Academic literature on the topic 'Nanocomposites - Mesoporous Structure'

Biodegradable poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/mesoporous silica nanocomposites were prepared by grafting L-lactic acid oligomer onto silanol groups at the surface of mesoporous silica (SBA-15). The infrared results showed that the lactic acid oligomer was grafted onto the mesoporous silica. Surface characterization of mesoporous silica proved that the grafted oligomer blocked the entry of nitrogen into the mesopores. Thermal analysis measurements showed evidence that, once mixed with PLLA, SBA-15 not only nucleated the PLLA but also increased the total amount of crystallinity. Neat PLLA and its nanocomposites crystallized in the same crystal habit and, as expected, PLLA had a defined periodicity compared with the nanocomposites. This was because the grafted macromolecules on silica tended to cover the lamellar crystalline order. The g-SBA-15 nanoparticles improved the tensile moduli, increasing also the tensile strength of the resultant nanocomposites. Overall, the silica concentration tended to form a brittle material.

A novel CO2 absorbent, MgO-ZrO2 nanocomposite was synthesized via appropriate sol-gel process. The structure and surface properties of the as-prepared materials were characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption and CO2-TPD techniques. It was found the as-prepared materials showed high thermal stability, and their mesoporous framework was well preserved even after calcinations at 700oC. In addition, the nanocomposites exhibited appropriate basic strength and the basic sites were tightly anchored to the substrate, which greatly improved the stability of the surface basicity. Owing to the advantages of the mesoporous structure and the surface basicity, the as-prepared MgO-ZrO2 nanocomposites showed high CO2 adsorption capacity. Moreover, the high thermal stability of MgO-ZrO2 could greatly increase their performance in high-temperature application, which remarkably overcame the poor thermal stability of those organic group grafted porous silicas.

Mesoporous silicas are inorganic materials with large surface areas, uniform framework structures and readily controlled pore diameters which are synthesized in the presence of surfactants as structure-directing agents, followed by the removal of the surfactant by extraction or calcination. Due to their characteristics, such as ordered structure, high surface area, and favorable interfacial interactions between silica surface and the polymer, they have found excellent potential application for use as reinforcing agents for several engineering polymer systems. While a large number of different synthesis approaches for the preparation of mesoporous silica-polymer nanocomposites has been reported in literature, there is nevertheless a growing need for verified synthesis methods of mesoporous silica-polymer materials. This paper presents a review of the literature on the methods for synthesizing polymer-mesoporous silica nanocomposites and discusses some unique properties of these composites.

Abstract This study presents a facile approach for the preparation of MoS2 nanosheet decorated by porous titanium dioxide with effective photocatalytic activity. Mesoporous titanium dioxide nanostructures first synthesized by a hydrothermal process using titanium (III) chloride and then the MoS2/TiO2 were prepared through mixing of MoS2 nanosheet with mesoporous titanium dioxide under ultrasonic irradiation. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. The results showed that the nanocomposite has mesoporous structure with specific surface area of 176.4 m2/g and pore diameter of 20 nm. The as-prepared MoS2/TiO2 nanocomposites exhibited outstanding photocatalytic activity for dye degradation under sunlight irradiation, which could be attributed to synergistic effect between the molybdenum disulfide nanosheet and mesoporous titanium dioxide. The photocatalytic performance achieved is about 2.2 times higher than that of mesoporous TiO2 alone. It is believed that the extended light absorption ability and the large specific surface area of the 2D MoS2 nanosheets in the nanocomposite, leading to the enhanced photocatalytic degradation activity.

Mesoporous yolk–shell nanocomposites were loaded with a mobile CaMg core inside the silica shell. Also, these prepared inside the inner cavity of a novel structure that consists of hollow mesoporous silica spheres.

In this paper, ordered mesoporous SBA-15 silica was synthesized by the hydrothermal method, and then a series of CoFe2O4/SBA-15 nanocomposites were synthesized by a facile impregnation method. X-ray diffraction and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms were used to characterize the microstructure and morphology of SBA-15 and CoFe2O4/SBA-15 nanocomposites. CoFe2O4 nanoparticles presented spinel phase structure and existed in the mesopores of SBA-15. The magnetic response of CoFe2O4/SBA-15 nanocomposites was characterized with vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The adsorption efficiency of CoFe2O4/SBA-15 nanocomposites for methylene blue increased firstly with the increasing CoFe2O4 content, and then decreased. Sample-2 (SBA-15: CoFe2O[Formula: see text]: 0.1 in the precursor) not only presented the best adsorptive performance, but also could be separated and retrieved effectively by magnetic separation technique.

We report that transparent mesostructured silica/gold nanocomposite materials with an interpore distance of 4.1 nm, as-synthesized from a templated sol–gel synthesis method using discotic trinuclear gold(I) pyrazolate complex, were successfully utilized for the fabrication of thin film mesoporous silica nanocomposites containing gold nanoparticles. The material exhibited a highly ordered hexagonal structure when subjected to a thermal hydrogen reduction treatment at 210 °C. In contrast, when the material was subjected to calcination as a heat treatment from 190 to 450 °C, the thin film nanocomposites showed an intense d 100 X-ray diffraction peak. Moreover, gold nanoparticles inside the thin film nanocomposites were confirmed by the presence of the d 111 diffraction peak at 2θ = 38.2°, a surface plasmon resonance peak between 500–580 nm, and the spherical shape observed in the transmission electron microscope images, as well as the visual change in color from pink to purple. Interestingly, by simply dipping the material into a reaction solution of 4-nitrophenol at room temperature, the highly ordered structure of the as-fabricated silica/gold nanoparticle thin film composite after thermal hydrogen reduction at 210 °C resulted in an improved catalytic activity for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol compared to the material calcined at 250 °C. Such catalytic activity is due to the presence of gold nanoparticles of smaller size in the silicate channels of the highly ordered mesoporous film nanocomposites.

In order to create a new design for an efficient photocatalyst, you need to decrease the obtained band gap and isolate the charge carriers photogenerated while setting up a new visible light methodology. The latter option could be accomplished via combination of catalyst in the metal oxide form over the surface of semiconductor. Hence, the current work aimed at synthesizing a new nanocomposite material from LaFeO3/g-C3N4 through the use of mesoporous silica as a template processing g-C3N4 higher surface area, which was subsequently decorated with LaFeO3. The LaFeO3 of variable content of 1∼4% was used to decorate our targeted basic material. The structure was confirmed by ordinary techniques, in addition to photocatalytic ability via splitting water reaction. g-C3N4 and LaFeO3 photocatalytic efficiencies were compared to the newly developed LaFeO3/g-C3N4 nanocomposites showing their outstanding activity. The optimum LaFeO3 content was confirmed as 3%, which gave higher photocatalytic efficiency against both g-C3N4 and LaFeO3 (34 and 21 times respectively). To enhance the catalytic system efficiency, a scavenger with a positive hole was added as glycerol. A maximum of five runs of higher efficient reuse was examined as required, as well as stable nanocomposite photocatalyst. The mesoporous structure, high surface area, and capacity of charge separation over the photocatalysis process were all investigated as main conditions which affect photocatalytic activity of LaFeO3/g-C3N4 nanocomposites.

Polystyrene (PS)/silicate composites were prepared with the addition of two organoclays (orgMMT and orgZenith) and two mesoporous silicas (SBA-15 and MCF) via (i) solution casting and (ii) melt compounding methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis evidenced an intercalated structure for PS/organoclay nanocomposites. Thermogravimetric analysis indicated improvement in the thermal stability of PS-nanocomposites compared to the pristine polymer. This enhancement was more prevalent for the nanocomposites prepared with a lab-made organoclay (orgZenith). Tensile measurement results indicated that elastic modulus increment was more prevalent (up to 50%) for microcomposites prepared using mesoporous silicas as filler. Organoclay addition led to a decrease in oxygen transmission rate (OTR) values. This decrement reached up to 50% for high organoclay content films in comparison to pristine PS film. Decrement above 80% was measured for microcomposites with mesoporous silicas and 5 wt% filler content obtained via melt compounding.

Materials with one-dimensional (1D) nanostructure are important for catalysis. They are the preferred building blocks for catalytic nanoarchitecture, and can be used to fabricate designer catalysts. In this thesis, one such material, alumina nanofibre, was used as a precursor to prepare a range of nanocomposite catalysts. Utilising the specific properties of alumina nanofibres, a novel approach was developed to prepare macro-mesoporous nanocomposites, which consist of a stacked, fibrous nanocomposite with a core-shell structure. Two kinds of fibrous ZrO2/Al2O3 and TiO2/Al2O3 nanocomposites were successfully synthesised using boehmite nanofibers as a hard temperate and followed by a simple calcination. The alumina nanofibres provide the resultant nanocomposites with good thermal stability and mechanical stability. A series of one-dimensional (1D) zirconia/alumina nanocomposites were prepared by the deposition of zirconium species onto the 3D framework of boehmite nanofibres formed by dispersing boehmite nanofibres into a butanol solution, followed by calcination at 773 K. The materials were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), N2 adsorption/desorption, Infrared Emission Spectroscopy (IES), and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The results demonstrated that when the molar percentage, X, X=100*Zr/(Al+Zr), was > 30%, extremely long ZrO2/Al2O3 composite nanorods with evenly distributed ZrO2 nanocrystals formed on their surface. The stacking of such nanorods gave rise to a new kind of macroporous material without the use of any organic space filler\template or other specific drying techniques. The mechanism for the formation of these long ZrO2/Al2O3 composite nanorods is proposed in this work. A series of solid-superacid catalysts were synthesised from fibrous ZrO2/Al2O3 core and shell nanocomposites. In this series, the zirconium molar percentage was varied from 2 % to 50 %. The ZrO2/Al2O3 nanocomposites and their solid superacid counterparts were characterised by a variety of techniques including 27Al MAS-NMR, SEM, TEM, XPS, Nitrogen adsorption and Infrared Emission Spectroscopy. NMR results show that the interaction between zirconia species and alumina strongly correlates with pentacoordinated aluminium sites. This can also be detected by the change in binding energy of the 3d electrons of the zirconium. The acidity of the obtained superacids was tested by using them as catalysts for the benzolyation of toluene. It was found that a sample with a 50 % zirconium molar percentage possessed the highest surface acidity equalling that of pristine sulfated zirconia despite the reduced mass of zirconia. Preparation of hierarchically macro-mesoporous catalyst by loading nanocrystallites on the framework of alumina bundles can provide an alternative system to design advanced nanocomposite catalyst with enhanced performance. A series of macro-mesoporous TiO2/Al2O3 nanocomposites with different morphologies were synthesised. The materials were calcined at 723 K and were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), N2 adsorption/desorption, Infrared Emission Spectroscopy (IES), and UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-visible). A modified approach was proposed for the synthesis of 1D (fibrous) nanocomposite with higher Ti/Al molar ratio (2:1) at lower temperature (<100oC), which makes it possible to synthesize such materials on industrial scale. The performances of a series of resultant TiO2/Al2O3 nanocomposites with different morphologies were evaluated as a photocatalyst for the phenol degradation under UV irradiation. The photocatalyst (Ti/Al =2) with fibrous morphology exhibits higher activity than that of the photocatalyst with microspherical morphology which indeed has the highest Ti to Al molar ratio (Ti/Al =3) in the series of as-synthesised hierarchical TiO2/Al2O3 nanocomposites. Furthermore, the photocatalytic performances, for the fibrous nanocomposites with Ti/Al=2, were optimized by calcination at elevated temperatures. The nanocomposite prepared by calcination at 750oC exhibits the highest catalytic activity, and its performance per TiO2 unit is very close to that of the gold standard, Degussa P 25. This work also emphasizes two advantages of the nanocomposites with fibrous morphology: (1) the resistance to sintering, and (2) good catalyst recovery.

Novel synthetic method for the formation of mesoporous silica nanotubes was proposed using glycyldodecylamide (GDA) as an amino acid surfactant, which enabled to control the tube diameter, wall structure and morphology with the diverse structures of amphiphile due to the capability of H-bonds by forming amide bond. Moreover, this sol-gel transcription process could be elucidated at neutral condition that enabled the recyclable use of surfactant and resulted in unique structures depending on the temperatures of self-assembly.

Due to the rising global concern over energy catastrophe and environmental issues, attention has been diverted towards future energy. In recent times, rechargeable power and renewable energy sources have been considered as an attractive substitute for resolving the future environmental problems. Among them, mechanical energy is one of the most abundant energy sources, and easily transformable to other useful energy forms, such as electrical energy. For such purposes, piezoelectric materials with ability to convert the mechanical energy generated by various activities into electrical energy. In this research work, we have investigated the morphology, structure and piezoelectric performances of neat polyvinylidene fluoride hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP), PVDF-HFP/ZnO, PVDFHFP/ Mesoporous silica, PVDF-HFP 1% and PVDF-HFP 3% ZnO-Mesoporous silica nanofibers, fabricated by electrospinning. Both SEM and TEM images of ZnO nanoparticles shows formation of uniform flake of about 5nm diameter and Mesoporous silica shows uniform spherical morphology with average diameter of 5 μm. EDX plot justifies the presences of Zn, O and Si. An increase in the amount of crystalline β-phase of PVDF-HFP has been observed with the introduction of ZnO and mesoporous silica in the PVDF-HFP matrix are observed in FTIR spectra. All the XRD peaks observed in neat PVDF has the strongest intensity compared to rest of the other XRD peaks of polymer nanocomposite. The XRD spectra of all the nanocomposites have peaks at 17.8°, 18.6° correspond to α- crystalline phase, the peaks observed at 19°, 20.1° correspond to the γ- crystalline phase, and the peak at 20.6° corresponds to the β- crystalline phase. The flexible nanogenerator manipulated from the polymer nanocomposite with 1% ZnO-Mesoporous silica exhibits an output voltage as high as 2 V compared with the neat PVDF-HFP sample (~120 mV). These results indicate that the investigated nanocomposite is appropriate for fabricating various flexible and wearable self-powered electrical devices and systems.