Search

The interaction of metal oxide nanoparticles with plants has not been extensively studied. An attempt has been made to examine the potential variation in peanut plant leaves due to the application of Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticle by pre-sowing technique and to compare with its bulk counterpart. Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticle was synthesized by chemical route and characterized using X-ray diffraction, atomic force and scanning electron microscopy. The Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticle and its bulk counterpart are applied to the peanut seeds by pre-soaking method at two different concentrations: 500 and 4000 ppm. A total of three replicates were chosen for each morphological and physiological measurement (at an average of three plants per replica). The Fourier transform infrared spectral analysis shows the most prominent peaks at 2923 and 1636 cm −1 , and other peaks vary due to Fe 2 O 3 stress, which was confirmed by the calculated mean ratio of the peak intensities for various frequency regions. All leaf samples show considerable increase in glycoprotein, with 500 ppm bulk and 4000 ppm nano-Fe 2 O 3 samples exhibiting a maximum increase of 73.86% and 71.45%, respectively. The total amide I and II protein content of leaf sample soaked in 500 ppm bulk Fe 2 O 3 suspension decreased to a greater extent compared with other leaf samples. The leaf samples soaked in 500 ppm concentration of both bulk and nano-Fe 2 O 3 suspension exhibited lower lipid content with total band area of 76.97 ± 0.832 and 76.31 ± 0.468, respectively. The cumulative percentage of explained variance in secondary structure of protein of all leaf samples is 83.888% in which factor 1 accounts for 51.870% and factor 2 accounts for 32.018% of the total data variance. The principal component (PC) loadings plot for the spectral range 1600–1700 cm −1 clearly shows that the PC1 factor might establish the maximum variation of the secondary structure of protein in leaf samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article a series of epoxy nanocomposites film were developed using amine functionalized (ZnO-APTES) core shell nanoparticles as the dispersed phase and a commercially available epoxy resin as the matrix phase. The functional group of the samples was characterized using FT-IR spectra. The most prominent peaks of epoxy resin were found in bare epoxy and in all the functionalized ZnO dispersed epoxy nanocomposites (ZnO-APTES-DGEBA). The XRD analysis of all the samples exhibits considerable shift in 2θ, intensity and d-spacing values but the best and optimum concentration is found to be 3% ZnO-APTES core shell nanoparticles loaded epoxy nanocomposites supported by FT-IR results. From TGA measurements, 100 wt% residue is obtained in bare ZnO nanoparticles whereas in ZnO core shell nanoparticles grafted DGEBA residue percentages are 37, 41, 45, 46 and 52% for 0, 1, 3, 5 and 7% ZnO-APTES-DGEBA respectively, which is confirmed with ICP-OES analysis. From antimicrobial activity test, it was notable that antimicrobial activity of 7% ZnO-APTES core shell nanoparticles loaded epoxy nanocomposite film has best inhibition zone effect against all pathogens under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present investigation we report the synthesis of a series of transparent glasses of composition 20Li 2 O 20PbO 45B 2 O 3 (15− x ) P 2 O 5 : x V 2 O 5 with eight values of x ranging from 0 to 2.5 mol%, and their characterization. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra reflected the amorphous nature of the glasses. Optical absorption, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra and FTIR study of vanadyl ions in the present glass network have been analyzed. The optical absorption and EPR investigations have revealed that vanadium ions do exist in both V 4+ and V 5+ states and the redox ratio (V 4+ /V 5+ ) is observed to increase with the increase in concentration of V 2 O 5 . Dielectric properties viz., dielectric constant ε ′( ω ), loss tan δ , electrical moduli M ′( ω ), M ″( ω ), a.c. conductivity σ ac over an extensive scale of frequency and temperature have been investigated as a function of V 2 O 5 concentration. The dispersion of dielectric constant ε ′( ω ) with temperature has been interpreted by space charge polarization model. The dielectric loss and electrical moduli variation with frequency and temperature exhibited relaxation effects. These effects are ascribed to V 4+ ions. The a.c. conductivity of the prepared glasses is perceived to escalate with the hike in V 2 O 5 concentration whereas the activation energy for conduction exhibits a reverse trend. The conductivity mechanism is explained on the basis of polaronic transfer between V 4+ and V 5+ ions. The low temperature a.c. conductivity mechanism is elucidated by the quantum mechanical tunneling model. The growth in the values of dielectric parameters with raise in the concentration of V 2 O 5 is due to V 4+ ions which act as modifiers. The investigation of these results has indicated that at higher concentrations of V 2 O 5 , the VO 2+ ions in the glasses were present in octahedral sites with tetragonal compression and belong to C 4v symmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]