University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University or CU) is a collegiate public state university located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.&nbsp;Within India it is recognized as a &quot;Five-Star University&quot; and accredited &quot;A&quot; Grade by National Assessment and Accreditation Council.

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The University of Calcutta has secured the Fifth position among the Universities of India in the prestigious &quot;Indian University Ranking 2019&quot; list, released by the NIRF of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

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It was established on 24 January 1857, and was one of the first institutions in Asia to be established as a multidisciplinary and Western-style university. Its alumni and faculty include several heads of state, heads of government, social reformers, prominent artists, only academy award winner and Dirac medal winner in India, many Fellows of the Royal Society and five Nobel laureates as of 2019 which is highest in South Asia.

University Of Calcutta

Chemical Technology

Over the past two decades, metal-organic framework (MOF) research has been a rising star in modern materials chemistry and engineering that has contributed immensely to advancing the frontiers of science. Amalgamation of MOFs with magnetic nanostructures represents a newer promising trend that allows researchers to design complex hybrid catalytic materials with enhanced separability, reusability and activity for desired organic reactions in comparison to the individual counterparts. There are a series of meritorious examples in the literature wherein magnetic MOF composites have been successfully employed as versatile catalytic systems. Thus, the present review article aims to present a compendious account of all those magnetic MOF composite-based catalytic materials reported to boost several organic transformations, including oxidation, hydrogenation, coupling, condensation, esterification and multicomponent reactions. A progressive trend of increasing applications of these magnetic MOF composites in the area of photocatalysis and biocatalysis has also been incorporated. Further, the synthetic routes employed to date for the fabrication of magnetic MOF composites depending upon mutual interactions that exist between the magnetic nanoparticles and the MOF during unification have been illustrated in detail. It is further anticipated that this review will not only enlighten the readers about magnetic MOF composites but also assist researchers in designing novel functionalized catalysts for sustainable development. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.

World University root node

Materials Advances

Magnetic metal-organic framework composites: Structurally advanced catalytic materials for organic transformations

Engineered nanocages have emerged at the forefront of nanomaterial investigation as they possess tremendous potential to boost key chemical processes owing to their hollow architectures that can help in achieving high reactivity. With an intention to make profitable use of their morphological features guided chemical activity, we developed dispersable Co3O4 nanocages decorated with nickel nanoparticles for accessing a broad spectrum of pharmaceutically and biologically active N-heterocyclic quinoxaline nuclei using α-dicarbonyls and 1,2-diamines as precursor reagents. For designing Co3O4 nanocages, we employed a simple and scalable method involving Kirkendall effect in which thermal decomposition of Co3[Co(CN)6]2 was carried out thereafter, nanocages were loaded with Ni nanoparticles to obtain the final Ni@Co3O4 catalyst. Results revealed that Ni@Co3O4 catalyst possesses immense potential to accelerate condensation of diamines and di-carbonyls in absence of any additives under mild reaction conditions. The superior catalytic efficiency has been attributed to the hollow architecture of the nanocatalyst comprising of abundant catalytic sites. This protocol exhibits several remarkable attributes such as mild reaction conditions outstanding functional group tolerance, high yield, immense durability and reusability for six subsequent runs. © 2021

Molecular Catalysis

Efficient and sustainable Co3O4 nanocages based nickel catalyst: A suitable platform for the synthesis of quinoxaline derivatives

The direct activation of undiluted CO2 is carried out in a co-axial dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor. The variation of the electrical discharge parameters and their influence on CO2 decomposition is investigated with the integration of 15 % MO/γ-Al2O3 (M = Ni, Cu) catalyst in the discharge zone. The electrical discharge is found to shift from the filamentary to a combination of surface and micro filamentary discharge on catalyst integration to NTP and also leads to the higher conversion of CO2 than DBD alone. The highest conversion of CO2 (15.7 %) with the energy efficiency of 1.597 mmol/kJ is achieved under CuO/γ-Al2O3 integrated NTP system, whereas the maximum of carbon balance (94.4 %) reaches with 4% CeO2 addition to CuO/Al2O3 catalyst. The oxygen vacancy of the catalyst plays a vital role in improving the performance, especially, the oxygen buffer property of CeO2 facilitates the recombination reaction and contributes to obtaining the highest carbon balance. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd.

Journal of CO2 Utilization

Ni and Cu oxide supported γ-Al2O3packed DBD plasma reactor for CO2activation

Molecular Diversity

Structure-based identification of galectin-1 selective modulators in dietary food polyphenols: a pharmacoinformatics approach

Toxicology Research

Assessment of toxicological consequences upon acute inhalation exposure to chemically improvised nonlethal riot control combinational formulation (NCF) containing oleoresin capsicum and skatole

Magnesium aluminate spinel with an initial MgO: Al2O3 molar ratio of 2:1 was prepared from its constituent oxides through a solid-state sintering process at temperatures ranging from 1550 to 1700 °C in a normal air atmosphere. The effect of varying amount (0.25–1.0 wt%) of TiO2 and Yb2O3 on densification, phase assemblage, mechanical, thermo-mechanical properties and microstructure of magnesia-rich spinel were investigated under static heating condition. The addition of TiO2 and Yb2O3 favours the densification of magnesia-rich spinel, which is discernible up to 1650 °C. This beneficial effect may be attributed to the development of the secondary phase and formation of solid solution due to the dissolution of the additive ions in the spinel structure. A marginal increase in the average grain size of the samples along with a narrower grain size distribution occurred with the incorporation of both the additives. Both the additives improved the mechanical properties of the magnesia-rich spinel; however, better room temperature flexural strength was achieved with Yb2O3 as compared to TiO2 addition. For the samples sintered at 1550 °C, 1.0 wt% Yb2O3 addition resulted in 30% increase in flexural strength; however, same amount of TiO2 addition increased the strength by 20%. In case of thermal shock resistance, 1.0 wt% TiO2 and 0.25 wt% Yb2O3 addition demonstrated promising result among all the samples. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.

Ceramics International

Effect of Yb2O3 and TiO2 on reaction sintering and properties of magnesium aluminate spinel

Abstract: Worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is still threatening global health since its outbreak first reported in the late 2019. The causative novel virus has been designated as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Although COVID-19 emergent with significant mortality, there is no availability of definite treatment measures. It is now extremely desirable to identify potential chemical entities against SARS-CoV-2 for the treatment of COVID-19. In the present study, a state-of-art virtual screening protocol was implemented on three anti-viral specific chemical libraries against SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro). Particularly, viewing the large-scale biological role of Mpro in the viral replication process it has been considered as a prospective anti-viral drug target. Herein, on collected 79,892 compounds, hierarchical multistep docking followed by relative binding free energy estimation has been performed. Thereafter, implying a user-defined XP-dock and MM-GBSA cut-off scores as −8.00 and −45.00 kcal/mol, chemical space has been further reduced. Exhaustive molecular binding interactions analyses and various pharmacokinetics profiles assessment suggested four compounds (ChemDiv_D658-0159, ChemDiv_F431-0433, Enamine_Z3019991843 and Asinex_LAS_51389260) as potent inhibitors/modulators of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. In-depth protein–ligand interactions stability in the dynamic state has been evaluated by 100 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation studies along with MM-GBSA-based binding free energy estimations of entire simulation trajectories that have revealed strong binding affinity of all identified compounds towards Mpro. Hence, all four identified compounds might be considered as promising candidates for future drug development specifically targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro; however, they also need experimental assessment for a better understanding of molecular interaction mechanisms. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2021, Crown.

Fulltext

Structure-based identification of SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors from anti-viral specific chemical libraries: an exhaustive computational screening approach

Tuning the structural architecture of the pristine two dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanosheets through rational surface engineering have proven advantageous in the fabrication of competent catalytic materials. Inspired by the performance of h-BN based nanomaterials in expediting key organic transformations, we channelized our research efforts towards engineering the inherent surface properties of the exclusively stacked h-BN nanosheets through the incorporation of a novel competent copper complex of a bidentate chelating ligand 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone (BP). Delightfully, this hybrid nanomaterial worked exceptionally well in boosting the [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction of azide and nitriles, providing a facile access to a diverse variety of highly bioactive tetrazole motifs. A deep insight into the morphology of the covalently crafted h-BN signified the structural integrity of the exfoliated h-BN@OH nanosheets that exhibited lamellar like structures possessing smooth edges and flat surface. This interesting morphology could also be envisioned to augment the catalysis by allowing the desired surface area for the reactants and thus tailoring their activity. The work paves the way towards rational design of h-BN based nanomaterials and adjusting their catalytic potential by the use of suitable complexes for promoting sustainable catalysis, especially in view of the fact that till date only a very few h-BN nanosheets based catalysts have been devised. © 2021, The Author(s).

Scientific Reports

Enhanced catalysis through structurally modified hybrid 2-D boron nitride nanosheets comprising of complexed 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone motif

Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics

Search for potentially biased epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors through pharmacophore modelling, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation approaches