Dr Nimai Mishra, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, along with his research group comprising of students pursuing PhD under his supervision, Mr Syed Akhil and Ms V.G.Vasavi Dutt have published a research article titled “Bromopropane as a Novel Bromine Precursor for the Completely Amine Free Colloidal Synthesis of Ultra-Stable and Highly Luminescent Green-Emitting Cesium Lead Bromide (CsPbBr3) Perovskite Nanocrystals” in the Journal “Nanoscale” (The Royal Society of Chemistry, Impact Factor-7.8).

Recently, lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have attracted intense interest as promising active materials for optoelectronic devices. However, their extensive applications are still hampered by poor stability in ambient conditions. In this work, Dr Mishra’s research group report an open-atmospheric, facile, efficient, completely amine-free synthesis of caesium lead bromide perovskite nanocrystals using a novel bromine precursor, bromopropane, which is inexpensive, and available at hand. Their finding concludes that the PLQY can maintain 83% of their initial one even after 120 days. Furthermore, after 96 h of continuous irradiation by UV light with 365 nm (8 W/cm2) in the open ambient condition the photoluminescence (PL) intensity showed retention of 68% of its original value with no significant change in full width at half-maximum, whereas amine-based sample retains only 5% of its original PL intensity. Furthermore, Dr Mishra’s group has fabricated stable down-converted LED devices with these perovskite nanocrystals.

“More importantly, the present work demonstrates the synthesis of ultra-stable CsPbBr3 NCs which can be an ideal candidate for display applications”, says Dr Nimai Mishra.

Read the full paper: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2021/NR/D1NR03560F#!divAbstract

The advent of the industrial revolution increased the dependency of humans on fossil fuels which led to an increase in environmental degradation. While alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro seem to be good options, their uncertainty in delivering the power made Dr Sujith Kalluri, Assistant Professor in the Electronics and Communication Engineering Department and his PhD scholar Chanakya Karra at SRM University-AP prefer batteries as a viable option. “Application-driven Industrial-scale Manufacturing of Li/Na-ion Battery Cathodes” is a paper published by Dr Sujith Kalluri and Mr Chanakya Karra in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society having an Impact Factor of 3.721 as part of their project to develop zero-emission energy methods.

Through this article as a platform, the authors focus on three aspects of energy storage devices that are essential while the world is catapulted to upgrade itself from fossil fuels to electric vehicles. From a battery level perspective, they have discussed the dependence of the battery industry on lithium-ion technology and its repercussions. As a solution, they suggest the distribution of the dependency on sodium-ion technology owing to its adaptability and wide availability. From the cathode level perspective, the paper suggests co-precipitation through the CSTR as a customized solution to address the setbacks in the synthesis process and additive manufacturing as a preferred solution to cater for the desired electrode design specifications that would comply with the needs of future generations and the industry. Till the battery energy storage system paves the way for Na to take over, we can reckon on SC-NCM cathode material to serve the needs.

Read the full paper here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/abfab6/pdf

More about the Battery research project of SRM University-AP:https://srmap.edu.in/seas/electronics-and-communication-engineering/research-areas/battery-research/

Biochar has an enormous potential in addressing global issues and can act as a catalyst in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). Dr Lakhveer Singh, Assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science, SRM University-AP has co-authored and published a paper on the title “Biochar for environmental sustainability in the energy-water-agroecosystem nexus” in the research journal “Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews” with an Impact factor of 14.98.

Global warming, management of soil health, remediation of contaminated wastewater, and sustainable alternate source of energy are the major challenges of the 21st century. Biochar produced from waste biomass (crop residues, algal biomass, municipal waste, etc.) has dual advantages of waste management along with its application in different sectors. Biochar addition to soil improves soil health, porosity and aeration which mitigates greenhouse gas emission from soil.

In this manuscript, Dr Lakhveer Singh discusses the potential of biochar for bioenergy production (biogas and biological hydrogen production), greenhouse gases mitigation, carbon sequestration in soils, and wastewater remediation are discussed in detail along with the challenges and future prospects of biochar. This work has been executed in collaborations with the National Institute of Hydrology, Jal Vigyan Bhawan, Roorkee; J.C. Bose University of Science and Technology; YMCA, Faridabad; and IIT Delhi.

Dr Singh is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery – Springer (I.F. 2.60) and a Guest Editor for Bioresource Technology Reports- Elsevier.

Read the full paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S136403212100664X

A research study to predict the waning of the second wave of COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala & West Bengal

In the current pandemic situation, a pertinent question is the estimate of time by which the second wave of COVID – 19 spread could be contained and normalcy would return. In this context, Prof. D. Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, SRM University – AP initiated the study to predict the End-Time of COVID – 19 in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala & West Bengal. Dr. Soumyajyoti Biswas of SRM University – AP along with 4 B.Tech Students: Mr. Anvesh Reddy, Mr. Hanesh Koganti, Mr. Sai Krishna, and Mr. Suhas Reddy have carried out an interesting study to predict the end time of the second wave of COVID – 19 spread in these states. Study employed Susceptible – Infected – Recovered (SIR) Model making use of the information on the COVID – 19 affected people and the number of recovered people, the data which the state governments make them available. SRM Team made use of these data employed SIR Model and applied the methods of Machine Learning. The End -Times of the spread of COVID-19 for different states are given in the following table:

End-Time is defined as the date on which the number of COVID affected cases get reduced to 5% of the peak number of cases occurred in the particular state.

The model is also validated with the actuals occurred in the States of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh: Peak of 37,944 was n 24^th April 2021 and 5% of the peak number is 1897 and is predicted to occur on 27^th May with an error of -2 days to +3 days
Actuals: 27^th May: 3179, 28^th May: 2276, 29^th May: 2014, 30^th May: 1864

Delhi: Peak of 28,935 was on 20^th April 2021 and 5% of the peak number is 1490 and is predicted to occur on 28^th May with an error of – 2 days to + 2 days
Actuals:26^th May: 1491, 27^th May : 1072, 28^th May : 1141

The validation mentioned of the end-times of the second wave of COVID-19 spread increases our confidence level to the predictions made for other states also.

It can be noticed that in the States of West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, the second wave of COVID-19 continues to spread for longer periods and errors are large compared to the other states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. Perhaps, these factors could be attributed to the large gatherings that have occurred in the 4 states on several occasions.

Prof Narayana Rao said that these predictions mentioned above could help in estimating the impact on medium and small business sectors. In the education sector, it could help in planning the academic sessions, examinations, etc. It could also help to plan necessary medical infrastructure for healthcare in different states.

The details of the study can be found in [2105.13288] Machine learning predictions of COVID-19 second wave end-times in Indian states (arxiv.org)

Dr Satish Anamalamudi, Assistant Professor, in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has published a research paper titled “Cooperative Caching Scheme for Machine-to-Machine Information-Centric IoT Networks” in the IEEE Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The research paper is co-authored by Dr Mohammed Saeed Alkatheiri and Dr Eesa Al Solami of University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Dr Abdur Rashid Sangi of Yibin University, China.

According to the authors, Information-centric networks (ICNs), a foreseen future Internet architecture, focuses on the application content rather than its hosting location. With this, the existing Internet protocol (IP)-based host-centric communication model can be transformed into a content-centric communication model with the support of in-network caching, name-based routing, and location-independent content domain names. Recently, ICN is proposed to be a potential Internet architecture for Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks due to minimal retrieval delays and reduced load on the data producer. Content retrieval from IoT nodes plays a prominent role in enhancing the performance of the ICN-IoT networks. The in-network caching of ICN enhances the data availability in the network, overcome the issue of single-point failure, and improve IoT devices power efficiency. In this work, the authors explore a cooperative caching scheme for information-centric-IoT networks to optimize the cache hit with the support of a caching network topology model, a content popularity model, and an exogenous request access model.

Dr Satish says that ICN proposes to shift the existing complex Internet model to a simple and generic one. This approach considers the content as the first-class network citizen. In ICN, contents are addressed and routed by their unique names and are decoupled from the address of the node storing it. In this way, consumers ask for information by its name rather than its locality address. In ICN, every content is identified by using a unique, persistent and location-independent name. A wide set of IoT applications is inherently information-centric. In fact, the majority of IoT applications target data regardless of its source. For instance, environmental monitoring applications are oblivious to the information origin. ICN is a promising candidate for IoT environments. It can natively support IoT scenarios while improving data dissemination and reducing network complexity.

Dr Satish Anamalamudi had been a Research Engineer with Huawei Technologies, Beijing, China. He also worked with the Huaiyin Institute of Technology (HYIT), Huai’an, China, until February 2018. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh. His research interests include the common-control-channel design for MAC and routing protocols in cognitive radio ad hoc networks, MAC, and routing protocol design of Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G networks.

Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICJECE.2020.3046844

Dr Imran Pancha, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has recently published a paper titled “Deep eutectic solvents and Ionic liquid assisted hydrolysis of microalgal biomass: A promising approach towards sustainable biofuel production” in the celebrated Journal of Molecular Liquids (2021): 116264 (Impact Factor-5.065). The study was conducted in association with Akshay Kulshrestha, Sandhya Mishra, and Arvind Kumar from CSIR-CSMCRI

Microalgae is recently considered one of the promising biomasses for the production of renewable energy such as biodiesel and bioethanol. Microalgae are tiny photosynthetic organisms that utilise atmospheric CO2, water and sunlight to produce carbohydrates and lipids, which can be converted into renewable fuels. Compared to higher plants, microalgae is a good platform for bioethanol production as they do not contain any lignin in their cell composition, which makes pre-treatment for biomass hydrolysis easy. In the present study, Dr Pancha and his team explored the use of green solvents ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) for microalgal hydrolysis. They observed that among the eight tested ionic liquids, ethyl ammonium nitrate (EAN) resulted in the highest saccharification yield of 95.5%. Whereas, among hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents, menthol: lactic acid (Me: LA) exhibited the highest saccharification yield of 85.7% and also did not require any additional high temperature or other pre-treatments for biomass hydrolysis, indicating as the potential solvent system for microalgal biomass hydrolysis. Overall, the present study results indicated that the identified IL and DES could be used as a green and sustainable alternative for the pre-treatment of microalgal biomass for bioethanol production.

Due to limited fossil fuel reserve as well as environmental issues like high greenhouse gas emission and other environmental problems, finding green and sustainable energy resource is of prime importance for today’s world. To solve this problem, microalgae are among the best resources for producing renewable resources due to it’s high growth rate and photosynthetic ability. Microalgae also have the ability to obtain nutrients from various wastewater, so they also do not require fresh water for cultivation. However, commercial-scale production of microalgae-based biofuels faces various problems such as cultivation cost, downstream processing for biofuel production etc. In this regard, in the present work, Dr Pancha demonstrated the use of ILs and DESs for pre-treatment of microalgal biomass for reducing sugar production, which can be further utilised to produce bioethanol.

Dr Pancha and his research group are further devoted to understanding the molecular mechanism behind the accumulation of energy reserved compounds in the microalgae and developing a sustainable biorefinery process to extract biofuels and other industrially relevant compounds from single microalgal biomass.

Read the full paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2021.116264

Ms Sreelekha Bhuvaneswari, a BSc physics final year student, in SRM University AP, Andhra Pradesh, filed a patent for her work titled “A fibre material with moisture retention capacity with thermal tolerance and a method for manufacture” under the guidance of Dr Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, SRM University-AP.

The project, with the patent application number 202141023375, develops a methodology to design a fabric cloth that would replace the use of air conditioners. This cloth design is inspired by Saharan silver ants which regulate their body temperatures in the scorching desert heat and also from the cooling properties of clay. This research would significantly scale down the usage of AC and other cooling devices in warm places, thus reducing the use of electricity and emission of greenhouse gases to the environment. As this cloth would be environment friendly with long durability and cost-efficiency, Sreelekha hopes that this research would bridge the socioeconomic divide of haves and have-nots between communities.

“I am grateful to Dr Sabyasachi sir for his constant help and guidance along the way. There were several failed models, but he believed in the concept and that inspired me to go forward with the project,” said Ms Bhuvaneswari. “The facilities at the University made the process seamless; once the proposal was made, the procedure was automated. I thank the officials of SRM University-AP for believing in my proposal and helping me get through the procedures smoothly. If it were not for the facilities available at my university, I could not have finished the design,” She added.

A scientific research paper has been published by Dr Lakhveer Singh, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, SRM University-AP.

“The Role of Conductive Nanoparticles in Anaerobic Digestion: Mechanism, Current Status, and Future Perspectives”, published in the Chemosphere Journal, discusses in detail the application of conductive nanoparticles to enhance the AD process efficiency and the interaction between microbes in anaerobic conditions for electron transfer with the help of CNPs. Application of a variety of conductive nanomaterials as an additive is discussed with their potential biogas production and treatment enhancement in the anaerobic digestion process. The Impact factor of the journal is 5.77.

Dr Singh is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery – Springer (I.F. 2.60) and a Guest Editor for Bioresource Technology Reports- Elsevier. His future research targets to reduce the component costs and test the proposed design using real waste streams, as well as continue to increase the reactor volume.

Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130601

“Compact Inertial Electrostatic Confinement D-D Fusion Neutron Generator” is an imbuing research paper co-authored and published by Dr Somesh Vinayak Tewari, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), SRM University – AP, in the scientific journal, Annals of Nuclear Energy.

This paper is part of an interdisciplinary work leveraging the areas of both electrical engineering and physics. Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Systems are simple, compact and operate on high voltage discharge in Deuterium- Deuterium (D-D)/ Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) gases between concentric grids for neutron generation. Such systems find considerable applications in the detection of explosives and illicit materials, radiography, tomography, and neutron well logging. The IEC system cathode temperature is measured with a Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) during the measurement of neutrons from the system. FBG is optical fibre sensors that can be used for sensing temperature by recording the Bragg wavelength shift. The advantage of such measurements is that they can be used in environments such as electric arcs and plasmas, chemical and nuclear zones unaffected by electromagnetic fields such that the signals can be monitored remotely.

The production of neutron fluxes for the above-mentioned applications is through radioisotopes, accelerators, or nuclear reactors with the inherent nature of their complexity, hazards, and problem of residual radioactivity. Additionally, such systems require a considerable amount of shielding and Dr Tewari puts forth such factors that prompt further research in the area of the development of much simpler compact IEC systems.

The said research project has been carried out under the scheme of “Mentoring of Engineering Teacher by an INAE Fellow”, financially supported by the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The work goes forward in close collaboration with Pulsed Power & Electromagnetic Division, Beam Technology Development Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)-Vishakhapatnam.

The future projects of Dr Tewari involve working on simulations related to the compact IEC for study, analysis, optimization of different parameters of an IEC system and related experimentation in collaboration with BARC.

Dr Lakhveer Singh, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, SRM University-AP, sets forth advanced avenues of scientific research on maintaining high current densities which is a key challenge in scaling-up microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) reactors.

“Scaling-up Up-flow Microbial Electrolysis Cells with a Compact Electrode Configuration for Continuous Hydrogen Production”, published in the Bioresource Technology journal is about a novel 10 L microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) reactor with a total electrode surface area greater than 1 m2 was designed and evaluated for hydrogen production. Performances of the reactor suggest that the longitudinal structure with the parallel vertical orientation of the electrodes encouraged high fluid mixing and the sheet metal electrode frames provided distributed electrical connection. A high volumetric H2 production rate of 5.9 L/L/d was achieved at a volumetric current density of 970 A/m3 (34 A/m2). The Impact factor of the journal is 7.53.

Dr Singh encapsulates that the technology and the model to be developed can be used to formulate new designs and processing parameters for producing H2 from other types of feedstocks and/or using engineered microbes developed by other researchers, which could solve the fuel problem for modern society. This work has been done in collaboration with Prof. Hong Liu from Oregon State University (OSU), USA.

Dr Singh is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery – Springer (I.F. 2.60) and a Guest Editor for Bioresource Technology Reports- Elsevier. His future research targets to reduce the component costs and test the proposed design using real waste streams, as well as continue to increase the reactor volume.

Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125030