A subtle review on the challenges of photocatalytic fuel cell for sustainable power production

The revolution in the arena of functional materials for the development of well advanced engineered photocatalyst can efficiently harness photon energy from a wide spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. These next-generation smart materials would be a spectacular approach in designing devices such as photovoltaic cells, photoelectrochemical cells, and photocatalytic fuel cells. Photocatalytic oxidation of water or wastewater for concurrent production of hydrogen and electric current has turned out as a principal concept for the construction of modern photocatalytic fuel cells (PFCs). Such PFCs mimics reverse photosynthesis process where electrical energy is generated from organic pollutants. In recent years many reviews on focusing the design, fabrication, and theoretical efficiency of the PFCs have been published. Hence the present review is aimed to unveil the wall-to-wall information starting from fundamentals spanning to working principles, structural configuration, electrochemical degradation of pollutants and photoelectrochemical properties, electron transport, thermodynamic behavior and columbic efficiency of studied PFCs.     

A new fluoride mediated synthesis of mesoporous silica and their usefulness in controlled delivery of duloxetine hydrochloride a serotonin re-uptake inhibitor

A new type of mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) was synthesized in fluoride media via sol–gel technique using TritonX 100 and Tween-20. The surface area and pore volume of the MSN particles were modified by varying the concentration of Tween-20. The prepared MSN nanoparticles with large surface area and pore volume (T-2, T-3) were selected to accommodate the model drug duloxetine hydrochloride (DX) for evaluation of their drug-loading and release abilities. Calcined and DX loaded nanoparticles were characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller technique (BET), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric (TG) analysis and UV-diffuse reflectance (UV-DRS). In vitro release studies proved that the particle displays an initial burst release followed by sustained release for up to 140 h. From the studies it is evident that the synthesized particle may be useful as a carrier for sustained release of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).     

Expression of Aspergillus nidulans phy Gene in Nicotiana benthamiana Produces Active Phytase with Broad Specificities

A full-length phytase gene (phy) of Aspergillus nidulans was amplified from the cDNA library by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and it was introduced into a bacterial expression vector, pET-28a. The recombinant protein (rPhy-E, 56 kDa) was overexpressed in the insoluble fraction of Escherichia coli culture, purified by Ni-NTA resin under denaturing conditions and injected into rats as an immunogen. To express A. nidulans phytase in a plant, the full-length of phy was cloned into a plant expression binary vector, pPZP212. The resultant construct was tested for its transient expression by Agrobacterium-infiltration into Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. Compared with a control, the agro-infiltrated leaf tissues showed the presence of phy mRNA and its high expression level in N. benthamiana. The recombinant phytase (rPhy-P, 62 kDa) was strongly reacted with the polyclonal antibody against the nonglycosylated rPhy-E. The rPhy-P showed glycosylation, two pH optima (pH 4.5 and pH 5.5), an optimum temperature at 45~55 °C, thermostability and broad substrate specificities. After deglycosylation by peptide-N-glycosidase F (PNGase-F), the rPhy-P significantly lost the phytase activity and retained 1/9 of the original activity after 10 min of incubation at 45 °C. Therefore, the deglycosylation caused a significant reduction in enzyme thermostability. In animal experiments, oral administration of the rPhy-P at 1500 U/kg body weight/day for seven days caused a significant reduction of phosphorus excretion by 16% in rat feces. Besides, the rPhy-P did not result in any toxicological changes and clinical signs.     

Resistive switching characteristics and conducting nanobits of polycrystalline NiO thin films

Thin films of NiO were deposited on Pt/Ta/glass sub-strates using a radio frequency (RF) sputtering method. The NiO thin films showed polycrystalline nature, indicating preferentially (111)-oriented structure. The resistive random access memory (RRAM) capacitor of a Pt/NiO/Pt structure exhibited unipolar switching characteristics and bistable resistivities for 200 repeated switching cycles. Furthermore, RRAM nanobits array was formed on the NiO thin films by applying a bias. The RRAM nanobits had a diameter of approximately 8 nm and were observed via a conducting atomic force microscope (CAFM). The density of the RRAM nanobits array was estimated to be approximately 0.64 Tbit/cm².     

CHIR99021 Augmented the Function of Late Endothelial Progenitor Cells by Preventing Replicative Senescence

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are specialized cells in circulating blood, well known for their ability to form new vascular structures. Aging and various ailments such as diabetes, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease make EPCs vulnerable to decreasing in number, which affects their migration, proliferation and angiogenesis. Myocardial ischemia is also linked to a reduced number of EPCs and their endothelial functional role, which hinders proper blood circulation to the myocardium. The current study shows that an aminopyrimidine derivative compound (CHIR99021) induces the inhibition of GSK-3β in cultured late EPCs. GSK-3β inhibition subsequently inhibits mTOR by blocking the phosphorylation of TSC2 and lysosomal localization of mTOR. Furthermore, suppression of GSK-3β activity considerably increased lysosomal activation and autophagy. The activation of lysosomes and autophagy by GSK-3β inhibition not only prevented replicative senescence of the late EPCs but also directed their migration, proliferation and angiogenesis. To conclude, our results demonstrate that lysosome activation and autophagy play a crucial role in blocking the replicative senescence of EPCs and in increasing their endothelial function. Thus, the findings provide an insight towards the treatment of ischemia-associated cardiovascular diseases based on the role of late EPCs.     

An efficient microwave-assisted Suzuki reaction using Pd/MCM-41 and Pd/SBA-15 as catalysts in solvent-free condition

Palladium catalysts, Pd/MCM-41 and Pd/SBA-15 were prepared by impregnation of an aqueous solution of [Pd(NH₃)₄]Cl₂ on MCM-41 and SBA-15. Palladium contents of Pd/MCM-41 and Pd/SBA-15 are 8.4% and 8.7%, respectively. It has been shown that these catalysts are very suitable to microwave-assisted Suzuki reactions under solvent-free condition. It is also found that the base additives for this reaction are K₂CO₃, Cs₂CO₃ or CsF. Thus, phenylboronic acid and phenyl iodide with Pd/MCM-41 produce biphenyl by microwave irradiation for 10 min in 97.4% yield. Phenyl bromide, instead of phenyl iodide, also proceeds the reaction with phenylboronic acid using Pd/MCM-41 or Pd/SBA-15 yielding biphenyl by microwave irradiation for 10 min in excellent yield. Whereas the reaction of phenyl chloride with phenylboronic acid gives poor yield in same condition. Various aryl iodides and aryl bromides are tested. In this paper our recent results of microwave-assisted Suzuki reaction using Pd/MCM-41 and Pd/SBA-15 under solvent-free condition are described.     

Inverted organic photovoltaic device with a new electron transport layer

We demonstrate that there is a new solution-processed electron transport layer, lithium-doped zinc oxide (LZO), with high-performance inverted organic photovoltaic device. The device exhibits a fill factor of 68.58%, an open circuit voltage of 0.86 V, a short-circuit current density of −9.35 cm/mA² along with 5.49% power conversion efficiency. In addition, we studied the performance of blend ratio dependence on inverted organic photovoltaics. Our device also demonstrates a long stability shelf life over 4 weeks in air.     

Design and analysis of cooperative wireless data access algorithms in multi-radio wireless networks

In the future, most mobile nodes will have multiple radio interfaces, and this feature can be exploited to reduce the transmission cost in wireless data access applications. In this work, we propose cooperative poll-each-read (CoopPER) and cooperative callback (CoopCB) wireless data access algorithms with strong consistency in multi-radio wireless networks. In addition, we investigate CoopPER and CoopCB in heterogeneous wireless networks where CoopPER and CoopCB nodes are mixed. Extensive simulations are done to show the effects of access-to-update ratio, data access pattern, cache size, and cooperation range. Simulation results demonstrate that CoopPER and CoopCB can significantly reduce the expensive transmission cost over wireless links.