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Biobeds are an important tool to check point source of pesticide contamination and treat on-farm generated pesticide waste. The present study reports retention and degradation of azoxystrobin and i...

The paper reports the kinetics and adsorption isotherm modeling for imidacloprid (IMIDA) and azoxystrobin (AZOXY) in rice straw (RS)/corn cob (CC) and peat (P)/compost (C) based biomixtures. The pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-second-order (PSO), Elovich and intraparticle diffusion models were used to describe the kinetics. The adsorption data were subjected to the Langmuir and the Freundlich isotherms. Results (r2Adj values) suggested that the modified Elovich model was the best suited to explain the kinetics of IMIDA sorption while different models explained AZOXY sorption kinetics in different biomixtures (PFO in RS + C and RS + P; PSO in CC + P and Elovich in CC + C). Biomixtures varied in their capacity to adsorb both pesticides and the adsorption coefficient (Kd) values were 116.8-369.24 (AZOXY) and 24.2-293.4 (IMIDA). The Freundlich isotherm better explained the sorption of both pesticides. Comparison analysis of linear and nonlinear method for estimating the Freundlich adsorption constants was made. In general, r2Adj values were higher for the nonlinear fit (AZOXY = 0.938-0.982; IMIDA = 0.91-0.970) than the linear fit (AZOXY = 0.886-0.993; IMIDA = 0.870-0.974) suggesting that the nonlinear Freundlich equation better explained the sorption. The rice straw-based biomixtures performed better in adsorbing both the pesticides and can be used in bio-purification systems.

The influence of baking temperature (120–150°C) and time (80–120 min) on selected physico-chemical and textural characteristics of chhana podo were investigated, and the baking conditions were optimized using response surface methodology. Crust and crumb moisture contents, total color difference, hardness, and specific volume were used as quality indices. The face-centered central composite design was used to study the effects of independent factors on the quality attributes. Moisture content decreased with baking temperature and time, while total color difference, hardness, and specific volume increased. The second-order polynomial models predicted the experimental responses adequately (% p

Sixteen amphiphilic polymers were synthesized using poly(ethylene glycols) (PEGs) of different molecular weights, viz. 1000, 1500, 2000 and 4000 as hydrophilic block and linkers namely azelaic acid, suberic acid, terephthalic acid and glycolic acid as hydrophobic block in the presence of catalyst conc. H2SO4 out of which four with glycolic acid as linker are new. Synthesized polymers were characterized by using 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and IR spectroscopy. Micellar sizes of the polymers were determined using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) technique which ranged from 32.1–262.0 nm and confirmed by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) analysis. Molecular weights were determined using HORIBA SZ-100 scientific and varied from 6.5 × 102 to 6.5 × 103 Kilo Daltons(kDa) by Debye plot. Critical Micelle Concentrations (CMC) of the synthesized polymers was determined using electrical conductivity meter and it ranged from 105 to 125 milligrams per litre (mg L−1).