Under the Advanced Ceramics activity, for preparing beta alumina ionic conductors, a microwave furnace was designed and fabricated for operation upto 1800 °C. The problem of thermal runaway was solved by modifying the furnace design (Fig. 4.11). For develop-ing optical biosensors, a 0.001 M solution of 3-hydroxy-3-phenyl-1-p-chlorophenyl tria-zene (fluorescent material) was prepared in acetone, pH maintained at 5.6 by ammonium acetate (5% w/v solution in H2O) and fluorescence was measured with variation of concentration of Malathion. The fluorescence intensity continuously decreased with increasing concentration of Malathion. This was not observed with other triazenes. The variation in wavelength as well as fluorescence intensity was observed in pure distilled water and in Malathion solution.