Sumanta Kumar Meher

Archetypal sandwich-structured CuO for high performance non-enzymatic sensing of glucose

In the quest to enhance the selectivity and sensitivity of novel structured metal oxides for electrochemical non-enzymatic sensing of glucose, we report here a green synthesis of unique sandwich-structured CuO on a large scale under microwave mediated homogeneous precipitation conditions. The physicochemical studies carried out by XRD and BET methods show that the monoclinic CuO formed via thermal decomposition of Cu(2)(OH)(2)CO(3) possesses monomodal channel-type pores with largely improved surface area (~43 m(2) g(-1)) and pore volume (0.163 cm(3) g(-1)). The fascinating surface morphology and pore structure of CuO is formulated due to homogeneous crystallization and microwave induced self assembly during synthesis. The cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry studies show diffusion controlled glucose oxidation at ~0.6 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) with extremely high sensitivity of 5342.8 μA mM(-1) cm(-2) and respective detection limit and response time of ~1 μM and ~0.7 s, under a wide dynamic concentration range of glucose. The chronoamperometry measurements demonstrate that the sensitivity of CuO to glucose is unaffected by the absence of dissolved oxygen and presence of poisoning chloride ions in the reaction medium, which essentially implies high poison resistance activity of the sandwich-structured CuO. The sandwich-structured CuO also shows insignificant interference/significant selectivity to glucose, even in the presence of high concentrations of other sugars as well as reducing species. In addition, the sandwich-structured CuO shows excellent reproducibility (relative standard deviation of ~2.4% over ten identically fabricated electrodes) and outstanding long term stability (only ~1.3% loss in sensitivity over a period of one month) during non-enzymatic electrochemical sensing of glucose. The unique microstructure and suitable channel-type pore architecture provide structural stability and maximum accessible electroactive surface for unimpeded mobility of glucose as well as the product molecules, which result in the excellent sensitivity and selectivity of sandwich-structured CuO for glucose under non-enzymatic milieu.

Tuning, via Counter Anions, the Morphology and Catalytic Activity of CeO2 Prepared under Mild Conditions

Advanced synthetic methods under mild and controlled conditions for the synthesis of nanocrystals with specific shapes and exposed surfaces are very important for understanding the surface related properties and to explore their structure-property relationship for various potential applications. Here, we report the synthesis of highly uniform CeO(2) nanorods and nanoflowers in large scale using non-hydrothermal homogeneous precipitation method with urea as a precipitating agent and CTAB as a shape directing agent. Uniform microstructures of CeO(2) samples were selectively synthesized using chloride and nitrate as the counter anions. The samples were characterized by thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, N(2) adsorption-desorption isotherms, SEM, TEM, UV-Vis-DRS, and Raman spectroscopy, and temperature programmed reduction as well as desorption methods. The results show that the physicochemical and optical properties of CeO(2) samples significantly differ with their surface microstructure and morphology. They also strongly influence the redox property, oxygen storage capacity, and surface acidity of the CeO(2) samples. The CeO(2) samples with different morphologies were tested for their soot oxidation activity. The CeO(2) sample with nanorod morphology was found to be more active due to larger CeO(2)/soot interface than the CeO(2) sample with nanoflower morphology.

Novel nanostructured CeO2 as efficient catalyst for energy and environmental applications

AbstractWe report here versatile methods to engineer the microstructure and understand the fundamental physicochemical properties of CeO2 to improve its catalytic viability for practical applications. In this context, different morphologies of CeO2 are synthesized using tailored homogeneous precipitation methods and characterized by XRD, BET, SEM and TPR methods. The shuttle-shaped CeO2 prepared under hydrothermal condition shows higher surface area and low-temperature reducibility. The 0.5 wt% Pt-impregnated shuttle-shaped CeO2 shows lower-temperature CO oxidation behaviour as compared to its bulk-like CeO2 (with 0.5 wt% Pt) counterpart, synthesized by conventional-reflux method. Further, nanorod morphology of CeO2 prepared with Cl− as counter ion shows lower-temperature oxidation of soot as compared to the mesoflower morphology of CeO2, prepared with NO3−

Ultralayered Co3O4 for High-Performance Supercapacitor Applications

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Nanoscale morphology dependent pseudocapacitance of NiO: Influence of intercalating anions during synthesis

as counter ion in the reaction medium. Further, linear sweep voltammetry, chronopotentiometry and CO-stripping voltammetry studies are performed to evaluate the promoting activity of CeO 2 to Pt/C for ethanol electro-oxidation reaction in acidic media. Results show that CeO2 provides active triple-phase-interfacial sites for suitable adsorption of OH species which effectively oxidize the COads on Pt/C. The results presented here are significant in the context of understanding the physicochemical fine prints of CeO2 and CeO2 based hetero-nanocomposites for their suitability to important catalytic and energy-related applications. ᅟCeO2 with engineered microstructure promotes CO oxidation, soot oxidation and alcohol electro-oxidation for energy and environmental applications