Modulation of Surface Ti-O Species in 2D-TiCT MXene for Developing a Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution and Methanol Oxidation Reactions.

Developing cost-effective and earth-abundant noble-metal-free electrocatalysts is imperative for the imminent electrochemical society. Two-dimensional TiCT (MXene) exhibits tunable properties with high electrical conductivity and a large specific surface area, which improve its electrochemical performance. Herein, the low-temperature annealing method is used to enrich MXene with a maximum number of Ti-O terminals without formation of titanium dioxide (TiO) under neutral pH conditions.

Bimetallic Implanted Plasmonic Photoanodes for TiO Sensitized Third Generation Solar Cells.

An auspicious way to enhance the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of third generation sensitized solar cells is to improve the light harvesting ability of TiO sensitizer and inhibition of back recombination reactions. In the present work, we have simultaneously comprehended both the factors using stable bimetallic Au and Ag metal nanoparticles (Mnps) embedded in TiO with ion implantation technique at lower fluence range; and explored them in third generation dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The best performing Au-Ag implanted DSSC (Fluence- 6 × 10 ions cm) revealed 87.

Fabrication of plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells using ion-implanted photoanodes.

Plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells containing metal nanoparticles suffer from stability issues due to their miscibility with liquid iodine-based electrolytes. To resolve the stability issue, herein, an ion implantation technique was explored to implant metal nanoparticles inside TiO, which protected these nanoparticles with a thin coverage of TiO melt and maintained the localized surface plasmon resonance oscillations of the metal nanoparticles to efficiently enhance their light absorption and make them corrosion resistant. Herein, Au nanoparticles were implanted into the TiO matrix up to the penetration depth of 22 nm, and their influence on the structural and optical properties of TiO was studied.

Evaluation of a TaqMan Array Card for Detection of Central Nervous System Infections.

Infections of the central nervous system (CNS) are often acute, with significant morbidity and mortality. Routine diagnosis of such infections is limited in developing countries and requires modern equipment in advanced laboratories that may be unavailable to a number of patients in sub-Saharan Africa. We developed a TaqMan array card (TAC) that detects multiple pathogens simultaneously from cerebrospinal fluid.

Swab protocol for rapid laboratory diagnosis of cutaneous anthrax.

The clinical laboratory diagnosis of cutaneous anthrax is generally established by conventional microbiological methods, such as culture and directly straining smears of clinical specimens. However, these methods rely on recovery of viable Bacillus anthracis cells from swabs of cutaneous lesions and often yield negative results. This study developed a rapid protocol for detection of B.