A Contemporary Survey on IoT Based Smart Cities: Architecture,Applications, and Open Issues

Wireless Personal Communications - Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the emerging technologies, which is widely used across the globe. As the idea of a smart city was founded, IoT has been...     

Tuning of shear thickening behavior and elastic strength of polyvinylidene fluoride via doping of ZnO-graphene

ZnO rice like nonarchitects are grafted on the graphene carbon core via a rapid microwave synthesis route. The prepared grafted systems are characterized via XRD, SEM, RAMAN, and XPS to examined the structural and morphological parameters. Zinc oxide grafted graphene sheets (ZnO-G) are further doped in β-phase of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to prepare the polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) via mixed solvent approach (THF/DMF). β-phase confirmation of PVDF PNCs is done by FTIR studies. It is observed that ZnO-G filler enhances the β-phase content in the PNCs. Non-doped PVDF and PNCs are further studied for rheological behavior under the shear rate of 1–100 s⁻¹. Doping of ZnO-G dopant to the PVDF matrix changes its discontinuous shear thickening (DST) behavior to continues shear thickening behavior (CST). Hydrocluster formation and their interaction with the dopant could be the reason for this striking DST to CST behavioral change. Strain amplitude sweep (10⁻³% -10%) oscillatory test reveals that the PNCs shows extended linear viscoelastic region with high elastic modulus and lower viscous modulus. Effective shear thickening behavior and strong elastic strength of these PNCs present their candidature for various fields including mechanical and soft body armor applications.     

Middleware Technologies for Smart Wireless Sensor Networks towards Internet of Things: A Comparative Review

Wireless Personal Communications - Internet of Things (IoT) offers complex networks of connected devices, which are used to serve in the real-time environment. Interestingly, Wireless Sensor...     

Process Variation Study of SELBOX Inverted- T Junctionless FinFET for High-Performance Applications

This work investigates the performance of the inverted-T (IT) junctionless (JL) FinFET with selective buried oxide (SELBOX) topology. The electrical charac     

Ionic liquid-based deep eutectic solvents as novel solvent-cum-catalyst media for thermal dehydrogenation of chemical hydrides

The current work explores the usage of novel synthesized Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) as a catalyst cum solvent media for the thermal dehydrogenation of chemical hydrides, namely Ammonia Borane (AB) and Ethylene diamine bisborane (EDAB). In the first instance, the quantum chemistry based COSMO-SAC (COnductor like Screening MOdel Segment Activity Coefficient) model was used for the selection of the pertinent solvent. 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium methanesulfonate: Imidazole ([BMIM][MeSO₃]:[Im]) turned out to be an ideal eutectic mixture with the highest predicted solubility with amine boranes. The DES was synthesized by combining the Hydrogen Bond Acceptor (HBA), namely 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium methanesulfonate and Imidazole as Hydrogen Bond Donor (HBD) at a molar ratio of 1:2 and T = 70 °C. The formation of DES was confirmed by recording the NMR spectra. Further, the thermal dehydrogenation study was performed at a vacuum of 4 × 10^?2 mbar (gauge pressure) of AB/DES and EDAB/DES systems at 105 °C, where a hydrogen equivalent of 1.40 and 2.55 was produced, respectively. The residual samples were further analyzed through ¹H NMR analysis for the reaction mechanism and to confirm the role of Ionic Liquid-based DES as catalyst cum solvent media.     

Efficient Design of Bi-circular Patch Antenna for 5G Communication with Mathematical Calculations for Resonant Frequencies

Wireless Personal Communications - In this paper the conventional circular patch has been reshaped by two circular arcs with the FR4 Epoxy material for substrate. This is supported by the...     

Systematic characterization of Cl2 reactive ion etchingfor improved ohmics in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Pre-metal-deposition reactive ion etching (RIE) was performed on an Al_0.3Ga_0.7N/AlN/GaN heterostructure in order to improve the metal-to-semiconductor contact resistance. An optimum AlGaN thickness for minimizing contact resistance was determined. An initial decrease in contact resistance with etching time was explained in terms of removal of an oxide surface layer and/or by an increase in tunnelling current with the decrease of the AlGaN thickness. The presence of a dissimilar surface layer was confirmed by an initial nonuniform etch depth rate. An increase in contact resistance for deeper etches was experienced. The increase was related to depletion of the two-dimensional (2-D) electron gas (2-DEG) under the ohmics. Etch depths were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The contact resistance decreased from about 0.45 Ωmm for unetched ohmics to a minimum of 0.27 Ωmm for 70 Å etched ohmics. The initial thickness of the AlGaN layer was 250 Å. The decrease in contact resistance, without excessive complications on device processing, supports RIE etching as a viable solution to improve ohmic contact resistance in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs