The synthesis of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs), using Pluronic®P103 as soft template to design tuned hybrid gold/P103 nanomaterials, is reported here. The effect of the concentration of P103 and the synthesis temperature on the growth, size, and morphology of Au-NPs were studied. The rheological properties of these hybrid nanomaterials at different measured temperatures were studied as well. By increasing the concentration of P103, the micelles progressively grew due to an increase in the number of surface cavities. These cavities came together causing large nucleation centers and developing larger Au-NPs. The synthesis temperature was varied to induce significant dehydration of the P103 micelles. Below the cloud point temperature micelles underwent distinct changes related to spherical-to-polymer-like micelles transitions. Two nanostructures were formed: (1) small Au-NPs arranged on the surface of micelles, which acted as soft templates, and (2) large and independent Au-NPs. Above the cloud point temperature, Au-NPs were related to the shape and size of the P103 micellar aggregates. Rheological measurements showed that viscosity was sensitive to the concentration of P103. Also, it was demonstrated that synthesis temperature had a considerable influence on viscosity of the produced nanomaterials.

The use of point set registration (PSR) in a novel approach for assisted geometry generation of complex-shaped foods during mass transfer modeling of osmotic dehydration (OD) is presented. The procedure is aimed at reducing the effect of geometry mismatch during estimation of diffusion coefficients. The PSR is based on a modified iterated closest point (ICP) algorithm. The proposed methodology was applied to obtain the optimum geometrical parameters describing the shape of white mushroom pilei (Agaricus bisporus) as a revolution solid in the oblate spheroidal coordinate system. Roundness was proposed as a shape factor to evaluate geometry mismatch. An unsteady state 2D diffusion model with the PSR-generated geometry was proposed to describe experimental data, where product shrinkage was included as the contraction of ellipse focus. Moreover, a semi-theoretical approach is presented allowing the estimation of diffusion coefficients by the well-known straight-line fit approach in the proposed geometry. Water and solute diffusivities in the product were estimated and further compared with those previously reported for hemispherical shell geometry. As opposed to hemispherical shell geometry, no significant difference was found ( $p>0.05$) in roundness between PSR-generated geometry and real product shape. Diffusion coefficients estimated with the PSR-generated geometry were significantly lower than those calculated with the hemispherical shell model, indicating that proposed approach may be helpful to reduce geometry mismatch during the estimation of mass transfer properties.

Silver and gold nanoparticles were synthesized under environmentally-friendly reaction conditions by using a biodegradable copolymer and water as a solvent. The triblock copolymer Pluronic P103 was utilized as a stabilizing agent or soft template to produce Ag and Au nanoparticles (NPs) of different sizes. Moreover, in the synthesis of Au NPs, the polymer acted as a reducing agent, decreasing the number of reagents used and consequently the residues produced, hence, rendering the procedure less complicated. It was observed that as the concentration of the polymer increased, the size of the metallic NPs augmented as well. However, AgNPs and AuNPs prepared with 1 and 10 wt% Pluronic P103, respectively, showed a significant decrease in particle size due to the presence of polymeric soft templates. The hybrid materials (metal/polymer) were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, DLS, and TEM. The pre-synthesized nanoparticles were employed to decorate anatase-TiO₂, and the composites were characterized by DRS, XRD, BET surface area measurements, the TEM technique with the EDS spectrum, and XPS spectroscopy to demonstrate NPs superficial incorporation. Finally, methylene blue was used as a probe molecule to evidence the effect of NPs decoration in its photocatalytic degradation. The results showed that the presence of the NPs positively affected methylene blue degradation, achieving 96% and 97% removal by utilizing TAg0.1 and TAu10, respectively, in comparison to bare anatase-TiO₂ (77%).

Perovskites, such as tausonite, are crystalline metal oxides with excellent optical and photocatalytic properties and have also been used successfully in the retention of metals, simulating the isotopes of uranium and plutonium. In this work, different pseudo-order and thermodynamic models were studied to achieve the prediction of the sorption of Eu³⁺ (chemical analogous for actinides) in tausonite. The effects of gamma irradiation and temperature on the structural characteristics of the material were determined, as an additional step in the evaluation of material as an engineering barrier in the disposal of radioactive waste. The results obtained show that the tausonite is resistant to the gamma irradiation and thermal energy. Likewise, it was possible to determine that europium sorption occurs through an exothermic and spontaneous reaction, as well as through the formation of surface complexes, where Eu³⁺ ions bind to sites on the tausonite by dipole-dipole interaction. Furthermore, it was shown that the sorption mechanism is influenced by diffusive phenomena, which participate in the formation of surface complexes. Additionally, a new sorption model with respect to pH was proposed, which allowed determining the physical parameter π. The evidence obtained suggests that π is a physical parameter that relates pH to an optimal value and could explain the equilibrium between the surface complexes that tausonite forms with europium. Likewise, the evidence suggests that 50kg of tausonite would have the capacity to retain at least 26.59g of alpha-emitting radionuclides, equivalent to a waste package (900kg) with a maximum activity of 4000Bq/g.