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The study is aimed to enhance the shelf life of ivy gourd through solar drying method in open, forced and natural convection mode. Ivy gourd is treated as primary agent to prepare medicines and the stems, leaves; flowers are used to cure the diseases related diabetics, ulcer, skin. The normal shelf life is 2-3 days and it can be increased up to 6 months with an effective drying process. The experiment is intended to find the best drying process among the open, natural and forced convection mode with an initial dipping method with ascorbic acid, lemon juice, sugar solution, honey solutions individually and a control sample (without dipping). A 3kg sample of ivy gourd is dipped in 10g/L of the each of the solution and it is used for the three drying process individually. The obtained results are indicating that forced convection method for ascorbic acid is best among the other drying method with highest moisture diffusivity is 7.88×10-8 m2/s and lowest activation energy 21.12 kJ/mol. It was observed that the drying kinetics of ivy gourd should be considered an indicator of efficiency for solar drying technique from environmental safety perspective. The influence of dipping solution and drying mechanisms on the functionalities of drying are discussed with suitable illustrations.

Stability is a key issue while preparing and utilization of nano fluids. Stable suspension by direct dispersion of nano particles in base fluids is not possible. Modifiers such as magnetic stirring, ultra sonication, pH modifiers and surfactant addition are used to increase the stability. But these pH modifiers and surfactant addition affect properties whereas magnetic stirring, ultra sonication involved in time consumption. There is a need to find the best method to get stable suspension with less effect on properties. The present study involves the measurement of stability in terms of absorbance by using UV/Vis spectroscopy. From this study best modifier is identified and analyzed to get better results.