An Overview of Metal-Organic Framework Based Electrocatalysts: Design and Synthesis for Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution, Oxygen Evolution, and Carbon Dioxide Reduction Reactions.

Due to the increasing global energy demands, scarce fossil fuel supplies, and environmental issues, the pursued goals of energy technologies are being sustainable, more efficient, accessible, and produce near zero greenhouse gas emissions. Electrochemical water splitting is considered as a highly viable and eco-friendly energy technology. Further, electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO2 ) reduction reaction (CO2 RR) is a cleaner strategy for CO2 utilization and conversion to stable energy (fuels). One of the critical issues in these cleaner technologies is the development of efficient and economical electrocatalyst. Among various materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are becoming increasingly popular because of their structural tunability, such as pre- and post- synthetic modifications, flexibility in ligand design and its functional groups, and incorporation of different metal nodes, that allows for the design of suitable MOFs with desired quality required for each process. In this review, the design of MOF was discussed for specific process together with different synthetic methods and their effects on the MOF properties. The MOFs as electrocatalysts were highlighted with their performances from the aspects of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and electrochemical CO2 RR. Finally, the challenges and opportunities in this field are discussed.

Dominance of international high-risk clones in carbapenemase-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Multicentric molecular epidemiology report from India.

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most common opportunistic pathogens that cause severe infections in humans. The burden of carbapenem resistance is particularly high and is on the rise. Very little information is available on the molecular mechanisms and its clonal types of carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa seen in Indian hospitals. This study was undertaken to monitor the ß-lactamase profile and to investigate the genetic relatedness of the carbapenemase-producing (CP) P. aeruginosa collected across different hospitals from India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 507 non-duplicate, carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa isolated from various clinical specimens collected during 2014-2017 across seven Indian hospitals were included. Conventional multiplex polymerase chain reaction for the genes encoding beta-lactamases such as extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemase were screened. A subset of isolates (n = 133) of CP P. aeruginosa were genotyped by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme. RESULTS: Of the total 507 isolates, 15%, 40% and 20% were positive for genes encoding ESBLs, carbapenemases and ESBLs + carbapenemases, respectively, whilst 25% were negative for the ß-lactamases screened. Amongst the ESBL genes, blaVEB is the most predominant, followed by blaPER and blaTEM, whilst blaVIM and blaNDM were the most predominant carbapenemases seen. However, regional differences were noted in the ß-lactamases profile across the study sites. Genotyping by MLST revealed 54 different sequence types (STs). The most common are ST357, ST235, ST233 and ST244. Six clonal complexes were found (CC357, CC235, CC244, CC1047, CC664 and CC308). About 24% of total STs are of novel types and these were found to emerge from the high-risk clones. CONCLUSION: This is the first large study from India to report the baseline data on the molecular resistance mechanisms and its association with genetic relatedness of CP P. aeruginosa circulating in Indian hospitals. blaVIM- and blaNDM-producing P. aeruginosa is the most prevalent carbapenemase seen in India. Majority of the isolates belongs to the high-risk international clones ST235, ST357 and ST664 which is a concern.