Browsing by Author "Roy, Soumyabrata"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Functional wood for carbon dioxide capture
    (Cell Press, 2023) Roy, Soumyabrata; Philip, Firuz Alam; Oliveira, Eliezer Fernando; Singh, Gurwinder; Joseph, Stalin; Yadav, Ram Manohar; Adumbumkulath, Aparna; Hassan, Sakib; Khater, Ali; Wu, Xiaowei; Bollini, Praveen; Vinu, Ajayan; Shimizu, George; Ajayan, Pulickel M.; Kibria, Md Golam; Rahman, Muhammad M.
    With increasing global climate change, integrated concepts to innovate sustainable structures that can multiaxially address CO2 mitigation are crucial. Here, we fabricate a functional wood structure with enhanced mechanical performance via a top-down approach incorporating a high-performance metal-organic framework (MOF), Calgary framework 20 (CALF-20). The functional wood with 10% (w/w) CALF-20 can capture CO2 with an overall gravimetric capacity of 0.45 mmol/g at 1 bar and 303 K that scales linearly with the MOF loading. Interestingly, the functional wood surpasses the calculated normalized adsorption capacity of CALF-20 stemming from the mesoporous wood framework, pore geometry modulation in CALF-20, and favorable CO2 uptake interactions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations elucidate strong interactions between CALF-20 and the cellulose backbone and an understanding of how such interactions can favorably modulate the pore geometry and CO2 physisorption energies. Thus, our work opens an avenue for developing sustainable composites that can be utilized in CO2 capture and structural applications.
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    Hierarchically porous and single Zn atom-embedded carbon molecular sieves for H2 separations
    (Springer Nature, 2024) Hu, Leiqing; Lee, Won-Il; Roy, Soumyabrata; Subramanian, Ashwanth; Kisslinger, Kim; Zhu, Lingxiang; Fan, Shouhong; Hwang, Sooyeon; Bui, Vinh T.; Tran, Thien; Zhang, Gengyi; Ding, Yifu; Ajayan, Pulickel M.; Nam, Chang-Yong; Lin, Haiqing
    Hierarchically porous materials containing sub-nm ultramicropores with molecular sieving abilities and microcavities with high gas diffusivity may realize energy-efficient membranes for gas separations. However, rationally designing and constructing such pores into large-area membranes enabling efficient H2 separations remains challenging. Here, we report the synthesis and utilization of hybrid carbon molecular sieve membranes with well-controlled nano- and micro-pores and single zinc atoms and clusters well-dispersed inside the nanopores via the carbonization of supramolecular mixed matrix materials containing amorphous and crystalline zeolitic imidazolate frameworks. Carbonization temperature is used to fine-tune pore sizes, achieving ultrahigh selectivity for H2/CO2 (130), H2/CH4 (2900), H2/N2 (880), and H2/C2H6 (7900) with stability against water vapor and physical aging during a continuous 120-h test.
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    Isolated Iridium Sites on Potassium-Doped Carbon-nitride wrapped Tellurium Nanostructures for Enhanced Glycerol Photooxidation
    (Wiley, 2024) Kumar, Pawan; Askar, Abdelrahman; Wang, Jiu; Roy, Soumyabrata; Kancharlapalli, Srinivasu; Wang, Xiyang; Joshi, Varad; Hu, Hangtian; Kannimuthu, Karthick; Trivedi, Dhwanil; Bollini, Praveen; Wu, Yimin A.; Ajayan, Pulickel M.; Adachi, Michael M.; Hu, Jinguang; Kibria, Md Golam
    Many industrial processes such transesterification of fatty acid for biodiesel production, soap manufacturing and biosynthesis of ethanol generate glycerol as a major by-product that can be used to produce commodity chemicals. Photocatalytic transformation of glycerol is an enticing approach that can exclude the need of harsh oxidants and extraneous thermal energy. However, the product yield and selectivity remain poor due to low absorption and unsymmetrical site distribution on the catalyst surface. Herein, tellurium (Te) nanorods/nanosheets (TeNRs/NSs) wrapped potassium-doped carbon nitride (KCN) van der Waal (vdW) heterojunction (TeKCN) is designed to enhance charge separation and visible-NIR absorption. The iridium (Ir) single atom sites decoration on the TeKCN core-shell structure (TeKCNIr) promotes selective oxidation of glycerol to glyceraldehyde with a conversion of 45.6% and selectivity of 61.6% under AM1.5G irradiation. The catalytic selectivity can reach up to 88% under 450 nm monochromatic light. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) demonstrates the presence of undercoordinated IrN2O2 sites which improved catalytic selectivity for glycol oxidation. Band energies and computational calculations reveal faile charge transfer in the TeKCNIr heterostructure. EPR and scavenger tests discern that superoxide (O2•−) and hydroxyl (•OH) radicals are prime components driving glycerol oxidation.
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    Spontaneous hydrogen production using gadolinium telluride
    (Cell Press, 2023) Kumbhakar, Partha; Parui, Arko; Dhakar, Shikha; Paliwal, Manas; Behera, Rakesh; Gautam, Abhay Raj Singh; Roy, Soumyabrata; Ajayan, Pulickel M.; Sharma, Sudhanshu; Singh, Abhishek K.; Tiwary, Chandra S.
    Developing materials for controlled hydrogen production through water splitting is one of the most promising ways to meet current energy demand. Here, we demonstrate spontaneous and green production of hydrogen at high evolution rate using gadolinium telluride (GdTe) under ambient conditions. The spent materials can be reused after melting, which regain the original activity of the pristine sample. The phase formation and reusability are supported by the thermodynamics calculations. The theoretical calculation reveals ultralow activation energy for hydrogen production using GdTe caused by charge transfer from Te to Gd. Production of highly pure and instantaneous hydrogen by GdTe could accelerate green and sustainable energy conversion technologies.
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    Sustainable valorization of asphaltenes via flash joule heating
    (AAAS, 2022) Saadi, M.A.S.R.; Advincula, Paul A.; Thakur, Md Shajedul Hoque; Khater, Ali Zein; Saad, Shabab; Shayesteh Zeraati, Ali; Nabil, Shariful Kibria; Zinke, Aasha; Roy, Soumyabrata; Lou, Minghe; Bheemasetti, Sravani N.; Bari, Md Abdullah Al; Zheng, Yiwen; Beckham, Jacob L.; Gadhamshetty, Venkataramana; Vashisth, Aniruddh; Kibria, Md Golam; Tour, James M.; Ajayan, Pulickel M.; Rahman, Muhammad M.
    The refining process of petroleum crude oil generates asphaltenes, which poses complicated problems during the production of cleaner fuels. Following refining, asphaltenes are typically combusted for reuse as fuel or discarded into tailing ponds and landfills, leading to economic and environmental disruption. Here, we show that low-value asphaltenes can be converted into a high-value carbon allotrope, asphaltene-derived flash graphene (AFG), via the flash joule heating (FJH) process. After successful conversion, we develop nanocomposites by dispersing AFG into a polymer effectively, which have superior mechanical, thermal, and corrosion-resistant properties compared to the bare polymer. In addition, the life cycle and technoeconomic analysis show that the FJH process leads to reduced environmental impact compared to the traditional processing of asphaltene and lower production cost compared to other FJH precursors. Thus, our work suggests an alternative pathway to the existing asphaltene processing that directs toward a higher value stream while sequestering downstream emissions from the processing.
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    The rise of borophene
    (Elsevier, 2024) Kumar, Prashant; Singh, Gurwinder; Bahadur, Rohan; Li, Zhixuan; Zhang, Xiangwei; Sathish, C. I.; Benzigar, Mercy R.; Kim Anh Tran, Thi; Padmanabhan, Nisha T.; Radhakrishnan, Sithara; Janardhanan, Jith C; Ann Biji, Christy; Jini Mathews, Ann; John, Honey; Tavakkoli, Ehsan; Murugavel, Ramaswamy; Roy, Soumyabrata; Ajayan, Pulickel M.; Vinu, Ajayan
    Borophene stands out uniquely among Xenes with its metallic character, Dirac nature, exceptional electron mobility, thermal conductivity, and Young’s moduli—surpassing graphene. Invented in 2015, various methods, including atomic layer deposition, molecular beam epitaxy, and chemical vapor deposition, have successfully been demonstrated to realize substrate-supported crystal growth. Top-down approaches like micromechanical, sonochemical, solvothermal and modified hummer’s techniques have also been employed. Thanks to its high electronic mobility, borophene serves as an active material for ultrafast sensing of light, gases, molecules, and strain. Its metallic behaviour, electrochemical activity, and anti-corrosive nature make it ideal for applications in energy storage and catalysis. It has been proven effective as an electrocatalyst for HER, OER, water splitting, CO2 reduction, and NH3 reduction reactions. Beyond this, borophene has found utility in bioimaging, biosensing, and various biomedical applications. A special emphasis will be given on the borophene nanoarchitectonics i.e. doped borophene and borophene-based hybrids with other 2D materials and nanoparticles and the theoretical understanding of these emerging materials systems to gain more insights on their electronic structure and properties, aiming to manipulate borophene for tailored applications.