This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. This paper contributes to the existing empirical literature on the principal determinants of tax revenue performance across developing countries by using a broad dataset and accounting for some econometric issues that were previously ignored. The results confirm that structural factors such as per capita GDP, agriculture share in GDP, trade openness and foreign aid significantly affect revenue performance of an economy. Other factors include corruption, political stability, share of direct and indirect taxes etc. The paper also makes use of a revenue performance index, and finds that while several Sub Saharan African countries are performing well above their potential, some Latin American economies fall short of their revenue potential. JEL Classification Numbers: H11, H20.

Among different nitro compounds, trinitrophenol (TNP) is the most common constituent to prepare powerful explosives all over the world. A few works on the detection of nitro explosives have already been reported in the past few years; however, selectivity is still in its infant stage. As all the nitroexplosives are highly electron deficient in nature, it is very difficult to separate one from a mixture of different nitro compounds by the usual photoinduced electron transfer (PET) mechanism. In the present work, we have used a bright luminescent, 2,6-diamino pyridine functionalized graphene oxide (DAP-RGO) for selective detection of TNP in the presence of other nitro compounds. The major advantage of using this material over other reported materials is not only to achieve very high fluorescence quenching of ∼96% but also superior selectivity >80% in the detection of TNP in aqueous medium via both fluorescence resonance energy transfer and PET mechanisms. Density functional theory calculations also suggest the occurrence of an effective proton transfer mechanism from TNP to DAP-RGO, resulting in this tremendous fluorescence quenching compared to other nitro compounds. We believe this graphene based composite will emerge a new class of materials that could be potentially useful for selective detection, even for trace amounts of nitro explosives in water.

No abstract

No abstract

Extraction of hazardous heavy metals like As, Hg, Cd, Cr(VI), etc. for water purification is a great challenge. Exploiting the large surface area of graphene, in the present work, we have synthesized a UV-active 2,6-diamino pyridine-reduced graphene oxide (DAP-RGO) composite to remove Cr(VI) from acidic water solution. Here, the presence of an extra pyridinic-nitrogen lone pair facilitates the removal efficiency of excess Cr(VI) [500 mg L À1 in 3 h only] over reported results so far. In addition to that, the unique advantage of this UV-active material is the enhancement of removal efficiency by 18% at a higher pH value. We believe that this study will bring forth a new class of UV-active graphene based adsorbents with remarkably high removal efficiency for toxic heavy metals from waste-water in future.