Shivaji University

About: Shivaji University is a education organization based out in Kolhāpur, Maharashtra, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Thin film & Scanning electron microscope. The organization has 3078 authors who have published 5295 publications receiving 115397 citations.

Biodegradation and detoxification of textile azo dyes by bacterial consortium under sequential microaerophilic/aerobic processes

Abstract: Release of textile azo dyes to the environment is an issue of health concern while the use of microorganisms has proved to be the best option for remediation. Thus, in the present study, a bacterial consortium consisting of Providencia rettgeri strain HSL1 and Pseudomonas sp. SUK1 has been investigated for degradation and detoxification of structurally different azo dyes. The consortium showed 98-99 % decolorization of all the selected azo dyes viz. Reactive Black 5 (RB 5), Reactive Orange 16 (RO 16), Disperse Red 78 (DR 78) and Direct Red 81 (DR 81) within 12 to 30 h at 100 mg L(-1) concentration at 30 ± 0.2 °C under microaerophilic, sequential aerobic/microaerophilic and microaerophilic/aerobic processes. However, decolorization under microaerophilic conditions viz. RB 5 (0.26 mM), RO 16 (0.18 mM), DR 78 (0.20 mM) and DR 81 (0.23 mM) and sequential aerobic/microaerophilic processes viz. RB 5 (0.08 mM), RO 16 (0.06 mM), DR 78 (0.07 mM) and DR 81 (0.09 mM) resulted into the formation of aromatic amines. In distinction, sequential microaerophilic/ aerobic process doesn't show the formation of amines. Additionally, 62-72 % reduction in total organic carbon content was observed in all the dyes decolorized broths under sequential microaerophilic/aerobic processes suggesting the efficacy of method in mineralization of dyes. Notable induction within the levels of azoreductase and NADH-DCIP reductase (97 and 229 % for RB 5, 55 and 160 % for RO 16, 63 and 196 % for DR 78, 108 and 258 % for DR 81) observed under sequential microaerophilic/aerobic processes suggested their critical involvements in the initial breakdown of azo bonds, whereas, a slight increase in the levels of laccase and veratryl alcohol oxidase confirmed subsequent oxidation of formed amines. Also, the acute toxicity assay with Daphnia magna revealed the nontoxic nature of the dye-degraded metabolites under sequential microaerophilic/aerobic processes. As biodegradation under sequential microaerophilic/aerobic process completely detoxified all the selected textile azo dyes, further efforts should be made to implement such methods for large scale dye wastewater treatment technologies.

Gas sensing properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods with different aspect ratios

Abstract: ZnO nanorods (ZNRs) with different aspect ratios were grown on seeded glass substrates by hydrothermal method. The influence of concentration of zinc precursor (zinc nitrate) in the solution on the formation of ZNRs was studied. Photoluminescence (PL) studies revealed the enhanced defect related emission with increasing aspect ratio of ZNRs. LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) sensing properties of ZNRs with different aspect ratios were studied. The ZNRs with high aspect ratio have shown significantly better LPG sensing performance than ZNRs with low aspect ratio. The LPG response of ZNRs was studied by varying gas concentration from 250 to 2000 ppm at operating temperature 350 °C. The relationship between PL and LPG sensing properties of ZNRs is established. Our results demonstrate that hydrothermally grown vertically aligned ZNRs arrays are promising for the fabrication of cost effective and high performance LPG sensor.

Structural, dielectric and magnetic properties of nickel substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles: Effect of nickel concentration

Abstract: Nickel substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles with composition Co1−xNixFe2O4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) was synthesized using simple, low temperature auto combustion method. The X-ray diffraction patterns reveal the formation of cubic phase spinel structure. The crystallite size varies from 30-44 nm with the nickel content. Porous and agglomerated morphology of the bulk sample was displayed in the scanning electron microscopy. Micro Raman spectroscopy reveals continuous shift of Eg and Eg(2) stokes line up to 0.8 Ni substitution. The dispersion behavior of the dielectric constant with frequency and the semicircle nature of the impedance spectra show the cobalt nickel ferrite to have high resistance. The ferromagnetic nature is observed in all the samples, however, the maximum saturation magnetization was achieved by the 0.4 Ni substituted cobalt ferrite, which is up to the 92.87 emu/gm at 30K.

Template free synthesis of ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites as a highly efficient visible active photocatalyst for detoxification of methyl orange.

Abstract: A simple and effective route for the synthesis of ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites with different weight ratios (4:1 to 4:4) have been successfully obtained by combination of thermal decomposition and precipitation technique. The structure, composition, morphology and optical properties of the as-prepared ZnO/Ag2O composites were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, EDS, SEM, TEM, UV-Vis DRS and PL, respectively. The photocatalytic performance of the photocatalysts was evaluated towards the degradation of a methyl orange (MO) under UV and visible light. More specifically, the results showed that the photocatalytic activity with highest rate constant of MO degradation over ZnO/Ag2O (4:2) nanocomposites is more than 22 and 4 times than those of pure ZnO and Ag2O under visible light irradiation, respectively. An improved photocatalytic activity was attributed to the formation of heterostructure between Ag2O and ZnO, the strong visible light absorption and more separation efficiency of photoinduced electron-hole pairs. Moreover, the ZnO/Ag2O (4:2) nanocomposite showed excellent stability towards the photodegradation of MO under visible light. Finally, a possible mechanism for enhanced charge separation and photodegrdation is proposed. Genotoxicity of MO before and after photodegradation was also evaluated by simple comet assay technique.