Asian Journal of Nanoscience and Materials
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Jan 2019

Batteries are a major technological challenge in this new century as they are a key method to make use of energy efficiently. Nowadays Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) appeared to be one of the most important energy storage technologies. Today’s Li-ion technology has conquered the portable electronic markets and still on the track of fast development. The success of lithium-ion technology will depend largely on the cost, safety, cycle life, energy, and power, which are in turn determined by the component materials used for its fabrication. Accordingly, this review focuses on the challenges of organic based materials and prospects associated with the electrode materials. Specifically, the issues associated with organic based batteries, advances and prospects are presented. This review aims to summarize the fundamentals of the polymer-based material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and specifically highlight its recent major advancement in material design, challenges, performance and finally its prospects. We anticipate that this Review will inspire further improvement in organic electrolyte materials and the electrode for the battery as energy device storages. Some of these concepts, relying on new ways to prepare electrode materials by the use of eco-efficient processes, on the use of organic rather than inorganic materials in order to overcome environmental issues associated with their use. Organic electrodes are important for solid electrode batteries because they can make device cost-effective, allow flexibility, and can also enable the use of multivalent ions without the problems typically associated with inorganic compounds.

The zinc oxide nano sheets were prepared by zinc sulfate and sodium hydroxide via precipitated method and, then, calcinated at 300 oC. In order to have a reliable characterization of the synthesized ZnO nanosheets, FTIR, XRD, FESEM, XRF, TGA and Raman techniques were applied. The phase and purity of zinc oxide nanosheets were confirmed by XRD and XRF, respectively. FESEM results showed the morphology of zinc oxide and revealed that the size of the prepared powder is in the range of nanometer. TGA analysis revealed that there are two endothermic reactions which have occurred at 35-200oC and 300 - 400oC temperatures. Optical spectra indicated that the band gap of the prepared nanosheets transmitted a red shift.

In this research,Ag NPs were loaded on cysteine modified poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) hydrogel. Obtainedcysteine-hydrogel (Chydrogel) having different functional groups could stabilize Ag NPs better than un-modified hydrogel due to the presence of disulfid bondings. First, obtained PAA hydrogel from radical polymerization was conjugated with cysteine-hydrochloride (Cys) through amidation reaction and then was used as a substrate and stabilization reagent for Ag ions. Ag ions were reduced on Chydrogel in the presence ofNaBH4 as reducing reagent. The resultant nanocomposite was well characterized by using UV–vis, FT-IR, XRD and SEM techniques. Furthermore, the resultant Ag NPs on the surface of Chydrogel showedhigh antibacterial behavior against Gram-negative E. coliand Gram-positive S. aureusdue to the high reaction of thiol-functions with the outer cell surface.

The present study is an attempt to provide an insight into the stability, in terms of interaction energy and thermodynamic parameter, and reactivity, quantified by reactivity descriptors, of the chitosan-MX and its analogous (EMX and ZMX) system. In this system a component is, MX (3-chloro-4-(dichloromethyl)-5-hydroxy-2(5H)-furanone) a mutagenic halogenated disinfection by products which present in drinking water. And, chitosan is an eco-friendly nano-adsorbent to remove oils, grease, heavy metals and the fine particulate matter from water solution. Electronic and structural properties of chitosan during functionalization by metal were studied by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Isolated and functionalized chitosan were optimized and their properties were evaluated. The results indicated that the properties of linking sites detect the most significant effects of functionalization process. Degradation efficiency of MX and its analogous in water solvent and also the possibility of absorption of MX by chitosan nanoparticles in aqueous solution were studied via different level of theory.

Extensive studies on curcumin has improved that it has certain therapeutic role for different kinds of diseases such as cancer. Regardless of its positive features, its application is hampered by its low water solubility, bioavailability, and low cellular uptake. During last year’s several ways have been developed to protect curcumin from degradation and increase its capability to targeting unhealthy cells. The progress in nanotechnology encouraged nanotechnologists to formulate nanoparticles encapsulating curcumin, such as polymer nanoparticles, solid nanoparticles, liposome/lipid nanoparticles, micelles, dendrimers, polymer conjugates, etc. to enhance sustained release of curcumin at target cells and to improve curcumin bioavailability. Nowadays newer formulations of nanoparticles as called Hybrid nanoparticles are designed in order to efficient and specific targeting of curcumin that result in improved therapeutic efficacy of curcumin with high biocompatibility with the aid of aptamers, folic acid, chitosan coated halloysite loaded with curcumin-Au hybrid nanoparticle and so on. This review describes a number of hybrid nanoparticles formulated and their efficacy in specific targeting to cancerous cells.

Nanocomposites are novel materials which are yet to be explored and utilised to its complete potential. Nanocomposites can be tailored by the volume fraction of the matrix, fibre and also by the size and shape of the nanophase material in the composite. Preparing nanocomposite with a desired shape and size remains a challenge. In the present work nanocomposites of SnO–Fe2O3.are prepared by a sol gel route with Ferric chloride and Tin chloride as precursors. The prepared nanocomposites are characterised by X-ray Diffraction(XRD), Ultraviolet Visible Spectroscopy (UV),Scanning Electron microscopy(SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy(FTIR). The crystallite size obtained is approximately 60 nm, with a band gap of 3.55 eV. The band gap of the composite could further be tuned with nanosize.

Nanocrystals of ZnO have been prepared using vitex negundo leaf extract via a simple green method. The confirmation of ZnO formation was carried out by UV–Vis-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). The prepared nanocrystals were further characterized by photoluminescence (PL), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). FE-SEM shows the ZnO nanoparticles are nanoplates like structure. With the aim of assessing the photocatalytic activities of ZnO nanocrystals the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV radiation was analyzed. Further, the antibacterial activities of synthesized ZnO nanoparticles were screened against S. aureus, S. paratyphi, V. cholerae, and E. coli.

Pure, Al doped and (Co, Al) co-doped ZnO nanopowders have been synthesized through chemical co precipitation method at Room temperature, using poly ethylene glycol (PEG) as stabilizing agent. The synthesized samples are characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) & Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), High resolution TEM, SAED and Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). XRD results reveals that all the samples possess hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure with no secondary phases. SEM analysis demonstrated the morphology of the Pure, Al doped and (Co, Al) co-doped ZnO nanoparticles while EDS spectrum shows the incorporation of dopant elements. TEM illustrations reveal the exact size of the crystallites, which is approximately confirmed by the XRD data. HRTEM images of the Pure and Al doped ZnO nanoparticles shows clear lattice fringes about 5 nm and co-doped images reveal lattice fringes are about 2 nm. In determining the magnetic properties, VSM technique has been used and VSM analysis of (Co, Al) co-doped samples reveal Super paramagnetic or weak ferro magnetic nature at Room temperature.