National Chemical Laboratory

About: National Chemical Laboratory is a facility organization based out in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Enantioselective synthesis. The organization has 8891 authors who have published 14837 publications receiving 387600 citations.

SnS2 nanoflakes for efficient humidity and alcohol sensing at room temperature

Abstract: We report a one step facile hydrothermal synthesis of layered SnS2 nanoflakes The as-synthesized nanosheets are characterized using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) The humidity sensing behavior of SnS2 nanoflake sensor device were investigated in the range of 11–97% of relative humidity (RH) at room temperature The response time of ∼85 s and recovery time of ∼6 s were observed for the SnS2 nanoflake based humidity sensor A maximum sensitivity of 11 300% is recorded We also investigate the SnS2 nanoflake based alcohol sensing properties towards methanol, ethanol and iso-propyl alcohol An exclusive selectivity towards methanol with a response of 1580 is shown as compared to other analytes The response time of ∼67 s and recovery time of just 5 s were observed for the SnS2 nanoflake based methanol sensor

Bimetallic and Plasmonic Ag–Au on TiO2 for Solar Water Splitting: An Active Nanocomposite for Entire Visible-Light-Region Absorption

Abstract: The current study demonstrates a potential method for maximum utilization of the entire visible light region of the solar spectrum by designing a plasmonic-metals semiconductor composite. A combination of Ag+Au nanoclusters would broaden the visible-light absorption at least between 400 and 650 nm. This hypothesis was evaluated through solar water splitting (SWS) activity of Au–TiO2, Ag–TiO2, and Ag on Au-TiO2 (AgAuT) composites. AgAuT bimetallic nanocomposite shows the maximum apparent quantum yield of 3.3 % with hydrogen generation (718 μmol h.g−1) from aqueous methanol, and overall water splitting activity (7 μmol g.h−1, AQY=0.04 %) under one sun conditions. Enhanced photocatalytic activity of AgAuT is partly attributed to the formation of hot electrons. A thin layer of Ag coating on Au particles leads to a core–shell morphology with Au in the core. Fermi level equilibration between metal and titania, and Schottky junction formation are directly demonstrated. The strong electronic interaction between Ag and Au, and with TiO2 is evident from its electron rich character and confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and high-resolution TEM measurements. Electronic factors seem to be responsible for the high rate of hydrogen production.