In this work, the electrochemical performance of NiFe2O4 nanofibers synthesized by an electrospinning approach have been discussed in detail. Lithium storage properties of nanofibers are evaluated and compared with NiFe2O4 nanoparticles by galvanostatic cycling and cyclic voltammetry studies, both in half-cell configurations. Nanofibers exhibit a higher charge-storage capacity of 1000 mAh g(-1) even after 100 cycles with high Coulmbic efficiency of 100% between 10 and 100 cycles. Ex situ microscopy studies confirmed that cycled nanofiber electrodes maintained the morphology and remained intact even after 100 charge-discharge cycles. The NiFe2O4 nanofiber electrode does not experience any structural stress and eventual pulverisation during lithium cycling and hence provides an efficient electron conducting pathway. The excellent electrochemical performance of NiFe2O4 nanofibers is due to the unique porous morphology of continuous nanofibers.

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The time required for osseointegration with a metal implant having a smooth surface ranges from three to six months. We hypothesized that biomimetic coating surfaces with poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)/collagen fibers and nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) on the implant would enhance the adhesion of mesenchymal stem cells. Therefore, this surface modification of dental and bone implants might enhance the process of osseointegration. In this study, we coated PLGA or PLGA/collagen (50:50 w/w ratio) fiber on Ti disks by modified electrospinning for 5 s to 2 min; after that, we further deposited n-HA on the fibers. PLGA fibers of fiber diameter 0.957 ± 0.357 µm had a contact angle of 9.9 ± 0.3° and PLGA/collagen fibers of fiber diameter 0.378 ± 0.068 µm had a contact angle of 0°. Upon n-HA incorporation, all the fibers had a contact angle of 0° owing to the hydrophilic nature of n-HA biomolecule. The cell attachment efficiency was tested on all the scaffolds for different intervals of time (10, 20, 30 and 60 min). The alkaline phosphatase activity, cell proliferation and mineralization were analyzed on all the implant surfaces on days 7, 14 and 21. Results of the cell adhesion study indicated that the cell adhesion was maximum on the implant surface coated with PLGA/collagen fibers deposited with n-HA compared to the other scaffolds. Within a short span of 60 min, 75% of the cells adhered onto the mineralized PLGA/collagen fibers. Similarly by day 21, the rate of cell proliferation was significantly higher (p ⩽ 0.05) on the mineralized PLGA/collagen fibers owing to enhanced cell adhesion on these fibers. This enhanced initial cell adhesion favored higher cell proliferation, differentiation and mineralization on the implant surface coated with mineralized PLGA/collagen fibers.

A multicomponent membrane based on polysulfone nanofibers and titanium dioxide nanoparticles is produced by the coupling of electrospinning and electrospraying techniques. The manufactured product can satisfy a number of conflicting requirements begetting its technical and functional versatility as well as the reliability of the process. As nanoparticle dispersion is a critical issue in nanoparticle technology, their distribution and morphology have been extensively studied before and after electrospraying, and process optimization has been carried out to obtain nanoparticles uniformly spread over electrospun nanofibers. These membranes have been proved to be a good candidate for supported catalysis due to the photocatalytic activity of TiO(2), tested for degradation of CEPS, a mustard agent simulant. At the same time, an effective improvement in filtering properties in terms of pressure drop has also been studied.

Chemical reactivity is observed following electron irradiation of a binary mixture of ammonia (NH(3)) and acetic acid (CH(3)COOD) at 25 K, without any subsequent thermal activation, as evidenced by vibrational high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS). Analysis of the HREEL spectra and comparison with infrared and Raman data of different molecules are compatible with glycine formation in its zwitterionic form. The onset for electron induced reaction is found to be at about approximately 13 eV. The mechanisms may involve NH radicals interaction with CH(3)COOD molecules. Then glycine formation does not imply any displacement of reactants, so that it involves only NH(3) and CH(3)COOD neighboring molecules.

We demonstrate a large-scale production of aligned SnO 2 nanofibers with a multi-nozzle electrospinning method combined with an air-shield enclosed rotating drum collector. The production rate by this multi-nozzle approach is several times higher than that of the single-nozzle electrospinning. The nanofibers produced were having a short range of diameters similar to the case of nanofibers produced by single nozzle electrospinning. The well-aligned nanofibers are subsequently processed into vertically oriented SnO 2 nanowires on an FTO substrate. The average diameter and length of the wires were 75 AE 25 nm and 19 AE 2 mm, respectively. Dye-sensitized solar cells using this nanostructured material as the working electrode yielded a short-circuit current density (J sc ) of 9.9 mA cm À2 (which is 42% higher than that achieved by nanowires produced by other methods), an open-circuit voltage (V oc ) of 0.525 V and a power conversion efficiency (h) of 2.53%. We believe that improvement of the multinozzle electrospinning is highly promising for commercialization due to simplicity and easiness of fabricating the spinneret, control over the diameter and spatial orientation of the fibers.

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