Browsing by Author "Palchoudhury, Soubantika"

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    Enhanced legume root growth with pre-soaking in alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticle fertilizer
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2018) Palchoudhury, Soubantika; Jungjohann, Katherine L.; Weerasena, Lakmali; Arabshahi, Abdollah; Gharge, Uday; Albattah, Abdulaziz; Miller, Justin; Patel, Ketan; Holler, Robert A.; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Sandia National Laboratories; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    The rising demand for food and energy crops has triggered interest in the use of nanoparticles for agronomy. Specifically, iron oxide-based engineered nanoparticles are promising candidates for next-generation iron-deficiency fertilizers. We used iron oxide and hybrid Pt-decorated iron oxide nanoparticles, at low and high concentrations, and at varied pHs, to model seed pre-soaking solutions for investigation of their effect on embryonic root growth in legumes. This is an environmentally friendly approach, as it uses less fertilizer, therefore less nanoparticles in contact with the soil. Analysis from varied material characterization techniques combined with a statistical analysis method found that iron oxide nanoparticles could enhance root growth by 88-366% at low concentrations (5.54 x 10(-3) mg L-1 Fe). Hybrid Pt-decorated iron oxide nanoparticles and a higher concentration of iron oxide nanoparticles (27.7 mg L-1 Fe) showed reduced root growth. The combined materials characterization and statistical analysis used here can be applied to address many environmental factors to finely tune the development of vital nanofertilizers for high efficiency food production.
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    Flexible and High Performance Supercapacitors Based on NiCo(2)O(4)for Wide Temperature Range Applications
    (Nature Portfolio, 2015) Gupta, Ram K.; Candler, John; Palchoudhury, Soubantika; Ramasamy, Karthik; Gupta, Bipin Kumar; Pittsburg State University; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Los Alamos National Laboratory; Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) - India; CSIR - National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
    Binder free nanostructured NiCo2O4 were grown using a facile hydrothermal technique. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed the phase purity of NiCo2O4. The surface morphology and microstructure of the NiCo2O4 analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed flower-like morphology composed of needle-like structures. The potential application of binder free NiCo2O4 as an electrode for supercapacitor devices was investigated using electrochemical methods. The cyclic voltammograms of NiCo2O4 electrode using alkaline aqueous electrolytes showed the presence of redox peaks suggesting pseudocapacitance behavior. Quasi-solid state supercapacitor device fabricated by sandwiching two NiCo2O4 electrodes and separating them by ion transporting layer. The performance of the device was tested using cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The device showed excellent flexibility and cyclic stability. The temperature dependent charge storage capacity was measured for their variable temperature applications. Specific capacitance of the device was enhanced by similar to 150% on raising the temperature from 20 to 60 degrees C. Hence, the results suggest that NiCo2O4 grown under these conditions could be a suitable material for high performance supercapacitor devices that can be operated at variable temperatures.
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    Multinary copper-based chalcogenide nanocrystal systems from the perspective of device applications
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2020) Palchoudhury, Soubantika; Ramasamy, Karthik; Gupta, Arunava; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Multinary chalcogenide semiconductor nanocrystals are a unique class of materials as they offer flexibility in composition, structure, and morphology for controlled band gap and optical properties. They offer a vast selection of materials for energy conversion, storage, and harvesting applications. Among the multinary chalcogenides, Cu-based compounds are the most attractive in terms of sustainability as many of them consist of earth-abundant elements. There has been immense progress in the field of Cu-based chalcogenides for device applications in the recent years. This paper reviews the state of the art synthetic strategies and application of multinary Cu-chalcogenide nanocrystals in photovoltaics, photocatalysis, light emitting diodes, supercapacitors, and luminescent solar concentrators. This includes the synthesis of ternary, quaternary, and quinary Cu-chalcogenide nanocrystals. The review also highlights some emerging experimental and computational characterization approaches for multinary Cu-chalcogenide semiconductor nanocrystals. It discusses the use of different multinary Cu-chalcogenide compounds, achievements in device performance, and the recent progress made with multinary Cu-chalcogenide nanocrystals in various energy conversion and energy storage devices. The review concludes with an outlook on some emerging and future device applications for multinary Cu-chalcogenides, such as scalable luminescent solar concentrators and wearable biomedical electronics.
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    A Novel Experimental Approach to Understand the Transport of Nanodrugs
    (MDPI, 2023) Palchoudhury, Soubantika; Das, Parnab; Ghasemi, Amirehsan; Tareq, Syed Mohammed; Sengupta, Sohini; Han, Jinchen; Maglosky, Sarah; Almanea, Fajer; Jones, Madison; Cox, Collin; Rao, Venkateswar; University of Dayton; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; University of Tennessee Knoxville; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
    Nanoparticle-based drugs offer attractive advantages like targeted delivery to the diseased site and size and shape-controlled properties. Therefore, understanding the particulate flow of the nanodrugs is important for effective delivery, accurate prediction of required dosage, and developing efficient drug delivery platforms for nanodrugs. In this study, the transport of nanodrugs including flow velocity and deposition is investigated using three model metal oxide nanodrugs of different sizes including iron oxide, zinc oxide, and combined Cu-Zn-Fe oxide synthesized via a modified polyol approach. The hydrodynamic size, size, morphology, chemical composition, crystal phase, and surface functional groups of the water-soluble nanodrugs were characterized via dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray, X-ray diffraction, and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. Two different biomimetic flow channels with customized surfaces are developed via 3D printing to experimentally monitor the velocity and deposition of the different nanodrugs. A diffusion dominated mechanism of flow is seen in size ranges 92 nm to 110 nm of the nanodrugs, from the experimental velocity and mass loss profiles. The flow velocity analysis also shows that the transport of nanodrugs is controlled by sedimentation processes in the larger size ranges of 110-302 nm. However, the combined overview from experimental mass loss and velocity trends indicates presence of both diffusive and sedimentation forces in the 110-302 nm size ranges. It is also discovered that the nanodrugs with higher positive surface charges are transported faster through the two test channels, which also leads to lower deposition of these nanodrugs on the walls of the flow channels. The results from this study will be valuable in realizing reliable and cost-effective in vitro experimental approaches that can support in vivo methods to predict the flow of new nanodrugs.
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    Synthesis and characterization of platinum decorated iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Palchoudhury, Soubantika; Bao, Yuping; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    This dissertation focuses on the development of a bifunctional nanoparticle system that can potentially offer simultaneous imaging and therapy in the future. Recently, small platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (< 5 nm) have shown great potential in therapeutic applications, such as DNA dissociation, radiation therapy, and oxidative stress treatment. Therefore, the small Pt nanoparticles of size comparable to DNA grooves are chosen as potential therapeutic components in this research. However, such small sized Pt nanoparticles tends to aggregate, and are difficult to target. Therefore, this research reports the synthesis, characterization, and DNA interaction of small Pt decorated iron oxide nanoparticles. The iron oxide carriers provide stability to the small Pt nanoparticles, and can potentially serve as MRI contrast agents. The hypothesis of this research is that the Pt nanoparticles supported on iron oxide nanoparticle surfaces can effectively interact with DNA molecules similar to the free Pt nanoparticles. A reproducible synthetic technique was first developed to prepare iron oxide nanoparticles with excellent size control and narrow size distribution. Subsequently, two different approaches were utilized to produce multiple small Pt nanoparticle attached iron oxide nanoparticles. The first route involved attachment of Pt nanoparticles onto iron oxide seeds of various shapes in an organic solvent, followed by an aqueous phase transfer. Here, the shape of the nanoparticles was controlled to facilitate heterogeneous nucleation of Pt nanoparticles. The protective biocompatible polymer coating (polyacrylic acid) in this method could prevent interaction of the Pt nanoparticles with undesirable biomolecules. Several non-spherical iron oxide nanoparticles were explored, including whiskers, worms, plates, and flowers. In the second method, an aqueous phase ligand exchange process was performed first, prior to the deposition of multiple Pt nanoparticles. This facile method provided more accessibility of the Pt nanoparticles for DNA interactions. The DNA interaction of these nanoparticles was investigated using gel electrophoresis, electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and atomic absorption spectroscopy. By comparing with control DNA, we suggested that two possible interactions between DNA and Pt-iron oxide nanoparticles were present: (1) DNA molecules directly linked to the Pt-iron oxide nanoparticles, and (2) DNA molecules de-attached the Pt nanoparticles from the iron oxide support. This reported nanodrug system could potentially open up new possibilities in the design of therapeutic agents using multifunctional nanoparticles. Future efforts are to investigate the in vivo characteristics of this integrated nanostructure.
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    Transition metal chalcogenides for next-generation energy storage
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2023) Palchoudhury, Soubantika; Ramasamy, Karthik; Han, Jinchen; Chen, Peng; Gupta, Arunava; University of Dayton; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Transition-metal chalcogenide nanostructures provide a unique material platform to engineer next-generation energy storage devices such as lithium-ion, sodium-ion, and potassium-ion batteries and flexible supercapacitors. The transition-metal chalcogenide nanocrystals and thin films have enhanced electroactive sites for redox reactions and hierarchical flexibility of structure and electronic properties in the multinary compositions. They also consist of more earth-abundant elements. These properties make them attractive and more viable new electrode materials for energy storage devices compared to the traditional materials. This review highlights the recent advances in chalcogenide-based electrodes for batteries and flexible supercapacitors. The viability and structure-property relation of these materials are explored. The use of various chalcogenide nanocrystals supported on carbonaceous substrates, two-dimensional transition metal chalcogenides, and novel MXene-based chalcogenide heterostructures as electrode materials to improve the electrochemical performance of lithium-ion batteries is discussed. The sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries offer a more viable alternative to lithium-ion technology as they consist of readily available source materials. Application of various transition metal chalcogenides such as MoS2, MoSe2, VS2, and SnSx, composite materials, and heterojunction bimetallic nanosheets composed of multi-metals as electrodes to enhance the long-term cycling stability, rate capability, and structural strength to counteract the large volume expansion during the ion intercalation/deintercalation processes is highlighted. The promising performances of layered chalcogenides and various chalcogenide nanowire compositions as electrodes for flexible supercapacitors are also discussed in detail. The review also details the progress made in new chalcogenide nanostructures and layered mesostructures for energy storage applications.