Hydrogen is considered as an attractive energy carrier because of its high energy density and pollution-free nature. Among various materials, body centred cubic (BCC) solid solutions and alloys are considered to bepromising hydrogen storage alloys. These alloys also have some drawback, one of them is slow activation (difficulty in first hydrogenation). In order to solve this problem, a heat treatment is usually required before the first hydrogenation. It has recently been found that adding7Zr+10Ni to Ti50V20Cr30 alloy eliminates this additional step of heating and this alloy absorbed 3.6 wt.% of hydrogen in 12 minutes. In present work Pressure-composition isotherm of the alloy is measured which revealed that alloy desorbed 1.6 wt% of hydrogen at 150oC. The evolution of the crystal structure upon dehydrogenation was investigated by in-situ neutron diffraction. A fully deuterated sample was heated from 120oC to 266oC under vacuum and neutron diffraction patterns were recorded as a function of temperature. It was found that the alloy started to desorb very quickly at 200 oC. The amount of fcc phase was monitored using the relative intensity of the fcc phase compared to a standard. Crystal structure and morphology of the samples have been studied by the XRD and SEM analysis respectively. Hydrogenation studies were carriedout by using the home-made hydrogen titration system

Nano antimicrobials are a concept since 2004. They can also be exploited as point of carediagnostics, therapeutic carriers and development of vaccines. Different formulations and different nanostructures which contain silver,copper and zinc will prove to be helpful inpreventing and limiting the contamination of this virus.In few studies copper was potent enough to inactivate the virus in a short span of time and the rate of inactivation is directly proportionate to the percentage of copper present. This can even be helpful in upgrading thequality of PPE (personal protection equipment) which will exhibit better shielding quality.This will induce more sterility to surfaces also.The metallic nanoparticles might act as ion reservoirs for the bioactive ion release. Silver nanoparticles are also researched for their viricidal activity.Nanotechnology will definitely come up with solutions for SARS-CoV 2

Curcumin is a more efficient polyphenol than many chemotherapeutics. It can inhibit many signaling pathways at the same time resulting in modulation and down regulation for many oncogenic activities, tumor suppressor genes, several transcription factors and their signaling pathways. However it is still not employed as a potential therapeutic tool for cancer treatment. This is due to its hydrophobicity, its hypersensitivity and its poor adsorption. Many trials have been applied for encapsulating curcumin as a delivery system thinking to save its biological benefits. In our recent work, encapsulated curcumin was successfully used to produce bio cross-linkers for mucoadhesive polymer forming multi branched or flower like shape. Moreover , this strategy is not used only to save its biological function, but also to provide a novel bio cross-linker for hydrogel system. This study was investigated by using scanning electron microscopy, FTIR, U-V Visible Spectroscopy. Encapsulated curcumin provides promising bio safe cross-linker for optimizing hydrogel system, since carboxymethyl cellulose raises its ability to penetrate mucus layer. Additionally, flow cytometry and cytotoxicity show ability of encapsulated cu

There is nothing more personal than healthcare. Health care must move from its current reactive and disease-centric system to a personalized, predictive, preventative and participatory model with a focus on disease prevention and health promotion. As the world marches into the era of Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G wireless, technology renovation enables industry to offer a more individually tailored approach to healthcare with more successful health outcomes, higher quality and lower costs. However, empowering the utility of IoT enabled technology in personalized health care is still significantly challenged by the shortage of cost-effective and wearable biomedical devices to continuously provide real-time, patientgenerated health data. Textiles have been concomitant and playing a vital role in the long history of human civilization. In this talk, I will introduce our current research on nanotechnology enabled smart textiles for biomedical monitoring and personalized diagnosis, textile for therapy, and textile power generation as an

Nanomaterials are a promising source ofnutrients for plants, with an extraordinary potential to boost the yield on crops. In this scenario, an investigation on the interactions among engineered-nanoparticles (ENPs) and agricultural plants is under a skyrocketing. In this context, this work aims to present an overview regarding seed, root, and foliar exposure of ZnO, MnO, and CeO2 NPs to soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill plants. As part of an integrative, multidisciplinary approach, these studies employed elemental and optical techniques, e.g., benchtop and synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy (XRF and XANES), Single Particle Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (SP ICP-MS), and ScanningElectronic Microscopy (SEM), to evaluate the uptake, translocation, and physiological effects of the NPs, which might shed light into the plant and nanoparticles interactions in order to ensure its reliable in-field application on crops.

In this work is studied the effect of addition of low NaClconcentrations on ds-DNA and ss-DNA conformational changes induced by smalltioproningold nanoparticles (AuNPs). For this purpose, fluorescence, UV-visible, CD,AFM, DLS and zeta potential techniques were used.The high affinity of ssDNA to AuNPs compared with ds-DNA is easily demonstrated by the results of competitive binding with SG. Additionally, it is proven that at 298 K, AuNPs/ds-DNA and AuNPs/ss-DNA complexes undergo a transition from extended-coil to more compact structures when the AuNPs concentration (CAuNPs) is increased, which for the ds-DNA system is accompanied by partial  denaturation.Particularly, for the AuNPs/ss-DNA system all of these techniques confirm that at a high CAuNPs, the compaction process is followed by a discrete transition to aggregation and an increase in structure size. A thorough conformational changes analysis indicates that these processes are larger in low CNaCland at high temperature. Remarkable is the abnormal melting temperature profiles (Tm) registered at high R = CAuNPs/CDNA ratios.At a suitable R ratio, which varies depending on CNaCl, a complex melting profile for the AuNPs/ds-DNA system was registered with two characteristic transitions: Tm,1= 338 K and Tm,2 = 368 K.The AFM technique performed at 298 K and 338 K also showed a different behaviour in both DNA-based systemsSpecifically, for the AuNPs/ss-DNA system, AFM at 298 K revealed the formation of large-sized aggregates formed by AuNPs/ss-DNA compact structures linked by AuNPs, which explains the characteristic melting curves.However, when both complexes were incubated at 338 K, the formation of highly stable ordered structures was always visualized at high R.These results constitute a significant difference in the use of small gold nanoparticles in comparison fluorescence biomarkers as a detection system of DNA structures providing both challenges and opportunities for improving sensing applications.