Enhancing light harvesting in bilayered dye-sensitized solar cells by tailoring light scattering with electrospun TiO nanofibers.

Dye-sensitised solar cells (DSCs) possess promising features such as high performance under low-light conditions, cost-effectiveness, and adaptability in contrast to conventional silicon-based solar cells. Introducing a scattering layer has been reported to be one of the most effective and economical solutions for improving the efficiency of DSCs. In this regard, various one-dimensional nanostructures have been applied to DSCs to enhance its light scattering property and improve electron transport, thereby achieving a better lifetime.

A non-invasive ultrasensitive diagnostic approach for COVID-19 infection using salivary label-free SERS fingerprinting and artificial intelligence.

Clinical diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 infection usually comprises the sampling of throat or nasopharyngeal swabs that are invasive and create patient discomfort. Hence, saliva is attempted as a sample of choice for the management of COVID-19 outbreaks that cripples the global healthcare system. Although limited by the risk of eliciting false-negative and positive results, tedious test procedures, requirement of specialized laboratories, and expensive reagents, nucleic acid-based tests remain the gold standard for COVID-19 diagnostics.

Egg-shell derived carbon dots for base pair selective DNA binding and recognition.

The development of base pair selective fluorescent binding probes and their interaction mode with nucleic acids have created great interest for sensing and biomedical applications. Herein, we have used chicken egg shell membrane (ESM) as a cost effective easily available protein source for the synthesis of highly fluorescent carbon dots. The detailed characterizations have confirmed the in situ formation of heteroatom doped graphitic carbon nanodots (CDs) from ESM.