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: Excited state & Catalysis. The organization has 3867 authors who have published 10457 publications receiving 220098 citations.

Dispersion Polymerization of Acrylamide

Abstract: Dispersion polymerization of acrylamide has been successfully carried out in aqueous tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) media (TBA = 50 - 80 vol %) using poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) as the polymeric stabilizer and ammonium persulfate as the initiator. Polydisperse spherical as well as oval particles are formed. The simultaneous presence of both spherical and oval particles suggests the coalescence of similar size particles (homocoalescence) takes place, leading to polydispersity. The increase of stabilizer concentration leads to a decrease in particle size and an increase in molecular weight. An increase of initiator concentration results in an increase in particle size and a decrease in molecular weight. These observations are in conformity with other dispersion polymerizations reported in the literature. Particle size decreases as the TBA concentration increases, i.e. as the medium polarity decreases. TBA-water mixtures exhibit cosolvency toward PVME, the solvency becoming highest at about 70 vol % TBA. This solvency aspect cannot account for the monotonous decrease of particle size with an increase in TBA concentration. A plot of particle diameter (D n ) vs the initial solubility parameter (δ) of the medium gives a straight line unlike the linear relationship between D n and 1/δ reported for dispersion polymerization of nonpolar monomers in polar solvents. This difference in behavior for the two systems can be reconciled ifthe grafted polymer acts as the true stabilizer.

Collapse and revival of quantum many-body scars via Floquet engineering

Abstract: The presence of quantum scars, athermal eigenstates of a many-body Hamiltonian with finite-energy density, leads to an absence of ergodicity and long-time coherent dynamics starting from initial states that have a high overlap with scars as experimentally observed in a chain of ultracold Rydberg atoms. We show, via study of a periodically driven Rydberg chain, that the drive frequency acts as a tuning parameter for several reentrant transitions between ergodic and weak ergodicity breaking regimes. The former regime shows rapid thermalization of correlation functions and absence of scars in the Floquet spectrum of the system. The latter regime, in contrast, has scars; they lead to long-time coherent dynamics of correlation functions. We provide an analytical explanation of the existence of these regimes by going beyond a high-frequency Magnus expansion and using a novel perturbative approach valid at large drive amplitudes to derive a Floquet Hamiltonian which qualitatively explains the behavior of the driven system at arbitrary frequencies. We also discuss experiments involving finite Rydberg chains which can validate our theory. Our results demonstrate the possibility of drive-frequency-induced tuning between ergodic and weak ergodicity breaking dynamics in a disorder-free quantum many-body system.

Review Synthesis of conducting nanowires

Abstract: Work reported on the synthesis of nanowires of different metals/alloys and semiconductors respectively in recent years is reviewed The methods used mostly belong to one of the following categories: chemical, electrodeposition, physical and filling of carbon nanotubes Electrical properties investigated for some of these nanowires indicate quantum mechanical effects to be present Nanodevice fabrication using doped semiconducting nanowires has also been reported

Synthesis and optical properties of CdS nanoribbons.

Abstract: Rapid production of single crystalline CdS nanoribbons with hexagonal wurtzite phase has been achieved by thermal evaporation of CdS powder on Si wafers. The flow rate of the carrier (Ar) gas along with the synthesis temperature plays an important role in defining the size and shape of the CdS nanoribbons. Scanning electron and transmission electron microscopic observations revealed the nanoribbons to have a flat end as well as side surfaces which will make it ideal for optoelectronic devices such as nanolasers and light emitting diodes based on individual nanoribbons. The nanoribbons have widths within 200−400 nm and lengths approximately a few hundred micrometers. Room-temperature photoluminescence measurements show green emission centered at ∼525 nm which may be ascribed to the near band edge emission. The Raman spectra of the CdS nanoribbons show peaks around 304, 609, 915, and 1220 cm-1 corresponding to the first-, second-, third-, and fourth-order longitudinal optical phonon modes, respectively.

Fluorescent Au@Ag core-shell nanoparticles with controlled shell thickness and Hg(II) sensing.

Abstract: Au-Ag core-shell nanoparticles have been synthesized using synthetic fluorescent dipeptide β-Ala-Trp (β-Ala is β-alanine; Trp is l-tryptophan) in water at pH 6.94 and at room temperature. The synthesis of the Au-Ag core-shell nanomaterial does not involve any external reducing and stabilizing agents, and the constituents of dipeptide β-alanine and l-tryptophan are naturally occurring. Therefore, the synthesis procedure is ecofriendly. Moreover, the shell thickness has also been controlled, and the optical property of the core-shell nanomaterial varies with the shell thickness. The core-shell nanomaterial exhibits a fascinating fluorescence property. This fluorescent Au@Ag core-shell nanoparticle can detect toxic Hg(II) ions ultrasensitively (with a lower limit of detection of 9 nM) even in presence of Zn(II), Cd(II), and other bivalent metal ions (Ca(II), Mg(II), Ni(II), Mn(II), Ba(II), Sr(II), Pb(II), and Fe(II)). Au-Ag core-shell nanomaterials can also be reused for sensing Hg(II) ions.