Muhammad Aamir Shehzad

University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore | UET · Department of Polymer and Process Engineering

Liquid-fueled direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is highly promising for low-carbon transportation, but is hindered by high cost and short lifespan of conventional Pt-based electrocatalysts. Herein, we propose a new Pt-free catalyst strategy to exploit high-performing and stable electrocatalyst of DMFC, achieving enhanced electrocatalytic activity an...

A bipolar membrane (BPM) enables the dissociation of water into protons and hydroxide ions, which in-situ maintains a steady-state pH difference in electrochemical water electrolyzers for optimum electro-kinetics of the anode and cathode electrocatalysts. However, instability and high overpotential requirement of the commercial Fumasep BPMs to driv...

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells can generate high power using a potentially green fuel (H 2) and zero emissions of greenhouse gas (CO 2). However, significant mass transport resistances in the interface region of the membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), between the membrane and the catalyst layers remains a barrier to achieving MEAs with h...

Membranes of sub-2-nanometer channels show high ion transport rates, but it remains a great challenge to design such membranes with desirable ion selectivities for ion separation applications. Here, covalent organic framework (COF) membranes with a channel size of ≈1.4 nm and abundant hydrogen bonding sites, exhibiting efficient ion sieving propert...

Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-grafted imidazolium-containing flexible-side-chain type anion exchange membrane (AEM) has been designed and fabricated for efficient anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs). The cation-dipole interactions between electronegative alkoxy and imidazolium drive the spontaneous self-assembly of the cationic side chains, thu...

Highly conductive anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) are desirable for applications in various energy storage and conversion technologies. However, conventional AEMs with bulky HCO 3 ⁻ or Br ⁻ as counterion generally exhibit low conductivity because the covalent bonding restrains the tethered cationic group’s mobility and rotation. Here, we report an...

Acid recovery from industrial aqueous streams is an essential process, which commonly requires a cost-effective, energy-efficient, and straightforward approach, such as membrane technology. However, the limited acid/salt separation performance of the membrane materials makes the use of membrane technology very challenging. In this study, we fabrica...

Fabrication of thin-film composite metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) membranes (TFCMMs) has great potential to broaden the application scale due to excellent properties of MOFs, such as adjustable pore structure, high surface area, and uniform pore size. However, there are still some limitations on the TFCMMs such as low MOFs mass ratio and poor comp...

A catalytic bipolar membrane (BPM), comprising a pair of laminated anion-cation exchange membranes and catalytic interfacial layer, can efficiently dissociate water to in-situ produce acid and base in photo-electrolysis and electrodialysis processes. Many organic-inorganic catalytic interfacial layers show good water dissociation performance but en...

The exploitation of highly active, durable, low-cost electrocatalysts is urgent for the large-scale commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Herein, we report a facile method for developing Titanium/Titanium dioxide nanotubes/ Poly (5-aminoindole)/Palladium (Ti/TiO2NTs/PAIn/Pd) as an anode catalyst for methanol oxidation reaction (M...

Ion‐exchange membranes (IEMs) with tunable nanostructures possess great potential for energy‐efficient use in various applications such as electrodialysis, fuel cells, secondary batteries, and so on. Insight into the relationship between the morphology of the membrane nanostructures and the ions permeation is key to the realistic design and advance...

Precise manipulation of the polyelectrolyte self-assembly process, to form the desired microstructure with ion-conducting channels, is of fundamental and technological importance to many fields, such as fuel cells, flow batteries and electrodialysis. To fabricate anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with highly conductive and alkaline stable ion-conduct...

Optimal pH conditions for efficient artificial photosynthesis, hydrogen/oxygen evolution reactions, and photoreduction of carbon dioxide are now successfully achievable with catalytic bipolar membranes-integrated water dissociation and in-situ acid-base generations. However, inefficiency and instability are severe issues in state-of-the-art membran...

Precise control over polyelectrolyte architecture, engineered for self‐assembly of ion‐conducting channels, is of fundamental and technological importance to many fields, for example, fuel cells and redox flow batteries and electrodialysis. Building on recent advances with the supramolecular chemistry, we introduce inter/intra‐molecular cation–dipo...

High energy consumption, rapid increase in its demand and depletion of energy resources in the world are compelling the researchers for exploration of renewable energy resources in order to attain sustain development of nations. Many existing resources are being used to fulfil the current requirements. But these existing resources are also causing...

Monovalent cation permselective membranes (MCPMs) are highly desirable for the extraction of Li⁺ and Na⁺ ions from earth-abundant sources, such as salt lakes and seawater. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising functional nanomaterials with excellent potential for ion separation technologies owing to their regular structure and tunable pore...

Anion permselective membranes (APMs) are required for several sustainable membrane-integrated anion separations technologies such as electrodialysis (ED), diffusion dialysis (DD), and electro-nanofiltration (ENF). However, an existing trade-off between anion permeation and ion-charge permselectivity of the predominant commercial membranes urging re...

Bipolar membrane (BPM) has been used commercially in electrodialysis separation processes for the generation of acid and base from aqueous salt solutions, and electrochemical water splitting processes for hydrogen generation. Research advances have demonstrated that, upon a sufficient applied reverse bias, water molecules at the junction zone of th...

Ultrathin (< 600 nm) and defect-free leaf-like UiO-66-SO3H membranes were fabricated via in situ smart growth.The sulfonated angstrom-sized ion transport channels in the membranes could accelerate the cation permeation (~ 3× faster than non-functionalized UiO-66 membrane) and achieve a high ion selectivity (Na+/Mg2+ > 140). Ultrathin (< 600 nm) and...

Due to urbanisation and industrialisation, the growing rate of population is in high demand of green and sustainable energy. Fossil fuels seem to be less concern due to its rapid depletion and emission of toxic gases including CO 2 So, the production of cost effective and clean energy has attracted much attention of scientists. Solar fuels such as...

Low theoretical capacities of the commercial cathode materials (olivine: ~170 mAh g⁻¹ and spinel: ~140 mAh g⁻¹) dictates the need for higher energy density alternates such as nickel-rich (denotes as NCM) with a theoretical capacity of ~270 mAh g⁻¹. However, low conductivity and the bulk degradation after direct contact with liquid electrolytes, esp...

The synthesis of monovalent cation perm-selective membranes (MCPMs) to efficiently discriminate amongst cations from seawater is of great importance for several industrial applications. However, a technical approach is highly desired to construct MCPMs to obtain a high ionic flux and sustain perm-selectivity, simultaneously. In the present work, th...

Highly conductive and physico-chemically stable ion transport channels (ITCs) are desirable for numerous membrane-integrated sustainable technologies such as fuel cells, redox flow batteries, reverse electrodialysis, etc. However, a “trade-off” exists among the ion exchange capacity, conductivity, and stability of the ITCs. In this context, we here...

Layered nickel-rich cathode materials such as LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 (NCM523) possess huge potential in developing high-performance secondary batteries. However, the micron-sized particles of NCM523 in electrode laminates produce spacious interparticle voids (electronically dead zones) which dampen the charge transference and cause bulk material degra...

Due to urbanisation and industrialisation, the growing rate of population is in high demand of green and sustainable energy. Fossil fuels seem to be less concern due to its rapid depletion and emission of toxic gases including CO2 So, the production of cost effective and clean energy has attracted much attention of scientists. Solar fuels such as h...

The perm-selective separation of monovalent ions from the solution with the co-existence of multivalent ions was required in the industry of the wastewater treatment and resource recycling. Here in this work, a novel electro-driven in situ modification method was utilized in the positively charged tryptophan solution to prepare highly perm-selectiv...

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells can generate high power densities with low local emissions of pollutants. Opti-mal ionomer-Pt/C catalyst interactions in the electrodes enables the efficient generation and transport of ions and elec-trons required for high fuel cell performances. Critical durability issues involve agglomeration of the Pt/C n...

High performance and low-cost monovalent cation perm-selective membranes (MCPMs) are extremely desirable since the widespread demand for monovalent/multivalent cations separation. Herein, we developed a simple fabrication method for the preparation of electro-nanofiltration membranes (ENFMs), which were used as MCPMs for cations separation. The ult...

Alkaline fuel cell devices which convert chemical energy into electrical energy largely rely on the alkaline anion (OH⁻) conductive capacity of the central component (anion exchange membrane (AEM)). A well-known strategy to improve the OH⁻ conductivity is to construct ion channels inside the AEM for fast ion transport, instead of commonly increasin...

Artificial counterparts of conical‐shaped transmembrane protein channels are of interest in biomedical sciences for biomolecule detection and selective ion permeation based on ionic size and/or charge differences. However, industrial‐scale applications such as seawater desalination, separation of mono‐ from divalent cations, and treatment of highly...

Conical‐shaped transmembrane protein channels are essential for the transport of ions across lipid bilayers in biological tissues and organisms. Their artificial counterparts are of high applicative interest in biomedical sciences for biomolecule detection and selective ion permeation based on ionic‐size and/or charge differences. However, industri...

Salinity gradient power (SGP) has attracted extensive research interests as a renewable energy source. Compared with energy generated from solar and wind, the direct adoption of SGP is currently impractical. Splitting water in salinity-gradient-power driven reverse electrodialysis, appears to be an effective way to utilize such energy, producing hi...

Anion exchange membranes (AEMs) are crucial components for advanced energy and environment processes including alkaline fuel cells, redox flow batteries, and industrial effluent treatment; while low anionic conductivity and poor stability remain the major challenges for the widespread implementation of AEMs. Through molecular engineering, comb-shap...

Highly cation permselective metal–organic framework (MOF) membranes are desirable for the extraction of valuable metal cations. However, fabrication of defect‐free and stable permselective MOF membranes is technically challenging, owing to their arduous self‐assembly and poor water resistance, respectively. A simple and readily scalable method has...

Mitochondrion is a dually-membrane-bound biological nanostructure which serves as a cellular power house in living organisms. Its artificial counterpart envisions high applicative interest in batteries owing to the electrochemical energy transformation and storage functionalities. Inspired by the mitochondrion’s structural-functionality characteris...

Highly ions permeable channeled polymeric membranes are desirable for water treatment, energy transformation, and energy storage devices such as electrodialysis, fuel cells, and batteries, respectively. However, excessive swelling per unit water of solvation and reduction in ions permeation efficiency of the conventional ion transport channels dict...

Membrane fouling is always thought to be a disadvantage aspect for their performance during electro-membrane processes. The irreversible fouling is hard to clean and steadily adheres on the membrane surface and generally induces the degradation of membranes. Considering structural similarity between irreversible surface fouling layer and functional...

In this work, high performance cross-linked anion exchange membranes with hydrophobic side-chains were prepared via quaternization reaction and a simple heat treatment. The cross-linked membrane structure, the hydrophobic side-chain and the micro-phase separated morphology of membranes have synergistic effect on ion selective separation. Accordingl...

Aqueous organic flow batteries (AOFBs) are promising energy storage solutions to counteract the intermittent and fluctuating nature of renewable energy. However, we have limited options of electrolyte chemistry and we doomed many organic compounds because of their sluggish electrochemical kinetics, which would compromise the power capability of an...

Side-chain-type polymer architectures have been extensively studied for development of highly conductive fuel cell membranes. However, the commonly used rigid, hydrophobic spacers (between the ionic end-group and polymer backbone) limit self-assembly of ionic side-chains and, therefore, ion transport. Herein, we report a flexible, hydrophilic side-...

Zero discharge of high-salinity solutions has become a hot topic due to its significance for environmental protection. Vacuum evaporation can be used to treat the abovementioned solutions to produce freshwater and coarse salts, but it consumes a large amount of power. Multistage-batch electrodialysis (ED) has been proposed to concentrate the high-s...

To access highly ion-conductive membrane materials which are urgently desired by the technologies like fuel cells, flow batteries, electro-dialysis etc., a novel polymer architecture featured by the densely grafting of three ionic strings onto each benzene ring was developed. Compared with the previous densely functionalized AEMs prepared by closel...

Heavy metals and trace organics are two common contaminants in wastewaters that require proper treatment due to their poor biodegradability and high toxicity. Electro-driven membrane processes are feasible for the separation of ionic contaminants but are useless with neutral organics. In this paper, a novel process called Complexation Electrodialys...

Highly permeable and selective membranes are desirable for mono/divalent cations separation. Here, we report the fabrication of a novel monovalent cation perm-selective membrane (MCPM) for selective cations separation via electrodialysis. The selective layer was fabricated via interfacial polymerization of ethylenediamine, tetraethylenepentamine an...

Highly conductive anion exchange membranes (AEMs) are urgently desired for various electro-chemical technologies like fuel cells, flow batteries and electro-dialysis. Available strategies for enhancing hydroxide conductivity of a AEM commonly focus on increasing the concentration of the cationic sites, but, in turn, causes undesirable, excessive di...

Highly alkaline stable anion exchange membrane is a critical component in the alkaline polyelectroyltes fuel cells (APEFCs). However, the commonly employed cationic moieties in the membrane show limited alkaline stability, thereby hardly enduring harsh fuel cell operating conditions. In this study, we synthesize a series of imidazolium-type anion-e...

Hierarchically structured porous membranes have shown promising advantages over traditional membranes when used in separation technologies. These bio-inspired sophisticated structures provide a feasible scaffold to tailor membranes with desired functionalities for potential applications in ion separation. This study presents a unique approach to fa...

The primary aim of the research reported in this paper is to study the influence of the type of dopant, used in the synthesis of polyaniline, on the physico-mechanical and electrical properties of polyaniline filled composites. Polyaniline (PAni) doped with four different dopants was used as a filler in the interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs)...

BOOK

Kunitz Inhibitor (Q2ES47) is a Kunitz-type serine protease inhibitor isolated from the venom of the Daboia russelii (Russel's viper). This molecule binds to and blocks the activity of a range of serine proteases, like trypsin. In the present work 3-D model of the Kunitz Inhibitor (Q2ES47) was prepared with the online software SWISS MODEL. The polyp...

Snake venom is a complex mixture of pharmacologically interesting molecules. In a previous work we isolated and identified bradykinin potentiating peptides (BPP) from the venoms of Bothrops Jararacussu, Vipera ammodytes meridionali and Naja mossambica mossambica. These bradykinin potentiating peptides are inhibitors of angiotensin converting enzyme...

This research work discusses the synthesis and characterization of cation-exchange membranes comprising thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polyaniline (PAni) doped with camphor sulphonic acid (CSA). Polyaniline was synthesized by solution-phase polymerization technique and in these blend membranes PAni content varied between 10-40 % of PAni. T...

In this study, polyether ether ketone (PEEK) resin was sulfonated where the time of sulfonation reaction was varied at constant reaction temperature. After sulfonating PEEK, membranes of constant thickness were cast by solution casting method using a casting blade. Ion exchange capacity (IEC) of the membranes was determined by titration techniqu...

Salyclic acid is widely known for its interesting biological functions and medicinal applications. Anthranilic acid also has pharmaceutical applications and other industrial applications as in the production of dyes, corrosion inhibitor and perfumes. It is sometimes called as vitamin L1. In the present work, group 2 metal salicylate and anthranilat...

Synthesis of high proton permeable (H +) membranes is a challenge in fuel cell technology. This study reveals the synthesis of high H + ion permeable polyether-ether ketone based membranes suitable for fuel cell applications. To develop such membranes, the effect of reaction (sulfonation) time on the mechanical, physical and chemical properties of...

In order to improve essential properties of polyethylene, polar monomers such as acrylic acid, acryl amide, and methacrylic acid can be introduced onto polyethylene. In this work binary mixture of methacrylic acid and styrene monomers, in presence of benzoyl peroxide as an initiator, were grafted onto low density polyethylene. Characterization of t...

Flame retarded fluxed Polyvinylchloride / Acrylonitrile Butadiene Rubber compositions can be prepared by (a) pre-stabilization of PVC, (b) blending pre-stabilized PVC with NBR to form a pre-stabilized NBR/PVC blend, (c) applying heat and shear to intimately blend said pre-stabilized NBR/PVC blend into fluxed NBR / PVC blend. Four different composit...