Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Hyderabad (or TIFR HYD) is a public research institution in Hyderabad, India. Then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the institute on 19 October 2010. It has operated on a campus of 209 acres (85 ha) near the Hyderabad Central University since moving in October 2017 from a temporary campus in Narsingi.The TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences (TCIS) is the first centre of TIFR Hyderabad. The faculty are drawn from all the three major branches of the natural sciences and engineering. Nearly a hundred graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and scientific staff already work here on research topics from the life sciences, chemistry, physics and materials sciences. Substantial experimental efforts have commenced using tools of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Laser Sciences, Condensed Matter Physics, Synthetic and Biological Chemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology. TIFR Hyderabad has a department-less structure..
High-resolution 1H NMR of rigid solids is now routinely observed under fast magic angle sample spinning (MAS). Nevertheless, the spectral resolution of 1H nuclei bonded to 14N is often compromised by residual dipolar splitting (RDS) and scalar coupling between 1H and 14N. Given the ubiquity of the NH moiety and the high natural abundance of both nuclei, RDS broadening poses a widespread practical challenge. Heteronuclear 14N decoupling during 1H acquisition is therefore essential for enhancing the spectral resolution. Previously, we demonstrated that low-power 14N CW decoupling via 70 kHz MAS improves the 1H signal intensity by ∼20% and narrows 1H line widths by ∼180 Hz but under stringent on-resonance 14N irradiation. Offset-tolerant 14N decoupling sequences are necessary to achieve good decoupling in samples with multiple 14N sites. Here, we assess several amplitude-modulated decoupling schemes, adapted from solution NMR. Experiments and numerical simulations determine that SUSAN1 (with tp = 10 μs and ν14N = 15-23 kHz) provides the best broadband 14N decoupling performance. Furthermore, an empirical correlation is established between pulse length and selective band-limited and non-selective broadband 14N decoupling behavior under low-power and fast MAS conditions.
Dual-atom catalysts (DACs) have emerged as promising candidates for various chemical transformations with excellent atom utilization and synergistic effects between adjacent metal sites. However, their controlled synthesis and detailed understanding of cooperative effects remain challenging. Here, we design Ag-Cu dual sites embedded in a g-C3N4 matrix (AgCu-CN) through a supramolecular self-assembly approach followed by thermal polymerization by pyrolysis. The atomically engineered catalyst exhibits a hydrogen evolution rate of 2126 µmol g-1 h-1, and an apparent quantum yield (AQY) of 20% at 400 nm, surpassing the other reported metal-N coordinated photocatalysts. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) confirms the atomic-level dispersion and coordination with the g-C3N4 framework of the Ag and Cu single atomic sites. Comprehensive characterizations including transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy and theoretical calculations based on density functional theory demonstrate that the presence of the two metal centers broadens the photoabsorption range, enhances density of states close to the Fermi level. Thus we posit that it promotes excited state electron transfer and charge separation, and facilitate H2O activation by directing electron migration toward the protonation site, thereby stabilizing the H* intermediate, a crucial step in hydrogen evolution reaction. The catalysts developed in this study exhibit excellent activity, stability, and cost-effectiveness, highlighting their strong potential for practical clean hydrogen production.
It is a difficult task to detect the indivisible quanta of weakly interacting radiation fields, and even more challenging to probe their quantum statistics. Nevertheless, if barely functional high-quality resonant detectors are feasible for weakly interacting radiation fields, they do come with certain statistical advantages to probe quantum effects at the seemingly classical limit of a large number of quanta of the incoming radiation field. We present correlated counting, homodyne, and heterodyne detection strategies using high-quality resonant quantum harmonic detectors operating at this limit, initialized in bolometry-inspired zero-mean preparations such as thermal states. We compare the bolometric regime of good resonant harmonic detectors in quantum optics to the bolometric regime of barely functional resonant mass quadrupole oscillators as detectors for quantum gravity. Simple statistical tests are proposed using symmetric correlators for two and three such barely functional resonant mass detectors that could reveal the complementary quantum noise characteristics of gravitons in tabletop experiments.
Chemically fueled supramolecular systems provide a versatile platform for generating nonequilibrium structures and dynamical instabilities, including chemical oscillations and traveling waves reminiscent of biological organization. However, a minimal mechanistic framework capable of capturing the emergence of such spatiotemporal order is still lacking. Here, we develop a minimal reaction-transport framework for fuel-driven supramolecular polymerization that couples activation-deactivation chemistry with cooperative assembly, fragmentation, and polymer length-dependent diffusion. The model captures autonomous oscillations arising through a Hopf bifurcation and demonstrates how temporal instabilities evolve into spatial self-organization upon inclusion of transport. We show that the nonlinear interplay between reaction kinetics and state-dependent mobility gives rise to traveling polymerization fronts, oscillatory wave dynamics, and complex spatiotemporal patterns. The propagating fronts exhibit near-ballistic dynamics, revealing a fundamentally nonequilibrium transport mechanism emerging from reactive feedback and dynamically evolving diffusivity. These findings establish a minimal physical framework connecting dissipative self-assembly, nonlinear transport, and active matter, while providing design principles for programmable supramolecular materials capable of autonomous spatiotemporal organization.
ABSTRACT The increasing demand for wearable electronics, point‐of‐care diagnostics, and integrated microsystems necessitates thin‐film and microbatteries that combine high energy density, fast kinetics, and intrinsic safety. In this work, we develop Zn‐based thin‐film batteries (Zn‐TFBs) and microbatteries (Zn‐MBs) using K + ‐pre‐intercalated V 2 O 5 ·nH 2 O cathodes and reveal a fundamentally distinct charge‐storage mechanism. Contrary to the conventional paradigm where metal‐ion pre‐intercalation merely enlarges interlayer spacing, K + incorporation induces interlayer contraction accompanied by substantial oxygen‐vacancy generation and mixed‐valence (V 4 + /V 5 + ) formation. These coupled lattice and electronic modulations activate proton‐dominated transport pathways, enabling cooperative H + /Zn 2 + co‐storage and markedly accelerated reaction kinetics. Density functional theory calculations further confirm that the enhanced electrochemical behavior cannot be explained by interlayer expansion alone, but originates from defect‐mediated proton conduction and vacancy‐stabilized redox centers. Benefiting from this defect‐engineered proton‐Zn 2 + synergistic storage, the K + ‐modified V 2 O 5 ·nH 2 O cathode delivers an areal capacity of 200.9 µAh cm − 2 and an areal energy of 150 µWh cm − 2 at 50 µA cm − 2 in Zn‐TFBs, together with a high areal capacity of 49 µAh cm − 2 in Zn‐MBs. This study establishes K + ‐triggered defect and valence‐state engineering as a powerful strategy to regulate proton‐coupled charge storage in hydrated vanadium oxides, opening a viable pathway toward high‐energy Zn‐based energy‐storage systems.
