Ranjan Keshari Pati

The reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction efficiently transforms CO₂ into CO at high temperatures, ensuring high CO selectivity while preventing the formation of methane as a byproduct. Nanocrystalline ceria-based materials are synthesised by using a modified co-precipitation method. This method utilizes the molecular water in the precursor materials to aid the hydroxylation process, which helps minimize the risk of agglomeration resulting from hydrogen bonding. The as prepared catalysts were calcined at high temperature to get the crystalline materials. The freshly synthesized and calcined catalysts were analysed using various characterisation techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results suggest that enhancing the copper concentration in Cu-doped CeO₂ significantly improves its catalytic activity at low and moderate temperatures. Among all the catalysts 25 mol % copper doped CeO₂ gives extraordinary activity for RWGS reaction having CO₂ conversion of ~ 50% at 800 ˚C.

Ceria is a wide bandgap semiconductor oxide, however, by introducing oxygen vacancies (V_o), the electronic structure of ceria can be precisely tuned, resulting in a narrowed band gap and improved charge transport. Doping with lower-valent cations introduces V_o to maintain charge neutrality, thereby imparting robust chemiresistive and semiconducting properties. These vacancies act as active sites for analyte adsorption and are crucial for enhancing sensing performance. In this study, samaria-doped ceria was synthesized using a modified co-precipitation method. Structural analysis such as XRD, Raman spectroscopy, and HR-TEM confirm the formation of cubic fluorite-type structure in all samples. PL and UV–Vis spectroscopy show the enhanced defect levels with increase in Sm doping. XPS validated the presence of Vₒ and the oxidation states of Ce⁴⁺ and Sm³⁺. I-V characterization confirmed the ohmic conductance behaviour, while chemiresistive measurements show selectivity and sensitivity towards acetone. Additionally, kinetic parameters were extracted via Langmuir–Hinshelwood modeling, confirms the importance of oxygen vacancies in acetone sensing. Additionally, DFT based calculation shows that Sm-doping in ceria modulates its electronic structure by Fermi level shifting towards conduction band causing substantial availability of electrons inducing the formation of V_o.

Electric vehicle adoption is a trend in many countries, and the demand for charging station infrastructure is at a rapid pace. The placement of charging stations is the key research topic of many researchers, but charging scheduling is also a problem that is going to rise in the near future. The proper charger utilization, maintaining coordination between charging stations, and satisfying users' demands are some of the key challenges. The traffic pattern is uncertain, coordination of distances between charging stations and users is done by Euclidean distance. The traffic-aware fair charging scheduling (TAFCS) strategy is proposed, which will have a balance on charger utilization and user prioritization, and keep the fairness by equal distribution of electric vehicles among all the charging stations having a centralized charging system monitored by an aggregator. The distribution of the traffic pattern of electric vehicles is performed by Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed system is tested on the IEEE 33 bus standard system using the predefined voltage limits of each bus and limiting power loss to lessen its burden. The discharging process of 50 electric vehicles (V2G) is performed by optimal placement by obtaining the weakest buses, which makes it an intelligent distribution system. This proposed charging framework is validated on MATLAB R2020a.