Search

This document summarizes the findings of a study conducted in Tamil Nadu, India, on weed management strategies in maize crops. The study compared the effectiveness of pre-emergence and post-emergence herbicides with hand weeding in reducing weed population and biomass. The results showed that the combination of the pre-emergence herbicide atrazine and the post-emergence herbicide tembotrine was the most effective in controlling weeds and resulted in comparable yields to hand weeding. The post-emergence application of tembotrine was particularly effective in increasing grain yield. The study suggests that using atrazine and tembotrine can enhance maize productivity by controlling weeds. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper, we report light ion (H+) implantation-induced effect on a-plane GaN epitaxial layer on the sapphire substrate. Non-polar (NP) a-plane GaN (11–20) epitaxial layer is grown on an r-plane sapphire substrate by the metal–organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) technique. The H+ ion-implanted NP (11–20) GaN epitaxial layer (dose 1 × 1017 cm−2 and 170 keV energy) is annealed by the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. The un-implanted a-GaN, H+ ion-implanted and annealed samples are investigated structurally and optically by High-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy and Emission characterisation techniques. HRXRD analysis infers that implanted GaN sample is hydrostatically strained up to implanted depth. Raman scattering study by green laser excitation found defect-activated Raman scattering (DARS) due to lattice distortion by ion implantation in the implanted sample and annealed out partially after annealing. The Raman peak intensity ratio between the E2 (high) and LO peak of the above bandgap excited laser (~ 266 nm) was around 3.92 in the un-implanted GaN layer whilst after implantation, the ratio was reduced to ~ 0.97 because implantation induces the defect-activated centre which increased the LO peak intensity. After annealing, the ratio between E2 (high) and LO peak was increased by ~ 2.5. After annealing due to partial recovery and reduction in the implantation-induced defected activated centre, the a-plane GaN thin layer can be transferred to the other substrate easily by exfoliation or ion-cutting process and can be used in electronics and optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work reports on the photocatalytic activity of tin oxide (SnO2)-doped magnesium (Mg) and fluorine (F) nanoparticles for methyl orange and safranin dye degradation under sunlight irradiation. Nanocatalysis-induced dye degradation was examined using UV–visible spectroscopy and a pseudo-first-order kinetics model. The results indicate that the prepared nanoparticles exhibit superior photocatalytic activity, and the degradation of methyl orange (MO) dye is approximately 82%. In contrast, the degradation of safranin dye is 96% in the same time interval of 105 min. The calculated crystallite size of the SnO2–Mg–F nanocomposite is 29.5 nm, which respects the particle size found in the DLS analysis with a tetragonal structure and spherical morphology affirmed. The optical characteristics were assessed, and their respective bandgap energies were determined to be 3.6 eV. The influence of F in Mg and SnO2 is recognized with the XRD and FT-IR spectra of the prepared particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural production system faces two main challenges: sustainability and climate change. For greater profitability, they must trade off against one another. To reduce the dependence on non-renewable resources, agricultural energy efficiency needs to be increased. Additionally, weed control is crucial to sustainability. In order to evaluate the energy balance, major energy indicators and profitability of maize under various weed control strategies, the current study was carried out. Therefore, a field experiment was carried out at farmers’ field in Kurmalur village of Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu, India during Kharif season of 2021 in order to evaluate different weed management practices on production and energy analysis of maize. The field experiment was laid out with ten treatments with three replications. The treatments consist of control, hand weeding on 15 and 30 DAS, pre-emergence application of atrazine, post emergence application of tembotrine, 2,4-D, halosulfuron methyl, Tembotrine, Mesotrione + Atrazine. Pre emergence application of Atrazine 1 kg/ha on 3 DAS fb Post emergence application of Tembotrine 105 g/ha on 20 DAS recorded the highest grain (4469 kg/ha) and straw yield (5708 kg/ha) with Net energy (156860 MJ/ha) and Energy Use Efficiency (14.55). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]