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Graphene is one atom thick two dimensional material with unusual mechanical, electrical, thermal and optical properties. Graphene, on larger scale is produced through reduction of graphene oxide which in turn is synthesized by chemical oxidation of graphite. Generally large area graphene oxide paper can be easily fabricated by solution filtration process, spin casting method and Langmuir-Blodgett assembly. In present study graphene oxide was synthesized by modified Hummers method. Free standing graphene oxide paper (GOP) was developed by simple drying of graphene oxide suspended in water followed by reduction by thermal treatment to synthesize free standing conducting graphene paper (Thermally Reduced Graphene Paper, TRGP). Thermal reduction was carried out for 30, 60, 90 and 120min and samples referred as TRGP_30, TRGP_60, TRGP_90 and TRGP_120 respectively. XRD results show decrease in inter layer spacing (d002) from 0.87 nm to ∼0.35 nm after reduction of GO paper. This shows gradual removal of oxygen fu...

In the present paper, the effects of cake thickness and time on the efficiency of brown stock washer of the paper mill are studied by using mathematical model of pulp washing for the species of sodium and lignin ions. The mechanism of the diffusion‐ dispersion washing of the bed of the pulp fibers is mathematically modeled by the basic material balance and adsorption isotherm is used to describe the equilibrium between the concentration of the solute in the liquor and concentration of the solute on the fibers. To study the parametric effect, numerical solutions of the axial domain of the system governed by partial differential equations (transport and isotherm equations) for different boundary conditions are obtained by the “pdepe” solver in MATLAB source code. The effects of both the parameters are shown by three dimensional graphical representation as well as concentration profiles.

The Fourier Transform Raman and infrared spectra of cheque paper document have been recorded and analyzed. The wavenumbers corresponding to normal modes of vibration of cellulose were calculated at HF/6‐31G(d) level for comparison with the cheque paper sample. The appearance of a carbonyl stretching band at 1654 cm−1 clearly shows that the cheque paper is subjected to ageing. The broadening of O–H stretching wavenumber confirms the presence of inter and intra molecular O–H⋯O Hydrogen bonds. Also the presence of Kaolin and Rosin are unambiguously identified.

Soft plate‐like membranes find application e.g. as pill or paper coatings, bio‐filter membranes, and gas seals in food products. For these applications the integrity and the mechanical properties of the membrane are important. Mechanical properties of these products can be determined by stretching or bending tests, but such methods can damage these fragile products. We propose a rapid nondestructive acoustic method to estimate mechanical film characteristics with shear horizontal (in‐plane shear) waves. A 23 kHz, 1‐cycle square signal was excited into a thin foil with a piezoceramic pickup and received with an inductive pickup. The SNR (power) was 20 dB in 1 kHz –50 kHz bandwidth. This actuation‐detection scheme can be used to excite in‐plane longitudinal, shear and even elliptic waves in a thin foil. The method was validated by measuring in‐plane shear wave and longitudinal wave time‐of‐flight TOF at different actuator‐receiver separations and calculating the corresponding longitudinal and shear modulus. The samples were Mylar® sheet and coated paper. The anisotropy of MOE for Mylar sheet was close to the manufacturer specifications. For coated paper a maximum shear modulus anisotropy of 5% and a shear modulus dependence on temperature of 0.7 MPa/°C were found. Laser doppler vibrometry showed that the excited waves were confined in‐plane.

A recent technology has been introduced into the paper industry that makes possible to produce paper materials by replacing the cellulose fibres by a mineral powder, achieving a more environmentally friendly product compared with conventional paper. The purpose of this work is to determine the possibilities of an air-coupled ultrasonic technique to study this kind of new materials in order to develop an ultrasonic system useful for quality control for this industry. In particular, air-coupled ultrasonic spectroscopy is specially well suited to this kind of materials because of the fact that no coupling liquid and no direct contact with the sample is employed. A through transmission technique is employed and Fourier analysis is performed to obtain both magnitude and phase spectra of the transmission coefficient. Properties in the thickness direction as well as in the paper plane are investigated. Different paper grades (from 120 to 400 g/m2) provided by Terraskin have been studied. Very high attenuation coeficientes and very low propagation velocities (and hence elastic constant) are obtained, this can be explained by considering the large porosity of this material (about 50%) and the microstrucutre: solid grains in contact with a variable amount of polymeric resin partially filling the pore space.

Prior work has established the existence of a color-performance relationship in achievement contexts and has demonstrated its presence in some undergraduate course examinations. This study examines the manifestation of such a relationship in an introductory, 430-student, calculus-based electricity and magnetism course during which the paper color used in examinations was varied. In this report, we analyze three separate exams and differentiate between students’ multiple choice, written response, conceptual, and computational performances. Also considered are factors such as the time students require to complete exams and their confidence levels prior to and immediately following assessment. Performance in all categories appears to be independent of paper color.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has been developing sensors for the pulp and paper industry that use a magnetic field. The applications for magnetic sensors that have been studied include 1) sensors for the measurement of the water and ice content of wood chips entering the pulping mill, 2) sensors for measuring the water content and other constituents of the black liquor leaving the paper digester, and 3) sensors for measuring paper thickness and water content as the paper is being processed. These tasks can be done using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The magnetic field used for doing the NMR can come from either permanent magnets or superconducting magnets. The choice of the magnet is dependent on a number of factors, which include the size of the sample and field strength needed to do the sensing task at hand. This paper describes some superconducting magnet options that can be used in the pulp and paper industry.

Organic catalyst has recently been identified as the potential substitution for expensive platinum electrocatalyst for fuel cell application. Numerous studies have shown that the nitrogen-containing carbon nanotubes (N-CNT) can be synthesized through spray pyrolysis or floating chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique using various type of organometallic as precursors. This paper presents the method of synthesis and the initial findings of the growth of N-CNT directly on carbon paper using a modified CVD technique. In this research, nickel (II) phthalocyanines (Ni-Pc) as precursor was dissolved in ethanol solvent, stirred and sonicated to become homogenized. The solution was poured into a bubbler and heated up to allow the mixture to vaporize. Subsequently, the solution vapor was flowed into the tubical reactor maintained at 900°C. Carbon paper sputtered with nickel nanoparticles was used as the substrate. The synthesized sample was examined through Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), At...

In this paper we present an application of two Computational Intelligence Algorithms, namely Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Algorithm and Differential Evolution (DE) for finding and optimal solution to two optimization problems that occur in a paper industry. The first problem deals with the economic optimization of a hypothetical but realistic Kraft pulping process and in the second problem we have considered the optimization of Boiler load allocation problem. Both the problems form an integral part of paper making process. The simulation results show the efficiency and time effectiveness of DE and PSO.

Due to the rising difficulty of developing complex systems a lot of research has gone into the multi‐agent paradigm over the past decades, during which a vast array of approaches for developing such systems have been proposed. Despite this fact there seems to be a gap in the MAS community between solutions that provide for expressivity and those that offer generality. It is our opinion that embedding the MAS language into a functional language we can have the best out of both worlds: we can implement the desired semantics in an abstract way, allowing us to focus on the problem domain, i.e. complex, distributed MAS. Our approach is going to be layered: (i) we start from a statically typed functional language and build an EDSL that acts as an executable specification language for single agent entities; and (ii) develop a framework for workflow‐oriented coordination on top of the previous layer and investigate its use as a means of implementing agent organizations, focusing on coordination and communication.

Deviations of the electron function velocity distribution from Maxwellian behavior in the high energy range have been extensively studied during the past two decades. A brief review of the experimental techniques and findings on the subject is given in this paper. There are indications that the electron distribution function in thermonuclear plasmas could be significantly different from the Maxwellian one even near the thermal velocity range when particular circumstances occur. These reasons motivate a renewed effort in the measurements that could detect low energies distortions, among which is the new Oblique Electron Cyclotron Emission diagnostics that has entered operations during 2006 experimental campaign at JET and aims to resolve relatively small differences in the ECE spectra taken at three toroidal angles. Such measurements allow insight into the characteristics of the electron distribution function. First results of such experimental system are discussed in this paper, along with emission simulations.

In response to published reports about the decline in funding for space nuclear power, the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) approved a position paper in March 1995 that recommends (1) development and support of an integrated space nuclear power program by DOE, NASA and DoD; (2) Congressional support for the program; (3) advocacy of the program by government and industry leaders; and (4) continuation of cooperation between the U.S. and other countries to advance nuclear power source technology and to promote safety. This position paper has been distributed to various people having oversight of the U.S. space nuclear power program.

We verify simulation results indicating that carbon ion irradiation increases the stiffness of single wall carbon nanotube bucky paper (SWCNT). 4 MHz longitudinal and 15 MHz shear ultrasonic signals were transmitted by means of dry‐coupled acoustic horns through 40±4 μm thick samples and the time‐of‐flight (TOF) through the samples was measured. From the TOF the velocity of the wave was determined and the out‐of‐plane elastic and shear moduli were calculated. The nonlinearity parameter B/A for the irradiated and reference sample was measured. The results indicated a significant increase both in the shear modulus (90 %) and in the longitudinal modulus (69 %) for certain irradiation doses as predicted by simulations. In addition, a 36% increase in the acoustic nonlinearity parameter (B/A) was observed. The investigated fluence range was 1⋅1013 to 3⋅1014 cm−2.

At the 2007 Physics Education Research Conference, a workshop on publishing and refereeing was held with a panel of editors from four different publishing venues: the physics education research section of the American Journal of Physics, the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Physical Review Special Topics–Physics Education Research, and the Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings. These editors answered questions from participants regarding publishing in their respective venues, as well as writing referee reports that would be useful to both journal editors and authors. This paper summarizes the discussion.

It has been hypothesized that high triggering doses of hyperoxaluria induce crystal formation, while lower maintenance doses promote crystal growth. We confirmed this using minipumps secreting 30 to 60 μmol potassium oxalate per day to induce modest, continuous hyperoxaluria for 28 days after the triggering dose (288 μmol oxalate) was given as an i.p. injection or infused over 24hr. Calcium oxalate crystal deposition was induced in 6/6 rats. This hypothesis could explain the modest clinical correlation between oxalate excretion and calcium oxalate stone disease.

For the paper industry, stiffness properties are an important parameter for producing more efficiently a fibrous material like paper. Some stiffness properties of paper webs can be obtained in a non‐contact fashion using two lasers. The authors have developed an automated laboratory laser‐ultrasonics instrument for paper, described here. The results of non‐contact laser generation and detection of ultrasound are also presented. The paper grades investigated were heavy grades like linerboard, as well as copy paper.

Acoustic emission experiments in paper, a disordered material, give evidence for power‐law probability distributions of statistical quantities as event energies or intervals. Two setups, usual mode I tensile tests and a nip‐in‐peel one have been studied in our work. In both cases, even using the same material, we observe “criticality”. This has wide implications for theories of statistical fracture.

The mechanical and electrical properties of a bulk material made of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are, due to weak intermolecular interaction, several orders of magnitude lower than those of the individual molecules themselves. We studied the effect of gamma‐irradiation on SWNT paper in air and under vacuum. For samples irradiated in air, changes in Young modulus and electrical conductivity were observed with maximum value for a dose of 170 kGy. Under vacuum there was only a small effect of irradiation. Raman studies of irradiated samples showed defects formation. Same experiments done with graphite showed similar results. A likely explanation of the results is that cross‐links between nanotubes were induced by irradiation in air.

In the 1933 Bohr and Rosenfeld’s famous article on electromagnetic field measurements they did not consider the measurement of a magnetic component in a given space‐time region, nor the measurement of two parallel magnetic components, nor the measurement of two non‐parallel magnetic components, nor the parallel measurement of one magnetic and one electric component, nor the non‐parallel measurement of one electric and one magnetic component, nor the non‐parallel measurement of one magnetic and one electric component in two different space‐time regions. This article covers the first one of these pending matters.

When the atomic physicist measures or computes, applications of their results may not be immediately obvious. However, atomic data form the basis of many mature and developing applications. Two of these applications and their dependence on data are reviewed here. In particular, the national standard for radiation exposure and the processing of the United States mail with radiation are discussed.

An important material property in the paper industry is the anisotropic stiffness distribution due to the fibrous microstructure of paper. Ultrasonic methods offer a means of determining the stiffness of sheets of paper from the anisotropic propagation characteristics of elastic Lamb waves along the machine direction (MD) and the cross direction (CD). Currently, piezoelectric ultrasonic methods are employed in the industry to measure the elastic polar diagram of paper through multiple contacting measurements made in all directions. This paper describes a new approach utilizing the INEEL Laser Ultrasonic Camera to provide a complete image of the elastic waves traveling in all directions in the plane of the paper sheet. This approach is based on optical dynamic holographic methods that record the out of plane ultrasonic motion over the entire paper surface simultaneously without scanning. The full-field imaging technique offers great potential for increasing the speed of the measurement and it ultimately pr...

On-line measurement of material properties is a goal of many manufactures for production improvement and quality control. In the paper industry, the elastic stiffness of the paper web needs to be accurately measured and controlled online. Currently, contact ultrasonic methods are employed to measure the elastic constants of paper offline. Piezoelectric transducers are placed in contact with the paper surface to generate and detect plate wave modes, known as Lamb wave modes, in the paper in both the machine and cross directions. Laser ultrasonics offers a new approach to making elastic wave measurements that does not require contacting the paper web. A pulsed laser generates ultrasound in the paper by delivering a high intensity short impulse to the paper through thermoelastic expansion. An optical interferometer is used to demodulate the small phase modulation that the elastic wave produces on a continuous probe laser beam. Difficulty in applying this approach to online measurements of rapidly moving pape...

Microwave energy offers the drying/curing industry a new prospect in efficient and uniform drying. In paper drying, due to the fact that absorption power depends on loss factor, more heat is developed in wet areas thus resulting in automatic moisture profile correction. During drying the most important parameter is maintaining the pre-prescribed level of moisture content. The correlation equation between absorbed power and moisture contents has been developed, in order to program the controlling hardware related to the level of drying power.

Solar flares provide a unique site for the study of energy release and particle acceleration in astrophysics. This paper summarizes the charged particle and gamma ray aspects of the Workshop on High Energy Solar Physics held at the Goddard Space Flight Center in August 1995. The X‐ray aspects of the Workshop are summarized in another paper. Here are our highlights: (i) both the charged particle, and now also gamma ray observations have shown that stochastic acceleration due to gyroresonant interactions with plasma waves is very important in solar flares; (ii) CME driven shocks accelerate the particles observed in space from gradual flares; (iii) accelerated MeV/nucl ions can contain a large fraction of the energy released in flares; (iv) GeV ions are either trapped at the Sun or accelerated for hours; (v) nuclear gamma ray spectroscopy has become a tool for abundance determinations in the solar atmosphere; (vi) behind‐the‐limb flares can provide imaging information for solar gamma ray emission.

Papers produced from oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) via Alkaline Peroxide Pulping (APP) was preceded by three main steps; dewaxing of EFB, alkaline peroxide (AP) impregnation into EFB and refining of biomass to generate pulp. The experiment was carried by varying chemical level and number of impregnation stages. For 2:2.5% AP level, two-stage impregnation improved hand sheets tear index by 45%, 164% boost in tensile index, 26% enhancement in zero span index and more than 5% in burst index. By applying 8:10% AP level, significant improvements were gained at the third and fourth stages of AP impregnation. Although there was no significant change in hand sheet strength with multiple impregnation for 4:5% AP level, improvement in brightness of hand sheets was apparent, analogous to the effect of increasing AP level. The found paper properties development show that alkaline peroxide pulping of EFB could be adapted to various targeted properties by adjustment of AP level and impregnation stages.

The pulp extracted from the alkaline peroxide pulping (APP) of EFB was beaten from 500 revolutions to 10000 revolutions using PFI mill to investigate the morphological changes undergone by the pulp and the resultant effect on paper sheet properties. As a result of beating, pulp elements were observed as intensely fibrillated, reducing the amounts of fibre bundles and thus, reducing interruption in the inter-fiber bonding. To a defined extent, beating was also seen as unwinding the structure of vessel element to a single strand of loose spiral body. These fibrillated vessel elements of APP pulp from EFB, plus the fines element germinating from further segmentation of the vessels, were the factors contributing to the overall strength improvement of the produced EFB pulp network. The applied increment in beating revolution had apparently widened the known broad spectrum quality of APP pulp from EFB. This demonstrates EFB potential for application in specialty paper production.

Biomass seems to have a great potential as a source of renewable energy compared with other sources. The use of biomass as a source of energy could help to reduce the wastes and also to minimize the dependency on non-renewable energy, hence minimize environmental degradation. Among other types of biomass, oil palm wastes are the major contribution for energy production in Malaysia since Malaysia is one of the primary palm oil producers in the world. Currently, Malaysia’s plantation area covers around 5 million hectares. In the oil palm mill, only 10% palm oil is produced and the other 90% is in the form of wastes such as empty fruit bunches (EFB), oil palm shells (OPS), oil palm fibre (OPFb) and palm oil mill effluent (POME). If these wastes are being used as a source of renewable energy, it is believed that it will help to increase the country’s economy. Recently, the most potential and efficient thermal energy conversion technology is pyrolysis process. The objective of this paper is to review the current research on pyrolysis of oil palm wastes in Malaysia. The scope of this paper is to discuss on the types of pyrolysis process and its production. At present, most of the research conducted in this country is on EFB and OPS by fast, slow and microwave-assisted pyrolysis processes for fuel applications.

Development of the desired pulp-based products eco-properties are governed by factors like choice and suitability of raw material, the design and operation of pulping process and choice of additives. Fines recovered during refining discharge of an alkaline peroxide pulping system were collected based on their retention on varying mesh-sizes screens. Analysis shows that 12% of the 400-mesh fines added to the web enhances paper tensile strength by 100%. This defines the usefulness of fibrillar particles whose cell wall collapsibility increases the web density by increasing bonding ability and thus, strength of pulp-based products such as paper. The study acknowledges fines functioning as natural filler in pulp network and collection of fines from the refining discharge was found to reduce 70% turbidity and this improvement will help reduce the costs pertinent to generation of whitewater from the pulping system.

EFB (empty fruit bunch) was subjected to alkaline peroxide pulping for generation of fibrous mass as raw material for the making of pulp-based products. During refining, co-produced fines were collected by fractionation on square-mesh screens of 200-, 250-, 300- and 400- mesh sizes, placed at the refining discharge by order of increasing mesh. Each set of the produced paper was incorporated with 12% fines for microscopic analysis. It appears that sheared vessel elements and fibrils were predominant and they make up the mass rendering collapsibility of cell wall for good product formation. The study acknowledged the form of fines functioning as natural filler in pulp network and worthy of utilization for reduction of total suspended solid.

In this paper we have shown enhanced supercapacitive property of electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) and manganese dioxide (MnO2) based heterostructure over single MnO2 thin film grown by electrochemical deposition on indium tin oxide (ITO). ERGO improves the electrical conduction leading to decrease of the internal resistance of the heterostructure.

This paper presents the preliminary transport measurements obtained using graphene quantum dots. Graphene quantum dots of 4.5 nm average diameter size prepared by electrochemical method are found to be of p-type nature under ambient condition. The p-type nature obtained is attributed to the physisorption of water molecules which acts a hole dopant.

Wastewater can be regenerated for recycling in an industrial process to reduce freshwater consumption and wastewater discharge. Such an environment friendly approach will also lead to cost savings that accrue due to reduced freshwater usage and wastewater discharge. However, the resulting cost savings are offset to varying degrees by the costs incurred for the regeneration of wastewater for recycling. Therefore, systematic procedures should be used to determine the true economic benefits for any water‐using system involving wastewater regeneration recycling. In this paper, a total cost accounting procedure is employed to construct a comprehensive cost model for a paper mill. The resulting cost model is optimized by means of mathematical programming to determine the optimal regeneration flowrate and regeneration efficiency that will yield the minimum total cost.

An innovative iron oxide embedded cellulose acetate membrane (FeO/CAM) was synthesized and used to study available phosphorus in Chinese lake sediments. The kinetics of available P release was investigated by FeO/CAM for different types of sediments ranging in Olsen-P from 19.1 to 170.6 mg/kg. The results showed that the average k{sub d} values (0.094 h{sup -1}) of the Taihu sediments were comparable to those of the soils with similar texture estimated by iron oxide impregnated filter paper (FeO paper) though they were generally lower than those of sandy soils. It is indicated that the FeO/CAM can be used as an infinite P sink to estimate available P (FeO-P). The concentrations of FeO-P were significantly correlated with those of extractable P forms, e.g. Olsen-P (R{sup 2} = 0.962, p

We describe the results of an expert system applied to the evaluation of samples of kaolin for industrial use in paper or ceramic manufacture. Different machine learning techniques—classification trees, support vector machines and Bayesian networks—were applied with the aim of evaluating and comparing their interpretability and prediction capacities. The predictive capacity of these models for the samples analyzed was highly satisfactory, both for ceramic quality and paper quality. However, Bayesian networks generally proved to be the most useful technique for our study, as this approach combines good predictive capacity with excellent interpretability of the kaolin quality structure, as it graphically represents relationships between variables and facilitates what‐if analyses.

The main purpose of this short paper is to present the Chernoff product formula from which we derive the exponential formula and the Lie-Trotter formula for C0-semigroups of linear operators on L∞.

The main purpose of this short paper is to introduce the evolution semigroup associated with an evolutionary process with exponential growth on L∞.

In this short paper, we present a Kato’s type inequality for symmetric diffusion operators.

Based on the concept of “using waste to treat waste and changing waste into valuables”, this paper put forward a new meso‐porous composite coagulant with good performance and low cost, and the removal effects of meso‐porous composite coagulant on algae cells and toxins, dissolved organics in water was studied, the object of this research was to provide a new and effective way for emergency needs to clear up harmful algal blooms in freshwater. The results showed that meso‐porous composite coagulant at optimal loadings (1g/L) could remove over 99% algal cells; meanwhile, the removal efficiency of COD, microcystin, total nitrogen and phosphorus was found to be 87.5%, 97.7%, 41.5% and 77.8% respectively, moreover, the forming speed of floccules was fast, and the dense floccules had good settling performance. Furthermore, the mechanism of algae removal was explored preliminarily by meso‐porous composite coagulant which played a dual role in adsorption and flocculation.

In this short paper we show the existence of solitonic solutions of four dimensional ungauged N = 1 supergravity coupled to arbitrary vector and chiral multiplets whose Ricci scalar curvature is constant. The Ricci scalar of spacetimes indeed depends on the σ‐model, namely the complex scalars and their first derivative. Then, we give two explicit models, namely static domain walls and static spherical symmetric black holes which are related to our previous works.

This paper assesses the performance of a thermophilic anaerobic Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) in the treatment of cassava stillage under various organic loading rates (OLRs) without suspended solids (SS) separation. The reactor was seeded with mesophilic anaerobic granular sludge, and the OLR increased by increments to 13.80 kg COD / m 3 / d (HRT 5d) over 80 days. Total COD removal efficiency remained stable at 90%, with biogas production at 18 L/d (60% methane). Increase in the OLR to 19.30 kg COD / m 3 / d (HRT 3d), however, led to a decrease in TCOD removal efficiency to 79% due to accumulation of suspended solids and incomplete degradation after shortened retention time. Reactor performance subsequently increased after OLR reduction. Alkalinity, VFA and pH levels were not significantly affected by OLR variation, indicating that no additional alkaline or pH adjustment is required. More than half of the SS in the cassava stillage could be digested in the process when HRT was 5 days, which demonstrated the suitability of anaerobic treatment of cassava stillage without SS separation.

Manganese oxide (Mn3O4) nanoparticles are prepared in a facile one pot reaction using oleylamine as solvent reducing and surface functionalizing agent. A simple mixture of as synthesized Mn3O4 nanoparticles and reduced graphene oxide are tested as potential supercapacitor using cyclic voltammetry. The voltammograms are nearly perfect rectangular which indicates excellent capacitive nature of the nanoparticles-grapheme composite. A maximum specific capacitance of 170 Fg−1 is obtained in a potential range from-0.1 to 0.7 V which is higher than both reduced graphene oxide and Mn3O4 nanoparticles.

Graphene is synthesized by microwave irradiation (MWI) of graphene oxide (GO) and subsequent sonication. MWI of GO is carried in a household microwave oven without using any reducing agents. Sonication of microwave irradiated GO is carried out in distilled water using a probe type sonicator. This method does not evolve any unsafe by-product gases which is otherwise the case when reducing agents are used in the reduction of GO to graphene. Moreover, due to its intrinsic nature, the method is scalable and cost effective. The synthesized product has been characterized as graphene using micro Raman scattering, x-ray diffraction and electron diffraction. Diffraction results show that the synthesized graphene is highly oriented.

The primary aim of the investigation is to synthesize graphene oxide at room temperature and fabricate a flexible free standing graphene oxide thin film. Modified Hummers technique was employed for the synthesis of graphene oxide using graphite as the starting material. Graphene oxide is a layered material consisting of hydrophilic oxygenated functional groups on their basal planes and edges. Graphene-oxide thin film has been fabricated via solvent-evaporation technique. Functional, elemental and structural analysis of the samples was performed using several characterization techniques.

Graphene provides a perfect platform to explore the unique electronic properties in two-dimensions. However, most electronic applications are handicapped by the absence of a semiconducting gap in pristine graphene. To control the semiconducting properties of graphene, doping is regarded as one of the most feasible methods. Here we demonstrate that graphene can be effectively doped during chemical exfoliation of highly ordered pyrolitic graphite in organic solvents. Layered structure of graphene sheets was confirmed by confocal Raman spectroscopy and doping was probed by analyzing shift in Raman peak positions and transistor transfer (IDS-VGS) characteristics.

Reduced graphene oxides were synthesized by chemical reduction of graphite oxide using hydrazine hydrate as well as by high temperature-high vacuum thermal exfoliation at 900-1100°C. The samples were characterized using Raman spectroscopy. From the Raman spectra, it is inferred that hydrazine reduced and thermally exfoliated samples were found to consist of two and three to five layers. The change in the amount of sp2 rings present in GO with increase in exfoliation temperature is studied.

Graphene/CeO2 quantum dots (QDs) composite was investigated towards the liquid petroleum gas (LPG) at room temperature. Graphene was synthesized by electrochemical exfoliation of graphite. The composites of graphene/CeO2 QDs was prepared by mixing 20 wt.% of graphene in constant 1g of CeO2. The chemiresistor of 20 wt.% composite possesses optimum value of sensing response and excellent stability.

In the present study, MnO2 nanotubes are synthesized by hydrothermal method and Pt/graphene by co reduction of hexachloroplatinic acid and graphite oxide. The formation of MnO2 nanotubes and Pt/graphene are confirmed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy. MnO2 nanotubes are mixed with Pt/graphene is applied as the ORR catalyst in proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The single cell measurement is carried out after fabricating the membrane electrode assembly and polarization curves are recorded at different temperatures and the results are discussed.