Investigating early iron finds from Mayiladumparai Tamil Nadu

The paper covers preliminary metallurgical investigations related to the ferrous metal finds excavated at the Iron Age stie of Mayiladumparai by Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeolog

Mesoporous Ternary Nitrides of Earth-Abundant Metals as Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalyst

As sustainable energy becomes a major concern for modern society, renewable and clean energy systems need highly active, stable, and low-cost catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Mesoporous materials offer an attractive route for generating efficient electrocatalysts with high mass transport capabilities. Herein, we report an efficient hard templating pathway to design and synthesize three-dimensional (3-D) mesoporous ternary nickel iron nitride (Ni3FeN). The as-synthesized electrocatalyst shows good OER performance in an alkaline solution with low overpotential (259 mV) and a small Tafel slope (54 mV dec(−1)), giving superior performance to IrO(2) and RuO(2) catalysts. The highly active contact area, the hierarchical porosity, and the synergistic effect of bimetal atoms contributed to the improved electrocatalytic performance toward OER. In a practical rechargeable Zn–air battery, mesoporous Ni(3)FeN is also shown to deliver a lower charging voltage and longer lifetime than RuO(2). This work opens up a new promising approach to synthesize active OER electrocatalysts for energy-related devices. [Image: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s40820-020-0412-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Stimulus response and molecular structural modification of polyacrylamide gel in nitric acid: a study by Raman, FTIR, and photoluminescence techniques

Stimulus response of photopolymerized 1% and 0.5% N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) crosslinked 10% polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels was studied in nitric acid. The hydrogels swelled exponentially to saturation in 13 h due to the osmotic pressure arising from diffusion of ions in to the gel. MBA (0.5%) gels swell more with larger time constant than 1% MBA gels due to lower bulk modulus. Diffusion coefficient of nitric acid in the hydrogel and polymer-solvent interaction parameter were estimated from the swelling behavior and discussed. At longer times, the hydrogels deswelled linearly in nitric acid due to molecular modification of amide group by acidic hydrolysis. Degree of swelling and deswelling increase with nitric acid concentration. Raman and FTIR investigations revealed the formation of carboxylic acid due to acidic hydrolysis

Physiological Screening of Green Gram (Vigna radiata L.) Varieties by Seedling Germination Traits under Salinity Stress

Among the legumes, pulses are the most important component in India as they have very high protein resources. Green gram (Vigna radiata) is the most essential one when compared to other pulses regarding high nutritional value, enriching soil fertility and being a short duration crop. In India, pulses cultivation faces salinity stress which is a most constraint factor on its production. Hence, an experiment was performed with the purpose of analyzing morpho- physiological differences in high difference green gram varieties, which are MH 421,VBN 2,VBN 4,CO 8 and CO(Gg) 912 under salinity stress condition. This experiment was done at laboratory condition under various concentration level of Sodium Chloride (NaCl). These levels create different levels of salinity stress, the above five green gram varieties where screened for identifying their salinity stress and the important parameters which include radicle length, shoot length, plant height, germination percentage and seed Vigor were recorded