National Chemical Laboratory

About: National Chemical Laboratory is a facility organization based out in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Enantioselective synthesis. The organization has 8891 authors who have published 14837 publications receiving 387600 citations.

Lignocellulose processing: a current challenge

Abstract: Lignocellulosic biomass, of which inedible crops are a renewable source, is expected to become one of the key renewable energy resources in the near future, to deal with global warming and the depletion of conventional fossil fuel resources. It also holds the key to supplying society's basic needs for the sustainable production of chemicals and fuels without impacting the human food supply. Despite this, the production of 2nd generation biofuels and chemicals has not yet been commercialized. Therefore, the challenges involved in the production of lignocellulosic biomass derived fuels and chemicals must be addressed. The search for economic pretreatment methods has been recognized as one of the main hurdles for the processing of biomass to biofuels and chemicals. The conversion of all biomass components, lignin in particular, would greatly contribute to the economic viability of biomass based processes for 2nd generation biofuels and chemicals. The highly organized crystalline structure of cellulose presents an obstacle to its hydrolysis. Hydrolysis of lignocellulose carbohydrates into fermentable sugars requires a number of different biomass degrading enzymes such as cellulases and hemicellulases. Still, a number of technical and scientific issues within pretreatment and hydrolysis remain to be solved. Depending on the raw material and pretreatment technology, the enzyme mixtures must be designed to degrade biomass carbohydrates. Rapid advances in enzyme, microbial and plant engineering would provide the necessary breakthroughs for the successful commercialization of biomass derived fuels and chemicals.

Enhanced magnetostrictive properties of CoFe2O4 synthesized by an autocombustion method

Abstract: The magnetostrictive properties of sintered cobalt ferrite derived from nanocrystalline powders synthesized by three different low-temperature methods (citrate, coprecipitation and autocombustion) and the high-temperature ceramic method have been compared. A strong dependence of the magnetostrictive strain is observed on the initial morphology of the ferrite particles and the microstructure of the final sintered product. The nanoparticles synthesized by the autocombustion method, with a flaky and porous morphology, give a sintered material with small grains. Maximum magnetostriction is found to be decreased with increasing grain size. However, no correlation is observed between the initial particle size of the powders or the sintered density and magnetostriction. Maximum magnetostriction values of 197, 184, 159, and 135 ppm are obtained for the sintered samples with average grain sizes of 8 μm (combustion), 17 μm (citrate), 23 μm (coprecipitation), and >25 μm (ceramic), respectively.

Diels–Alder Reactions Are Faster in Water than in Ionic Liquids at Room Temperature

Abstract: Nobody does it better: A comparative study indicates that water, rather than room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs), is still the solvent of choice for accelerating Diels-Alder reactions. Both the hydrogen-bonding ability and the viscosity of the solvent are thought to play a role.