Influence of pH on the DSSC Performance of Template Assisted SnO2 Nanostructures

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - This paper reports the performance of alizarin based SnO2 dye-sensitized solar cells. A novel template assisted method has been...     

Yield optimization for complex reactor systems

For complex reactions, the choice of reactor type is important for attaining optimum product yields. Strategies for specifying reactor types have beenIn this paper, product yield in a Van de Vusse reaction scheme has been studied for a wide range of the rate constants, in a reactor system consisting     

Cross‐polarization reduction of microstrip antenna using microwave absorbers

In this article, a metamaterial inspired microwave absorber is used to reduce the cross‐polarization (XP) level of the radiated wave in microstrip antenna (MSA). A microwave absorber unit‐cell has been analyzed and implemented to reduce the cross polarization (XP) level in a single element and a 2 × 2 microstrip patch array antennas. The antennas have been designed on a FR‐4 substrate of thickness 0.8 mm at 10.1 GHz center frequency. The 2 × 2 patch array antenna with and without the absorbers have been experimentally verified for the S11 parameter, the radiation pattern, and the XP suppression in H‐plane and a good comparison has been found.     

Optimization of inoculum to substrate ratio for bio-energy generation in co-digestion of tannery solid wastes

The inoculum to substrate (I/S) ratio is an important factor which influences the anaerobic digestion process. In this study, the effect of different I/S ratios on the performance of co-digestion of fleshings along with mixture of sludge generated during treatment of tannery wastewater was investigated. The parameters studied were biogas generation, volatile solids reduction, volatile fatty acid (VFA) production, and the stability of the digestion process based on VFA to alkalinity ratio was evaluated for various I/S ratios. Economical significance of I/S ratio as related to the volume of the anaerobic digester and the potential benefit of bio-energy generated are discussed in detail.     

Development and performance analysis of a novel agitated vessel

The objective of the present study was to design, fabricate and evaluate the performance of a novel airi-nducing impeller system with a specially designed air-inducing tube-set. The novel air-inducing impeller system, when attached to a conventional baffled agitated vessel, could convert it into an air-inducing reactor. Water was used as the working fluid and the characteristics of the impeller system such as critical speed, power consumption and gas holdup were investigated by varying the gas free liquid level, orifice immersion depth, bottom clearance and impeller speed. Results showed that this novel air-inducing impeller system induced the air at speeds lower than the critical speeds reported by most of the investigators in the literature.     

Effect of ozonation and ultrasonication pretreatment processes on co-digestion of tannery solid wastes

Studies were carried out by the application of ozonation and ultrasonication as pretreatment processes on primary and secondary sludge generated during treatment of tannery wastewater to enhance the soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD). Further, co-digestion (simultaneous digestion of two or more substrates) studies were carried out in batch reactors using the fleshings (a solid waste generated during the processing of raw hides or skins into finished leather) along with the primary and the secondary sludge wherein biogas generation was compared with and without pre-treated sludge using ozone and ultrasonication processes, respectively. It was found that, application of pretreatment processes enhanced biogas generation by 45% in the case of ozone pre-treated sludge and 53% by ultrasonication processes, respectively, in conjunction with the fleshings. However, considering the optimum contact time required, application of ultrasonication as a pretreatment process was found to be the most appropriate and viable process to enhance the SCOD. This pretreatment process has the potential for implementation in tanneries using the shortest possible ultrasonication time to minimize energy cost when compared with ozonation time.     

Ant colony optimisation of spatial steel structures under static and earthquake loading

Optimisation is the process of trying to find out the best possible solution to any problem satisfying constraints. Soft computing is the class of methods which have been inspired by the biological computational methods and nature's problem-solving strategies. Currently, these methods include neural networks, evolutionary computational models such as genetic algorithms, random cost and linguistic models such as fuzzy logic. Ant colony optimisation (ACO) is one such method applied for large engineering combinatorial optimisation problems. A design procedure utilising an ACO technique is developed for discrete optimisation of reticulated steel space trusses. The ACO algorithm is motivated by the analogy with natural phenomena, in particular the ability of a colony of ants to ‘optimise’ their collective endeavours. In this paper, the computational implementation of ACO is presented in a structural design context. The objective function considered is the total weight/cost of the structure subjected to material and performance constraints in the form of stress and deflection limits. In the case of reticulated space trusses, the design variables are the cross-sectional areas of members belonging to various groups. The objective function and constraints are obtained by using structural analysis package FEAST (Anonymous, 1995. FEAST user manual. Trivandrum, India: SEG, SDS Group, ISRO, VSSC) in case of structures subjected to static loading and SAP90 (Anonymous, 1990. SAP90, ETABS, SAFE – computer software for structural and earthquake engineering. Berkeley, CA: Computers and Structures) for earthquake loading for reticulated steel space trusses. The numerical examples presented demonstrate the computational advantage of the ACO for large-scale optimisation problems.     

Minocycline Loaded Hybrid Composites Nanoparticles for Mesenchymal Stem Cells Differentiation into Osteogenesis

Bone transplants are used to treat fractures and increase new tissue development in bone tissue engineering. Grafting of massive implantations showing slow curing rate and results in cell death for poor vascularization. The potentials of biocomposite scaffolds to mimic extracellular matrix (ECM) and including new biomaterials could produce a better substitute for new bone tissue formation. A purpose of this study is to analyze polycaprolactone/silk fibroin/hyaluronic acid/minocycline hydrochloride (PCL/SF/HA/MH) nanoparticles initiate human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) proliferation and differentiation into osteogenesis. Electrospraying technique was used to develop PCL, PCL/SF, PCL/SF/HA and PCL/SF/HA/MH hybrid biocomposite nanoparticles and characterization was analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), contact angle and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The obtained results proved that the particle diameter and water contact angle obtained around 0.54 ± 0.12 to 3.2 ± 0.18 µm and 43.93 ± 10.8° to 133.1 ± 12.4° respectively. The cell proliferation and cell-nanoparticle interactions analyzed using (3-(4,5-dimethyl thiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium inner salt) MTS assay (Promega, Madison, WI, USA), FESEM for cell morphology and 5-Chloromethylfluorescein diacetate (CMFDA) dye for imaging live cells. Osteogenic differentiation was proved by expression of osteocalcin, alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) and mineralization was confirmed by using alizarin red (ARS). The quantity of cells was considerably increased in PCL/SF/HA/MH nanoparticles when compare to all other biocomposite nanoparticles and the cell interaction was observed more on PCL/SF/HA/MH nanoparticles. The electrosprayed PCL/SF/HA/MH biocomposite nanoparticle significantly initiated increased cell proliferation, osteogenic differentiation and mineralization, which provide huge potential for bone tissue engineering.