While slow release of chemicals has been widely applied for drug delivery, little work has been done on using this general nanotechnology-based principle for delivering nutrients to crops. In developing countries, the cost of fertilizers can be significant and is often the limiting factor for food supply. Thus, it is important to develop technologies that minimize the cost of fertilizers through efficient and targeted delivery. Urea is a rich source of nitrogen and therefore a commonly used fertilizer. We focus our work on the synthesis of environmentally benign nanoparticles carrying urea as the crop nutrient that can be released in a programmed manner for use as a nanofertilizer. In this study, the high solubility of urea molecules has been reduced by incorporating it into a matrix of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles. Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles have been selected due to their excellent biocompatibility while acting as a rich phosphorus source. In addition, the high surface area offered by nanoparticles allows binding of a large amount of urea molecules. The method reported here is simple and scalable, allowing the synthesis of a urea-modified hydroxyapatite nanohybrid as fertilizer having a ratio of urea to hydroxyapatite of 6:1 by weight. Specifically, a nanohybrid suspension was synthesized by in situ coating of hydroxyapatite with urea at the nanoscale. In addition to the stabilization imparted due to the high surface area to volume ratio of the nanoparticles, supplementary stabilization leading to high loading of urea was provided by flash drying the suspension to obtain a solid nanohybrid. This nanohybrid with a nitrogen weight of 40% provides a platform for its slow release. Its potential application in agriculture to maintain yield and reduce the amount of urea used is demonstrated.

As there are sparse data on the impact of growth media on the phenomenon of biofilm development for Candida we evaluated the efficacy of three culture media on growth, adhesion and biofilm formation of two pathogenic yeasts, Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis. The planktonic phase yeast growth, either as monocultures or mixed cultures, in sabouraud dextrose broth (SDB), yeast nitrogen base (YNB), and RPMI 1640 was compared, and adhesion as well as biofilm formation were monitored using MTT and crystal violet (CV) assays and scanning electron microscopy. Planktonic cells of C. albicans, C. tropicalis and their 1:1 co-culture showed maximal growth in SDB. C. albicans/C. tropicalis adhesion was significantly facilitated in RPMI 1640 although the YNB elicited the maximum growth for C. tropicalis. Similarly, the biofilm growth was uniformly higher for both species in RPMI 1640, and C. tropicalis was the slower biofilm former in all three media. Scanning electron microscopy images tended to confirm the results of MTT and CV assay. Taken together, our data indicate that researchers should pay heed to the choice of laboratory culture media when comparing relative planktonic/biofilm growth of Candida. There is also a need for standardisation of biofilm development media so as to facilitate cross comparisons between laboratories.

This study attempts to synthesize magnetite nanoparticles from a high purity natural iron oxide ore found in Panvila, Sri Lanka, following a novel top‐down approach. Powder X‐Ray diffraction, elemental analysis, and chemical analysis data confirmed the ore to be exclusively magnetite with Fe²⁺ : Fe³⁺ ratio of 1 : 2. Surface modified magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized by destructuring of this ore using a top‐down approach in the presence of oleic acid. These oleic acid coated nanoparticles were further dispersed in ethanol resulting in stable nanomagnetite dispersion. Interestingly, the nanoparticles demonstrated a spherical morphology with a particle size ranging from 20 to 50 nm. Magnetic force microscopic data was used to confirm the topography of the nanoparticles and to study the magnetic domain structure.