Department of Chemical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

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The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

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IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

The present study deals with the development of a chemical sensor for the detection of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at a low operating temperature using Zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4)/Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) hybrid nanostructures. The nanostructure ZnFe2O4 and B. subtilis powder, taken in equal proportion was made into films using the spin coating technique. X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were used to study morphology, structure and crystallite size. The sensing properties of the hybrid structure were studied and excellent response was observed in the temperature range of 50–55°C for 400 ppm LPG, when compared to the individual components of the hybrid. The signal output of the proposed sensor were extremely stable for more than 30 days. This method proposes the usage of the biomolecule/metal oxide composites in electronics and helps to reduce the metal oxide usage. © 2017, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.

World University root node

Journal of Electronic Materials

Nanostructure ZnFe2O4 with Bacillus subtilis for Detection of LPG at Low Temperature

The solid waste material cenosphere (fly ash, by-product of thermal power plants) was nickel oxide nanoparticle coated (NiOC, core shell structure) by chemical heterogeneous precipitation and thermal reduction method. in situ synthesis of polyaniline (PANI) and NiOC composite (PNiOC) was carried out at -30±2 °C under nitrogen and characterized. The free standing films of as synthesized PNiOC composite were prepared by solution casting (followed by acid vapor treatment) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) was investigated in the J-band (5.8–8.2 GHz), X-band (8.2–12.4 GHz) and Ku-band (12.4–18 GHz). An average EMI SE of ~24 dB, ~27–24 dB, ~21 dB was observed for 81±3 μm thicker flexible free standing PNiOC film in the J, X and Ku-band respectively. Effective EMI shielding due to absorption (SEA) was found to be dominant for PNiOC film. Unlike PANI emeraldine salt (ES) film, the EMI shielding due to absorption (SEA) was found more than two times higher for PNiOC film. Due to the presence of NiOC hollow microspheres in PANI, the time average power of incident electromagnetic wave decreases resulting in an increase of EMI SE (SEA). This film can be considered as a novel coating material for various applications such as unmanned vehicles, robotic and microwave engineering to protect against EMI. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Composites Communications

Electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of polyaniline-nickel oxide coated cenosphere composite film

This work reports the synthesis of a novel, aspirin-loaded, linear poly (anhydride ester) and provides mechanistic insights into the release of aspirin from this polymer for anti-inflammatory activity. As compared to conventional drug delivery systems that rely on diffusion based release, incorporation of bioactives in the polymer backbone is challenging and high loading is difficult to achieve. In the present study, we exploit the pentafunctional sugar alcohol (xylitol) to provide sites for drug (aspirin) attachment at its non-terminal –OH groups. The terminal –OH groups are polymerized with a diacid anhydride. The hydrolysis of the anhydride and ester bonds under physiological conditions release aspirin from the matrix. The resulting poly(anhydride ester) has high drug loading (53%) and displays controlled release kinetics of aspirin. The polymer releases 8.5 % and 20%, of the loaded drug in one and four weeks, respectively and has a release rate constant of 0.0035 h−0.61. The release rate is suitable for its use as an anti-inflammatory agent without being cytotoxic. The polymer exhibits good cytocompatibility and anti-inflammatory properties and may find applications as injectable or as an implantable bioactive material. The physical insights into the release mechanism can provide development of other drug loaded polymers. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

International Journal of Pharmaceutics

Controlled release from aspirin based linear biodegradable poly(anhydride esters) for anti-inflammatory activity

We hereby introduces electrospun resorcinol-formaldehyde sol based carbon fibers as anode material for Li-ion batteries. To ensure the electrospinnability of resorcinol-formaldehyde sol. we blended it with poly-methyl methacrylate in 2:1 (v/v) ratio followed by controlled pyrolysis. As-prepared thin carbon fibers were then characterized by Raman & Infra-red spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope to examine the crystallinity and morphological changes during the carbonization. Later, we explored the electrochemical properties of these carbon fibers to test them as a potential anode material for lithium ion battery. We found a significant reversible capacity (624 mAh/g) with reasonable higher first cycle efficiency of 65%. © 2017 The Electrochemical Society.

ECS Transactions

Resorcinol formaldehyde based carbon fibers as anode material for lithium ion batteries

A binder-free carbon nanofibres web over stainless-steel wafer current collector was fabricated by controlled pyrolysis of electrospun SU-8 photoresist nanofibres. Electrochemical performance of the as-prepared carbon nanofibres webwas investigated by performing charge-discharge experiments at different current densities. At lowcurrent density (37.2 mA g-1,0.1C), SU-8-derived carbon nanofabric showed a large initial discharge capacity (1417 mAh g-1) with sufficiently higher initial coulombic efficiency (∼55%). More importantly, this carbon nanofibres web also exhibited excellent rate performance with considerably higher specific capacities at higher current densities (358 mAh g-1 at 1C). This superior electrochemical performance, in particular at high current rates, can be attributed to small lithium ion diffusion length and resilience in entangled carbon nanofibres to accommodate volume changes during charging and discharging. © Indian Academy of Sciences.

Fulltext

Bulletin of Materials Science

SU-8 photoresist-derived electrospun carbon nanofibres as high-capacity anode material for lithium ion battery

G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) are targets for designing a large fraction of the drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. For GPCR-targeting drug screening using cell-based assays, measurement of cytosolic calcium has been widely used to obtain dose–response profiles. However, it remains challenging to obtain drug-specific features due to cell-to-cell heterogeneity in drug–cell responses obtained from live cell imaging. Here, we present a framework combining live cell imaging of a cell population and a feature extraction method for classification of responses of drugs targeting GPCRs CXCR4 and α2AR. We measured the calcium dynamics using confocal microscopy and compared the responses for SDF-1α and norepinephrine. The results clearly show that the clustering patterns of responses for the two GPCRs are significantly different. Additionally, we show that different drugs targeting the same GPCR induce different calcium response signatures. We also implemented principal component analysis and k means for feature extraction and used nondominated (ND) sorting for ranking a group of drugs at various doses. The presented approach can be used to model a cell population as a mixture of subpopulations. It also offers specific advantages, such as higher spatial resolution, classification of responses, and ranking of drugs, potentially providing a platform for high-content drug screening. © 2017, © 2017 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

SLAS Discovery

Comparison of Calcium Dynamics and Specific Features for G Protein–Coupled Receptor–Targeting Drugs Using Live Cell Imaging and Automated Analysis

The problem of sample size determination (SSD) for any black box model is addressed in this work. Four novel SSD algorithms namely HC, SOOP, HC+SOOP and V-SOOP, based on hypercube sampling, space filling and optimization study are proposed to tackle the issues of over-fitting, accuracy and computational speed of surrogate models. In this version, the novel algorithms are shown to run simultaneously with an ANN surrogate building algorithm proposed recently by our group. As a case study, a highly nonlinear industrially validated Induration model with 22 inputs and 5 outputs, is considered and parsimonious ANNs are built using the proposed SSD techniques. The surrogate assisted optimization is found to be 10 times faster than the conventional optimization using NSGA II, thus enabling its online implementation. © 2017 IEEE.

2017 Indian Control Conference, ICC 2017 - Proceedings

Novel sample size determination methods for parsimonious training of black box models

Wind energy is one of the most progressive types of renewable energies deployed using wind turbines, which convert wind power into electrical energy. Various methodologies and layouts have been proposed to determine the optimal layout (numbers and locations) of wind turbines inside a wind farm to extract maximum energy. However, limited availability of land area has resulted in the construction of these wind farms near to human habitats causing a negative impact on human health. Compared to other factors, noise has become an immense concern for wind farm designers, as it needs to be constrained within the mandatory limits. Using a well-established wake model and ISO-9613-2 noise calculation, this study performs a wind farm layout optimization (WFLO) based on a multi-objective trade-off between minimization of noise propagation and maximization of energy generation. A novel hybrid methodology is proposed as a combination of proposed probabilistic variable decomposed multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (VdRBNSGA-II) and a newly developed gradient-based non-dominated normalized normal constraint (nD-NNC) method. As opposed to previous works, generated non-dominated front provides various alternative energy-noise solutions along with an additional information on turbine layouts, which allows a decision maker to select among different competing solutions based on the existing noise and other regulations. © 2017

IFAC-PapersOnLine

Decomposition based multi-objective optimization to simultaneously determine the number and the optimum locations of wind turbines in a wind farm

Subtilin production is favorable when Bacillus subtilis 168 is subjected to stress condition such as nutrient scarcity. A mathematical model underlying such growth process has immense applicability in determining the optimal operating conditions at industrial scale. We present this work with multiple objectives of a) selection of a substrate for creating the minimal nutrient media for B. subtilis thereby enhancing subtilin production, b) experimental study of the growth along with morphological characteristics of B. subtilis and product profile in nutrient scarcity condition and c) identification of an optimal unstructured model for subtilin production using a computational framework. First, we show that subtilin can be produced while B. subtilis is grown using galactose and B. subtilis undergoes morphological changes and takes filamentous shape. We then constructed a series of plausible models and used a hybrid method combining Genetic Algorithm and gradient based search methodologies, for model selection. The estimated kinetic parameters and the stoichiometric analysis indicate that the B. subtilis growth/death, product profile and respiratory mechanism undergo specific modifications in galactose as an adaptive response. Current study provides an inexpensive platform to produce subtilin and the predictive framework presented here has potential applications for large scale production of subtilin. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Process Biochemistry

Identification of unstructured model for subtilin production through Bacillus subtilis using hybrid genetic algorithm

The migration of a neutrally buoyant droplet in a tube containing another immiscible liquid is investigated numerically in the creeping flow regime. A fully developed velocity profile is imposed at the inlet of the tube. The interface between the two immiscible fluids is captured using a coupled level-set and volume-of-fluid approach. The deformation and breakup dynamics of the droplet are investigated in terms of three dimensionless parameters, namely, the ratio between the radius of the undeformed droplet and the radius of the capillary tube, the viscosity ratio between the dispersed and the continuous phases, and the capillary number that measures the relative importance of the viscous force over the surface tension force. It has been observed that the droplet, while traversing through the tube, either approaches a steady bulletlike shape or develops a prominent reentrant cavity at its rear. Depending on the initial droplet size, there exists a critical capillary number for every flow configuration beyond which the drop fails to maintain a steady shape and breaks into fragments. The deformation and breakup phenomena depend primarily on the droplet size, the viscosity ratio, and the capillary number. Special attention has been given to the case where the drop diameter is comparable with the tube diameter. A thorough computational study has been conducted to find the critical capillary number for a range of droplets of varied sizes suspended in systems having different viscosity ratios. © 2017 American Physical Society.