Publications by authors named "Theerthagiri J"

Herein, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) embedded with RuPdIrPtAu-high entropy alloys (HEA) via pulsed laser irradiation in liquids are successfully fabricated. The resultant composite synergistically enhances hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR)-boosted water electrolysis. Notably, HEA with ≈2-5 nm size, are uniformly distributed across the surface of the CNTs.

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Water electrolyzer is crucial for producing clean hydrogen, but the traditional approach faces challenges owing to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) slow kinetics at the anode. Hybrid water splitting replaces the OER with the oxidation of an organic molecule to enhance hydrogen production along with value-added products. The scarcity of affordable and highly effective catalysts remains a major challenge.

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Nonaqueous zinc-ion batteries (NZIBs) featuring manganese dioxide (MnO) cathodes position themselves as viable options for large-scale energy storage systems. Herein, we demonstrate the use of ammonium cation as a preintercalant to improve the performance of the δ-MnO cathode in wet dimethyl sulfoxide based electrolytes. Employing in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and synchrotron X-ray diffraction, we reveal that the integration of ammonium cations promotes the formation of NH-O-Mn networks.

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This study addresses the urgent need to focus on the nitrite reduction reaction (NORR) to ammonia (NH). A ternary-metal Prussian blue analogue (CoCuFe-PBA) was utilized as the template material, leveraging its tunable electronic properties to synthesize CoCuFe oxide (CoCuFe-O) through controlled calcination. Subsequently, a CoCuFe alloy (CoCuFe-A) was obtained via pulsed laser irradiation in liquids.

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Developing sustainable energy solutions is critical for addressing the dual challenges of energy demand and environmental impact. In this study, a zinc-nitrate (Zn-NO ) battery system was designed for the simultaneous production of ammonia (NH) via the electrocatalytic NO reduction reaction (NORR) and electricity generation. Continuous wave CO laser irradiation yielded precisely controlled CoFeO@nitrogen-doped carbon (CoFeO@NC) hollow nanocubes from CoFe Prussian blue analogs (CoFe-PBA) as the integral electrocatalyst for NORR in 1.

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This research adopts a new method combining calcination and pulsed laser irradiation in liquids to induce a controlled phase transformation of Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Mn transition-metal-based high-entropy Prussian blue analogs into single-phase spinel high-entropy oxide and face-centered cubic high-entropy alloy (HEA). The synthesized HEA, characterized by its highly conductive nature and reactive surface, demonstrates exceptional performance in capturing low-level nitrite (NO ) in an electrolyte, which leads to its efficient conversion into ammonium (NH ) with a Faradaic efficiency of 79.77% and N selectivity of 61.

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Electrochemical water splitting, driven by processed catalysts, is the most reasonable method for hydrogen production. This study demonstrates an activation phenomenon with ruthenium (Ru) nanoclusters on few-layered black phosphorus (BP), greatly enhancing the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Efficient BP exfoliation was achieved using acoustic levitators and pulsed laser irradiation in liquids (PLIL), yielding charge-transfer Ru-nanoclusters on modulated surfaces.

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In this work, we explored the in-situ reaction modeling of the molecular self-aggregation of methylene blue (MB), which is a cationic thiazine dye, in different solvents via a container-less acoustic levitator by floating of a single droplet. Our in-situ spectroscopic study revealed that the dimer essentially has a sandwich structural geometry with a deviation from parallel stacking and horizontal arrangements in the molecular planes. The real time conversion of the monomer in MB into a dimer and their dynamics in water and ethanol media were monitored using a free-standing acoustic levitator droplet system.

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Long-term exposure to the highly toxic heavy metal arsenic can harm ecological systems and pose serious health risks to humans. Arsenic pollutant in water and the food chain must be addressed, and active prompt detection of As(III) is essential. The development of an effective detection method for As(III) ions is urgently needed to slow the alarming growth of arsenic pollution in the environment and safeguard the well-being of future generations.

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Eco-friendly renewable energy sources have recommended as fossil fuel alternatives in recent years to reduce environmental pollution and meet future energy demands in various sectors. As the largest source of renewable energy in the world, lignocellulosic biomass has received considerable interest from the scientific community to advance the fabrication of biofuels and ultrafine value-added chemicals. For example, biomass obtained from agricultural wastes could catalytically convert into furan derivatives.

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The unique structural features of many ternary nitride materials with strong chemical bonding and band gaps above 2.0 eV are limited and are experimentally unexplored. It is important to identify candidate materials for optoelectronic devices, particularly for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and absorbers in tandem photovoltaics.

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Article Synopsis
  • Effective phase engineering of nanocatalysts significantly enhances catalytic activity, particularly in electrocatalytic reactions.
  • Researchers reshaped 2D MXene (TiCT) into a TiO@TiC core-shell structure with ultrasmall Pt nanoparticles, boosting electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light.
  • The optimized Pt/TiO@TiC/Pt-5 min catalyst showcased exceptional performance with a low overpotential and Tafel slope, outperforming commercial Pt/C catalysts and offering a new approach for creating efficient nanocatalysts.
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Acoustic levitation is a distinctive and versatile tool for levitating and processing free-standing single droplets and particles. Liquid droplets suspended in an acoustic standing wave provide container-free environments for understanding chemical reactions by avoiding boundary effects and solid surfaces. We attempted to use this strategy for the production of well-dispersed uniform catalytic nanomaterials in an ultraclean confined area without the addition of external reducing agents or surfactants.

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Correction for 'Tailoring the MOF structure ligand optimization afforded a dandelion flower like CoS/Co-N/CoNi/NiS catalyst to enhance the ORR/OER in zinc-air batteries' by Mohan Gopalakrishnan , , 2022, , 17908-17920, https://doi.org/10.1039/D2NR04933C.

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Arsenic (As(V))-contaminated water is a major global threat to human health and the ecosystem because of its enormous toxicity, carcinogenicity, and high distribution in water streams. Thus, As(V) removal in the environmental samples has received considerable attention. Till now, numerous metal-organic framework materials have been used for the As(V) removal from the aqueous medium, but low As(V) removal and instability of the adsorbents have severely cut off their practical applications.

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A novel FeMoO/g-CN-2D/2D Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst was prepared via wet chemical method. The observed structural morphology of FeMoO/g-CN reveals the 2D-iron molybdate (FeMoO) nanoplates compiled with the 2D-graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) nanosheets like structure. The photocatalytic activity of the g-CN, FeMoO, and FeMoO/g-CN composites were studied via the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) as targeted textile dye under visible light irradiation (VLI).

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Due to their affordability and good catalytic activity for oxygen reactions, MOF-derived carbon composites containing metal alloys have piqued interest. However, during synthesis, MOFs have the disadvantage of causing significant carbon evaporation, resulting in a reduction of active sites and durability. This study proposes tailoring the molecular structure of MOFs by optimizing bipyridine and flexible 4-aminodiacetic terephthalic acid ligands, which have numerous coordination modes and framework structures, resulting in fascinating architectures.

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Herein, the authors produce Co-based (Co (PO ) , Co O , and Co S ) electrocatalysts via pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) to explore the synergy of anion modulation on phase-selective active sites in the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Co (PO ) displays an ultralow overpotential of 230 mV at 10 mA cm with 48.5 mV dec Tafel slope that outperforms the state-of-the-art Ir/C in OER due to its high intrinsic activity.

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The biochemical reduction of nitrite (NO) ions to ammonia (NH) requires six electrons and is catalyzed by the cytochrome c NO reductase enzyme. This biological reaction inspired scientists to explore the reduction of nitrogen oxyanions, such as nitrate (NO) and NO in wastewater, to produce the more valuable NH product. It is widely known that copper (Cu)-based nanoparticles (NPs) are selective for the NO reduction reaction (NORR), but the NORR has not been well explored.

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The global energy crisis is increasing the demand for innovative materials with high purity and functionality for the development of clean energy production and storage. The development of novel photo- and electrocatalysts significantly depends on synthetic techniques that facilitate the production of tailored advanced nanomaterials. The emerging use of pulsed laser in liquid synthesis has attracted immense interest as an effective synthetic technology with several advantages over conventional chemical and physical synthetic routes, including the fine-tuning of size, composition, surface, and crystalline structures, and defect densities and is associated with the catalytic, electronic, thermal, optical, and mechanical properties of the produced nanomaterials.

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Fabrication of layered triple hydroxides (LTH) is a typical and remarkable approach to produce new functionalities passionately investigated for photocatalytic removal of organic pollutants from industrial wastewater. The hydrothermal method was used to prepare different weight percentages of yttrium (Y) doped NiMgAl LTH. The structural, functional, optical, and morphological properties of the prepared samples were investigated using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed-infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy.

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Herein, gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were synthesized by pulsed laser ablation (PLA) in a mixed-phase solvent of acetonitrile and water. The size of Au NPs and the number of graphitic carbon (GC) layers were controlled by varying the ratio of the solvent mixture. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of the Au NPs was investigated using 10 M 4-aminobenzenethiol and 10 M 4-nitrobenzenethiol as probe molecules.

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Article Synopsis
  • Chlorine-based compounds like hexachlorobenzene (HCB) are persistent organic pollutants, and this study introduces a fast pulsed laser technique for dechlorination without extra catalysts.
  • The researchers found that using a laser wavelength of 266 nm at 10 mJ/pulse achieved 95% dechlorination efficiency in just 15 minutes, with even faster results (over 95% in 5 minutes) using a multipath laser system.
  • The final product of dechlorination was benzene, with several chlorinated compounds as intermediates, highlighting the technique's promising potential for environmental cleanup efforts.
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Silane/ceramic combination provides the composites with several advantages from the advancements of new ceramic composite materials with good thermal conductivity, high mechanical and dielectric properties have wide significant applications in electrical and electronic industries. In this study, to enhance the dispersibility of dielectric barium titanate (BaTiO) ceramic powder and additives for the fabrication of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), surface treatment of the precursor of ceramic powder was performed using silane coupling agents. Dielectric ceramic sheets fabricated from ceramic powders that had been surface-treated with different amounts of N-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]aniline (TMSPA) which increased the surface gloss.

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