Self-Assembled Extended π-Systems for Sensing and Security Applications.

Molecules and materials derived from self-assembled extended π-systems have strong and reversible optical properties, which can be modulated with external stimuli such as temperature, mechanical stress, ions, the polarity of the medium, and so on. In many cases, absorption and emission responses of self-assembled supramolecular π-systems are manifested several times higher when compared with the individual molecular building blocks. These properties of molecular assemblies encourage scientists to have a deeper understanding of their design to explore them for suitable optoelectronic applications.

Lignocellulosic bio-refinery approach for microbial 2,3-Butanediol production.

Bio-refinery approach using agricultural and industrial waste material as feedstock is becoming a preferred area of interest in biotechnology in the current decades. The reasons for this trend are mainly because of the declining petroleum resources, greenhouse gas emission risks and fluctuating market price of crude oil. Most chemicals synthesized petro chemically, can be produced using microbial biocatalysts.

Pretreatment strategies for enhanced biogas production from lignocellulosic biomass.

The inclusion of a pretreatment step in anaerobic digestion processes increases the digestibility of lignocellulosic biomass and enhances biogas yields by promoting lignin removal and the destruction of complex biomass structures. The increase in surface area enables the efficient interaction of microbes or enzymes, and a reduction in cellulose crystallinity improves the digestion process under anaerobic conditions. The pretreatment methods may vary based on the type of the lignocellulosic biomass, the nature of the subsequent process and the overall economics of the process.

Controlling the Supramolecular Polymerization of Donor-Acceptor π-Systems through Hydrogen Bond Intervention.

Supramolecular polymerization of donor-acceptor type molecules leads to mixed or self-sorted assemblies depending on the donor-acceptor strength and extent of noncovalent interactions between the components. Herein, we discuss how competing hydrogen bonding motifs control the supramolecular polymerization pathway of a two-component molecular π-system of oligo(p-phenylenevinylene) (OPV-B and OPV-P) donors and perylene bisimide (PBI-B and PBI-A) acceptors. It is shown that among the four different binary combinations (M1-M4) studied, the carboxylic acid/pyridine heterosystem (1 : 2 molar ratio) in M4 favors the coassembled donor-acceptor stacks with a distinct morphology, whose aggregation pathways in toluene/THF (v/v : 9/1) is different from that of the individual components.

In vitro evaluation of antidiabetic potential of hesperidin and its aglycone hesperetin under oxidative stress in skeletal muscle cell line.

The present study investigates the in vitro antidiabetic and antioxidant potential of hesperidin and hesperetin under oxidative stress induced in L6 myotubes. Also, the study attempts to reveal the effect of glycosylation (hesperetin) on the biological activities of hesperidin. Oxidative stress is the leading cause of complications associated with diabetes.

Bioengineering advancements, innovations and challenges on green synthesis of 2, 5-furan dicarboxylic acid.

The major drawback of chemical transformations for the production of 2, 5-furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) implies the usage of hazardous chemicals, high temperature and high pressure from nonrenewable resources. Alternate to chemical methods, biological methods are promising. Microbial FDCA production is improved through engineering approaches of media conditions, homologous and heterologous expression of genes, genetic and metabolic engineering, etc.

Supramolecular Surface Charge Regulation in Ionic Covalent Organic Nanosheets: Reversible Exfoliation and Controlled Bacterial Growth.

Poor control on the exfoliation of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) remains a disadvantage for their application as two-dimensional nanosheets. An equally important problem is the reversible control at the available surface charges on COFs. Herein, a strategy for the reversible exfoliation, re-stacking, and surface-charge control of a propidium iodide based ionic covalent organic framework, PI-TFP, using cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) induced molecular recognition, is reported.

Lipase of Pseudomonas guariconesis as an additive in laundry detergents and transesterification biocatalysts.

A newly isolated culture, Pseudomonas guariconesis, is reported for the first time for lipase production. Various process parameters affecting enzyme production were optimized through statistical design experiments. The Plackett-Burman experimental design was used for screening 10 parameters for lipase production, which was further optimized using the central composite design of response surface methodology.

Tailoring of microbes for the production of high value plant-derived compounds: From pathway engineering to fermentative production.

Plant natural products have been an attracting platform for the isolation of various active drugs and other bioactives. However large-scale extraction of these compounds is affected by the difficulty in mass cultivation of these plants and absence of strategies for successful extraction. Even though, synthesis by chemical method is an alternative method; it is less efficient as their chemical structure is highly complex which involve enantio-selectivity.

Computational prediction of promising pyrazine and bipyridine analogues of a fluorinated MOF platform, MFN-Ni-L (M = SI/AL; N = SIX/FIVE; L = pyr/bipyr), for CO capture under pre-humidified conditions.

The CO2 separation performance has been explored under dry and pre-humidified conditions for the fluorinated metal organic frameworks SIFSIX-Ni-pyr, ALFFIVE-Ni-pyr, SIFSIX-Ni-bipyr and ALFFIVE-Ni-bipyr, which are incorporated with/without a coordinatively unsaturated site (CUS), Al, and organic linkers 1,4-pyrazine and 4,4'-bipyridine. The ultra-small pore size (∼4 Å) of the pyrazine analogues of fluorinated-MOFs, i.e.

Genomics of Lactic Acid Bacteria for Glycerol Dissimilation.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are functional starter cultures in food and dairy industry and are also regarded as power houses for bioprocess and fermentation technology. Due to extensive applications in food and medical applications, intensive research and developmental activities are going on throughout the world to understand the genomic and metabolic aspects during the past few decades. These LAB strains have significant role in production of value added chemicals and fuels from lignocellulosic biomass and other by-product streams establishing a circular bioeconomy.

Bimodal detection of carbon dioxide using fluorescent molecular aggregates.

Cyano-substituted p-phenylenevinylene (R-1) aggregates exhibiting fluorescence and Raman spectroscopic responses towards CO2 are described. The aggregation-induced emission (AIE) as well as the aggregation-enhanced Raman scattering (AERS) of R-1 in aqueous conditions was reduced in the presence of a small amount of CO2, which enabled its easy and fast bimodal detection in different analytical samples.

Techno-economic analysis of microalgae-based liquid fuels production from wastewater via hydrothermal liquefaction and hydroprocessing.

In this work, a conceptual process design of wastewater-based algal biofuels production through hydrothermal liquefaction and hydroprocessing is proposed. Then a steady-state process simulation is performed to calculate the mass and energy analysis of the whole process for the production of hydrocarbons such as diesel, jet, gasoline, and H. A discounted cash flow analysis is used to calculate a minimum selling price (MSP) of the hydrocarbon fuels.

Tandem α-Arylation/Cyclization of 4-Haloacetoacetates with Arynes: A Metal-Free Approach toward 4-Aryl-3-(2 H)-furanones.

An efficacious, metal-free strategy has been developed for the synthesis of 4-aryl-3-(2 H)-furanones. The reaction proceeds via the nucleophilic addition of an active methylene compound to the aryne followed by ring closing of the adduct. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions, is applicable for gram-scale synthesis of 4-aryl-3-(2 H)-furanones, and is general for a range of substituted arynes and haloacetates.

Supramolecular Gel Phase Controlled [4 + 2] Diels-Alder Photocycloaddition for Electroplex Mediated White Electroluminescence.

Diels-Alder photocycloaddition of 9-phenylethynylanthracene results in multiple [4 + 2] and [4 + 4] cycloaddition products in solution, which can be controlled to form specific products under a restricted environment. We have exploited the gel phase of a 9-phenylethynylanthracence derivative as a confined medium to specifically yield the [4 + 2] cycloadduct in >90% yield. The photocycloadduct ( anti-form) exhibited a blue emission with CIE chromaticity of x = 0.

Conversion of food and kitchen waste to value-added products.

Food and kitchen waste - omnipresent in every corner of the world serve as an excellent source of value added products owing to high organic content. Regardless of existence of various traditional methods of land filling or biogas production used to harness food waste energy, effective conversion of food to valuable resources is often challenged by its heterogenous nature and high moisture content. The current paper tries to lay down the prospects and consequences associated with food waste management.

Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of oil palm front for the production of 2,3-butanediol.

The present study aims to develop a process for the production of 2,3-butanediol by Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) of Oil Palm Front (OPF) biomass. The study compares SSF with Separate Hydrolysis and Fermentation (SHF) of oil palm biomass and batch fermentation using glucose. The results showed that SSF is one of the most attractive techniques for the microbial production of 2,3-butanediol using lignocellulosic biomass.

Biogenic Cluster-Encased Gold Nanorods as a Targeted Three-in-One Theranostic Nanoenvelope for SERS-Guided Photochemotherapy against Metastatic Melanoma.

Effective treatment of malignant melanoma requires an appropriate combination of therapeutic intervention with long-term prognosis as it often survives by monotherapies. Herein, we report a novel melanoma-targeted theranostic nanoenvelope (MTTNe: ISQ@BSA-AuNC@AuNR@DAC@DR5) which has been constructed by assembling a bovine serum albumin (BSA) stabilized gold nanocluster on a gold nanorod (BSA-AuNC@AuNR), a three-in-one theranostic modality, i.e.

Charge Carrier Polarity Modulation in Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Low Band Gap Semiconductors by Terminal Functionalization.

Organic semiconductors with variable charge carrier polarity are required for optoelectronic applications. Herein, we report the synthesis of three novel diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based D-A molecules having three different terminal groups (amide, ester, and dicyano) and study their electronic properties. An increase in electron acceptor strength from amide to dicyano leads to a bathochromic shift in absorption.

Individual and simultaneous electrochemical determination of metanil yellow and curcumin on carbon quantum dots based glassy carbon electrode.

Adulteration of medicinally valuable curcumin (CU) with harmful chemicals as metanil yellow (MY) in recent years have demanded for quick detection techniques of the adulterants. The voltammetric behavior of CU and MY on bare glassy carbon electrode (BGCE) and carbon quantum dots modified glassy carbon electrode (CQDs/GCE) was studied by both cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in phosphate buffer solution of pH 5.4.

Bioconversion of pentose sugars to value added chemicals and fuels: Recent trends, challenges and possibilities.

Most of the crop plants contain about 30% of hemicelluloses comprising D-xylose and D-arabinose. One of the major limitation for the use of pentose sugars is that high purity grade D-xylose and D-arabinose are yet to be produced as commodity chemicals. Research and developmental activities are going on in this direction for their use as platform intermediates through economically viable strategies.

Exploring the margins of SERS in practical domain: An emerging diagnostic modality for modern biomedical applications.

Excellent multiplexing capability, molecular specificity, high sensitivity and the potential of resolving complex molecular level biological compositions augmented the diagnostic modality of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) in biology and medicine. While maintaining all the merits of classical Raman spectroscopy, SERS provides a more sensitive and selective detection and quantification platform. Non-invasive, chemically specific and spatially resolved analysis facilitates the exploration of SERS-based nano probes in diagnostic and theranostic applications with improved clinical outcomes compared to the currently available so called state-of-art technologies.

Discovery of Natural Product Derived Labdane Appended Triazoles as Potent Pancreatic Lipase Inhibitors.

Obesity contributes to the genesis of many metabolic disorders including dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease (CHD), nonalcoholic fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, etc. Pancreatic lipase plays a vital role in food fat digestion and absorption. Therefore, to control obesity, inhibition of pancreatic lipase is the active therapy.

Expedient Synthesis of Indolo[2,3-]quinolines, Chromeno[2,3-]indoles, and 3-Alkenyl-oxindoles from 3,3'-Diindolylmethanes and Evaluation of Their Antibiotic Activity against Methicillin-Resistant .

Easily accessible 3,3'-diindolylmethanes (DIMs) were utilized to generate a focused library of indolo[2,3-]quinolines (), chromeno[2,3-]indoles (), and 3-alkenyl-oxindoles () under 2,3-Dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ)-mediated oxidative conditions. DIMs with ortho-NHTosyl (NHTs) phenyl group afforded indolo[2,3-]quinolines (), whereas DIMs with ortho-hydroxy phenyl groups yielded chromeno[2,3-]indoles () and 3-alkenyl-oxindoles (). The mild conditions and excellent yields of the products make this method a good choice to access a diverse library of bioactive molecules from a common starting material.

Real Time Imaging and Dynamics of Hippocampal Zn under Epileptic Condition Using a Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe.

Zinc, the essential trace element in human body exists either in the bound or free state, for both structural and functional roles. Insights on Zn distribution and its dynamics are essential in view of the fact that Zn dyshomeostasis is a risk factor for epileptic seizures, Alzheimer's disease, depression, etc. Herein, a bipyridine bridged bispyrrole (BP) probe is used for ratiometric imaging and quantification of Zn in hippocampal slices.