Addressing the Challenge of Electrochemical Ionomer Oxidation in Future Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers

Hydrogen production through anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) offers cost advantages over proton-exchange membrane counterparts, mainly due to the good oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity of platinum-group-metal-free catalysts in alkaline environments. However, the electrochemical oxidation of ionomers at the OER catalyst interface can decrease the local electrode pH, which limits AEMWE performance. Various strategies at the single-cell-level have been explored to address this issue. This work reviews the current understanding of electrochemical ionomer oxidation and strategies to mitigate it, providing our perspective on each approach. Our analysis highlights the competitive adsorption strategy as particularly promising for mitigating ionomer oxidation. This Perspective also outlines future directions for advancing high-performance alkaline AEMWEs and other energy devices using hydrocarbon ionomers

Relating Solvent Parameters to Electrochemical Properties to Predict the Electrochemical Performance of Vanadium Acetylacetonate for Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries

Non-aqueous redox flow batteries have shown promise for applications in grid energy storage. Increasing the efficiency of these batteries by developing the electrolyte chemistries is needed. Herein, we investigate the correlation between solvent properties and the electrochemical parameters of vanadium acetylacetonate V(acac)3. Using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and rotating disk electrode experiments (RDE), we show that trends in the performance of the V(acac)3 kinetics are directly related to solvent properties. We found strong relationships between the solvents polarity, viscosity, and donor number with the electrochemical behavior of V(acac)3 in terms of the electrochemical working widow, electron kinetics and stability towards cycling. Based on these finding, we also demonstrate how solvent selection can be improved with limited a priori knowledge

Corporate identity, customer orientation and performance of SMEs: Exploring the linkages

This research aims to explore the impact of corporate identity (CI) on performance in B2C small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in food processing, with varying degrees of customer orientation (CO). The research is embedded in the positivistic paradigm. Based on a literature review, a conceptual model (consisting of five hypotheses) has been tested with 102 samples using PLS-SEM tool. This study establishes the mediating role of CO on the CI and performance linkage, it provides empirical evidence to CI and performance linkage, and makes an incremental contribution by extension of theory of CI and CO in the given context

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Not AvailableMolecular markers are useful tools for assaying genetic variation and provide an efficient means for early and reliable selection of genotypes having resistance to peanut bud necrosis disease (PBND) in peanut breeding programs. Molecular diversity and association of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers with resistance to PBND was detected in 21 interspecific pre-breeding lines and three cultivars of peanut differing in degree of resistance to PBND. Forty-five primer pairs yielded a total of 531 fragments, of which 337 were polymorphic, with an average of 7.5 polymorphic fragments per primer. Polymorphism ranged from 0 - 100% with an average of 60.2%. Cluster analysis (UPGMA) revealed two main clusters separated at 77% Jaccard’s similarity oefficient based on resistance to PBND. All 14 susceptible lines were grouped into a single cluster, while 11 resistant lines grouped into a separate cluster. AMOVA among 24 lines detected 43% (P < 0.001) of total variation associated with resistance to PBND. Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA detected the significant association of 16 primers with resistance to PBND. Nine out of 16 primers explained more than 10% of phenotypic variation due to resistance to PBND. It appears that these loci are associated with the resistance to PBND in peanut and major QTLs with regression coefficient value (r2) ranging from 10.1% to 77.5%. Of which PM15190, PM188165 and PM201130 loci effectively differentiated most of the resistant lines from the susceptible lines.Not Availabl

Phosphoric acid pre-treatment to tailor polybenzimidazole membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) use ion-selective membranes for transporting ionic species while separating the positive and negative electrolytes. In this paper, we report phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes that yield high ionic selectivity and conductivity in VRFBs. The phosphoric acid pre-treatment swells the PBI matrix irreversibly and increases its sulfuric acid doping in VRFB electrolytes. The pre-treated membranes show comparable area resistance with Nafion-212 with better selectivity towards vanadium ions. A low resistance was obtained with a reduced membrane thickness, which can reduce the overall cost of materials. The VRFB using an optimized phosphoric acid pre-treated PBI membrane demonstrates coulombic, voltage, and energy efficiencies of 99.7, 90.3, and 90.0%, respectively, at 40 mA cm−2 while achieving ∼40% higher discharge capacity compared to Nafion-212. Furthermore, the VRFB cell shows excellent cycling stability, i.e., only 6.8% or 0.068% per cycle capacity decay for 100 cycles while maintaining coulombic efficiency at &gt;99.9% (98.5% coulombic efficiency for Nafion-212 with a capacity decay of 0.42% per cycle) proving the effectiveness of pre-treatment of phosphoric acid on PBI membranes

Homogeneous and polymorphic transformations to ordered intermetallics in nanostructured Au-Cu multilayer thin films

Atomic arrangements in the nanostructured grains and interfaces of thermally evaporated Au/Cu multilayer thin films on polycrystalline Si substrate have been explored through GIXRD, HRTEM, simulation, and direct structure imaging. GIXRD pattern conforms to cF4 solid solution of Au and Cu with peak broadening and shift. Comparative analysis with simulation indicated the presence of cP4, tP4, oP8, and oI40 phases in the multilayer. The Cu layer is amorphous. Localized amorphous phase forms at the Cu-Si interface due to the impingement of Cu atoms during deposition. Interfaces of Au-Cu are wavy. The Au layer is polycrystalline and columnar with some twin-like defects present in them. At the Cu-Au interface, diffusionally grown cP4, tP4, oI40, and oP8 phases could be observed. Adatom mobility, concurrent growth, and coalescence of growth islands lead to columnar growth. Ordered intermetallic phases could be related with the cF4 solid solution phase through polymorphism. The strain associated with the polymorphs and the solid solution phase is quite small. Faceted semi-coherent interfaces of the ordered phases with the solid solution phase have been resolved. The ordered phases grow into the solid solution matrix by homogeneous transformation. Structure imaging of the ordered phases indicated that most of the time a cluster of atoms is imaged in these structures. The interfaces are likely to be chemically diffused in nature. Polymorphism and homogeneous nature of the transformation at low temperature allows local transformation to ordered phases, that explain the phase field ambiguity in the binary phase diagram. Such structural details are critical in understanding the novel properties in these nanostructured alloys

Toward Improved Alkaline Membrane Fuel Cell Performance Using Quaternized Aryl-Ether Free Polyaromatics

Toward Improved Alkaline Membrane Fuel Cell Performance Using Quaternized Aryl-Ether Free Polyaromatic

De-Novo drug design of novel 1,2,3–triazole-naphthamide as an inhibitor of SARS-Cov-2 main protease: Synthesis, bioinformatics and biophysical studies

1001-1011A novel 1,2,3-triazole-napthamide molecule (SSAM-1) is designed as per De-Novo drug design method and synthesized by using copper-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction. The interaction studies of SSAM-1 with bovine serum albumin (BSA), human serum albumin (HSA) and bromelain (BMLN) are investigated by steady state fluorescence spectroscopic studies. The experimental results for these interaction studies are validated by molecular docking method. The theoretical prediction of ADMET properties of SSAM-1 are also performed using computational methods. All these studies indicate significant and spontaneous binding of SSAM-1 with serum albumins and BMLN at pH 7 under varying temperature conditions (288K, 298K, 308K). In all the three cases the interaction of the molecule with the proteins and enzymes led to quenching of the fluorescence emission (mainly via static quenching mechanism) of tryptophan (Trp) residue present in the proteins and in the enzyme. The complexation with SSAM-1 changes the microenvironment of the Trp residue(s) of BSA, HSA and BMLN. Strong binding affinity between proteins and SSAM-1 is indicated by the binding constant values, which is in 103-105 orders. Hydrophobic forces are acting as the major interacting forces for SSAM-1-HSA interaction while H-bonding and van der Waals forces are acting as the primary interacting forces for SSAM-1 interacting with BSA and BMLN. ADMET prediction reveals the drug-able nature of SSAM-1 which is justified due to its ability to bind with the serum albumins. In addition binding study of SSAM-1 with BMLN indicates its possibility of oral administration. Conducting such binding studies of the newly synthesized triazole with biomolecules, an effort is made to assess the contribution of a novel compound to the development of medicines for the drug design process at a very early stage of the research