A Pooja Shukla is pursuing her PhD from SRM University and completed her MTech in Nanotechnology from SRM University. She is working as Research Scholar in SRM Research Institute. She has published two papers in reputed journals and also achieved awards for best project in Nanotechnology.

Grain boundaries are quasi-one-dimensional structures comprising different types of polygons that maintain the periodicity in the ordered state. These are usually observed in graphene due to its polycrystalline nature. However, grain boundary (GB) nanostructures can also be observed in the hexagonal analogues of silicon and germanium, known as silicene and germanene. GBs, formed between single crystal regions, often offer an opportunity to tune the local electric and thermal properties via defect engineering to realize new functionalities. A recent study shows that the carrier concentration gets enhanced significantly, once grain boundaries are embedded in ordered nanostructures. Since high carrier concentration is essential for better electronic applications, a systematic study of grain boundaries out of different nanostructures can be useful for better understanding the device mechanism towards nanoelectronic applications. GBs being topological defects with largely a disordered character can potentially influence the thermoelectric properties as well, since disorder scatters phonons more effectively than electrons. The aim of the proposed work is hence to study the charge transport, electron-photon interaction and thermoelectricity in several grain-boundary nanostructures of technological interest.

Fumiaki Matuoka has completed his MS from Osaka University School of Engineering Science. He is a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University, Department of Material Science Engineering. His research interest includes “Synthesizing double gyroidal mesoporous template for meta-materials”.

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a key reaction for fuel cells. Nitrogen-doped carbon materials show high electro-catalytic performance for the ORR. They are thus among the most promising candidates as alternatives to high-cost Pt catalysts for the cathode of fuel cells. One of the active sites of the nitrogen-doped carbon materials for the ORR was was pyridinic nitrogen. Hence, nitrogen-doped carbon materials containing high concentration of pyridinic nitrogen could be a promising cathode for ORR. In our recent efforts, nitrogen-doped double gyroidal mesoporous carbon material (N-DGMC) was synthesized from the structure-directing tri-block terpolymer poly(isoprene)-block-poly(styrene)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (ISO) with pyridine containing precursor, hydroxymethyl-3-hydroxyl pyridine, as a nitrogen source and phenol-formaldehyde resol as a carbon source. The total nitrogen contents and relative concentration of nitrogen species were obtained from XPS measurements indicating higher concentration of pyridinic nitrogen than other carbon materials in which nitrogen are doped by an ammonia treatment method. Furthermore, N-DGMC has double gyroidal structure; therefore, it has a large surface area as well as lots of pores, which enable N-DGMC to have high catalytic performance.

After nanotechnology was considered a key technology for the future of industry, several countries has established national nanotechnology development plans. As the importance of nanotechnology for creating innovation has increased significantly, leading countries in nanotechnology also have invested much in the transformation of nanoscience into commercialization. The US is a leading country in the nanotechnology area while Korea is one of the upcoming countries. In this study, we carried out a cross-country comparative study on R&D and commercialization trends of the two countries in the nanotechnology area by analyzing national nanotechnology budgets of the US and Korea. Through the comparative analysis, we expect to find out what roles the US and Korea governments will play to become world leaders in the nanotechnology area. We also expect to promote relevent policies and strategic positioning of both countries in the nanotechnology area. Additionally, we propose R&D directions for Korea’s nanotechnology policy based on this study.

Kyunghye Lee has completed her PhD from School of Computing, Soongsil University. She is working as a Research Fellow at National Nanotechnology Policy Center, Korea Institute of Science Technology Information.

Sophia Selvarajan is currently pursuing her PhD in Department of Advanced Convergence Technology and Science at Jeju National University, South Korea. She completed her Master of Technology in Nanotechnology at Karunya University, India and Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology at Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India. Her research areas of interest include “Nano-biosensors, self-powered systems for theranostics and drug delivery system.

Cysteine being an essential amino acid, source of sulfide, biomarker and a precursor has vital role in homeostasis. Abnormality in cysteine levels leads to chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Various cysteine detection techniques have been developed based on fluorometry, electrochemical voltammetry and fluorescence-coupled HPLC techniques involving tedious procedures limiting their practical applications. Self-powered nano sensors are gaining interest due to its own merits such as battery less operation, portability, point of care diagnosis, implantable applications and so on. First of its kind, direct detection and facile fabrication of cysteine responsive film based self-powered device has been reported. NH2 functionalized BaTiO3 NPs (BT- NH2 NPs) suspended in a 3D matrix of agarose film (Ag) serves as the sensing element for cysteine detection. The change in surface charge properties of the film with respect to cysteine concentrations were determined using I-V technique. The current response increased with increase in cysteine concentrations (linear concentration range is 10 µM to 1 mM). The composite’s properties invoked interest in developing piezoelectric nano-generator (PNG) which eventually lead to the fabrication of self-powered cysteine sensor (PNG’s output voltage was used for driving the sensor). The potential drop across the sensor was measured as a function of different cysteine concentrations in self-powered cysteine sensor. Real time analysis was performed using urine samples. The proposed sensor has good selectivity and detection limits down to 147 nM.

Yuki Matsunaga was received the B.E. degree from Yokohama National University, Kanagawa, Japan in 2014. He is now 2nd year of a master course student of Graduate School of Engineering, Yokohama National University. His current research interests include development of unique applications using carbon nanotubes (CNTs), i.e., of paint-type DSC using CNT-paints.

We propose “paint-type” dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) using carbon-nanotube (CNT) paints. Recently, solar power generation has been focused because of current environmental problems. The DSC that is one of solar cells consists of semiconducting and metallic electrodes facing each other. The semiconducting electrode is attached dye. When an electrolyte is placed between two electrodes and the cell is irradiated by light, it starts power generation. In this study, we develop and use semiconducting- and metallic-CNT paints for electrodes of our DSC. The semiconducting-paint contains the dye. Therefore, we can obtain the paint-type DSCs by only painting any objects. As a first study, we used ordinary papers as substrates to paint the CNT paints for two electrodes and found our DSC had power generating ability. However, its efficiency of power generation was not so high. We are now studying to improve the efficiency by controlling parameters of paints, electrolytes, and kinds of dyes. We here focus on conductivity of the paint on substrates because it influences the efficiency directly. We prepared some painted electrodes that had different conductivity and evaluated their properties. As results, we found that controlling conductivity must be needed to obtain high efficiency of power generation, i.e., we must control the concentrations of the CNT and other contents in the paints. In near future, we will study and find suitable parameters of electrolytes and the dyes. Finally, we will develop the high efficient paint-type DSC, we believe.

Xiaoxue Zhang has completed her master at the age of 25 years old from Soochow University. She is the PhD candidate of department of chemistry at Norweigian University of Science and Technology now. Her project is coating nanomaterials on the surface of sensor to protect against or minize fouling.

Surface fouling, which leads to a decrease in sensitivity and life-time of sensors, has been considered as a severe problem in sensing system. Therefore, there is an urgent demand for finding suitable anti-fouling materials in order to protect against or minimize the fouling on surface of sensor. It has been found that graphene oxide (GO), silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and poly (amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers exhibit strong antibacterial and anti-biofouling behaviour. Moreover, the highly branched and well defined PAMAM dendrimer has shown promising advantages on controlling the shape, size, stability, and solubility of metal nanoparticles due to its uniform compositions and structures. In this work, a nanohybrid, comprising silver nanoparticles within third-generation NH2-terminated PAMAM dendrimer which grafted onto GO, was applied on the surface of sensor by dip coating. The content of PAMAM grafted on GO was determined by a thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA). The structure of this nanohybrids was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy. The morphologies of Ag NPs with different size, which synthesized and deposited on GO/PAMAM, were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Furthermore, the anti-biofouling properties of the nanohybrid was also investigated by SEM and TEM after inserting control sensor and sensor with coating surface into closed-containment aquaculture systems for eight weeks.