Poly(lactic acid)/graphene and poly(lactic acid)/carbon nanotube nanocomposites were prepared by an easy and low-cost method of melt blending of preliminary grinded poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with nanosized carbon fillers used as powder. Morphological, structural and mechanical properties were investigated to reveal the influence of carbon nanofiller on the PLA–based composite. The dependence of tensile strength on nanocomposite loading was defined by a series of experiments over extruded filaments using a universal mechanical testing instrument. The applying the XRD technique disclosed that compounds crystallinity significantly changed upon addition of multi walled carbon nanotubes. We demonstrated that Raman spectroscopy can be used as a quick and unambiguous method to determine the homogeneity of the nanocomposites in terms of carbon filler dispersion in a polymer matrix.

In this study, a highly polluted wastewater from tannery industry is treated by photocatalysis using home-made N-doped TiO ₂ as catalyst. The doping by nitrogen of titania particles leads to a reduction in the absorption threshold from 3.2 to 2.5 eV, permitting the absorption of radiation characterized by a wavelength in the visible spectrum.Experiments were carried out by using different light sources, in particular white LEDs, blue LEDs, and UV lamps, with the aim to evaluate the process efficiency at different operating conditions. The obtained performances were compared with those using an undoped commercial TiO ₂ catalyst (Degussa P25).Moreover, a simplified mathematical model capable to correlate the power input of the used light sources, the geometrical properties of the reactor, and emitting sources spectra with the performances of the photocatalytic reaction was developed.