Mycotoxins determination in commercially important commodities using flow Injection chemiluminescence detection system

Long Term Agreement (LTA) for the provision of monitoring supervision and engineering works in Pakistan

Water Quality Improvement and Promotion of Hygiene (WAQIPH-III) Mapping and Sanitary Inspection

Water Quality Improvement and Promotion of Hygiene (WAQIPH-II) Mapping and Sanitary Inspection

Water Quality Improvement and Promotion of Hygiene (WAQIPH-I) Mapping and Sanitary Inspection

Emergency WASH Project Swat/Dir/Buner FATA Project

Monitoring and construction supervision of civil works for renewed protection of water supply schemes in AJ&K and NWFP

Training and testing of Water quality in Earth-quake affected Districts of NWFP

Optimization of Soil pH for Cultivation and Propagation of Tea (Camellia Sinesis L) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

This projects is devoted to the synthesis of a novel visible light photocatalysts material and the use of this material as model for the treatment of colored waste waters

This project is about provision of technical services for WASH in schools programme for design, construction supervision and certification of drinking water facilities in 12 schools in AJK

This project is about provision of hygiene promotion activities in 25 schools in AJK. It is also funded by UNICEF

This project is about WASH facilities with trickling filter and wetland in five schools of Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK)                                          

Introduction

Colloidal Silica has been attracting the attention of colloidal scientists since a very long time. A popular method of the synthesis of colloidal silica was first established by Stober in 60’s[1]. The method has been modified many a times according to the needs[2]and still the most popular and established method of choice for the preparation of colloidal sililca[3-5]. Many research groups have synthesized porous silica particles which are colloidal in nature [6-10]. Here we propose to use a modified form of stobers method for the synthesis of colloidal silica particles which might be used for the encapsulation of an additive in the particles. The additive could be a dye whose presence can be simply detected by a UV-Visible spectroscopy. Same instrument can be used to check the encapsulation efficiency by calculating change in concentration of the dissolved additive before and after encapsulation. 

References

1.            Stöber, W., A. Fink, and E. Bohn, Controlled growth of monodisperse silica spheres in the micron size range. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 1968. 26(1): p. 62-69.

2.            Wong, Y.J., et al., Revisiting the stober method: inhomogeneity in silica shells. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011. 133(30): p. 11422-11425.

3.            Kobayashi, Y., et al., Silica coating of silver nanoparticles using a modified Stöber method. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2005. 283(2): p. 392-396.

4.            Li, W. and D. Zhao, Extension of the Stöber Method to Construct Mesoporous SiO2 and TiO2 Shells for Uniform Multifunctional Core–Shell Structures. Advanced Materials, 2013. 25(1): p. 142-149.

5.            Liu, W.B., et al., Synthesis of Magnetic Particles and Silica Coated Core-Shell Materials. Advanced Materials Research, 2013. 631: p. 490-493.

6.            Lin, Y.-S. and C.L. Haynes, Synthesis and characterization of biocompatible and size-tunable multifunctional porous silica nanoparticles. Chemistry of Materials, 2009. 21(17): p. 3979-3986.

7.            Nandiyanto, A.B.D., et al., Influences of Surface Charge, Size, and Concentration of Colloidal Nanoparticles on Fabrication of Self-Organized Porous Silica in Film and Particle Forms. Langmuir, 2013.

8.            Ray, S., et al., Porous silica nanoparticles with mesoscopic void spaces for the domino intermolecular aerobic oxidative synthesis of novel β, β′-diketoenamines. Catalysis Science & Technology, 2013.

9.            Slowing, I.I., et al., Mesoporous silica nanoparticles for drug delivery and biosensing applications. Advanced Functional Materials, 2007. 17(8): p. 1225-1236.

10.          Wu, S.-H., C.-Y. Mou, and H.-P. Lin, Synthesis of mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Chemical Society Reviews, 2013.

Surfactants have a tendency to adsorb on the particle surface. Magnetic/Fluorescent surfactants can also adsorb on the particle surface and functionalize them to show a magnetic/fluorescence response. Some metals, such as Ho have inherent fluorescence. This property can be utilized for imparting a suitable surface with magnetic as well as fluorescent character. The effect of magnet on this property will be very interesting to check. In addition, the variation in the fluorescence in the premicellar, micellar and post micellar phases will be very interesting to observe and quantify.

Due to the porosity of the silica nanoparticles, It is expected that an enhanced magnetic response will be obtained from colloidal silica which will help to make these particles responsive to the magnetic field in an efficient way and consequently will make the particles available for different application based on magnetic responses such as memory devices, mobile screens etc.

The presence of pharmaceuticals especially the antibiotics in water bodies is a new and emerging issue to engineers and scientists dealing with drinking water and wastewater reuse systems. Although the concentration of these antibiotics vary in the aquatic environment, but its continuous release may pose serious threats to the aquatic and human organisms. These antibiotics may enter the aquatic system by three main possible ways; (i) the compound may finally be mineralized into carbon dioxide and water, (ii) the compound does not degrade easily due to its lipophilic nature and may be partially be retained in the sedimentation sludge and (iii) the compound may be transformed into more hydrophilic molecule, passes through wastewater treatment plant and ultimately received in the drinking water. Such pharmaceuticals show the highest persistence in the environment.  Thus from the above mentioned discussion, it can be concluded that the presence of residual antibiotics in the environment and in the aquatic system in particular, imparts a serious environmental problem due to the fact that (i) these antibiotics are extremely resistant to biological degradation (ii) may impose toxic health effect in human and other living species (iii) and may continue to persist in the aquatic environment at extremely low concentrations, thus highly sophisticated analytical tools are needed for their exact measurement. Here, in this project, we propose a non-biological solution i.e., in the form of “Advanced Oxidation Processes” (AOPs) for the remediation of the antibiotically contaminated aqueous media. AOPs can be defined as aqueous phase oxidation system which rely on the production of a highly reactive specie such as (primarily but not exclusive) hydroxyl radicals (^•OH) involved in the destruction of a target pollutant. The widely used AOPs include homogeneous or heterogeneous photocatalysis based on near UV or solar irradiation, electrolysis, ozonation, the Fenton’s reagent, ultrasound and wet air oxidation, while less conventional but emerging processes include ionizing irradiation, pulsed plasma and ferrate reagent.

Sometimes, it is necessary to couple the AOPs either with the physiochemical or biological process depending on the properties of waste stream to be treated. For example, AOPs are costly processes so it is used in the pretreatment stage to initially convert the non-biodegradable refractory compounds to biodegradable intermediates followed by biological post treatment.

In some cases, the oxidation via ^•OH radical is slow and the need of reducing species like aqueous electron (e_aq^─) becomes important. These still newer technologies containing both oxidizing and reducing species are termed as advanced oxidation reduction technologies (AORTs) such as ionizing radiations from radioactive isotopes or fast moving electrons from electron beam accelerator. The overall process of AOPs can be summarized by single reaction as;

Organic pollutant + Oxygen results in Carbon dioxide, water and mineral acid

Surfactants are surface active agents and have the ability to modify the surfaces by interacting with them. They are actively utilized as solubilizers for insoluble entities. Surfactant form micelles which are results from the interactions within the surfactants monomers in solution. If the counterion accompanying any ionic surfactant is changed, it may result in different associative behaviors of these surfactants, especially, if the counterion is able to change the surfactant in to an ionic liquid. Furthermore, the surfactants are known to bind with APIs and therefore they have the ability to change the efficacy of the APIs. Many APIs exists as their salts and some of them exists in liquid state at room temperature and can be combined with surfactants for the synthesis of new drug based surfactant type ionic liquids and which may show different physical properties such as the solubility of the drugs can be changed when compared to the starting ingredients.

Recently, spinel ferrite nanoparticles remained a subject of immense interest for biomedical applications. Cobalt ferrites; a class of spinel ferrites, with unique characteristics have made them potentially best for medical applications owing to their high magneto-crystalline anisotropy and enhanced physical and chemical properties. Co-ferrites exhibit high Curie temperature, enhanced room temperature magnetic characteristics and large anisotropy constant. Further, good chemical stability, mechanical hardness and wear resistance make cobalt ferrite outstanding material [3]. Therefore, exhibiting these properties, cobalt ferrite are the potential candidates for medical applications e.g. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and medical diagnostics, drug delivery, radio-frequency hyperthermia etc. As the properties exhibited by ferrites are largely dependent upon the size of the particles, hence the size-controlled synthesis of these materials is of utmost importance. Controlling size distribution in nano regime may produce superparamagnetic properties in these materials. The magnetic characteristics would be enhanced so that practically enough magnetism should retain after minimizing the particles size for MRI applications. The characteristic features exhibited by these ferrite nanoparticles have potential for applications in many advanced medical fields such as, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ferro-fluids, and in hyperthermia treatment. Moreover, ferrite nanoparticles could be made to coat with suitable legands in order to make them useful for biomedical applications.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been an important technique for clinical imaging and diagnosis since 1980 while it has recently served as an excellent tool in biomedical research. Imaging being an important tool of diagnosis in basic biology as well as in medical applications, is currently widely explored area of research.

Coating the ferrite nanoparticles is the main factor for determining the behavior of these nanomaterials for both in-vitro and in-vivo function. Magnetic nanoparticles generally have hydrophobic properties with a huge surface area and therefore tend to agglomerate. Hence surface coating enhance the dispersion in to biological media with greater stability. There are number of ways and with wide range of functional groups available for coating purposes: including polymers, surfactants, inorganic metals/oxides, and bioactive molecules. During this project, the proposed chemicals used for coating are polyethylene oxide (PEO), dextran, CTAB, and PEG. Doping of the selected samples will be carried out with Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions in order to enhance the magnetic characteristics of these materials.Recently, spinel ferrite nanoparticles remained a subject of immense interest for biomedical applications. Cobalt ferrites; a class of spinel ferrites, with unique characteristics have made them potentially best for medical applications owing to their high magneto-crystalline anisotropy and enhanced physical and chemical properties. Co-ferrites exhibit high Curie temperature, enhanced room temperature magnetic characteristics and large anisotropy constant. Further, good chemical stability, mechanical hardness and wear resistance make cobalt ferrite outstanding material [3]. Therefore, exhibiting these properties, cobalt ferrite are the potential candidates for medical applications e.g. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and medical diagnostics, drug delivery, radio-frequency hyperthermia etc. As the properties exhibited by ferrites are largely dependent upon the size of the particles, hence the size-controlled synthesis of these materials is of utmost importance. Controlling size distribution in nano regime may produce superparamagnetic properties in these materials. The magnetic characteristics would be enhanced so that practically enough magnetism should retain after minimizing the particles size for MRI applications. The characteristic features exhibited by these ferrite nanoparticles have potential for applications in many advanced medical fields such as, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ferro-fluids, and in hyperthermia treatment. Moreover, ferrite nanoparticles could be made to coat with suitable legands in order to make them useful for biomedical applications.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been an important technique for clinical imaging and diagnosis since 1980 while it has recently served as an excellent tool in biomedical research. Imaging being an important tool of diagnosis in basic biology as well as in medical applications, is currently widely explored area of research.

Coating the ferrite nanoparticles is the main factor for determining the behavior of these nanomaterials for both in-vitro and in-vivo function. Magnetic nanoparticles generally have hydrophobic properties with a huge surface area and therefore tend to agglomerate. Hence surface coating enhance the dispersion in to biological media with greater stability. There are number of ways and with wide range of functional groups available for coating purposes: including polymers, surfactants, inorganic metals/oxides, and bioactive molecules. During this project, the proposed chemicals used for coating are polyethylene oxide (PEO), dextran, CTAB, and PEG. Doping of the selected samples will be carried out with Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions in order to enhance the magnetic characteristics of these materials.

PROVISIONAL AWARD OF RESEARCH PROJECT UNDER NATIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAMME FOR
UNIVERSITIES

No: 8817/Balochistan/NRPU/R&D/HEC/2017

Transition metal doped spinel ferrites for adsorption assisted photocatalysis 

Transition metal doped spinel ferrites for adsorption assisted photocatalysis 

Green Surface Active Ionic Liquid-based Drug Delivery Systems
Convincing epidemiological and experimental evidence has established that dietary phytochemicals like curcumin (turmeric), genistein (soybean), resveratrol (grapes), capsaicin (red chili), quercetin (apples and other fruit), diallyl sulfide (garlic), lycopene (tomato, watermelon), etc. act as chemoprevention agents and reduce, slow, or impede the risk of different cancers. Though several advantages such as relative non-toxicity, sustainable accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and usage as oral forms, could be associated with these natural chemoprevention agents, many of them have shown limited therapeutic efficiency in pre-clinical and clinical studies, attributed mainly to their low bioavailability due to aqueous insolubility and rapid metabolism. This results in sub-therapeutic concentrations at the target site. To circumvent the bioavailability issues of sparingly soluble drugs, advanced drug delivery techniques such as nanoparticles, liposomes, microparticles, and implants have been designed to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of the chemopreventives through increased bioavailability and targetability. However, each of these systems has its own drawbacks and limitations. Therefore, it remains a challenge to develop a universal drug carrier system for sparingly soluble drugs in general and chemopreventives specifically.