Biological Sciences and Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad&nbsp;(IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;and&nbsp;research&nbsp;institute located in&nbsp;Palakkad,&nbsp;Kerala. It was&nbsp;one of the five new&nbsp;IITs&nbsp;proposed in the&nbsp;2014 Union budget of India. The campus was inaugurated on 3 August 2015. The institute has 94 faculty, 978 students, and 63 non-teaching staffs.

IT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in 8 different engineering disciplines including&nbsp;Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil among others.

&nbsp;

IIT Palakkad

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and its composites for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) have gained immense attention owing to their facile synthesis technique and favorable catalytic performance. Herein we present a composite prepared using a g-C3N4 and H3PW12O40 polyoxometalate (POM) electrocatalyst synthesized by a novel approach for HER application. The electrocatalyst is synthesized by the complexation of a tailored POM, i.e. Ru-substituted polyoxometalate (PW11Ru), with melamine followed by calcination under an inert atmosphere. The proposed monomer complexation strategy utilizing well-defined modulated PW11Ru as a metal precursor provided a unique approach for the preparation of a highly dispersed matrix to form a RuW/g-C3N4 composite. The HER activity of the obtained RuW/g-C3N4 composite is evaluated and compared with individual components of composites by performing several control experiments. RuW/g-C3N4 exhibited improved electrochemical activity towards the HER with an overpotential of approximately 266 mV at 10 mA cm−2 with a Tafel slope of 63 mV dec−1. This new approach using tailored-transition-metal substituted POMs and melamine as the monomer precursors will be expected to contribute to the development of well-defined cluster-embedded 2D-carbon materials with enhanced electrochemical activities. © 2024 RSC.

World University root node

Materials Advances

A tailored polyoxometalate-derived RuW/g-C3N4-based electrocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction

The discovery of vaccines has enabled the successful prevention of many deadly infectious diseases, decreased the overall mortality rate, and improved life expectancy worldwide [...].

Fulltext

Vaccines

THEME: "Vaccines and Vaccine Adjuvants/Immunomodulators for Infectious Diseases"

HemaSphere

The EHA Research Roadmap: Transfusion Medicine

Two-dimensional (2D) lamellar graphene oxide (GO) membranes are emerging as attractive materials for molecular separation in water treatment because of their single atomic thickness, excellent hydrophilicity, large specific surface areas and controllable properties. To yet, commercialization of GO laminar membranes has been hindered by their propensity to swell in hydrated conditions. Thus, chemical crosslinking of GO sheets with the polymer matrix is used to improve GO membrane hydration stability. This review focuses on pertinent themes such as how chemical crosslinking improves the hydration stability, separation performance and antifouling properties of GO membranes. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Journal of Environmental Management

Cross-linked laminar graphene oxide membranes for wastewater treatment and desalination: A review

Biophysical Journal

Aspergillus fumigatus hydrophobin functional amyloids

The analytical detection of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has received great attention owing to its toxic nature as well as its important regulatory roles in modulating the nervous system. It also has significance for the metabolic pathways in mammalian cells. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been used in different sensors owing to their high surface area, porosity, electrical conductivity combined with robust chemical kind of stability and/or charge mobility. MOFs have been applied to the sensing of H2S in limited techniques such as luminescent, capacitive and resistive-based sensors. This chapter discusses the recent trends in the application of MOFs ins capacitive and resistive sensors for H2S. The H2S adsorption mechanism in MOFs has been discussed in order to gain an understanding of the sensing mechanism in MOF-based capacitive and resistive sensors. The chapter ends with a conclusion discussing the present status along with a small discussion on future perspectives. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ram K. Gupta, Tahir Rasheed, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Muhammad Bilal; individual chapters, the contributors.

Metal-Organic Frameworks-Based Hybrid Materials for Environmental Sensing and Monitoring

MOF-based Capacitive and Resistive Sensors for Hydrogen Sulfide

Surgeries are a crucial medical intervention that has saved countless lives from time immemorial. To reduce pain during surgeries patients are administered with anesthetic drugs, which cause loss of sensation and thus reduce the pain involved. However, anesthetists control the effects of the drug by depending on pharmacokinetic calculations, which may vary from patient to patient, thus leading to a reduction in the quality of anesthetic care and adverse effects. To avoid these adverse effects, it is highly necessary to implement a real time monitoring of plasma drug concentration, which will adjust the drug infusion and maintain the levels of drug within therapeutic levels. To implement such a system, it is highly essential to analyze current advances in electrochemical sensor systems for different types of anesthetic drugs like opioids, intravenous anesthetics and neuromuscular blockers. This review focuses on the present strategy of electrochemical sensors implemented for the detection of anesthetic drugs and it helps towards developing a real time drug dispensing system with respect to the plasma concentration of the drug. This analysis will contribute towards establishing highly effective real time drug dispensing systems like the total intravenous anesthesia technique and patient-controlled analgesia. Such systems will lead to better usage of anesthetic drugs and improve the quality of anesthetic care thus making surgeries safer and more painless. © 2022 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Analytical Methods

A review on advances in the development of electrochemical sensors for the detection of anesthetic drugs

Basophils, though representing a minor population of leukocytes, have diverse roles in various pathophysiologies. A recent report provides an additional evidence on the pathogenic role of basophils in promoting kidney fibrosis by secreting IL-6 and promoting the Th17 cell differentiation.

Cell Research

Basophils orchestrate kidney fibrosis

An enhanced water flux and anti-fouling nanocomposite ultrafiltration membrane based on quaternary ammoniumpropylated polysilsesquioxane (QAPS)/cellulose acetate (QAPS@CA) was fabricated by in situ sol-gel processing via phase inversion followed by quaternization with methyl iodide (CH3I). Membrane characterizations were performed based on the contact angle, FTIR, SEM and TGA properties. Membrane separation performance was assessed in terms of pure water flux, rejection and fouling resistance. The 7%QAPS@CA nanocomposite membrane showed an increased wettability (46.6° water contact angle), water uptake (113%) and a high pure water permeability of ∼370 L m−2 h−1 bar−1. Furthermore, the 7%QAPS@CA nanocomposite membrane exhibited excellent bactericidal properties (∼97.5% growth inhibition) against Escherichia coli (E. coli) compared to the bare CA membrane (0% growth inhibition). The 7%QAPS@CA nanocomposite membrane can be recommended for water treatment and biomedical applications.

Chemosphere

Enhanced water flux and bacterial resistance in cellulose acetate membranes with quaternary ammoniumpropylated polysilsesquioxane

In this work, we report on a dual functional Nb2CTx @Pt nanocomposite, which shows good promise for the detection of physiologically relevant L-Cysteine (L-Cys) and for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The nanocomposite material was synthesized using a facile self-reduction strategy, after which Pt nanoparticles (PtNPs) were found to be deposited on Nb2CTx layered structure. The optimum loading of PtNPs on the nanocomposite was also optimized and it was found that Nb2CTx@Pt0.48 produced the best results for both sensing and OER applications. This Nb2CTx@Pt0.48 nanocomposite modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was able to detect L-Cys in the linear range of 100 pM-10 μM with a LOD of 41 pM along with high selectivity. Also, Nb2CTx@Pt0.48 was able to produce the best OER performance by attaining an OER current of 10 mA cm−2 at a potential of 1.5 V (vs Ag/AgCl) in addition to showcasing good durability even after the performance of an accelerated durability test of 500 cycles in the absence of binder molecules. This dual functional Nb2CTx @Pt0.48 nanocomposite has the capability to benefit both the healthcare and energy generation scenarios thus showing its versatility. © 2022 The Electrochemical Society (“ECS”). Published on behalf of ECS by IOP Publishing Limited.

ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology

In-Situ Decoration of Platinum Nanoparticles on Nb2CTx MXene: An Electrochemical Sensor for L-Cysteine and an Efficient Catalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction