Narrow Results

In this work, we report synthesis of nanostructures of silver nanoparticles using X-ray films. Exposed X-ray films, which consist of silver nanoparticles, are cut into small pieces of size 1 cm × 1 cm. These pieces were heated in distilled water at temperature 70°C. These nanoparticles, separated from heated films, are simultaneously collected through electrolytic deposition using copper and carbon rods. The carbon rod is wrapped over by Low density polyethylene (LDPE) sheet for easy extraction. This process was carried in two different environments (1) in broad daylight and (2) on a cloudy day. Characterization of the two samples was done using X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. XRD of the particles gave peaks well in accordance with JCPDS file 04-. This result confirms formation of highly pure silver nanoparticles. TEM revealed that the interaction of silver nanoparticles with sunlight gave chain like structures whereas in the absence of interaction with sunlight, cloudy day, nanoflowers were formed. Nanostructures were more prominent for bigger particles.

The nanocomposites of graphene loaded–ZnS nanoflowers (GR–ZnS) had been successfully prepared. Materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra. A possible formation mechanism of this architecture was proposed. The experimental results revealed that these nanoflowers exhibited excellent UV-light photocatalytic activities for pollutant methyl orange (MO) dye degradation. These new nanostructures were expected to show considerable potential applications in the water treatment.

Discharging industrial wastewater containing dyes and antibiotics will irreversibly damage the overall environment and human health and prosperity. In this study, magnetic Fe₃O₄ and MoS₂ were loaded on biomass activated carbon (BAC) using co-precipitation and hydrothermal methods, respectively, to obtain MoS₂ functionalized magnetic biomass activated carbon (MoS₂-mBAC), which was used to remove tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) and crystal violet (CV) in wastewater. A series of characterization methods such as SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XRD, VSM and BET were used. The results showed that MoS₂-mBAC has abundant oxygen-containing functional groups, high magnetic properties, large specific surface area (984.05cm²/g), and MoS₂ nanoflowers with a graphene-like structure. Moreover, the whole adsorption process was endothermic, which can be well fitted by pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir model. The maximum adsorption capacity for TC and CV at the optimum pH reached 286.53mg/g and 568.18mg/g. Compared to BAC and mBAC, the adsorption performance of MoS₂-mBAC was greatly improved. After five cycles, the removal rate was still high. MoS₂-mBAC has broad application prospects in wastewater treatment due to its unique advantages, such as wide source, simple process, good performance and high economical availability.

La-modified ZnO nanosheet-assembled flower-like microstructures, were successfully obtained through a facile two-step solution-based strategy including a simple aqueous solution and subsequent impregnation technique. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and ultraviolet-visible spectrometer (UV-Vis) were employed to characterize the morphology, composition, crystal structure and photocatalytic properties of prepared products in detail. The photocatalysis test results revealed that the La-modified ZnO nanoflowers displayed greatly enhanced catalytic performance and the decomposition efficiency was up to about 99.60%, which was mainly ascribed to the increased charge separation rate on the La-modified surface of ZnO nanosheets and the high surface area of the flower-like structure.