Application of advanced nuclear analytical techniques for the electrocatalyst's characterization: Paving the path for mechanistic investigations

As the application of electrocatalyst continues to expand, envisaging the hidden mechanisms occurring at various length scale affecting the catalytic efficiency became important. To enhance the stability of electrocatalyst and reduce the cost, it is of paramount importance to reveal the active site's dynamics (using in situ techniques for getting the real-time information) which directly affect the reactions such as oxygen evolution reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, and so on. Since such reactions are crucial for many engineering and scientific applications, in situ characterization techniques are required, which could capture such reactions happening at a different length and time scale. This article analyzes the recent progress made in the field of electrocatalyst's characterization using in situ neutron techniques. The article also paves the future path and has delineated the future challenges involved in multiscale correlative techniques (e.g., neutron techniques in the combination of synchrotron or microscopic techniques) used for getting the multiscale (atomic to micrometer range) mechanistic information about the electrocatalyst's working and degradation.     

Thermophysical properties of neat and radiolytically degraded acidic extractants present in room temperature ionic liquid

In the present work, radon concentrations were measured in surface and underground water samples in Faridabad District of Southern Haryana, India using an active radon monitor based on alpha scintillation technique and results have been inter-compared. The average radon concentration in the underground water samples was observed to be 4 times higher than in the surface water samples. The estimated annual effective dose varied from 5.7 to 58.5 μSvy^?1 with an average of 24.2 μSvy^?1 for underground water samples and 1.1 to 12.5 μSvy^?1 with an average of 6.7 μSvy^?1 for surface water samples. The estimated annual effective dose for both type of samples was found to be less than 0.1 mSvy^?1, which is the safe limit as suggested by World Health Organisation and EU Council.

     

Chemical agents for binding post-translationally methylated lysines and arginines

Post-translational methylation, discovered more than half a century ago, encodes information in the form of a structural modification on a peptide or protein. The addition of a CH₃ group is one of the most subtle covalent modifications that exist in biology. In spite of this, recent years have revealed the many profound functional effects that arise from protein methylation in the cell. In an effort to open the doors to new assays and detection methods that would enable new basic and applied research into methylation pathways, chemical agents that can recognise and bind to methylated sites are now being pursued. In this review, we describe the supramolecular approaches to the recognition of methylated amino acids, peptides and proteins that have arisen in the last few years.     

Prediction and simulation of wear response of Linz–Donawitz (LD) slag filled glass–epoxy composites using neural computation

This article reports on the implementation of a soft computing technique based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) in analyzing the wear performance of a new class of hybrid composites filled with Linz–Donawitz slag (LDS). LDS is a major solid waste generated in huge quantities during steel making. It comes from slag formers such as burned lime/dolomite and from oxidizing of silica, iron etc. while refining the iron into steel in the LD furnace. In this work, hybrid composites consisting of short glass fiber (SGF) reinforced epoxy filled with different LDS content (0, 7.5, 15 and 22.5 wt%) are prepared by simple hand lay‐up technique. Solid particle erosion trials, as per ASTM G 76 test standards, are conducted on the composite samples following a well‐planned experimental schedule based on Taguchi design of experiments. Significant process parameters predominantly influencing the rate of erosion are identified. The study reveals that the LDS content is the most significant among various factors influencing the wear rate of these composites. Further, a model based on ANN for the prediction of erosion performance of these composites is implemented. The ANN prediction profiles for the characteristic wear properties exhibit very good agreement with the measured results demonstrating that a well‐trained network has been created. The simulated results explaining the effect of significant process variables on the wear rate indicate that the trained neural network possesses enough generalization capability of predicting wear rate even beyond the experimental range. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of novel quinoline analogues of nimesulide: An unusual observation

Reduction of nimesulide followed by treating the N‐acyl derivative of resulting arylamine with Vilsmeier‐Haack reagent provided novel 2‐chloro‐3‐formylquinoline derivatives. The construction of quinoline ring using Vilsmeier‐Haack reagent afforded an unexpected compound, N‐(2‐chloro‐3‐formyl‐7‐phenoxy quinolin‐6‐yl)formamide, in addition to the expected product. The structure of this unexpected quinoline derivative was established via single‐crystal X‐ray analysis and its formation could be explained by an unprecedented N‐S bond cleavage under Vilsmeier‐Haack reaction conditions. The 2‐chloro‐3‐formylquinoline derivatives obtained were converted to a number of corresponding Schiff bases with potential pharmacological importance. J. Heterocyclic Chem., 2011.     

Free Radicals as a Double-Edged Sword: The Cancer Preventive and Therapeutic Roles of Curcumin

Free radicals, generally composed of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS), are generated in the body by various endogenous and exogenous systems. The overproduction of free radicals is known to cause several chronic diseases including cancer. However, increased production of free radicals by chemotherapeutic drugs is also associated with apoptosis in cancer cells, indicating the dual nature of free radicals. Among various natural compounds, curcumin manifests as an antioxidant in normal cells that helps in the prevention of carcinogenesis. It also acts as a prooxidant in cancer cells and is associated with inducing apoptosis. Curcumin quenches free radicals, induces antioxidant enzymes (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase), and upregulates antioxidative protein markers–Nrf2 and HO-1 that lead to the suppression of cellular oxidative stress. In cancer cells, curcumin aggressively increases ROS that results in DNA damage and subsequently cancer cell death. It also sensitizes drug-resistant cancer cells and increases the anticancer effects of chemotherapeutic drugs. Thus, curcumin shows beneficial effects in prevention, treatment and chemosensitization of cancer cells. In this review, we will discuss the dual role of free radicals as well as the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects of curcumin and its analogues against cancer.     

Influence of chain architecture on phase behaviour of styrene-(styrene/butadiene)-styrene triblock copolymers and their binary blends

The phase behaviour of symmetric (LN4) and asymmetric (LN3) triblock copolymers based on styrene-b-(styrene-co-butadiene)-b-styrene (S-SB-S) and their blends have been studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and were correlated with rheological properties. A direct control over the final morphology and segregation strength for the block copolymer blends was achieved by blending of LN3 and LN4. The interaction parameter (χ) for LN4 is extracted by fitting the SAXS patterns at temperatures well above the ODT in consistency with Leibler mean-field structure-function for ABA triblock copolymers. A weak temperature dependency of χ has been observed which revealed that the phase behaviour in LN4 is mainly controlled by the entropic term. In the low frequency regime a non-terminal flow behaviour was observed in LN3 revealing the persistence of ordered structure within the experimental temperature range whereas a terminal flow behaviour with composition fluctuation was observed in LN4. G′ vs. G″ plots indicated a solid-like elastic melt behaviour for LN3 whereas presence of ODT over a broad temperature range was observed for LN4. ODT is observed to increase non-linearly with increase in LN3 content in the blends. ODT behaviour of the blends further reveals that the blends shift from weak-segregation to intermediate-segregation strength with the increase in LN3 content. The improvement in the state of ordering along with the change in morphology with the increase of LN3 content is attributed to co-surfactant effect between the PS end-blocks of LN3 and LN4 inside PS-rich phase.