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 & Nanoparticle. The organization has 8891 authors who have published 14837 publications receiving 387600 citations.

Porous-Organic-Framework-Templated Nitrogen-Rich Porous Carbon as a More Proficient Electrocatalyst than Pt/C for the Electrochemical Reduction of Oxygen

Abstract: Porous nitrogen-rich carbon (POF-C-1000) that was synthesized by using a porous organic framework (POF) as a self-sacrificing host tem- plate in a nanocasting process pos- sessed a high degree of graphitization in an ordered structural arrangement with large domains and well-ordered arrays of carbon sheets. POF-C-1000 exhibits favorable electrocatalytic ac- tivity for the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR) with a clear positive shift of about 40 mV in the onset potential compared to that of a traditional, com- mercially available Pt/C catalyst. In ad- dition, irrespective of its moderate sur- face area (785 m 2 g 1 ), POF-C-1000 showed a reasonable H2 adsorption of 1.6 wt % (77 K) and a CO2 uptake of 3.5 mmol g 1 (273 K).

Quantifying microbial biomass phosphorus in acid soils.

Abstract: This study aimed to validate the fumigation-extraction method for measuring microbial biomass P in acid soils. Extractions with the Olsen (0.5 M NaHCO3, pH 8.5) and Bray-1 (0.03 M NH4F–0.025 M HCl) extractants at two soil:solution ratios (1 : 20 and 1 : 4, w/v) were compared using eight acid soils (pH 3.6–5.9). The data indicated that the flushes (increases following CHCl3-fumigation) of total P (Pt) and inorganic P (Pi) determined by Olsen extraction provided little useful information for estimating the amount of microbial biomass P in the soils. Using the Bray-1 extractant at a soil:solution ratio of 1 : 4, and analysing Pi instead of Pt, improves the reproducibility (statistical significance and CV) of the P flush in these soils. In all the approaches studied, the Pi flush determined using the Bray-1 extractant at 1 : 4 provided the best estimate of soil microbial biomass P. Furthermore, the recovery of cultured bacterial and fungal biomass P added to the soils and extracted using the Bray-1 extractant at 1 : 4 was relatively constant (24.1–36.7% and 15.7–25.7%, respectively) with only one exception, and showed no relationship with soil pH, indicating that it behaved differently from added Pi (recovery decreased from 86% at pH 4.6 to 13% at pH 3.6). Thus, correcting for the incomplete recovery of biomass P using added Pi is inappropriate for acid soils. Although microbial biomass P in soil is generally estimated using the Pi flush and a conversion factor (k P) of 0.4, more reliable estimates require that k P values are best determined independently for each soil.

Plantlet production through high frequency somatic embryogenesis in long term cultures ofEucalyptus citriodora.

Abstract: A highly embryogenic culture ofEucalyptus citriodora was obtained by repetitive embryogenesis from somatic embryos cultured in the dark on a medium containing 500 mg/l each of glutamine and casein hydrolysate, 30 g/l of sucrose and 5 mg/l of 1-napthaleneacetic acid. Cultures retained morphogenetic ability for upto 36 months when maintained at 27°C by subculture at intervals of 4–5 weeks. The subculture period could be extended beyond 9 months if cultures were incubated at 10°C. On a hormone free medium incubated in light 50% of the embryos germinated to plantlets of which 70% survived when transferred to a sand and soil mixture.