Advanced Materials Possessing, Photocatalysis, Electrochemical and Thermal Functions”- A Comprehensive Overview of the 12th Issue, Volume 11 of Advanced Materials Letters, December 2020

Demonstrations of advanced materials progress, as well as the pursuit of “eco-friendly” technologies, have gained significant attention due to health and environment associated concerns. Exploration of suitable materials to optimize their properties and configurations for specific applications has received much attention as a potential solution to the worldwide challenges of environmental sustainability.

International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) creates opportunity for materials science, engineering and technology professionals by publishing free of cost research articles in its official journal, Advanced Materials Letters (AML). The significance of 12^th issue of the AML lies in 10 informative articles on the materials possessing, photocatalysis, electrochemical and thermal properties dedicated to applications of health and environment.

One of major highlight of present issue is to recognize the recipient of the prestigious title of ‘Researcher of the Year’ conferred by the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM). AML has received much attention as a potential publication platform to the worldwide materials researcher engaged in propagating global sustainability through publication of relevant research on materials science, engineering, and technology. This issue present state‐of‐the‐art information’s in the advanced materials field, focusing on the technological possibilities offered by materials having photocatalysis, electrochemical and thermal applications.

The first article highlights the researchers of the year to recognize the efforts on significant efforts for COVID-19 by Professor Prasad KDV Yarlagadda in anti-viral and anti-bacterial surfaces. Second article overviews the research journey of Prof. Yarlagadda for advancements of engineering industry. The third article is focused on phononic metamaterials and examine the properties in elastic periodic structures. The fourth article is focused on semipermeable shell materials and discussed the thermochemical heat storage concepts extensively.  The fifth article illustrates the biomedical and bio-imaging applications of nanoparticles. While sixth article describes the materials photocatalytic activities in terms of eco-friendly environmental application. The seventh article discusses the properties of rice husk ash as thermal insulation materials. The eighth article is presented the photocatalytic and electrochemical activities and applications of materials. The ninth article is highlighted the comprehensive investigation on the variation of dielectric parameters of ferrites. Moreover, the last and tenth article is focused on the gas sensor application of materials, where air pollution can be detected in the environment.

All the articles has published in the present issue making AML, one of the most prestigious advanced materials journals engaged in promoting research, technology, and innovation via its not-for-profit, Diamond Open Access (DOA) platform under flagship of ‘Advancement of materials to sustainable and green world’.

About Cover

In this pandemic year, International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) has endeavored to recognize the best efforts of researchers for their overall efforts to combat COVID-19 in order to select the recipient of the prestigious title of ‘Researcher of the Year’. The title of ‘Researcher of the Year’ is the annual award conferred upon researchers by IAAM. This year, IAAM is proud to recognize Professor Prasad KDV Yarlagadda with the prestigious Researcher of the Year 2020 due to his outstanding contribution in the advancement of anti-viral and anti-bacterial surfaces including COVID-19. The cover photo of this year-end December 2020 issue is dedicated to the pioneering efforts of Prof. Yarlagadda towards the “Advancement of Materials to Global Excellence”.

Article 1. Researcher Of The Year 2020-To Recognize The Significant Efforts For COVID-19

The first article of the issue recognizes the efforts of Prof. Prasad Yarlagadda, Queensland University Of Technology, Australia for COVID-19 research. In this article, author Dr. Ashutosh Tiwari, Secretary General, International Association of Advanced Materials, IAAM, Sweden try to cover the efforts to combat COVID-19 through use of materials science and technology. In this pandemic year, International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) select the recipient of the prestigious title of ‘Researcher of the Year’. As an international organization actively working in the scientific community, International Association of Advanced Materials is quite concerned and prioritized all its operations to make valuable contributions in promoting advanced materials community engaged in COVID-19 research in this time of need. IAAM believes that the adaptation of advanced technologies and their logical integration according to contemporary healthcare measures could be a smart strategy for COVID-19 management.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121579. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 2. Professor Prasad Yarlagadda’s Research Well Adopted As Per Needs Of Engineering Industry

The second article of the issue has overviewed by Yuan Tong Gu from Queensland University Of Technology from Australia about the research and organizational journey of Prof. Prasad Yarlagadda. Here author emphasize the need of engineering industry development and reviewed the academic development and research contribution by Prof. Yarlagadda. Here, Prof. Gu described the contribution of prof. Yarlagadda in the field of high energy and well-advanced rapid product development techniques for benefit of large number of SME’s. His contribution in the additive manufacturing applications for aerospace and automotive and biomedical industry was also discussed.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121580. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 3. The Perspective Of A Homogenization Approach For Effective Local And Non-Local Response Of The Elastic Wave Properties Of Phononic Metamaterials

The third article of this issue is written by J. Flores-Méndez et al. from Tecnológico Nacional De México and Benemérita Universidad Autónoma De Puebla, México. In this review, authors try to summarizes progress about a recent homogenization theory based on the Fourier formalism for solid phononic crystals, which is valid for arbitrary Bravais lattice and any form of inclusions in the unit cell. It is also shown that the derived expressions can be applied to phononic crystals with liquid components (two-dimensional sonic crystals) and agree with predictions of the multiple scattering theory. The development and applications of this homogenization theory, unlike other formalisms, arises from the inspiration of intense research efforts to simultaneously describe local and non-local effective properties in elastic periodic structures.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121581. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 4. Reactor Cycling Of Granulated Ca(OH)2 Encapsulated With Chemically Modified Semipermeable Shell Materials

The fourth article of the issue enlighten the use of energy generation and utilization towards sustainability and efficiency. Here, thermochemical heat storage concepts offer a promising contribution as for example by integration in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) applications. This work, was authored by Klaus Afflerbach et al, from University Of Siegen, Germany. In this article, authors emphasize that the reaction system Ca(OH)2/CaO is seen as a superior candidate but its poor powder properties yet hinder a technical implementation. Here, an encapsulated sample with an enhanced shell material composition containing 5%(w/w) of diatomaceous earth and 1%(w/w) of flux agent is found to be of superior stability over ten thermochemical cycles.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121582. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 5. Nanotoxicological Assessments To Warranty The Use Of Functionalized Y2O3 Nanoparticles For Biomedical Applications

The fifth article have biomedical application, where authors synthesized, characterized and functionalized lanthanide downconversion nanoparticles (DCNPs) with the host lattice of Y2O3. This study, was authored by D. Chávez-García et al, from Centro De Enseñanza Técnica Y Superior (CETYS) and Centro De Nanociencias Y Nanotecnología CNyN-UNAM, from México.

Here authors, carried out a complete nanotoxicological evaluation of NPs in HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cells and fibroblast (L929) cell line. Their results corroborate the bio- and hemo-compatibility of NPs. Here author emphasize that in the case of DCNPs-FA (for folic acid), results support the usage of these nanotools for diagnosis applications, focusing on detecting of circulating cancer cells by flow cytometry. This study provides more evidences to warranty the biosafety of down conversion nanoparticles based on Y2O3: Eu3+ and functionalized with folic acid for further biomedical and bio-imaging applications.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121583. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 6. Comparison Of Photocatalytic Efficiency Of TiO2 And In2S3 Thin Films Under UV And Visible Light Irradiance

The sixth article confirms that photocatalysts in thin film forms are ideal for practical applications as they are efficient and also can be retrieved easily from the solution. These features favour their extensive use in eco-friendly environmental applications such as degradation of environmental pollutants, waste water treatment in textile industries and water purification. Here author use simple, cost effective deposition techniques of doctor blading and chemical bath deposition to synthesize uniformly dispersed nanoparticle thin films of Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and mesh fractal thin films Indium sulphide (In2S3) respectively. Further, authors report these thin films are photocatalytically active in different spectral regions and a comparative study is detailed in this work. Here, results obtained shows that the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2 film was conspicuous in the UV region where as In2S3 films showed significant activity in the visible region.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121584. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 7. Application Of Rice Husk Ash As Thermal Insulation Materials

The seventh article of the issue presents the details about the effect of sintering temperatures on the phase transformation, microstructure and thermal diffusivity of rice husk ash (RHA) as a thermal insulating material. This study, was authored by Chee Wah Loy et al, from The University Of Sydney, Australia and Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. In this study, SiO2-based ceramics with low thermal diffusivities were fabricated sintering of Malaysian rice husk at single temperature between 700 and 1400 °C. Here, RHA particle morphologies were observed using a field-emission scanning electron microscopy. Low-frequency vibrational modes of silica such as lattice vibration were investigated using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy technique.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121585. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 8. Synthesis And Characterization Of Green CuO Using Centella Asiatica Plant Leaf Extract: Electrochemical And Photocatalytic Activities

The eight article of the issue described the synthesis and characterization of the green CuO NPs by green solution combustion method. The observed results suggest superior electrochemical properties of gsc-CONPs electrode due to its lower value of EO-ER. It also exhibited better sensor characteristics for paracetamol and glucose molecules. The results support the claim of the synthesized gsc-CONPs as a promising material for photocatalytic and supercapacitor applications. Here, the synthesized CuO NPs also has the ability of photocatalytic dye degradation as observed by the studies conducted on IC dye. This potential can be further exploited for the degradation of several other dyes and organic pollutants present in waste water.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121586. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 9. Dielectric Relaxation And Suitability Of Scaling Parameters Study On Mn0.7+XZn0.3SixFe2-2xO4 (X = 0.0 - 0.3) Ferrites

The ninth article represent a comprehensive investigation on the variation of dielectric parameters, where polarization and dielectric relaxation are discussed in detail. In this study, the compositional dependence of the real (ε') and imaginary (ε'') parts of complex dielectric permittivity (ε*) and loss tangent (tan d) for Mn0.7+xZn0.3SixFe2-2xO4 (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3) spinel ferrite series was investigated over wide frequency (f = 20 Hz to 1 MHz) and temperature (T = 300 K to 673 K) ranges. Here, the scaling by normalized frequency (f/fc) and scaled frequency (f/σdc) are found successful for ε' in high-frequency regime only while scaling found successful for ε'' over the whole range of frequency.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121587. [Download Full Text in PDF]

Article 10. Synthesis And Screen Printing Of Dopant Free Nano-Crystalline SnO2 (101) Thick Film For Gas Sensor Application

The tenth article of the issue described the gas sensor, which is useful to detect air pollution in the environment. This study reports synthesis of Nano-crystalline tin (II) oxide (SnO2) by a simple and cost-effective surfactant assisted solution precipitation technique. Furthermore, the synthesized nano-crystalline SnO2 with 15 wt % glass frit was used as a functional material to fabricate thick film sensors using cost-effective screen printing method.  The sensor shows high sensitivity towards H2, CO, and LPG selectively at optimal operating temperatures of 120, 150 and 70 oC respectively for 100 ppm concentration of each gas. Here, improvement in sensitivity, selectivity, and stability at low operating temperature also envisaged.

Citation of the article: Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11(12), 20121588. [Download Full Text in PDF]

All above articles discussed the importance of sustainable and healthy environment through extensive research of photocatalytic, electrochemical and thermal properties of materials. Above issue have been made available in 'open access' format and readers can access online at AML. International Association of Advanced Materials, IAAM invited research professional in materials science and technology to share their research in the form of reviews, trends, or perspectives in the Advanced Materials Letters. The peer-review process of submitted articles in the Advanced Materials Letters is done by manuscript central, ScholarOne – Web of Science Group – Clarivate Analytics, USA through not-for-profit Diamond Open Access Policy.