Anupma Thakur

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis | IUPUI · Mechanical and Energy Engineering

This chapter aims to apprise the reader about the advancement in graphene-based membranes towards desalination approaches. Desalination is a crucial technique in alleviating the water shortage crisis that is plaguing many parts of the world currently. Polymeric membranes have been in use till now for desalination in reverse osmosis driven processes...

Titanium diboride (TiB2), a layered ceramic material, comprised of titanium atoms sandwiched in between honeycomb planes of boron atoms, exhibits a promising structure to utilize the rich chemistry offered by the synergy of titanium and boron. TiB2 has been primarily investigated and applied in its bulk form. This perspective is, however, fast evol...

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have sought intensive research attention from diverse scientific disciplines due to their unique and exciting properties. The most well-known 2D material is graphene that finds applications in various physical and life sciences fields. There has been a surge in the protocols available to synthesize graphene during the...

Nanoscaling AlB2-type metal borides has gained traction over the years. We introduced the term XBenes to better demarcate these quasi 2-dimensional nanomaterials from other 2D Boron nanostructures

In the present work, green synthesized plasmonic copper nanostructures derived from carbon quantum dots (PCQDs) activated ZnO microarrays (MAs) based catalyst system is developed and studied for photocatalytic activity and photoelectrocatalytic water splitting. CQDs are synthesized from pharmaceutical waste and used as a reducing agent to synthesiz...

Data science has been an invaluable part of the COVID-19 pandemic response with multiple applications, ranging from tracking viral evolution to understanding the vaccine effectiveness. Asymptomatic breakthrough infections have been a major problem in assessing vaccine effectiveness in populations globally. Serological discrimination of vaccine resp...

Water quality monitoring has become more critical in recent years to ensure the availability of clean and safe water from natural aquifers and to understand the evolution of water contaminants across time and space. The conventional water monitoring techniques comprise of sample collection, preservation, preparation, tailed by laboratory testing an...

Herein, we report a facile colorimetric sensor based upon Au/Carbon Dots (Au@CDs) for selective and sensitive detection of l-cysteine. Au@CDs are synthesized by a green route from CDs via the one-step reduction method. The as-synthesized Au@CDs exhibit characteristic surface plasmon peak at 528 nm. Furthermore, based on the induced aggregation effe...

Paper, in addition to its frequent usage in writing, packaging, printing, etc., has gained comprehensive utility as a flexible and conductive base in sensors, solar energy harvesting, conversion, and storage applications. This is due to its strategic-aiding aspect in terms of environmental friendliness, cost-effectiveness, recyclability, thin, flex...

Data science has been an invaluable part of the COVID-19 pandemic response with multiple applications, ranging from tracking viral evolution to understanding the effectiveness of interventions. Asymptomatic breakthrough infections have been a major problem during the ongoing surge of Delta variant globally. Serological discrimination of vaccine res...

This research describes the synthesis of a covalent bioconjugate of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) and glutaminase (10 units·mg⁻¹) for electrochemical and photoluminescent (PL) detection of L-glutamine (Gln). As synthesized GQDs exhibited uniform size distribution, (average diameter ∼5–10 nm, and discrete blue emission characteristics (λex = 391±2 nm...

Industrial effluents, the waste discharge from different industries and treatment plants, are increasing exponentially due to the lack of adequate regulatory policies and implementation thereof. As a result, the industrial outflow is posing a grave threat to aquifers, including ground and surface water. In particular, the dependency on groundwater...

In this work, we report green synthesis of Cu-doped carbon quantum dots (CQDs), abbreviated as Cu@CQDs, using CQDs derived from Citrus limetta waste pulp, as a reducing and capping agent. Synthesis parameters are optimized in terms of synthesis temperature and thus optimized Cu@CQDs are characterized for their structural and optical properties. T...

Selenium (Se) is a multifaceted trace metalloid that has a significant impact on the well‐being of living organisms. Nevertheless, its consumption at higher concentrations has been found to cause a negative impact on humans’ and animals’ health, including aquatic species. Thus, the detection of selenium has received considerable attention in the la...

To understand the spread of SARS-CoV2, in August and September 2020, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India), conducted a sero-survey across its constituent laboratories and centers across India. Of 10,427 volunteers, 1058 (10.14%) tested positive for SARS CoV2 anti-nucleocapsid (anti-NC) antibodies; 95% with surrogate neutralizat...

Selenium as an element lies at a narrow boundary of micronutrient and toxicant due to its chronic health effects when consumed above 10 ppb. A minimum of 40 µg/day of selenium is, however, recommended to intake in a daily diet. However, its consumption beyond a permissible limit through consumption of contaminated water/food has adverse health effe...

Water contamination by various toxic pollutants has turn out to be one of the utmost ecological glitches worldwide. To date, on the technology front, there have been numerous approaches for water treatment namely reagent coagulation, ion-exchange, adsorption, filtration technologies (microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osm...

This study reports a facile and economical route for transformation of pharmaceutical waste (i.e., expired medicines) into value-added fluorescent carbon quantum dots (abbreviated as pharmaceutically derived CQDs(P-CQDs)). The synthesized P-CQDs were identified to have surface functionalities of –OH, C=O, and C=C with an average size of ~2-3 nm and...

We herein demonstrate polypyrrole decorated micro-porous laboratory filter paper (PFP) as photoanode (PA) for efficient and stable water splitting. The straddling band position with water redox and the measured band gap of ~1.98 eV, make these PFP-PAs effective for water splitting reactions. The results manifest excellent photo-anodic PEC activity...

Fossil fuels, as contemporary energy sources, have been largely employed to meet the world’s total energy demands for centuries. While the upsurge in global population and economic developments has caused extreme stress on these fuels, which has further allivaited the environmental concerns. Thus the echoes for clean and sustainable energy sources...

Graphene is a promising material of carbon family, with hexagonal structure assembly entailing of sp2 hybridized carbon atoms. The distinctive electrical, chemical and optical properties make graphene-based composites accessible in the various applications. Research efforts have been fervent for reconnoitering the essential physics, chemistry and n...

The amplified upsurge of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, surpassing 400 parts per million (ppm), apexes the need for CO2 reduction processes. The process of artificial photosynthesis towards solar energy harvesting and its conversion to chemical fuels (e.g. hydrogen, methane, or methanol) are expedient in powering tomorrow’s energy econ...

The development of alternative clean and renewable fuels has become the need of the hour due to the decreasing supply of fossil fuels. Solar hydrogen produced from water is a sustainable, green substitute for fossil fuels for a variety of applications (e.g., transport, power generation, and industrial energy). However, cost-effective, efficient, an...

Organic pollutants such as dyes and pharmaceutical drugs have become an environmental menace in particular in water bodies owing to their unregulated discharge. It is thus required to develop an economically viable and environment friendly approach for their degradation in water bodies. In this work, we report for the first time green route synthes...

Here we report, for the first time, a simple one-step recycling of discharged batteries, a major constituent of electronic waste (e-waste), into value-added fluorescent nanomaterials - carbon quantum dots (CQDs). The e-waste derived CQDs (eW-CQDs) were systematically characterized for their optical properties, including absorption, photoluminescenc...

The present work is the first report on the synthesis of Carbon dots (CDs) using the acetone leaf extract of Cannabis sativa, an abundant weed plant as a sole carbon precursor. The obtained CDs were of ~5 nm size amporphous particles, exhibiting 13% absolute quantum yield. These CDs were further used as reducing and stabilising agent to synthesize...

Heavy metal pollution of water resources is of worldwide concern, stimulating the development of breakthroughs in detection and remedy technologies. In the digital age, imaging solutions have been applied to almost every sector of civil society, from health and manufacturing to diagnostics, defense, and personal security. The next generation of mon...

The ever-increasing demand for renewable and clean energy sources has prompted the development of novel materials for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, but efficient solar to hydrogen conversion remains a big challenge. In this work, we report a bio-nanohybrid strategy in a photo-system to simultaneously enhance the charge separation and...

Evolution in the sensor design and their potential usage in water quality monitoring has revealed the aptitude of material science in the environment protection practices. Consequently, the progress in scientific literature is rising to tail consistent and sophisticated sensory platforms. In this context, colorimetric sensors are categorised as ben...

Largely enhanced applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) ~7.8%. Abstract The ever-increasing demand for renewable and clean energy sources has prompted the development of novel materials for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, but efficient solar to hydrogen conversion remains a big challenge. In this work, we report a bio-nanohyb...

We herein present the Au and Ag NPs synthesized via chemical reduction with green synthesized carbon nano lights (CNL) as a visible light photosensitizer for TiO2 nanofibers (TNFs) towards photoelectrochemical water splitting. The synthesized photoanodes (PA1: TNFs, PA2: Ag@CNLs/TNFs and PA3: Au@CNLs/TNFs) were probed ex-situ for morphological, str...

With increased industrial revolution, the anthropogenic contaminants have found their way into the natural systems including air, water (surface, ground, river, etc.), soil, and ultimately to food chain. While the scientific community is tirelessly involved in finding solutions for traditional contaminants such as heavy metals, nitrate, anions (flu...

With the foreseeable world’s progress and its dependence on petroleum industry have outstretched distresses about the countless environmental challenges and has turn into an alarming research arena. Amongst many petrochemical pollutant degradation methodologies, photocatalytic degradation is a utilizable method in view of the abundant resource i.e....

A diverse range of materials (e.g., metallic nanoparticles, semiconductor oxides, composites, polymers, and MOFs) have been reported for sensing applications in water samples based on several transduction techniques (e.g., absorbance, fluorescence, Raman, colorimetry, voltammetry, and plasmon resonance). Recently, carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have ga...

The work presents the facile green synthesis of blue luminescent C-dots (CDs) using papaya waste (Carica papaya) as a precursor. The as-synthesized CDS exhibit a quantum yield of 23.7% and are of size < 10 nm, while their polymerized architecture is confirmed by NMR spectroscopic analysis. The presence of various carbonyl and carboxyl surface group...

The present work reports green route-waste recycled carbon nanolights i.e. carbon dots (GCDs) synthesized via a facile one-step pyrolysis method from Citrus limetta waste pulp (CLWP). The size of these obtained pristine GCDs is ~4-7 nm, with high optical and structural quality as revealed by FT-IR and Raman spectroscopic analysis. They exhibit the...

Arsenic poisoning of water resources has been of universal concern because of its serious health impact and on the ecosystem. As such, several efforts have been made on promising optical detection of arsenic utilizing various transduction platforms. However, the substantial role of sensor material cannot be ignored in the design of cost-effective,...

Carbon dots (CDs) have emerged out as a potential material amongst the carbon family for a wide range of applications including chemical/biological sensing, photocatalysis, bioimaging, etc. The green synthesis of these CDs from natural sources is gaining the significant interest of peer community for their wide utility. Herein, we present a facile...

Herein, we report an electrochemically synthesized Au/ZnO nanocomposite (NC) onto a disposable ITO electrode for selective detection of selenium (IV), the utmost toxic chemical species of selenium, in water using the square wave anodic stripping voltammetry as transduction technique. The NC is synthesized via one-step electrochemical reduction meth...

Selenium, a metalloid, commonly known for its essentially has emerged out as a water pollutant of concern for environmentalist due to its presence in natural water resources above the permissible limit. The high level of selenium in the environment poses severe health and ecosystem threats, therefore, its monitoring in water is of paramount concern...

The hydrogen production from water using photocatalyst under sunlight still remains a huge challenge. The search of suitable photocatalyst would combine an ability to dissociate water molecules having a band gap that absorbs light in visible range and to remain stable in contact with water. In, this regard present study represents a facile method f...

This work reports a label free, ultrasensitive and selective optical chemosensory system for trace level detection of selenite (SeO32-), the most toxic form of Selenium, in water. The probe, i.e., carbon quantum dots (CQDs), is designed from citric acid by means of pyrolysis and is interfaced with a newly synthesized nitrogen rich ligand to create...

Herein, we report an environmental friendly, facile, and completely green synthetic method for producing carbon quantum dots (CQDs) from whey, a major dairy waste. The as-prepared monodispersed diameter CQDs exhibit blue luminescence with noteworthy quantum yield (~11.4%) and excitation dependent emission behaviour. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)...

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have emerged out as promising fluorescent probes for hazardous heavy metals detection in recent past. In this study, water soluble CQDs were synthesized by facile microwave pyrolysis of citric acid & cysteamine, and functionalized with ditheritheritol to impart thiol functionalities at surface for selective detection of t...