Should we recycle the graphite from spent lithium-ion batteries?The untold story of graphite with the importance of recycling

Demand for graphite in the forthcoming years to develop Li-ion batteries(LIBs)with the goal of driving electric vehicles(EV)and its requirement in multifarious energy storage applications as an electrode.The emerging sector of LIB-based EVs,along with portable electronics,produces an inevitable volume of batteries in the e-waste stream.The main reason for the lower percentage of recycling(at present,<5%)is due to the recovery of economically rich metals like Li,Ni,and Co.However,complete recycling technologies,including the strategic material graphite,which is available in a massive amount of spent LIBs,are urgently needed to be updated to ensure the reuse of all components.This approach lifts the recycling process to develop an economic one besides the geostrategic and environmental policy aspects.Here,we summarize the importance of graphite and its demand and specify the reasons to recycle the graphite from spent LIBs along with its development as an anode in detail.Additionally,the approach of the current recycling process of graphite in lab-scale and industries for various applications,including energy storage,are discussed with the highlights of future progress.

Reinvestigation of the Crystal Growth of “L-Proline Succinate” and “L-Threonine Zinc Acetate” Showing Use of Infrared Spectra for Product Identification

Reinvestigation of the growth of L-proline succinate (1) (Paramasivam and Ramachandra Raja, Journal of Crystallization Process and Technology, 2 (2012) 21 - 24;Balamurugaraj et al., Journal of Material Physics and Chemistry 1 (2013) 4 - 8) and L-threonine zinc acetate (2) (Puhal Raj and Ramachandra Raja, Photonics and Optoelectronics, 2 (2013) 56 - 64) is reported. Slow evaporation of an aqueous solution containing equimolar quantities of L-proline and succinic acid (for 1) and L-threonine and zinc acetate (for 2) results in the fractional crystallization of succinic acid (in the first case) and L-threonine (in the second case) and not any novel organic non-linear optical (NLO) crystals. In this paper, the usefulness of infrared spectra for correct product characterization is demonstrated.

Bulk Growth and Characterization of D-(–)-Alanine Single Crystals

Single crystal of D-(–)-alanine (DALA), a non-linear optical material from the amino acid family was grown using a home-made crystal growth setup. The crystals of DALA were also grown by slow evaporation solution technique (SEST). The grown crystals were characterized by using single crystal X-ray diffraction, high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and UV-vis-NIR and CD spectroscopy. Measurements of Vicker’s microhardness, laser damage threshold (LDT) value and second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency are also reported. Thermal and dielectric studies were also carried out.

Recent advances based on the synergetic effect of adsorption for removal of dyes from waste water using photocatalytic process

The problem of textile dye pollution has been addressed by various methods,mainly physical,chemical,biological,and acoustical.These methods mainly separate and/or remove the dye present in water.Recently,advanced oxidation processes（AOP）have been focused for removal of dye from waste water due to their advantages such as ecofriendly,economic and capable to degrade many dyes or organic pollutant present in water.Photocatalysis is one of the advance oxidation processes,mainly carried out under irradiation of light and suitable photocatalytic materials.The photocatalytic activity of the photocatalytic materials mainly depends on the band gap,surface area,and generation of electron–hole pair for degradation dyes present in water.It has been observed that the surface area plays a major role in photocatalytic degradation of dyes,by providing higher surface area,which leads to the higher adsorption of dye molecule on the surface of photocatalyst and enhances the photocatalytic activity.This present review discusses the synergic effect of adsorption of dyes on the photocatalytic efficiency of various nanostructured high surface area photocatalysts.In addition,it also provides the properties of the water polluting dyes,their mechanism and various photocatalytic materials;and their morphology used for the dye degradation under irradiation of light along with the future prospects of highly adsorptive photocatalytic material and their application in photocatalytic removal of dye from waste water.