Dr. Bruce A. Shapiro is a Senior Investigator and head of the RNA Structure and Design Section within the Center for Cancer Research, RNA Biology Laboratory, National Cancer Institute, NIH.   Dr. Shapiro directs research on computational and experimental RNA structure prediction and analysis and has pioneered research in the emerging field of RNA nanobiology. His work has led to several novel RNA folding and analysis algorithms, experimental techniques and discoveries in RNA biology. His interests include RNA nanobiology, nucleic acid structure prediction and analysis, the relationships between RNA structure and function, thus fostering a synergy between computational and experimental techniques. His laboratory also designs and characterizes delivery agents for the nanoparticles. He has demonstrated that computationally designed novel RNA-based nanostructures are able to self-assemble and be delivered to cell culture and mouse models to control gene expression and show potential for use in RNA-based therapeutics. He has numerous publications as well as pending and issued patents.

Due to their unique scaffolding and design properties, nucleic acid constructs can be programmed to incorporate several functional moieties for therapeutic, diagnostic, and/or  imaging purposes in one nanoparticle architecture. In particular, complementary hybrid DNA/RNA constructs can be designed to release embedded functional RNAs upon reassociation through single-stranded RNA or DNA toeholds.  These hybrids present  advantages over double stranded RNA by achieving control over functional activation, reduced cytotoxicity and lower immunogenicity. Here, we present studies using the RNA/DNA hybrids with RNA toeholds functionalized for therapeutic purposes. We validated the hybrids in vitro, in cell culture, and in vivo using the human colorectal adenocarcinoma  (HT29) cancer model. To study the therapeutic potential of the hybrids, we incorporated in them Dicer substrate RNAs (DsiRNAs) targeting overexpressed genes in the apoptotic pathways. The release of DsiRNAs knocked down gene expression, arrested the cell cycle, and induced apoptosis. We used xenograft mouse models to assess the hybrid toxicity and efficacy. Preliminary animal studies revealed that hybrids delivered using a commercially available polyethylenimine (PEI) were not toxic at the studied doses and significantly slowed  tumor growth compared to untreated mice.

            As a follow-up study we developed a custom designed PEI to control the release of the RNA with an external light source. These PEIs are chemically  modified to contain a photosensitive group (pyro) and vary in their overall positive charges. We show that a sulfonated form of the PEI regulates significant control of the release of Dicer substrate RNA from the endosome upon photo-triggering. In contrast, a non-sulfonated from of the PEI was leaky without laser treatment. Thus, these results point the way towards controlled release of functional RNAs, where control can be acquired both at the functional level of the RNA being delivered, as well as over activation of the delivery vehicle.

Gerhard Klimeck is the Reilly Director of the Center for Predictive Materials and Devices (c-PRIMED) and the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He was previously with NASA/JPL and Texas Instruments leading the Nanoelectronic Modeling Tool development (NEMO). His work is documented in over 525 peer-reviewed journal and proceedings articles resulting in over 19,000 citations and a citation h-index of 68 on Google Scholar. He is a fellow of the IEEE, American Physical Society (APS), Institute of Physics (IOP), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (Germany). Together with physicist Michelle Simmons of the University of New South Wales, he "devised a way to make a single-atom transistor", which ranked #29 top invention of 2013 by Discover Magazine. In 2020 the nanoHUB team was awarded a R&D 100 award for “nanoHUB: Democratizing Learning and Research”.

Gordon Moore’s 1965 prediction of continued semiconductor device down-scaling and circuit up-scaling has become a self-fulfilling prophesy in the past 50 years.  Open source code development and sharing of the process modeling software SUPREM and the circuit modeling software SPICE were two critical technologies that enabled the down-scaling of semiconductor devices and up-scaling of circuit complexity. SPICE was originally a teaching tool that transitioned into a research tool, was disseminated by an inspired engineering professor via tapes, and improved by users who provided constructive feedback to a multidisciplinary group of electrical engineers, physicist, and numerical analysts.  Ultimately SPICE and SUPREM transitioned into all electronic design software packages that power today’s 300 billion dollar semiconductor industry.

Can we duplicate such multi-disciplinary software development starting from teaching and research in a small research group leading to true economic impact?  What are technologies that might advance such a process?  How can we deliver such software to a broad audience?  How can we teach the next generation engineers and scientists on the latest research software?  What are critical user requirements?  What are critical developer requirements? What are the incentives for faculty members to share their competitive advantages?  Can real research be conducted in such a web portal?  How do we know early on if such an infrastructure is successful? Can one really transfer knowledge from computational science to other areas or research and into education? This presentation will bust some of the myths and perceptions of what is possible and impossible.

By serving a community of over 1.8 million users in the past 12 months with an ever-growing collection of over 6,000 resources, including over 600 simulation tools, nanoHUB.org has established itself as “the world’s largest nanotechnology user facility” [1].  All nanoHUB tools and compact models are now listed in the Web of Science and Google Scholar as proper publications.  nanoHUB.org is driving significant knowledge transfer among researchers and speeding transfer from research to education, quantified with usage statistics, usage patterns, collaboration patterns, and citation data from the scientific literature. Over 89,000 students used nanoHUB simulation tools in over 3,800 classes at 185 institution.  The adoption of research tools into classrooms is typically less than 6 months after publication on nanoHUB [2].  Over 2,500 nanoHUB citations in the literature resulting in over 54,000 secondary citations with h-index of 105 prove that high quality research by users outside of the pool of original tool developers can be enabled by nanoHUB processes.  In addition to high-quality content, critical attributes of nanoHUB success are its open access, ease of use, utterly dependable operation, low-cost and rapid content adaptation and deployment, and open usage and assessment data.  The open-source HUBzero software platform, built for nanoHUB and now powering many other hubs, is architected to deliver a user experience corresponding to these criteria. 

[1] Quote by Mikhail Roco, Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology, National Science Foundation.

[2] Krishna Madhavan, Michael Zentner, Gerhard Klimeck, "Learning and research in the cloud", Nature Nanotechnology 8, 786–789 (2013)

Dr. Mathews L. Paret is an Associate Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Florida. For the past many years, he has been conducting research on nanomaterials to manage strains of Xanthomonas, Pseudomonas and Ralstonia infecting tomatoes and cucurbits. Spectral sensing and artificial intelligence are newer areas of his work.; development of diagnostic assays, understanding genetic diversity of strains/isolates, and sustainable management approaches for bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens affecting vegetables and ornamentals in the U.S and internationally are established areas of work. He is a recipient of Hewitt Award and Jane Award of the American Phytopathological Society, Global Fellow of the University of Florida, and Specialist of the Year of the Florida Association of County Agricultural Agents

Management of bacterial spot disease of tomato has been affected for many decades due to the development of copper tolerant strains of Xanthomonas spp. This presentation will give an overview of how uniquely designed metallic (Cu, Mg, Cu-Zn) antimicrobials utilizing nanotechnology has the potential to improve effectiveness of currently used copper based bactericides.

Dr S Neeleshwar, is currently working as a Faculty in Physics at University School of Basic & Applied Science (USBAS), Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi, INDIA.   He had completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Physics from Osmania University in 2001.  After that he joined as Post-Doctoral Fellow at Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. During his post-doctoral fellow period, he received one of the prestigious award cum fellowship Academia Sinica Fellow.  His current research specializations are mainly nano materials, thermoelectric materials, high temperature superconductors and magnetic materials. He has published around 48 International Journals such as Nature Advance Material, Physical Review B (Rapid Communication), Chemistry of Materials, Applied Physics Letter etc. He has completed two national major research projects from BRNS and IUAC couple of international collaborative research projects also.

Earth-abundant quaternary chalcogenide, CZTS with complex structure is an economic and non-toxic thermoelectric material and is an alternate material to replace the toxic or rare-earth thermoelectric materials. CZTS exhibits p-type conduction, low thermal conductivity due to complex crystal structure and high Seebeck coefficient value. In the present work, Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) microspheres were synthesized by microwave method and the influence of hot pressing temperatures (300°C, 350°C and 400°C) on the thermoelectric performance of CZTS microspheres was explored. Optimization of consolidation conditions change microstructures such as size/shape of grains, density, grain barrier area etc. and all these factors are affecting the thermoelectric performance of CZTS microspheres. Structural analysis confirmed the presence of only kesterite CZTS phase up to hot pressing temperature 350°C and sample hot pressed at 400°C exhibited a secondary phase Cu_2-xS along with CZTS. With the increase in sintering temperature, Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity of all samples decreased and the thermal conductivity increased due to increased grain size and carrier concentration. For optimized hot pressing conditions, sample hot pressed at 350°C showed enhanced thermoelectric performance compared to other two samples which were hot pressed at 300°C and 400°C. Highest power factor ~ 55 μW/mK² and zT value ~ 0.069 at 623 K were obtained for the sample hot pressed at 350°C. Theoretically, ZT_Device ~0.03 and maximum efficiency ƞ_max ~0.5% at 623 K were determined for this sample. It was noticed that thermoelectric performance of CZTS can be tuned with the sintering temperature

Li-sha Zhang is a postdoctoral fellow at Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She has a BEng in textile engineering, a MEng in textile materials and a Ph.D. in textile engineering. She’s research interest is wearable electronic systems, including flexible thermoelectric generators, and contact resistance at the interface between thermoelectric and electrode materials.

Xiao-ming Tao is a Chair Professor and the founding director of the Research Centre for Smart Wearable Technology, Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She has a BEng in textile engineering and Ph.D. in textile physics. Prof. Tao is known internationally for her pioneering work on smart textiles and fiber-based electronics and photonics. She is a recipient of the Honorary Fellowship of the Textile Institute and the Founder’s Award from the Fiber Society of USA, the highest individual award in the field of textiles and fiber sciences. She is a recipient of ‘The 12th Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award’, the highest award in the engineering field in China. 

Emerging flexible thermoelectric generators (FTEGs) have shown great potentials to power wearable electronics by harvesting thermal energy from human body and environment. However, the application of FTEGs is hindered by their unfavorable output power. Thermal and electrical contact resistance (TCR and ECR) are significant factors weakening the performance of FTEGs. Herein, we present the research to illustrate how TCR and ECR seriously affect the performance of FTEGs. Two models of FTEGs have been constructed and analyzed with numerical method. One is a fiber-based TEG in core/shell structure where a fiber is the core layer and n-type thermoelectric (TE) material is the shell layer. In this model, we focus on the influence of geometric parameters, such as the radius of fiber and the thickness of TE materials, on the output power of FTEG. The increase of the thickness TE materials in orders of magnitude can lead to the increment of output power in orders of magnitude. For models with same geometric structure, the increase of TCR or ECR reduces the output power in the same order of magnitude. Another model is a FTEG composed of TE legs with p-/n-type TE composites in sandwiches structure. The results show that the deleterious effect on performance cause by ECR is worse than by TCR. The reduction of output power can reach to 42.5% caused by ECR only. While, it can be 27.7% resulted from TCR only. However, compared with the absence of TCR and ECR, the most serious reduction of output power can be 57.7%, if the TCR and ECR simultaneously reach to each highest value. Thus, except for improve the performance of TE materials, to reduce contact resistance, especially ECR, can significantly improve the performance of FTEGs.

Miss Man Zhang is a research assistant in Queen Mary University of London. Her research work focuses on ferroelectrics, dielectrics and photocatalysts. She has been studying the dielectric behaviour of ferroelectric material at broad band frequencies and the influence of ferroelectricity on photocatalytic behaviour. She has 7 publications in Adv Energy Materials, ACS photonics, Materials and design, Acta Materialia, et al.  

Due to the worldwide concerns of environmental protection and sustainable development, leadfree piezoelectric materials are greatly desired for bridging the electrical energy to the mechanical energy. However, their lower energy conversion coefficient compared to the conventional lead containing piezoelectric materials significantly limits their device applications. Herein, we introduce a novel strategy to increase the strain of lead-free ferroelectric system via material structure design to create polar nano regions (PNRs) and point defects in the material while retaining the global ferroelectric phase. This added short-range structural heterogeneity in the material will facilitate the field-induced phase transition and reversible domain wall switching to enhance the strain. Following this strategy, we demonstrate an ultrahigh strain induced by an electric field in non-textured lead-free Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT)-based ceramics. The strain in unipolar mode can reach up to 0.74% at 70 kV/cm, making it the highest value in reported lead-free ceramics so far. This puts forward a good route to design high-performance piezoelectric materials by material structure engineering. It also reveals the promising potential of lead-free piezoelectric materials in practical electromechanical device applications.

DOI: 10.1002/aenm.202001802

Miss. Kaisi Liu is from China. She obtained a master's degree from Jilin University and she is currently studying in Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Her current interests foused on two-dimension porous materials. Now she has preliminarily studied some synthetic methods of 2D materials, including salt-templated method and molten salt method. She published one papers in ACS Catalysis.

Two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (2D MoS2) is considered promising candidates for many applications due to its unique structure and properties. However, the controllable synthesis of large-scale and high-quality single-crystal 2D MoS2 is still a challenge. Herein, we present the controllable synthesis of 2D MoS2 from 2H to 1T@2H phase, which is enabled by the mild release of H2S from K2SO4. The as-synthesized 1T@2H-2D MoS2 exhibits a high specific capacitance of 434 F/g at a scan rate of 1 mV/s in LiClO4 ethylene carbonate/dimethyl carbonate (EC/DMC). Moreover, various singlecrystal 2D TMSs (WS2, PbS, MnS and Ni9S8) and 2D S-doped carbon can be synthesized benefiting from the mild release of H2S. We believe that the mild release of H2S from K2SO4 may provide a new sight for controllable synthesis of other 2D materials beyond 2D MoS2.

References

[1] B. Radisavljevic, A. Radenovic, J. Brivio, V. Giacometti, A. Kis, Nat. Nanotech., 2011, 6, 147;

[2] Y. Cai, J. Lan, G. Zhang, Y.-W. Zhang, Physical Review B, 2014, 89;

[3] S. Bertolazzi, J. Brivio, A. Kis, ACS Nano 2011, 5, 9703-9709;

[4] F. K. Perkins, A. L. Friedman, E. Cobas, P. M. Campbell, G. G. Jernigan, B. T. Jonker, Nano Lett., 2013, 13, 668-6730;

[5] M. Acerce, D. Voiry, M. Chhowalla, Nat. Nanotechnol., 2015, 10, 313-318;

[6] H. Zhang, ACS Nano, 2015, 9, 9451-9469

Dr. Indrajit Shown obtained his M. Sc and Ph.D. (Applied Chemistry) from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (India). He previously worked for Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences (Academia Sinica) and Centre for Condensed Matter Sciences (National Taiwan University), Taiwan as post-doctoral research fellow. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (India). His research interests involve the development of various nanomaterials for advanced green energy applications such as photocatalysis (CO2 reduction to hydrocarbons), electrocatalysis (ORR and HER), bio-fuels and energy storage. He has published various papers in high impact peer reviewed journals.

Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements on the earth's surface, and renewable clean energy candidate for replacing fossil fuels in the future. In last several years, electrochemical water splitting to generate hydrogen via the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) offers a promising solution for sustainable hydrogen production. Even though precious metals such as Pt and Pt-based heterogeneous catalysts systems showed promising electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen production, but their cost and low abundant significantly, restrict the large-scale commercial production of hydrogen. Hence, discovering highly efficient, stable, and most importantly inexpensive non-precious metals to replace the noble catalysts is an essential task in the development of the hydrogen energy applications. We developed graphene supported atomically dispersed heteroatom based Co-N4 nanostructure electrocatalysts for HER under pH = 0-14 conditions. The heteroatom based atomically dispersed electrocatalyst shows promissing HER activity with a small overpotential of 67.7 mV and 74.5 mV (at 10 mA cm-2 ) in acidic and alkaline environments respectively. The heteroatom based nanostructure electrocatalysts performances are not restricted in all pH but also promising in real seawater and hold as a potential noble-metal-free high-performance catalyst. The details electrocatalyst synthesis, HER performance, mechanistic study, stability and recent work will be discussed in the presentation.

References:

    1. Nano Energy, 80, 105544, 2021

    2. J. Mater. Chem. A, 7, 7179, 2019

    3. J. Mater. Chem. A, 5, 9279, 2017

    4. Adv. Energy Mater., 7, 1602210, 2017

Dr.Soney C George has received his  PhD from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam Kerela in 1999. He  is  currently working as the Dean of Research and Director of the Amal Jyothi Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Kerala, India. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, and a recipient of “best researcher of the year” award in 2018 from APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram, India. He has also received awards such as best faculty award from the Indian Society for Technical Education, best citation award from the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, a fast-track award of young scientists by Department of Science & Technology, India, and an Indian young scientist award instituted by the Indian Science Congress Association. He did his postdoctoral studies at the University of Blaise Pascal, France, and Inha University, South Korea. He has published and presented almost 200 publications in journals and at conferences. His major research fields are polymer nanocomposites, polymer membranes, polymer tribology, pervaporation, and supercapcitors. He has guided eight PhD scholars and 97 student projects.

The tribological behaviour of silicone rubber /graphene nanocomposites was investigated using pin on disk tribometer as a function of applied load, sliding velocity, and temperature. Nanocomposites were prepared by two roll mill mixing method. Graphene oxide was prepared by modified Hummers Method. The tribological studies were measured using a pin-on-disc tribometer as per ASTM G99-05 standards. The microstructure of graphene composites contains a single-layer graphene film, which functionalizes the polymer composite surface. There was 20–40% reduction in friction coefficient (COF) and more than 20% reduction in specific wear rate of composites as compared to that of neat silicone rubber. The worn surface and the generated wear debris were investigated by scanning electron microscopic analysis. The friction coefficient and specific wear rate were reduced sizably due to the formation of the lubricating film to the counterpart surface and it act as a self-lubricating material and hence it will be promising candidate for bearings and gears.

Dr. Acauan obtained his double BSc (Materials Science) from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS-Brazil) and the Institut National Polytechique de Grenoble (INPG-France) and his PhD (Materials Science) also from the UFRGS. He previously worked as a visiting scientist at the University of Queensland (UQ-Australia) and as a Postdoctoral Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-USA). He currently works as a Research Scientist at MIT. His graduate research was based on the synthesis and functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes. His area of interest is the synthesis of nanostructure and multifunctional composites

The synthesis of low-dimensional carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) is a key driver for achieving advances in energy storage, computing, and multifunctional materials and composites, among other applications. Here, we report high yield thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) synthesis of carbon nanofibers and nanotubes using relatively unexplored catalysts including sodium, copper, and metal oxides (e.g., zirconia). While sodium catalysts resulted in tubular nanofibers at 480°C, with the significant advantage of being easily removed by heat treatment, copper catalysts resulted in amorphous or turbostratic nanofibers, with a large growth temperature window from 250 to 700°C. Moreover, we show that these CNMs can be grown directly from the surface of bulk copper materials, also generating a new aerogel-like 3D porous turbostratic nanostructure. Our process is shown to yield conformal CNM growth on various complex-shaped copper substrates, such as meshes and wires, as well as copper coated materials including more temperature-sensitive materials such as basalt fibers and polymer films.

Dr. Vishnu Priya Murali obtained her BS (Biomedical Engineering) from Sathyabama University, India, and her PhD (Biomedical Engineering) from the University of Memphis, Tennessee. She is currently working as a researcher at Florida State University, Florida, USA. Her research is focused on developing biodegradable polymeric scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration and drug delivery applications. She has worked on projects funded by the NIH and DOD and on several collaborative projects with Germany and Korea. She is a member of several American and Indian biomaterials societies like the Society for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering Society and has published various book chapters and papers in peer reviewed journals.

Guided bone regeneration (GBR) membranes are commonly used to maximize bone healing/regeneration by protecting bone grafted sites from invasion by soft tissues. Electrospun chitosan membranes modified by short chain fatty acids (Acetic anhydride (AA), butyric anhydride (BA) and hexanoic anhydride (HA)) or with tBOC (tert-Butyloxycarbonyl group) have many characteristics including retention of nanofiber structure, occlusive to soft tissues and osteoconductive properties in vivo that are important for GBR applications. The high surface area of the nanofiber structure of the membranes provides opportunity for the local delivery of osteogenic or angiogenic agents for enhancing their healing and bone regeneration properties. The objective of this research was to fabricate modified electrospun chitosan membranes capable of controlling the release of an osteogenic and angiogenic agent and evaluate their bioactivity for GBR applications in a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments. Electrospun chitosan membranes with different modifications were fabricated that enabled the controlled release of loaded/incorporated agents. SMV was released faster by AA and tBOC modified membranes than BA and HA modified membranes. Osteogenic drug loaded membranes prevented soft tissue infiltration into the defect site and promoted better bone healing than non-loaded membranes in a rat calvarial defect model. A slow release of high dose showed better bone healing than fast release of high or low dose. Membranes incorporated with the angiogenic agent were capable of stimulating angiogenesis in vitro. The AA modified membranes released more agent and thereby showed better angiogenesis than HA modified membranes. Osteogenic and angiogenic potential of our drug loaded chitosan membranes was successfully demonstrated. Since angiogenesis plays an important role in the bone healing process, future studies with dual loading of these agents might prove useful in enhancing the ability of these membranes to stimulate better/faster bone regeneration.

Anuja Bokare received her Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from University of Pune in 2015. She worked as a post-doctoral fellow in San Francisco State University from 2016-2017. She is currently working as a post doctorate fellow in San Jose State University. Her current research interest deals with the development of visible light responsive TiO₂-Graphene Quantum Dots nanocomposites as a photocatalysts for environmental remediation.

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have been widely studied in recent years due to their structural and optoelectrical properties.  These properties have prompted the exploration of the role of GQDs in many potential applications including, but not limited to, solar cells, photodetectors, bioimaging, sensors, batteries and drug delivery. These properties and applications of GQDs are highly dependent on the GQD size, shape and surface functionality. In this work, different sized GQDs have been synthesized by an inexpensive wet chemical method by varying the synthesis temperature from 85˚, 100˚ to 115˚C. The surface functionalities of the synthesized GQDs were investigated by several analytical methods. We discovered a higher degree of oxidation at higher temperatures. The mechanism of formation of different sized GQDs with different functionalities have been explained with the help of XPS and NEXAFS analysis. The influence of size and surface functionalities on the optical properties of the GQDs is analyzed by UV-Vis and PL spectroscopic techniques. The photocatalytic applications of GQDs are assessed by coupling them with TiO₂ nanomaterials for dye degradation reaction.

Prof. Tokeer Ahmad did his masters in chemistry from IIT Roorkee (2000) and Ph.D. from IIT Delhi (2006) in the area of Nano-Chemistry. Immediately after PhD, he joined Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in 2006 and became full Professor of Chemistry in 2019. His research interest includes the development of advanced functional nanostructures for photo/electro-catalysis, nanocatalysis, gas sensing and energy applications. He has supervised 9 PhD’s, 71 post graduate students and currently supervising 7 Ph.D. students. Dr. Ahmad has been instrumental to receive eight research projects from MHRD, DST, CSIR, UGC, JMI innovative programme and one international project from Saudi Arabia of worth more than 312 lacs. Dr. Ahmad has published 116 research papers in peer-reviewed journals of international repute and authored a book on Principles of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology to his credit. His current research citation is around 3565 with an h-index of 35 and i10-index of 74. Dr. Ahmad has been the active member of various National and International academic societies such as CRSI, MRSI, ISCAS, SMC BARC, ACT Mumbai, ACS, American Nano-society etc. and also serving NPG’s Scientific Reports journal as an editorial board member. He has been active reviewer of 94 different international journals. Dr. Ahmad has delivered 86 Invited talks and presented 120 conference research papers at National and International platforms. Dr. Ahmad has organized MHRD-GIAN Program (2016) and Science Academies Lecture Workshop (2013) as Coordinator and instrumental in organizing several conferences and symposia at JMI. He also served Jamia as Coordinator, Swachh Bharat Mission of Govt of India. Dr. Ahmad has received DST-DFG award from Govt. of India (2009), ISCAS Medal (2011) for the significant contribution in Nanotechnology and prestigious Inspired Teacher’s recognition from Hon’ble President of India in 2015. Prof. Ahmad has received the “Distinguished Scientist Award” for the year 2019 from the Indian Association of Solid State Chemists and Allied Scientists due to his outstanding contribution in the area of chemical sciences and also elected as Member of very prestigious National Academy of Sciences India (NASI). Recently, Prof. Ahmad has been figured in World Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University, USA and has been conferred the prestigious Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Excellence Award of Education for the outstanding contribution in the field of education.

Nanoscience is the study of phenomena and manipulation of materials at atomic, molecular and macromolecular scales, where properties differ significantly from those at a larger scale. Nanotechnology is the design, characterization, production and application of structures, devices and systems by controlling shape and size at nanometer scale. Nanotechnology uses science on the nanoscale, which occurs at the scale of atoms and molecules. At this scale, traditional boundaries between biology, chemistry and physics are not very distinguishable. Nanomaterials are among the most challenging areas of current scientific and technological research because of the variety of interesting changes in their properties at nano-dimension. Functional nanomaterials find the possibility for their applications in water splitting processes for hydrogen generation as a renewable source of green energy. Fe₃O₄ nanocubes were prepared in one pot process for the electrochemical water splitting and supercapacitor applications. As-synthesized Fe₃O₄ nanocubes with high specific surface area of 268 m² g^-1, are ferromagnetic at room temperature and affects the electro-catalytic activity of the electrode materials. Similarly, the catalytic activity of ultrafine RuO₂ was examined against the Horseradish peroxidase enzyme (HRP) and applied as sensor for the detection of H₂O₂ in the solution. Besides that, the stimulating bifunctional electro-catalytic performance of RuO₂ nanoparticles was studied under different atmospheric conditions. The studies of Yttrium Ferrite nanoparticles by citrate precursor route reveal the formation of monophasic orthorhombic YFeO₃ nanoparticles with fairly uniform distribution of nearly spherical particles, high specific surface area of ~338 m²/g and visible band gap of 2.5 eV. Dye sensitized solar cell of YFeO₃ nanoparticles was constructed in combination with TiO₂ powder to determine the photo-conversion efficiency, current density and open circuit voltage. Photocatalytic generation of hydrogen by using YFeO₃ nanoparticles has also been studied under the visible light irradiations which showed a significant H₂ evolution reaction rate up to 131.6 µmol h^-1g^-1. The chemistry of some oxide based multiferroics of general structure AMO₃ (A= Y, Gd & Bi and M = Fe, Mn & Cr) nanoparticles will also be discussed. 

MSc. Maia Mombrú Frutos obtained her BSc (Chemistry) from Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay; and her MSc. Nanoscience and Funcional Nanomaterials from the University of Bristol, UK (through a Chevening Scholarship). She is currently finishing her PhD (Chemistry) at Universidad de la República, where she also teaches undergrad and postgrad courses in Materials Science, Nanotechnology, and Radiochemistry. Her PhD research deals with the study of novel chalcohalides, especially their synthesis in nanostructured form through mild conditions, and their technological applications, such as X-ray detectors and solar cells. Her area of interests are crystal growth, nanomaterials, electron microscopy, and radiation-matter interaction. She is also involved in several outreach activities to promote STEM to the public.

The rising interest in bismuth based semiconductors, calls for a thorough understanding of their production in nanostructured form. Especially, for ternary compounds such as bismuth based chalcohalides, obtaining these ternary semiconductors is not straightforward. In this study we present the growth mechanism of BiSI nanorods through the reaction of Bi₂S₃ nanoflowers and iodine in mono ethylene glycol. For this we tested two different temperatures (180 and 220 ºC) and four different reaction times (1, 3, 6, 10 h). We also varied the iodine source and the precursors stoichiometry. It was found that a combined action of both mono ethylene glycol and iodine in molecular form are necessary in order to obtain BiSI nanorods. While Bi₂S₃ is virtually insoluble in polar solvents, the addition of iodine and temperature contributes to the partial dissolution of the nanoflowers, allowing for the iodine to enter the crystalline structure of Bi₂S₃ and transform it to BiSI, since both compounds share the same Pnma space group and the double-chain structure along the c-axis. When the temperature was increased to 220 ºC, the apparition of a secondary phase, namely BiI₃, was observed. Iodine needs to be added in excess for the transformation to BiSI to be completed, but a higher temperature and time promote the further inclusion of iodine and complete removal of sulphur, yielding the BiI₃ phase. This study showed that the reaction through Bi₂S₃ occurs via a self-sacrificing template route, with Bi₂S₃ nanoflowers acting as the support for BiSI nanorods formation, and 1 hour at either 180 ºC or 220 ºC are enough to have a full conversion. The results demonstrated here present an easy, fast, and environmentally friendly method of synthesis for a promising novel material.

Ilaria Ottonelli was born in northern Italy, and moved to Modena, Emilia Romagna, where she graduated in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. During her thesis, she spent six months abroad studying at Ulm University, Germany, where she gained experience with animal models and learned how to manipulate animal tissues for imaging purposes. She graduated in 2018 with top honors and entered the PhD Program of Clinical and Experimental Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Giovanni Tosi in 2019. As a PhD student, Ilaria Ottonelli’s research is focused on the optimization of polymeric nanoparticles loaded with different therapeutic molecules. She actively collaborates with different laboratories in Europe to test therapeutic efficacy of her results in vitro and in vivo, focusing on retinal delivery, blood-brain barrier targeting, neurodegenerative diseases, and trafficking of nanoparticles via tunneling nanotubes.

Dr. Yu-Hao Deng obtained his PhD (Condensed matter physics) from Peking University. His research interests are mainly focused on perovskite material growth, optoelectronic devices and characterization techniques (TEM). He has published various papers in Advanced Materials, Physical review letters, Journal of Microscopy and Applied Microscopy et al. 

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites (OIHPs) have recently emerged as groundbreaking semiconductor materials owing to their remarkable properties. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), as a very powerful characterization tool, has been widely used in perovskite materials for structural analysis and phase identification. However, the perovskites are highly sensitive to electron beams and easily decompose into PbX₂ (X= I, Br, Cl) and metallic Pb. The electron dose of general high-resolution TEM is much higher than the critical dose of MAPbI₃, which results in universal misidentifications that PbI₂ and Pb are incorrectly labeled as perovskite. The widely existed mistakes have negatively affected the development of perovskite research fields. Here misidentifications of the best-known MAPbI₃ perovskite are summarized and corrected, then the causes of mistakes are classified and ascertained. Above all, a solid method for phase identification and practical strategies to reduce the radiation damage for perovskite materials have also been proposed. This paper aims to provide the causes of mistakes and avoid misinterpretations in perovskite research fields in the future

Dr. Md Tawabur Rahman obtained his both BSc and MSc (Electrical Engineering) from the Khulna University of Engineering & Technology and his PhD (Electrical Engineering) from the South Dakota State University. His PhD research was based on two-dimensional nanomaterials and electrochemical sensors for the detection of heavy metals. His area of interest is electrochemical and chemical sensors for human health, environment, and agricultural applications. She has published various papers in peer reviewed journals.

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDCs) including MoS₂, WS₂, MoSe₂, WSe₂, etc., have received significant attention from the worldwide scientists for a variety of novel applications owing to their unique electronic, chemical, optical, and physical properties. This review focuses on the advances in the field of sensing based on 2D TMDCs and their composites. In this context, the recent progress of 2D TMDCs and their composites for lab-based detection of different analytes including heavy metals, biomolecules, hydrogen peroxide, toxic gases, and volatile compounds are discussed. Interaction of analytes with TMDCs and their composite is elucidated in accordance with various sensing mechanisms. Finally, the challenges and future opportunities related to the emerging 2D TMDCs and their composites based sensing devices are also presented.

Dr. Kamal K. Taha obtained his BSc and MSc (Chemistry) from the University of Khartoum and his PhD (Physical Chemistry) from the University of Bangalore. He is previously worked for the University of Juba and University of Bahri as university staff member. His PhD research was based on material science through materials synthesis, characterization and applications. Now he is doing extensive research in nanomaterials and their photocatalytic and energy applications.

Green chemistry as cost-effective and benign alternative route to the chemical and physical methods for the synthesis of nanomaterials is presented in this work.  Under ultrasonication the morphological, structural, optical and photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO nanoparticles were tailored using the extract of four Sudanese edible plants (Balanites, Adansonia digitata, Adansonia digitata, Gum Arabic). Hexagonal, rod-shaped, and spherical nanoparticles belonging to the wurtzite hexagonal ZnO were obtained using the different abstracts. The XPS data demonstrated the effect of the extract on the binding process as indicated by the shift of the binding energies. The samples exhibited dissimilar porosity features. The photocatalytic efficiency towards the methylene blue exhibited high degradation activity that was related to large surface area and/or lower band gap energies. The investigations revealed diverse mechanistic route for the degradation process where the radical scavenger’s data revealed the contribution of different radicals generated by the different abstract. The study sheds light on environmentally benign route for nanomaterials fabrication.

Dr Prabhat Ranjan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechatronics at Manipal University Jaipur, India. His research interests include computational material science, material modeling, compound semiconductor, solar cells, smart materials and Density Functional Theory. He has published a number of research articles in international peer-reviewed journals of high repute. He has participated in numerous summer schools, workshops and conferences. He has received prestigious Material Design Fellowship in the year 2014 from Imperial College of London, UK. In the year, he has also received DAAD Fellowship from Germany to participate in the 5^th MCS 2014 at University of Oldenburg. For his dedication and efforts towards research and teaching, Manipal University Jaipur has awarded him with the prestigious Manipal University Jaipur- President Award in the the year 2015 and President Gold Medal for Excellence in Research in the year 2019. He has authored more than 20 book chapters and more than 5 research edited books. 

A number of studies of transition-metals doped chalcopyrite-type nanomaterials have been attracting a lot of attention in recent years due to its numerous applications especially in solar cells, LEDs, photocatalysis and medical imaging. In this report, we have studied the structure and optoelectronic properties of XTiY₂ (X= Cu, Ag, Au; Y= S, Se, Te) invoking Density Functional Theory. Our computed result transpires a decrease of HOMO-LUMO gap with substitution of Ga by Ti in CuGaS₂ and AgGaS₂. Our computed HOMO-LUMO gap is in the range of 1.993 eV to 2.940 eV which specifies that XTiY₂ nanomaterials can be suitable candidate with enhanced electronic and optical properties for intermediate band gap material. The optical properties viz., refractive index, electronic polarizability, dielectric constant and optical electronegativity of these compounds are investigated. The result exhibits that compound with the maximum energy gap displays the least value of refractive index, electronic polarizability and dielectric constant, and vice-versa. Refractive index, electronic polarizability and dielectric constant of these compounds increase from S to Se to Te, whereas energy gap and optical electronegativity follow the reverse trend. A strong correlation between our computed data and its experimental counterparts reinforces our analysis.

Small Angle Scattering (SAS) techniques are being used increasingly to study the structural properties of disordered elements in printed electronics, such as photovoltaics (PV), temperature sensors and other electronic devices. Polydispersed active elements in electronic inks may have primary particle and aggregate sizes outside the e_ective range that can be determined using a single SAS technique. The purpose of this study is to extend the q-range of the Ultra-Small Angle X-ray Scattering (USAXS) profiles of metallurgical silicon M-Si, SiO2, Al2O3 and TiO2 impregnated electronic inks by combining them with their associated Small Angle Light Scattering (SALS) profiles. The resulting seamlessly combined SALS and USAXS scattering curves had a wider

q-range than that of the original USAXS data by close to an order of magnitude, which helped to investigate a wider range of sizes.

Dr. Aqsa Arshad has obtained her PhD (Physics) from International Islamic University PK and Durham University, Durham, UK. She has been visiting researcher at world class Science and Technology facility council, ISIS neutron and muon source, Oxford, UK. Her PhD research work was based on the photocatalytic and biomedical applications of nanoscale materials. Her current research work is on nanomagnetism and supercapacitors. She currently lectures physics, and nanotechnology at Department of Physics, International Islamic University, Pakistan. Her area of interest is 2D materials particularly graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, MXenes etc. She has published 20 papers in peer reviewed journals, attended various international conferences and webinars

The increased level of industrial pollutants in water and drug resistant pathogens are serious threat to human and aquatic life. Graphene based materials are an attractive choice due to numerous fascinating features of graphene. However, combining graphene with other nanomaterials in the form of nanocomposites give a window of opportunities to fabricate and investigate new materials. Herein, graphene-based nanocomposites are presented that are combination of graphene and metal/non-metal oxides. These nanocomposites are synthesized, systematically characterized, and are compared for their performance in environmental and biomedical applications. These have shown significant potential for complete eradication of bacteria and removal of synthetic dye.