Maejo International Journal of Energy and Environmental Communication

Enhanced biocompatibility: A comparative approach on polyethylene glycol and zinc-incorporated hydrogels

Vaidhegi Kugarajah — 2024-09-23

With recent medical technology developments, hydrogels have gained vast interest due to their soft tissue-like mechanical properties, injectability, high water content, etc. Poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels are highly commendable due to their synthetic structure, tunable architecture, biocompatibility, and reproducibility. In the present research, zinc nanoparticles at various concentrations (0.025, 0.05, 0.075 wt%) were infused in PEG hydrogels to enable better biocompatibility. The prepared nanocomposites are evaluated for their morphological, functional, and structural characteristics compared to naïve PEG hydrogel. Antibacterial activity revealed that PEG + 0.075 wt% Zn exhibited the maximum zone of inhibition of 0.09 ± 0.2mm compared to plain hydrogel (0.02 ± 0.5 mm). Statistical analysis through independent T-test exhibited a statistical significance of the nanocomposite hydrogel with p= 0.001, (p<0.05) when tested with a G-power of 80%, 0.5 alpha error, and 95% confidence interval. The present research introduces novel PEG-Zn nanocomposite hydrogels and offers a future scope for bioengineering applications.

A comprehensive review of electric vehicle energy management techniques, optimizations, and controllers

P. Srinivasarao — 2024-10-04

The terrible impact of environmental pollution and the greatest deficiency of fossil fuels, the development of electric vehicles (EVs) are alternatives to minimize the greenhouse gas emission and protect the environmental circumstances. Since most of the EVs are driven by energy storage sources (ESS), numerous researchers have conducted many investigations to ascertain the potentiality of ESS-based EVs. Nonetheless, the demand of end users is to enhance the lifetime of battery and reduce the consumption of hydrogen. Hence, advanced and newly designed control strategies are required for enriching the efficiency of the EVs with energy management systems (EMS). This work presents a state-of-the-art of various types of vehicles including ICE type, hybrid EVs, and all types EVs. The EMS strategies such as battery, ultra-capacitor (UC), flywheel energy storage (FES), fuel-cell, and hybrid energy storages are addressed in this work. Furthermore, different types of optimization methods are highlighted for solving the limitations and improving the performance of EVs in future. Diverse control techniques namely, classical controllers, fuzzy logic controller (FLC), model predictive control (MPC), and operational mode/state machine. Finally, this article provides a thorough analysis of these studies and makes recommendations for new researchers on how to proceed with their study in the future.

Brassinosteroid-enhanced phytoremediation for a sustainable strategy for mitigating vanadium contamination in agricultural soils

Yanhua Li — 2024-09-29

Vanadium (V) contamination in soils, primarily from mining, industrial activities, and fossil fuel combustion, poses a significant ecological threat to plants, animals, and humans. While vanadium is an essential trace element in biological systems, excessive accumulation disrupts plant physiological processes, leading to oxidative stress, impaired growth, and reduced crop productivity. Brassinosteroids (BRs), a class of plant steroid hormones, have emerged as promising agents for mitigating heavy metal toxicity. This study explores the role of BRs, particularly 28-homobrassinolide (HBL) and 24- epibrassinolide (EBL), in alleviating vanadium stress in plants. BRs enhance plant tolerance by modulating antioxidant defense mechanisms, regulating metal uptake, and activating stress-related signaling pathways such as MAPK and NADPH oxidase pathways. Additionally, BRs stimulate the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) at controlled levels, inducing stress-adaptive responses while preventing oxidative damage. This review discusses vanadium speciation, soil contamination levels, plant uptake mechanisms, and the potential of BRs in assisted phytoremediation strategies. Understanding the molecular and physiological interactions between BRs and vanadium toxicity will provide insights into developing sustainable agricultural practices for improving crop resilience in contaminated environments.