
Keywords: activated carbon; Arecanut shell; Phosphoric acid; teret diameter

Fluorescent carbon nanodots for targeted in vitro cancer cell imaging (vol 4, pg 71, 2016) - Aiyer, Sandhya; Prasad, Rajendra; Kumar, Manoj; Nirvikar, K.; Jain, Bhanprakash; Kushwaha, Omkar S. (Applied Materials Today, 2019)

Fluorescent carbon-dots thin film for fungal detection and bio-labeling applications - Gaikwad, Aarti; Joshi, Meenal; Patil, Kashinath; Sathaye, Shivaram; Rode, Chandrashekhar V. (ACS Applied Bio Materials, 2019)
The fluorescence properties of CDs, such as high quantum yield, tunability of emission color, and so on, make a strong potential material in various fields. These applications are mainly derived from in situ formation of surface functional groups, high chemical stability, biocompatibility, and easy interaction with substrates, etc. Mostly, the research applications of CDs concentrate on the labeling of biological species, drug delivery, and sensing in consequent biomedical applications. However, the detection of the fungal species/spores present in the environment by using CDs is rarely reported. Herein, we demonstrate CDs-based thin film as a sensor for detection of fungal spores from the environment. The procedure of detection is based on fluorescence, observed in the film of carbon dots deposited on quartz plates by using the Blodgett technique. It is observed that the CDs film shows quenching in the fluorescence intensity by the substrate, namely, fungal spores’ (Aspergillus niger, Penicillium chrysogenum, Alternaria alternata). The effective features of the present detector system are easy fabrication, low cost, high stability, and a green and economical procedure of synthesis. The process of detecting fungal spores even at low concentration from the atmosphere is relatively fast when compared to presently used methods. Finally, real-world feasibility of the sensor film is tested by its successful application for the determination of the presence fungal spores in the environment. Furthermore, CDs have been also successfully applied for the bio-labeling of Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive) and Escherichia coli (Gram-negative) bacterial systems.

Folding and aggregation energy landscapes of tethered RRM domains of human TDP-43 are coupled via a metastable molten globule-like oligomer - Pillai, Meenakshi; Jha, Santosh Kumar (Biochemistry, 2019)
Stress-induced misfolding and intraneuronal aggregation of the highly conserved nucleic acid binding protein TDP-43 (transactive response DNA binding protein 43 kDa) and its fragments have been implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and several other neurodegenerative diseases. However, the physicochemical mechanism of its misfolding from the functional folded state is poorly understood. TDP-43 is a four-domain protein and performs the essential nucleic acid binding function with the help of its two tandem RNA recognition motif domains naturally tethered by a linker (called here the tethered RRM domain of TDP-43 or TDP-43(tRRM)). Here, we show that the monomeric native form of TDP-43(tRRM) remains in a pH-dependent and reversible thermodynamic equilibrium with a protonated, nanosized, 40-merit form (the A form). Under the stress-like low-pH condition, the A form becomes predominantly populated. In the A form, protein molecules have restricted dynamics of surface side-chain residues but native-like secondary structure. This self-assembled form possesses a loosely packed core in which the intrinsically disordered and aggregation-prone regions are in the proximity. The A form is metastable and swiftly aggregates into a highly stable amyloid-like protofibrillar form (beta form) mediated by the disorder-to-order transition of intrinsically disordered regions upon small environmental perturbations. Interestingly, the A form and the beta form are not formed when TDP-43(tRRM) is bound to DNA, indicating that the nucleic acid binding regions of the protein participate in their formation. Our results reveal how the energy landscapes of folding and aggregation of TDP-43(tRRM) are coupled by a metastable molten-globule like oligomeric form and modulated by stress-like conditions.

Francisella novicida Cas9 interrogates genomic DNA with very high specificity and can be used for mammalian genome editing - Acharya, Sundaram; Mishra, Arpit; Paul, Deepanjan; Ansari, Asgar Hussain; Azhar, Mohd; Kumar, Manoj; Rauthan, Riya; Sharma, Namrata; Aich, Meghali; Sinha, Dipanjali; Sharma, Saumya; Jain, Shivani; et al. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019)
Genome editing using the CRISPR/Cas9 system has been used to make precise heritable changes in the DNA of organisms. Although the widely used Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) and its engineered variants have been efficiently harnessed for numerous gene-editing applications across different platforms, concerns remain regarding their putative off-targeting at multiple loci across the genome. Here we report that Francisella novicida Cas9 (FnCas9) shows a very high specificity of binding to its intended targets and negligible binding to off-target loci. The specificity is determined by its minimal binding affinity with DNA when mismatches to the target single-guide RNA (sgRNA) are present in the sgRNA:DNA heteroduplex. FnCas9 produces staggered cleavage, higher homology-directed repair rates, and very low nonspecific genome editing compared to SpCas9. We demonstrate FnCas9-mediated correction of the sickle cell mutation in patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells and propose that it can be used for precise therapeutic genome editing for a wide variety of genetic disorders.
Keywords: CRISPR Cas9; gene therapy; Genome editing; iPSCs; sickle cell anemia

Glycation of glucose sensitive lysine residues K36, K438 and K549 of albumin is associated with prediabetes - Rathore, R.; Sonwane, B. P.; Jagadeeshaprasad, M. G.; Kahar, S.; Santhakumari, B.; Unnikrishnan, A. G.; Kulkarni, Mahesh J. (Journal of Proteomics, 2019)
Prediabetes is a risk factor for the development of diabetes. Early diagnosis of prediabetes may prevent the onset and progression of diabetes and its associated complications. Therefore, this study aimed at the identification of novel markers for efficient prediction of prediabetes. In this pursuit, we have evaluated the ability of glycated peptides of albumin in predicting prediabetes. Glycated peptides of in vitro glycated albumin were characterized by data dependent acquisition and parallel reaction monitoring using LC-HRMS. Amongst 14 glycated peptides characterized in vitro, four peptides, particularly, FK(CML)DLGEENFK, K(AML)VPQVSTPTLVEVSR, K(CML)VPQVSTPTLVEVSR, and K(AML)QTALVELVK, corresponding to 3 glucose sensitive lysine residues K36, K438, and K549, respectively showed significantly higher abundance in prediabetes than control. Additionally, the abundance of three of these peptides, namely K(AML)QTALVELVK, K(CML)VPQVSTPTLVEVSR and FK(CML)DLGEENFK was >1.8-fold in prediabetes, which was significantly higher than the differences observed for FBG, PPG, and HbA1c. Further, the four glycated peptides showed a significant correlation with FBG, PPG, HbA1c, triglycerides, VLDL, and HDL. This study supports that glycated peptides of glucose sensitive lysine residues K36, K438 and K549 of albumin could be potentially useful markers for prediction of prediabetes. SIGNIFICANCE: Undiagnosed prediabetes may lead to diabetes and associated complications. This study reports targeted quantification of four glycated peptides particulary FK(CML)DLGEENFK, K(AML)VPQVSTPTLVEVSR, K(CML)VPQVSTPTLVEVSR, and K(AML)QTALVELVK, corresponding to 3 glucose sensitive lysine residues K36, K438 and K549 respectively by parallel reaction monitoring in healthy and prediabetic subjects. These peptides showed significantly higher abundance in prediabetes than healthy subjects, and showed significant correlation with various clinical parameters including FBG, PPG, HbA1c, and altered lipid profile. Therefore, together these four peptides constitute a panel of markers that can be useful for prediction of prediabetes.

Hierarchical K/LTL zeolite as solid base for aqueous phase hydrogenation of xylose to xylitol - Tangale N. P.; Niphadkar, P. S.; Joshi, P. N.; Dhepe, P. L. (Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2019)
Post-synthesis modification by alkali treatment was employed for the synthesis of hierarchical K/LTL zeolites with varying degree of mesoporosity. For the alkali treatment, the concentration of aqueous KOH solution was changed from 0.3 to 2.8 M keeping the quantity per gram of zeolite fixed. The influence of the alkali concentration on the chemical composition, powder XRD crystallinity, morphology, basicity, and the textural properties of resultant hierarchical zeolites was investigated. Variation in the concentration of KOH solution was found to control the degree of preferential desilication with the preserved structural fingerprint of K/LTL zeolite. As a result, the generation of mesoporosity was observed along with 1) the decrease in the Si/Al ratio and percentage relative crystallinity, and 2) an increase in BET surface area and mesopore volume. 27Al MAS-NMR results showed that all the aluminum atoms present in the tetrahedral coordination after alkali treatment, which provides an elegant approach for significantly increasing the basic sites in the hierarchical zeolites. As a heterogeneous catalyst, the hierarchical K/LTL zeolites demonstrated the improved performance in the hydrogenation of xylose to xylitol as compared to the parent K/LTL zeolite. The different process parameters were assessed in order to maximize the hydrogenation activity. Among all the hierarchical zeolites, the enhanced catalytic activity was shown by the hierarchical K/LTL prepared by using 1.5 M KOH solution when it is used along with the 3.5 wt% platinum loaded γ-Al2O3 catalyst. This optimum activity may be attributed to the higher surface area, accessible basic sites, nano-sized Pt on γ-Al2O3, and the development of substantial intracrystalline mesoporosity for the enhanced molecular diffusion of reactant to and from the hierarchical zeolite with better-preserved crystallinity.

Highly efficient Pt-MoOx/ZrO2 catalyst for green diesel production - Janampelli, Sagar; Darbha, Srinivas (Catalysis Communications, 2019)
Bimetallic Pt-MoOx supported on ZrO2 exhibits higher catalytic activity than known catalysts for converting fatty acids into green diesel at as low as 200 degrees C. A change in selectivity from decarboxylation/decarbonylation to hydrodeoxygenation and enhancement in the deoxygenation activity of Pt were observed when MoOx was also present in the catalyst composition. In X-ray photoelectron spectra, Pt 4f lines of 4Pt-8MoO(x)/ZrO2 occurred at lower binding energies than those for 4Pt/ZrO2. Part of Mo was reduced from +6 to +5 oxidation state in the presence of Pt. There seems to exist some electronic interaction between the support and metal, making 4Pt-8MoO(x)/ZrO2 a highly efficient and selective deoxygenation catalyst.
Keywords: Bimetallic catalyst; Biofuel; Deoxygenation of fatty acids; Green Diesel; Hydrocarbons; Supported platinum catalyst

Hydrodeoxygenation of vegetable oils and fatty acids over different group VIII metal catalysts for producing biofuels - Janampelli, Sagar; Darbha, Srinivas (Catalysis Surveys From Asia, 2019)
Energy security and environment protection are two important aspects of sustainable development. Biofuels are renewable and carbon neutral. They are suitable replacement for conventional fossil derived transport fuels. Their use leads to sustainable development. Among several technological options, catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of vegetable oils leading to diesel-range hydrocarbons is the most attractive approach for producing biofuels. The green diesel, thus produced, could be blended with petro-diesel or used as standalone fuel in the conventional diesel engines. Our research group has been active in developing efficient solid catalysts for hydroprocessing of vegetable oils. This account presents some of our efforts using supported group VIII metals and the importance of electronic contact between metal and support on the catalytic activity and hydrodeoxygenation selectivity in hydroprocessing of vegetable oils.
Keywords: biofuels; Catalysis over group VIII metals; Deoxygenation; Hydroprocessing; Renewable diesel

Hydrodynamic cavitation using vortex diode: an efficient approach for elimination of pathogenic bacteria from water - Jain, Pooja; Bhandari, Vinay M.; Balapure, Kshama; Jena, Jyotsnarani; Ranade, Vivek V.; Killedar, Deepak J. (Journal of Environmental Management, 2019)
The present study successfully demonstrates greener methodology of hydrodynamic cavitation using rotational flows for disinfection of water. Disinfection of two model microbial strains-gram-negative (Escherichia colt) and gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) using vortex diode was evaluated. The removal efficacy was quantified for two different cavitation reactors. Practically complete elimination of E. coli was achieved (99%) after 1 h of cavitation at a pressure drop of only 0.5 bar. However, elimination of S. aureus using vortex diode was observed to be lower in comparison to the removal of E. coli and only 60% disinfection could be achieved under similar conditions, which can be subsequently enhanced up to 98% by increasing pressure drop. The results were compared with another cavitating device that employs linear flow for cavitation, orifice. The reactor geometry has significant impact on the disinfection process and orifice was found to require significantly higher pressure drop (10 bar) conditions for disinfection and for eliminating grain-positive bacteria with high efficiency. A plausible mechanism for disinfection was proposed to elucidate the role of cavitation in cell destruction leading to death of cells through the rupture of cell wall, oxidative damage and possible DNA denaturation. Also, a cavitation model using per pass disinfection was developed that can provide meaningful physical description of the disinfection process as against the conventional first order reaction rate model. This study would provide meaningful insight into cavitation process based on hydrodynamic cavitation for the destruction of both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria from various water sources, including industrial wastewaters.
Keywords: Cavitation; Disinfection; kinetics; pollution; Wastewater treatment

Hydrophobic WO3/SiO2 catalyst for the nitration of aromatics in liquid phase - Kulal, A. B.; Kasabe, M. M.; Jadhav, P. V.; Dongare, M. K.; Umbarkar, S. B. (Applied Catalysis A-General, 2019)
WO3/SiO2 solid acid catalyst synthesized using sol gel method has shown promising activity (up to 65% conversion) for aromatic nitration in liquid phase using commercial nitric acid (70%) as nitrating agent without using any sulfuric acid. The water formed during the reaction as well as water from dilute nitric acid (70%) was removed azeotropically, however due to the hydrophilic nature of the catalyst, some water gets strongly adsorbed on catalyst surface forming a barrier layer between catalyst and organics. This prevents effective adsorption of substrate on catalyst surface for its subsequent reaction. To improve the activity further, the hydrophilic/hydrophobic nature of the catalyst was altered by post modification by grafting with commercial short chain organosilane (Dynasylan 9896). The modified 20% WO3/SiO2 catalyst when used for o-xylene nitration in liquid phase, showed significant increase in the conversion from 65% to 80% under identical reaction conditions. Catalyst characterization revealed decrease in the surface area of 20% WO3/SiO2 from 356 m(2)/g to 302 m(2)/g after grafting with Dynasylan 9896. The fine dispersion of WO3 particles (2-5 run) on silica support was not affected due to modification. NMR and FTIR study revealed the decrease in surface hydroxyl groups imparting hydrophobicity to the catalyst. Interestingly the total acidic sites of the catalyst remained almost unaltered (0.54 mmol NH3/g) even after modification. Even though, the acidity and other characteristics of the catalyst did not change appreciably, there was a considerable increase in the o-xylene conversion which can be ascribed to the hydrophobic nature of the catalyst.
Keywords: Aromatic nitration; grafting; heterogeneous catalysis; Hydrophobic; Sol-gel synthesis

Importance of conserving fragmented forest patches with high diversity of flowering plants in the northern Western Ghats: an example from Maharashtra, India - Kasodekar, Amol; Jadhav, Amol Dilip; Bhagat, Rani; Pawar, Rakesh Mahadev; Gupta, Vidya Shrikant; Kadoo, Narendra (Journal of Threatened Taxa, 2019)
The northern Western Ghats (NWG) comprises of a patchy continuum of forests that have been severely fragmented mainly due to anthropogenic activities. We documented tree diversity within a representative fragmented forest patch of the NWG to study the effects of fragmentation on forest structure and composition. The floristic survey was conducted by replicated strip transect sampling method leading to a total sampling area of 0.3ha. A total of 444 individual trees (Girth>10cm) were sampled, which represented 49 tree species belonging to 42 genera and 23 families. Species richness per unit area and tree density were higher than previously reported values from similar forest type in various regions of NWG. These variations, however, could have resulted due to differences in the sampling area, sampling method, and girth classes used across different studies. Nevertheless, various diversity parameters such as N/S ratio, Simpson’s index, Shannon’s index, and Fisher’s α index were comparable with those reported in previous studies in the Western Ghats. The observed species richness was close to species richness estimates such as abundance-based coverage estimate, Chao-1, and Jackknife estimators. The present study also enumerates 108 species of understory flowering plants, which is provided as a checklist. While access restrictions are imposed in protected areas having high conservation priority, such restrictions are not imposed in non-protected areas, which make them much more vulnerable to anthropogenic activities. Hence, this study recommends that owing to their high diversity, the fragmented forest patches of NWG should also be given high conservation priority.

In vitro and in silico studies on membrane interactions of diverse Capsicum annuum flower gamma-thionin peptides - Nikte, Siddhanta; Gahankari, Apurva; Mulla, Javed; Sengupta, Durba; Joshi, Manali; Tamhane, Vaijayanti (Proteins-Structure Function and Bioinformatics, 2019)
Thionins are small, cysteine-rich peptides that play an important role in plant defense, primarily through their interactions with membranes. Eight novel gamma-thionin peptides (CanThio1-8) were isolated from the flower of Capsicum annuum. Sequence analysis revealed that the peptides cluster into three groups. A representative peptide from each group (CanThio1, 2, and 3) was used for experimental characterization. Interestingly, peptides were found to possess some cytotoxic activity against normal human embryonic kidney cell line but higher cytotoxicity against cancer cell line MCF-7. CanThio3 peptide was chosen as a representative peptide to study the molecular mechanism of action on membranes. Microsecond timescale atomistic simulations of CanThio3 were performed in the presence of a POPC (1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) lipid bilayer. Simulations revealed that CanThio3 interacts with the bilayer and causes lipid thinning in the vicinity. Nonpolar amino acids specific to the alpha-core region of CanThio3 along with nonpolar residues in the gamma-core region are seen to interact with the lipid tails. The differences in the amino acid sequence of CanThio peptides in these regions explain the variability in cytotoxic activities. In summary, our results demonstrate the membrane-mediated activity of a novel series of gamma-thionin peptides from C. annuum.
Keywords: Capsicum annuum; Cytotoxicity; gamma-thionin; MD simulations; Membrane

Insect-repellent and mosquitocidal effects of noreremophilane- and nardoaristolone-based compounds - Handore, K. L.; Kalmode, H. P.; Sayyad, S.; Seetharamsingh, B.; Gathalkar, G.; Padole, S.; Pawar, P. V.; Joseph, M.; Sen, A.; Reddy, D. S. (ACS Omega, 2019)
Here, we disclose novel mosquito-repellent synthetic hydrindanes based on noreremophilanes and nardoaristolone B which show increased activity against adult females of Aedes aegypti. The noreremophilanes and nardoaristolone B with hydrindane skeleton are structurally related to nootkatone with decalin skeleton, a well-studied natural product extracted from a grape fruit. Out of our library of compounds synthesized based on the noreremophilanes and nardoaristolone B scaffolds, NDS-100598 (compound 20) exhibits higher repellent and knock-down effects at a very low concentration (0.25 mg/cm2), while a few analogues showed considerably enhanced activity compared to racemic nootkatone. This is the first report documenting insect-repellent and knock-down activity of the noreremophilanes class of compounds.

In-situ generated Mn3O4-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite for oxygen reduction reaction and isolated reduced graphene oxide for supercapacitor applications - Jha, Plawan Kumar; Kashyap, Varchaswal; Gupta, Kriti; Kumar, Vikash; Debnath, Anil Krishna; Roy, Debashree; Rana, Shammi; Kurungot, Sreekumar; Ballav, Nirmalya (Carbon, 2019)
We have generated in situ nanocomposite of Mn3O4 and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) upon employing wet-chemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO) by Mn(II) salt as mild-reducing agent for the first time and examined the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity in 0.1 M KOH electrolyte. The half-wave potential (E-1/2) of the nanocomposite catalyst (20% Mn3O4-rGO/C) was found to be around -0.153 V which is only similar to 87 mV negative from the commercially available catalyst (20% Pt/C). Remarkably, after 5000 linear sweep voltammetry cycles the E-1/2 shifted marginally by 20 mV; and the number of electrons transferred during ORR was estimated to be close to 4. Such an efficient electrocatalytic performance of the nanocomposite was primarily attributed to the synergistic interaction between Mn3O4 and rGO. The fabricated all-solid-state supercapacitor of rGO (extracted from the nanocomposite) in aqueous polyvinyl alcohol-sulfuric acid (PVA-H2SO4) gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) showed C-s value of similar to 310 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g along with long durability (10,000 charge-discharge cycles). All-solid-state flexible rGO supercapacitor exhibited high-flexibility and excellent durability (30,000 cycles with 100% retention of C-s). Our results provide an enormous opportunity in designing transition metal oxides decorated semiconducting reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite platforms for various electrochemical applications. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Kinetics of cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation in four phase system - Khan, M.; Joshi, S.; Ranade, V. (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2019)
The kinetics of cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation in four phase system viz. gas (hydrogen)-liquid (cinnamaldehyde + toluene)-liquid (aqueous KOH)-solid (catalyst, 5% Pt/C), [GLLS] system has been studied in this work. As reported, addition of aqueous alkali in hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehydes like cinnamaldehyde shifts selectivity towards unsaturated alcohol, cinnamyl alcohol. The promotion action by alkali metals for improving selectivity towards cinnamyl alcohol involves changes in the adsorption mechanism of the cinnamaldehyde in a way that CO bond get preferentially hydrogenated. In cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation in presence of promoters two different catalytic sites can be considered, each for CO and CC bond hydrogenation. In accordance with this consideration and as demonstrated in various studies on hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehydes, further hydrogenation of intermediate-cinnamyl alcohol (CC bond hydrogenation) occurs on Pt only sites while cinnamaldehyde and intermediate hydrocinnamaldehyde (both involving CO bond hydrogenation) are hydrogenated on catalytic sites affected by promoters. This preferential adsorption and hydrogenation through CO bond leads to the increased selectivity of cinnamyl alcohol. Although, many authors have studied cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation using various promoters, there are very few reports on kinetics in which this two site approach behind promotion action has been considered. The effect of various operating parameters on the rates of hydrogenation was studied and the two site Langmuir-Hinshelwood type of kinetic model was used for evaluating the kinetic parameters by fitting experimental data. The thermodynamic model for estimating the solubility of hydrogen in the reaction mixture was incorporated with this kinetic model.

Large enhancement in the magnetostriction parameters of the composite of CoFe2O4 and CoFe1.9Ga0.1O4 - Anantharamaiah, P. N.; Joy, P. A. (Materials Letters, 2019)
A new strategy to enhance the magnetostriction parameters of cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) is illustrated. A composite comprising of nanocrystalline CoFe2O4 and bulk CoFe(1.9)Ga(0.1)O(4 )powders were mixed together then compacted and sintered at 1450 degrees C for 10 min. For a composite of 70 wt% CoFe2O4 and 30 wt% of CoFe(1.9)Ga(0.1)O4, maximum magnetostriction coefficient (lambda(max)) of -350 ppm has been obtained at lower magnetic field which is nearly 20% and 65% higher than that obtained for CoFe2O4 and CoFe1.9Ga0.1O4, respectively. Moreover, the composite exhibited higher strain sensitivity [d lambda/dH](max )of -2.6 x 10 (9) A(-1) m against the individual components of the composite. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Ceramics; Composite materials; Magnetic materials

Magnetic parameters of SrFe12O19 sintered from a mixture of nanocrystalline and micron-sized powders - Shashanka, H. M.; Anantharamaiah, P. N.; Joy, P. A. (Ceramics International, 2019)
Obtaining higher magnetic parameters is essential for high-power sintered strontium ferrite (SrFe12O19) for various applications. A novel approach has been made to improve the magnetic parameters of sintered strontium ferrite by making self-composites from nano and micron-sized powders. Powders with two different weight ratios (50 wt% nano:50 wt% micron and 75 wt% nano:25 wt% micron) were mixed together, compacted and sintered at 1200 degrees C for 1 h. For a self-composite of 75 wt% nano and 25 wt% micron-sized powders, coercivity (H-c) of 3076 Oe has been obtained, larger than the values for the sintered compacts from the component powders. The present study suggests that the magnetic parameters of sintered SrFe12O19 can be improved by making self-composite comprising of nanocrystalline and micron-sized powders.
Keywords: Ceramics; Magnetic materials; microstructures; Self-composites; strontium ferrite

Magnetic properties of sintered CoFe2O4-BaTiO3 particulate magnetoelectric composites - Mohan, S.; Joy, P. A. (Ceramics International, 2019)
The magnetic properties of sintered particulate magnetoelectric CoFe2O4 - BaTiO3 composites have been studied. The particulate composites are sintered in the temperature range 1000-1300 degrees C, for a short duration of 10 min. The magnetic transition temperature (T-c) of CoFe2O4 is found to decrease with increasing the sintering temperature and sintering time, as well as on increasing the BaTiO3 content in the composites. Similarly, a reduced saturation magnetization at room temperature, compared to that expected for the CoFe2O4 content, is also observed. Powder X-ray diffraction studies showed the presence of the impurity phase related to the hexagonal ferrite BaFe12O19 in all the composites. Ba2Fe2Ti4O13 is observed as a second impurity phase in the BaTiO3 - rich composites. The present studies suggest that the composition of the piezomagnetic (CoFe2O4) phase in the CoFe2O4 - BaTiO3 magnetoelectric composite is affected during the sintering process.
Keywords: composites; magnetic properties; Sintering

Mechanistic insights into enzymatic catalysis by trehalase from the insect gut endosymbiont Enterobacter cloacae - Adhav, Anmol; Harne, Shrikant; Bhide, Amey; Giri, Ashok; Gayathri, Pananghat; Joshi, Rakesh (FEBS Journal, 2019)
Energy metabolism in the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella is facilitated by trehalase, an enzyme which assists in trehalose hydrolysis, from the predominant gut bacterium Enterobacter cloacae. We report the biochemical and structural characterization of recombinant trehalase from E. cloacae (Px_EclTre). Px_EclTre showed K-M of 1.47 (+/- 0.05) mm, k(cat) of 6254.72 min(-1) and V-max 0.2 (+/- 0.002) mm center dot min(-1) at 55 degrees C and acidic pH. Crystal structures of Px_EclTre were determined in the ligand-free form and bound to the inhibitor Validoxylamine A. The crystal structure of the ligand-free form, unavailable until now for any other bacterial trehalases, enabled us to delineate the conformational changes accompanying ligand binding in trehalases. Multiple salt bridges were identified that potentially facilitated closure of a hood over the substrate-binding site. A cluster of five tryptophans lined the -1 substrate-binding subsite, interacted with crucial active site residues and contributed to both trehalase activity and stability. The importance of these residues in enzyme activity was further validated by mutagenesis studies. Many of these identified residues form part of signature motifs and other conserved sequences in trehalases. The structure analysis thus led to the assignment of the functional role to these conserved residues. This information can be further explored for the design of effective inhibitors against trehalases.
Keywords: Enterobacter cloacae; Plutella xylostella; structural analysis; trehalase; validoxylamine A

Methodology of evaluating sustainability index of a biomass processing enterprise: a case study of native cow dung-urine biorefinery - Joglekar, Saurabh N.; Darwai, Vivek; Mandavgane, Sachin A.; Kulkarni, Bhaskar D. (Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2019)
Agriculture and its allied sector contribute significantly to the gross domestic product of every country. Several small-scale enterprises engaged in waste biomass processing have been setup recently. Such industrial setups not only help in solving the waste management issues but also play an important role in offering employment at the grass root level generating a significant social impact along with economic advantage to the local entrepreneur. Hence, assessment of such biomass processing enterprise (BPE) based on economic, environment, and social parameters has become necessary. In this paper, a general framework for sustainability assessment is discussed using a case study of cow dung-urine biorefinery as a representative BPE. Real-time data of BPE has been collected for evaluation and a sustainability index (SI) is evaluated using multicriteria decision method. The SI is calculated as per the weightage assigned and value function of the indicator and criteria. The SI for the BPE was observed to be 0.69 for the chosen set of criteria and indicator and weightages. A sensitivity analysis has been performed to check the dependence of the results on the weightages assigned to various criteria and indicators. It was also observed that the results were more sensitive to the indicators having a low value function.
Keywords: Indicator analysis; MIVES; Multicriteria decision analysis; Performance evaluation; Sustainability assessment framework

Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase C subunit III (cox3) gene as a sensitive and specific target for molecular detection of Babesia gibsoni infection in dogs - Betgiri, Aishwarya A.; Jadhav, Sameer N.; Pawde, Mrunalini; Shukla, Anurag; Mote, Chandrashekhar; Pawar, Prashant D.; Shanmugam, Dhanasekaran; Kundu, Krishnendu (Experimental Parasitology, 2019)
A PCR targeting mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit III (cox3) for molecular detection of Babesia gibsoni infection in dogs has been developed in this study. Fifty blood samples from suspected clinical cases from dogs, brought to the veterinary college clinics, were examined for presence of B. gibsoni using conventional diagnosis by microscopic examination of Giemsa stained thin blood smears. In addition, species specific PCRs targeting ITS-1 region (BgITS-1 PCR) and nested PCR targeting 18S ribosomal RNA gene (Bg18SnPCR) were carried out. A 634 bp PCR fragment of B. gibsoni cox3 gene was amplified in positive samples from three geographical locations of Satara, Wai and Pune in Maharashtra state of India. From analysis of the sequence of the B. gibsoni cox3 gene, we found that the Indian isolate had 96-98% similarity to the isolate from Japan and China. Post sequencing, de-novo diagnostic primer pair for species specific amplification of 164 bp fragment of B. gibsoni cox3 was designed and the PCR was standardized. The diagnostic results of de-novo Bgcox3 PCR were compared with BgITS-1 PCR and Bg18S nPCR. Thin blood smears detected 22% (11/50) samples positive for small form of Babesia species. The BgITS-1 PCR detected 25% samples (15/50) as positive and Bg18S nPCR detected 80% (40/50) B. gibsoni positive samples. The de-novo Bgcox3 PCR detected 66% (33/50) samples positive for B. gibsoni (at 95% CI). The analytical sensitivity of cox3 PCR was evaluated as 0.000003% parasitaemia or 09 parasites in 100 mu l of blood. The de-novo diagnostic cox3 PCR did not cross react with control positive DNA from other haemoprotozoa and rickettsia like B. vogeli, Hepatozoon canis, Trypanosoma evansi, Ehrlichia cants and Anaplasma platys. Statistically, cox3 PCR had better diagnostic efficiency than ITS-1 PCR in terms of sensitivity (p = 0.0006). No statistically significant difference between results of cox3 PCR and 18S nPCR was observed (p = 0.1760). Kappa values estimated for each test pair showed fair to moderate agreement between the observations. Specificity of Bgcox3 PCR was 100% when compared with microscopy or BgITS-1 PCR. Sensitivity of Bgcox3 PCR was 100% when compared with that of Bg18S nPCR.
Keywords: Babesia gibsoni; cox3; Diagnosis; Dog; mitochondria; molecular

Morphology-dependent, green, and selective catalytic styrene oxidation on Co3O4 - Jain, Ruchi; Gopinath, Chinnakonda S. (Dalton Transactions, 2019)
Despite the great successes in the controlled fabrication of nanomaterials with specific composition and morphology, it is still challenging to have the desired control on the defect sites of catalyst materials. For unfolding the mystery of this aspect, catalytic styrene epoxidation was attempted on spinel Co3O4 with two different morphologies, namely, SNR (nanorods prepared by the solvothermal method with the (110) facet), HNR (nanorods prepared by the hydrothermal methodwith the (111) facet) and NC (nanocubes with the (110) facet) were synthesized and subjected to olefin oxidation with O-2. Even without any catalyst pretreatment, all three Co3O4 catalyst systems were found to be active for selective epoxidation of styrene with O-2 at ambient pressure in the liquid phase. The correlation between catalytic activity and selectivity trend suggests that the reaction is highly structure-sensitive and facile on the (110) facet. Temperature-dependent near ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAPXPS) was carried out at 0.1 mbar O-2 pressure to understand the mechanistic aspects. The distinct catalytic activity of NC (110) and SNR (110) can be attributed to the population of defect sites on the catalyst surface. NC morphology with comparatively fewer defect sites shows high activity and selectivity, suggesting that styrene oxidation on Co3O4 is structure-sensitive; however, unlike metal surfaces, fewer defects are more favourable for catalytic styrene epoxidation due to facile adsorption and activation of the substrate and O-2 on Co3+ sites. The present investigations suggest that surface defects need not necessarily increase catalytic activity.

MWCNTs-ZnO-SiO2 mesoporous nano-hybrid materials for CO2 capture - Jena, Kishore K.; Panda, Amulya Prasad; Verma, Savita; Mani, Ganesh Kumar; Swain, S. K.; Alhassan, Saeed M. (Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2019)
Carbon nanostructures and metal nanoparticles based nanohybrid materials have been established as one of advantageous materials for various applications. Here, we present hydrothermal and sol-gel process at low temperature for the synthesis of (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES)-ZnO-multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) mesoporous nanohybrid materials. TEM and XPS measurements show that uniform size and quasi-spherical ZnO nanoparticles were anchored to the surface of the MWCNTs. SEM observation exhibits that the aggregation of ZnO nanoparticles is greatly reduced due to the steric repulsion of grafted organic groups. The maximum CO2 adsorption capacity at 273 K was 1.32 mmol/g for MWCNTs-APTES-ZnO-B nanohybrid. An increase in the density of ZnO nanoparticles on the surface of MWCNTs resulted in a higher affinity towards CO2 at low pressure. This work provides new research directions for making further advances toward practical utilization of MWCNTs-based CO2 adsorbents. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: CO2 capture; Mesoporous; MWCNTs; Nanohybrid; TEM; XPS

Nature of electrophilic oxygen: insights from periodic density functional theory investigations - Kenge, Nivedita; Pitale, Sameer; Joshi, Kavita (Surface Science, 2019)
Increasing demand of ethylene oxide and the cost of versatile chemical ethene has been a driving force for understanding mechanism of epoxidation to develop highly selective catalytic process. Direct epoxidation is a proposed mechanism which in theory provides 100% selectivity. A key aspect of this mechanism is an electrophilic oxygen (O-ele) species forming on the Ag surface. In the past two and half decades, large number of theoretical and experimental investigations have tried to elucidate formation of O-ele, on Ag surface with little success. Equipped with this rich literature on Ag-O interactions, we investigate the same using periodic DFT calculations to further understand how silver surface and oxygen interact with each other from a chemical standpoint. Based on energetics, Lowdin charges, topologies and pdos data described in this study, we scrutinize the established notions of O-ele. Our study provides no evidence in support of O-ele, being an atomic species nor a diatomic molecular species. In fact, a triatomic molecular species described in this work bears multiple signatures which are very convincing evidence for considering it as the most sought for electrophilic entity.
Keywords: Ag(100); DFT; Electrophilic; epoxidation; Nucleophilic oxygen

New cardo bisphenol monomer containing pendant azido group and the resulting aromatic polyesters - Maher, Deepak M.; Nagane, Samadhan S.; Jadhav, Uday A.; Salunkhe, Pravin H.; Tawade, Bhausaheb V.; Wadgaonkar, Prakash P. (Journal of Polymer Science Part A-Polymer Chemistry, 2019)
Expanding on our strategy to synthesize aromatic step-growth polymers containing pendant clickable azido groups via functional monomer approach, we have now designed and synthesized a new cardo bisphenol, viz., 2-(2-azidoethyl)-3, 3-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) isoindolin-1-one (PPH-N-3). PPH-N-3 was conveniently synthesized starting from commercially available phenolphthalein by a three-step route in an overall yield of 65% using simple organic transformations. Aromatic (co)polyesters bearing pendant azido groups were synthesized by low-temperature solution polycondensation of PPH-N-3 or different molar ratios of PPH-N-3 and bisphenol-A (BPA) with aromatic diacid chlorides in dry dichloromethane in the presence of triethylamine (TEA) as a base. The formation of medium to reasonably high-molecular-weight (co)polyesters was evidenced from intrinsic viscosity and number-average molecular-weight measurements that were in the range 0.52-0.85 dL/g and 16,700-28,200, respectively. Tough, transparent, and flexible films could be cast from chloroform solutions of these (co)polyesters. (Co)polyesters were characterized using FTIR, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR spectroscopy, XRD, and TGA. The thermal curing reaction of (co)polyesters involving decomposition of azido groups was studied by DSC analysis. The chemical modification of a representative copolyester containing pendant azido groups was carried out quantitatively using catalyst-free azide-maleimide cycloaddition reaction with two maleimides, namely, N-methylmaleimide and N-hexylmaleimide. (c) 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords: aromatic (co)polyester; azido group; cardo bisphenol; Chemical modification

New insights into surface functionalization and preparation methods of MWCNT based semiconductor photocatalysts - Joseph, Honey Mary; Sugunan, S.; Gurrala, Lakshmiprasad; Mohan, Mothi Krishna; Gopi, Soumya (Ceramics International, 2019)
The manuscript primarily describes the influence of various synthesis strategies on the photocatalytic properties of MWCNT/TiO2 binary nanohybrids. The multiwalled carbon nanotube modified titania hybrids synthesized via two-step reaction involving the covalent functionalization with green and mild oxidizing agent like H2O2, followed by simple surfactant/template free hydrothermal synthesis exhibited the maximum photocatalytic efficiency. The Total Organic Carbon (TOC) analysis showed complete mineralization of the persistent Rhodamine B dye in about 8 h. These synthesized nanohybrids in varying MWCNT content were tested for their photocatalytic efficiency in the degradation of explosive effluents like 4-nitrophenol and picric acid. The UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer Emmett Teller Surface area analysis (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectra analysis evidently revealed the effective synergistic interaction between the MWCNT and titania at the interface that has contributed to the significant enhancement of photocatalytic performance.
Keywords: Functionalization; Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs); Nitrophenol (4-NP); Photocatalysis; Picric acid (PA); Rhodamine B (RhB); Sol gel and hydrothermal method; synergistic effects; Titania (TiO2); Total organic carbon content (TOC)

Nickel-catalyzed straightforward and regioselective C-H alkenylation of indoles with alkenyl bromides: scope and mechanistic aspect - Jagtap, Rahul A.; Vinod, C. P.; Punji, Benudhar (ACS Catalysis, 2019)
Nickel-catalyzed regioselective C-H bond alkenylation of indoles and related heteroarenes with alkenyl bromides is accomplished under relatively mild conditions. This method allows the straightforward synthesis of C-2 alkenylated indoles employing an air-stable and well-defined nickel catalyst, (bpy)NiBr2, providing a solution to the limitations associated with hydroindolation and oxidative alkenylation. The reaction conceded the coupling of indole derivatives with various alkenyl bromides, such as aromatic and heteroaromatics, alpha- and beta-substituted as well as exo- and endo-cyclic alkenyl compounds. An extensive mechanistic investigation, including controlled study, reactivity experiments, kinetics and labeling studies, and EPR and XPS analyses, highlights that the alkenylation proceeds through a single-electron transfer process comprising an odd-electron oxidative addition of alkenyl bromide. Furthermore, the alkenylation operates via a probable Ni(I)/Ni(III) pathway involving the rate-limiting C-H nickelation of indole.
Keywords: alkenylation; C-H activation; indoles; Mechanism; Nickel; single-electron transfer

NMR structure and dynamics of inhibitory repeat domain variant 12, a plant protease inhibitor from Capsicum annuum, and its structural relationship to other plant protease inhibitors - Gartia, Janeka; Anangi, Raveendra; Joshi, Rakesh S.; Giri, Ashok P.; King, Glenn F.; Barnwal, Ravi P.; Chary, Kandala V. R. (Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics, 2019)
Although several plant protease inhibitors have been structurally characterized using X-ray crystallography, very few have been studied using NMR techniques. Here, we report an NMR study of the solution structure and dynamics of an inhibitory repeat domain (IRD) variant 12 from the wound-inducible Pin-II type proteinase inhibitor from Capsicum annuum. IRD variant 12 (IRD12) showed strong anti-metabolic activity against the Lepidopteran insect pest, Helicoverpa armigera. The NMR-derived three-dimensional structure of IRD12 reveals a three-stranded anti-parallel beta-sheet rigidly held together by four disulfide bridges and shows structural homology with known IRDs. It is interesting to note that the IRD12 structure containing similar to 75% unstructured part still shows substantial amount of rigidity of N-H bond vectors with respect to its molecular motion. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
Keywords: Bt transgenic; Capsicum annuum; Helicoverpa armigera; inhibitory repeating domains; NMR structure; Protease inhibitors (PIs)

Non nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, molecular docking studies and antitubercular activity of thiazolidin-4-one derivatives - Chitre, Trupti S.; Patil, Shital M.; Sujalegaonkar, Anagha G.; Asgaonkar, Kalyani D.; Khedkar, Vijay M.; Garud, Dinesh R.; Jha, Prakash C.; Gaikwad, Sharddha Y.; Kulkarni, Smita; Choudhari, Amit; Sarkar, Dhiman (Current Computer-Aided Drug Design, 2019)
Background: Management of Co-existence of Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and Tuberculosis has become a global challenge due to the emergence of resistant strains and pill burden. Objective: Hence the aim of the present work was to design and evaluate compounds for their dual activity on HIV-1 and Tuberculosis (TB). Methods: A series of seven, novel Thiazolidin-4-one derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their anti-HIV and anti-tubercular activity along with Molecular docking studies. All the seven compounds displayed promising activity against the replication of HIV-1 in cell-based assays. The four most active compounds were further evaluated against X4 tropic HIV-1(UG)(070) and R5 tropic HIV-1(vB59) primary isolates. The binding affinity of all the designed compounds for HIV-RT and Mycobacterium tuberculosis Enol Reductase (MTB InhA) was gauged by molecular docking studies which revealed crucial thermodynamic interactions governing their binding. Results: The CC50 values for the test compounds were in the range of, 15.08-34.9 mu g/ml, while the IC50 values were in the range of 16.1-27.13(UG(070); X4) and 12.03-23.64 (VB59; R5) mu g/ml. The control drug Nevirapine (NVP) exhibited CC50 value of 77.13 mu g/ml and IC50 value of 0.03 mu g/ml. Amongst all these compounds, compound number 3 showed significant activity with a TI value of 2.167 and 2.678 against the HIV-1 X4 and the R5 tropic virus respectively. In anti-mycobacterial screening, the compounds proved effective in inhibiting the growth of both log phase and starved MTB cultures. Conclusion: Compound 3 has been found to be active against HIV-1 as well as MTB.
Keywords: anti-HIV-1 activity; Antitubercular activity; human immunodeficiency virus-1; Molecular docking; Non nucleoside reverse transcriptase; thiazolidin-4-ones

Nonoxidative dehydrogenation of methanol to methyl formate through highly stable and reusable CuMgO-based catalysts - Yuan D. J.; Hengne, A. M.; Saih, Y.; Huang, K. W. (ACS Omega, 2019)
Nonoxidative dehydrogenation of methanol to methyl formate over a CuMgO-based catalyst was investigated. Although the active site is metallic copper (Cu0), the best reaction conditions were obtained by tuning the ratio of Cu/Mg and doping the catalyst with 1 wt % of Pd to achieve a very specific activity for methyl formate synthesis. On the basis of the CO2 temperature-programmed desorption study, the basic strength of the catalyst plays a role in the efficient conversion of methanol to methyl formate via dehydrogenation. These CuMgO-based catalysts show excellent thermal stability during the reaction and the regeneration processes. Approx. 80% methanol conversion with constant selectivity to methyl formate was achieved even after 4 rounds of usage for a total reaction time exceeding 200 h, indicative of their potential for practical applications.

Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of the Fischer-Tropsch reaction with a Co catalyst - Nayak, Chandrani; Jain, Preeti; Vinod, C. P.; Jha, S. N.; Bhattacharyya, D. (Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 2019)
This article describes the setting up of a facility on the energy-scanning EXAFS beamline (BL-09) at RRCAT, Indore, India, for operando studies of structure-activity correlation during a catalytic reaction. The setup was tested by operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) studies performed on a Co-based catalyst during the Fischer-Tropsch reaction to obtain information regarding structural changes in the catalyst during the reaction. Simultaneous gas chromatography (GC) measurements during the reaction facilitate monitoring of the product gases, which in turn gives information regarding the activity of the catalyst. The combination of XAS and GC techniques was used to correlate the structural changes with the activity of the catalyst at different reaction temperatures. The oxide catalyst was reduced to the metallic phase by heating at 400 degrees C for 5h under H-2 at ambient pressure and subsequently the catalytic reaction was studied at four different temperatures of 240, 260, 280 and 320 degrees C. The catalyst was studied for 10h at 320 degrees C and an attempt has been made to understand the process of its deactivation from the XANES and EXAFS results.
Keywords: catalysis; EXAFS; Fischer-Tropsch reaction; in situ studies; structure-activity correlation; XANES

Pathways to defense metabolites and evading fruit bitterness in genus Solanum evolved through 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases - Cardenas, Pablo D.; Sonawane, Prashant D.; Heinig, Uwe; Jozwiak, Adam; Panda, Sayantan; Abebie, Bekele; Kazachkova, Yana; Pliner, Margarita; Unger, Tamar; Wolf, Dalia; Ofner, Itai; Vilaprinyo, Ester; et al. (Nature Communications, 2019)
The genus Solanum comprises three food crops (potato, tomato, and eggplant), which are consumed on daily basis worldwide and also producers of notorious anti-nutritional steroidal glycoalkaloids (SGAs). Hydroxylated SGAs (i.e. leptinines) serve as precursors for leptines that act as defenses against Colorado Potato Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say), an important pest of potato worldwide. However, SGA hydroxylating enzymes remain unknown. Here, we discover that 2-OXOGLUTARATE-DEPENDENT-DIOXYGENASE (2-ODD) enzymes catalyze SGA-hydroxylation across various Solanum species. In contrast to cultivated potato, Solanum chacoense, a widespread wild potato species, has evolved a 2-ODD enzyme leading to the formation of leptinines. Furthermore, we find a related 2-ODD in tomato that catalyzes the hydroxylation of the bitter a-tomatine to hydroxytomatine, the first committed step in the chemical shift towards downstream ripening-associated non-bitter SGAs (e.g. esculeoside A). This 2-ODD enzyme prevents bitterness in ripe tomato fruit consumed today which otherwise would remain unpleasant in taste and more toxic.

Phyto-inspired cyclic peptides derived from plant Pin-II type protease inhibitor reactive center loops for crop protection from insect pests - Sailthedkar, Nidhi S.; Joshi, Rakesh S.; Yadav, Amit K.; Seal, Shubhendu; Fernandes, Moneesha; Giri, Ashok P. (Biochimica ET Biophysica Acta-General Subjects, 2019)
Background: Natural defence of plants against insect pests involves protease inhibitors (PIs) that interfere with insect digestive proteases. Pin-II type plant PIs are wound inducible upon insect damage and possess multiple inhibitory repeat domains that can inhibit trypsin and chymotrypsin-like proteases in the insect midgut. Yet, their agricultural ex-vivo application is limited due to large molecular size and environmental instability, which could be overcome by small peptides. Methods: Bicyclic peptides were designed by grafting Pin-II PIs derived reactive center loop (RCL) on synthetic tris(bromomethyl)benzene scaffold. In vitro binding with trypsin-like proteases was evaluated by biochemical and biophysical assays, followed by molecular dynamics simulations. In vivo effects on two major lepidopteran insect pests, Helicoverpa armigera and Spodoptera litura were studied upon feeding with peptide treated leaves. Affinity based pull down assays were used to identify target proteins in insect gut. Results: Bicyclic RCLs showed ten-fold enhanced protease inhibition compared to their linear counterparts. They exhibited feeding deterrence and growth reduction of lepidopteran insects. Bicyclic peptides predominantly interact with midgut serine proteases. Possible binding modes involve simultaneous interaction with the active site and specificity-determining residues of insect gut trypsin. Conclusion: Bicyclic peptides are potent inhibitors of serine proteases in the insect midgut. They cause feeding aversion and larval growth retardation. Bi-domain cyclic peptides interact with two sites on trypsin, leading to enhanced efficacy over linear RCL peptides. General significance: Bicyclic peptides mimic natural PIs by inhibiting insect proteases leading to growth reduction, thus, could be used as pest control molecules in agriculture.
Keywords: Cyclic peptide; Lepidoptera; Pest control; protease inhibitor; Reactive loop

Population genetic and phytochemical dataset of Saraca asoca: a traditionally important medicinal tree - Hegde, Satisha; Pai, Sandeep Ramchandra; Bhagwat, Rasika M.; Sainia, Archana; Rathore, Poonam Kanwar; Jalalpure, Sunil Satyappa; Hegde, Harsha Vasudev; Sugunan, Attayoor Purushottaman; Gupta, Vidya S.; Kholkute, Sanjiva D.; Roy, Subarna (Data in Brief, 2019)
The data presented in this article is in support of the research paper “Genetic and phytochemical investigations for understanding population variability of the medicinally important tree Saraca asoca to help develop conservation strategies” Hegde et al., 2018. This article provides PCR based Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) and HPLC datasets of 106 individual samples of Saraca asoca collected from various geographical ranges of the Western Ghats of India. The ISSR data includes information on genetic diversity and images of population structures generated through amplified DNA products from samples of Saraca asoca leaf. Phytochemical data obtained from HPLC includes concentration (mg/g) of gallic acid (GA), catechin (CAT), and epicatechin (EPI). The data also presents information obtained from various statistical analysis viz. standard error of the mean values, distribution variables, prediction accuracy, and multiple logistic regression analysis.

Probing the catalytic activity of pristine and doped Pd and Ni metal clusters towards H2O molecule - Samal, Pragnya Paramita; Joshi, Krati; Kaliaperumal, Selvaraj; Krishnamurty, Sailaja (Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, 2019)
Electrolysis of H2O to produce molecular hydrogen, the most environment friendly and energy efficient fuel, using cost effective catalysts is one of the major global research challenges. To date, Pt remains the best suitable and yet highly expensive electro-catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. Design of an alternative cost-effective catalyst requires a fundamental molecular level understanding of the water molecule adsorption and its activation. In that context, we examine the adsorption and activation of water molecule on model alternative catalysts namely, Ni-6 and Pd-6 clusters using density functional theory based methodology. Ni-6 and Pd-6 clusters and their singly doped counterparts are used for this study. Mo, W, Fe, Co and Cu are used as doping elements. To quantify the influence of medium (neutral and alkaline) on the activation of the water molecule, Ni based clusters are considered in neutral and anionic states, respectively. The activity of these clusters towards H2O molecule is evaluated in terms of the adsorption energy, charge transfer, bandgap, red shift in O-H stretching frequency and dissociation barriers for H2O. The studies demonstrate that doping with Co in all the studied clusters (Pd-6, Ni-6 and anionic Ni-6) increases their activity. Best activity is noted for Fe doped neutral Ni b clusters with a dissociation barrier of 5.76 kcal/mol.
Keywords: Activation barrier; Ni clusters; O-H activation; Pd clusters; Red shift of O-H stretching frequency; Water adsorption

Probing the effect of selenium substitution in kesterite-Cu2ZnSnS4 nanocrystals prepared by hot injection method - Pandharkar, Subhash; Rondiya, Sachin; Bhorde, Ajinkya; Nair, Shruthi; Aher, Rahul; Vairale, Priti; Waghmare, Ashish; Naik, Dhirsing; Waykar, Ravindra; Jadhav, Yogesh (Journal of Materials Science-Materials in Electronics, 2019)
In this paper, we report the effect of sulfur (S) substitution with selenium (Se) in CZTS nanocrystals prepared by hot injection method. The formation of kesterite-copper zinc tin sulfide (Cu2ZnSnS4, CZTS) and copper zinc tin selenide (Cu2ZnSnSe4, CZTSe) nanocrystals is confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. The XRD, TEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis shows an overall increase in average crystallite size upon Se substitution. AFM images revealed an increase in root mean square surface roughness (S-q) and average surface roughness (S-a) when S in CZTS is replaced by Se. The substitution of S by Se in host CZTS narrows the optical band gap from 1.56 to 1.03 eV. The ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) analysis shows shift in valence band and conduction band edge in CZTSe compared to CZTS. The photocurrent density measurement in synthesized CZTSe thin films is similar to 4 to 5 times higher than CZTS thin films. The obtained results show that CZTSe can be a promising candidate as absorber material in photovoltaic applications.

Process development of silica extraction from RHA: a cradle to gate environmental impact approach - Joglekar, Saurabh N.; Kharkar, Rhushikesh A.; Mandavgane, Sachin A.; Kulkarni, Bhaskar D. (Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2019)
India is one of the major rice-producing countries. Rice husk is a major agricultural by-product from rice production, which is used as a fuel in boilers. Its use as fuel produces huge amounts of silica-rich rice husk ash (RHA). This paper aims at providing an overall assessment of environmental impacts associated with the extraction of silica from RHAa process developed by our study group. The functional unit used in this study is production of 100kg of silica. The analysis included the extraction and transportation of other raw materials; RHA was assumed to be processed at the site. The study was conducted in accordance with the international ISO 14040 procedural framework. LCA is performed using GaBi Education software, and five midpoint indicators are chosen to assess the environmental impacts of silica extraction. The overall climate change (CC) of the extraction process is 7.26kg CO2 equivalent per kg of silica produced. A high contribution of calcination to CC is attributed to the use of electricity. The comprehensive environmental impacts of silica-rich RHA resulting from processing of RHA and improvement options to achieve sustainable production are presented. The negative impacts that can be avoided during silica extraction are also discussed. It is observed that calcination is a major contributor to the overall environmental indicators. The work also stresses on the use of renewable energy for electricity generation, which would help in decreasing the overall greenhouse gas emissions during extraction while ensuring waste utilization.
Keywords: Environmental impacts; Life cycle assessment; Rice husk ash; silica

Raman and Na-23 solid-state NMR studies on the lead-free ferroelectrics Bi-0.5(Na1-xKx)(0.5)TiO3 in the morphotropic phase boundary region - Anjali, K.; Ajithkumar, T. G.; Joy, P. A. (Materials Research Bulletin, 2019)
The local structural changes, due to the substitution of the smaller Na+ by the larger K+ ion, in the lead-free piezoelectric ceramic compositions Bi-0.5(Na1-xKx)(0.5)TiO3 have been studied using Raman and Na-23 solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Different close compositions in the solid solution series Bi-0.5(Na1-xKx)(0.5)TiO3 (0 <= x <= 0.36, Delta x = 0.02) are studied in the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) region arising from the different crystal structures of the end members Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 and Bi0.5K0.5TiO3. Close correlations between the Raman and NMR parameters with the performance parameters of the system have been observed, suggesting the role of the local structural changes in determining these parameters. Raman and Na-23 NMR studies showed that the onset of the MPB region is at x = 0.16 and the MPB region corresponds to 0.16 <= x <= 0.24 where better performance parameters are observed.

Reusable cobalt catalyst for reversible acceptorless dehydrogenation and hydrogenation of N-Heterocycles - Jaiswal, Garima; Subaramanian, Murugan; Sahoo, Manoj K.; Balaraman, Ekambaram (ChemCatChem, 2019)
<span style="color: rgb(42, 45, 53); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);">The development of robust catalytic systems based on basemetals for reversible acceptorless dehydrogenation (ADH) and hydrogenation of feedstock chemicals is very important in the context of ` hydrogen storage'. Herein, we report a highly efficient reusable cobalt-based heterogeneous catalyst for reversible dehydrogenation and hydrogenation of N-heterocycles. Both the ADH and the hydrogenation processes operate under mild, benign conditions.

Role of particle morphology in the yielding behavior of dense thermosensitive microgel suspensions - Jathavedan, Kiran Kaithakkal; Kanheerampockil, Fayis; Bhat, Suresh (Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2019)
The yielding behavior of dense thermosensitive microgel suspensions of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) with two different particle morphologies viz core-shell (CS) morphology and particles with uniform crosslink density were studied. Structural properties were examined using dynamic light scattering and yielding behavior was investigated by nonlinear oscillatory rheology. Suspensions of particles with uniform crosslinking density showed a typical hard sphere like behavior with the loss modulus (G `') exhibiting a single peak due to cage breaking while CS type particles shows a double yielding at different ranges of strain similar to that seen in attractive colloidal glasses. The first yielding process in CS microgels is interpreted as due to the disentanglement of the overlapped polymer chains from the shells of the neighboring microgels and the second yielding process due to the breakage of cages formed by neighboring microgel particles. Current study suggests that the interpenetration of polymer chains at high concentrations sets in an attractive like potential leading to double yielding phenomena in an otherwise purely repulsive system. (c) 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 137, 48625.

Role of structural distortion in stabilizing electrosynthesized blue emitting phosphorene quantum dots - Valappil, Manila Ozhukil; Joshi, Krati; John, Lisa; Krishnamurthy, Sailaja; Jana, Bikash; Patra, Amitava; Pillai, Vijayamohanan K.; Alwarappan, Subbiah (Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2019)
Luminescent phosphorene quantum dots (PQDs) have emerged as fascinating nanomaterials for potential applications in optoelectronics, catalysis, and sensing. Herein, we investigate the structural distortion of black phosphorus (BP) under an applied electric field to yield blue luminescent PQDs [average diameter 8 +/- 1.5 nm (N = 60)]. The electrosynthesized PQDs exhibit photoluminescence emission independent of excitation wavelength with 84% quantum efficiency. Structural distortion that occurred during the transformation of BP to PQDs is confirmed by results obtained during transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Further, using first-principles-based density functional theory, calculations on oxygenated and nonoxygenated PQDs augment the experimental observations that an optimum oxygen content maintains the structural integrity of PQDs, above which the structural robustness of PQDs is drastically diminished.

Scalable synthesis of both enantiomers of vigabatrin, an antiepileptic drug - Jachak, G.R.; Reddy, D.S. (European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2019)
Vigabatrin is a potent inhibitor of gamma‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) catabolism used for the treatment of epilepsy. Here we have synthesized both enantiomers of the drug vigabatrin in five steps from known intermediates using Wittig olefination and pyrolytic elimination as key steps. The target compounds are synthesized in gram scale amounts with >98 % enantiopurity.

Scope and mechanistic aspect of nickel-catalyzed alkenylation of benzothiazoles and related azoles with styryl bromides - Patel, Ulhas N.; Jagtap, Rahul A.; Punji, Benudhar (Organometallics, 2019)
Alkenylation of benzothiazoles and related azoles with alkenyl bromides is achieved employing the well-defined and air-stable nickel complexes, (bpy)NiBr2 and [Ni(bpy)(3)] [NiBr4], as catalysts. Numerous electronically distinct alkenyl bromides efficiently coupled with substituted benzothiazoles, oxazoles, and benzimidazoles under the catalytic conditions to afford 2-alkenylated azoles. An extensive mechanistic study of the alkenylation of benzothiazole using (bpy)NiBr2 highlights a single-electron transfer process for the reaction involving the two-step one-electron oxidative addition of alkenyl bromide. The substrate benzothiazole plays a significant and diverse role in the reaction, and C-H bond cleavage is reversible in nature. Detailed kinetic analysis and control reactivity studies are indicative of a Ni(I)/Ni(III) pathway for the alkenylation comprising the rate-influencing reductive elimination step.

Semirational design and engineering of grapevine glucosyltransferases for enhanced activity and modified product selectivity - Joshi, Rakesh; Trinkl, Johanna; Haugeneder, Annika; Haertl, Katja; Franz-Oberdorf, Katrin; Giri, Ashok; Hoffmann, Thomas; Schwab, Wilfried (Glycobiology, 2019)
Uridine diphosphate-dependent glycosyltransferases (UGTs) catalyze the transfer of a diversity of sugars to several acceptor molecules and often exhibit distinct substrate specificity. Modulation of glycosyltransferases for increased catalytic activity and altered substrate or product specificity are the key manipulations for the biotechnological use of glycosyltransferases in various biosynthetic processes. Here, we have engineered the binding pocket of three previously characterized Vitis vinifera glycosyltransferases, UGT88F12, UGT72B27 and UGT92G6, by structure-guided in silico mutagenesis to facilitate the interactions of active site residues with flavonol glucosides and thus modify substrate specificity and activity. Site-directed mutagenesis at selected sites, followed with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry based activity assays, exhibited that mutant UGTs were altered in product selectivity and activity as compared to the wild-type enzymes. Mutant UGTs produced larger amounts of flavonol di-monosaccharide glucosides, which imply that the mutations led to structural changes that increased the volume of the binding pocket to accommodate a larger substrate and to release larger products at ease. Mutants showed increased activity and modified product specificity. Thus, structure-based systematic mutations of the amino acid residues in the binding pocket can be explored for the generation of engineered UGTs for diverse biotechnological applications.
Keywords: flavonol; Glycosyltransferase; in silico analysis; Mutagenesis; selectivity

Size-controlled cobalt ferrite nanocrystals: magnetically separable reusable nanocatalysts for selective oxidation of styrene - Jeyavani, Vijayakrishnan; Pawar, Sayali; Dadwal, Arun; Joy, Pattayil Alias; Mukherjee, Shatabdi Porel (ChemistrySelect, 2019)
Superparamagnetic cobalt ferrite (CFO) nanocrystals (NCs) with sizes similar to 6 nm and similar to 4 nm were synthesized using a facile solvothermal method using fatty acids, lauric acid and stearic acid, as the capping agents. The synthesized nanocrystals were well characterized by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, SEM and TEM. The formation mechanism was explored and it was shown that the fatty acid was actually chemisorbed as a carboxylate onto the surface of CFO NCs. The experimental results specify that the size and size distribution of the CFO NCs were highly dependent on the length of fatty acid hydrophobic chain. Corresponding changes of the magnetic properties were investigated by measuring magnetization as a function of field and temperature, which suggest that the CFO NCs were superparamagnetic in nature. The catalytic properties for the oxidation of styrene in organic medium were examined by using the synthesized CFO NCs with sizes similar to 6 nm and similar to 4 nm. The synthesized CFO NCs, well dispersible in organic media, were demonstrated to be highly catalytically active, reached 100% conversion of styrene in 12 h with similar to 77% and similar to 82% selectivity for styrene oxide respectively. The magnetic CFO nanocatalysts were easily separated and recovered from the reaction medium by an external magnet, and reused for several cycles without losing catalytic selectivity for styrene oxide.
Keywords: Cobalt ferrite; epoxidation; Fatty acids; magnetic properties; nanocrystals

Slow motion protein dance visualized using red-edge excitation shift of a buried fluorophore - Mishra, Prajna; Jha, Santosh Kumar (Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2019)
It has been extremely challenging to detect protein structures with a dynamic core, such as dry molten globules, that remain in equilibrium with the tightly packed native (N) state and that are important for a myriad of entropy-driven protein functions. Here, we detect the higher entropy conformations of a human serum protein, using red-edge excitation shift experiments. We covalently introduced a fluorophore inside the protein core and observed that in a subset of native population, the side chains of the polar and buried residues have different spatial arrangements than the mean population and that they solvate the fluorophore on a timescale much slower than the nanosecond timescale of fluorescence. Our results provide direct evidence for the dense fluidity of protein core and show that alternate side-chain packing arrangements exist in the core that might be important for multiple binding functions of this protein.

Solvothermal growth of PbBi2Se4 nano-flowers: a material for humidity sensor and photodetector applications - Aher, Rahul; Bhorde, Ajinkya; Nair, Shruthi; Borate, Haribhau; Pandharkar, Subhash; Naik, Dhirsing; Vairale, Priti; Karpe, Smita; Late, Dattatray; Prasad, Mohit; Jadkar, Sandesh (Physica Status Solidi A-Applications and Materials Science, 2019)
In the present work, lead bismuth selenide (PbBi2Se4) nano-flowers are synthesized by using a simple solvothermal method. Humidity sensor and photodetector based on PbBi2Se4 nano-flowers are fabricated on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates and their sensing properties are investigated. Formation of PbBi2Se4 is confirmed by XRD, EDS, and XPS whereas formation of nano-flowers is confirmed by SEM and TEM analysis. XRD analysis reveals the hexagonal crystal structure of PbBi2Se4 phase with a = b = 4.22 angstrom, and c= 17.42 angstrom. The surface morphology of PbBi2Se4 clearly shows the formation of well-organized flower-like nanostructures which closely resembles the shape of Dahlia. The elemental mapping of chemical constituents obtained from SEM-EDS analysis shows uniform distribution of chemical constituents for the Pb, Bi, and Se in PbBi2Se4 nano-flowers. The PbBi2Se4 nano-flowers based humidity sensor has a typical response time of approximate to 65s and recovery time of approximate to 75 s. In case of PbBi2Se4 nano-flowers-based photodetector, the response and recovery time are observed approximate to 121 and approximate to 123 s, respectively, under visible light illumination with photoresponsivity (5 x 10(-6)), photosensitivity (2.16%), and quantum efficiency (1.5 x 10(4)). The obtained results demonstrate the potential applications of solvothermally grown PbBi2Se4 nano-flowers-based devices for humidity sensors and photodetectors. The ease of the present work is to develop novel material to obtain device quality humidity sensors and photodetectors.
Keywords: humidity sensor; PbBi2Se4; photodetector; XPS; XRD

Stealth emulsion based on natural rubber latex, core-shell ferrofluid/carbon black in the S and X bands - Vinayasree, S.; Nair, Ajalesh Balachandran; Mani, Manoj; Archana, V. N.; Joseph, Rani; Mohanan, P.; Joy, P. A.; Anantharaman, M. R. (Nanotechnology, 2019)
A lossy dielectric with an appropriate magnetic property is one of the requirements of a stealth material. The thickness of the absorber and the corresponding bandwidth of absorption are also other deciding factors that determine the choice of the material as microwave absorbers. A stable emulsion, which is lossy as well as magnetic, is promising, since it can be coated on surfaces with required thickness in the desired band. A magnetic nanofluidic emulsion serves the purpose. A microwave absorbing emulsion based on natural rubber latex with core-shell magnetic nanoparticles, based on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), was developed. The effect of additives like carbon black on the bandwidth of absorption was also studied as a function of weight percentage of carbon black. The complex dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability were evaluated using a vector network analyser in the S and X bands. Furthermore, these results were modelled using surface impedance equations. These investigations revealed that the incorporation of carbon black enhances the bandwidth of absorption and an emulsion with the required dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability can be tailored for stealth applications.
Keywords: carbon black; core-shell nanoparticles; ferrofluid; microwave absorbing paint; natural rubber latex

Studies on the use of sodium polyacrylate (SPA) for low-salt animal skin preservation - Balasubramanian, Venkatakrishnan; Velappan, Brindha; Vijayan, Sandhya Kurvilla; Jabamani, Hepzibah; Nagarajan, Vedaraman; Victor, John Sundar; Ranganath, Suresha P.; Badiger, Manohar V.; Chinnaraj, Velappan kandukalpatti; Chellappa, Muralidharan (Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2019)
Salt-based preservation is practiced for decades in the leather industry because of its versatility, cost-effectiveness, and availability. The salt removed from the soaking process causes significant pollution including organic and elevated total dissolved solids (TDS). Hence, a low-salt skin preservation method using commercial sodium polyacrylate with a reduced quantity of sodium chloride aiming to retain leather properties and pollution reduction was the principal focus of the study. Commercial sodium polyacrylate initially characterized for water absorption capacity along with structural and functional properties is confirmed by NMR and IR spectroscopic techniques. In preliminary experiments, the process parameters attained optimized conditions of sodium polyacrylate (SPA) quantity (5%), a minimal amount of salt (15%), and contact time (4 h) required for skin preservation. Besides, reusability studies after SPA recovery (95%) were applied to skins with an optimized quantity of SPA and salt subsequently stored for 15 days along with control (40% salt). The results revealed that SPA with low salt aided an adequate curing efficiency with a substantial reduction (> 65%) of TDS and comparable physical and organoleptic properties on par with the conventional method. Overall, SPA supported low-salt skin preservation reduces pollutant load (TDS) caused due to using of 40% sodium chloride in the conventional curing process.

Study of rheology and plug assist thermoforming of linear and branched pp homopolymer and impact copolymer - Marathe, D.; Shelar, S.; Mahajan, S.; Ahmad, Z.; Gupta, S.; Kulkarni, S.; Juvekar, V; Lele, A. (International Polymer Processing, 2019)
Polypropylene (PP) is one of the fastest growing thermoplastic polymers in the world, second only to polyethylene. This is primarily due to its excellent balance of physical and chemical properties at a lower cost. PP however possesses low melt strength on account of its linear structure and hence is not easily amenable to processing techniques that involve free surface stretching deformations like thermoforming, blow molding and extrusion film casting. One way to enhance the melt strength of PP is to incorporate long chain branches in its molecular architecture. The present study focuses on the impact of rheology of linear and branched PP on their thermoforming characteristics. Two grades each of linear and long chain branched (LCB) PP homopolymer and impact copolymer (ICP) were used. It was observed that the LCB-PP homopolymer and LCB-ICP showed higher flow activation energy, reduced value of loss tangent and nearly equal frequency dependence of storage and loss moduli in shear rheology. Also, a strong strain hardening behavior was displayed in extensional rheology by the LCB grades. Plug assist thermoforming experiments were carried out to assess the effect of long chain branching on surface strain and thickness distribution for axisymmetric cups of two draw ratios. Biaxial surface strain maps of the formed cups were quantified using Grid Strain Analysis (GSA). Thermoformed cups made from LCB-PP homopolymer and LCB-impact copolymer showed lower surface strain and overall higher thickness as compared to cups made from their linear counterparts, which is in accordance with what might be expected from their rheology.

Surfactant free synthesis of Au@Ni core-shell nanochains in aqueous medium as efficient transfer hydrogenation catalyst - Vysakh, A. B.; Shebin, K. J.; Jain, Ruchi; Sumanta, P.; Gopinath, Chinnakonda S.; Vinod, C. P. (Applied Catalysis A-General, 2019)
A surfactant free aqueous phase synthesis method is reported for the generation of highly lattice mismatched Au@Ni core-shell nanochains without using any expensive and hazardous organic ligands. As synthesised Au@Ni nanochain structures showed high thermal stability and bulk oxidation resistance up to 300 degrees C. In situ near ambient pressure XPS (NAPXPS) analysis has been done for the bare Au@Ni nanochain surfaces under oxygen atmosphere and at different temperatures which showed evidence for the surface oxidation resistance of naked Au@Ni nanochains up to 200 degrees C. Ligand or capping agent free Au@Ni nanochain surfaces are found to be highly active for transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone to 1-phenyl ethanol an important commodity in perfumery industry.
Keywords: Au@Ni nanochains; core-shell; NAPXPS; Surfactant free; synergistic effects; transfer hydrogenation

Synthesis, characterization, Hirshfeld surface, cytotoxicity, DNA damage and cell cycle arrest studies of N, N-diphenyl-N `-(biphenyl-4-carbonyl/4-chlorobenzoyl) thiocarbamides - Pandey, Sunil K.; Pratap, Seema; Rai, Sunil K.; Marverti, Gaetano; Kaur, Manpreet; Jasinski, Jerry P. (Journal of Molecular Structure, 2019)
The condensation reaction of biphenyl-4-carbonyl isothiocyanate/4-chlorobenzoyl isothiocyanate with diphenylamine yielded two new compounds; N-diphenyl-N'-(biphenyl-4-carbonyl) thiocarbamide (1) and N, N-diphenyl-N'-(4-chlorobenzoyl) thiocarbamide (2). Structure of the compounds were determined by analytical, spectroscopic (UV-Visible, FT-IR, H-1, & C-13 NMR), powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. Hirshfeld surface analysis and their associated two dimensional fingerprint plots of compounds were used as theoretical approach to assess driving force for crystal structure formation via the intermolecular interactions in their crystal lattices. The compounds were screened for their in vitro cytotoxicity activity against a panel of five human cancer cell lines namely; cervical (2008 and C13*) and ovarian carcinoma (A2780, A2780/CP and IGROV-1). Both the compounds exhibited promising activity against cervical and IGROV-1 cancer cells whereas for the other two cell lines appreciable activities were observed. The cell cycle arrest at G(0)/G(1) phase is supported by the DNA damage and apoptosis studies of the compounds against 2008, C13* and IGROV-1 cell lines. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: DNA damage and cell cycle arrest; Hirshfeld surface analysis; In vitro cytotoxicity; Thiocarbamide; X-ray crystal structure

Terpene profiling, transcriptome analysis and characterization of cis–terpineol synthase from Ocimum - Anand, Atul; Jayaramaiah, Ramesha H.; Beedkar, Supriya D.; Dholakia, Bhushan B.; Lavhale, Santosh G.; Punekar, Sachin A.; Gade, Wasudeo N.; Thulasiram, Hirekodathakallu V.; Giri, Ashok P. (Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, 2019)
Ocimum species produces a varied mix of different metabolites that imparts immense medicinal properties. To explore this chemo-diversity, we initially carried out metabolite profiling of different tissues of five Ocimum species and identified the major terpenes. This analysis broadly classified these five Ocimum species into two distinct chemotypes namely, phenylpropanoid-rich and terpene-rich. In particular, -caryophyllene, myrcene, limonene, camphor, borneol and selinene were major terpenes present in these Ocimum species. Subsequently, transcriptomic analysis of pooled RNA samples from different tissues of Ocimum gratissimum, O. tenuiflorum and O. kilimandscharicum identified 38 unique transcripts of terpene synthase (TPS) gene family. Full-length gene cloning, followed by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of three TPS transcripts were carried out along with their expression in various tissues. Terpenoid metabolite and expression profiling of candidate TPS genes in various tissues of Ocimum species revealed spatial variances. Further, putative TPS contig 19414 (TPS1) was selected to corroborate its role in terpene biosynthesis. Agrobacterium-mediated transient over-expression assay of TPS1 in the leaves of O. kilimandscharicum and subsequent metabolic and gene expression analyses indicated it as a cis–terpineol synthase. Overall, present study provided deeper understanding of terpene diversity in Ocimum species and might help in the enhancement of their terpene content through advanced biotechnological approaches.
Keywords: Agro-infiltration assay; Metabolite profiling; Ocimum; Terpene synthase; Terpenes; Transcriptome

Transition-metal-free glucose-derived carbonaceous catalyst catalyzes direct C-H arylation of unactivated arenes with aryl halides - Jori, Popat K.; Jadhav, Vrushali H. (ChemistrySelect, 2019)
Transition metal free coupling reactions have gained lot of importance recently. The traditional method for the synthesis of biaryl's uses organometallic reagents for the arylation reactions. There are certain drawbacks associated with such traditional methods. Use of expensive metals, metal impurities in the products formed and disposal of metal waste generated are major problems that need to be taken care of. Thus, research has been focussed on using transition metal free catalyst for cross coupling reactions to encourage green environment and it still remains a challenge for researchers. Carbonaceous catalyst have attracted great attention recently as a heterogeneous catalyst as it has a carbon skeleton that is stable, easily separable, reusable, eco-friendly and highly economical compared to other heterogeneous catalyst. Carbonaceous catalysts have been studied in variety of organic reactions such as hydrolysis, dehydration, esterification, alkylation, condensation, oxathioketalization, dimerization, benzylation and trimethylsilylation, etc. It was estimated that - stacking interactions between carbonaceous catalyst and arenes will accelerate the coupling reaction. However to the best of our knowledge, there are no reports available in literature on use of carbonaceous catalyst for direct arylation of arenes. And thus, we developed a new method for C-H arylation of unactivated arenes with aryl halides using a transition metal free D-glucose derived carbonaceous catalyst.
Keywords: Arylation; carbonaceous; glucose; metal-free

Water-assisted stability of carbene: cyclic voltammetric investigation of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate ionic liquid - Jain, Preeti; Chaudhari, Vijay R.; Kumar, Anil (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2019)
In this work, we report electrochemical studies on imidazolium-based ionic liquids with an objective to explore the possibility of carbene formation in their dilute aqueous solutions. Conventionally, water plays a detrimental role during investigations involving ionic liquids, and this role has been investigated via electrochemical studies in aqueous ionic liquid solutions. There are varying opinions regarding the influence of water on the physicochemical behaviour of ionic liquids that require an in-depth understanding. To eludicate the role of water, we attempted to evaluate the electrochemical performance of ionic liquids in water as a solvent, and the influence of water on ionic liquids was explored through feasibility and stability studies on carbene formed in an aqueous imidazolium-based ionic liquid solution. The electrochemical investigation of an aqueous solution of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate ([EMIM][EtSO4]) revealed a redox couple. Detailed investigations suggest that reduction of the imidazolium cation occurs at the C2 position, with subsequent formation of carbene. Furthermore, an anodic peak was found to be associated with the oxidation of carbene. The coulometric process associated with the anodic peaks indicated that the two-electron oxidation of carbene occurred. The stability of carbene in water was evaluated through the use of different protic and aprotic solvents. The hydrogen bond-forming ability of carbene with water seems to be responsible for its improved stability in water.

Water-promoted surface basicity in FeO(OH) for the synthesis of pseudoionones (PS) and their analogues - Vernekar, Dnyanesh; Sakate, Sachin S.; Rode, Chandrashekhar V.; Jagadeesan, Dinesh (Journal of Catalysis, 2019)
Use of Iron oxyhydroxide (gamma-FeO(OH)) as a robust catalyst for the synthesis of important intermediates like pseudoionones and their analogues through the C-C bond formation reactions like knoevenagel and aldol condensation is explored. These motifs are the building blocks for the construction of the sesquiterpenes as well as the diterpenes such as retinoic acid, Vitamin A etc. Iron oxyhydroxide (gamma-FeO(OH)) was synthesized and well characterized using XRD, FT-IR, TEM, XPS and adsorption studies to establish the catalytic activity. A thorough investigation on the nature of basic sites and the role of water as a promoter was explored based on dye adsorption, in situ methanol dissociation and CO2 adsorption studies. The catalyst also showed a wide range of substrate scope with active methylene groups involving various functional groups such as cyanides, esters and acetophenones along with its stability and reproducibility. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bronsted basicity; Iron (III) oxyhydroxide; Knoevenagel condensation; Pseudoionones; Surface hydroxyl groups

Whole proteome analysis of GA(3) response at panicle stage in Grape (Vitis vinifera) CV. Thompson seedless - Maske, Smita; Upadhyay, Anuradha; Jogaiha, Satisha; Patil, Sucheta S.; Kadoo, Narendra Y.; Gupta, Vidya S. (Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, 2019)
Rachis elongation is a crucial process in producing good quality table grapes. In compact clustered grape variety like Thompson Seedless, treating the flower panicles with a mild dose of GA(3) results in loose clusters. We sprayed GA(3) on Thompson Seedless panicles immediately after emergence, and the samples were collected at 6 h and 24 h after application. Whole proteome analysis revealed significant differential expression of 530 proteins of the total 1288 expressed proteins at two time-points. GO term enrichment analysis revealed enrichment of GO terms related to translation, biosynthetic processes, and photosynthesis in GA(3)-treated samples. As the process of rachis elongation requires enhanced carbon metabolism and accumulation of sugars through the expansion of phloem area, we attribute this to the overexpression of several proteins involved in these processes. Significantly highly expressed proteins also belonged to biological processes like the generation of precursor metabolites, cellular protein metabolic processes, response to abiotic stimulus, and protein metabolic processes. This study might be the first of its kind in deciphering the contribution of a different group of proteins during rachis elongation as an early response to GA(3) application in seedless grapes. These results provide quality information on various physiological and biochemical changes occurring during early stages of rachis elongation.
Keywords: Bunch architecture; Gibberellic acid; Proteome; Rachis elongation; Vitis vinifera