Design of a Tri-band Patch Antenna with Back Reflector for Off-Body Communication

Wireless Personal Communications - In this paper, a patch antenna for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications is proposed. Antenna is designed for on-body to Off-body communication that aims...     

Experimental investigations on solar chimney for room ventilation

Experimental investigations on a small size solar chimney show that the rate of ventilation increases with increase of the ratio between height of absorber and gap between glass and absorber. This finding is in agreement with results of the steady-state mathematical model developed for analysis of such systems. Nine different combination of absorber height and air gap have been investigated on the experimental set-up. Highest rate of ventilation induced with the help of solar energy was found to be 5.6 air change per hour in a room of 27 m³, at solar radiation 700 W/m² on vertical surface with the stack height-air gap ratio of 2.83 for a 1 m high chimney.     

Metal ion sensing and light activated antimicrobial activity of aloe-vera derived carbon dots

Carbon dots (CDs) have emerged out as a potential material amongst the carbon family for a wide range of applications including chemical/biological sensing, photocatalysis, bioimaging, etc. The green synthesis of these CDs from natural sources is gaining the significant interest of peer community for their wide utility. Herein, we present a facile one-step pyrolysis method for CDs synthesis from Aloe-Vera extract, which show bright blue luminescence under UV light with a quantum yield of 12.3%. Further, ex-situ morphological, structural and optical characterizations reveal their high quality and excitation independent emission behavior with the presence of carboxyl, hydroxyl functional groups. Furthermore, these CDs were studied for Fe(III) sensing in water without any surface modifications and assessed for their light activated antibacterial activity against E.Coli and Staphylococcus aureus.     

Tailoring of Electromagnetic Absorption in Substituted Hexaferrites from 8.2 GHz to 12.4 GHz

Journal of Electronic Materials - Microwave absorbers are an important topic of interest to mitigate electromagnetic interference. Here, we have investigated electromagnetic absorption properties...     

Design of a patch antenna with square ring-shaped-coupled ground for on-/off body communication

Bio-telemetry is an advanced area of research that enables the transmission of biomedical parameters from human body to external monitoring device. Wearable antennas showing robust performance are attaining attention for RF bio-telemetry. A square ring-shaped ground antenna with a truncated patch is investigated for dual mode, on-body and off-body communication. The proposed antenna structure is analysed and optimised on a multi-layered flat tissue phantom. Proposed design resonates at 2.6 GHz with |S11| ?22 dB and at 5.2 GHz with |S11| ?35 dB on the phantom gel. Wide bandwidth of 520 MHz (2.33–2.85 GHz) and 620 MHz (4.78–5.4 GHz) efficiently covers ISM, LTE and WLAN bands and enables the antenna to withstand frequency detuning due to different body postures. Antenna shows maximum radiation efficiency of 15% at 2.45 GHz band when placed close to the tissue. Low specific absorption rate (SAR) value of 0.459/0.523/0.303 W/Kg at 2.45/2.6/5.2 GHz ensures the tissue safety.     

MXene-Based Anode-Free Magnesium Metal Battery

Rechargeable magnesium batteries (RMBs) are promising next-generation low-cost and high-energy devices. Among all RMBs, anode-free magnesium metal batteries that use in situ magnesium-plated current collectors as negative electrodes can afford optimal energy densities. However, anode-free magnesium metal batteries have remained elusive so far, as their practical application is plagued by low Mg plating/stripping efficiency due to nonuniform Mg deposition on conventional anode current collectors. Herein, for the first time, an anode-free Mg-metal battery is developed by employing a 3D MXene (Ti₃C₂T_x) film with horizontal Mg electrodeposition. The magnesiophilic oxygen and reactive fluorine terminations in MXene enable an enriched local magnesium-ion concentration and a durable magnesium fluoride-rich solid electrolyte interphase on the Ti₃C₂T_x film surface. Meanwhile, Ti₃C₂T_x MXene exhibits a high lattice geometrical fit with Mg (≈96%) to guide the horizontal electrodeposition of Mg. Consequently, the developed Ti₃C₂T_x film achieves reversible Mg plating/stripping with high Coulombic efficiencies (>99.4%) at high-current-density (5.0 mA cm⁻²) and high-Mg-utilization (50%) conditions. When this Ti₃C₂T_x film is coupled with a pre-magnesized Mo₆S₈ cathode, the anode-free Mg-metal full-cell prototype exhibits a volumetric energy density five times higher than its standard Mg-metal counterpart. This work provides insights into the rational design of anode current collectors to guide horizontal Mg electrodeposition for anode-free Mg metal batteries.     

Green method for determination of phenolic compounds in mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) based on near‐infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics

Mung bean grains exhibit high level of antioxidant activity due the presence of phenolic compounds. Near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), in conjunction with chemometrics, was used to develop a rapid, nondestructive, chemical free and easy‐to‐use method to determine these compounds in sixty genotypes of mung bean. NIRS calibration curve with high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as reference method was used to determine phenolic compounds (catechin, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, p‐coumaric acid, t‐ferulic acid, vitexin, isovitexin, myricetin, quercetin and kaempferol). It was observed that partial least square regression (PLSR) model in the wavelength range of 1600–2500 nm with standard normal variate (SNV) and linear baseline correction (LBC) as preprocessing techniques can measure phenolic compound accurately (R² > 0.987) with root‐mean‐square error less than 1.82%. This study shows that NIRS along with chemometrics is an accurate method to estimate the phenolic compounds rapidly and nondestructively.     

A Rapid High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Photodiode Array Detection Method to Determine Phenolic Compounds in Mung Bean (Vigna radiata L.)

A fast method was developed for simultaneous detection and quantification of 12 phenolic compounds in mung bean, using reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The method was optimized for mobile phase combination, elution gradient, detection wavelength, and solvent extraction. All the phenolic compounds (gallic acid, neochlorogenic acid, catechin, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, t-ferulic acid, vitexin, isovitexin, myricetin, quercetin, and kaempferol) were eluted for 18 min and recovered within a limit as per International Council for Harmonization guidelines. The method showed good linearity with correlation coefficient of 0.998. The limit of detection and quantification of all the compounds ranges from 0.27 ± 0.01 to 3.65 ± 0.3µg/mL and 0.91 ± 0.1 to 12.17 ± 0.9µg/mL, respectively. Vitexin (28.10 ± 0.20 to 29.60 ± 0.6 mg/100 g raw material) and isovitexin (34.09 ± 0.14 to 36.83 ± 0.82 mg/100 g raw material) were the major phenolic compounds along with other phenolic compounds found in mung beans.     

Flexible polypyrrole activated micro-porous paper-based photoanode for photoelectrochemical water splitting

We herein demonstrate polypyrrole decorated micro-porous laboratory filter paper (PFP) as photoanode (PA) for efficient and stable water splitting. The straddling band position with water redox and the measured band gap of ~1.98 eV, make these PFP-PAs effective for water splitting reactions. The results manifest excellent photo-anodic PEC activity of these PFP-PAs, yielding a photocurrent density of ~9.5 mA/cm² (at 1.23 V vs. RHE) in a three-electrode configuration. The incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) and applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) was measured to be 43.19% and ~1%, respectively. Moreover, the robustness of these flexible PFP-PAs was visualized by the provided stability for more than ~160 min in alkaline conditions. The current study provides a proof-of-concept for the realization of a cost-effective, flexible, and efficient paper-based artificial catalyst (like a natural leaf) for solar-driven water splitting.     

Optimization and characterization of pulsed electric field parameters for extraction of quercetin and ellagic acid in emblica officinalis juice

A novel study has been optimized for the application of pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment (varying from 18 to 24 kV cm^?1 for the duration 300–1,000 µs) on fresh emblica juice for extracting quercetin & ellagic acid which are considered as the major secondary metabolites in plant based foods. HPLC–PDA studies showed substantial increase (p < 0.05) in the PEF extracted levels of above metabolites in herb juice. It can be attributed to PEF induced vibrational disruption which increases the metabolic stress leading to emergence of these compounds. Both Raman and FTIR characterization, confirmed the presence of these in emblica juice. Electric field strength of 22 kV cm^?1 was found to be optimum, where maximum cell disintegration index (0.79) was achieved during treatment time of 500 µs, which enhanced the amount of quercetin to about ninefolds and ellagic acid to about twofolds respectively, in comparison to untreated and thermally treated juice sample. However, a reverse trend was observed in thermally treated juice where degradation of the compounds (p < 0.05) was detected. Thus, PEF can be considered as a viable medium for extracting intracellular metabolites, thereby incrementing the functional potential of emblica juice.