Evaluating the potential of engineered Trichoderma atroviride and its laccase-mediated system for the efficient bioconversion of 5-hydroxymethylfufural.

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is a fermentation inhibitor which is formed during acid-based thermochemical pre-treatment of biomass. The present study involves two approaches for HMF conversion; the first includes screening and identification of fungal strains which produce oxidoreductases for HMF bioconversion, and thereafter evaluating their roles in HMF conversion. Out of the ten fungal strains screened, genetically engineered Trichoderma atroviride (Lac) showed maximum HMF bioconversion and the activities of ligninolytic enzymes produced were noted.

Coimmobilized enzymes as versatile biocatalytic tools for biomass valorization and remediation of environmental contaminants - A review.

Due to stringent regulatory norms, waste processing faces confrontations and challenges in adapting technology for effective management through a convenient and economical system. At the global level, attempts are underway to achieve a green and sustainable treatment for the valorization of lignocellulosic biomass as well as organic contaminants in wastewater. Enzymatic treatment in the environmental aspect thrived on being the promising rapid strategy that appeased the aforementioned predicament.

Laccase-Driven Transformation of High Priority Pesticides Without Redox Mediators: Towards Bioremediation of Contaminated Wastewaters.

In this study, was grown on municipal biosolids (BS) as the substrate to produce laccase for the removal of pesticides (fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides) from wastewater. Among the various types of BS tested, sterilized biosolids were the most promising substrate for laccase production by with a maximal laccase activity (162.1 ± 21.

Effect of alkaline treatment on the removal of contaminants of emerging concern from municipal biosolids: Modelling and optimization of process parameters using RSM and ANN coupled GA.

The current study aimed in enhancing the efficiency of alkaline treatment for CECs remediation in biosolids through the application of RSM and ANN. Due to the seasonal variation of CECs in biosolids, a complete CECs profile over a period of three years were performed. Out of 64 targeted CECs, 13 PhACs (70.

Preparation of highly diffusible porous cross-linked lipase B from Candida antarctica conjugates: Advances in mass transfer and application in transesterification of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural.

The present work pronounces the three phase partitioning (TPP)-facilitated preparation of porous cross-linked Candida antarctica lipase B (CaLB) aggregates (pCLEAs) for 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) esters synthesis. CLEAs and pCLEAs of CaLB were prepared with eupergit as the support under the optimized conditions of pH 8.0, eupergit/protein ratio of 3.

Performance evaluation of biocatalytic and biostimulation approaches for the remediation of trace organic contaminants in municipal biosolids.

Trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) in biosolids is creating potential threats for reuse of biosolids. Out of the tested 64 trace organic contaminants, seven pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs), and three pesticides were detected in biosolids from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. This study encompasses the removal of TrOCs and improvement in the aerobic digestion of biosolids by various pretreatments including utilization of indigenous microbes present in biosolids (T1), the effect of an enzymatic pretreatment (T2), biostimulation by the addition of an external carbon source (T3) and the synergic effect of biostimulation and enzymatic pretreatment (T4).

Utilization of biosolids for glucose oxidase production: A potential bio-fenton reagent for advanced oxidation process for removal of pharmaceutically active compounds.

The current work focuses on the production of glucose oxidase (GOD) in sterilized biosolid (BS) slurries containing BS and municipal wastewater effluent. Various parameters were optimized for maximizing the GOD production and the effects of biostimulation on GOD production was investigated by adding synthetic media components. The studies on inoculum characteristics at an inoculum age of 72 h and inoculum size of 20% (w/v) produced high GOD activities of around 6012 U/L in 25% (dw/v) BS media.

Magnetoelectric Coupling by Piezoelectric Tensor Design.

Strain-coupled magnetoelectric (ME) phenomena in piezoelectric/ferromagnetic thin-film bilayers are a promising paradigm for sensors and information storage devices, where strain manipulates the magnetization of the ferromagnetic film. In-plane magnetization rotation with an electric field across the film thickness has been challenging due to the large reduction of in-plane piezoelectric strain by substrate clamping, and in two-terminal devices, the requirement of anisotropic in-plane strain. Here we show that these limitations can be overcome by designing the piezoelectric strain tensor using the boundary interaction between biased and unbiased piezoelectric.

Review on nanoadsorbents: a solution for heavy metal removal from wastewater.

Elimination of heavy metals from contaminated streams is of prime concern due to their ability to cause toxic chaos with the metabolism of flora and fauna alike. Use of advanced nano-engineered technologies such as the innovative combination of surface chemistry, chemical engineering fundamentals and nanotechnology opens up particularly attractive horizons towards treatment of heavy metal contaminated water resources. The obtained product of surface engineered nanoadsorbent produced has successfully proven to show rapid adsorption rate and superior sorption efficiency towards the removal of a wide range of defiant heavy metal contaminants in wastewater.

Giant piezoelectricity on Si for hyperactive MEMS.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) incorporating active piezoelectric layers offer integrated actuation, sensing, and transduction. The broad implementation of such active MEMS has long been constrained by the inability to integrate materials with giant piezoelectric response, such as Pb(Mg(1/3)Nb(2/3))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PMN-PT). We synthesized high-quality PMN-PT epitaxial thin films on vicinal (001) Si wafers with the use of an epitaxial (001) SrTiO(3) template layer with superior piezoelectric coefficients (e(31,f) = -27 ± 3 coulombs per square meter) and figures of merit for piezoelectric energy-harvesting systems.

Charge-based scanning probe readback of nanometer-scale ferroelectric domain patterns at megahertz rates.

We present a method for data storage in continuous ferroelectric (FE) media, applicable to storage systems based on one or more scanning probes. Written FE domains are read back in a destructive fashion by applying a constant voltage of magnitude greater than the coercive voltage, as is done in FE random access memory (FeRAM). The resulting flow of screening charges through the readback amplifier provides sufficient signal to allow readback of domains of minimum dimension of the order of 10 nm at MHz rates, orders of magnitude faster than previously demonstrated techniques for readback of domains in continuous FE media.

Strain-induced polarization rotation in epitaxial (001) BiFeO3 thin films.

Direct measurement of the remanent polarization of high quality (001)-oriented epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films shows a strong strain dependence, even larger than conventional (001)-oriented PbTiO3 films. Thermodynamic analysis reveals that a strain-induced polarization rotation mechanism is responsible for the large change in the out-of-plane polarization of (001) BiFeO3 with biaxial strain while the spontaneous polarization itself remains almost constant.

Imaging the phase separation in atomically thin buried SrTiO(3) layers by electron channeling.

A phase-separation instability, resulting in the dewetting of thin SrTiO(3) films grown on Si(100) is shown by scanning transmission electron microscopy. Plan-view imaging of 1-nm thick, buried SrTiO(3) films was achieved by exploiting electron channeling through the substrate to focus the incident 0.2 nm beam down to a 0.

Epitaxial integration of the highly spin-polarized ferromagnetic semiconductor EuO with silicon and GaN.

Doped EuO is an attractive material for the fabrication of proof-of-concept spintronic devices. Yet for decades its use has been hindered by its instability in air and the difficulty of preparing and patterning high-quality thin films. Here, we establish EuO as the pre-eminent material for the direct integration of a carrier-concentration-matched half-metal with the long-spin-lifetime semiconductors silicon and GaN, using methods that transcend these difficulties.

Probing nanoscale ferroelectricity by ultraviolet Raman spectroscopy.

We demonstrated that ultraviolet Raman spectroscopy is an effective technique to measure the transition temperature (Tc) in ferroelectric ultrathin films and superlattices. We showed that one-unit-cell-thick BaTiO3 layers in BaTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices are not only ferroelectric (with Tc as high as 250 kelvin) but also polarize the quantum paraelectric SrTiO3 layers adjacent to them. Tc was tuned by approximately 500 kelvin by varying the thicknesses of the BaTiO3 and SrTiO3 layers, revealing the essential roles of electrical and mechanical boundary conditions for nanoscale ferroelectricity.

Enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature of MgB2 by a strain-induced bond-stretching mode softening.

We report a systematic increase of the superconducting transition temperature T(c) with a biaxial tensile strain in MgB2 films to well beyond the bulk value. The tensile strain increases with the MgB2 film thickness, caused primarily by the coalescence of initially nucleated discrete islands (the Volmer-Weber growth mode.) The T(c) increase was observed in epitaxial films on SiC and sapphire substrates, although the T(c) values were different for the two substrates due to different lattice parameters and thermal expansion coefficients.

Epitaxial BiFeO3 multiferroic thin film heterostructures.

Enhancement of polarization and related properties in heteroepitaxially constrained thin films of the ferroelectromagnet, BiFeO3, is reported. Structure analysis indicates that the crystal structure of film is monoclinic in contrast to bulk, which is rhombohedral. The films display a room-temperature spontaneous polarization (50 to 60 microcoulombs per square centimeter) almost an order of magnitude higher than that of the bulk (6.

Multiscale modeling of precipitate microstructure evolution.

We demonstrate how three "state-of-the-art" techniques may be combined to build a bridge between atomistics and microstructure: (1) first-principles calculations, (2) a mixed-space cluster expansion approach, and (3) the diffuse-interface phase-field model. The first two methods are used to construct the driving forces for a phase-field microstructural model of theta'- Al2Cu precipitates in Al: bulk, interfacial, and elastic energies. This multiscale approach allows one to isolate the physical effects responsible for precipitate microstructure evolution.