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Several conventional methods on preparation of exfoliated graphite are in practice. However, their major limitations are poor quality of exfoliated graphite, lower yield, more expensive with higher processing time. To address these issues, a unique method for development of exfoliation of graphite using tri-solvents namely Water, Ethanol and Acetic acid is attempted in the present work. Ethanol acts as a supporting group for the long term stable dispersions of ex-graphite nanosheets. Glacial acetic acid, which readily dissolves in water, penetrates through the layers of graphite sheets and breaks the -C=C bond force between layers with the help of stirring and sonication resulting in exfoliation of graphite layers. Exfoliated graphite nanosheets were produced by using optimized mixtures of water, acetic acid and ethanol. XRD, SEM and FTIR studies have been carried out on the developed exfoliated graphite.

Depleting oil reserves and increasing concern over global warming caused by green house gases like carbon dioxide is driving efforts all over the world to improve fuel efficiencies of internal combustion engines. A method of achieving this in spark ignition engines is to use lean air-fuel mixtures. But for burning lean air-fuel mixtures the energy released by conventional spark ignition systems which produce a maximum voltage only of around 20000 V may not be sufficient. A corona discharge spark ignition is a method which can produce voltages as high as 100 kV which can ignite very lean air-fuel mixtures. The objective of this work is to numerically simulate the corona discharge in a point plane configuration and to investigate the applicability of corona discharge to automobile ignition systems. The domain for the simulation is chosen so as to match the engine cylinder and dimensions.

The development of control system for an automobile is often the most critical phase along the road to launching a new vehicle. Over the years there has been a significant advancement in the technology for faster and smarter design of ECUs (Engine control Unit). Model based engine control system design is a stage-by-stage structured process for design and optimization of control functions for various automotive control applications This paper discusses various examples of engine and controller models and there software-in-loop simulation results for application like air-fuel ratio control, idle speed control and knock control. The objective here is to develop a Model Based Control (MBC) for a Port Fuel Injection (PFI) engine. The engine and controller model has been developed using Matlab and Simulink 7.0. Mean Value Engine Model (MVEM) for air-fuel ratio control and idle speed control, and cyclic engine model for knock control are discussed.