Hydrogel Polymer-PBA Nanocomposite Thin Film-Based Bifunctional Catalytic Electrode for Water Splitting: The Unique Role of the Polymer Matrix in Enhancing the Electrocatalytic Efficiency.

A novel approach to efficient bifunctional catalytic electrodes for water splitting is developed, based on a counterintuitive choice of an insulating hydrogel polymer (chitosan, CS)-Prussian blue analogue (PBA, KCoFe) nanocomposite thin film on nickel foam. The polymer matrix in KCoFe-CS enables the formation of framelike structures of the non-noble metal-based catalyst nanocrystals, in addition to improving their stability. An optimized cycling protocol leads to a substantial enhancement of the electrocatalytic efficiency for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as well as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), achieving relatively low overpotentials of 272 and 320 mV (@ 10 and 20 mA cm) and 146 mV (@ 10 mA cm), respectively, reduced Tafel slopes, and increased Faradaic efficiencies of 98 and 96%; the overpotentials estimated based on the electrochemically active surface area show similar trends.

Fabrication of Ag@Co-Al Layered Double Hydroxides Reinforced poly(o-phenylenediamine) Nanohybrid for Efficient Electrochemical Detection of 4-Nitrophenol, 2,4-Dinitrophenol and Uric acid at Nano Molar Level.

In this paper, Co-Al layered double hydroxides (LDHs), Co-Al LDHs/poly(o-phenylenediamine) (PoPD) and Ag nanoparticles decorated Co-Al LDHs/PoPD (Ag@Co-Al LDH/PoPD) samples were prepared. The as-prepared samples were characterized by XRD, Raman, XPS, FT-IR, DRS-UV-Vis, PL and TGA techniques. The salient features of morphology and size of the samples were determined using FESEM, and HR-TEM.

Bifunctional hexagonal Ni/NiO nanostructures: influence of the core-shell phase on magnetism, electrochemical sensing of serotonin, and catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol.

Ni/NiO (nickel/nickel oxide) core-shell nanostructures were synthesized through a facile combustible redox reaction. Remarkably, the hetero-phase boundary with different crystalline orientations offered dual properties, which helped in bifunctional catalysis. Presence of a metallic Ni phase changed physicochemical properties and some emerging applications (magnetic properties, optical conductivity, electrochemical sensitivity, catalytic behaviour) could be foreseen.

Antitumor Activity of Prosopis glandulosa Torr. on Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) Tumor Bearing Mice.

The antitumor activity of ethanol extract of Prosopis glandulosa Torr. (EPG) was evaluated against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) tumor model in Swiss albino mice on dose dependent manner. The activity was assessed using survival time, average increase in body weight, hematological parameters and solid tumor volume.

Size-dependent melting of silica-encapsulated gold nanoparticles.

We report on the size dependence of the melting temperature of silica-encapsulated gold nanoparticles. The melting point was determined using differential thermal analysis (DTA) coupled to thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques. The small gold particles, with sizes ranging from 1.