Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) based nanocomposite with different weight ratios of Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles is prepared by using a gel-like technique. The weight-ratio of ZnO nanoparticles, in a range of 2.5–10 wt%, is used to prepare nanocomposites' in the tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent. The as-prepared samples are exposed to gamma (γ) radiation at different doses in a range of 5–40 kGy. The mechanical properties of irradiated samples are compared to that of unirradiated samples. For unirradiated samples, the elasticity is found to increase with the addition of ZnO nanoparticles. However, the plastic region of the stress-strain curve gets slightly affected on increasing the concentration of ZnO. Additionally, the elastic modulus is noticed to drop exponentially with ZnO concentration. For pure PVC, a slight dependence of stress-strain curves on the gamma irradiation doses has also been detected. Further, the gamma irradiation dose results in a detectable decrease of elastic modulus for pure and low weight-ratio ZnO nanoparticles. However, the irradiation dose does not have any effect on the elastic modulus for the 10 wt %, which is the highest weight ratio used in this study

Nanocellulose shows potential as an effective natural adsorbent for removing harmful contaminants from wastewater. This paper describes the development of innovative nanocellulose thin films made of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), polyacrylic acid (PAA), and active carbon (AC) as adsorbent materials for absorbing azo dyes from wastewater. The CNCs were recovered from sugarcane bagasse using alkali treatment and acid hydrolysis. The composition and processing parameters of the thin films were optimized, and their adsorption capacity was determined using thermodynamic isotherms and adsorption kinetics. Adsorption characteristics such as the methylene blue (MB) dye concentration, contact time, temperature, and pH were investigated to determine how they affected adsorption. The results show that the adsorption process follows pseudo-second-order kinetics. At an adsorbent mass of 50 mg, dye concentration of 50 ppm in 50 mL, and contact period of 120 min at 25 °C, the thin film comprising 64 wt% CNC, 16 wt% PAA, and 20 wt% AC showed high dye removal efficiency (86.3%) and adsorption capacity (43.15 mg/g). The MB removal efficiency increased to 95.56% and the adsorption capacity to 47.78 mg/g when the medium’s pH was gradually increased from neutral to alkaline. The nontoxicity, low production cost, water stability, easy recovery, and high adsorption capacity of these membranes make them suitable for water treatment systems.

The functionalization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes was performed through the treatment of multiwalled carbon nanotubes with ozone using UV-ozone irradiation to improve their dispersion in polystyrene matrix. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes–polystyrene nanocomposites were prepared at different multiwalled carbon nanotubes weight ratios to investigate the effect of multiwalled carbon nanotubes loadings on the electrical, optical, and rheological properties of polystyrene matrix. The obtained results revealed that incorporation of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes into polystyrene improved the electrical, optical, and rheological properties of neat polystyrene which indicated that multiwalled carbon nanotubes were well dispersed in the polymer matrix. Results obtained from DC and AC electrical measurements revealed that the percolation threshold was around 0.8 wt% multiwalled carbon nanotubes and incorporation of 3% multiwalled carbon nanotubes into polystyrene increased polystyrene electrical conductivity up to six orders of magnitude. Besides, increasing of multiwalled carbon nanotubes loadings increased the relative dielectric permittivity, dielectric loss, and loss tangent while decreased the total impedance of polystyrene matrix. Rheological results indicated that incorporation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes into polystyrene elevated the magnitudes of storage modulus and loss modulus up to two orders of magnitude with increasing of multiwalled carbon nanotubes loadings up to 3 wt%. Finally, the addition of multiwalled carbon nanotubes to polystyrene matrix enhanced the UV/visible absorption of polystyrene and decreased the optical energy gap with a total reduction ratio of 5.8% compared to neat polystyrene with increasing multiwalled carbon nanotubes loadings up to 2 wt%.

Polycarbonate (PC)/ceramic (YSiBTS) composites were prepared using the casting technique. The dependence of the absorption coefficient (α) on photon energy (hυ) was determined in the spectral range from 200 nm to 800 nm at room temperature. The variation of the absorption coefficient (α), optical gap (E_opt), relative permittivity (ε^'), AC conductivity (σ_AC) with YSiBTS ceramic concentration and frequency are reported. The observed optical energy gap (E_opt) was calculated from the measured absorption spectra. It was found that optical energy gap decreases with ceramic concentration and the absorption coefficient highly increases in the UV region at concentration of 18 wt% compared with the PC host. The dielectric constant and AC conductivity was measured for PC/ceramic composites at temperature range between 25°C to 140°C and at different frequency values (120 Hz, 1 kHz, 10 kHz, and 100 kHz). The obtained results indicate that PC modifies the dielectric properties of ceramic. At the same time addition of ceramic to PC polymer enhanced both dielectric constant and the polar character of PC matrix. It is also shown that at high ceramic content, the dielectric constant is independent of temperature between 30°C and 90°C. Additionally, there is agreement between the optical energy gap and AC conductivity results. Correlation between obtained results and SEM results is presented.