Bharathiar University

About: Bharathiar University is a education organization based out in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Thin film & Adsorption. The organization has 5812 authors who have published 8628 publications receiving 143934 citations. The organization is also known as: BU.

Nutritional and chemical evaluation of raw seeds of Canavalia gladiata (Jacq) DC. and C. ensiformis DC: the under utilized food and fodder crops in India.

Abstract: In India, the seeds ofCanavalia gladiata andC. ensiformis have traditionally been eaten by the aborigines, but they are less popular among the civilized people. The data on the chemical composition and nutritional quality of these seeds are not readily available. The proximate composition, mineral composition, the contents of total (true) proteins, seed protein fractions, profile of seed protein amino acids and certain antinutritional factors were analysed and reported in the present study. The seeds ofC. ensiformis contain more crude protein, crude lipid and minerals like Na, K, Ca, Mg, P, Fe and Mn than doesC. gladiata. Both albumins and globulins together constitute the major bulk of seed proteins. In both the species ofCanavalia investigated, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, isoleucine+leucine, tyrosine+phenylalanine and lysine are the major amino acids of seed proteins. The presence of certain antinutritional factors (total free phenols, tannins, lectins, L-DOPA, trypsin inhibitor activity) is also reported for both species ofCanavalia.

Study of proton-conducting polymer electrolyte based on K-carrageenan and NH4SCN for electrochemical devices

Abstract: A proton-conducting solid biopolymer electrolyte (SBE) that consists of kappa-carrageenan (K-carrageenan) incorporated with ammonium thiocyanate (NH4SCN) has been prepared by solution-casting technique. The prepared membranes are subjected to XRD, FTIR, and AC impedance analysis to study their structural, optical, and electrical properties of the electrolytes, respectively. The amorphous nature of the membrane has been inferred from the results of XRD analysis. The complexation between salt and host polymer matrix has been confirmed by FTIR. From AC impedance analysis, the polymer incorporated with 0.5% of NH4SCN achieved a maximum ionic conductivity of the order of 6.83 × 10−4 Scm−1. The dielectric spectra and modulus spectra reveal the non-Debye behavior of the polymer membrane. A fuel cell has been constructed using the prepared SBE, and its open circuit voltage has been measured.

Exploring the biophysical aspects and binding mechanism of thionine with bovine hemoglobin by optical spectroscopic and molecular docking methods

Abstract: In the present investigation, we have elucidated the interaction between thionine (TH) and bovine hemoglobin (BHb) under physiological conditions by using absorption, emission, time resolved fluorescence, synchronous fluorescence, circular dichroism (CD) and three dimensional emission (3D) spectral studies. Molecular docking experiment was also carried out to establish the possible binding site of TH on BHb. The emission spectral studies revealed that, TH have the ability to bind with BHb and form a ground state complex via static quenching process. The calculated binding constant and the number of binding sites was found to be 3.65×10(4)dm(3)mol(-1) and 1.04, respectively. Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) theory was employed to calculate the distance (r) between donor (BHb) and acceptor (TH) as 3.64nm. Furthermore, the conformational changes of BHb induced by TH complexation showed some degree of structural unfolding. In addition, molecular docking study confirmed that the most probable binding site of TH was located within the active cavity constituted by α1 and α2 subunits of BHb.

Enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity of tin oxide nanoparticles synthesized by different microwave optimum conditions

Abstract: A facile and rapid microwave irradiation method was used to synthesis of nanocrystalline tin oxide (SnO and SnO2) powders with different microwave power (360, 600 and 900 W) and the effect of microwave power on the structural, surface morphology, optical and photocatalytic activity has been systematically investigated. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) results suggest that the samples were tetragonal Romarchite and tetragonal rutile type structure of SnO and SnO2 respectively. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images illustrates that both SnO and SnO2 consists of spherical shaped morphology with an average diameter of around 25–40 nm, which is in good agreement with the grain size calculated from XRD results. Raman, Photoluminescence and Energy dispersive spectra (EDS) analysis results indicate that the as-synthesized samples were oxygen deficient with the increase of microwave power up to 900 W. A considerable red-shift in the absorption edge and decreasing the band-gap (3.67–3.57 eV) of SnO2 was observed with the increase of microwave power. The photocatalytic activity was monitored via the degradation of Methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) dyes under visible light irradiation and SnO2-900 W sample shows better photocatalytic activity than SnO-300 W and SnO2-600 W. The possible photocatalytic mechanism was also discussed in detail.