Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

VIT University

Centre for Nanotechnology Research

Metal organic framework or MOFs are found to be a good catalyst for hydrogen evolution in view of its excellent structural features like porous nature and well-defined morphology. This report describes the synthesis of Nickel-MOF prepared by solvothermal approach and further purified by a chemical process. Both impure and purified Nickel-MOFs are fabricated as electrodes for evaluating HER reaction. The performance towards electrocatalytic activity is affected due to the impurities present in the porous structure. In view of investigating the effect of activation/purification process towards morphology and in-turn HER activity, activation and purification is carried out to enhance the performance of MOFs. The electrochemical characterization proves high electrocatalytic activity for purified Ni-MOF with high rate kinetics towards HER than impure Ni-MOF. The Tafel slope of purified Nickel MOF is estimated to be 73.7 mV/dec with a low charge transfer resistance of 1.84 Ω, whereas the unpurified Ni-MOF shows 87.47 mV/dec and 3.85 Ω. Results show that pure Ni-MOF has abundant catalytic active edge sites and obeys Volmer-Heyrvosky mechanism with makes desorption of hydrogen as rate determining step. © 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC

World University root node

Vellore Campus

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Purified mesoporous nickel metal organic framework as electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in basic medium

A bi-metallic titanium–tantalum carbide MXene, TixTa(4−x)C3 is successfully prepared via etching of Al atoms from parent TixTa(4−x)AlC3 MAX phase for the first time. X-ray diffractometer and Raman spectroscopic analysis proved the crystalline phase evolution from the MAX phase to the lamellar MXene arrangements. Also, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study confirmed that the synthesized MXene is free from Al after hydro fluoric acid (HF) etching process as well as partial oxidation of Ti and Ta. Moreover, the FE-SEM and TEM characterizations demonstrate the exfoliation process tailored by the TixTa(4−x)C3 MXene after the Al atoms from its corresponding MAX TixTa(4−x)AlC3 phase, promoting its structural delamination with an expanded interlayer d-spacing, which can allow an effective reversible Li-ion storage. The lamellar TixTa(4−x)C3 MXene demonstrated a reversible specific discharge capacity of 459 mAhg−1 at an applied C-rate of 0.5 °C with a capacity retention of 97% over 200 cycles. An excellent electrochemical redox performance is attributed to the formation of a stable, promising bi-metallic MXene material, which stores Li-ions on the surface of its layers. Furthermore, the TixTa(4−x)C3 MXene anode demonstrate a high rate capability as a result of its good electron and Li-ion transport, suggesting that it is a promising candidate as Li-ion anode material. © 2021, The Author(s).

Fulltext

Scientific Reports

Double transition metal MXene (TixTa4−xC3) 2D materials as anodes for Li-ion batteries

An analytical expression for the decay rate of quasi-bound states (QBS) in a triangular quantum well is derived by considering the resonance scattering of particles from the triangular potential profile. Asymptotic properties of the Airy functions that are solutions to the Schrödinger equation for a linear or triangular potential and a perturbative expansion for a small broadening of the QBS are utilized to derive the expression for its location E0 as well as the decay rate Γ that further gives the net tunneling current from the well. The triangular well model is commonly used to represent the band-bending near a heterojunction due to the electrostatic field. This compact expression shows excellent agreement with a full numerical solver and improvement over Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin based calculations is demonstrated. © 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Semiconductor Science and Technology

An analytical model for electron tunneling in triangular quantum wells

Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4; KDP) is a well known nonlinear optical (NLO) material for optoelectronic, laser technology and fiber optical communication device applications. In a view to yeild better device properties, l-Phenylalanine (l-Phe) aminoacid doped KDP (LKDP) crystals with different dopant concentrations (0.5 mol%, 1 mol% and 2 mol %) were grown by slow evaporation solution technique (SEST). The grown crystals were powdered of micron size crystallites and subjected to powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). In PXRD spectra, a few peaks with increasing intensity were observed in LKDP crystals when compared to pure KDP, revealing the effect of incorporation of dopants in the crystalline matrix of KDP and the enhancement of growth rate along [100] direction. FT-IR spectrum confirms the incorparation of dopant in KDP crystalline matrix with the presence of different vibrational modes of assignments belongs to L-Phe. To study the crystalline perfection of pure and doped crystals, the high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) was employed and the crystalline perfection was found to be reasonably good with relatively low values of FWHM. UV–Vis-NIR spectroscopy results show significant increase in optical transmission up to ~ 80% from ~ 60% (pure KDP) in the entire visible spectrum of l-Phe doped KDP at low doping concentration. However, it was decreased to ~ 70% when we increase the dopant concentration by 2 mol% and suggests that if we increase the dopant (l-Phe) concentration above an optimal value in KDP, the transmission decreases. The Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum reveals high crystalline perfection at low concentration of dopants as observed by the sharp peaks. The weak green emission peak for sample with higher dopant concentrations indicates the segregation of doped molecules at the structural grain boundaries as observed in the HRXRD studies. The mechanical strength of pure and doped KDP crystals with increasing dopant concentration has been studied and found that the hardness was increased slightly due to doping. The powdered sample of micron size particle made from as grown crystals were subjected to Kurtz powder technique to observe the relative second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency in comparison with the pure KDP. These results reveal significant enhancement of SHG efficiency with increasing doping concentration up to 2 mol% in KDP crystals which is 1.31 times to that of pure KDP. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics

Influence of l-Phenylalanine doping on potassium dihydrogen phosphate: crystal growth, structural, optical and mechanical traits

In this work, the role of MoS2 co-catalyst on the CuBi2O4 photocathode was studied for solar water splitting. CuBi2O4 was synthesized on to the FTO substrate by a facile drop-casting technique. The presence of deposited film was confirmed by XRD and RAMAN characterizations. The estimated bandgap from the optical absorbance characterization was 1.30 eV and 1.49 eV for CuBi2O4 and CuBi2O4@MoS2, respectively. Photoelectrochemical studies showed an enhanced photocurrent of 0.182 mA/cm2 at 0.6 V vs RHE for CuBi2O4@MoS2 in comparison to bare CuBi2O4 (0.082 mA/cm2). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy further supported that the enhanced photocurrent of CuBi2O4@MoS2 was due to small interfacial charge transfer resistance in comparison to bare CuBi2O4. The flat band potential extracted from Mott-Schottky studies was 1.18 V and 1.19 V vs RHE for CuBi2O4@MoS2 and CuBi2O4, respectively. The photocathode system can be used as a better alternative to other similar copper-based photocathode systems since p-type CuBi2O4 has high positive flat band potential. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Materials Chemistry and Physics

Photoelectrochemical behaviour of CuBi2O4@MoS2 photocathode for solar water splitting

IET Nanobiotechnology

Guest editorial: Selected papers from the International Conference on Advanced Nanomaterials and Applications (VCAN2020)

Ferrites are one of the most studied materials around the globe due to their distinctive biological and magnetic properties. In the same line, anisotropic MnFe2O4 nanoparticles have been explored as a potential candidate possessing excellent magnetic properties, biocompatibility, and strong magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) properties such as r2 relaxivity for magnetic field-guided biomedical applications. The current work reports the synthesis and morphological evolution of MnFe2O4 nanocubes (MNCs) in a hydrothermal process using different volume ratios of water and ethanol. The synthesis protocol was designed to influence the properties of the ferrite nanocubes, for example, the variation in surface tension, dielectric properties, and the ionic character of the solvent, and this has been achieved by adding ethanol into water during the synthesis. Pristine MnFe2O4 is formed with well-defined cubic to irregular cubic shapes with the addition of ethanol, as evidenced from XRD, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and porosity measurements. MNCs have been investigated for magnetic hyperthermia and MRI applications. Well-defined cubic-shaped MNCs with uniform size distribution possessed a high saturation magnetization of 63 emu g-1 and a transverse relaxivity (r2) of 216 mM-1 s-1 (Mn + Fe). Furthermore, the colloidal nanocubes showed concentration-dependent hyperthermic response under an alternating magnetic field. The MNCs are biocompatible but advantageously show anticancer activities on breast cancer MCF 7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. © 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

ACS Omega

Carboxylated PEG-Functionalized MnFe2O4Nanocubes Synthesized in a Mixed Solvent: Morphology, Magnetic Properties, and Biomedical Applications

Industrial and agricultural processes have led to the prevalence of cadmium in the ecosystem. A successive build-up of cadmium in food and drinking water can result in inadvertent consumption of hazardous concentrations. Such environmental contamination of cadmium can pose a substantial threat to human and animal life. In humans, it is known to cause hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, DNA lesions, inhibition of DNA repair protein or disturb the functioning of lung, liver, prostate and kidney. The development of a reliable method for Cd (II) ions detection would reduce the exposure and complement existing conventional methods. In this study, a DNA based electrochemical method is employed for the detection of Cd (II) ions using ethyl green (EG) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT). Glassy carbon electrode (GCE)/MWCNT forms the working electrode for differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) analysis for the detection of Cd (II) ions. The dsDNA is immobilized onto the working electrode. The indicator dye EG, preferably binds to ssDNA and its reduction peak current is noticeably less in the presence of dsDNA. The Cd (II) ions after interacting with dsDNA, unwinds the dsDNA to ssDNA, upon which the EG molecules bind to ssDNAs, giving a higher reduction peak current. The difference in the reduction peak currents in the presence and absence of Cd (II) ions is proportional to its concentration. The linear detection range achieved in this method is 2 nM–10.0 nM with a sensitivity of around 5 nA nM−1 and the limit of detection is 2 nM, which is less than the permissible limit of WHO for human exposure. This study considerably broadens the possible application of multi-walled carbon nanotube modified electrodes as biosensors and holds prospects for the detection of other heavy metals in environmental samples. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

Environmental Research

Multi-walled carbon nanotube-based nanobiosensor for the detection of cadmium in water

The reported COVID-19 cases in the United States of America have crossed over 10 million and a large number of infected cases are undetected whose estimation can be done if country-wide antibody testing is performed. In this study, we estimate this undetected fraction of the population by a modeling and simulation approach. We employ an epidemic model SIPHERD in which three categories of infection carriers, symptomatic, purely asymptomatic, and exposed are considered with different transmission rates that are taken dependent on the social distancing conditions, and the detection rate of the infected carriers is taken dependent on the tests done per day. The model is first validated for Germany and South Korea and then applied for prediction of the total number of confirmed, active and dead, and daily new positive cases in the United States. Our study predicts the possible outcomes of the infection if social distancing conditions are relaxed or kept stringent. We estimate that around 30.1 million people are already infected, and in the absence of any vaccine, 66.2 million (range: 64.3–68.0) people, or 20% (range: 19.4–20.5) of the population will be infected by mid-February 21 if social distancing conditions are not made stringent. We find the infection-to-fatality ratio to be 0.65% (range: 0.63–0.67). © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC

Department of Communication Engineering

School of Electronics Engineering

Journal of Medical Virology

Estimation of undetected symptomatic and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 infection and prediction of its spread in the USA

The total COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) infected cases have reached 139 million worldwide and nearing 3 million deaths on April 16, 2021. The availability of accurate data is crucial as it makes it possible to analyze correctly the infection trends and make better forecasts. The reported recovered cases for many US states are surprisingly low. This could be due to difficulties in keeping track of recoveries and resulted in higher numbers for the reported active cases than the actual numbers on the ground. In this work, based on the typical range of recovery rate for COVID-19, we estimate the active data from the total cases and death cases and bring out a correction for the data for all the US states reported on worldometer. © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021.