Publications

ABSTRACT In this work, a novel modified polyethersulfone (PES) membrane was made by blending PES with organic biomolecules which were N 1 , N 4 ‐bis(4‐sulfamoylphenyl)terephthalamide (SF), and N 1 , N 4 ‐bis[4‐( N ‐(5‐methylisoxazol‐3‐yl)sulfamoyl)phenyl]terephthalamide (SZ) to afford PES‐SF and PES‐SZ membranes. Antifouling properties of these modified membranes were examined against different types of bacteria and a fungus as well as by measuring the contact angle. The results showed the addition of these organic additives to PES membranes did not improve the hydrophilicity and exhibit any microbial activity. Thus, Cu 2 O nanoparticles were used with different concentrations to afford PES‐SF‐Cu 2 O and PES‐SZ‐Cu 2 O nanocomposites membranes. The results showed when Cu 2 O nanoparticles (3 wt %) was added to PES‐SF 3 and PES‐SZ 3 membranes, both membranes showed the best hydrophilicity with 67° for PES‐SF 3 ‐Cu 2 O membrane and 77° for PES‐SZ 3 ‐Cu 2 O membranes. PES‐SF 3 ‐Cu 2 O and PES‐SZ 3 ‐Cu 2 O membranes showed antibacterial against Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Escherichia coli , and Staphylococcus aureus . To evaluate the anticoagulant activity of the PES‐SF and PES‐SZ membranes, the clotting times using the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) were measured. The results showed PT level was prolonged for the pure PES membrane with 13 s and for PES‐SF 1 membrane with 12.4 s while the PES‐SZ 1 membrane showed no difference from the control (pure plasma). Contrary to the PT factor, APTT level of the PES‐SF membrane showed the longest time with 43 s. The results of APPT and PT seemed somewhat satisfactory for the PES‐SF while the PES‐SZ membrane did not show any difference from the control sample. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136 , 47686.

Abstract Eine einfache Gold‐katalysierte Methode für die Synthese von substituierten und modifizierbaren Azulenen wurde entwickelt. Die Azulene werden entweder über die Dimerisierung von Push‐Pull‐Diarylalkinen mit Fluor‐Substituenten in ortho ‐ oder para ‐Position, oder über die Dimerisierung eines symmetrischen elektronenreichen Diarylalkins gebildet. In Anwesenheit eines kationischen Gold‐Katalysators bilden die zwei Alkine ein hoch reaktives Vinyl‐Kation. Diese energiereiche Zwischenstufe wird durch eine passende Aryl‐Einheit abgefangen, sodass liefert in einem einzigen, perfekt atomökonomischen Schritt substituierte Azulene erhalten werden.

The natural fiber reinforced polymeric composites have found to be an excellent substitute for synthetic fiber based polymeric composites and are being widely utilized in several advanced engineering applications. The present experimental work deals with randomly oriented Indian mallow fiber/polyester (IMFP) composites which are fabricated by compression moulding method by varying the fiber wt. % from 10 to 50%. The prepared IMFP specimens were evaluated through various mechanical and thermal properties and the results showed that better properties were obtained in specimens with 50 wt. % fiber content. The optimum tensile strength and modulus was about 46 MPa and 3.56 GPa respectively, while the elongation at break was 1.39%. The optimum flexural and impact strength are estimated to be around 111 MPa and 14 kJ/m2 respectively. The heat deflection test (HDT) displayed that temperature withstands up to 84 °C at 50 wt. % of fiber content. The surface morphologies of the fractured composite specimens were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The overall results confirmed the suitability of the present specimens to be employed in various light weight applications.

Antibiotics are extensively used in health sectors, animal husbandry, and agriculture, which raises serious concerns nowadays due to their presence in surface water, groundwater, soil, sediment, and plants. Antibiotics in water can cause the accumulation and spread of antibiotic-resistant genes that have a serious impact on the environment. Moreover, due to the refractory and persistent nature of antibiotics, conventional wastewater treatment technologies including physio-chemical and biological treatments are inefficient for antibiotic wastewater treatment. In recent times, Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Processes (EAOPs) have been reported to be effective in the treatment of antibiotic-contaminated wastewater. These specialized techniques produce very reactive and oxidizing intermediate •OH radicals which readily degrade the antibiotics. In this article three most important EAOPs, Electro Oxidation (EO), Photo Electro Catalytic Oxidation (PEC), and Electro Fenton ( EF ) are reviewed along with their classification, performance in different antibiotics, influencing factors e.g., anode-cathode materials, pH, current density, initial concentration, temperature, and supporting electrolytes. These processes offer eco-friendly, sustainable, cost-effective methods for treating antibiotics. Moreover, the feasibility of EAOPs in industrial wastewater treatment has not been properly established due to toxic intermediates, high cost, incapable to handle a large volume of wastewater, its performance only at ideal conditions, degrade only a few antibiotics, and mass transfer limitations. Consequently, combining membrane separation and conventional biological treatments as pre- or post-treatments of EAOPs can effectively address toxicity reduction and the handling of large volumes of wastewater. In addition, the energy consumption in a single EO process is higher than the combined processes. To constructively write this review, data have been collected from renowned publishers e.g., ScienceDirect, Springer, Willey, American Chemical Society Publications, etc. The possibilities, challenges, and future outlooks for the scale-up and commercialization of existing lab-based EAOPs have been discussed for the sustainable use of EAOPs in treating toxic and bio-persistent antibiotic compounds from wastewater. Furthermore, the research gaps mentioned in this paper can encourage future researchers to utilize the merits of EAOPs and combined processes for achieving high degradation efficiency of antibiotics at low cost and establishing it commercially. • Boron Doped Diamond electrode was highly efficient however it is expensive. • Most EAOPs follow pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics. • Real wastewater treatment was more challenging than synthetic ones with EAOPs. • Coupling EAOPs with other methods could eliminate EAOPs limitations.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) show great potential as CO2 adsorbent materials, but require improvements in stability and CO2 adsorption capacity for commercial applications. In the current study, graphene oxide provides a light-weight, charge-complementary, two-dimensional (2D) material that interacts effectively with the 2D LDHs, in turn enhancing the CO2 uptake capacity and multicycle stability of the assembly. As a result, the absolute capacity of the LDH was increased by 62% using only 7 wt % graphene oxide (GO) as a support. The experimental procedure for the synthesis of the materials is based on a direct precipitation of the LDH nanoparticles onto GO followed by a structural and physical characterization by electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurements. Detailed titration confirmed the compatibility of the surface chemistry. After thermal decomposition, mixed metal oxides (MMOs) are obtained with the basic sites required for the CO2 adsorption. A range of samples with different proportions of GO/MMO were prepared, fully characterized, and correlated with the CO2 sorption capacity, established via TGA.

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.