Mitigation of acrylamide by l-asparaginase from Bacillus subtilis KDPS1 and analysis of degradation products by HPLC and HPTLC

The use of bacterial l-asparaginase (LA) is one of the alternative approaches for acrylamide reduction in food stuffs as it catalyzes the conversion of l-asparagine to l-aspartic acid and ammonia. In present investigation, purification of extracellular LA from isolate of Bacillus subtilis sp. strain KDPS-1 was carried out by solid state fermentation process. The effects of solid substrates, initial moisture content, moistening agents, temperature, and incubation time on LA production was studied, and the highest asparaginase activity (47 IU/ml) was achieved in the medium having orange peel as substrate. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity by diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) cellulose ion exchange chromatography; with 84.89 % yield and 12.11 fold purity. LA showed stimulant activity against β-mercaptoethanol and was greatly inhibited by Zn(2+) and Hg(2+) metal ions. Reduction of acrylamide in fried potatoes was detected by high performance liquid chromatography, which showed clear degradation of acrylamide by height and area (%) in the chromatograms of standard sample to that of the test sample. Hydrolysates analysis by high performance thin layer chromatography confirmed the test sample to be LA

Transparent Conductive Oxide Layer and Hole Selective Layer Free Back-Contacted Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cell

Back-contacted architectures have been under intensive investigation for that transparent conductive oxide (TCO) less solar cells (SCs) can be easily realized which avoid the transmission loss of light caused by TCO, typically comprised in conventional solar cells. Here, network-like porous Ti was first utilized as the back-contacted electrode, and a new design allows for a novel back-contacted hybrid perovskite SC without TCO and hole selective layer, which shows a power output of 3.88% with long-term stability. In addition, it avoids limit available collection area of electrodes in the recent reported interdigitated electrode (IDE) based back-contacted TCO-less SCs

Investigation of the minimum driving force for dye regeneration utilizing model squaraine dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Combined theoretical and experimental approaches were implemented to design model far-red sensitive unsymmetrical squaraine dyes in order to estimate the minimum energy barrier required for dye regeneration. Our logical molecular design indicated that it is possible to have a fine control on the energetics within 0.2 eV only by the judicious selection of substituents and alkyl chain length keeping the main π-molecular framework the same. The utilization of the LSDA functional under TD-DFT calculations offered an effective and economical computational method for the reliable prediction of the energetics as well as the absorption maximum of the sensitizers. Among the designed dyes under investigation, SQ-75 exhibited the best photovoltaic performance, having a short-circuit current density of 10.92 mA cm−2, open circuit voltage of 0.57 V and a fill factor of 0.67, leading to a photoconversion efficiency of 4.25% despite having photon harvesting mainly in the far-red region. The best photon harvesting by SQ-75, even with an energy difference of only 0.12 eV between the energy of its highest occupied molecular orbital and redox energy level I−/I3− electrolyte, corroborates the possibility for dye regeneration with such a small driving force

Mechanism of efficient anti-Markovnikov olefin hydroarylation catalyzed by homogeneous Ir(III) complexes

The mechanism of the hydroarylation reaction between unactivated olefins (ethylene, propylene, and styrene) and benzene catalyzed by [(R)Ir(μ-acac-O,O,C^3)-(acac-O,O)_2]_2 and [R-Ir(acac-O,O)_2(L)] (R = acetylacetonato, CH_3, CH_2CH_3, Ph, or CH_2CH_2Ph, and L = H_2O or pyridine) Ir(III) complexes was studied by experimental methods. The system is selective for generating the anti-Markovnikov product of linear alkylarenes (61 : 39 for benzene + propylene and 98 : 2 for benzene + styrene). The reaction mechanism was found to follow a rate law with first-order dependence on benzene and catalyst, but a non-linear dependence on olefin. ^(13)C-labelling studies with CH_3^(13)CH_2-Ir-Py showed that reversible β-hydride elimination is facile, but unproductive, giving exclusively saturated alkylarene products. The migration of the ^(13)C-label from the α to β-positions was found to be slower than the C–H activation of benzene (and thus formation of ethane and Ph-d_5-Ir-Py). Kinetic analysis under steady state conditions gave a ratio of the rate constants for CH activation and β-hydride elimination (k_(CH): k_β) of 0.5. The comparable magnitude of these rates suggests a common rate determining transition state/intermediate, which has been shown previously with B3LYP density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Overall, the mechanism of hydroarylation proceeds through a series of pre-equilibrium dissociative steps involving rupture of the dinuclear species or the loss of L from Ph-Ir-L to the solvento, 16-electron species, Ph-Ir(acac-O,O)_2-Sol (where Sol refers to coordinated solvent). This species then undergoes trans to cis isomerization of the acetylacetonato ligand to yield the pseudo octahedral species cis-Ph-Ir-Sol, which is followed by olefin insertion (the regioselective and rate determining step), and then activation of the C–H bond of an incoming benzene to generate the product and regenerate the catalyst

Investigation of Interfacial Charge Transfer in Solution Processed Cs2SnI6 Thin Films

Cesium tin halide based perovskite Cs2SnI6 has been subjected to in-depth investigations owing to its potentiality toward the realization of environment benign Pb free and stable solar cells. In spite of the fact that Cs2SnI6 has been successfully utilized as an efficient hole transport material owing to its p-type semiconducting nature, however, the nature of the majority carrier is still under debate. Therefore, intrinsic properties of Cs2SnI6 have been investigated in detail to explore its potentiality as light absorber along with facile electron and hole transport. A high absorption coefficient (5 × 104 cm–1) at 700 nm indicates the penetration depth of 700 nm light to be 0.2 μm, which is comparable to conventional Pb based solar cells. Preparation of pure and CsI impurity free dense thin films with controllable thicknesses of Cs2SnI6 by the solution processable method has been reported to be difficult owing to its poor solubility. An amicable solution to circumvent such problems of Cs2SnI6 has been provided utilizing spray-coating in combination with spin-coating. The presence of two emission peaks at 710 and 885 nm in the prepared Cs2SnI6 thin films indicated coexistence of quantum dot and bulk parts which were further supported by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) and transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) were employed to investigate the excitation carrier lifetime, which revealed fast decay kinetics in the picoseconds (ps) to nanoseconds (ns) time domains. Time-resolved microwave photoconductivity decay (MPCD) measurement provided the mobile charge carrier lifetime exceeding 300 ns, which was also in agreement with the nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy (ns-TAS) indicating slow charge decay lasting up to 20 μs. TA assisted interfacial charge transfer investigations utilizing Cs2SnI6 in combination with n-type PCBM and p-type P3HT exhibited both intrinsic electron and hole transport

Preparation of Perovskite Films under Liquid Nitrogen Atmosphere for High Efficiency Perovskite Solar Cells

High quality perovskite film with high coverage and tight grain arrangement is critical for achieving high-efficiency and high-stability perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this work, high quality perovskite films were successfully prepared by liquid nitrogen assisted method (LN method). Here, the vaporization of liquid nitrogen reduces the ambient temperature and absorb thermal energy from the substrate surface to accelerate the nucleation of perovskite. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows that the perovskite films prepared by liquid nitrogen assisted method were dense and pinhole-free. The devices prepared by the LN method leads to a high-efficiency upto 16.53%, and the high efficiency device could maintain over 89% of the initial power conversion efficiency (PCE) even after 30 days storage in a desiccator at room temperature

Synthesis and Photophysical Characterization of Unsymmetrical Squaraine Dyes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells utilizing Cobalt Electrolytes

Development of novel near-infrared (near-IR) dyes compatible with cobalt complex based redox shuttles for their utilization as sensitizer is inevitable for the fabrication of high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). A series of newly designed unsymmetrical squaraine dyes as a model of near-IR sensitizer were synthesized and characterized for their application as far-red sensitizers of DSSCs utilizing Co(bpy)2+/3+ redox electrolyte. It was shown that logical molecular design led to not only energetic tunability of the sensitizers but also the possibility of good far-red photon harvesting up to 750 nm. One of the newly designed sensitizers, SQ-110, bearing two long alkyl substituents in combination with an electron donating methoxy group directly linked to the aromatic ring was par excellent in terms of its photoconversion efficiency among the dyes utilized in this work. DSSC fabricated using SQ-110 as sensitizer and Co(bpy)2+/3+ redox electrolyte furnished a photoconversion efficiency of 1.98% along with good photon harvesting mainly in the far-red wavelength region. It was further demonstrated that dye molecular structure plays a rather more prominent role than their energetics in controlling the overall device performance of the DSSCs

Wide wavelength photon harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells utilizing cobalt complex redox electrolyte: Implication of surface passivation

A combination of near infra-red (NIR) photon harvesting and cobalt electrolytes having deeper redox energy level are needed for the fabrication of high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). A logical molecular design of unsymmetrical squaraine dye (SQ-110) as a representative of NIR dyes has been demonstrated to function well in DSSC using cobalt complex redox electrolyte. Problem of mass transport limitations due to the bulky cobalt complex ions leading to relatively enhanced charge recombination was amicably solved by single as well as multiple compact metal oxide surface passivation on both of the transparent conducting oxide substrate as well as mesoporous TiO2. Complete absence of light absorption beyond 550 nm wavelength region by D-35 and utilization of a complementary light harvesting dye SQ-110 led to efficient wide wavelength photon harvesting. DSSC fabricated using a dye cocktail of D-35 and SQ-110 in 4:1 ratio resulted in to photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.2%, which is much higher as compared to the constituent individual sensitizers D-35 (3.6%) and SQ-110 (1.9%). This synergistic enhancement in PCE by dye cocktail was associated with the mutual co-operation of respective dyes in terms controlling the dye aggregation and complementary photon harvesting. In this dye cocktail system, D-35 is involved in the prevention of dye aggregation, lower wavelength photon harvesting and energy transfer induced photocurrent enhancement

Enhanced Crystallization by Methanol Additive in Antisolvent for Achieving High‐Quality MAPbI3 Perovskite Films in Humid Atmosphere

Perovskite solar cells have attracted considerable attention owing to their easy and low‐cost solution manufacturing process with high power conversion efficiency. However, the fabrication process is usually performed inside a glovebox to avoid moisture, as organometallic halide perovskites are easily dissolved in water. In this study, we propose a one‐step fabrication of high‐quality MAPbI3 perovskite films in around 50% relative humidity (RH) humid ambient air by using diethyl ether as an antisolvent and methanol as an additive into this antisolvent. Because of the presence of methanol, the water molecules can be efficiently removed from the gaps of the perovskite precursors and the perovskite film formation can be slightly controlled, leading to pinhole‐free and low roughness films. Concurrently, methanol can be used to tune the DMSO ratio in the intermediate perovskite phase to regulate perovskite formation. Planar solar cells fabricated by using this method exhibited the best efficiency of 16.4% with a reduced current density–voltage hysteresis. This efficiency value is approximately 160% higher than the devices fabrication by using only diethyl ether treatment. From the impedance measurement, it is also found that the recombination reaction is suppressed when the device is prepared with methanol additive in the antisolvent. This method presents a new path for controlling the growth and morphology of perovskite films in humid climates and laboratories with uncontrolled environments