An ex-situ conservation of seeds is necessary to preserve the active germplasm of crops for longer period to protect their viability and longevity. Further, it is an important requirement for achieving the goal of Food security to all, as indigenous seed storage systems cause considerable seed-grain losses which accounts nearly 1.3 billion tons worldwide. The primordial factors contributing in storage losses are nature of seeds, temperature and moisture which also promotes fungal or insect growth.<br/>Present research attempts to overcome the qualitative and quantitative seed storage losses by designing the polyurethane based nanofibrous storage bags containing uniformly distributed neem oil. The neem oil is a bio-pesticide effective over 600 species of pests including insects, nematodes, fungi and viruses while polyurethane is chosen for its excellent mechanical and thermal properties along with water resistivity.<br/>The nanofibrous bags are fabricated by a facile, scalable technique called electrospinning. The physical characterizations carried out for these neem-oil encapsulated polyurethane nanofibrous bags were, SEM, FTIR, TGA, contact angle, mechanical testing, water vapor transmission rate, while chemical characterization such as DPPH assay, and microbial assay were also performed. As fabricated bags are hydrophobic in nature with high load carrying capacity and lower water vapor permeability due to their nano size morphology and these values are found to be comparable to the commercially available bags. The encapsulation of neem oil aided in anti-oxidant, anti-fungal and insect repellent activity for an efficient and improved storage of seeds.

Neem oil encapsulated electrospun anti-fungal and anti-oxidant polyurethane nanofibrous bags for seed storage

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.