Reinforcement of poly(vinyl alcohol) with chiral poly(amide-imide)s nanoparticles containing S-valine under simple ultrasonic irradiation method

Zinc oxide nanoleaves: A scalable disperser-assisted sonochemical approach for synthesis and an antibacterial application

Current study reports a new and highly scalable method for the synthesis of novel structure Zinc oxide nanoleaves (ZnO-NLs) using disperser-assisted sonochemical approach. The synthesis was carried out in different batches from 50mL to 1L to ensure the scalability of the method which produced almost similar results. The use of high speed (9000rpm) mechanical dispersion while bath sonication (200W, 33kHz) yield 4.4g of ZnO-NLs powder in 1L batch reaction within 2h (>96% yield). The ZnO-NLs shows an excellent thermal stability even at a higher temperature (900°C) and high surface area. The high antibacterial activity of ZnO-NLs against diseases causing Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus shows a reduction in CFU, morphological changes like eight times reduction in cell size, cell burst, and cellular leakage at 200µg/mL concentration. This study provides an efficient, cost-effective and an environmental friendly approach for the synthesis of ZnO-NLs at industrial scale as well as new technique to increase the efficiency of the existing sonochemical method. We envisage that this method can be applied to various fields where ZnO is significantly consumed like rubber manufacturing, ceramic industry and medicine.

Thermal and morphological properties of nanocomposite materials based on graphene oxide and l-leucine containing poly(benzimidazole-amide) prepared by ultrasonic irradiation

A new poly(benzimidazole-amide) (PBIA) was fabricated by polycondensation of 1,3-bis(5-amino-1H-benzimidazole-2-yl)benzene with chiral diacid under green media by using tetra-n-butylammonium bromide as a cheap commercially available molten ionic salt at 120°C. The affection of reaction time on the polymer yield and viscosity was tested and optimized for PBIA. Inherent viscosity value of the prepared PBIA under optimized conditions is 0.31dL/g. Then to acquire a uniformly dispersion of graphene oxide (GO) in the PBIA matrix, GO was prepared through strong oxidation procedure. After that, GO/PBIA nanocomposites (NCs) with different loading of GO were synthesized through solution mixing method under ultrasonic irradiation and the resulting NCs were characterized by different techniques. Through FE-SEM micrographs and TEM results of NC samples it can be found that the individual GO sheets were good dispersed in the polymer matrix. Also, the thermal properties of the obtained NCs were investigated and the obtained results illustrate high thermal stability with LOI values around 39-41%.

Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of novel nanocomposite of poly(vinyl alcohol) and amino-modified MCM-41: A green adsorbent for Cd(II) removal

Amino-modified MCM-41/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanocomposite (M-MCM-41/PVOH NC) was developed for the adsorption of Cd(II) from aqueous media. M-MCM-41/PVOH NC was prepared through ultrasonic-assisted and simple blending procedure with economical and environmentally friendly polymer. The as-prepared adsorbent was characterized by FT-IR, TEM, FE-SEM and TGA. The contact time, solution pH and initial concentration of Cd(II) were found to affect the adsorption of Cd(II) from aqueous media. Kinetic studies were carried out and pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-second-order (PSO), Elovich, and intra-particle diffusion (IPD) reaction kinetic models were examined. The kinetic results revealed that the adsorption of Cd(II) onto M-MCM-41/PVOH NC followed PSO kinetic model and is a chemical adsorption. The equilibrium adsorption data were evaluated by different isotherms viz. Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin Radushkevich (D-R) equations. The equilibrium data fitted better with the Langmuir isotherm and the maximum adsorption capacity of M-MCM-41/PVOH NC at 298K was calculated to be 46.73mgg^-1 for Cd(II) on a typical saturated monomolecular layer with a fixed number of localized adsorption sites.