Growth Optimization of Fresh Water Diatom and Its Utilization

The work focused on response of a fresh water diatom (Aulacoseira sp.) to alternate silicon sources i.e. sodium metasilicate and nanoclay in culture conditions. A growth performance study of diatoms w .r .t silicon source, pH of the medium was done and statistical optimization was done using response surface methodology. Our studies could establish that frustules harvested from different media exhibits intonation in size and density of the pore which is significantly important as unique nanopore architecture of the frustules confers special place to diatoms in the field of opto-electronic. Secondly, investigation was done on the response of fresh water diatom on silver salt in the medium. And lastly we tried to incorporate diatom frustules into Mesua ferrea seed oil based polyurethane and investigated the thermal and optical properties of the composite. We observedsignificant improvement compared to pristine polymer. It was confirmed by performed by DSC, TGA , PL.