Fight Against COVID-19: ARCI's Technologies for Disinfection.

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing a huge concern to the global population due to its highly contagious properties. The SARS-CoV-2 is a new variant in the coronavirus family. The world is focussing on several methods to battle against this novel corona virus, including control of its spread.

Prickly pear fruit extract as photosensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cell.

In this study, we have explored prickly pear fruit extract as a photosensitizer in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The photosensitizer was isolated from prickly pear fruits by extraction method using ethanol as solvent. Structural, morphological and optical properties of prickly pear extract characterized by XRD, SEM, UV-VIS-DRS, FTIR spectra, respectively.

Microplasma-synthesized ultra-small NiO nanocrystals, a ubiquitous hole transport material.

We report on a one-step hybrid atmospheric pressure plasma-liquid synthesis of ultra-small NiO nanocrystals (2 nm mean diameter), which exhibit strong quantum confinement. We show the versatility of the synthesis process and present the superior material characteristics of the nanocrystals (NCs). The band diagram of the NiO NCs, obtained experimentally, highlights ideal features for their implementation as a hole transport layer in a wide range of photovoltaic (PV) device architectures.

Conversion of Solar Energy into Electrical Energy Storage: Supercapacitor as an Ultrafast Energy-Storage Device Made from Biodegradable Agar-Agar as a Novel and Low-Cost Carbon Precursor.

Solar cells hold promise as energy conversion devices but intermittent sunlight limits their continuous applications. The self-powering integrated solar cells and electrical energy storage devices can be an alternative to resolve this problem. This study demonstrates the integration of solar cell with supercapacitor (SC) device and evaluates its performance for energy conversion and storage for practical validity.

Photoactive Brownmillerite Multiferroic KBiFeO and Its Potential Application in Sunlight-Driven Photocatalysis.

KBiFeO (KBFO) is an upcoming promising brownmillerite-structured multiferroic photoactive material for next-generation photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. In the present work, KBFO has been developed using multistep thermal treatment method to reduce the volatility of constituent elements and improve the stability of compound. The band gap of KBFO (found to be ∼1.

Surface Processing: An Elegant Way to Enhance the Femtosecond Laser Ablation Rate and Ablation Efficiency on Human Teeth.

Background And Objectives: The employability of the non-invasive femtosecond laser ablation technique for dental treatment has been severely limited by its low ablation rate despite the advantage of minimal tissue damage. The study explores a means of improving the femtosecond laser ablation rate and efficiency by physiochemical surface modification.

Materials And Methods: Surface modification of dental hard tissues has been carried out by food graded orthophosphoric acid and Carie care gel pretreatment.

Size-dependent stability of ultra-small α-/β-phase tin nanocrystals synthesized by microplasma.

Nanocrystals sometimes adopt unusual crystal structure configurations in order to maintain structural stability with increasingly large surface-to-volume ratios. The understanding of these transformations is of great scientific interest and represents an opportunity to achieve beneficial materials properties resulting from different crystal arrangements. Here, the phase transformation from α to β phases of tin (Sn) nanocrystals is investigated in nanocrystals with diameters ranging from 6.

Hierarchical Porous Carbon Microfibers Derived from Tamarind Seed Coat for High-Energy Supercapacitor Application.

The overwhelming interest in supercapacitors has led to the search for various carbonaceous materials, leading to hierarchical porous carbons. Herein, we report a natural biomass (tamarind seed)-based hierarchical porous carbon without any template and activated by a facile scheme. The tamarind seed coat-based hierarchical porous carbon possessed a unique configuration, making the material exhibit superior supercapacitor properties.

Prediction of femtosecond laser ablation profile on human teeth.

To predict the laser ablation profile on dental hard tissue which will enable the user to optimize laser parameters so as to carry out the laser treatment with minimal tissue damage. The present study constructs a mathematical model to predict the ablation profile based on Gaussian beam distribution of laser intensity and correlates the model with experimentally obtained ablation parameters (effective Gaussian beam radius, ablation threshold fluence, and effective energy penetration depth). To obtain the ablation parameters, laser ablation experiments were carried out on dental hard tissues using Ti:Sapphire femtosecond laser (800 nm, 100 fs, 10 kHz).

Preparation of self-assembled platinum nanoclusters to combat Salmonella typhi infection and inhibit biofilm formation.

In this work, phytoprotein functionalized platinum nanoparticles (PtNCs) were synthesized using the proteins from fresh green spinach leaves. Transmission electron microscopy showed that PtNCs were spherical shape with size ∼5 nm, which self assembled into spherical platinum nanoclustures (PtNCs) with size within the range of 100-250 nm. The presence of elemental platinum was confirmed by EDX analysis.

Thermostatic properties of nitrate molten salts and their solar and eutectic mixtures.

Nitrate molten salts are extensively used for sensible heat storage in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants and thermal energy storage (TES) systems. They are the most promising materials for latent heat storage applications. By combining classical molecular dynamics and differential scanning calorimetry experiments, we present a systematic study of all thermostatic, high temperature properties of pure KNO and NaNO salts and their eutectic and "solar salt" mixtures, technologically relevant.

Few-Layered MoS/Acetylene Black Composite as an Efficient Anode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Novel MoS/acetylene black (AB) composite was developed using a single-step hydrothermal method. A systematic characterization revealed a few-layered, ultrathin MoS grown on the surface of AB. The inclusion of AB was found to increase the capacity of the composite and achieve discharging capacity of 1813 mAhg.

Ultra High Strain Rate Nanoindentation Testing.

Strain rate dependence of indentation hardness has been widely used to study time-dependent plasticity. However, the currently available techniques limit the range of strain rates that can be achieved during indentation testing. Recent advances in electronics have enabled nanomechanical measurements with very low noise levels (sub nanometer) at fast time constants (20 µs) and high data acquisition rates (100 KHz).

Donut-shaped Li4Ti5O12 structures as a high performance anode material for lithium ion batteries.

Lithium titanate (LTO) spinel 3D porous sub-micrometer donuts synthesized by combined sol-gel and electrospraying reveal a wall thickness of 200-250 nm with grain sizes in the range of 60-100 nm. Electrochemical testing of sub-micrometer donuts in half-cell mode exhibited a reversible specific capacity of 141 mAh/g even after 200 cycles of charging and discharging at 1C rate. The LTO structures with nanograins effectively reduce the Li ion diffusion path length, providing easy charge and discharge with good cyclability.

A facile synthesis of a carbon-encapsulated Fe3O4 nanocomposite and its performance as anode in lithium-ion batteries.

A carbon-encapsulated Fe3O4 nanocomposite was prepared by a simple one-step pyrolysis of iron pentacarbonyl without using any templates, solvents or surfactants. The structure and morphology of the nanocomposite was investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis and Raman spectroscopy. Fe3O4 nanoparticles are dispersed intimately in a carbon framework.

Flame synthesis of carbon nano onions using liquefied petroleum gas without catalyst.

Densely agglomerated, high specific surface area carbon nano onions with diameter of 30-40 nm have been synthesized. Liquefied petroleum gas and air mixtures produced carbon nano onions in diffusion flames without catalyst. The optimized oxidant to fuel ratio which produces carbon nano onions has been found to be 0.

Synthesis of vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays by injection method in CVD.

The well aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube arrays were synthesized by injecting the acetonitrile-ferrocene solution at regular intervals of time. The carbon nanotube arrays were deposited on quartz substrate which is placed at the centre of the CVD reactor in quartz tube. The injection method in chemical vapor deposition allows-excellent control of the catalyst to carbon ratio which facilitates the better growth of aligned carbon nanotubes.

Chemisorption of phosphoric acid and surface characterization of As passivated AlN powder against hydrolysis.

By simply refluxing a commercial AlN powder in a mixture solution of ethanol, H(3)PO(4), and Al(H(2)PO(4))(3) for 24 h at 80 degrees C, the powder was successfully passivated against hydrolysis. The phosphate layer formed on the surface of AlN powder was found to be quite stable toward protecting the powder from hydrolysis. The efficacy of the coating was established by suspending the treated and the untreated powders in water for 72 h and subsequently characterizing them by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Raman analysis.