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The present investigation reports the soxhlet assisted solvent extraction technique to derive the oil from seeds of the rain tree. The optimization of the factors affecting the extraction process has been carried out by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) technique, and a Box-Behnken Design (BBD) consisting of three process variables has been developed to optimize the yield of oil. Using the RSM technique, the predicted optimum oil yield of 11.15% at an optimized condition of powder weight of 20 g, volume of solvent of 380 mL, and extraction time of 6 h. The physiochemical properties of the oil showed liquid greenish-yellow with 0.88, 1.473 of specific gravity and refractive index, respectively. Similarly, the moisture content, free fatty acid, acid value, saponification value, iodine value, and peroxide value were found to be 0.16%, 13.615, 27.23, 187.1 mg KOH per g oil, 65.8 g I2 per 100 g, and 4.02 meq O2 per kg, respectively. From the obtained results, it was found that the extracted oil could be used for various applications.

Nanoporous Ni doped ZnO is prepared in the configuration NiO(x)·ZnO(1−x) (x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.10) using sol-gel combustion technique. The crystal structure, morphology, elemental composition, magnetic and dielectric properties of NiO(x)·ZnO(1−x) are determined from XRD, FE-SEM with EDX, VSM and LCRQ meter, respectively. XRD investigation confirms the presence of wurtzite hexagonal structure of ZnO in all the prepared samples. At low doping level of Ni, the crystal structure remains identical to ZnO meanwhile some structural imperfection is observed on increasing the doping concentration. FESEM images indicate the occurrence of nanopores distributed uniformly in the NiO(x)·ZnO(1−x). Magnetic characteristics of the samples found enhanced with increasing dopant concentration till x = 0.06. The possible explanation for the origin of the dielectric and magnetic behaviours of NiO(x)·ZnO(1−x) are discussed. Based on the obtained results, NiO(0.06)·ZnO(0.94) is a suitable candidate for Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors for spintronic applications.

Purpose: In this research work the nickel oxide incorporated zinc oxide nano compositewith various level of percentage such as (0.2, 0.4 and 0.6) were synthesized usingcombustion processes. Fuel used for the combustion process is hexamine in this work.Oxidizing agents taken were the nitrates of zinc and nickel. These precursor nitrates wereheated with hexamine fuel to undergo combustion process.Design/methodology/approach: After combustion the particles were collected and heattreated to maintain the purity of the samples. XRD results were in well accordance withthe JCPDS data and the average crystalline sizes were in the range of 10~20 nm. UV-VISabsorbance results confirm the band gap in the visible region. With increase in concentrationof NiO in the composite red shifted from 320 nm to 374 nm. FTIR supports the presenceof Zn-O and Ni-O bonds by the characteristic vibrational peaks at 432 cm-1 and 470 cm-1respectively. PL spectrum studies results in the redshift of ZnO peaks from 380 nm to 400 nmwith addition of Ni2+ ions inside the lattice. SEM and AFM studies reveals the morphologicaland topographical visualizations of the nanocomposite powders.Findings: In this research work, the authors had successfully synthesized Nickelsubstituted Zinc oxide by following simple combustion method followed by annealing. XRDanalysis clearly evidences the formation of ZnO in the hexagonal wurtzite structure with anaverage crystallite size of 15 nm to 18 nm. An increase in Nickel peaks in between the Zincoxide peaks were observed with increase in the nickel concentration in the composition.Practical implications: We conclude that combustion technique is suitable to fabricateNickel incorporated Zinc oxide particles with high purity. This powder can be used intransparent conducting thin flims for OLED applications.

Magnetic nanoparticles encapsulated in Methyl methacrylate (Eudragit L-100) microspheres containing Indomethacin drug were prepared and their detailed structural and magnetic characteristics were studied. Iron oxide nanoparticles were obtained by chemical coprecipitation of Fe(II) and Fe(III) salts and stabilized with tetra-methyl ammonium hydroxide. Microspheres were prepared by solvent evaporation technique. We characterized the magnetic microspheres in terms of morphology, composite microstructure, size and size distribution, magnetic properties and in-vitro release patterns. The microspheres were uniform both in shape and usually also in size; their size distribution was narrow. All the magnetic parameters confirm superparamagnetic nature of the microspheres with magnetizations up to 20–30 emu/g of microspheres. The in-vitro release profile was studied in pH 7.4 phosphate buffer medium up to 8 hours using USP XXII dissolution apparatus. Drug release in the first hour was found to increase and reached a maximum, releasing approximately 60-85% of the total drug content from the microspheres within 8 hours. From this study, it could be suggested that magnetic Methyl methacrylate microspheres could be retained at their target site in-vivo and such microspheres can be used in biomedical applications and research areas such as target drug delivery, selective blood detoxification, tissue engineering and replacement, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Keywords: Methyl methacrylate, Magnetite, Indomethacin, single emulsion solvent evaporation Technique, Chemical co-precipitation technique.