CdS crystallites with rod- and flower-like architectures were synthesized using a facile hydrothermal growth method. The hexagonal crystal structure of CdS dominated the growth mechanisms of the rod- and flower-like crystallites under specific growth conditions, as indicated by structural analyses. The flower-like CdS crystallites had a higher crystal defect density and lower optical band gap v...

Specialization in plant-insect interactions is an important driver of evolutionary divergence; yet, plant traits mediating such interactions are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated how flower color and floral scent are related to seed predation by a seed-eating pollinator. We used field-transplanted recombinant F2 hybrids between Silene latifolia and S. dioica that are the preferr...

Atomistic non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of shock wave compression of quartz have been performed using the so-called BKS semi-empirical potential of van Beest, Kramer, and van Santen [Phys. Rev. B 43, 5068 (1991)] to construct the Hugoniot of quartz. Our scheme mimics the real world experimental set up by using a flyer-plate impactor to initiate the shock wave and is the first s...

Healthy buds of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia growing in the Kashmir University Botanic Garden were selected for the present study. Flower development and senescence was divided into seven stages, viz., tight bud stage (I), mature bud stage (II), pencil stage (III), partially open stage (IV), open stage (V), partially senescent stage (VI) and senescent stage (VII). Various physiological and biochem...

Probing the polarization of water molecules at charged interfaces by second harmonic generation spectroscopy has been heretofore limited to isotropic materials. Here we report non-resonant nonlinear optical measurements at the interface of anisotropic z-cut α-quartz and water under conditions of dynamically changing ionic strength and bulk solution pH. We find that the product of the third-orde...

We study the effects of insulating oxides in their crystalline forms on the energy band structure of monolayer and bilayer graphene using a first principles density functional theory based electronic structure method and a local density approximation. We consider the dielectric oxides SiO(2) (α-quartz) and Al(2)O(3) (alumina or α-sapphire), each with two surface terminations. Our study suggests...