Development of multifunctional polymer nanocomposites with carbon-based hybrid nanostructures synthesized from ferrocene

The preparation of novel poly(ether-amide)s based on spiro[fluorene-9,9′-xanthene] and a polyamide/polymer-coated ZnO nanocomposite: thermal, optical, biological, and methylene blue dye adsorption attributes

Novel thermostable, photoactive, and solvable polyamides containing fluorene and xanthene groups were synthesized, as was a ZnO-based composite. These compounds were used as antibacterial and anticancer agents and as absorbents to remove MB dye.

Rapid Carbon Formation from Spontaneous Reaction of Ferrocene and Liquid Bromine at Ambient Conditions

Herein, we present an interesting route to carbon derived from ferrocene without pyrolysis. Specifically, the direct contact of the metallocene with liquid bromine at ambient conditions released rapidly and spontaneously carbon soot, the latter containing dense spheres, nanosheets, and hollow spheres. The derived carbon carried surface C-Br bonds that permitted postfunctionalization of the solid through nucleophilic substitution. For instance, treatment with diglycolamine led to covalent attachment of the amine onto the carbon surface, thus conferring aqueous dispersability to t he solid. The dispersed solid exhibited visible photoluminescence under UV irradiation as a result of surface passivation by the amine. Hence, the present method not only allowed a rapid and spontaneous carbon formation at ambient conditions, but also surface engineering of the particles to impart new properties (e.g., photoluminescence).

Effect of carbon nanotube (CNT) functionalization in Epoxy-CNT composites

The effect of carbon nanotube (CNT) functionalization in altering the properties of Epoxy-CNT composites is presented. The presence of functional groups effectively influenced the colloidal behavior of CNTs in the precursor epoxy resin and the hardener triethylenetetramine (TETA), which affected the synthesis process and eventually the interfacial interactions between the polymer matrix and the CNTs. The physical, thermal and electrical properties of the composites exhibited strong dependence on the nature of functionalization. At a 0.5 wt% CNTs loading, the enhancement in tensile strength was found to be 7.2, 11.2, 11.4 and 14.2 percent for raw CNTs, carboxylated CNTs, octadecyl amide functionalized CNTs and hydroxylated CNTs, respectively. Glass transition temperatures (T_g) also varied with the functionalization and composite prepared using hydroxylated CNTs showed the maximum enhancement of 34%.

Investigation of carbon deposition induced by pyrolytic decomposition of ethylene

We employed Raman spectroscopy to characterize the formed carbon deposits under different conditions inside a built-in U-shape quartz tube for unravelling mechanism of carbon deposition on stainless steel.