[en] Cadmium selenide has been synthesized directly from cadmium chloride in aqueous N,N'-dimethylformamide (DMF) by the use of cycloocteno-1,2,3-selenadiazole or the element itself as the source of selenium. The dark brown powders that are the end-products of these reactions were characterized by reflectance spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy

[en] Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) stabilized gold nanoparticles have been prepared in aqueous medium using two different reducing viz.; hydrazine hydrate, a stronger reducing agent and sodium formaldehydesulfoxylate (SFS), a slightly weaker reducing agent. SFS is used for first ever time for reduction of gold metal salt. The PVA stabilized gold nanoparticles solutions are wine red to blood red coloured and are stable over a long period of time with no indication of aggregation. The solution shows strong visible light absorptions in the range of 520-540 nm, characteristics of gold nanoparticles. Powder X-ray diffraction patterns of freshly prepared films containing gold nanoparticles indicated particles size to be about 15 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of a more than two-week-old sample revealed well-defined non-agglomerated spherical particles of about 50 nm diameter in solutions