The conducting polymer electrolyte based on polypyrrole-polyvinyl alcohol and its application in low-cost quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

The effect of polypyrrole (PPy) on the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-potassium iodide (KI)-iodine (I₂) polymer electrolytes has been investigated and optimized to use in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The different weight ratios of PVA: PPy (93: 2, 91: 4, 89: 6, 87: 8, and 85: 10 wt%) polymer electrolytes (PE) were prepared by solution casting. Structural, complex formation and surface roughness of the prepared electrolytes was confirmed by X-ray diffraction, FTIR, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) respectively. Conductivity plots of all polymer films showed increasing trend with temperature and concentration of PPy. The activation energy of the optimized system found to be 0.871 kJ mol^?1. UV-visible spectrum was adopted to characterize the absorption spectra of the material revealed that increase in the absorbance with increasing PPy content and shifting the absorbance maximum towards lower energy. The indirect band gap decreased from 3.78 to 2.14 eV and direct band gap decreased from 3.88 to 2.71 eV. The EIS analyses revealed the lower charge transfer resistance of 3.029 Ω cm² at the interface between CE and PE. The excellent performance was observed in the fabricated DSSCs using PVA (85%)/PPy (10%)/KI (5%)/I₂ polymer electrolyte with a short-circuit current density of 11.071 mA cm^?2, open-circuit voltage of 0.644 V, fill factor of 0.575, and photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 4.09% under the light intensity of 100 mW cm^?2. Hence, the PPy content in polymer electrolyte influences the remarkable performance of low-cost DSSC.     

Exciplex and excimer molecular probes: detection of conformational flip in a myo-inositol chair

2-O-tert-Butyldimethylsilyl-4,6-bis-O-pyrenoyl-myo-inositol-1,3,5-orthoformate (6) and 2-O-tert-butyldimethylsilyl-4-O-[4-(dimethylamino)benzoyl]-6-O-pyrenoyl-myo-inositol-1,3,5-orthoacetate (10) adopt conformationally restricted unstable chairs with five axial substituents. In the symmetrical diester 6, the two pi-stacked pyrenoyl groups are electron acceptor-donor partners, giving a strong intramolecular excimer emission. In the mixed ester 10, the pyrenoyl group is the electron acceptor and the 4-(dimethylamino)benzoyl ester is the electron donor, giving a strong intramolecular exciplex emission. The conformation of the mixed ester 10 was assessed using 1H NMR spectroscopy (1H-NOESY) and computational studies. which showed the minimum inter-centroid distance between the two aromatic systems to be approximately 3.9 A. Upon addition of acid, the orthoformate/orthoacetate trigger in 6 and 10 was cleaved, which caused a switch of the conformation of the myo-inositol ring to the more stable penta-equatorial chair, leading to separation of the aromatic ester groups and loss of excimer and exciplex fluorescence, respectively. This study provides proof of principle for the development of novel fluorescent molecular probes.     

Physicochemical and tensile properties of alkaline-treated new natural cellulosic Gossypium arboreum fiber

This article describes the characterization of novel natural lignocellulosic bark fibers extracted from the stem of the Gossypium arboreum (cotton) plant. The G. arboreum stem fibers were treated with 5% (w/v) aqueous NaOH solution for different soaking times, and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis was conducted to examine the chemical compounds of the raw and treated fibers. The cellulose content improved from 70.06 to 83.91% after the treatment. The X-ray diffraction results indicate that the crystalline index and size were enhanced. Thermogravimetric analysis was performed to study the thermal properties and found that the thermal stability was higher for the treated fibers. The tensile strength and modulus were increased for the alkaline-treated fibers compared to the untreated fibers.     

Facile synthesis of mercaptosuccinic acid-capped CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/double shell quantum dots with improved cell viability on different cancer cells and normal cells

Water-soluble, mercaptosuccinic acid (MSA)-capped CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/double shell quantum dots (QDs) were prepared by successive growth of CdS and ZnS shells on the as-synthesized CdTe/CdS_thin core/shell quantum dots. The formation of core/double shell structured QDs was investigated by ultraviolet-visible (UV–Vis) absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, PL decay studies, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The core/double shell QDs exhibited good photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) which is 70% higher than that of the parent core/shell QDs, and they are stable for months. The average particle size of the core/double shell QDs was ～3 nm as calculated from the transmission electron microscope (TEM) images. The cytotoxicity of the QDs was evaluated on a variety of cancer cells such as HeLa, MCF-7, A549, and normal Vero cells by 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) cell viability assay. The results showed that core/double shell QDs were less toxic to the cells when compared to the parent core/shell QDs. MCF-7 cells showed proliferation on incubation with QDs, and this is attributed to the metalloestrogenic activity of cadmium ions released from QDs. The core/double shell CdTe/CdS/ZnS (CSS) QDs were conjugated with transferrin and successfully employed for the biolabeling and fluorescent imaging of HeLa cells. These core/double shell QDs are highly promising fluorescent probe for cancer cell labeling and imaging applications.     

Amplification of matter rogue waves and breathers in quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates

We construct rogue wave and breather solutions of a quasi-two-dimensionalGross-Pitaevskii equation with a time-dependent interatomic interaction and external trap.We show that the trapping potential and an arbitrary functional parameter that present inthe similarity transformation should satisfy a constraint for the considered equation tobe integrable and yield the desired solutions. We consider two different forms offunctional parameters and investigate how the density of the rogue wave and breatherprofiles vary with respect to these functional parameters. We also construct vectorlocalized solutions of a two coupled quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensatesystem. We then investigate how the vector localized density profiles modify in theconstant density background with respect to the functional parameters. Our results mayhelp to manipulate matter rogue waves experimentally in the two-dimensional Bose-Einsteincondensate systems.     

Zn-proline catalyzed selective synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles in water

Zn-proline (5 mol%) performs as a novel water-soluble and recyclable Lewis acid catalyst for the selective synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles from wide range of substituted o-phenylenediamines and aldehydes in moderate to excellent isolated yields (42-92%) using water as solvent at ambient temperature.     

Electronic structure,mechanical and optical properties of ternary semiconductors Si1-xGexC (X = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1)

The electronic structure of silicon carbide with increasing germanium content have been examined using first principles calculations based on density functional theory. The structural stability is analysed between two different phases, namely, cubic zinc blende and hexagonal phases. The zinc blende structure is found to be the stable one for all the Si_1-xGe_xC semiconducting carbides at normal pressure. Effect of substitution of Ge for Si in SiC on electronic and mechanical properties is studied. It is observed that cubic SiC is a semiconductor with the band gap value 1.243?eV. The band gap value of SiC is increased due to the substitution of Ge and the band gap values of Si _0.75 Ge _0.25 C, Si _0.50 Ge _0.50 C, Si _0.25 Ge _0.75 C and GeC are 1.322 eV, 1.413 eV, 1.574 eV and 1.657?eV respectively. As the pressure is increased, it is found that the energy gap gets decreased for Si_1-x Ge_xC (X?=?0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1). The elastic constants satisfy the Born – Huang elastic stability criteria. The bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio are also calculated and compared with the other available results.     

Pressure-induced structural phase transition in transition metal carbides TMC (TM = Ru,Rh, Pd,Os, Ir,Pt): a DFT study

First-principles calculations based on density functional theory was performed to analyse the structural stability of transition metal carbides TMC (TM = Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt). It is observed that zinc-blende phase is the most stable one for these carbides. Pressure-induced structural phase transition from zinc blende to NiAs phase is predicted at the pressures of 248.5 GPa, 127 GPa and 142 GPa for OsC, IrC and PtC, respectively. The electronic structure reveals that RuC exhibits a semiconducting behaviour with an energy gap of 0.7056 eV. The high bulk modulus values of these carbides indicate that these metal carbides are super hard materials. The high B/G value predicts that the carbides are ductile in their most stable phase.     

Exocyclic Olefinic Maleimides: Synthesis and Application for Stable and Thiol‐Selective Bioconjugation

Michael addition reactions between biological thiols and endocyclic olefinic maleimides are extensively used for site‐specific bioconjugation. The resulting thio‐succinimidyl linkages, however, lack stability because of their susceptibility to thiol exchange. Reported herein is that in contrast to their endocyclic counterparts, exocyclic olefinic maleimides form highly stable thio‐Michael adducts which resist thiol exchange at physiological conditions. A high‐yielding approach for synthesizing a variety of exocyclic olefinic maleimides, by 4‐nitrophenol‐catalyzed solvent‐free Wittig reactions, is reported. Mechanistic studies reveal that the catalyst facilitates the formation of the Wittig ylide intermediate through sequential proton donation and abstraction. Overall, this report details an improved thiol bioconjugation approach, a facile method for synthesizing exocyclic olefinic maleimides, and demonstrates that phenolic compounds can catalyze ylide formation.     

Synchronous Luminescence Spectroscopic Characterization of Urine of Normal Subjects and Cancer Patients

Urine is one of the diagnostically potential bio fluids, as it contains many metabolites and some of them are native fluorophores. These fluorophores distribution and the physiochemical properties may vary during any metabolic change or at different pathologic conditions. Since urine is a multicomponent fluid, synchronous luminescence technique, a powerful tool has been adopted to analyse multicomponents in single spectrum and to resolve emission spectrum without much of photobleaching of fluorophores. In this study, urine samples of both normal subjects and cancer patients were characterised using synchronous luminescence spectroscopy with a Stokes shift of 20 nm. Different ratio parameters were calculated from the intensity values of the synchronous luminescence spectra and they were used as input variables for a multiple linear discriminant analysis across normal and cancer groups. The stepwise linear discriminant analysis classifies 90.3 % of the original grouped cases and 88.6 % of the cross-validated grouped cases correctly.