Selective determination of urea using urease immobilized on ZnO nanowires

Well-aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire arrays were fabricated on gold-coated plastic substrates using a low-temperature aqueous chemical growth (ACG) method. The ZnO nanowire arrays with 50–130 nm diameters and ∼1 μm in lengths were used in an enzyme-based urea sensor through immobilization of the enzyme urease that was found to be sensitive to urea concentrations from 0.1 mM to 100 mM. Two linear sensitivity regions were observed when the electrochemical responses (EMF) of the sensors were plotted vs. the logarithmic concentration range of urea from 0.1 mM to 100 mM. The proposed sensor showed a sensitivity of 52.8 mV/decade for 0.1–40 mM urea and a fast response time less than 4 s was achieved with good selectivity, reproducibility and negligible response to common interferents such as ascorbic acid and uric acid, glucose, K⁺ and Na⁺ ions.     

Rice-like CuO nanostructures for sensitive electrochemical sensing of hydrazine

In this work, a low temperature aqueous chemical growth methodology was used for the fabrication of CuO nanostructures. The as-synthesised nanostructures were then elaborately characterised by number of analytical techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The obtained nanostructures were observed to possess interlaced rice-shaped structural features with the length and width of individual rice determined to be in the range of 200–300 nm and 50–100 nm respectively. The unique nanostructures when utilised as electrode material exhibited excellent electro-catalytic potential towards oxidation of hydrazine in alkaline media. The excellent conductive of CuO added by the high surface area of obtained nanorice-like structures enabled development of highly sensitive (3087 µA mM⁻¹ cm⁻²), selective and stable electrochemical sensor for hydrazine. In addition, the successfully application of the developed sensor in spiked tap, bottled and industrial water samples for the detection of hydrazine suggested its feasibility for practical environmental application.

     

Inconel 617 alloy creep life augmentation by graphene transfer coating

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - Presently, countries are trying to increase their energy efficiency. Therefore, the operating temperatures of very high temperature reactor (VHTR) and...     

Synthesis of composite material of cobalt oxide (Co3O4) with hydroxide functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) for electrochemical determination of uric acid

The gout is mainly found due to accumulation of uric acid crystals into the joints which produces the inflammatory symptoms. Thus, it is highly demanded to detect uric acid from our body. Herein, we prepare a composite material of cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) with hydroxide functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by hydrothermal method. The composite material is used for the modification of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and investigated for the electrochemical determination of uric acid (UA). The analytical techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier Infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) are used to characterize the composite material. The Co₃O₄ exhibits a dendrite morphology and very well chemically coupled with MWCNTs. The elemental analysis confirms the presence of cobalt (Co), oxygen (O) and carbon (C) as main constituent of the composite material. The Co₃O₄ exhibitsa cubic unit cell crystallography in the composite system. The FTIR study reveals the characteristic bands of Co–O bands in the composite material. The cyclic voltammetry isused to study the electrochemical properties of prepared materials. The composite sample with highest percentage of MWCNTs shows an excellent electrochemical activity towards the oxidation of uric acid in phosphate buffer solution pH 7.3. The enzyme free uric acid sensor possesses a linear range of 0.1 mM to 3 mM with a quantified limit of detection of 0.005?±?0.0023 mM. The modified electrode is stable, selective, and very sensitive towards uric acid, therefore it may be used for the monitoring of uric acid from clinical samples. The proposed composite material can be of great interest for energy and biomedical fields.

     

Analysis of junction properties of gold–zinc oxide nanorods-based Schottky diode by means of frequency dependent electrical characterization on textile

Present work is an effort to reveal the junction properties of gold/zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods-based Schottky diode by using the frequency dependent electrical properties. The most important electrical parameters such as conductance, resistance, capacitance, and impedance were studied as function of frequency across the series of AC voltages. Moreover, current density–voltage (J–V) was measured to know the performance of present Schottky diode. The effect of native defects was also studied by using cathodoluminescence spectroscopy measured at different accelerating voltage. The textile substrate was used for the growth of ZnO nanorods by using the aqueous chemical growth method and Schottky diode fabrication. Diode fabrication on textile fabric is a step forward toward the fabrication of electronic devices on nonconventional, economical, soft, light weight, flexible, wearable, washable, recyclable, reproducible, and nontoxic substrate.     

The fabrication of white light-emitting diodes using the n-ZnO/NiO/p-GaN heterojunction with enhanced luminescence

Cheap and efficient white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are of great interest due to the energy crisis all over the world. Herein, we have developed heterojunction LEDs based on the well-aligned ZnO nanorods and nanotubes on the p-type GaN with the insertion of the NiO buffer layer that showed enhancement in the light emission. Scanning electron microscopy have well demonstrated the arrays of the ZnO nanorods and the proper etching into the nanotubes. X-ray diffraction study describes the wurtzite crystal structure array of ZnO nanorods with the involvement of GaN at the (002) peak. The cathodoluminescence spectra represent strong and broad visible emission peaks compared to the UV emission and a weak peak at 425 nm which is originated from GaN. Electroluminescence study has shown highly improved luminescence response for the LEDs fabricated with NiO buffer layer compared to that without NiO layer. Introducing a sandwich-thin layer of NiO between the n-type ZnO and the p-type GaN will possibly block the injection of electrons from the ZnO to the GaN. Moreover, the presence of NiO buffer layer might create the confinement effect.     

Small punch test and simulation of HR3C steel

As the traditional uniaxial test requires substantial amount of cost and material usage for specimen, it is hardly applied to the direct diagnosis of structural integrity of in-service facilities. Small punch (SP) test has been, alternatively, introduced to procure material properties because SP test just needs a slice of material (10 × 10 × 0.5 mm) which can be easily obtained from real components without loss of integrity. In this study, for HR3C steel, SP tests were carried out and its three-dimensional finite element (FE) model was also developed to cross-validate the test results. Scanning electron microscope images for SP specimens were taken and compared with crack propagation simulation results generated by the extended finite element method. Furthermore, the minimum thickness change of specimen during the test was measured by several interruption tests. Configuration of SP test specimen was intensively observed with respect to punch displacement by both experiment and FE analysis, respectively.     

MoSx@NiO Composite Nanostructures: An Advanced Nonprecious Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Media

The design of the earth‐abundant, nonprecious, efficient, and stable electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media is a hot research topic in the field of renewable energies. A heterostructured system composed of MoS_x deposited on NiO nanostructures (MoS_x@NiO) as a robust catalyst for water splitting is proposed here. NiO nanosponges are applied as cocatalyst for MoS₂ in alkaline media. Both NiO and MoS₂@NiO composites are prepared by a hydrothermal method. The NiO nanostructures exhibit sponge‐like morphology and are completely covered by the sheet‐like MoS₂. The NiO and MoS₂ exhibit cubic and hexagonal phases, respectively. In the MoS_x@NiO composite, the HER experiment in 1 m KOH electrolyte results in a low overpotential (406 mV) to produce 10 mA cm^?2 current density. The Tafel slope for that case is 43 mV per decade, which is the lowest ever achieved for MoS₂‐based electrocatalyst in alkaline media. The catalyst is highly stable for at least 13 h, with no decrease in the current density. This simple, cost‐effective, and environmentally friendly methodology can pave the way for exploitation of MoS_x@NiO composite catalysts not only for water splitting, but also for other applications such as lithium ion batteries, and fuel cells.     

Low temperature synthesis of seed mediated CuO bundle of nanowires,their structural characterisation and cholesterol detection

In this study, we have successfully synthesised CuO bundle of nanowires using simple, cheap and low temperature hydrothermal growth method. The growth parameters such as precursor concentration and time for duration of growth were optimised. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) has demonstrated that the CuO bundles of nanowires are highly dense, uniform and perpendicularly oriented to the substrate. The high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) has demonstrated that the CuO nanostructures consist of bundle of nanowires and their growth pattern is along the [010] direction. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique described that CuO bundle of nanowires possess the monoclinic crystal phase. The surface and chemical composition analyses were carried out with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique and the obtained results suggested the pure crystal state of CuO nanostructures. In addition, the CuO nanowires were used for the cholesterol sensing application by immobilising the cholesterol oxidase through electrostatic attraction. The infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy study has also revealed that CuO nanostructures are consisting of only CuO bonding and has also shown the possible interaction of cholesterol oxidase with the sharp edge surface of CuO bundle of nanowires. The proposed cholesterol sensor has demonstrated the wide range of detection of cholesterol with good sensitivity of 33.88 ± 0.96 mV/decade. Moreover, the CuO bundle of nanowires based sensor electrode has revealed good repeatability, reproducibility, stability, selectivity and a fast response time of less than 10 s. The cholesterol sensor based on the immobilised cholesterol oxidase has good potential applicability for the determination of cholesterol from the human serum and other biological samples.