Remediation of textile effluents for water reuse: Decolorization and desalination using Escherichia fergusonii followed by detoxification with activated charcoal.

Textile effluents contain high levels of pollutants of different categories like dyes, metal salts, acids, bases and microorganisms. Remediation of textile effluents is often challenging because of its composition, which also varies between dyeing units. In this study, we demonstrate the novel use of a waste-water bacterium, Escherichia fergusonii, in the effective remediation of textile effluents.

Electrochemical evidence for asialoglycoprotein receptor--mediated hepatocyte adhesion and proliferation in three dimensional tissue engineering scaffolds.

Asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR) is one of the recognition motifs on the surface of hepatocytes, which promote their adhesion to extracellular matrix in liver tissue and appropriate artificial surfaces. ASGPR-mediated adhesion is expected to minimize trans-differentiation of hepatocytes in vitro that is generally observed in integrin-mediated adhesion. The aim of the present study is to verify the role of ASGPR in hepatocyte adhesion and proliferation in scaffolds for hepatic tissue engineering.

Real-time mapping of salt glands on the leaf surface of Cynodon dactylon L. using scanning electrochemical microscopy.

Salt glands are specialized organelles present in the leaf tissues of halophytes, which impart salt-tolerance capability to the plant species. These glands are usually identified only by their morphology using conventional staining procedures coupled with optical microscopy. In this work, we have employed scanning electrochemical microscopy to identify the salt glands not only by their morphology but also by their salt excretion behavior.

Bio-inspired morphological evolution of zinc oxide nanostructures on a tunable enzyme platform.

Diamine oxidase is a copper-containing enzyme with interesting structural dynamics sensitive to environmental conditions. The present work explores the applicability of the system as a tunable platform for the shape and size selective synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles under ambient conditions. Significant changes in the nanoscale morphology of ZnO have been observed, using scanning electron microscopy, with respect to changes in pH and gas atmosphere of the medium.

Nanotube-grafted polyacrylamide hydrogels for electrophoretic protein separation.

Multiwalled carbon nanotube-modified polyacrylamide gels have been employed for the electrophoretic separation of proteins. Two approaches are compared in this investigation, one using nanotubes only as fillers inside the gel matrix and the other using nanotubes as catalyst for polymerization of acrylamide. In both the cases, polymerization of acryl-amide/bisacrylamide has been carried out in situ in the presence of nanotubes dispersed in the gel buffer containing monomer and cross-linker.

Aqua-chloridobis(diphenyl-glyoximato-κN,N')cobalt(III) dihydrate.

The asymmetric unit of the title complex, [Co(C(14)H(11)N(2)O(2))(2)Cl(H(2)O)]·2H(2)O or [Co(dpgH)(2)Cl(H(2)O)]·2H(2)O, where dpgH(-) is diphenyl glyoximate, consists of one-half of a [Co(dpgH)(2)Cl(H(2)O)] complex and one solvent water mol-ecule. The complex is completed through inversion symmetry, with the Co(III) atom situated at the centre of symmetry. The coordination geometry around the Co(III) atom is distorted octa-hedral with the four N atoms of the two dpgH(-) ligands forming an approximate square plane with N-Co-N bite angles of 81.

Aqua-bromidobis(dimethyl-glyoximato)cobalt(III).

In the title complex, [CoBr(C(4)H(7)N(2)O(2))(2)(H(2)O)], a crystallo-graphic mirror plane bis-ects the mol-ecule, perpendicular to the glyoximate ligands. The geometry around the cobalt(III) atom is approximately octa-hedral with the four glyoximate N atoms forming the square base. A bromide ion and the O atom of a water mol-ecule occupy the remaining coordination sites.

Carbon nanotube-modified sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for molecular weight determination of proteins.

The effect of incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the gel matrix on the electrophoretic mobility of proteins based on their molecular weight differences was investigated using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). More specifically, a reduction in standard deviation in the molecular weight calibration plots by 55% in the case of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and by 34% in the case of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) compared with that of pristine polyacrylamide gels was achieved after incorporating an insignificant amount of functionalized CNTs into the gel matrix. A mechanism based on a more uniform pore size distribution in CNT modified polyacrylamide gel matrix is proposed.

Domain size manipulation of perflouorinated polymer electrolytes by sulfonic acid-functionalized MWCNTs to enhance fuel cell performance.

The application of sulfonic acid-functionalized multiwalled (s-MWNT) carbon nanotubes to manipulate the hydrophilic domain size of Nafion membranes is explored here as an option for tuning the proton conductivity of polymer electrolyte membranes for hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells. The electrochemical impedance experiments provide preliminary evidence of increased proton conductivity, while small-angle X-ray scattering measurements line out enhanced ionic cluster domain size in these composite membranes as the central reason for higher conductivity (70 A for the optimum composite membrane vs 50 A for Nafion 115) values. Scanning electrochemical microscopy indicates synergistic interaction between the sulfonic acid functional groups present in the Nafion membrane and those on the nanotube surface.

Imaging the stomatal physiology of somatic embryo-derived peanut leaves by scanning electrochemical microscopy.

The stomatal physiology, chlorophyll distribution and photosynthetic activity of somatic embryo (SE)- and seedling-derived peanut plants grown in vitro (test tube-grown) and extra vitrum (soil-grown) are investigated using scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). This SECM imaging is performed in two different feedback modes, corresponding to oxygen evolution and chlorophyll distribution. More specifically, the oxygen evolution profiles of the in vitro leaves indicate important differences in leaf anatomy between the SE- and seedling-derived leaves.

'All-solid-state' electrochemistry of a protein-confined polymer electrolyte film.

Interfacial redox behavior of a heme protein (hemoglobin) confined in a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, Nafion (a perfluoro sulfonic acid ionomer) is investigated using a unique 'all-solid-state' electrochemical methodology. The supple phase-separated structure of the polymer electrolyte membrane, with hydrophilic pools containing solvated protons and water molecules, is found to preserve the incorporated protein in its active form even in the solid-state, using UV-visible, Fluorescence (of Tryptophan and Tyrosine residues) and DRIFT (diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform) spectroscopy. More specifically, solid-state cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance of the protein-incorporated polymer films reveal that the Fe2+-form of the entrapped protein is found to bind molecular oxygen more strongly than the native protein.