Effect of 100 KeV Ar+ ion beam irradiation on ZnO thin films – Influence of morphology vis-a-vis electrode/electrolyte interface and its impact on photoelectrochemical water splitting

The present study attempts quantitative determination of changes in the morphological surface features viz. fractal dimension, lower and upper cut off length scale through Power Spectral Density analysis prior to and after irradiation of 100 KeV Ar⁺ ion beam at incidence angles of 0°, 40° and 60° on ZnO thin films. All the unirradiated and irradiated samples are subjected to photoelectrochemical characterization and a correlation between photoelectrochemical performance and morphological parameters is established. Sample irradiated at 40° angle at the fluence of 5 × 10¹⁶ ions/cm² is found to possess maximum fractal dimension of 2.72, lower and upper cut off length scale of 3.16 nm and 63.00 nm respectively. This sample exhibits maximum photocurrent density of 3.19 mA/cm² and applied bias photon-to-current efficiency of 1.12% at 1.23 V/RHE. Hydrogen gas collected for duration of 1 h for the same sample was ~4.83 mLcm^?2.     

Carbon-based TiO2-x heterostructure nanocomposites for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of dye molecules

Application of brown titanium dioxide (TiO_2-x) and its modified composite forms in the photocatalytic decomposition of organic pollutants in the environment is a promising way to provide solutions for environmental redemption. Herein, we report the synthesis of effective and stable TiO_2-x nanoparticles with g-C₃N₄, RGO, and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using a simple hydrothermal method. Among all the as-synthesized samples, excellent photocatalytic degradation activity was observed for RGO-TiO_2-x nanocomposite with high rate constants of 0.075 min^?1_, 0.083 min^?1 and 0.093 min^?1 for methylene blue, rhodamine-B, and rosebengal dyes under UV–Visible light irradiation, respectively. The altered bandgap (1.8 eV) and the large surface area of RGO-TiO_2-x nanocomposite impacts on both absorption of visible light and efficiency of photogenerated charge electron (e^?)/hole (h⁺) pair separation. This resulted in enhanced photocatalytic property of carbon-based TiO_2-x nanocomposites. A systematic study on the influence of different carbon nanostructures on the photocatalytic activity of brown TiO_2-x is carried out.     

A machine learning system for identifying transmembrane domains from amino acid sequences

We present our machine learning system, that uses inductive logic programming techniques to learn how to identify transmembrane domains from amino acid sequences. Our system facilitates the use of operators such as ‘contains’, that act on entire sequences, rather than on individual elements of a sequence. The prediction accuracy of our new system is around 93%, and this compares favourably with earlier results. This work was carried out with the support of a research grant from ISIS, Fujitsu Laboratories.     

Oxidation of some aliphatic polyols on anodically deposited MnO2

Galvanostatic steady state current potential measurements were carried out for oxidation of a series of aliphatic alcohols having varying number of hydroxyl groups. The anodically deposited layer of MnO₂ on platinum was used as the electrode material. The deposit was characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and electrode potential measurements. The catalytic role of MnO₂ in the electro-oxidation of alcohols was indicated by the chronopotentiograms and the cyclic voltammograms. An analysis of the electrochemical data indicated a catalytic EC mechanism in which Mn (V) is generated electrochemically and consumed chemically in succession. Based on this and the hydrogen bonding interaction between alcoholic hydroxyl groups and MnO₂ layer, a mechanism was proposed which accounts for the variation in the observed electrochemical reaction orders. Tafel behaviour was found to be followed only approximately. Current efficiency of the electrochemical oxidation of polyols was studied. Replacement of platinum by carbon as current collector was found to leave the electrocatalytic activity of the MnO₂ deposit practically unaltered.     

Realization of a temperature sensor using both two- and three-dimensional photonic structures through a machine learning technique

A temperature sensor based on photonic crystal structures with two- and three-dimensional geometries is proposed, and its measurement performance is estimated using a machine learning technique. The temperature characteristics of the photonic crystal structures are studied by mathematical modeling. The physics of the structure is investigated based on the effective electrical permittivity of the substrate (silicon) and column (air) materials for a signal at 1200 nm, whereas the mathematical principle of its operation is studied using the plane-wave expansion method. Moreover, the intrinsic characteristics are investigated based on the absorption and reflection losses as frequently considered for such photonic structures. The output signal (transmitted energy) passing through the structures determines the magnitude of the corresponding temperature variation. Furthermore, the numerical interpretation indicates that the output signal varies nonlinearly with temperature for both the two- and three-dimensional photonic structures. The relation between the transmitted energy and the temperature is found through polynomial-regression-based machine learning techniques. Moreover, rigorous mathematical computations indicate that a second-order polynomial regression could be an appropriate candidate to establish this relation. Polynomial regression is implemented using the Numpy and Scikit-learn library on the Google Colab platform.

     

Cover Feature: Superior Proton-Transfer Catalytic Promiscuity of Cytochrome c in Self-Organized Media (7/2021)

Evolutionarily elderly proteins commonly feature greater catalytic promiscuity. Cytochrome c is among the first set of proteins in evolution to have known prospects in electron transport and peroxidative properties. Here, we report that cyt c is also a proficient proton-transfer catalyst and enhances the Kemp elimination (KE; model reaction to show proton transfer catalytic property) by ∼750-fold on self-organized systems like micelles and vesicles. The self-organized systems mimic the mitochondrial environment in vitro for cyt c. Using an array of biophysical and biochemical mutational assays, both acid–base and redox mechanistic pathways have been explored. The histidine moiety close to hemin group (His18) is mainly responsible for proton abstraction to promote the concerted E2 pathway for KE catalysis when cyt c is in its oxidized form; this has also been confirmed by a H18A mutant of cyt c. However, the redox pathway is predominant under reducing conditions in the presence of dithiothreitol over the pH range 6–7.4. Interestingly, we found almost 750-fold enhanced KE catalysis by cyt c compared to aqueous buffer. Overall, in addition to providing mechanistic insights, the data reveal an unprecedented catalytic property of cyt c that could be of high importance in an evolutionary perspective considering its role in delineating the phylogenic tree and also towards generating programmable designer biocatalysts.     

Bi-objective optimization of the reliability-redundancy allocation problem for series-parallel system

The main objective of this paper is to solve the bi-objective reliability redundancy allocation problem for series-parallel system where reliability of the system and the corresponding designing cost are considered as two different objectives. In their formulation, reliability of each component is considered as a triangular fuzzy number. In order to solve the problem, developed fuzzy model is converted to a crisp model by using expected values of fuzzy numbers and taking into account the preference of decision maker regarding cost and reliability goals. Finally the obtained crisp optimization problem has been solved with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and compared their results with genetic algorithm (GA). Examples are shown to illustrate the method. Finally statistical simulation has been performed for supremacy the approach.     

Studies on the cure characteristics and vulcanizate properties of 50/50 NR/SBR blend

Blends of 50/50 natural rubber (NR) and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) are vulcanized using several conventional and semi-EV systems. The cure characteristics and vulcanizate properties are compared. The quantity and quality of crosslinks in each case are deciphered by chemical probes to correlated them with the vulcanizate properties.     

A numerical study of particle wall-deposition in a turbulent square duct flow

The deposition of dense solid particles in a downward, fully developed turbulent square duct flow at Re_τ = 360, based on the mean friction velocity and the duct width, is studied using large eddy simulations of the fluid flow. The fluid and the particulate phases are treated using Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches, respectively. A finite-volume based, second-order accurate fractional step scheme is used to integrate the incompressible form of the unsteady, three-dimensional, filtered Navier-Stokes equations on an 80 × 80 × 128 grid. A dynamic subgrid kinetic energy model is used to account for the unresolved scales. The Lagrangian particle equation of motion includes the drag, lift, and gravity forces and is integrated using the fourth-order accurate Runge-Kutta scheme. Two values of particle to fluid density ratio (ρ_p/ρ_f = 1000 and 8900) and five values of dimensionless particle diameter (d_p/δ × 10⁶ = 100, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000, δ is the duct width) are studied. Two particle number densities, consisting of 10⁵ and 1.5 × 10⁶ particles initially in the domain, are examined.Variations in the probability distribution function (PDF) of the particle deposition location with dimensionless particle response time, i.e. Stokes number, are presented. The deposition is seen to occur with greater probability near the center of the duct walls, than at the corners. The average streamwise and wall-normal deposition velocities of the particles increase with Stokes number, with their maxima occurring near the center of the duct wall. The computed deposition rates are compared to previously reported results for a circular pipe flow. It is observed that the deposition rates in a square duct are greater than those in a pipe flow, especially for the low Stokes number particles. Also, wall-deposition of the low Stokes number particles increases significantly by including the subgrid velocity fluctuations in computing the fluid forces on the particles. Two-way coupling and, to a greater extent, four-way coupling are seen to increase the deposition rates.