Synthesis of Al Nanopowders in an Anodic Arc

Nanopowders of metals and metal oxides have been produced using an arc operated between a refractory rod anode and a hollow cathode (J. Haidar in A method and apparatus for production of material vapour, Australian Patent No. 756273, 1999). the arc attachment to the anode is through a small region of molten metal located at the tip of the rod anode. Heat from the arc evaporates the molten metal and the vapour is passed through the arc plasma before condensing into sub-micron particles downstream of the cathode. A precursor metal is continuously fed onto the tip of the anode to maintain the molten metal region and compensate for losses of materials due to evaporation. The particle size of the produced powder depends on the pressure in the arc chamber and for production of nanoparticles in the range below 100 nm we use a pressure of 100 torr. Aluminium has been used as a precursor material, leading to production of aluminium metal nanopowders when the arc is operated in argon and to aluminium oxide nanopowders for operation in air. For operation in air, the products are made of γ-Al₂O₃.     

Transient thin film flow of nonlinear radiative Maxwell nanofluid over a rotating disk

In this letter, a mathematical model for transient nature thin film flow of Maxwell nanofluid over a rotating disk is studied in the presence of a uniform magnetic field and non-linear thermal radiation. The Brownian motion and thermophoresis features due to nanofluid are captured by adopting the Buongiorno model. The prime emphasize is to explore the temperature field and nanoparticles volume fraction in nanofluid thin film flow. The reduced system of differential equations is solved numerically by finite difference based method namely bvp4c. The numerical outcomes regarding film thickness, Nusselt number, Sherwood number, velocity, temperature, and concentration are revealed for varying estimation of involved physical parameters. It is shown that the film thickness decreases with increasing values of the magnetic number. Further, the impact of thermophoresis and thermal radiation parameters is worthwhile in enhancing the fluid temperature. The Solute concentration is found to decrease with Brownian motion and Schmidt number.     

Warm modified Chaplygin gas shaft inflation

In this paper, we examine the possible realization of a new inflation family called “shaft inflation” by assuming the modified Chaplygin gas model and a tachyon scalar field. We also consider the special form of the dissipative coefficient \(\Gamma ={a_0}\frac{T^{3}}{\phi ^{2 }}\) and calculate the various inflationary parameters in the scenario of strong and weak dissipative regimes. In order to examine the behavior of inflationary parameters, the \(n_s \)–\( \phi ,\, n_s \)–r, and \(n_s \)–\( \alpha _s\) planes (where \(n_s,\, \alpha _s,\, r\), and \(\phi \) represent the spectral index, its running, tensor-to-scalar ratio, and scalar field, respectively) are being developed, which lead to the constraints \(r< 0.11\), \(n_s=0.96 \pm 0.025\), and \(\alpha _s =-0.019 \pm 0.025\). It is quite interesting that these results of the inflationary parameters are compatible with BICEP2, WMAP \((7+9)\) and recent Planck data.     

Charged Noncommutative Wormhole Solutions via Power-Law f(T) Models

In this paper, we explore static spherically symmetric charged wormhole solutions in extended teleparallel gravity taking power-law f(T) models. We consider noncommutative geometry under Lorentzian distribution. In order to obtain matter components, we develop field equations using effective energy-momentum tensor for non-diagonal tetrad. We explore solutions by considering various viable power-law f(T) models, which also include teleparallel gravity case. The violation of energy conditions obtain by exotic matter to form wormhole solutions in teleparallel case while, physical acceptable wormhole solutions exist for charged noncommutative wormhole solutions for some cases of power-law models. The effective energy-momentum tensor and charge are responsible for the violation of the energy conditions. Also, we check the equilibrium condition for these solutions. The equilibrium condition meets for the teleparallel case and some power-law solutions while remaining solutions are either in less equilibrium or in disequilibrium situation.     

Influence of Homogenizing Methodology on Mechanical and Tribological Performance of Powder Metallurgy Processed Titanium Composites Reinforced by Graphene Nanoplatelets

In the present work, 0.25 wt%GNP-Ti composites were prepared through powder metallurgy route by adopting three types of mixing modes to investigate the extent of mixing on the mechanical and tribological properties. Dry ball milling, wet ball milling, and rotator mixing were independently employed to homogenize the composite constituents. Three types of composite powders obtained were subsequently sintered into composite pellets by cold compaction followed by vacuum sintering. Morphological investigation of composite powders performed by SEM revealed better homogenization of GNPs in Ti matrix for dry ball milled composite powder, whereas wet ball milled and rotator mixed composite powders showed aggregation and bundling of GNPs. Micro Vickers hardness of composites produced via dry ball milling is 4.56% and 15.7% higher than wet ball milled and rotator mixed samples, respectively. Wear test performed by pin-on-disk tribometer showed higher wear loss for wet ball milled and rotator mixed composites in comparison to dry ball milled.     

Effect of spatial heterogeneity on level of rejuvenation in Ni80P20 metallic glass

Understanding the relation between spatial heterogeneity and structural rejuvenation is one of the hottest topics in the field of metallic glasses (MGs). In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is implemented to discover the effects of initial spatial heterogeneity on the level of rejuvenation in the Ni$_{80}$P$_{20 }$MGs. For this purpose, the samples are prepared with cooling rates of $10^{10}$ K/s-$10^{12}$ K/s to make glassy alloys with different atomic configurations. Firstly, it is found that the increase in the cooling rate leads the Gaussian-type shear modulus distribution to widen, indicating the aggregations in both elastically soft and hard regions. After the primary evaluations, the elastostatic loading is also used to transform structural rejuvenation into the atomic configurations. The results indicate that the sample with intermediate structural heterogeneity prepared with 10$^{11}$ K/s exhibits the maximum structural rejuvenation which is due to the fact that the atomic configuration in an intermediate structure contains more potential sites for generating the maximum atomic rearrangement and loosely packed regions under an external excitation. The features of atomic rearrangement and structural changes under the rejuvenation process are discussed in detail.     

Enhancement of Haloperidol Binding Affinity to Dopamine Receptor via Forming a Charge-Transfer Complex with Picric Acid and 7,7,8,8-Tetracyanoquinodimethane for Improvement of the Antipsychotic Efficacy

Haloperidol (HPL) is a typical antipsychotic drug used to treat acute psychotic conditions, delirium, and schizophrenia. Solid charge transfer (CT) products of HPL with 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and picric acid (PA) have not been reported till date. Therefore, we conducted this study to investigate the donor–acceptor CT interactions between HPL (donor) and TCNQ and PA (π-acceptors) in liquid and solid states. The complete spectroscopic and analytical analyses deduced that the stoichiometry of these synthesized complexes was 1:1 molar ratio. Molecular docking calculations were performed for HPL as a donor and the resulting CT complexes with TCNQ and PA as acceptors with two protein receptors, serotonin and dopamine, to study the comparative interactions among them, as they are important neurotransmitters that play a large role in mental health. A molecular dynamics simulation was ran for 100 ns with the output from AutoDock Vina to refine docking results and better examine the molecular processes of receptor–ligand interactions. When compared to the reactant donor, the CT complex [(HPL)(TCNQ)] interacted with serotonin and dopamine more efficiently than HPL only. CT complex [(HPL)(TCNQ)] with dopamine (CTtD) showed the greatest binding energy value among all. Additionally, CTtD complex established more a stable interaction with dopamine than HPL–dopamine.     

Discovery of 5-Methylthiazole-Thiazolidinone Conjugates as Potential Anti-Inflammatory Agents: Molecular Target Identification and In Silico Studies

A series of previously synthesized 5-benzyliden-2-(5-methylthiazole-2-ylimino)thiazoli- din-4-one were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory activity on the basis of PASS predictive outcomes. The predictive compounds were found to demonstrate moderate to good anti-inflammatory activity, and some of them displayed better activity than indomethacin used as the reference drug. Structure–activity relationships revealed that the activity of compounds depends not only on the nature of the substituent but also on its position in the benzene ring. The most active compounds were selected to investigate their possible mechanism of action. COX and LOX activity were determined and found that the title compounds were active only to COX-1 enzymes with an inhibitory effect superior to the reference drug naproxen. As for LOX inhibitory activity, the derivatives failed to show remarkable LOX inhibition. Therefore, COX-1 has been identified as the main molecular target for the anti-inflammatory activity of our compounds. The docking study against COX-1 active site revealed that the residue Arg 120 was found to be responsible for activity. In summary, the 5-thiazol-based thiazolidinone derivatives have been identified as a novel class of selective COX-1 inhibitors.     

Ce-Loaded HZSM-5 Composite for Catalytic Deoxygenation of Algal Hydrolyzed Oil into Hydrocarbons and Oxygenated Compounds

Despite the extensive research into the catalytic uses of zeolite-based catalysts, these catalysts have a limited useful lifetime because of the deactivating effect of coke production. This study looks at the use of Cerium (Ce) loaded HZSM-5 zeolite catalysts in the hydrocarbon and oxygenated chemical conversion from Chlorella Vulgaris microalgae crude oil. Characterization of structure, morphology, and crystallinity was performed after the catalysts were manufactured using the impregnation technique. Soxhlet extraction was carried out to extract the crude oil of microalgae. Transesterification reaction was used to produce algal hydrolyzed oil (HO), and the resulting HO was put to use in a batch reactor at 300 °C, 1000 rpm, 7 bars of nitrogen pressure, a catalyst to the algal HO ratio of 15% (wt. %), and a retention time of 6 h. To determine which Ce-loaded HZSM-5 catalysts would be most effective in converting algal HO into non-oxygenated molecules (hydrocarbons), we conducted a series of tests. Liquid product characteristics were analyzed for elemental composition, higher heating value (HHV), atomic ratios of O/C and H/C, and degree of deoxygenation (DOD%). Results were categorized into three groups: product yield, chemical composition, and carbon number distribution. When Cerium was added to HZSM-5 zeolite at varying loading percentages, the zeolite’s acid sites became more effective in facilitating the algal HO conversion. The results showed that 10%Ce/HZSM-5 had the greatest conversion of the algal HO, the yield of hydrocarbons, HHV, and DOD% (98.2%, 30%, 34.05 MJ/Kg, and 51.44%, respectively) among all the synthesized catalysts in this research. In conclusion, the physical changes seen in the textural characteristics may be attributed to Cerium-loading on the parent HZSM-5; nevertheless, there is no direct association between the physical features and the hydrocarbons yield (%). The primary impact of Cerium alteration of the parent HZSM-5 zeolite was to change the acidic sites required to boost the conversion (%) of the algal HO in the catalytic deoxygenation process, which in turn increased the hydrocarbons yield (%), which in turn increased the HHV and DOD%.     

A Comprehensive In Silico Study of New Metabolites from Heteroxenia fuscescens with SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitory Activity

Chemical investigation of the total extract of the Egyptian soft coral Heteroxenia fuscescens, led to the isolation of eight compounds, including two new metabolites, sesquiterpene fusceterpene A (1) and a sterol fuscesterol A (4), along with six known compounds. The structures of 1–8 were elucidated via intensive studies of their 1D, 2D-NMR, and HR-MS analyses, as well as a comparison of their spectral data with those mentioned in the literature. Subsequent comprehensive in-silico-based investigations against almost all viral proteins, including those of the new variants, e.g., Omicron, revealed the most probable target for these isolated compounds, which was found to be M^pro. Additionally, the dynamic modes of interaction of the putatively active compounds were highlighted, depending on 50-ns-long MDS. In conclusion, the structural information provided in the current investigation highlights the antiviral potential of H. fuscescens metabolites with 3β,5α,6β-trihydroxy steroids with different nuclei against SARS-CoV-2, including newly widespread variants.