Physical, Thermal and Spectroscopic Studies of Biofield Treated p-Chlorobenzonitrile

Para-chlorobenzonitrile (p-CBN) is widely used as a chemical intermediate in the manufacturing of dyes, medicines, and pesticides, however; sometimes it may cause runaway reactions at high temperatures. The current study was designed to evaluate the impact of biofield energy treatment on the physical, thermal, and spectroscopic properties of p-CBN. The analysis was done by dividing the p-CBN samples into two groups that served as control and treated. The treated group received Mr. Trivedi’s biofield treatment. Subsequently, the control and treated samples were evaluated using various analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area analyser, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) and UV-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. The XRD results showed an increase in the crystallite size (66.18 nm) of the treated sample as compared to the control sample (53.63 nm). The surface area analysis of the treated sample also showed 14.19% decrease in the surface area as compared to control. Furthermore, DSC analysis results showed that the latent heat of fusion of the treated p-CBN increased considerably by 5.94% as compared to control. However, the melting temperature of the treated sample did not show any considerable change from the control sample. Besides, TGA/DTG studies showed that Tmax(the temperature at which the sample lost its maximum weight) was increased by 5.22% along with an increase in its onset of thermal decomposition temperature i.e. 96.80°C in the biofield treated p-CBN as compared to the control sample (84.65°C). This indicates that the thermal stability of treated p-CBN sample might increase as compared to the control sample. However, no change was found in the FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic character of the treated p-CBN as compared to the control. These findings suggest that the biofield treatment significantly altered the physical and thermal properties of p-CBN, which could make it more useful as a chemical intermediate.

The XRD results showed that the crystallite size was increased by 23% in the treated p-CBN sample as compared to the control, which might be due to the formation of intermolecular bonding between CN and Cl groups of p-CBN. The surface area analysis showed a 14.19% decrease in the surface area of the treated p-CBN sample as compared to the control that which may be a result of increase in crystallite size of the p-CBN sample after the biofield treatment. DSC analysis data revealed that the latent heat of fusion was increased by 5.94% in treated the p-CBN as compared to the control. TGA/DTG studies showed that the onset temperature and Tmax were increased by 14.35% and 5.22%, respectively, in the treated p-CBN sample. On the basis of thermal analysis data, it is hypothesized that the thermal stability of the treated p-CBN sample probably increased, which may affect its shelf life and efficacy along with safety when used in various chemical reactions. Therefore, it is assumed that the biofield treated p-CBN could be more useful and safe in the production of various pharmaceutical products.