Mahendra Kumar Trivedi, Shrikant Patil, Rama Mohan Tallapragada, Rakesh Mishra

Cellulose based polymers have shown tremendous potential as drug delivery carrier for oral drug delivery system (DDS). Hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) and hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) are widely explored as excipients to improve the solubility of poorly water soluble drugs and to improve self-life of dosage form. This work is an attempt to modulate the physicochemical properties of these cellulose derivatives using biofield treatment. The treated HEC and HPC polymer were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The XRD studies revealed a semi-crystalline nature of both the polymers. Crystallite size was computed using Scherrer’s formula, and treated HEC polymer showed a significant increase in percentage crystallite size (835%) as compared to the control polymer. This higher increase in crystallite size might be associated with greater crystallite indices causing a reduction in amorphous regions in the polymer. However treated HPC polymer showed decrease in crystallite size by -64.05% as compared to control HPC. DSC analysis on HEC polymer revealed the presence of glass transition temperature in control and treated HEC polymer. We observed an increase in glass transition temperature in treated HEC, which might be associated with restricted segmental motion induced by biofield. Nonetheless, HPC has not showed any glass transition. And no change in melting temperature peak was observed in treated HPC (T2) however melting temperature was decreased in T1 as compared to control HPC. TGA analysis established the higher thermal stability of treated HEC and HPC. CHNSO results showed significant increase in percentage oxygen and hydrogen in HEC and HPC polymers as compared to control samples. This confirmed that biofield had induced changes in chemical nature and elemental composition of the treated polymers (HEC and HPC).

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi, Shrikant Patil, Rama Mohan Tallapragada, Omprakash Latiyal, Snehasis Jana

Barium titanate, perovskite structure is known for its high dielectric constant and piezoelectric properties, which makes it interesting material for fabricating capacitors, transducer, actuator, and sensors. The perovskite crystal structure and lattice vibrations play a crucial role in its piezoelectric and ferroelectric behavior. In the present study, the barium titanate powder was subjected to biofield treatment. Further, the control and treated samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and Electron spin resonance (ESR). The XRD analysis showed the permanent compressive strain of 0.45% in treated barium titanate powder as compared to control. Furthermore, the biofield treatment has enhanced the density upto 1.38% in barium titanate as compared to control. The FT-IR spectra showed that the stretching and bending vibrations of Ti-O bond in treated BaTiO3 were shifted towards lower frequency as compared to control. The bond length was substantially increased by 0.72 % in treated BaTiO3 as compared to control. The ESR spectra of control and treated BaTiO3 sample showed the g-factor of 2.0; and biofield treatment has substantially changed the width and height of ESR signal in treated BaTiO3 as compared to control. These observations revealed that biofield treatment has significantly altered the crystal structure, lattice strain, and bond vibration of barium titanate.

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi, Shrikant Patil, Rama Mohan Tallapragada, Omprakash Latiyal

Antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) has gained extensive attention in solar cells due to their potential as a low-cost and earth abundant absorber material. In solar cell absorber, the optoelectrical properties such as energy band gap and absorption coefficient of Sb2S3 play an important role, which have strong relationships with their crystal structure, lattice parameter and crystallite size. Hence in the present investigation, Sb2S3 powder samples were exposed to biofield treatment, and further its physical, structural and spectral properties are investigated. The particle size analysis showed larger particle size and surface area after treatment. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed polycrystalline orthorhombic structure with superior crystallinity in treated Sb2S3 along with significant changes in the lattice parameters, which led to changes in unit cell volume and density. XRD data analysis indicates that crystallite size was increased by around 150% in treated sample. In FT-IR spectra, strong absorption band was observed at 400-700cm-1, which confirms the presence of Sb2S3. Further, the absorption peak intensity in IR spectra was significantly reduced after treatment that was probably due to change in metal sulphur dipolar interaction.

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi, Shrikant Patil, Rama Mohan Tallapragada, Omprakash Latiyal

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have been known for their extraordinary electrical and magnetic properties. In the present study, some transition metal oxides (Zinc oxide, iron oxide and copper oxide) which are widely used in the fabrication of electronic devices were selected and subjected to biofield treatment. The atomic and crystal structures of TMOs were carefully studied by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. XRD analysis reveals that biofield treatment significantly changed the lattice strain in unit cells, crystallite sizes and densities in ceramics oxide powders. The computed molecular weight of the treated samples exhibited significant variation. FT-IR spectra indicated that biofield treatment has altered the metal-oxygen bond strength. Since biofield treatment significantly altered the crystallite size, lattice strain and bond strength, we postulate that electrical and magnetic properties in TMOs (transition metal oxides) can be modulated by biofield treatment.