Enhanced removal of acidic dyes (AB1 and MO) from binary systems using anion exchange membrane BII: kinetic, isotherm, and thermodynamic analyses.

In the current work, the adsorption of acid black 1 (AB1), a hair dye, and methyl orange (MO) on anion exchange membrane BII (AEM-BII) in a binary system was studied experimentally. The effects study for contact time, adsorbent's and adsorbates' concentration, and temperature of aqueous media on the AB1 and MO removal, AEM-BII recovery, and reusability were also investigated. The highest removal was observed at optimum conditions, 150-min contact time and 5 g L-1 of adsorbent for AB1 (91.2%) and MO (83.4%). Adsorption kinetics was estimated by pseudo-first-order (PFO) and pseudo-second-order (PSO) kinetics. The experimental findings were fitted well by PSO kinetics with an adsorption capacity of 19.45 ± 0.93 and 19.34 ± 0.84 mg g-1 for ABI and MO, respectively. Moreover, the adsorption isotherm study confirmed that AB1 and MO adsorption by AEM-BII from the binary system was followed by Langmuir isotherms. Adsorption thermodynamics revealed that adsorption of both AB1 and MO by AEM-BII was endothermic and spontaneous. Moreover, the desorption phenomenon of ABI and MO from the loaded AEM-BII showed that dye removal from AEM-BII was found to be 74.95%, demonstrating AEM-BII can be considered as good adsorbent for acidic dyes from the binary system.

Enhancing systematic tolerance in Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon L.) through amplified alkB gene expression and bacterial-driven hydrocarbon degradation.

This study aimed to access the impact of soil polluted with petroleum (5, 10 g petroleum kg-1 soil) on Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon L.) with and without applied bacterial inoculants (Arthrobacter oxydans ITRH49 and Pseudomonas sp. MixRI75). Both soil and seed were given bacterial inoculation. The evaluated morphological parameters of Bermuda grass were fresh and dry weight. The results demonstrated that applied bacterial inoculants enhanced 5.4%, 20%, 28% and 6.4%, 21%, and 29% shoot and root fresh/dry weights in Bermuda grass under controlled environment. The biochemical analysis of shoot and root was affected deleteriously by the 10 g petroleum kg-1 soil pollution. Microbial inoculants enhanced the activities of enzymatic (catalase, peroxidase, glutathione reductase, ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase) and non-enzymatic (ɑ-tocopherols, proline, reduced glutathione, ascorbic acid) antioxidant to mitigate the toxic effects of ROS (H2O2) under hydrocarbon stressed condition. The maximum hydrocarbon degradation (75%) was recorded by Bermuda grass at 5 g petroleum kg-1 soil contamination. Moreover, bacterial persistence and alkane hydroxylase gene (alkB) abundance and expression were observed more in the root interior than in the rhizosphere and shoot interior of Bermuda grass. Subsequently, the microbe used a biological tool to propose that the application of plant growth-promoting bacteria would be the most favorable choice in petroleum hydrocarbon polluted soil to conquer the abiotic stress in plants and the effective removal of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in polluted soil.

Electron Donor and Acceptor Influence on the Nonlinear Optical Response of Diacetylene-Functionalized Organic Materials (DFOMs): Density Functional Theory Calculations.

Herein, we report the quantum chemical results based on density functional theory for the polarizability (α) and first hyperpolarizability (ß) values of diacetylene-functionalized organic molecules (DFOM) containing an electron acceptor (A) unit in the form of nitro group and electron donor (D) unit in the form of amino group. Six DFOM 1-6 have been designed by structural tailoring of the synthesized chromophore 4,4'-(buta-1,3-diyne-1,4-diyl) dianiline (R) and the influence of the D and A moieties on α and ß was explored. Ground state geometries, HOMO-LUMO energies, and natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis of all DFOM (R and 1-6) were explored through B3LYP level of DFT and 6-31G(d,p) basis set. The polarizability (α), first hyperpolarizability (ß) values were computed using B3LYP (gas phase), CAM-B3LYP (gas phase), CAM-B3LYP (solvent DMSO) methods and 6-31G(d,p) basis set combination. UV-Visible analysis was performed at CAM-B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level of theory. Results illustrated that much reduced energy gap in the range of 2.212-2.809 eV was observed in designed DFOM 1-6 as compared to parent molecule R (4.405 eV). Designed DFOM (except for 2 and 4) were found red shifted compared to parent molecule R. An absorption at longer wavelength was observed for 6 with 371.46 nm. NBO analysis confirmed the involvement of extended conjugation and as well as charge transfer character towards the promising NLO response and red shift of molecules under study. Overall, compound 6 displayed large α and ßtot, computed to be 333.40 (a.u) (B3LYP gas), 302.38 (a.u.) (CAM-B3LYP gas), 380.46 (a.u.) (CAM-B3LYP solvent) and 24708.79 (a.u), 11841.93 (a.u.), 25053.32 (a.u) measured from B3LYP (gas), CAM-B3LYP (gas) and CAM-B3LYP (DMSO) methods respectively. This investigation provides a theoretical framework for conversion of centrosymmetric molecules into non-centrosymmetric architectures to discover NLO candidates for modern hi-tech applications.