Ramesh Adhikari

Colgate University · Department of Physics and Astronomy

A tunable, meta‐linked aryl ether polymer scaffold enables the introduction of various acid groups for a fundamental comparison of their contributions to proton conduction. Sulfonic acid‐functionalized polymers offer the best proton conduction at low temperature and high relative humidity, while phosphonic acid‐functionalized polymers outperform su...

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing problem in the world due to increasing consumption and subsequent discarding of electronic devices. One of the ways to address this problem is to develop electronics made up of biodegradable components. Leaves are readily available, biodegradable and can be found with various types of architecture of the vasc...

Most pre-to-post-instruction results of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) indicate a decline in students' beliefs and attitudes about learning physics. However, by comparing post-instruction CLASS responses with retrospective responses, we have found that such results can be affected by response-shift bias due to students...

The possibility that bacteria other than Geobacter species might contain genes for electrically conductive pili (e-pili) was investigated by heterologously expressing pilin genes of interest in Geobacter sulfurreducens. Strains of G. sulfurreducens producing high current densities, which are only possible with e-pili, were obtained with pilin genes...

Importance: e-pili are a remarkable electrically conductive material that can be sustainably produced without harsh chemical processes from renewable feedstocks and that contain no toxic components in the final product. Thus, e-pili offer an unprecedented potential for developing novel materials, electronic devices, and sensors for diverse applica...

Easy to make photovoltaic devices incorporating perovskite active-layer materials have been observed to exhibit high efficiency energy conversion. Unfortunately, the performance of these devices degrade over time, especially with regards to continued exposure of light. Recent work using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements at s...

Genetic modification to add tryptophan to PilA, the monomer for the electrically conductive pili of Geobacter sulfurreducens, yields conductive protein filaments 2000-fold more conductive than the wild-type pili while cutting the diameter in half to 1.5 nm.

Studies on the mechanisms for extracellular electron transfer in Geobacter species have primarily focused on Geobacter sulfurreducens, but the poor conservation of genes for some electron transfer components within the Geobacter genus suggests that there may be a diversity of extracellular electron transport strategies among Geobacter species. Exam...

The electrically conductive pili of Geobacter species have been proposed to play an important role in long-range electron transfer to Fe(III) oxides and other cells and have potential as a sustainable source of electrically conductive materials. Surprisingly, there have been no previous reports on the actual conductivity of individual pili, probabl...

Solar cells fabricated using alkyl ammonium metal halides as light absorbers have the right combination of high power conversion efficiency and ease of fabrication to realize inexpensive but efficient thin film solar cells. However, they degrade under prolonged exposure to sunlight. Herein we show that this degradation is quasi-reversible, and that...

We report a broadly useful, stepwise strategy for anchoring strongly Lewis acidic metal centers within porous frameworks—all by means of thiol-functionalized Zr(IV)-based metal-organic framework (MOF). First, the strong-binding thiol (-SH) groups take up the metal ion guest (e.g., Hg2+); the resultant metal-thiolate units (tethered to host net via...

We present results from studies of the effectiveness of an overlap technique for forming a magnetic seal across a gap at the boundary between a cylindrical magnetic shield and an end-cap. In this technique a thin foil of magnetic material overlaps the two surfaces, thereby spanning the gap across the cylinder and the end-cap, with the magnetic seal...

Metglas 2705M is a low-cost commercially available, high-permeability cobalt-based magnetic alloy, provided as a 5.08-cm wide and 20.3-μm thick ribbon foil. We present an optimized construction technique for single-shell, large-scale (human-size), thin, open-ended cylindrical Metglas magnetic shields. The measured dc axial and transverse magnetic s...