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The aim of this study is to address the growing concern about microplastics in the ocean and their potential harm to human health through ingestion. The MPs issue is largely a result of the increasing demand for electronic devices and their components. To tackle this challenge, the research aimed to develop a green polymer electrolyte that used glycerol as a plasticizing agent to improve ionic conductivity. The polymer host included chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol and was composed of sodium acetate. To evaluate the performance of the polymer electrolyte, various analytical techniques were used, including impedance and electrochemical studies. The ionic conductivity of 7.56 × 10−5 S·cm−1 was recorded. The dielectric property study confirmed the ionic conduction process in the system and revealed the existence of non-Debye type relaxation, as indicated by asymmetric peaks of tanδ spectra. The alternating conductivity exhibits three distinguished regions. The polymer electrolyte was discovered to be electrochemically stable up to 2.33 V and capable of storing energy as a non-Faradaic electrochemical double-layer capacitor (EDLC). The cyclic voltammetry pattern is a leaf like shape. The EDLC was able to be charged and discharged up to 1 V, and it showed cyclability and could be used in low-voltage applications.

Solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) can prevent electrolyte leakage in double layer electrochemical capacitors (EDLCs). However, the limited ionic conductivity of SPE limits its practical applicability. The fabrication of plasticized SPE with a suitable plasticizer is an effective approach to boost the conductivity of the prepared electrolyte based on eco-friendly polymers, resulting in a high-performance polymer-based EDLC. In this work, chitosan (CS)–polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) blended polymers along with the potassium iodide (KI) dopant salt were selected for the electrolyte preparation. Five samples with varying quantities of glycerol (Gly) plasticizer have been prepared, and the membranes have been evaluated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), which reveals the conductivity characteristics of the electrolyte. The improvement in dielectric properties upon increasing Gly content was explored using EIS data. Through the use of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) technology, the nature of electrolyte composition and the interaction between various constituents of electrolytes were investigated. The role of plasticizer in improving the ionic conductivity is evident from enhancing both the diffusion coefficient (D) and carrier mobility (µ). The transference number measurement (TNM) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) techniques have shown that the highest conducting electrolytes are suitable both in terms of potential stability and ionic transference number for electrical double layer capacitor (EDLC) device application with recorded values of 0.9375 and 2.50 V, respectively. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) pattern of the constructed EDLC using the sample with 50 wt.% of Gly as an electrolyte has shown a leaf-like shape without redox reaction, revealing the capacitive nature of the EDLC. The recorded specific capacitance value of 45.91 F g−1 at 10 mV/s scan rate for the constructed EDLC highlights the success of the prepared polymer-based electrolyte as a mediator in electrochemical device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for new compounds other than oxime as potential reactivator that is effective upon organophosphate poisoning treatments is desired. The less efficacy of oxime treatment has been the core factor. Fourteen compounds have been screened via in silico approach for their potential as sarin-inhibited human acetylcholinesterase poisoning antidotes. The selection of the compounds to be synthesized based on this computational screening, reduces the time and cost needed. To perform the docking study of sarin-inhibited acetylcholinesterase and reactivatorsarin inhibited acetylcholinesterase complexations, a bioinformatics tool was used. Estimation of the nucleophilic attack distance and binding energy of fourteen potential compounds with sarin inhibited acetylcholinesterase complexes to determine their antidote capacities was carried out using Autodock. A commercially available antidote, 2-PAM was used for the comparison. The best docked-pose was further examined with molecular dynamics simulation. Apart from being lipophilic, a compound with a carboxylic acid, (R)-Bocnipecotic acid is shown to exhibit 6.29 kcal/mol binding energy with 8.778 Å distance of nucleophilic attack. The stability and flexibility of the sarin-inhibited acetylcholinesterase, complexed with (R)-Boc-nipecotic acid suggests this compound should be tested experimentally as a new, promising antidote for sarin-inhibited acetylcholinesterase poisoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to develop an index on ethnic tolerance among the Malay, Chinese and Indian undergraduate students of three Malaysian public universities. It focuses on three main domains: religious practices, ethnic‒cross relationship and governance. The data of 378 respondents were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software version 22. The calculation and the measurement of the index are based on the method and equations used in calculating the index among Malaysian youths in 2015 that were capable of incorporating many domains. All the domains are significant in contributing to ethnic tolerance the composite index value of 4.13 out of 5 was obtained which shows the students are at the level of highly tolerant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methylphosphonic acid (MPA) is a chemical marker of organophosphorus chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and thus, the detection of MPA is important to examine the exposure of CWAs to humans and the environment. In this study, citrate capped gold nanoparticles (cit-AuNPs) and DNA aptamer were used to detect MPA based on colourimetry. In addition, image processing was utilised to convert colour images of the mixture into red, green and blue (RGB) values in order to improve the accuracy of detection. The independent variables (concentration of cit-AuNPs, concentration of DNA aptamer and incubation period) influencing the detection were optimised using faced-centred central composite design (FCCD) with the response surface methodology (RSM). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the concentration of cit-AuNPs and incubation period significantly affected the detection. From the analysis, a good correlation between the experimental and predicted responses was found as indicted by high R2 value (95.48%). The optimum conditions of the detection were suggested as the following conditions: concentration of cit-AuNPs of 155 nM, concentration of DNA aptamer of 1 µM and incubation period of 24.85 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conducting polymers are explored as sensing materials owing to their broad interaction with gases and vapours. The sensitivity of a chemiresistive gas sensor can be improved by the incorporation of multifunctional materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Here, multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-incorporated poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) nanocomposite films have been fabricated by solution processing followed by drop casting and spin coating using tetrahydrofuran (THF) as an intermediate solvent. The modification of the absorption peaks observed in UV-Vis spectra was consistent with the observation of the polymer coating onto the MWCNT surface. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman vibrational mode spectra of the polymer were obtained after MWCNT incorporation. Coating a polymer onto the nanotube surface was shown to increase the current in the P3HT/MWCNTOH nanocomposite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]