In vitro cellular response and hydrothermal aging of two-step sintered Nb2O5 doped ceria stabilized zirconia ceramics

Niobia (1 mol. %) doped Ceria Stabilized Zirconia (NbCSZ) powders were synthesized using a co-precipitation method. The synthesized powders were uniaxially compacted and sintered in air. The two-step sintering method was adopted to sinter the samples, and the sintering schedule was optimized based on density, grain size, the phase present, and the hardness of the sintered sample. It was observed that the two-step sintering method effectively suppressed the grain growth of NbCSZ samples and helped in achieving a finer grain size of 1.57 μm along with the hardness of 1195 HV10 and optimum fracture toughness value 6.20 MPa m^1/2. The Low-Temperature Degradation (LTD) behavior of the sintered samples was estimated through an accelerated hydrothermal aging test, which revealed that the samples are highly resistant to LTD and shown no phase change even after 150 h of study. Moreover, the cytocompatibility of the NbCSZ was tested by culturing MG63 cells on the samples for 7 days. The NbCSZ was found to be highly biocompatible as evident from cell viability and metabolic activity assay.     

Effect of Ni2+ as a codopant on the structure,morphology, and conductivity of nanostructured polyaniline

One‐dimensional nanostructures of polyaniline (PANI) doped with (1S)‐(+)‐10‐camphorsulfonic acid (D‐CSA) alone and with NiCl₂ as a codopant were synthesized via in situ polymerization. PANI nanofibers with diameters of about 200 nm were formed when PANI was doped with D‐CSA only. When NiCl₂ was added as a codopant, the morphology of PANI obviously changed. The effects and related mechanisms were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectroscopy, and X‐ray diffraction, and the results indicated that Ni²⁺ destroyed the micelles' structure by chemical conjunction with ? SO₃H groups in camphorsulfonic acid (CSA) molecules, which were the key component in forming the CSA–aniline micelles. The combination between Ni²⁺ and SO in CSA with a lower addition of Ni²⁺ led to a reduction of CSA doping to PANI, but a higher loading of Ni²⁺ brought about the direct doping of Ni²⁺ to PANI, which caused a higher degree of doping and oxidation. The conductivity of PANI increased almost linearly with increasing Ni²⁺. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

PLD grown ZnO-K3[Fe(CN)6] composite thin film for biosensing application

Zinc oxide-potassium ferricyanide (ZnO-KFCN) composite film was prepared on ITO coated corning glass using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The composite film has proved to be a suitable platform for enzyme immobilization. The composite matrix exhibits the advantages of ZnO along with enhanced redox property due to the presence of a mediator in the matrix. Glucose oxidase (GOx) has been chosen as the model enzyme for studying the application of the present matrix to biosensing. The sensing response of the bio-electrode, GOx/ZnO-KFCN/ITO/glass, towards glucose was studied by electrochemical and photometric techniques. The bio-electrode exhibits good linearity and low value of Michaelis-Menten constant. Due to efficient biosensing in a mediator-less system the present bio-electrode should lead to a hand held integrated lab-on-chip device.     

Hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO/C microflowers for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants under visible light irradiation: kinetics,mechanism and recyclability

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - We developed an improved hexagonal wurtzite ZnO and ZnO/C microflowers through the facile hydrothermal technique. The obtained...     

Effect of functionalized SWCNTs on microstructure of PP‐g‐MA/OMMT/f‐SWCNTs nanocomposite

The aim of this work was to study the effect of functionalized single‐walled carbon nanotubes (f‐SWCNTs) on the microstructure of PP‐g‐MA/organic modified montmorillonite (OMMT)/f‐SWCNTs ternary nanocomposite. Pristine SWCNTs were chemically modified by maleic anhydride to improve the interaction between PP‐g‐MA and nanotubes. The dispersion states of OMMT in the different nanocomposites were investigated by wide angle X‐ray diffraction. The morphologies of the nanocomposites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Crystallization behaviors of nanocomposites were studied through differential scanning calorimetry and polarizing optical microscopy. Different than the PP‐g‐MA/OMMT binary nanocomposite, in which the OMMT is mainly in an exfoliated state, the ternary PP‐g‐MA/OMMT/f‐SWCNTs nanocomposite exhibits mostly intercalated OMMT. Furthermore, in the ternary nanocomposite, the crystallization of polymer is mainly induced by f‐SWCNTs rather than by OMMT. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Load Based Key Generation for MANETs: A Comparative Study with DSR and AODV

Wireless Personal Communications - Automatic key establishment schemes are the root of secure communication in Mobile adhoc networks(MANETs). These schemes are not universal, their performance...     

Surface quality investigation of turbine blade steels for turning process

The quality of surface or surface finish is the widely used index of product quality and it is also critical in functional behavior of the products like turbine blades, especially when they are in contact with other medium or the materials. This paper presents the surface quality evaluation of turbine blade steels (ST 174PH, ST 12TE and ST T1/13W) for different combination of cutting parameters viz. speed, feed and depth of cut in a CNC turning process. The response surface method (RSM) is devised in design of experiments and 20 experiments per material are conducted in surface quality evaluation and analysis. The results are analyzed using ANOVA and different graphical methods like contour plot and 3D surface graphs. The reasons for the highest surface roughness of ST 174PH material are analyzed using metallurgical perspective. The regression equations for predicting the surface roughness of the materials are formulated in terms of cutting parameters based on experimental results and are verified using confirmatory experiments.     

Optimal Design of Water Distribution Networks Considering Fuzzy Randomness of Demands Using Cross Entropy Optimization

This paper presents cross entropy (CE) optimization for optimal design of water distribution networks (WDN) under demand uncertainty. In design of WDNs, it is desired to achieve a minimum cost WDN that provides higher reliability in meeting the demands. To achieve these goals, an optimization model is formulated for design of WDNs with an objective of minimizing the total cost of WDN subject to meeting the nodal demands at a specified system reliability, mass conservation and other physical constraints. The uncertainty in future water demands is modeled using the theory of fuzzy random variable (FRV). The water demand at each node is assumed to be following a normal distribution with a fuzzy mean, and 10 % (or 20 %) of the fuzzy mean as its standard deviation. The water demand is represented as a triangular fuzzy number with the random demand as its kernel, and the interval of ±5 % (or ±10 %) variation of the random demand as its support for two scenarios. The fuzzy random system reliability (R) of WDNs is defined on the basis of necessity measure to assess system performance under fuzzy random demands and crisp head requirements. The latin hypercube sampling method is adopted for sampling of uncertain demands. The methodology is applied to two WDNs, and optimization models are solved through cross entropy optimization for different levels of reliability, and generated tradeoffs between the cost and R. On comparing the solutions obtained with the proposed methodology with earlier reported solutions, it is noted that the proposed method is very effective in producing robust optimal solutions. On analyzing the tradeoffs between reliability and costs, the results show that negligence of uncertainty can lead to under design of the WDNs, and the cost increases steeply at higher levels of reliability. The results of the two case studies demonstrate that the presented CE based methodology is effective for fuzzy-probabilistic design of WDNs.     

Load point reliability evaluation

In this paper, a mathematical formulation of the load point reliability function based on network continuity, quality and security of supply criteria is developed. The violation of system operating criteria, such as equipment overload and undesirable voltage conditions, is included in the reliability function. The load point steady-state probabilities are calculated by the graph-theoretic approach from a four-state Markov model. The developed model introduces the concept of insecure and delay-repair states along with normal and fail states. The application of the proposed method in transmission and distribution systems reliability evaluation is illustrated by practical examples.