Faculty Publications
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Publications by NITK Faculty
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Item Molecular Engineering and Theoretical Investigation of Novel Metal-Free Organic Chromophores for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells(Elsevier Ltd, 2015) Babu, D.D.; Cheema, H.; Elsherbiny, D.; El-Shafei, A.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.In this work we report design and synthesis of three new metal free D-D-A-?-A type dyes (E1-3) with different acceptor/anchoring groups, as effective sensitizers for nanocrystalline titanium dioxide based dye sensitized solar cells. All the three dyes carry electron donating methoxy group as an auxiliary and indole as a principal donor, cyanovinylene as an auxiliary acceptor and thiophene as a ?-spacer. Whereas, cyanoacetic acid, rhodanine-3-acetic acid and 4-aminobenzoic acid perform as acceptor/anchoring moieties, respectively in the dyes E1-3. Though the dye containing 4-aminobenzoic acid unit (E3) exhibits comparatively lower ?max, it shows the highest power conversion efficiency arising from the higher electron life time and good light-harvesting capability. The DFT studies reveal a better charge separation between the HOMO and LUMO levels of E3, further substantiating the experimental results. Among the three dyes, E3 shows the best photovoltaic performance with short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 9.35 mA cm-2, open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 620 mV and fill factor (FF) of 0.71, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 4.12% under standard global AM 1.5G. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Calcium phosphate bioceramics with polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels for biomedical applications(Institute of Physics Publishing helen.craven@iop.org, 2019) Kumar, B.Y.S.; Isloor, A.M.; Sukumaran, S.; Venkatesan, J.; Mohan Kumar, G.C.M.Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels show desirable characteristics to use as a biomaterial especially for soft tissue replacement. However, their bio inertness restricts their application in vivo. In this study, polyvinyl alcohol was blended with bi-phasic calcium phosphate and to develop a composite hydrogel by a physical freeze-thawing method, followed by annealing treatment. The synthesized bi-phasic calcium phosphate (BCP) and composite hydrogels were characterized by SEM, XRD and FTIR. The concentration of BCP was optimized and it was found that BCP modifies the hydrogel network by developing the secondary electrostatic bonding between matrix and reinforcement. The highest tensile and compressive strength could reach 5.2 ± 0.6 MPa and 14.9 ± 0.3 MPa respectively for PVA/2.5BCP and they exhibit time-dependent, rapid self-recoverable and fatigue resistant behavior based on the cyclic loading-unloading compression test. Similar observations were found for viscoelastic properties which are relevant for the tissue engineering application. Friction study showed the composite hydrogel had a cartilage-like frictional response, dominated by the interstitial fluid support. Besides composite hydrogel showed excellent antimicrobial activity against bacterial species, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans fungi, and the cytocompatibility towards L929 fibroblast cells provides a potential pathway to develop a hydrogel as a promising substitute for tissue engineering scaffold material. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd.Item Innovative structural engineering of sustainable and environment-friendly Cu2ZnSnS4 solar cell for over 20% conversion efficiency(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2022) Prabhu, S.; Pandey, S.K.; Chakrabarti, S.Kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4(CZTS) thin-film technology has been comprehensively investigated over the last decade as a promising candidate in the field of photovoltaic technologies. However, despite numerous strategies to improve the performance, the efficiencies remain stagnant at around 11%. Poorly optimized absorber/buffer interface, non-absorption of higher wavelength photons, and non-ohmic back contact are the primary reasons for the poor performance of the CZTS solar cell. The authors of this paper propose a cadmium-free buffer layer, multiple quantum wells (MQWs) structure, and a back surface field (BSF) layer to overcome these issues, respectively. In this study, the buffer layer, zinc oxysulfide (Zn[O1−xSx]) is considered as an alternative to toxic Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) for better band alignment with the CZTS absorber layer. Cu2ZnSn(SxSe1−x)4 (CZTSSe) is used as a quantum well material in MQWs to increase photon absorption in CZTS solar cells. Tin selenide (SnSe) is used as the BSF layer to reduce the effect of non-ohmic back contact and to improve the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of MQW incorporated CZTS solar cells. Detailed analysis and optimization of the modified structure with higher performance are presented. The simulation results obtained provide imperative guidelines for the fabrication of high-efficiency CZTS solar cells using non-toxic and earth-abundant materials. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Item Processing and characterization of egg shell derived nano-hydroxyapatite synthetic bone for Orthopaedic and Arthroscopy implants and substitutes in dentistry(Elsevier Ltd, 2023) Santosh Kumar, B.Y.; Kumar, G.C.; Shahapurkar, K.; Tirth, V.; Algahtani, A.; Al-Mughanam, T.; Alghtani, A.H.; Murthy, H.C.The present work is focused on the nano-Hydroxyapatite (nHAp) synthesis with two different Indian breed Aseel and Kadaknath eggshells. The alloplast implants were developed through the foam replica method with polyurethane 45-PPI as a porous template. The synthesized nHAp was characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The FE-SEM images of the nHAp showed the one dimensional clustered nanoparticles and the X-ray diffraction spectrum confirms that the major phase was hydroxyapatite with a small trace of β-tricalcium phosphate. The maximum compression strength of the sample was 5.49 ± 0.12 MPa which is in the range of the compression strength of human trabecular bone. The thermal and degradability studies results confirmed that these are highly stable and provides necessary a resorption needed for new bone tissue formation. Besides, the antimicrobial activity against tested human microbiome are satisfactory and the cell viability towards MG 63 human osteoblast-like cells provides a potential pathway for developing the nHAp implants for bone tissue engineering. © 2023 Elsevier LtdItem Evaluating the efficacy of lead-free piezoelectric materials in microcantilever based vibration energy harvesters(Institute of Physics, 2024) Manvi, M.; Swamy, M.S.The piezoelectric materials have been extensively utilized in various applications, such as sensors, actuators, and energy harvesters. This study evaluates the performance of six lead-free piezoelectric materials- aluminium nitride (AlN), barium titanate (BaTiO3), lithium niobate (LiNbO3), lithium tantalate (LiTaO3), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and zinc oxide (ZnO) in MEMS-based piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters (PVEHs) using cantilever configurations. Finite element analysis via COMSOL Multiphysics was employed to assess the deflection, voltage, and power outputs of these materials at their resonance frequencies, both with and without proof masses. The results indicate that BaTiO3 and PVDF cantilevers exhibited the highest voltage outputs, reaching 207.14 mV and 202.07 mV, respectively, with AlN also showing comparable performance at 184.72 mV. ZnO-based cantilevers demonstrated the highest power output of 1.35 nW without proof masses and 190.5 nW with proof masses, indicating its potential for high-power applications. The addition of proof masses generally reduced resonant frequencies but enhanced power outputs, like for ZnO. This comprehensive analysis underscores the critical impact of material selection and structural modifications on the efficiency of PVEHs, with BaTiO3, PVDF, and ZnO emerging as the most promising candidates for optimizing energy harvesting devices. This research lays a foundation for further advancements in piezoelectric MEMS technology, aiming for more efficient energy harvesting solutions. © 2024 IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights, including for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies, are reserved.