Effect of successive recycling and reuse of acid liquor for the synthesis of graphene oxides with higher oxygen-to-carbon ratios.

Graphene has recently drawn exponential attention due to its surprising physicochemical properties and diversified field of applications. Although graphene oxides (GOs), itself is an exclusive material, it is also an intermediate product for the production of reduced graphene oxides (rGOs), graphene and their derivatives, which are other more superficial materials. In this study, GOs with higher oxygen to carbon ratios were synthesized following the Tour method, where the excess feed acid liquor (FAL) of mixed concentrated sulfuric and orthophosphoric acids at a ratio of 90:10 was recovered from the reaction slurries by applying the centrifugation technique. About 80-90 % of the FAL was recycled and reused as feed for the subsequent batches. The changes in the properties of FAL for the five consecutive recycling and reuse were studied. The properties of recycled FALs were investigated by measuring density, moisture content, pH, and ion concentration. The consecutive recycling of FALs tends to increase the moisture content about 0.5% in each recycles. Ion-chromatography (IC) was used to measure the variation in SO42- and PO43- ions in the FALs. The H2SO4 reacts with KMnO4 and crystalized out from the recovered FAL faster than the phosphoric acid. So, sulfuric acid content in the makeover FALs must be greater than primary FAL. The product GOs were characterized using FT-IR, FT-Raman, UVVis, STA, SEM, XPS, Zeta-potential, and particle size analyzers. The variation of the properties of GOs with the changes in the reaction parameters such as temperature and time were investigated and correlated with the product yield. It was observed that the effect of temperature on the reaction rate was found to be negatively and positive with the reaction time. The oxygen-to-carbon atomic ratio from XPS analysis was found 66.7%, which supported the increase in product yields 66.9% in the experimental results. The effect of acid concentration, reaction temperature, and time on the GOs properties were satisfactory, correlated, and easily controllable with the reaction conditions. A higher extent of oxidation and enhanced product yields 65-70% were observed at 60-70 °C and 14-18 h. A mixture of nano- and macro-molecular GOs was obtained, and their compositions were easily controllable and separable by controlling the reaction conditions. A correlation was made among the properties of synthesized GOs, FAL, and recycled FAL and reaction conditions.

Green synthesis of zinc oxide nano particles using Allium cepa L. waste peel extracts and its antioxidant and antibacterial activities.

Synthesis of nanoparticles through the green approach using plant and vegetable extracts has gained popularity since they are thought to be efficient and cost-effective materials. This study is designed to synthesize zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) from onion waste peel extract (Allium cepa L.) via the green synthesis approach. The synthesized ZnO-NPs were characterized by utilizing the UV-Vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD)techniques. The nanoparticles formation was confirmed by the UV-Vis sharp absorption spectra at 318 and 322 nm. The synthesized ZnO-NPs size and shape was revealed by the XRD and SEM respectively. Smallest nanoparticle average crystallite size was found 57.38 nm with hexagonal shape. The bioactive functional groups that are in charge of capping and stabilizing the ZnO-NPs was assured by the FTIR data. Further, prepared ZnO-NPs were used to assess their possible antioxidant and antibacterial properties. DPPH test for free radical scavenging showed potential antioxidant properties of the synthesized ZnO-NPs. The antibacterial activity were studied against three clinical strains: P. aeruginosa, E. coli, and S. aureus with the maximum zone of inhibition 13.17 mm, 22.00 mm and 12.35 mm respectively at 100 µg/mL subsequently minimum inhibitory concentration was found 50 µg/mL for P. aeruginosa, and S. aureus whereas 100 µg/mL for E. coli. Antioxidant and antibacterial activity tests appear bio-resource based ZnO-NPs from Allium cepa L. extract have effects on free radical and growth of microorganisms.Therefore, it could be a promising candidates for agricultural and food safety applications as an effective antimicrobial agent against pathogenic microorganisms and also can address future biomedical applications after complete in vivo study.

Antagonistic activity of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens subsp. amyloliquefaciens against multidrug resistant Serratia rubidaea.

Serratia rubidaea is an opportunistic Gram-negative pathogen that has developed antimicrobial resistance to a variety of commercial antibiotics. The spread of this multidrug-resistant pattern predicts that it will get harder and harder to treat S. rubidaea infections in the future. For this perception, antimicrobial proteins might represent a safe, effective, and biodegradable alternative because their site of action is on cyclic peptides. In this study, one candidate Bacillus amyloliquefaciens subsp. amyloliquefaciens was isolated from the soil of Sundarban mangrove forest, and its identification was confirmed both using the PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) method and the BIOLOG™ microbial identification system. The antibacterial protein, which has a molecular mass of about 50 kDa, was isolated from B. amyloliquefaciens subsp. amyloliquefaciens. Sodium dodecyl-sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was used to confirm the extracted protein's purity. This potential protein was discovered to develop and exhibit antagonistic activity throughout a broad temperature, pH, and salinity range. At doses ranging from 300 to 400 µg/ml, this protein has antagonistic activity against multidrug resistant S. rubidaea and a wide range of other resistant pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and so on. The research provides new insights to develop bio-control agents that can be applied for prevent, treat, and control infectious diseases caused by multidrug resistant S. rubidaea, as well as other pathogenic bacteria.

Characterization and profiling of bacteriocin-like substances produced by lactic acid bacteria from cheese samples.

Bacteriocins have become biological weapons against harmful food pathogens and have attracted interest as tools for biopreservation. The aim of this study was to isolate, identify and characterize lactic acid bacterial (LAB) strains from cheese samples, partially purify potential bacteriocins and characterize their antimicrobial activity against pathogens. Bacteriocin-producing organisms were screened by Agar spot assay test. Initially, 25 LAB isolates were isolated from the cheese samples and identified as Lactobacillius spp., among them five strains were able to produce bacteriocin whose antimicrobial activates were analysed by agar-well-diffusion assay test against pathogenic organisms. Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus thermophillus and Listeria monocytogens were inhibited, while Enterococcus faecalis, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were resistant to the antimicrobial substances from LAB isolates. For optimal production of bacteriocin, LAB broth cultures were harvested at exponential phase. The molecular weights of the bacteriocins are between 7.0-15.0 kDa. The bacteriocins were characterized on the basis of their sensitivity to heat, pH, enzymes, NaCl and treatments with organic solvents. These results revealed that the bacteriocins from Lactobacillius spp. isolated from the cheese might have potential antimicrobial properties and give new insight in the development of bio-preservative agents to prevent and control pathogenic bacterial infection.

Quercetin inhibits advanced glycation end product formation via chelating metal ions, trapping methylglyoxal, and trapping reactive oxygen species.

Physiological concentration of Mg2+, Cu2+, and Zn2+ accelerated AGE formation only in glucose-mediated conditions, which was effectively inhibited by chelating ligands. Only quercetin (10) inhibited MGO-mediated AGE formation as well as glucose- and ribose-mediated AGE formation among 10 polyphenols (1-10) tested. We performed an additional structure-activity relationship (SAR) study on flavanols (10, 11, 12, 13, and 14). Morin (12) and kaempherol (14) showed inhibitory activity against MGO-mediated AGE formation, whereas rutin (11) and fisetin (13) did not. These observations indicate that 3,5,7,4'-tetrahydroxy and 4-keto groups of 10 are important to yield newly revised mono-MGO adducts (16 and 17) and di-MGO adduct (18) having cyclic hemiacetals, while 3'-hydroxy group is not essential. We propose here a comprehensive inhibitory mechanism of 10 against AGE formation including chelation effect, trapping of MGO, and trapping of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which leads to oxidative degradation of 18 to 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (15) and other fragments.

Zincmethylphyrins and coproporphyrins, novel growth factors released by Sphingopyxis sp., enable laboratory cultivation of previously uncultured Leucobacter sp. through interspecies mutualism.

We have identified coproporphyrins including structurally new zincmethylphyrins I and III as growth factors A-F for the previously uncultured bacterial strain, Leucobacter sp. ASN212, from a supernatant of 210 l of Sphingopyxis sp. GF9 culture. Growth factors A-F induced significant growth of strain ASN212 at the concentrations of picomolar to nanomolar which would otherwise be unculturable in liquid medium or on agar plate. More interestingly, we found that the growth factors functioned as self-toxic compounds for the growth-factor producing strain GF9 at the picomolar to nanomolar levels. As a variety of bacteria could potentially produce coproporphyrins, our findings suggest that these compounds function as a novel class of signal molecules across a boundary at phylum level in the complex bacterial communities.