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Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are soaring due to the continued use of fossil fuels in energy production, an anthropogenic activity that is playing a leading role in global warming. Thus, research aimed at the capture and conversion of CO2 into value-added products, such as cyclic carbonates, is booming. While CO2 is an abundant, cheap, non-toxic, and readily accessible C1 feedstock, its thermodynamic stability necessitates the development of highly efficient catalysts that are able to promote chemical reactions under mild conditions. In this work, a novel mesoporous poly(ionic liquid) with dual active sites was synthesized through a facile method that involves co-polymerization, post-synthetic metalation, and supercritical CO2 drying. Due to a high density of nucleophilic and electrophilic sites, the as-prepared poly(ionic liquid), denoted as P2D-4BrBQA-Zn, offers excellent performance in a CO2 cycloaddition reaction using epichlorohydrin as the substrate (98.9% conversion and 96.9% selectivity). Moreover the reaction is carried out under mild, solvent-free, and additive-free conditions. Notably, P2D-4BrBQA-Zn also efficiently promotes the conversion of various other epoxide substrates into cyclic carbonates. Overall, the catalyst is found to have excellent substrate compatibility, stability, and recyclability.

Electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2RR) over molecular catalysts is a paramount approach for CO2 conversion to CO. Herein, we report a novel phthalocyanine-derived catalyst synthesized by a two-step method with a much improved electroconductivity. Furthermore, the catalyst contains both Ni–N4 sites and highly dispersed metallic Ni nanoclusters, leading to an increased CO2RR currents by two folds. Isotope labelling study and in situ spectroscopic analysis demonstrate that the existence of metallic Ni nanoclusters is the key factor for the activity enhancement and can shift the CO2RR mechanism from being electron transfer (ET)-limited (forming ∗COO−) to concerted proton-electron transfer (CPET)-limited (forming CO).

In the conversion process of syngas-to-C2 species, the OH species are inevitably produced accompanying the production of key intermediates CHx(x = 1–3), traditionally, the function of surface OH species is generally accepted as the hydrogenating reactive species. This work for the first time proposed and confirmed the assisted catalytic mechanism of surface OH species that performed as the promoter for syngas-to-C2 species on Cu-based catalysts. DFT and microkinetic modeling results reveal that the produced OH species accompanying the intermediates CHx production on the MCu (M = Co, Fe, Rh) catalysts can stably exist to form OH/MCu catalysts, on which the presence of surface OH species as the promoter not only presented better activity and selectivity toward CHx(x = 1–3) compared to MCu catalysts, but also significantly suppressed CH3OH production, providing enough CHx sources to favor the production of C2 hydrocarbons and oxygenates. Correspondingly, the electronic properties analysis revealed the essential relationship between the electronic feature of OH/MCu catalysts and catalytic performance, attributing to the unique electronic micro−environment of the catalysts under the interaction of surface OH species. This new mechanism is called as OH-assisted catalytic mechanism, which may be applied in the reaction systems related to the generation of OH species.

Synthesizing nitrogen (N)-containing molecules from biomass derivatives is a new strategy for production of this kind of chemicals. Herein, for the first time we present the synthesis of N-substituted aryl pyrroles via reductive amination/cyclization of levulinic acid (LA) with primary aromatic amines and hydrosilanes (e.g., PMHS) over CsF, and a series of N-substituted aryl pyrroles could be obtained in good to excellent yields at 120 °C. The mechanism investigation indicates that the reaction proceeds in two steps: the cyclization between amine and LA occurs first to form intermediate 5-methyl-N-alkyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-pyrrolones and their isomeride (B), and then the chemo- and region-selective reduction of intermediates take place to produce the final products. This approach for synthesis of N-substituted aryl pyrroles can be performed under mild and green conditions, which may have promising applications.

Effective and robust electrocatalysts are mainly based on innovative materials and unique structures. Herein, we designed a flakelike cobalt phosphide-based catalyst supporting on NiCo2O4 nanorods array, which in-situ grew on the nickel foam (NF) current collector, referring as N–Co2P/NiCo2O4/NF electrode. By optimizing the microstructure and electronic structure through 3D hierarchy fabrication and nitrogen doping, the catalyst features with abundant electrochemical surface area, favorable surface wettability, excellent electron transport, as well as tailored d band center. Consequently, the as-prepared N–Co2P/NiCo2O4/NF electrode exhibits an impressive HER activity with a low overpotentials of 58 mV at 10 mA cm−2, a Tafel slop of 75 mV dec−1, as well as superior durability in alkaline medium. This work may provide a new pathway to effectively improve the hydrogen evolution performance of transition metal phosphides and to develop promising electrodes for practical electrocatalysis.

This work includes fabrication and electrical characterization of Metal/Interlayer/Semiconductor (MIS) structures with methyl violet organic film on p-InP wafer. Metal(Ag)/ Interlayer (methyl violet =MV)/Semiconductor(p-InP) MIS structure presents a rectifying contact behavior. The values of ideality factor (n) and barrier height (BH) for the Ag/MV/p-InP MIS diode by using the current-voltage (I-V) measurement have been extracted as 1.21 and 0.84 eV, respectively. It was seen that the BH value of 0.84 eV calculated for the Ag/MV/p-InP MIS structure was significantly higher than the value of 0.64 eV of Ag/p-InP control contact. This situation was ascribed to the fact that the MV organic interlayer increased the effective barrier height by influencing the space charge region of inorganic semiconductor. The values of diffusion potential and barrier height for the Ag/MV/p-InP MIS diode by using the capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurement have been extracted as 1.21 V and 0.84 eV, respectively. The interface-state density of the Ag/MV/p-InP structure was seen to change from 2.57×1013 eV-1cm-2 to 2.19×1012 eV-1cm-2.

Owing to the advantages of high operating voltage, environmental benignity, and low cost, potassium-based dual-ion batteries (KDIBs) have been considered as a potential candidate for large-scale energy storage. However, KDIBs generally suffer from poor cycling performance and unsatisfied capacity, and inactive components of conductive agents, binders, and current collector further lower their overall capacity. Herein, we prepare coral-like carbon nanowires (CCNWs) doped with nitrogen as a binder-free anode material for K+-ion storage, in which the unique coral-like porous nanostructure and amorphous/short-range-ordered composite feature are conducive to enhancing the structural stability, to facilitating the ion transfer and to boosting the full utilization of active sites during potassiation/de-potassiation process. As a result, the CCNW anode possesses a hybrid K+-storage mechanism of diffusive behavior and capacitive adsorption, and stably delivers a high capacity of 276 mAh g-1 at 50 mA g-1, good rate capability up to 2 A g-1, and long-term cycling stability with 93 % capacity retention after 2000 cycles at 1 A g-1. Further, assembling this CCNW anode with an environmentally benign expanded graphite (EG) cathode yields a proof-of-concept KDIB, which shows a high specific capacity of 134.4 mAh g-1 at 100 mA g-1, excellent rate capability of 106.5 mAh g-1 at 1 A g-1, and long-term cycling stability over 1000 cycles without negligible capacity loss. This study provides a feasible approach to developing high-performance anodes for potassium-based energy storage devices.

Co–N–C is a promising oxygen electrochemical catalyst due to its high stability and good durability. However, due to the limited adsorption ability improvement for oxygen-containing intermediates, it usually exhibits inadequate catalytic activity with 2-electron pathway and high selectivity of hydrogen peroxide. Herein, the adsorption of Co–N–C to these intermediates is modulated by constructing heterostructures using transition metals and their derivatives based on d-band theory. The heterostructured nanobelts with MoC core and pomegranate-like carbon shell consisting of Co nanoparticles and N dopant (MoC/Co–N–C) are engineered to successfully modulate the d band center of active Co–N–C sites, resulting in a remarkably enhanced electrocatalysis performance. The optimally performing MoC/Co–N–C exhibits outstanding bi-catalytic activity and stability for the oxygen electrochemistry, featuring a high wave-half potential of 0.865 V for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and low overpotential of 370 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at 10 mA cm−2. The zinc air batteries with the MoC/Co–N–C catalyst demonstrate a large power density of 180 mW cm−2 and a long cycling lifespan (2000 cycles). The density functional theory calculations with Hubbard correction (DFT + U) reveal the electron transferring from Co to Mo atoms that effectively modulate the d band center of the active Co sites and achieve optimum adsorption ability with “single site double adsorption” mode.

Plasma methods are given significant attention in the context of conditioning the producer gas derived from biomass gasification. The goal of this work is to present the impact of hydrogen on the other producer gas compounds during microwave plasma valorization. These compounds include main producer gas components (CO, CO2, CH4, N2) and minor impurities (tar compounds, H2S and NH3). The results prove a beneficial impact of hydrogen addition on the conversion of CH4 and toluene, increasing it from ca. 68%–95% and ca. 97%–100%, respectively. Additionally, the presence of hydrogen changes the distribution of the products, inhibiting soot and aromatics production and promoting C2 compounds. In the case of CO2, the conversion increases from ca. 18%–63% when compared to nitrogen plasma, with CO being the resulting product. The presence of hydrogen inhibits H2S conversion and does not affect CO and NH3

In an effort for further improvement of LSCF hollow fiber membrane properties in oxygen purification application, this work studied the use of polyethylene glycol (PEG) with different molecular weight of 2000, 3400 and 6000 Da as a pore former. A well-prepared hollow fiber membrane was successfully fabricated via extrusion followed by a sintering method. The results showed that the addition of PEG increased the viscosity of the dope suspension and formed a constant asymmetric pore configuration of the membrane after sintering at 1250 °C. The increasing molecular weight of PEG also leads to a decrease in the mechanical strength of the membranes, indicating that finger-like pores were sacrificed by forming irregular pores. The gas tightness was also examined under room temperature which showed that membrane with PEG 3400 achieved the best tightness with the nitrogen permeability of 3.55 × 10−5 mol·m−2·s−1·Pa−1. The oxygen permeation of the membranes was also influenced by the addition of PEG, where the highest oxygen permeation flux of 6.07 × 10−8 mol·cm−2·s−1 was obtained using a hollow fiber membrane with PEG 3400 due to the existence of the lowest dense layer thickness.

Amidst a world of never-ending waste production and waste disposal crises, scientists have been working their ways to come up with solutions to serve the earth better. Two such commonly found trashes deteriorating the environment are glass and tin can waste. This study aims to investigate the comparative suitability of response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) in predicting the mechanical strength of concrete prepared with fine glass aggregate (GFA) and condensed milk can (tin) fibers (CMCF). An experimental scheme has been designed in this study with two input variables as GFA and CMCF, and two output variables as compressive and splitting tensile strength. The results show that both variables influenced the compressive and splitting tensile strength of concrete at 7, 28, and 56 days (p

In this study, CO₂ conversion to acetate and CH₄ was achieved in a flow-through laboratory-scale microbial electrosynthesis (MES) cell composed of a 3D conductive polylactic acid (cPLA) lattice cathode with electrodeposited metal electrocatalyst coatings. The MES cell with a bare cPLA cathode showed the poorest performance with the lowest H₂ and CH₄ production rates and low Coulombic efficiency. This was ascribed to a poor electrocatalytic activity of cPLA towards H₂ production and high electrode resistivity. When the cPLA electrode was modified with metal coatings, the CH₄, acetate and H₂ production rate increased significantly, with the following trend: cPLA < Ni < NiFe < NiFeMn. The better performance of the metal-coated cPLA in terms of CH₄ production was attributed to the lower electrical resistance, enhanced H₂ production and enhanced electron transfer between the cathode and the biofilm. At the cell potential of 2.8 V, the best-performing NiFeMn cPLA cathode showed stable production of CH₄ (50 ± 6 mL d⁻¹), acetate (185 ± 27 mg d⁻¹), and H₂ (545 ± 175 mL d⁻¹) at close to 100% Coulombic efficiency.

Defect-engineered carbon materials have been emerged as promising electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in metal-air batteries. Developing a facile strategy for the preparation of highly active nanocarbon electrocatalysts remains challenging. Herein, a low-cost and simple route is developed to synthesize defective graphene by pyrolyzing the mixture of glucose and carbon nitride. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the graphene formation is ascribed to two-dimensional layered feature of carbon nitride, and high compatibility of carbon nitride/glucose systems. Structural measurements suggest that the graphene possesses rich edge and topological defects. The graphene catalyst exhibits higher power density than commercial Pt/C catalyst in a primary Zn-air battery. Combining experimental results and theoretical thermodynamic analysis, it is identified that graphitic nitrogen-modified topological defects at carbon framework edges are responsible for the decent ORR performance. The strategy presented in this work can be can be scaled up readily to fabricate defective carbon materials.

3D flower-like hierarchical mesoporous Bi4O5I2/MoS2 Z-scheme layered heterojunction photocatalyst was fabricated by oil bath and hydrothermal methods. The heterojunction with narrow band gap of ∼1.95 eV extended the photoresponse to near-infrared region, which showed obvious photothermal effect due to the introduction of MoS2 with broad spectrum response. MoS2 nanosheets were anchored onto the surface of flower-like hierarchical mesoporous Bi4O5I2 nanosheets, thereby forming efficient layered heterojunctions, the solar-driven photocatalytic efficiency in degradation of highly toxic dichlorophenol and reduction of hexavalent chromium was improved to 98.5% and 99.2%, which was ∼4 and 7 times higher than that of the pristine Bi4O5I2, respectively. In addition, the photocatalytic hydrogen production rate reached 496.78 μmol h-1 g-1, which was ∼6 times higher than that of the pristine Bi4O5I2. The excellent photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the promoted photothermal effect, as well as, the formation of compact Z-scheme layered heterojunctions. The 3D flower-like hierarchical mesoporous structure provided adequate surface active-sites, which was conducive to the mass transfer. Moreover, the high stability of the prepared photocatalyst further promoted its potential practical application. This strategy also provides new insights for fabricating layered Z-scheme heterojunctions photocatalysts with highly photothermal-photocatalytic efficiency.

The Ru-catalyzed carbonylation of alkenes with CO2 as a C1 surrogate and imidazole chlorides as the promotor is investigated by a combination of computational and experimental study. The conversion rate of CO2 to CO is positively correlated with the efficiency of both hydroesterification and hydroformylation, which is found facilitated in the presence of chloride additives with a decreasing order of BmimCl ∼ B3MimCl > BmmimCl ∼ LiCl. Taking the hydroesterification with MeOH as a representative example, BmimCl bearing C–H functionality at the C2 site of the cation assists the reduction of CO2 to CO as a hydrogen donor medium, with the anion and cation acting in a synergistic fashion. Subsequent insertion of CO2 into the formed Ru–H bond with the assistance of chloride anion produces the Ru–COOH species, which ultimately accelerates the activation of CO2.

Energy conversion technologies like fuel cells and metal-air batteries require oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts with low cost and high catalytic activity. Herein, N-doped carbon spheres (N-CS) with rich micropore structure have been synthesized by a facile two-step method, which includes the polymerization of pyrrole and formaldehyde and followed by a facile pyrolysis process. During the preparation, zinc chloride (ZnCl2) was utilized as a catalyst to promote polymerization and provide a hypersaline environment. In addition, the morphology, defect content and activity area of the resultant N-CS catalysts could be regulated by controlling the content of ZnCl2. The optimum N-CS-1 catalyst demonstrated much better catalytic activity and durability towards ORR in alkaline conditions than commercial 20 wt% Pt/C catalysts, of which the half-wave potential reached 0.844 V vs. RHE. When applied in the Zn-air batteries as cathode catalysts, N-CS-1 showed a maximum power density of 175 mW cm-2 and long-term discharging stability of over 150 h at 10 mA cm-2, which outperformed 20 wt% Pt/C. The excellent performance could be due to its ultrahigh specific surface area of 1757 m2 g-1 and rich micropore channels structure. Meanwhile, this work provides an efficient method to synthesize an ultrahigh surface porous carbon material, especially for catalyst application.

Activated red mud (RM) has been proved to be a promising base material for the selective catalysis reduction (SCR) of NOx. The inherent low reducibility and acidity limited its low–temperature activity. In this work, molybdenum oxide, tungsten oxide, and cerium oxide were used to reconfigure the redox sites and acid sites of red mud based catalyst. When activated red mud was reconfigured by cerium-tungsten oxide (Ce–W@RM), the NOx conversion kept above 90% at 219–480 °C. The existence of Ce3+/Ce4+ redox electron pairs provided more surface adsorbed oxygen (Oα) and served as a redox cycle. Positive interactions between Ce, W species and Fe oxide in red mud occurred, which led to the formation of unsaturated chemical bond and promoted the activation of adsorbed NH3 species. WO3 and Ce2(WO4)3 (formed by solid–state reaction between Ce and W species) could provide more Bronsted acid sites (W–O modes of WO3, W O or W–O–W modes of Ce2(WO4)3). CeO2 species could provide more Lewis acid sites. The Langmuir–Hinshelwood (L-H) routes and Eley-Rideal (E-R) routes occurred in the low-temperature SCR reaction on the Ce–W@RM surface. NH4+ species on Bronsted acid sites, NH3 species on Lewis acid sites, bidentate nitrate and bridging nitrate species were key active intermediates species.

A novel strategy was developed to fabricate FeNx-doped carbon quantum dots (Fe-N-CQDs) to detect Cu2+ ions selectively as a fluorescence probe. The Fe-N-CQDs were synthesized by an efficient electrolysis of a carbon cloth electrode, which was coated with monoatomic iron-anchored nitrogen-doped carbon (Fe-N-C). The obtained Fe-N-CQDs emitted blue fluorescence and possessed a quantum yield (QY) of 7.5%. An extremely wide linear relationship between the Cu2+ concentration and the fluorescence intensity was obtained in the range from 100 nM to 1000 nM (R2 = 0.997), and the detection limit was calculated as 59 nM. Moreover, the Fe-N-CQDs demonstrated wide range pH compatibility between 2 and 13 due to the coordination between pyridine nitrogen and Fe3+, which dramatically reduced the affection of the protonation and deprotonation process between H+ and Fe-N-CQDs. It is notable that the Fe-N-CQDs exhibited a rapid response in Cu2+ detection, where stable quenching can be completed in 7 s. The mechanism of excellent selective detection of Cu2+ was revealed by energy level simulation that the LUMO level of Fe-N-CQDs (−4.37 eV) was close to the redox potential of Cu2+, thus facilitating the electron transport from Fe-N-CQDs to Cu2+.

Establishing highly effective charge transfer channels in carbon nitride (g-C3N4) to enhance its photocatalytic activity is still a challenging issue. Herein, the delaminated 2D Ti3C2 MXene nanosheets were employed to decorate the P-doped tubular g-C3N4 (PTCN) for engineering 1D/2D Schottky heterojunction (PTCN/TC) through electrostatic self-assembly. The optimized PTCN/TC exhibited the highest hydrogen evolution rate (565 μmol/h/g), which was 4.3 and 2.0 -fold higher than pristine bulk g-C3N4 and PTCN, respectively. Such enhancement may be primarily attributed to the phosphorus heteroatom doped and unique structure of 1D/2D g-C3N4/Ti3C2 Schottky heterojunction, enhancing the light-harvesting and charges’ separation. One-dimensional pathway of g-C3N4 tube and built-in electric field of interfacial Schottky effect can significantly facilitate the spatial separation of photogenerated charge carriers, simultaneously inhibit their recombination via Schottky barrier. In this composite, metallic Ti3C2 was served as electrons sink and photons collector. Moreover, ultrathin Ti3C2 flake with exposed terminal metal sites as a co-catalyst exhibited higher photocatalytic reactivity in H2 evolution compared to carbon materials (such as reduced graphene oxide). This work not only proposed the mechanism of tubular g-C3N4/Ti3C2 Schottky junction in photocatalysis, but also provided a feasible way to load ultrathin Ti3C2 as a co-catalyst for designing highly efficient photocatalysts.

Diphenyl carbonate (DPC) is one of the versatile carbonates, and is often used for the production of polycarbonates. In recent years, the catalytic synthesis of DPC has become an important topic but the development of a highly active metal-free catalyst is a great challenge. Herein, a series of ionic liquids-SBA-15 hybrid catalysts with different functional groups have been developed for the synthesis of DPC under solvent-free condition, which are effective and clean instead of the metal-containing catalysts. It is found that in the presence of [SBA-15-IL-OH]Br catalyst, methyl phenyl carbonate (MPC) conversion of 80.5% along with 99.6% DPC selectivity is achieved, the TOF value is thrice higher than the best value reported by using transition metal-based catalysts. Moreover, the catalyst displays remarkable stability and recyclability. This work provides a new idea to design and prepare eco-friendly catalysts in a broad range of applications for the green synthesis of carbonates.

Hydrogen energy has long been recognized as a clean alternative to conventional fossil fuels, which can be applied in a wide range of transportation and power generation applications. The rational design and engineering of high-performance and robust catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) shows not a great significance but a challenge for efficient electrochemical water splitting. Herein, a new type of Ni-based Ni-ABDC precursor has been obtained, which leads to the formation of N-doped porous carbon nanomaterials uniformly coated with well-proportioned bimetallic AgNi alloys via a stepwise strategy. To their credit, all samples of AgNi/NC-X are structurally calcined from the pristine AgNi-ABDC-X by tuning the different concentration of AgNO3, which means all of them maintain the vermicelli-like morphology compared with Ni-ABDC. The series of AgNi/NC-X materials can be regarded as effective electrocatalysts for HER both in acidic and alkaline media, but an acid-leaching phenomenon is observed. Among them, the as-prepared AgNi/NC-2 exhibits a low overpotential of 103 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 and decent durability with a high retention rate of 90.9% after 10 h in 1.0 M KOH electrolyte. The compelling HER properties of AgNi/NC-2 can be attributed to the synergistic effect between the hierarchical carbon materials, partial N-doping and abundant AgNi alloys. Meanwhile, this study provides a practicable method for the development of efficient HER electrocatalysts for energy applications, which can be conveniently prepared through the reasonable introduction of active components in the crystalline inorganic-organic precursors.

In this work, Ag/Bi5O7I nanocomposite was prepared and firstly applied in piezo/photocatalytic reduction of N2 to NH3 and methyl orange (MO) degradation. Bi5O7I was synthesized via a hydrothermal-calcination method and shows nanorods morphology. Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were photo deposited on the Bi5O7I nanorods as electron trappers to improve the spatial separation of charge carriers, which was confirmed via XPS, TEM, and electronic chemical analyses. The catalytic test indicates that Bi5O7I presents the piezoelectric-like behavior, while the loading of Ag NPs can strengthen the character. Under ultrasonic vibration, the optimal Ag/Bi5O7I presents high efficiency in MO degradation. The degradation rate is determined to be 0.033 min−1, which is 4.7 folds faster than that of Bi5O7I. The Ag/Bi5O7I also presents a high performance in piezocatalytic N2 fixation. The piezocatalytic NH3 generation rate reaches 65.4 μmol L−1 g−1 h−1 with water as a hole scavenger. The addition of methanol can hasten the piezoelectric catalytic reaction. Interestingly, when ultrasonic vibration and light irradiation simultaneously act on the Ag/Bi5O7I catalyst, higher performance in NH3 generation and MO degradation is observed. However, due to the weak adhesion of Ag NPs, some Ag NPs would fall off from the Bi5O7I surface under long-term ultrasonic vibration, which would greatly reduce the piezoelectric catalytic performance. This result indicates that a strong binding force is required when preparing the piezoelectric composite catalyst. The current work provides new insights for the development of highly efficient catalysts that can use multiple energies.

This paper describes a statistical and mathematical approach to optimize the mechanical properties of a wood plastic composite with Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) as polymeric matrix. Wood plastic composite are materials that consist of a primary continuous polymer phase, where a secondary filler dispersed phase is embedded, the filler generally is wood fibers or sawdust. The slack variable approach in mixture experiments, consist in selecting a component of the mixture as slack variable, to subsequently design and analyze the experiment in terms of the remaining components. With the experimental design information three slack variable model were fit. Using response surface graphs, we show how different compositions modify the mechanical properties of wood plastic composite. Besides, by the desirability function, the optimal formulation of the compound that simultaneously maximizing the mechanical properties of wood plastic composite, was obtained. Finally, the components proportions that provides the best tensile, flexural and compression strength are presented.

Adsorptive removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater is very important, and the key is the development of efficient sorbents. In this work, oxygenated alkynyl carbon materials (OACMs) were synthesized via mechanochemical reaction of CaC2 and a carbonate (CaCO3, Na2CO3, or NaHCO3) at ambient temperature. The resultant OACMs are micro mesoporous carbon nanomaterials with high specific area (>648 m2 g−1), highly crosslinked texture, and rich alkynyl and oxygenated groups. The OACMs exhibit excellent Hg(II) adsorption due to the soft acid-soft base interaction between alkynyl and Hg(II), and OACM-3 derived from CaC2 and NaHCO3 has the saturated Hg(II) adsorbance of 483.9 mg g−1 along with good selectivity and recyclability. The adsorption is mainly chemisorption following the Langmuir mode. OACM-3 also shows high adsorbance for other heavy metal ions, e.g. 256.6 mg g−1 for Pb(II), 232.4 mg g−1 for Zn(II), and 198.7 mg g−1 for Cu(II). This work expands the mechnochemical reaction of CaC2 with carbonates and possibly other oxyanionic salts, provides a new synthesis approach for functional alkynyl carbon materials with excellent adsorption performance for heavy metal ions, as well as a feasible approach for CO2 resource utilization.

Aqueous zinc-air battery (ZAB) has attractive features as the potential energy storage system such as high safety, low cost and good environmental compatibility. However, the issue of dendrite growth on zinc metal anodes has seriously hindered the development of ZAB. Herein, the N-doped carbon cloth (NC) prepared via magnetron sputtering is explored as the substrate to induce the uniform nucleation of zinc metal and suppress dendrite growth. Results show that the introduction of heteroatoms accelerates the migration and deposition kinetics of Zn2+ by boosting the desolvation process of Zn2+, eventually reducing the nucleation overpotential. Besides, theoretical calculation results confirm the zincophilicity of N-containing functional group (such as pyridine N and pyrrole N), which can guide the nucleation and growth of zinc uniformly on the electrode surface by both promoting the redistribution of Zn2+ in the vicinity of the surface and enhancing its interaction with zinc atoms. As a result, the half-cell assembled with magnetron sputtered carbon cloth achieves a high zinc stripping/plating coulombic efficiency of 98.8% and long-term stability of over 500 cycles at 0.2 mA cm-2. And the Coulombic efficiency reached about 99.5% at the 10th cycle and maintained for more than 210 cycles at a high current density of 5.0 mA cm-2. The assembled symmetrical battery can deliver 220 plating/stripping cycles with ultra-low voltage hysteresis of only 11 mV. In addition, the assembled zinc-air full battery with NC-Zn anode delivers a high special capacity of about 429 mAh gZn-1 and a long life of over 430 cycles. The effectiveness of surface functionalization in promoting the transfer and deposition kinetics of Zn2+ presented in this work shows enlightening significance in the development of metal anodes in aqueous electrolytes.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are nanoporous crystalline polymers with densely conjugated structures. This work discovers that imine-linked COFs exhibit remarkable photodegradation efficiency to azo dyes dissolved in water. Visible light generates different types of radicals from COFs, and superoxide radicals break N N bonds in dye molecules, resulting in 100% degradation of azo dyes within 1 h. In contrast, these dyes cannot be degraded by conventionally used photocatalysts, for example, TiO2. Importantly, the COF photocatalysts can be recovered from the dye solutions and re-used to degrade azo dyes for multiple times without loss of degradation efficiency. This work provides an efficient strategy to degrade synthetic dyes, and we expect that COFs with designable structures may use as new photocatalysts for other important applications.

Graphene oxide (GO) is regarded as a promising candidate to construct solar absorbers for addressing freshwater crisis, but the easy delamination of GO in water poses a critical challenge for practical solar desalination. Herein, we improve the stability of GO membranes by a self-crosslinking poly (ionic liquid) (PIL) in a mild condition, which crosslinks neighbouring GO nanosheets without blemishing the hydrophilic structure of GO. By further adding carbon nanotubes (CNTs), the sandwiched GO/CNT@PIL (GCP) membrane displays a good stability in pH = 1 or 13 solution even for 270 days. The molecular dynamics simulation results indicate that the generation of water nanofluidics in nanochannels of GO nanosheets remarkably reduces the water evaporation enthalpy in GCP membrane, compared to bulk water. Consequently, the GCP membrane exhibits a high evaporation rate (1.87 kg m−2 h−1) and displays stable evaporation rates for 14 h under 1 kW m−2 irradiation. The GCP membrane additionally works very well when using different water sources (e.g., dye-polluted water) or even strong acidic solution (pH = 1) or basic solution (pH = 13). More importantly, through bundling pluralities of GCP membrane, an efficient solar desalination device is developed to produce drinkable water from seawater. The average daily drinkable water amount in sunny day is 10.1 kg m−2, which meets with the daily drinkable water needs of five adults. The high evaporation rate, long-time durability and good scalability make the GCP membrane an outstanding candidate for practical solar seawater desalination.

The objective of this work to review about interaction of different food additives with Haemoglobin (Hb) and Myoglobin (Mb) proteins. Food additives are the important components which are added in food to preserve its flavour, color, appearance along with its taste. Mb and Hb interacts with numerous food dyes at varying conditions. In this study we will use various spectroscopic techniques like fluorescence spectroscopy, UV–Visible spectroscopy, Rayleigh light scattering (RLS), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), circular dichroism (CD)alongwithtransmissionelectronmicroscopy (TEM)andmoleculardockingtocharacterize the binding consequences of Mb and Hb. Proteinaggregationisthedistinctivepropertyrelatedtohumanbody. Deformationofprotein along with its aggregation leads to vast conformational change in human body and leads to several blood related (anemia, leukemia) andneurodegenerativediseaseslikeParkinson’sandAlzheimer’s. Foodadditivesaretoxictohumansaswellastoenvironment. Sothe aim of this study to find out the methods for detection of such diseases along with its cure as well as methods to release these toxic dyes via interaction of additives with Hb & Mb.

The synthesis of metallic Nanoparticles (NPs) has gathered utmost interest over the past decades thank to their distinctive properties that build them applicable in several fields further as including science and technology. This main methods utilized in their synthesis are non-environmental friendly. This review paper describes the green methods within the synthesis of biogenic NPs further as their mechanisms involving various plant extracts which are non toxic, environment friendly and value effective. The natural plant extracts contains metabolites like flavonoids, terpenoids, polyphenols, alkaloids, etc which acts as both reduction and stabilization agents for synthesizing biogenic NPs with desired shape and size. During this review paper the employment of assorted plant extracts additionally the employment of bacteria, fungi, proteins within the biogenic synthesis of NPs has been delineated shortly. Ultimately the importance and applications of biogenic NPs has also been expressed.

Chitosan (CS) is a natural and biopolymer that are suitable biomedical properties such as; biocompatibility, non-toxicity, biodegradability and bioactive polymer that’s reason with a very large application (fabrication of biomedical scaffolds, implants). Some of the biocompatible thermoplastic polymers (PLA, PEEK, PLGA, PE, PP, PMMA, PET and etc.) are most widely used in biomedical field as per their properties from last two decades. Poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) thermoplastic polymer are most widely used in medical field but there are some limitations of their uses. For enhancement of PVC thermoplastic polymers properties sometimes add some bioactive and biocompatible fillers or other bioactive thermoplastic polymers. In this review paper try to link and discussed about the possible reinforcement CS in PVC thermoplastic polymer for biomedical applications.

Surface water bodies are getting contaminated day by day. Pollutants like 2-Chloropyridine (a class of halogenated pyridine derivative which are widely used in pharmaceutical and agrochemical sector) is detected in surface water bodies. It is toxic and carcinogenic. One of the reason of its presence in water bodies can be attributed to effluents from sewage treatment and industrial waste treatment plants, which may be due to inefficient conventional treatment technologies. Use of Advanced Oxidation technologies like Fenton’s oxidation has proven to be a promising alternative to degrade these recalcitrant and non-biodegradable compounds. The Present study accesses the applicability of laterite soil as a source of iron catalyst in Fenton’s oxidation process to degrade2-chloropyridine (2-CP) at various concentrations. Parameters like pH, dosage of laterite iron, hydrogen peroxide are optimized. Effect of initial concentration of the target compound on degradation kinetics is also investigated. Up to 75% degradation was achieved in a total reaction time period of 10hrs corresponding to Laterite iron: H2O2 ratio of 1:50 at a pH of 3 for a sample containing 2-CP compound at 10 mg/L. Use of iron in Fenton’s oxidation process harnessed from the laterite soil can be a suitable alternative to treat polluted water bodies contaminated with pharmaceutical halopyridine compounds.

Carbon Reinforced Plastics/polymers are metamaterials, widely used for diversified purposes for their unique features. The bibliometric analysis had been conducted to understand the active authors, organizations, journals, and countries involved in the research domain of “Carbon Reinforced Plastics”. All published articles related to “Carbon Reinforced Plastics” from “Scopus”, were analyzed using the VOS viewer to develop analysis tables and visualization maps. This article had set the objective to consolidate the scientific literature regarding the “Carbon Reinforced Plastics” and also to find out the trends related to the same. The most active journals in this research domain were Mechanics of Composite Materials, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, and Applied Mechanics Reviews. The most active countries were China, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The leading organizations engaged in the research regarding Carbon Reinforced Plastics were the University of Tokyo of Japan, the Russian Academy of Sciences of Russia, and the Ministry of Education of China. The most active authors who had made valuable contributions related to Carbon Reinforced Plastics were Yates B. Davim J.P. Reis P. and Ishikawa T.

In the current research wear behaviour of nano B4C particles with Al2214 alloy composites were studied. Al2214 alloy with 2 to 6 varying weight percentages of nano B4C particles composites were developed using stir cast route. Further, these developed composites were evaluated for the microstructural studies using SEM and EDS. The wear behaviour of Al2214 alloy and Al2214 with 2, 4 and 6 wt% of nano B4C composites were analysed using pin-on-disc wear apparatus. The dry wear tests were conducted at various loads and sliding speeds with 2500 m sliding distance as a constant parameter. The microstructural explanations revealed the thorough circulation of nano particles in the Al2214 alloy matrix, further the boron carbide particles were confirmed in the composites in the form of boron and carbon components. The Al2214 alloy with nano B4C composites displayed the greater wear resistance properties. The applied load and speed were impacted the wear of as cast alloy and its composites. Various wear mechanisms were identified by using SEM images of wear surfaces.

To clarify the anodic dissolution mechanism of Mg, the hydrogen evolution from pure Mg in acidic solutions under galvanostatic conditions were systematically measured. With increasing anodic current density, the cathodic hydrogen evolution rate decreased, and the anodic hydrogen evolution became faster while some surface area on the Mg was becoming dark under anodic polarization. Based on the surface analysis results and the generally accepted basic electrochemical equations, the evolution kinetics of hydrogen from Mg was deduced, and the most possible surface intermediate active species that could facilitate the anodic Mg dissolution and anodic hydrogen evolution were proposed. This paper further develops the model of incomplete film Mg+ dissolution, explains many reported experimental phenomena, and clarifies misunderstandings of current mechanism.

Hydrogen is an outstanding source of energy and plays very important part in energy system. Hydrogen is one of the best energy carrier alternatives to fossil fuels because of its high energy density. It is very important to produce clean and renewable energy sources due to increasing population and pollution day by day. In 2018, the maximum hydrogen (94%) is manufactured from fossil fuels by steam reforming of natural gas, partial oxidation of the methane gas as well as coal gasification. The hydrogen production plays important role in any industrialized society, since hydrogen is required for many essential chemical processes. Several designed metal-based ideas can be employed as an efficient catalyst for hydrogen production for the alternate source of energy and society benefits. Proposed review is highlighting the different efficient strategies for hydrogen production.

In this work comparative analysis of the effect of various active materials and use of photonic crystal in active layer of organic photodetector in the wavelength range between 400 nm and 700 nm is described. The active organic material used in the photodetector is PH3T: PCBM. The various materials used for the analysis of absorbance and transmittance between the active layer are nc_ZnO organic material and Al2O3, GaAs and silicon nitride (Si3N4) semiconductor materials. The maximum absorbance reported in this work are 80.0969%, 80.0451%, 75.4784%, 80.8878%, 76.8223% for without PC on nc_ZnO organic layer, with nc_ZnO PC on nc_ZnO layer, Al2O3, GaAs and silicon nitride (Si3N4) semiconductor materials with PC. The absorption is almost flat between 70% and 80% for without PC and for with PC having materials nc_ZnO, Al2O3 and GaAs between the wavelength range 450 nm to 630 nm. We have achieved an improvement in the absorption at wavelength ranging from 630 nm to 700 nm by using PC with nc_ZnO organic material.

Silver nanoparticles are generally used in various products due to their distinctive and antibacterica activities. Nanosilver are used in electronics bio-sensing, clothing, cosmetics, sunscreen and medical devices but a large numbers of in vitro shows that AgNPs has toxic effects on various cultured mammalian cells. In this paper I reviewed about the toxicity effect of silver nanoparticles(AgNPs) on humans Health. In addition we studied to which content the silver ion fraction contribute the toxicity to cells. However by green formation of silver nanoparticles(AgNPs) the toxicity of silver nanoparticles can be reduced. More studies and research is required that confer AgNPs at lower toxicity only then their use would be proved useful in several industry biomedical contexts and for human health also. The ambition or goal of this review is to estimate the literature on the toxicity of silver nanoparticles. The aim of this review to inspire more studies in the field of toxicity of nanoparticles of silver or silver nanoparticles.

Coconut Shell is a waste product derived from agriculture which is utilized as bio adsorbent for treating the wastewater discharged from electroplating industries. The physio chemical characterization of raw waste water and batch adsorption study using coconut shell charcoal (CSC) with a reference to effluent characterization is conducted to identify the potential contaminant and efficiency of adsorbent. The parameters such as effective particle size of adsorbent, contact time and dosage influencing the treatment efficiency of zinc and potassium which are identified as the potential contaminant in the waste water. Increase in dosage and specific surface area with reduced particle size increases the treatment efficiency up to the approved level, beyond which the portion adsorbed which remains constant. It is apparent that a dosage of 15 g/l and duration of 90 min is satisfactory to remove 90% of phosphate and 97% of zinc for 150 µm particle size. The adsorption equilibrium data were tailored well with the Freundlich isotherm for the removal of zinc and potassium. The baseline study is manifested the potential of CSC in the reduction of zinc and potassium from the industrial waste water.

India is an agricultural country. Nearly 70% of the populations thrive in rural areas, engaged in agriculture making the backbone of our economy. The Trichoderma genus is widely distributed and provides an alternative to chemical pesticides in crops and plants growth. Trichoderma species are free living and commonly found in soil and root ecosystems. Root colonization by Trichoderma also regularly promotes growth and development of plants. They also perform beneficial and significant role in enhancing crop productivity, fight against pathogens, resistant to abiotic stress and increase of nutrients uptake from soil. The present study was undertaken to investigate quantitative and qualitative estimation of phosphate solubilizer by using nineteen isolates of Trichoderma grown on Pikovskaya’s Agar and NBRIP media. It was found that all isolates were capable of differentially utilizing 5 g/L TCP in NBRIP broth. This was indicated by the soluble phosphate concentrations and increase in acidity of growth medium. Out of 19 isolates, all isolates were capable in phosphate solubilization. However, the P- solubilizing efficiency was found higher in case of the isolate number-59 and 89. While isolate number-102 was the strongest and isolate number-23 was the weakest P-solubilizer. Minimum Phosphate solubilization concentration was observed in 3rd day (0%) that simultaneously increased on 7th day (52.63%) followed by 9th day (100%) and remaining all days 13th, 17th and 21st days also observed 100% efficiency.

In this study we report a facile, cost effective one step preparation method for the synthesis of Mn doped cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles (NPs) through co-precipitation technique. The synthesis was performed at relatively low temperature using a green reagent oxalic acid as reducing agent. The structural and optical attributes of the samples were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), UV–Visible spectroscopy and SEM (Scanning electron microscopy). The XRD and FTIR results show the formation of Mn doped ceria NPs having a cubic fluorite structure. The morphology and chemical composition of the prepared sample was realized using SEM and EDX spectrum. The synthesized Mn doped ceria NPs shows greater absorption in the visible region and reduced particle size compared to pure ceria NPs.

A composite system consisting of aminosilicate (APS) functionalized-fullerene quantum dots (C60 QDs) and bismuth vanadate (BiVO4-APS-C60) has been developed via a facile one-step hydrothermal process. The structural analysis by XRD revealed that the integrated QDs have not affected the crystal structure of the host BiVO4, while the XPS studies showed that these QDs have been integrated via the Bi-V-O-Si-C network. The optical studies indicated that both the C60 and APS-C60 QDs have hardly influenced the optical absorption properties of the composite system. On the other hand, the dispersion of aminosilicate functionalized-QDs considerably reduced the aggregation in the layers and yielded a few nanometer thick BiVO4 layers due to their inter-layer occupancy as seen from their high-resolution TEM images. The photoluminescence, photocurrent and electrochemical impedance studies showed that the integration of APS-C60 QDs greatly improved the photoactive properties of the composite by effectively enhancing the charge recombination resistance, charge separation and transfer process between the integrated materials and surroundings. As a result, BiVO4-APS-C60 composites showed the enhanced photocatalytic efficiency towards degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP) molecules under solar light irradiation as compared to that of bare-BiVO4 and BiVO4-C60.

Acid pretreatment is one of the most widely used fractionation processes for lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, effect of mineral acids (SA, HA, and NA) on recovery of reducing sugar from coconut coir was studied. The independent variables such as reaction time (X1, min) and concentration of acid (X2, % w/w) were optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for maximum yield of reducing sugar. In this study, 10% w/v of coir was pretreated under various conditions of X1 and X2 by maintaining a constant temperature (121oC). A maximum reducing sugar yield greater than 55% was observed for acid pretreatment.

Machines are integral part of industrial concerns and establishments. Tools are the backbone of machinery and vary according to the application they are being put used to as well as the end product required. Tool wear, on a comparative scale, is more predominant factor in cutting applications. This may be attributed towards a number of factors such as the high temperature arising at the cutting junction, frictional forces being generated; feed rate etc. Conventional methods utilize various alternatives such as lubricants in the form of grease, oil etc. and specially designed cooling fluids. In spite of their beneficial functions, they tend to provide health hazard due to consequent environmental pollution. By using minimum quantity lubrication system, it saves 50% of coolant which done for machining and also reduce environmental problems. In silicon carbide nano additive gives least metal removal rate compared with copper oxide and titanium oxide.

Microalgae-bacteria symbiotic association can provide many competitive advantages over the pure axenic culture of microalgae to obtain biofuel. This system significantly reduces an important technical constraint, including associated capital cost with the infrastructure required for maintaining pure microalgae culture. The current study aims to compare the symbiotic growth of Tetraselmis indica - Pseudomonas aeruginosa consortium with axenic growth of Tetraselmis indica in dairy wastewater (DWW). The extraction and optimization of chlorophyll-a were also investigated. The overall maximum chlorophyll-a recovery of 29.106 ± 0.045 mg L−1 was obtained through the sonification as extractant method with methanol as an extraction solvent. The chlorophyll-a content of consortium cultivated in DWW higher than the axenic pure microalgae culture (APMC). The maximum biomass yield of the consortium was achieved as 1454.88 mg L−1, which is much higher than APMC growth in DWW by 38.80%. On the 10th day, the consortium removed 87.49%, 83.76%, and 79.83% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), and total dissolved phosphorus respectively. The higher biomass growth and wastewater nutrient removal exhibited by the symbiotic microalgae-bacteria consortium can be utilized in biofuel technology.

Textual emotion detection is an attractive task while previous studies mainly focused on polarity or single-emotion classification. However, human expressions are complex, and multiple emotions often occur simultaneously with non-negligible emotion correlations. In this paper, a Multi-label Emotion Detection Architecture (MEDA) is proposed to detect all associated emotions expressed in a given piece of text. MEDA is mainly composed of two modules: Multi-Channel Emotion-Specified Feature Extractor (MC-ESFE) and Emotion Correlation Learner (ECorL). MEDA captures underlying emotion-specified features through MC-ESFE module in advance. MC-ESFE is composed of multiple channel-wise ESFE networks. Each channel is devoted to the feature extraction of a specified emotion from sentence-level to context-level through a hierarchical structure. Based on obtained features, emotion correlation learning is implemented through an emotion sequence predictor in ECorL. During model training, we define a new loss function, which is called multi-label focal loss. With this loss function, the model can focus more on misclassified positive-negative emotion pairs and improve the overall performance by balancing the prediction of positive and negative emotions. The evaluation of proposed MEDA architecture is carried out on emotional corpus: RenCECps and NLPCC2018 datasets. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can achieve better performance than state-of-the-art methods in this task.

Glyceryl monolaurate (GML), as one of widely used industrial chemicals, can be synthesized via Fischer esterification of lauric acid (LA) and glycerol (GL). In this work, we screened boric acid-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) formed from tetrapropylammonium bromide (TPAB) and boric acid to intensify the selective Fischer esterification through conductor-like screening model for realistic solvents (COSMO-RS) theory. The solid liquid equilibrium (SLE) phase behavior, hydrogen bond formation process, and thermal stability of the DES were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). The results verified that equimolar TPAB and boric acid formed DES [TPAB:B(OH)3] with the lowest freezing point and very good thermal stability could efficiently intensify the Fischer esterification of GL and LA to GML. The hydrogen bond accepter TPAB of the DES made the esterification system homogeneous, which promoted the selective esterification process. In addition, the hydrogen bond donor B(OH)3 of the [TPAB:B(OH)3] combined with diol unit of GL to cyclic boric esters and led to a special selective space effect, which also improved the selectivity to GML. Thus, the esterification intensified of GL and LA by 20 wt% DES achieved GML selectivity of 85.7 % and yield of 76.4 % under the optimal reaction conditions. The esterification kinetics suggested the reaction followed pseudo-second-order model and the reaction activation energy was 33.98 kJ mol−1, similar to and/or lower than those reported works. Furthermore, DES and unreacted glycerol were readily recovered and reused through temperature controlled gravity-based separation due to the ability of homogeneity under reaction conditions and splitting phase behavior during the DES recovery. The results can expand the boric acid-based DESs for other potential intensification applications.

Agriculture waste such as sugarcane bagasse (SCB) is composed mostly of cellulose, a very versatile natural biopolymer with well-established applications in many industries. The purpose of this study was to use combination treatment methods which include alkaline treatment and mild acid hydrolysis assisted with ultrasonication to extract cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) from sugarcane bagasse. Initially, the SCB fibers were treated with sodium hydroxide and aqueous hydrogen peroxide, a bleaching agent before subjected to mild acid hydrolysis followed by ultrasonication at 70% amplitude to defibrillate and disperse the fibers. The study focused on acid hydrolysis using mild sulfuric acid to the alkaline treated cellulose fibers extracted from SCB. The FESEM images of isolated CNFs exhibited diameter in the range 20–30 nm and length of up to several micrometers. This observation suggests that the combined treatment methods are highly effective in isolating CNFs from the plant biomass. Moreover, XRD analysis reveals the presence of peaks at 2θ of 15.2° and 22°, indicating cellulose type I with the crystallinity of 42%. Meanwhile, the FTIR spectra prove that individual CNF was successfully isolated due to the removal of non-cellulosic constituents. This result verifies that amorphous portions such as lignin and hemicellulose were completely removed. CNFs with long entangled network fibrils were successfully extracted from SCB through the combination of alkaline treatment and mild acid hydrolysis assisted with ultrasonication. The CNFs are expected to have high strength and aspect ratio that can be used as reinforced material in manufacturing nanocomposites.

Nanoindentation derived mechanical properties and strain rate sensitivity assessment of a set of stir cast metallic reinforced Aluminium-based composites, with an antecedence of anomalous stress oscillations and strain rate insensitivity during hot compression, was investigated in this study. For the evaluation, Al6063 based composites reinforced with 6 wt% CuZnAl, steel, nickel, and SiC particles were subjected to nanoindentation, and their strain rate sensitivity was assessed using strain rate jump test. The results show that the AMCs reinforced with the metallic particles, presented better mechanical properties than those reinforced with SiC. The CuZnAl reinforced AMC had the best hardness (1.25 ± 0.25 GPa) and elastic modulus (∼83GPa), which is opined to be on account of thermoelastic contributions to the basic strengthening mechanisms. The large scatter observed in the mechanical response of the AMCs is largely due to the inhomogeneous particle distribution. The higher indentation resistance with an increase in strain rate, coupled with the absence of displacement bursts, indicated that the composites largely exhibit positive strain rate sensitivity.

This research explores a segment of the mechanical, thermal & physical characteristics of a polymer polypropylene (PP) mixture including low density polyethylene (LDPE). There were mixing syntheses (pure PP, 25 LDPE/75PP, 50LDPE/50PP, 75LDPE/25LDPE, pure PP) that were examined. As outcome, the expansion of LDPE to PP has decreased, with improved thickness, elasticity, bending efficiency, versatile modulus and hardness. In a (25LDPE/75PP) arrangement the prevailing elasticity was achieved while the (50LDPE/50PP) synthesis was attributed to ideal bent efficiency. High density polyethylene (HDPE) blowing in different proportions PP/polyethylene (PEs) can remove sorting course employed during even recycling course. PP has interesting features like outstanding process ability &tolerance to chemicals. Inadequate versatility, however, limits its usage in specific applications. Mixing PP with relative PEs may enhance its versatility. Universal kinetics of PP crystallization have been affected greatly by the existence of PEs of various structures of the ramifications. Existence of LDPE reduced overall summation ratio while HDPE increased the process of crystallization. No negative effect was observed in the studied parameter range on mechanical performance and the related crystallinity.

A novel medicinal plant (GotuKola) based proton conducting polymer electrolytes (synthetic polymer (PVA)/ medicinal plant Cenetella Asiatica (CA)/ NH4I) were prepared and characterized via Solution Casting Technique for construction of Proton (H+) ion battery. Their structural, thermal, vibrational and electrical properties were characterized by XRD, DSC, FTIR and AC impedance analysis. The increase in amorphous nature/ decrease in crystalline nature of the prepared polymer membranes have been confirmed by X – ray diffraction analysis. The low Tg value of the maximumionic conducting (σ) polymer membrane was characterized by DSC analysis. Vibrational spectra of prepared polymer membranes were characterized by FTIR analysis. From the AC impedance analysis, 1 g PVA: 400 mg CA: 300 mg NH4I has the highest ionic (H+) conductivity as 2.11 × 10−3 Scm−1at ambient temperature. The electrochemical stability window of the highest ionic conductivity (σ) polymer membrane is 3.29 V. All the acquired outcomes recommend that PVA/ Centella Asiatica/ NH4I based polymer electrolytes are suitable materials for electrochemical device applications (battery, fuel cell and gas sensors etc). The highest ionic conductivity (σ) membrane has been used to construct the primary proton (H+) ion battery. From the fabrication of primary proton ion (H+) battery, the open-circuit voltage is found to be 1.9 V.