Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science

About: Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science is a education organization based out in Kolkata, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Excited state. The organization has 3867 authors who have published 10457 publications receiving 220098 citations.

Self-assembling tripeptide based hydrogels and their use in removal of dyes from waste-water

Abstract: A new class of hydrogelators based on synthetic self-assembling N-terminally Boc-protected tripeptides has been developed. A series of five tripeptides have been synthesized to study their self-assembling behavior in aqueous medium. Three of them form thermoreversible translucent gels at basic pH (pH 11.5–13.5). These hydrogels were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD), small angle X-ray diffraction analysis (SAXRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopic (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopic (TEM) and atomic force microscopic (AFM) studies. These hydrogels can be potentially utilized for the treatment of waste-water and the organic dyes (Rhodamine B, Reactive Blue 4 and Direct Red 80) that are widely used in textile industries can be efficiently removed. Moreover, peptide gelators can be recovered very easily just by changing the pH of the medium.

Surface-Oxidized Dicobalt Phosphide Nanoneedles as a Nonprecious, Durable, and Efficient OER Catalyst

Abstract: Needle-shaped narrow hexagonal phase 1D nanostructures of dicobalt phosphide (Co2P) are reported as efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Without other metal incorporation, which was typically followed for enhancing the OER activity, the electrochemical performance was observed to be superior in comparison to all reported cobalt-based nanostructured metal phosphides. For anodic metamorphosis, these nanostructures, like all other metal phosphides, undergo surface oxidation but remain more active and superior to pure cobalt oxides as well as surface-oxidized different shaped monocobalt phosphides. Moreover, the synthesis was also followed by adopting a moderate synthetic protocol where PH3 gas was used as a phosphorus source and also scaled up to the gram level. In addition, the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance of these phosphides was further studied, and the performance was observed to be comparable to that in the best reports.

Miscibility of poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate) with poly(ethyl methacrylate): Existence of both UCST and LCST

Abstract: A miscible homopolymer–copolymer pair viz., poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA)–poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate) (SBA) is reported. The miscibility has been studied using differential scanning calorimetry. While 1 : 1 (w/w) blends with SBA containing 23 and 34 wt % styrene (ST) become miscible only above 225 and 185 °C respectively indicating existence of UCST, those with SBA containing 63 wt % ST is miscible at the lowest mixing temperature (i.e., Tg's) but become immiscible when heated at ca 250 °C indicating the existence of LCST. Miscibility for blends with SBA of still higher ST content could not be determined by this method because of the closeness of the Tg's of the components. The miscibility window at 230 °C refers to the two copolymer compositions of which one with the lower ST content is near the UCST, while the other with the higher ST content is near the LCST. Using these compositions and the mean field theory binary interaction parameters between the monomer residues have been calculated. The values are χST-BA = 0.087 and χEMA-BA = 0.013 at 230 °C. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 369–375, 2000

A review on recent advances in polymer and peptide hydrogels

Abstract: In this review, we focus on the very recent developments on the use of the stimuli responsive properties of polymer hydrogels for targeted drug delivery, tissue engineering, and biosensing utilizing their different optoelectronic properties. Besides, the stimuli-responsive hydrogels, the conducting polymer hydrogels are discussed, with specific attention to the energy generation and storage behavior of the xerogel derived from the hydrogel. The electronic and ionic conducting gels have been discussed that have applications in various electronic devices, e.g., organic field effect transistors, soft robotics, ionic skins, and sensors. The properties of polymer hybrid gels containing carbon nanomaterials have been exemplified here giving attention to applications in supercapacitors, dye sensitized solar cells, photocurrent switching, etc. Recent trends in the properties and applications of some natural polymer gels to produce thermal and acoustic insulating materials, drug delivery vehicles, self-healing material, tissue engineering, etc., are discussed. Besides the polymer gels, peptide gels of different dipeptides, tripeptides, oligopeptides, polypeptides, cyclic peptides, etc., are discussed, giving attention mainly to biosensing, bioimaging, and drug delivery applications. The properties of peptide-based hybrid hydrogels with polymers, nanoparticles, nucleotides, fullerene, etc., are discussed, giving specific attention to drug delivery, cell culture, bio-sensing, and bioimaging properties. Thus, the present review delineates, in short, the preparation, properties, and applications of different polymer and peptide hydrogels prepared in the past few years.