Jute fibre is a p ro mising reinforcement for use in co mposites on account of its low cost, low density, high specific strength and modulus, no health risk, easy availability, renewability and much lower energy requirement for processing. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in finding new applications for jute fibre reinforced composites that are traditionally used for making ropes, bags, hessians, sacking, mats, and carpet.To protect environment, consumptions of wood should be reduced that will increase number of tree in the world which can maintain the balance in nature. A major portion of woods are used for making home furniture, household products and building and constructions. In all these cases wood can be replaced by co mposite materials made fro m natural fibres like jute, coir, sisal etc.Jute fibre composites enjoy excellent potential as wood substitutes in view of their lo w cost, easy availability, saving in energy and pollution free p roduction. In order to improve upon the laboratory-industry linkages towards applicat ion development & commercialization, some advanced composites mission launched on jute composites such as 'Jute-Coir Co mposites Boards', 'Jute-glass composite components for railway coaches' and others.The use of jute fiber mats in co mbination with polymer films potentially offers a rapid and simp le means of manufacturing co mposites through film stacking, heating and press-consolidation.

Two maize varieties, viz. Sartaj and Deccan, have been evaluated according to their responses to chromium (Cr) in terms of specific physiological and biochemical attributes. During the exposure to Cr concentration (0, 50, 100, 200 and 300 µM) of potassium dichromate (K 2 Cr 2 O 7 ) for seven days, significant changes of oxidative stress in terms of lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation were recorded along with other antioxidative pathways. It is revealed that irrespective of varieties, Sartaj was more prone to oxidative stress since the amount of superoxide due to Cr exposure was found to be significant, unlike the second variety, Deccan. In addition, for Sartaj the activity of NAD(P)H oxidase recorded a significant linear increase in a dose response manner.The changes of antioxidative enzymes recorded significant variation in both varieties under stress compared to control. However, Deccan maintains a consistent up regulation in SOD and GPX activities. Contrarily, APX activity was less sensitive to both varieties. The activation of antioxidative mechanisms due to the impact of Cr-induced oxidative stress has been described subsequently. The results deriving from this investigation might be effective for the selection of tolerant plant types under chromium contamination.

Direct photocatalytic conversion of CO2 to ethanol remains a scientific challenge because of the sluggish kinetics of C-C coupling and complex multielectron transfer processes. To achieve a green transformation of...

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Experimental studies are carried out on semiclathrate hydrate of carbon dioxide (CO2) in tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB) for varying concentrations of TBAB (0.05, 0.10, and 0.20 mass fraction) + sodium chloride (NaCl) (0.035 and 0.10 mass fraction) in an aqueous system. The three-phase equilibrium (H-LW-V) data are generated for quaternary system of CO2 + TBAB + H2O + NaCl and are not available in the open literature. The competing effect of TBAB and NaCl at different concentrations on phase behavior of semiclathrate hydrate equilibrium is studied. It is found that the inhibition effect of salt is much more pronounced at higher pressures compared to lower pressure conditions. It is observed that the inhibiting effect of the NaCl is suppressed by the promoting effect of semiclathrate hydrates of CO2 in TBAB. Although there is a shift in hydrate equilibrium curve toward inhibition zone compared to that of the same system in the absence of salt, this system is more stable than the hydrate of pure CO2 in a similar environment. The study, in general, shows that the semiclathrate hydrates of CO2 are more stable than the hydrates of pure CO2 in the real environments containing salts, thus promising their use for safe carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) application.