Yousef Haik

University of Sharjah | US · Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) can be produced using a variety of methods, such as different fabrication methods, device layout modification, and ingredients and interfaces...

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are an emerging and promising alternative to the market-leading solar cells due to their high performance, low fabrication cost, and versatile material modification. There are still...

This paper addresses the capability to alter the hydrophilic wettability characteristics of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer films doped with glycerol. Films of PVA and glycerol-choline chloride (GCC) blends have been prepared using the solution casting method with different glycerol dopants ranging from 0% to 10% (wt %). The results show that as...

Acute ischemic stroke is the most common cause of neurologic dysfunction caused by focal brain ischemia and tissue injury. Diabetes is a major risk factor of stroke, exacerbating disease management and prognosis. Therefore, discovering new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets is critical for stroke prevention and treatment. Extracellular vesi...

Acute ischemic stroke is the most common cause of neurologic dysfunction caused by focal brain ischemia and tissue injury. Diabetes is a major risk factor of stroke, exacerbating disease management and prognosis. Therefore, discovering new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets is critical for stroke prevention and treatment. Extracellular vesi...

Bone infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus may lead to an inflammatory condition called osteomyelitis, which results in progressive bone loss. Biofilm formation, intracellular survival, and the ability of S. aureus to evade the immune response result in recurrent and persistent infections that present significant challenges in treating osteomy...

This paper addresses the capability to alter the wettability characteristics of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer films doped with glycerol. Films of PVA and glycerol-choline chloride (GCC) blends have been prepared by solution casting method with different glycerol dopants ranging from 0% to 10% (wt %). The results show that as the dopant content...

Bone infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus may lead to an inflammatory condition called osteomyelitis, which results in progressive bone loss. Biofilm formation, intracellular survival, and the ability of S. aureus to evade the immune response result in recurrent and persistent infections that present significant challenges in treating osteomy...

This chapter provides an extensive review of the fundamental principles underlying electrocatalysis in the context of electrochemical water splitting, focusing on the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). It encompasses crucial topics in this field, including hydrogen production technologies, the electrochemical mec...

In this chapter, we comprehensively explore the bottlenecks that hinder efficient hydrogen production through water electrolysis. Various challenges related to membrane use in electrolysis, including selectivity, durability, and performance limitations, are discussed. The chapter also highlights the problems related to metal corrosion, which can ca...

This chapter provides an in-depth exploration of single-atom catalysts (SACs) for electrochemical water splitting. We compare and contrast the features of nanoparticles and SACs, emphasizing the unique properties of the latter, including high catalytic activity and selectivity. The effect of support materials on SACs is explored in detail, highligh...

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of recommended guidelines for the precise reporting of the electrochemical performance of nanomaterials. The chapter covers various critical aspects of electrocatalysis reporting, including electrolyte preparation, reliable reporting of overpotential, Tafel slope calculation, and proper reporting of tu...

This chapter explores emerging electrocatalytic strategies for efficient and sustainable hydrogen production from water. First, conventional water electrolysis is discussed, along with its associated challenges, including high energy consumption, slow kinetics, and limited durability of the electrocatalyst. Approaches to overcome these challenges,...

This book chapter offers an inclusive summary of electrode setups and water electrolysis technologies, focusing on electrocatalysts, their function, and their role in electrode potential. The chapter discusses the selection of counter, working, and reference electrodes in the context of electrochemical reactions. The different electrode setups, ran...

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various electrochemical methods for measuring water-splitting efficiency. The discussed techniques include cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, Tafel plot analysis, exchange current density determination, turnover number and frequency analysis, Faradaic efficiency determinatio...

In this chapter, we discuss electronic modulation techniques that can enhance the performance of electrocatalysts in water electrolysis. The effects of cation doping, heteroatom doping, and the creation of oxygen vacancies on electrocatalytic activity are discussed in detail. Additionally, multimetallic electrocatalysts and their ligand and strain...

This chapter provides an in-depth overview of emerging techniques for synthesizing self-supported electrocatalysts. The chapter begins by discussing the essential role of electrocatalysts in enhancing electrochemical reactions and the advantages of self-supported electrocatalysts over conventional-supported electrocatalysts. The chapter then presen...

This book chapter is a detailed examination of the structural modification of electrocatalysts for achieving enhanced water electrolysis. First, the chapter provides an extensive analysis of the surface structure of catalysts. Then, it investigates various advanced techniques for modifying it, including core–shell nanostructures, 2D and 3D nanomate...

This study presents the engineering of a sustainable electrode for unpurified seawater electrolysis, featuring Ca-doped manganese oxide nanorods anchored on a Ni(OH)2 microarray. The designed electrode demonstrates enhanced stability through...

A nano‐micro heterostructure has been established to address the challenges of selectivity, stress, pitting corrosion, and long‐term durability of anodes in unpurified seawater. The heterostructure comprised NiOOH nanosheets embedded within a high surface area Ni(OH)2 microarray, and the surface structure is further functionalized with sulfate (SOx...

Immune therapeutics hold great promise in the treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Nonetheless, their progress has been hampered by limited efficacy, equipoise, or issues of safety. To address this, we developed a novel and specific nanodelivery platform for T1D that targets high endothelial venules (HEVs) presented in the pancreatic lymph nodes (PL...

We have investigated the ball-milling time effect on different physical properties of La0.6◻0.1Te0.3MnO3 system (LT) milled for 1 hour (LT-1h), 3 hours (LT-3h), and 6 hours (LT-6h). According to Williamson-Hall method, as the ball-milling duration is increased, the material's crystallite size decreases from approximately 145 to 99 nm for LT-1h and...

The mechanical and thermal properties of nylon 6.6 on polypropylene (PP) blends were investigated. Five weight percentages of nylon 6.6, 1 wt%—5 wt%, were blended with PP by an injection molding process to produce PP/nylon 6.6 blends. The impact of the mixture on the mechanical properties was investigated by performing a three-point bend test to de...

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a core reaction of electrochemical water splitting accountable for converting electricity into an ideal energy carrier, “hydrogen.” This anodic reaction is kinetically sluggish due to multi-intermediates and the complex proton-coupled electron transfer process. The electrocatalyst with optimum surface and electron...

Neuronal exosomes play a crucial role in intercellular communication in the brain and represent a promising biomarker for neurological diseases, including stroke. However, limited techniques are available for isolating neuronal exosomes due to their small number in the serum exosomes. Thus, the development of efficient tools with brain-specific mar...

Compared with freshwater splitting, seawater electrolysis has more spaces to be explored, which is primarily attributed to the additional critical catalytic challenges of the competition between anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and chlorine chemistry, deep corrosion, and site blocking due to the presence of chloride ions and insoluble particu...

Nickel-iron oxides have been suggested to be an efficient and selective low-cost anode for seawater oxidation due to their unique orbital confinement and compatible electronic structure. However, their poor stability at high current density in corrosive seawater is the main bottleneck in the seawater electrolysis for H2 production. Herein, a g-C3N4...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death; by the time it is diagnosed, the patient is usually in late-stage grade IV. Late-stage lung cancer is mainly associated with metastasis in the liver, brain, and lymphoid tissues; as a result, a localized lung cancer treatment remains meaningless. Early diagnosis of NSCLC lung cancer may be curable or will...

The anticancer property of silver–copper metallic nanoparticles (AgCu‐NPs) is of greater interest in cancer therapeutics; however, its off‐target toxicity limits its therapeutic application. Exosomes emerge as one of the leading idiosyncratic nanocarrier choices for cancer therapeutics due to their size, stability, and phenotypic diversity; however...

Given the slow approval rate for new antibiotics and the inability of current antibiotics to fully control bacterial infection, it is obvious that there is a great demand for unconventional biocides. Metallic nanoparticles, another possible route for fighting bacteria, should be considered. Metallic bactericidals have been in use for several years...

Multifunctional porous NiCo bimetallic foams toward water splitting and methanol oxidation-assisted hydrogen production

Hydrogen generation from Seawater: Electrolysis over cost-effective and scalable Heterogenous catalyst

Circulating cancer cells or exosomes derived from these cells constitute a solid predictive marker of the disease activity. However, the low frequency of the cells and exosomes provides a technical challenge for diagnostic devices. In this review, we present the current state of the art for utilizing exosomes derived from cancerous cells as a predi...

n this research work, we studied the microwave properties of multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) surface functionalized with metallic oxides composites. Three different concentrations (5%, 10%, and 20%) of metallic oxides were used, namely cobalt, iron, and cobalt ferrite. The surface-decorated CNTS were impregnated into polyurethane (PU) matrix. Th...

Several metal oxides, such as tungsten oxide (WO3), are considered superior sensing materials for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) detection in the ambient environment. In this study, silver loaded tungsten oxide nanoparticles were prepared by microwave-assisted chemical route. Nanoparticle thin films were deposited on substrates with electrical electrodes t...

Seawater electrolysis offers a promising technology for environmental remediation and mass production of sustainable hydrogen. However, intricated synthetic routes, limited oxygen selectivity, and electrode corrosion severely hamper the practical viability of this technology. Here, we designed an effective strategy to assemble interface-rich, Au NC...

Hydrogen, due to its high energy density (over 4 times per kg energy capacity compared to that of petrol or diesel) and clean-burning characteristics (water being the sole by-product), is an ideal fuel. It can be obtained by simply electrolyzing water. However, hydrogen production on a large scale from water splitting is mainly constrained due to i...

Electrochemical splitting of seawater is highly preferable over freshwater electrolysis to produce sustainable hydrogen terrifically due to its abundance in nature. Seawater electrolysis is encouraging to produce green hydrogen and safe drinking water. The accomplishment of seawater electrolysis needs robust and cost-effective anode material that s...

Based on the evolution of the quantity of Sr in Pr0.63Dy0.37-xSrxMnO3 (x = 0.00 and x = 0.30) systems and the different heat treatments (500, 800 and 1300 °C), various physical changes are illustrated by these samples. X-ray diffraction patterns were carried out revealing that the heat temperature can affect the structure of the systems. Zero-Field...

Magnetic, morphological, and physical properties of Pr0.63La0.37−xSrxMnO3 (xSr = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, and 0.30) magnetic nanoparticles have been studied experimentally based on the evolution of the amount of Sr in these systems and by heat treatment. A solid-state reaction method was used to prepare the samples. The microstructure of the s...

Drug bearing nano-shells that can be utilized for targeted drug delivery have been shown to enhance the therapeutic index by increasing the dug concentration in diseased tissue and reducing the toxicity in normal tissue. The controllability of the drug bearing shell size provides predictability measure for the amount of drug payload per shell which...

The study of magnetic measurements and magnetic memory effect was performed on nanocrystalline single-phase powders of GdMnO3 synthesized by the sol–gel method. They were structurally characterized via X-ray diffraction patterns and scanning electron microscopy images. The sol–gel method was coupled with mixing and blending the material powder usin...

Stroke is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality globally, with devastating effects. It is diagnosed mainly by clinical assessment and brain imaging; however, it is challenging to discriminate stroke from similar conditions with parallel presentations. While brain imaging provides detection of stroke infarcts, it does not provide useful...

In this paper, we report oxidation time effect on highly porous silver oxide nanowires thin films fabricated using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and oxygen plasma etching method. The NW’s morphological, electrical, and optical properties were investigated under different plasma etching periods and the number of deposition cycles. The increase of plasm...

We discussed the binary rare-earth-based intermetallic Er 1-x Co 2 systems structurally, magnetically and in the field of the magnetic cooling with the effect of Er deficiency on all these properties. Four series of Er 1-x Co 2 (x = 0.00; 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.15) samples were prepared via arc-melting method and investigated as magnetic refrigeran...

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a bottleneck process in the water-splitting module for sustainable and clean energy production. Transition metal-based electrocatalysts can be effective as water-splitting catalytic materials because of their appropriate redox properties and natural abundance, but the slow kinetics because of strong adsorption and...

Background Breast cancer is therapeutically very challenging to treat as it has the main four known genetic alterations, which result in the existence of several phenotypes leading to the difference in the mode of therapy and with poor outcome. Metallic nanoparticles of silver or copper have been studied previously as anticancer agents in breast ca...

Adoptive cell transfer of ex vivo expanded regulatory T cells (T regs) has shown immense potential in animal models of auto-and alloimmunity. However, the effective translation of such T reg therapies to the clinic has been slow. Because T reg homeostasis is known to require continuous T cell receptor (TCR) ligation and exogenous interleukin-2 (IL-...

La0.63Gd0.37MnO3 material was synthesized using the Pechini-modified-sol–gel method at different sintering temperatures 600, 650, 750, 800, and 900 °C. After characterizing the samples structurally and magnetically, we report a direct relation between the crystallite size, particles agglomeration level, and material performance in field-cooling/zer...

The oxidation of Au/Ag alloy thin films using radio-frequency oxygen plasma was studied in this work. It was demonstrated that there is a phase separation occurring between silver and gold. In addition, it was shown that the preferential oxidation of silver resulted in a solid-state diffusion of silver toward the surface where it oxidized and forme...

In this study, we report on the electrical properties of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) composites functionalized with metal or metal alloy oxides and embedded in a polyurethane matrix to develop a lightweight material for microwave absorption and shielding. The CNT nanoparticles are functionalized with metallic oxides such as Cobalt oxide, Ir...

Being a green and carbon‐neutral technology, direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has attracted much attention while endowing highest mass energy density at low operating temperature. However, the multistep and multielectron process of methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) taking place at the anodic side in DMFC is an energy intense process. In addition, t...

This article addresses the effect of nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) on the mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene (PP). A new approach was adopted to produce mechanically improved and thermally stable PP-NCC nanocomposite. This approach involved producing optimized PP-NCC nanocomposite by adding NCC nanoparticles to PP matrix at differ...

In this study, we investigated different physical properties of Er0.9Sr0.1Ti0.975Cr0.025O3 titanate prepared by a solid-state reaction that produces a cubic structure with Fd-3m (227) as a space group. Zero-Field Cooled and Field Cooled measurements show a second-order antiferromagnetic transition at Neel temperature TN = 23 K, and the existence of...

Magnetic refrigeration is a promising energy efficient and environmentally friendly refrigeration technology. The major problem in magnetic refrigeration is to find working materials with a large magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in different temperatures regions. MCE is the reversible temperature change of a magnetic materials upon the application or re...

Gd1-xAlxMnO3 material was successfully synthesized using the Pechini-modified-sol-gel method at different doping concentrations (x = 0, 0.25, 0.75, and 1). The samples were structurally characterized using XRD patterns and SEM/EDS analysis. The sample x = 0 displayed a single-phase, while the other systems displayed a multi-phase structure. Particl...

In this study, we investigated different physical properties of Er0.9Sr0.1Ti0.975Cr0.025O3 titanate prepared by a solid-state reaction that produces a cubic structure with Fd-3m (227) as a space group. Zero-Field Cooled and Field Cooled measurements show a second-order antiferromagnetic transition at Neel temperature TN = 23 K, and the existence of...

Electrochemical water splitting has been considered a promising approach for green and sustainable hydrogen as a future energy carrier. However, the lack of high performance and inexpensive electrocatalysts for kinetically sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) hinder the practical application. Here, the noteworthy enhancement of electrodeposited...

Objectives Alloyed metallic nanoparticles of silver and copper are effective against intracellular infection. However, systemic toxicity may arise due to the non-specific delivery of the nanoparticles. In addressing the issue, this study deals with the targeting of silver-copper-boron (ACB) nanoparticles to infected osteoblasts, which could decreas...

Purpose Conventional interventions of type 1 diabetes (T1D) are based on insulin delivery to control blood glucose, but all suffer from inability to regulate insulin without patient intervention. Among the numerous approaches to treat T1D, immune therapies have shown promising results and long lasting effect, and could prevent the action of effecto...

Introduction: Type-1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease that results from the destruction of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas; it leads to the under-or nonproduction of insulin. T1D is associated with numerous life-threatening micro- and macro-vascular complications and early death, hence the development of preventative strategies...