ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: CURRENT RESEARCH TREND IN CHEMISTRY

AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

Submitted to
JAIN UNIVERSITY

Submitted by
Sumeet S
 CURRENT RESEARCH TREND IN CHEMISTRY AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

CHEMISTRY

Chemistry is a branch of science which deals with chemical elements and compounds and how
these things work together with everything

1. Space travel microbes turn urine into polymers

Water from sweat, showers and now urine research in chemistry has come a long way
now. Human waste is inevitable were few see it to be waste resource where space
research treat it to be a resource. International space station who have been successful in
confronting water from sweat and showers are now in the process of confronting food
from human waste by developing yeast for astronauts for a long journey.
The man behind this is bimolecular engineer Mark Blenner who is also a part of a broader
session on getting people to mars.
His research focus on the yeast species “Yarrowia lipolytica” (carbon source) this can be
used as a natural supplements to prevent bone loss. He and his group have shown that this
yeast can be grown using human urine as a source of nitrogen. The whole formula behind
this is CH4N2O.
The obstacle which the researcher is finding in the whole process of converting urine into
useful polymers is ‘how the biology would react to being in space’. This process is still in
the early stage of characterizing how the yeast should go about taking up the waste
substance.

Source: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/space-travel-microbes-turn-urine-into-
polymers/3007882.article

2. Converting waste toilet paper into electricity

A techno economic analysis has been performed by chemists to conver`t waste toilet
paper into electricity. They have proposed a two-step process for the same.
Well who would have ever thought a waste paper would become an asset; well rather
than an asset most of us wouldn’t have even thought about it. According to recent stats
around 10-14 kg waste toilet is generated per person per year and on the other side it’s a
businessman’s dream as it is one of the few material with a negative cost.

10,000 tons of waste toilet paper is enough to power 6400 homes and the electricity
produced by this is renewable and this is also a continually available resource.

Gadi Rothenberg and his research project team have proposed a two-step process for this
conversion.
Step 1- combining gasification of waste toilet paper with high temperature solid oxide
fuel cells. That is Waste toilet paper gas into electricity.
 Step 2- calculation of a cost per kwh comparable to that of residential photovoltaic
installations. A measure use would be 20.3¢/kWh
This is totally based on detailed mass and energy balance calculation
So to conclude there is certainly a future were this would be a reality and the team has
said the first WTP to Electricity plant in china.

Source: Els van der Roest, Mijndert van der Spek, Andrea Ramirez, Bob van der Zwaan,
Gadi Rothenberg. Converting Waste Toilet Paper into Electricity: A First-Stage
Technoeconomic Feasibility Study. Energy Technology, 2017; DOI:
10.1002/ente.201700247

NANO TECHNOLOGY

Both Nano science and nano technology are the study and application of extremely small things
which can be used across all other science field be it to be chemistry, biology, physics, and
mathematics.

One nanometer is a billionth of a meter or 10-9 of a meter. On a comparative scale if a marble

were a Nano meter the one meter would be a size of the earth it’s that small and hard to imagine.

1. Test strips for cancer detection get upgraded with nanoparticle bling

In the present world were a pregnancy test can be done at home, we are now heading to a
time were even testing a cancer would be easy that we could test at home.

A new design with platinum coated gold nanoparticles strip would be designed and it would
be cheap and simple test for detection.

There is an increase on the level of the biomarker human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)
which is easily detectable in urine and a thin colorful strip would appear for positive results.

Research led by Xiaohu Xia a strip would be made to detect cancer by using gold
nanoparticles which is already been used in medical care and through which treatment
decision are quicker and easier both for doctors and patients.

Well what is new in this research would be is adding a dual function to the nanoparticles by
decorating each tiny sphere in a thin skin of platinum, by doing so it will make it easier for
the naked eye to observe the changes in the strip it would also provide accuracy and
quantifiable results which are measure in pictograms per milliter.

The research focuses more on prostate-specific antigen which looks for signals of mere
trillionths of a gram in a single drop of blood. Not restricted to this the researchers are also
going a step further verifying the application of other cancer biomarkers and experimenting
 the same. He says the advantage of this is people can buy and diagnosis on their own which
is less costly and quick technique. All it took for this was bit of decorating.

Gold nano particles + new platinum bling.

Source: Materials provided by Michigan Technological University. Note: Content may be

edited for style and length.

2. Water based lithium-ion batteries will not explode

The best solution to the worst night mare of tech generation would be out in the near future.
No more would be a problem or new of mobile being exploded due to various reasons.

Dr. Kang Xu has found the best possible solution for the most common problem and fear of
tech generation; he has developed a lithium-ion battery that uses water-salt solution which
will electrolyte and reach the volt mark of 4.0 for any electronic device without exploding.

In the past if we wanted for safety we had to use an aqueous battery with low energy. Now is
the time of both safety and high energy. We were using 3.0 volt battery till date, now to make
it 4.0 the researcher designed a new gel polymer electrolyte coating to be applied.

The innovation here is making the right combination of gel that can easily block water
contact in order to make sure water doesn’t decompose and can also from the right interphase
to support high battery performance.

To add, In case if the battery casing were punctured or damaged it would react slowly with
the lithium which would definitely prevent fire or explosion that could occur in case of 3.0
volt battery.

Currently few improvements measure is being made to make it more competitive. They are
in the process of increasing the number for full performance of cycle to 500 or more which is
currently 50-100 cycle to reduce material expenses.

This would be possible only when the chemistry is perfected and could be ready in span of 5
years.

Source: Chongyin Yang, Ji Chen, Tingting Qing, Xiulin Fan, Wei Sun, Arthur von Cresce,
Michael S. Ding, Oleg Borodin, Jenel Vatamanu, Marshall A. Schroeder, Nico Eidson,
Chunsheng Wang, Kang Xu. 4.0 V Aqueous Li-Ion Batteries. Joule, 2017; 1 (1): 122 DOI:
10.1016/j.joule.2017.08.009
3. Artificial 'skin' gives robotic hand a sense of touch

Well a time when even an electronically made human popularly known as robot would be
given an artificial skin which would help it to identify difference between hot and cold and
also providing for a wide range of biomedical devices.

Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook are in the process of developing semiconductor in rubber
composite format which will enable without any mechanical structure.

Electronic skin has been created and tested a robotic hand which could sense hot and cold,
further it would even be able to interpret computer signal as well which can be understood
and read. The researcher are also in the process of developing a skin which monitor various
other things like health monitor or more.

Source: Hae-Jin Kim, Kyoseung Sim, Anish Thukral, Cunjiang Yu. Rubbery electronics
and sensors from intrinsically stretchable elastomeric composites of semiconductors and
conductors. Science Advances, 2017; 3 (9): e1701114 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701114