INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

5-9

Authors: Khan Shahana J and Gaikwad Rupali S

Atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicide in the agriculture today. It is a triazine herbicide that is used for control of broad leaf weeds, mainly in corn and sorghum and also many other crops. Atrazine is highly persistent in soil and is leached directly from the soil into groundwater, surface water, and drinking water. Contamination may pose a significant threat to humans, wildlife, and the environment. Greenhouse experiments were carried out to determine potential capability of Brassica juncea L. plant to remediate atrazine contaminated soil. Persistence of atrazine in the treated soil and its residue were estimated by High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Data obtained with soil treated at 1000ppm of atrazine showed that residues of atrazine were less in soil planted with Brassica juncea L. compared with unplanted soil. Considerable concentration of atrazine i.e. 20.5μg/ml and 18.5μg/ml were detected in sterilized unplanted soil and soil planted with Brassica juncea L. respectively after 30 days of sowing. While these values were 17.5μg/ml and 14.0μg/ml in non-sterilized unplanted and planted soil respectively. This study demonstrated that residues of atrazine were reduced at faster rate in treated soil which was planted with Brassica juncea L. than the unplanted soil indicating that Brassica juncea L. was useful for phytoremediation of soils contaminated with atrazine

13-16

Authors: Gaikwad Uma V and Pande Shilpa A

Blending of two or more polymers to obtain materials with new and unique properties has become one of the most important research in the field of polymers. The main purpose of blending the polymers is to obtain materials of additional properties with minimum sacrifice of their original properties. Chitosan is the most abundant natural amino polysaccharide and is estimated to be produced annually almost as much as cellulose. It has become of great interest not only as an underutilized resource, but also as a new functional material of high potential in various fields, and recent progress in chitosan chemistry is quite noteworthy. The purpose of this review is to take a closer look at Nylon 6 and chitosan applications. Based on current research and existing products, some new and futuristic approaches in this fascinating area are thoroughly discussed.