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Tunable Dielectric Spectroscopy of PVDF Thin Films Crossbred with TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanoparticles for the Storage Devices

AbstractPolyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) is a semi‐crystalline ferroelectric polymer with a wide range of interesting properties and shows potentiality in a variety of technological applications. Flexible thin films of PVDF nanocomposites (NCs) have attracted many researchers due to their tunable electronic properties. This paper reports the synthesis, characterization, and dielectric studies of PVDF‐TiO2 NC thin films. The synthesized films are self‐supporting thin and the average thickness of the thin films is 60 µm measured using a Digital thickness gauge of resolution 0.01 mm. TiO2 nanoparticles are prepared using the combustion method. Commercially available PVDF granules are used to develop PVDF‐TiO2 NC thin films using the film casting technique. The structural study of the prepared thin films is carried out using XRD that confirms the retention of the β‐phase of PVDF. The functional group and bonding nature have been studied using FTIR Spectroscopy. The thermal stability of the NC thin films is studied using TGA. The variation of dielectric constant (DC), dielectric loss (DL), AC conductivity, and dissipation factor of the medium of pristine PVDF and PVDF‐TiO2 NC thin films are studied in the frequency range of 10 Hz to 8 MHz at ambient temperature. The dielectric constant of PVDF‐TiO2 NC thin films increases up to 8 wt% and anomaly for 10 wt% of TiO2 fillers in the PVDF matrix at a lower frequency and found to decrease with increasing frequency. The dielectric loss of NC thin films is high at a lower frequency and decreases with an increase in the frequency that is in good agreement with the Maxwell–Wagner type of interfacial polarization. At lower frequencies, the dielectric constant of PVDF‐TiO2 NC increases with the increase in filler content. AC conductivity shows a sharp increase at higher frequencies whereas the dissipation factor of the polymer NCs remains unaltered with respect to frequency by maintaining the trend. This suggests that PVDF‐TiO2 NC is potential material for energy storage devices.

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Facile synthesis, characterization, insilico modelling, and bioinformatic study of dimercapto-triazole functionalized silver nanoparticles

Recent research reports that the increasing number of new bacterial infections are resistant to current antibiotics and have become a significant issue for public health. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as bactericides, fungicides, and anti-cancer agents are notably promising, as evidenced by the recent investigation of scientific communications worldwide. Though biocompatible and non-toxic, they are unstable at higher ionic strengths, and even ambient light may cause nano-silver to aggregate. The aggregation can be overcome by surface functionalization. Thus, the current report is an attempt for biologically active dimercapto-triazole (DMT), which has both free thiol (R-SH) and amine(R-NH2) groups were successfully used for the functionalization of AgNPs. Characterization techniques like UV/Vis-spectroscopy, zeta-potential, XRD, SEM, TEM, and FT-IR data confirmed the functionalization of AgNPs with the thiol (R-SH) group. The functionalized AgNPs have an average spherical particle size of 50–51 nm and a broad spectrum of activity for Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and anti-cancer activity against MCF-7 cell lines with an IC50 value of −18.681 % v/v. Molecular docking studies reviewing the best-fitting conformation of DMT-capped AgNPs with the highest binding energy for target proteins of cancer and bacteria reveal its biocompatibility.

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