In situ prepared polypyrrole–Ag nanocomposites: optical properties and morphology

Polypyrrole–silver (PPy–Ag) nanocomposites with various silver contents have been synthesized via a kinetically favorable one-step chemical oxidative polymerization process. The oxidant, ammonium persulfate, was used to oxidize pyrrole monomer for growing chains of PPy. And AgNO₃ was used as a precursor for metallic silver nanoparticles. The detailed characterization techniques, UV–Vis–NIR, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), have been used to reveal electronic environment, structure, and morphology of composites as well as as-synthesized PPy. The synthesis environment prior to polymerization has also been investigated by absorption spectroscopy. The TEM images of PPy–Ag nanocomposites reveal that silver nanoparticles are deeply embedded into the polymer matrix in addition to surface adsorption. It is observed that the size distribution of inorganic nanoparticles (ca. 4–10 nm, depending on the metal ion concentrations) as well as structural morphology is altered by the initial concentrations of silver ions.     

Experimental Evaluation of Trilateration-Based Outdoor Localization with LoRaWAN

Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) in the Internet of Things (IoT) domain has been the subject of interest for researchers. There is an increasing demand to localize these IoT devices using LoRaWAN due to the quickly growing number of IoT devices. LoRaWAN is well suited to support localization applications in IoTs due to its low power consumption and long range. Multiple approaches have been proposed to solve the localization problem using LoRaWAN. The Expected Signal Power (ESP) based trilateration algorithm has the significant potential for localization because ESP can identify the signal’s energy below the noise floor with no additional hardware requirements and ease of implementation. This research article offers the technical evaluation of the trilateration technique, its efficiency, and its limitations for the localization using LoRa ESP in a large outdoor populated campus environment. Additionally, experimental evaluations are conducted to determine the effects of frequency hopping, outlier removal, and increasing the number of gateways on localization accuracy. Results obtained from the experiment show the importance of calculating the path loss exponent for every frequency to circumvent the high localization error because of the frequency hopping, thus improving the localization performance without the need of using only a single frequency.     

Control of Halogen Atom in Inorganic Metal-Halide Perovskites Enables Large Piezoelectricity for Electromechanical Energy Generation

Regulating the strain of inorganic perovskites has emerged as a critical approach to control their electronic and optical properties. Here, an alternative strategy to further control the piezoelectric properties by substituting the halogen atom (I/Br) in the CsPbX₃ perovskite (X = Cl, Br) structure is adopted. A series of piezoelectric materials with excellent piezoelectric coefficients (d₃₃) are unveiled. Iodine-incorporated CsPbBr₂I demonstrates the record intrinsic piezoelectric response (d₃₃ ≈47 pC N⁻¹) among all inorganic metal halide perovskites. This leads to an excellent electrical output power of ≈ 0.375 mW (24.8 µW cm⁻² N⁻¹) in the piezoelectric energy generator (PEG) which is higher than those of the pristine/mixed perovskite references with CsPbX₃ (X = I, Br, Cl). With its structural phase remaining unchanged, the strained CsPbBr₂I retains its superior piezoelectricity in both thin film and nanocrystal powder forms, further demonstrating its repeatability and versatility of applications. The origin of high piezoelectricity is found to be due to halogen-induced anisotropic lattice strain in the unit-cell along the c-axis, and octahedral distortion. This study reveals an avenue to design new piezoelectric materials by modifying their halide constituents and paves the way to design efficient PEGs for improved electromechanical energy conversion.     

Water sensor for a nonaqueous solvent with poly(1,5-diaminonapthalene) nanofibers

A water sensor for a nonaqueous solvent was fabricated using poly(1,5-diaminonapthalene (DAN) nanofibers, which were prepared through a catalytic chemical polymerization of the DAN monomer using Fe(III) salt as the catalyst. Poly(1,5-DAN) nanofibers were characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and UV-vis spectroscopy. The electrochemical properties of poly(1,5-DAN) nanofibers were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The electrochemical activity of poly(1,5-DAN) nanofibers was utilized for water sensing. The fabrication of water sensor was followed by placing one drop (about 2 microL) of 0.01% poly(1,5-DAN) nanofibers solution in the gap between two split gold electrodes (PBSA) and completely dried. The response of the water sensor in an acetonitrile solution was evaluated under optimized conditions. The linear dynamic range was from 0.05 to 20%, and the detection limit was determined to be 0.01%. The response of this sensor was shown to be comparable to that obtained with the Karl Fischer titration method.     

Predicting organic carbon-water partitioning of hydrophobic organic chemicals in soils and sediments based on water solubility

For predicting organic carbon-water partitioning of organic pollutants in soils and sediments, a simple empirical relationship is derived from Raoult's law and fitted to data sets of experimental organic carbon normalized partition coefficients (K(oc)) and aqueous solubilities (S(i)) of 64 hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) from literature including mono- and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated monoaromatic and alkyl hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls. Although over 5 orders of magnitude are covered in sorptivity (logK(oc)), the new relationship (logK(oc)=-0.85 logS(i)-0.55) predicts K(oc) with an average absolute deviation of only 0.23 log units. The relationship between K(oc) and S(i) is inverse and slightly nonlinear. The product of K(oc) times S(i) (=K(oc)( *), which indicates the theoretical maximum contaminant loading at its solubility limit per unit mass of organic carbon) is 0.098kgkg(-1) and 0.012kgkg(-1) for compounds with water solubilities of 1gL(-1) and 1mugL(-1), respectively.     

Extraction of penicillin G from aqueous solutions: Analysis of reaction equilibrium and mass transfer

Analysis of the reaction equilibrium and mass transfer in the extraction of penicillin G (Pen G) into an organic phase is an important research area to develop a cost-effective process for its separation from an aqueous fermentation media. In order to evaluate this, equilibrium experiments were first carried out to select the organic phase (composed of the carrier and solvent) that gives good values for the distribution of penicillin G between the aqueous and organic phases. An organic phase of Amberlite LA-2 in any of the solvents (Shellsol TK/butyl acetate/tributyl phosphate) gave high distribution coefficient and the stoichiometry of the reaction has been shown to follow a simple ratio of 2:2. The performance of the organic phases was evaluated in a membrane contactor and very high percentage extraction was achieved. The extraction was performed by contacting a “feed” solution containing penicillin G (flowing in the fiber side) with an “organic phase” of Amberlite LA-2 in one of the solvents (flowing on the shell side) of the contactor. The antibiotic solutes formed complex with the Amberlite LA-2 molecules which were transported across the fiber wall to the shell side and extracted in the organic phase. The extraction in once-through mode was low and the feed/organic solutions need to be recycled to increase the percentage extraction. In the recycle mode operated at flow rates of 3.6–4.4 mL/s, an extraction of 90–98% was achieved. A simple mathematical model and its semi-analytical solution presented here can be used to determine the overall mass transfer coefficient using the experimental values of the distribution coefficient, operating parameters and the dimensions of the membrane module.     

Radiation from a small monopole in a uniaxially anisotropic plasma

The radiation field of a small monopole over a ground plane covered with a uniaxially anisotropic plasma with an arbitrary inclination of the optical axis is studied. A steepest descent evaluation of the field integrals has been performed under the elliptic condition, and some calculated power patterns have been studied in comparison with those for a small dipole in an unbounded uniaxially anisotropic plasma. For an arbitrary inclination of the optic axis, considerable differences between the power patterns of the two configurations have been observed. Lateral waves and concentrated field regions are found to occur from mode coupling at the surface of the ground plane.     

Software error rate evaluation

An expression for estimating the error rate of computer programs is suggested. It is assumed that the total number of errors in a computer program is proportional to the total number of instructions in the program and errors detected are proportional to remaining errors.