Burying plutonium: Watt a waste

Materials and engineering are soulmates. Materials transform designs and equations into artifacts. Engineering, in turn, enables this transformation. Advancements in one have propelled advances in the other, creating new and well-integrated technologies. The relationship between materials and applications remained empirical throughout most of history, with clever artisans shaping materials that were obtained in native form in land and riverbeds.

The present study explores H2V3O8 as high capacity cathode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIB's). Despite having high discharge capacity, H2V3O8 material suffers from poor electrochemical stability for prolonged cycle life. Ultra-long H2V3O8 nanobelts with ordered crystallographic patterns are synthesized via a hydrothermal process to mitigate this problem. The growth of the crystal is facile along [001] direction, and the most common surface is (001) as suggested by Wulff construction study.

In 2010, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy proposed a 20% subsidy for electric vehicles through a scheme called the Alternate Fuels for Surface Transportation Programme. This resulted in a big leap in sales of electric vehicles, mostly in the e-bikes segment. However, this initial spurt in sales was followed by a slump. This article analyses why electrical vehicles have not taken off in India, and suggests alternatives.

Responding to three articles that appeared in the EPW (13 September 2014) by Nachane, Shah and Mehrotra, the authors call for clarity and debate on the ethos of the new "think tank" that is to be instituted in the place of the Planning Commission of India.

A novel approach to determine the non-dimensional heliostat field boundary for solar tower plants.Solar tower technology has gained considerable momentum over the past decade. In a solar tower plant, the power collected by the heliostat field is strongly coupled to the height of the tower and its location with respect to the field. This paper provides a methodology to fix the boundary of the field (non-dimensionalised with respect to the tower height). 

The most vulnerable countries of the world had specific concerns going into the Paris meeting of the Conference of Parties on climate change. Some of these concerns were met at the conference, although the long-term implications remain to be seen.Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by 160 countries. The purpose of the INDCs was to get commitments from all countries with the overall goal of bending their trajectories sufficiently by 2030 so that dangerous climate change could be avoided.

Urban Transport Planning in Bengaluru: A Polycentric Governance System

An explicit J–V model of a solar cell using equivalent rational function form for simple estimation of maximum power point voltage

A neural network based approach to predict high-voltage Li-ion battery cathode materials.This paper introduces the concept of using Artificial Neural Network (ANN)techniques for predicting electrochemical potential of cathode materials in combination with first-principles based quantum mechanical calculations. The proposed method can be used to predict the Lithium ion battery voltage if a new material is chosen as cathode.