Copper@ZIF-8 Core-Shell Nanowires for Reusable Antimicrobial Face Masks

SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses spread via aerosols generated by infected people. Face masks can limit transmission. However, widespread use of disposable masks consumes tremendous resources and generates waste. Here, a novel material for treating blown polypropylene filtration media used in medical-grade masks to impart antimicrobial activity is reported. To produce thin copper@ZIF-8 core-shell nanowires (Cu@ZIF-8 NWs), Cu NWs are stabilized using a pluronic F-127 block copolymer, followed by growth of ZIF-8 to obtain uniform core-shell structures. The Cu@ZIF-8 NWs are applied to filtration media by dip coating. Aerosol filtration efficiency decreases upon exposure to ethanol (solvent for dip-coating), but increases with addition of Cu@ZIF-8 NWs. Cu@ZIF-8 NWs shows enhanced antibacterial activity, compared to Cu NWs or ZIF-8 alone, against Streptococcus mutans and Escherichia coli. Antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 is assayed using virus-infected Vero E6 cells, demonstrating 55% inhibition of virus replication after 48 h by 1 µg of Cu@ZIF-8 NWs per well. Cu@ZIF-8 NWs’ cytotoxicity is tested against four cell lines, and their effect on inflammatory response in A549 cells is examined, demonstrating good biocompatibility. This low-cost, scalable synthesis and straightforward deposition of Cu@ZIF-8 NWs onto filter media has great potential to reduce disease transmission, resource consumption, and environmental impact of waste.     

Laser-Empowered Random Metasurfaces for White Light Printed Image Multiplexing

Printed image multiplexing based on the design of metasurfaces has attracted much interest in the past decade. Optical switching between different images displayed directly on the metasurface is performed by altering the parameters of the incident light such as polarization, wavelength, or incidence angle. When using white light, only two-image multiplexing is implemented with polarization switching. Such metasurfaces are made of nanostructures perfectly controlled individually, which provide high-resolution pixels but small images and involve long fabrication processes. Here, it is demonstrated that laser processing of nanocomposites offers a versatile low-cost, high-speed method with large area processing capabilities for controlling the statistical properties of random metasurfaces, allowing up to three-image multiplexing under white light illumination. By independently controlling absorption and interference effects, colors in reflection and transmission can be varied independently yielding two-image multiplexing under white light. Using anisotropy of plasmonic nanoparticles, a third image can be multiplexed and revealed through polarization changes. The design strategy, the fundamental properties, and the versatility of implementation of these laser-empowered random metasurfaces are discussed. The technique, applied on flexible substrate, can find applications in information encryption or functional switchable optical devices, and offers many advantages for visual security and anticounterfeiting.     

Composition-Dependent Photoluminescence Properties and Anti-Counterfeiting Applications of A2AgX3 (A = Rb,Cs; X = Cl,Br, I)

Copper(I) halides are emerging as attractive alternatives to lead halide perovskites for optical and electronic applications. However, blue-emitting all-inorganic copper(I) halides suffer from poor stability and lack of tunability of their photoluminescence (PL) properties. Here, the preparation of silver(I) halides A₂AgX₃ (A = Rb, Cs; X = Cl, Br, I) through solid-state synthesis is reported. In contrast to the Cu(I) analogs, A₂AgX₃ are broad-band emitters sensitive to A and X site substitutions. First-principle calculations show that defect-bound excitons are responsible for the observed main PL peaks in Rb₂AgX₃ and that self-trapped excitons (STEs) contribute to a minor PL peak in Rb₂AgBr₃. This is in sharp contrast to Rb₂CuX₃, in which the PL is dominated by the emission by STEs. Moreover, the replacement of Cu(I) with Ag(I) in A₂AgX₃ significantly improves photostability and stability in the air under ambient conditions, which enables their consideration for practical applications. Thus, luminescent inks based on A₂AgX₃ are prepared and successfully used in anti-counterfeiting applications. The excellent light emission properties, significantly improved stability, simple preparation method, and tunable light emission properties demonstrated by A₂AgX₃ suggest that silver(I) halides may be attractive alternatives to toxic lead halide perovskites and unstable copper(I) halides for optical applications.     

A novel microstrip antenna loaded with EBG and ELC for bandwidth enhancement

This paper proposes the design of three compact antennas for WiMAX, WLAN and ISM band applications. Antenna 1 consists of a monopole radiating element with an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structured ground. By employing the EBG structure, an ultra-wide band frequency of 2.4–4.8 GHz (66.66%) is achieved. Antenna 2 is configured with an electric-LC (ELC) element, which achieved an ultra-wide band (UWB) frequency of 2.38–4.91 GHz (69.41%). Antenna 3 is integrated with ELC and EBG together, in which a UWB frequency of 2.3–5.3 GHz (78.94%) is obtained with improved impedance matching. The three antennas have omnidirectional radiation patterns which cover the ISM band at 2.4 GHz and WiMAX at 2.5/3.5 GHz over the operating bands. The radiation efficiency is?>?75% throughout the operating bands of all the antennas. In addition to the WiMAX and ISM bands, antenna 3 covers WLAN in the 5.2 GHz band. The proposed design can be applied to wireless mobile communication systems, which have the advantage of ease of fabrication and compactness.

     

Correction to: A Detailed Evolutionary Scrutiny of PEIS with GPS Fleet Tracker and AOMDV-SAPTV Based on Throughput,Delay, Accuracy,Error Rate,and Success Rate

Wireless Personal Communications - Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a promising and widespread wireless communication technology for entity identification or authentication. By the emerging...     

Neurorobotics

The field of neurorobotics encompasses the intersection of computational neuroscience and robotics. The TUM-led neurorobotics subproject of the Human Brain Project is actively researching concepts within the field and developing the tools to allow researchers to fully explore simulated robotics driven by computational neuroscience models. Further, the development of biologically inspired, tendon-driven robotics systems provides a unique research platform. These efforts allow researchers to explore the interesting space from computational neuroscience to intelligent robots and back.     

Rendezvous based routing protocol for wireless sensor networks with mobile sink

In wireless sensor networks, the sensor nodes find the route towards the sink to transmit data. Data transmission happens either directly to the sink node or through the intermediate nodes. As the sensor node has limited energy, it is very important to develop efficient routing technique to prolong network life time. In this paper we proposed rendezvous-based routing protocol, which creates a rendezvous region in the middle of the network and constructs a tree within that region. There are two different modes of data transmission in the proposed protocol. In Method 1, the tree is directed towards the sink and the source node transmits the data to the sink via this tree, whereas in Method 2, the sink transmits its location to the tree, and the source node gets the sink’s location from the tree and transmits the data directly to the sink. The proposed protocol is validated through experiment and compared with the existing protocols using some metrics such as packet delivery ratio, energy consumption, end-to-end latency, network life time.     

Kinetics of absorption of HCl in terpenes and isoamylene

The kinetics of reaction between HCl gas and terpenes (α-pinene, myrcene, camphene, Δ³-carene) and isoamylene (2-methyl-2-butene) were studied,The reactions of HCl with α-pinene and Δ³-carene were found to be zero order with respect to HCl and second order with respect to the olefin. TThe reactions between HCl and myrcene (in the presence of CuCl as a catalyst) and camphene were found to be first order with respect to HCl as well asThe absorption of HCl in 2-methyl-2-butene was found to be second order with respect to HCl and first order with respect to 2-methyl-2-butene. The valu     

Effect of Tween-80 on the Control of Particle Size and Shrinkage Properties of Nanoscale α-Alumina Synthesized by Sol–Gel Processing

The concept of tailored interfaces has been applied to the synthesis of nanoscale α-Al₂O₃. Tween-80 (poly-oxyethylene(20) sorbitan monooleate, T-80) was used as a surface modifier in the sol–gel process for this purpose. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy study of the powder obtained with T-80 confirmed the particle size of α-Al₂O₃ (∼55 nm) and morphology (spherical). The exothermic peak temperature in the differential thermal analysis was shifted to a lower temperature (∼917°C) when the powder was derived from a T-80 modifier content of 10 wt%. X-ray diffraction showed that the α-Al₂O₃ phase was the major phase that existed in modifier-derived powder that was sintered at 1000°C. The experiments, based on linear shrinkage, indicated that the powder with T-80 (10 wt%) could be densified at a low temperature.     

Drag reduction in dilute fibre suspensions: Some mechanistic aspects

Long hair-like fibres were injected at the boundary and centreline of a turbulent pipe flow of water and polymeric solution. Pressure drop and mean velocity profiles were measured at various Reynolds numbers and injection rates in order to study some mechanistic aspects of drag reduction in these additive systems. Drag reduction in a fibre-water system is attributed to a decrease in the momentum transfer in the turbulent-core region, whereas synergism has been found to be a wall phenomenon.