National Institute of Technology, Silchar

About: National Institute of Technology, Silchar is a education organization based out in Silchar, Assam, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Control theory. The organization has 1934 authors who have published 4219 publications receiving 41149 citations. The organization is also known as: NIT Silchar.

Microwave assisted facile and green route for synthesis of CuO nanoleaves and their efficacy as a catalyst for reduction and degradation of hazardous organic compounds

Abstract: A facile, green synthesis of 2D CuO nanoleaves (NLs) using amino acid, namely glutamic acid was developed by microwave heating method for the first time. The aminoacid acts as a complexing/capping agent in the synthesis of CuO NLs. This technique gives rise to the formation of self assembled 2D CuO NLs having an average length and width of ∼720–800 nm and ∼136–160 nm respectively. The 2D CuO NLs were built up from the primary CuO nanoparticles by oriented attachment growth mechanism. CuO NLs were characterized by X-ray Diffraction method (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Selected-area Electron Diffraction Pattern (SAED) and Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). The optical properties were investigated using UV–vis spectroscopy. The synthesized CuO NLs act as an effective catalyst for the reduction of toxic aromatic nitro compounds, namely p-nitrophenol, p-nitroaniline and 2,4,6-trinitrophenol. The photocatalytic activities of CuO NLs were also analyzed for the degradation of two hazardous dyes, namely Rose Bengal and methyl violet 6B by solar irradiation technique. The degradation products were identified using LC–MS and the mechanistic pathways for the degradation of dyes were suggested.

Modelling of a downdraft biomass gasifier with finite rate kinetics in the reduction zone

Abstract: A model of a downdraft gasifier has been developed based on chemical equilibrium in the pyro-oxidation zone and finite rate kinetic-controlled chemical reactions in the reduction zone. The char reactivity factor (CRF) in the reduction zone, representing the number of active sites on the char and its degree of burn out, has been optimized by comparing the model predictions against the experimental results from the literature. The model predictions agree well with the temperature distribution and exit gas composition obtained from the experiments at CRF=100. A detailed parametric study has been performed at different equivalence ratios (between 2 and 3.4) and moisture content (in the range of 0–40%) in the fuel to obtain the composition of the producer gas as well as its heating value. It is observed that the heating value of the producer gas increases with the increase in the equivalence ratio and decrease in the biomass moisture content. The effect of divergence angle of the reduction zone geometry (in the range of 30–150°) on the temperature and species concentration distributions in the gasifier has been studied. An optimum divergence angle, giving the best quality of the producer gas, has been identified for a particular height of the reduction zone. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.