Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of CaCuTiO/reduced graphene oxide composites for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical products: Ibuprofen and Ciprofloxacin. | LitMetric
The objective of this research is to create a highly effective approach for eliminating pollutants from the environment through the process of photocatalytic degradation. The study centers around the production of composites consisting of CaCuTiO (CCTO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) using an ultrasonic-assisted method, with a focus on their capacity to degrade ibuprofen (IBF) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) via photodegradation. The impact of rGO on the structure, morphology, and optical properties of CCTO was inspected using XRD, FTIR, Raman, FESEM, XPS, BET, and UV-Vis. Morphology characterization showed that rGO particles were dispersed within the CCTO matrix without any specific chemical interaction between CCTO and C in the rGO. The BET analysis revealed that with increasing the amount of rGO in the composite, the specific surface area significantly increased compared to the CCTO standalone. Besides, increasing rGO resulted in a reduction in the optical bandgap energy to around 2.09 eV, makes it highly promising photocatalyst for environmental applications. The photodegradation of IBF and CIP was monitored using visible light irradiation. The results revealed that both components were degraded above 97% after 60 min. The photocatalyst showed an excellent reusability performance with a slight decrease after five runs to 93% photodegradation efficiency.
To advance the industrialization of flexible strain sensors, an innovative flexible sensing fiber was developed through a sophisticated wet spinning process. Silver trifluoroacetate (C2AgF3O2) and graphene oxide (GO) were combined with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to prepare the fibers via wet spinning. Ascorbic acid (L-AA) was used to in situ reduce the silver trifluoroacetate and graphene oxide within the polyurethane, causing the growth of silver nanoparticles to bond with reduced graphene oxide, forming a dual conductive pathway.
Thermal batteries are a type of thermally activated reserve batteries, where the cathode material significantly influences the operating voltage and specific capacity of the battery. In this work, VS-VO has been synthesized through the hydrothermal method and used as the cathode material for thermal batteries. Firstly, the material with the VS crystallinity is obtained at 170 °C and the mass percentages of VS/VO are 63.
Energy storage devices are recognized as environmentally friendly technologies. Supercapacitors, known for their high cycle stability, have been proposed as potential alternatives to fossil fuels. Recent studies have focused on selecting suitable electrode materials to achieve energy storage systems with high stability, high specific capacity, and biocompatibility.
One of the biggest challenges in food packaging is the creation of sustainable and eco-friendly packaging materials to shield foods from ultraviolet (UV) photochemical damage and to preserve the distinctive physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of foods throughout the supply chain. Accordingly, this study focuses on enhancing the UV shielding properties and biological activity of carboxylmethyl cellulose sodium (CMC) through modifications using zinc oxide (ZnO), copper oxide (CuO), and graphene oxide (GO) using the solution casting technique. The hybrid nanocomposites were characterized by fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer, ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and x-ray diffraction (XRD).
Nano-sized high-entropy materials (HEMs) recently received more attention to researchers due to their superior electrochemical catalytic properties. HEMs comprise at least five elements with or without metals and are synthesized through solid-state reactions and solution-mediated techniques. The presence of many elements in these HEMs result in a high mixing entropy and facilitates the formation of stable solid solutions in fundamental crystal structures.
