Zinc oxide-decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes: a selective electrochemical sensor for the detection of Pb(II) ion in aqueous media

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Multiwalled carbon nanotubes, due to high conductivity, stability, and large specific surface area, have a potential ability to promote...     

Group Decision Making by Using Incomplete Fuzzy Preference Relations Based on T‐Consistency and the Order Consistency

The existing group decision making techniques may not satisfy the order consistency for aggregation in some cases. The algorithm proposed in this paper overcomes the weaknesses of the existing techniques. The method determines the unknown preferences for group decision making in such a manner that the resulting matrix is T‐consistent and order consistent simultaneously.     

Photo‐induced Leishmania DNA degradation by silver‐doped zinc oxide nanoparticle: an in‐vitro approach

Recently, the authors reported newly synthesised polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylated silver (9%)‐doped zinc oxide nanoparticle (doped semiconductor nanoparticle (DSN)) which has high potency for killing Leishmania tropica by producing reactive oxygen species on exposure to sunlight. The current report is focused on Leishmania DNA interaction and damage caused by the DSN. Here, we showed that the damage to Leishmania DNA was indirect, as the DSN was unable to interact with the DNA in intact Leishmania cell, indicating the incapability of PEGylated DSN to cross the nucleus barrier. The DNA damage was the result of high production of singlet oxygen on exposure to sunlight. The DNA damage was successfully prevented by singlet oxygen scavenger (sodium azide) confirming involvement of the highly energetic singlet oxygen in the DNA degradation process.Inspec keywords: silver, zinc compounds, nanoparticles, nanomedicine, DNA, microorganisms, cellular biophysics, biomedical engineeringOther keywords: photo‐induced Leishmania DNA degradation, PEGylated silver‐doped zinc oxide nanoparticle, Leishmania tropica, reactive oxygen species, sunlight, Leishmania DNA interaction, Leishmania cell, DNA damage, singlet oxygen scavenger, sodium azide, DNA degradation process, ZnO:Ag     

Effect of preparation methods on the catalyst performance of Co/MgLa mixed oxide catalyst for COx-free hydrogen production by ammonia decomposition

This work deals with the effect of catalyst preparation method of the mixed Co, Mg and La oxide catalysts on their structure and catalytic properties for ammonia decomposition. Two methods are used for catalysts preparations impregnation and co-precipitation (in air and in pure O₂ atmosphere), The Mg/La = 2 molar ratio and 5 wt% of cobalt content was maintained same in all catalysts. The catalyst performance was evaluated in the temperature range 300–550 °C at atmospheric pressure. The prepared catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, TPR, XPS, CO₂-TPD and SEM techniques. No pronounced differences were observed in BET among the catalysts. It was found that the 5CML-OXY (5 wt%Co over MgLa catalyst prepared by co-precipitation method in oxygen atmosphere) has superior activity among the other catalysts. This could be attributed to availability of easily reducible cobalt species determined by TPR studies and enhanced interaction between Mg and La determined by SEM and XPS. The moderate basic site density determined by CO₂-TPD results was also increased in 5CML–OXY catalysts compared with other catalysts. These consequences are might be one of the reasons for enhanced activity of 5CML–OXY catalyst compared to other catalysts. Hence catalyst preparation by co-precipitation in oxygen atmosphere is the best method which might be one of the parameters that influenced on catalytic properties of the cobalt on MgOLa₂O₃ system, for ammonia decomposition.     

Continuous microwave assisted flow synthesis and characterization of calcium deficient hydroxyapatite nanorods

Synthetic calcium deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA) nanorods (<100?nm) were rapidly prepared with the help of a new continuous microwave assisted flow synthesis (CMFS) reactor in 5?min only from aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide and orthophosphoric acid at pH 8.5. The effect of various reaction parameters like, pH, concentration, temperature, residence time, degree of crystallinity and particle surface area were studied in detail. The phase purity, particle size and morphology of the powder samples were characterised by techniques such as X-ray diffraction analysis, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. With the help of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the chemical analysis was completed. Measurements were taken into account to estimate the particle size following the dynamic light scattering. The results showed that the employed synthesis procedure offered an efficient and economical route to achieve high quality nano-sized products with suitable size and low level of impurities.     

Influence of van der waals heterostructures of 2D materials on catalytic performance of ZnO and its applications in energy: A review

Recently, photocatalysis has received huge attention in order to overcome energy crisis worldwide. Many semiconductors, potential schemes and hierarchies have come to light during past few decades to fabricate efficient catalysts however, among all these methods heterostructures have taken the world by surprise. With the advancement in post-graphene 2D materials, van der Waals heterostructures have come to light exploring enhancement in photocatalysis. During a very short period a number of ZnO-based van der Waal heterostructures have taken the limelight in the field of photocatalysis. First principles calculations and DFT approach towards the heterostructures of GeC, GaN, WSe₂, WS₂ and other layered 2D materials unleased a series of properties and facts for the provision of enhanced catalysis. Reduction in bandgap of ZnO has also been observed which widens the pathways towards visible light irradiation. However, energy applications of zinc oxide are also fascinating feature as it can serve as a photoanode to replace TiO₂. Whereas the famous hydrogen production, batteries and solar cells have also been fabricated by the use of this semiconductor.     

Bimetallic Ru-Fe Nanoparticles Supported on Carbon Nanotubes for Ammonia Decomposition and Synthesis

Alloy catalysts can achieve superior performance to single metal while reducing the cost by fine-tuning the composition and morphology. Bimetallic Ru-Fe nanoparticles were synthesized via liquid-phase reduction method followed by impregnation with multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to prepare Ru-Fe/CNTs catalysts. The Ru₃Fe/CNTs catalyst yields a superior catalytic stability for ammonia decomposition compared to the Ru/CNTs catalyst. Hence, the ammonia synthesis rate of the Ru₃Fe/CNTs catalyst was significantly higher than that of Ru/CNTs catalyst. The potential of bimetallic catalysts with reasonable composition and proportion will expand the research of efficient catalysts for ammonia decomposition and synthesis.     

Comparison of the performance of copper oxide and yttrium oxide nanoparticle based hydroxylethyl cellulose electrolytes for supercapacitors

Biodegradable solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) systems composed of hydroxylethyl cellulose blended with copper(II) oxide (CuO) and yttrium(III) oxide (Y₂O₃) nanoparticles as fillers, magnesium trifluoromethane sulfonate salt, and 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium trifluoromethane sulfonate ionic liquid were prepared, and the effects of the incorporation of CuO and Y₂O₃ nanoparticles on the performance of the SPEs for electric double‐layer capacitors (EDLCs) were compared. The X‐ray diffraction results reveal that the crystallinity of the SPE complex decreased upon inclusion of the Y₂O₃ nanoparticles compared to CuO nanoparticles; this led to a higher ionic conductivity of the Y₂O₃‐based SPE [(3.08 ± 0.01) × 10^?4 S/cm] as compared to CuO [(2.03 ± 0.01) × 10^?4 S/cm]. The EDLC performances demonstrated that the cell based on CuO nanoparticles had superior performance in terms of the specific capacitance, energy, and power density compared to the Y₂O₃‐nanoparticle‐based cell. However, Y₂O₃‐nanoparticle‐based cell displayed a high cyclic retention (91.32%) compared to the CuO‐nanoparticle‐based cell (80.46%) after 3000 charge–discharge cycles. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134 , 44636.     

Densities,ultrasonic speeds,refractive indices,and COSMO analysis for binary mixtures of dichloromethane with acetone and dimethylsulfoxide at T = (298.15, 303.15, and 308.15) K

Experimental densities (ρ), ultrasonic speeds (u), and refractive indices (n_D) of binary mixtures of dichloromethane (DCM) with acetone (ACT) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) were measured over the whole composition range at T?=?298.15, 303.15, and 308.15?K. From the experimental data, excess molar volume (V^E), deviations in isentropic compressibility (Δk_s), deviations in intermolecular free length (ΔL_f), deviations in refractive index (Δn_D), and deviations in ultrasonic speed (Δu) were calculated. Moreover, the Benson–Kiyohara theory was applied to the binary mixtures to obtain the theoretical Δk_s values. The COSMO calculations depending on density functional theory were utilized to estimate the σ-profiles for the DCM, ACT, and DMSO. The interpreted σ-profile trends were found supportive with the experimental findings. Applicability of different empirical and semi-empirical relations of refractive index data were tested against the measured results, and good agreement has been obtained. The possible results of intermolecular molecular interactions among mixture components were interpreted.     

Automated diagnosis system for age‐related macular degeneration using hybrid features set from fundus images

Impairment to macula can cause loss of central vision. There are various macular disorders that can affect macular region and if not treated at an early stage can cause irreversible central vision loss. Age‐related macular degeneration (AMD) disorder is one of the most threading macular disorder. Bright lesion, drusens presence in macular region is known as the hallmark of AMD disorder. This bright lesion differentiation from other bright lesion like exudates is important for accurate diagnosis of AMD. Focus of this article is automated diagnosis of affected macular region by applying a hybrid features set containing textural, color, and structural/shape features for more accurate detection of AMD at an early stage using fundus images. These features also help to distinguish drusens from exudates. The proposed algorithm at first stage, detect macular region from input fundus image and then perform features extraction based on textural pattern, edge, and structural properties of macular region to classify abnormal macula from normal macula. For classification, we have used support vector machine (SVM), K‐nearest neighbor and neural networks but SVM classifier achieves high accuracy. The proposed algorithm is tested on publicly available STARE and locally available AFIO datasets. Attained sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of our proposed system are 97.5%, 95% and 95.45%, respectively, when applied on STARE dataset. When we have applied our proposed system on AFIO dataset, we have attained sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 93.3%, 92% and 92.34%, respectively.