Inexpensive and robust iron-based electrode substrates for water electrolysis and energy storage

The instability of iron under anodic conditions makes iron-based electrode substrates unsuitable for alkaline electrolyzers and rechargeable alkaline batteries. Therefore, significantly more expensive substrates such as nickel foam or sintered nickel are used. Nickel adds a significant cost to electrolysis and energy storage systems. We show that iron substrates can be stabilized using a unique protective thermal coating. These coatings can also yield some of the most electrocatalytically active electrodes in addition to showing no notable change in performance even after 1500 h of anodic polarization. Besides sintered iron, low-carbon steel mesh can be stabilized similarly. Low-carbon steel protected by a thin layer of lithium-doped cobalt spinel was found to be an excellent current collector for positive nickel hydroxide electrodes in alkaline batteries. Thus, surface-modified iron substrates, 40 times less expensive than nickel, are promising for lowering the material costs of alkaline water electrolyzers and rechargeable alkaline batteries.     

Phytochemical Characterizations of Maranthes polyandra (Benth.) Prance

Two new ursane-type triterpenoids, named Polyanside A (1) and B (2), along with eleven known compounds (3–13), were isolated and elucidated from Maranthes polyandra (Benth.) Prance. The structures of these compounds were elucidated based on chemical evidence and multiple spectroscopic data. Isolated compounds were evaluated for anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory activities, and cytotoxicity on a normal human cell line (BJ). None of them showed activity and cytotoxicity. The hexane fraction was analyzed by GC-MS, resulting in the identification of forty-one compounds. This is the first comprehensive study on the phytochemistry of M. polyandra.     

Polyphenolic Composition,Antioxidant, Antiproliferative and Antidiabetic Activities of Coronopus didymus Leaf Extracts

Coronopus didymus (Brassicaceae) commonly known as lesser swine cress has been reported to be used for its pharmacological activities. This study aimed to evaluate the medicinal potential of C. didymus extracts against cancer, diabetes, infectious bacteria and oxidative stress and the identification of bioactive compounds present in these extracts. The effects of using different solvents for the extraction of C. didymus on the contents of major polyphenols and biological activities were investigated. Plant sample was shade dried, ground to a fine powder, and then soaked in pure acetone, ethanol and methanol. The highest contents of major polyphenols were found in methanol-based extract, i.e., chlorogenic acid, HB acid, kaempferol, ferulic acid, quercetin and benzoic acid with 305.02, 12.42, 11.5, 23.33, 975.7 and 428 mg/g of dry weight, respectively, followed by ethanol- and acetone-based extracts. The methanol-based extract also resulted in the highest antioxidant activities (56.76%), whereas the highest antiproliferative (76.36) and alpha glucosidase inhabitation (96.65) were demonstrated in ethanol-based extracts. No antibacterial property of C. didymus was observed against all the tested strains of bacteria. Further studies should be focused on the identification of specific bioactive compounds responsible for pharmacological activities.     

6FDA-containing polyimide-ionene + ionic liquid gas separation membranes

Polyimides (PI) synthesized from 4,4′-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride (6FDA) with various diamines have been frequently studied as gas separation membranes. The use of 6FDA in polyimides creates a bent structure than can increase fractional free volume (FFV) and gas permeability. Here, we demonstrate that 6FDA is also a useful building block for PI-ionene materials, which contain cations directly within the polymer backbone. These new 6FDA-containing PI-ionenes were combined with several different imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) to form thin membranes. The thermal properties of all the derivatives were investigated to determine the relationship between regiochemistry and degradation as well as the intermolecular forces that are present within these structures. The gas separation properties of these 6FDA-containing PI-ionene + IL materials were investigated, showing modest CO₂ permeabilities similar to other polyimide-ionenes and CO₂/CH₄ and CO₂/N₂ permselectivities that were relatively higher than other polyimide-ionenes.     

Electrospun PDA‐CA Nanofibers toward Hydrophobic Coatings

Nowadays, encapsulated dyes in a polymeric matrix have opened up new perspectives in many applications such as filtration of subatomic particles, composite reinforcement, multifunctional membranes, tissue engineering scaffolds, wound dressing, coatings, medical purposes as well as sensors. In the presented work, we report on electrospinning neat peryelene dianhydride based thermoplastic elastomers. Perylene‐3, 4,9, 10‐tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PDA) is encapsulated into cellulose acetate (CA) electrospun fibers, which was prepared from 12 % cellulose acetate solution, at 20 kV with a distance of 10 cm. The flow rate was 0.2 ml · h^–1. These water repellent nanofibrous coatings are anticipated to serve as hydrophobic coatings. Scanning electron microscope is used to study the properties of the electrospun PDA‐CA nanofibers.     

A New Soft‐Fusion Approach for Multiple‐Receiver Wireless Communication Systems

In this paper, a new soft‐fusion approach for multiple‐receiver wireless communication systems is proposed. In the proposed approach, each individual receiver provides the central receiver with a confidence level rather than a binary decision. The confidence levels associated with the local receiver are modeled by means of soft‐membership functions. The proposed approach can be applied to wireless digital communication systems, such as amplitude shift keying, frequency shift keying, phase shift keying, multi‐carrier code division multiple access, and multiple inputs multiple outputs sensor networks. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated and compared to the performance of the optimal diversity, majority voting, optimal partial decision, and selection diversity in case of binary noncoherent frequency shift keying on a Rayleigh faded additive white Gaussian noise channel. It is shown that the proposed approach achieves considerable performance improvement over optimal partial decision, majority voting, and selection diversity. It is also shown that the proposed approach achieves a performance comparable to the optimal diversity scheme.     

Proton polarization and differential cross section for the (3He,p) reaction on 6Li and 9Be at 14 MeV

Angular distributions of the proton polarization and the differential cross section have been measured for the reaction (³He, p) initiated by 14 MeV incident ³He particles and proceeding to the ground and the first excited states of the final nuclei ⁸Be and ¹¹B. Large polarization values were observed, especially for the ⁹Be(³He, p)¹¹B reaction leading to both the ground and the first excited states in ¹¹B. The experimental results have been analysed in terms of a two-nucleon transfer spindependent distorted-waves theory using finite-range formalism and including corrections due to the non-locality of the optical potentials. A proper coherent summation over L and S, whenever necessary was included in the DWBA calculations of the polarization and the differential cross section as implied by the presence of the spin-orbit terms in the optical-model potentials used to generate the distorted waves.     

Biofabrication of silver nanoparticles from various plant extracts: blessing to nanotechnology

ABSTRACT

Nanotechnology is influencing life in many ways. Researchers are developing their interest in biofabrication of silver nanoparticles because of its excellent properties and boundless utilisation in almost every branch of science. Plant extract is used to synthesise silver nanoparticles and reduce silver ion, and act as capping and reducing agent. The phyto-chemicals and metabolites present in the extract help in biogenic reduction of silver ion, forming non-toxic nanoparticles. This review focuses on the green synthesis of nanoparticles from various plants and their parts as an easy and eco-friendly approach.