Adriana Carvalho Pinto Vieira

Organofunctionalized magnesium phyllosilicates as mono- or bifunctitonal entities for industrial dyes removal

Magnesium phyllosilicates with organic groups anchored onto the inorganic polymeric backbones as mono- or bifunctional entities were investigated for dye removal from aqueous solution. The synthetic methodology consisted in obtaining organofunctionalized nanostructured materials from silylating agents of general formula R1–Si(OCH3)3, in which R1-trimethoxysilane includes chains containing the functional groups: 3-aminopropyl, octadecyldimethyl(silylpropyl)ammonium, 3-mercaptopropyl, 3-ethylenediamine and 3-diethylenetriamine. The sol–gel process leads to lamellar structures similar to those of natural silicate with basal distances, in good agreement with the R1 contained in the precursor agent. The pendant electrophile attached on the new phyllosilicates interacts with the negative charge of dyes used in the textile industry, such as Reactive Yellow GR, Reactive Red RB and Reactive Blue RN. The sorption studies showed that the phyllosilicate containing octadecyldimethyl(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)ammonium chloride agent, P-OCT, presented the highest sorption capacities of 1343, 1286 and 344 mg g−1 for the dyes Yellow GR, Blue RN and Red RB, respectively, which are better than for other sorbing materials. Real samples from textile effluents assayed demonstrated that the sorption did not need to adjust the initial pH, with surface saturation after 3 h and the minimum mass necessary was 2.5 g dm−3 of P-OCT for the best efficiency. This is thus a very promising material for textile effluent treatment, with good structural disposition of the pendant groups.

Ibuprofen-loaded chitosan and chemically modified chitosans—Release features from tablet and film forms

The biopolymer chitosan was chemically modified in two sequences of reactions: (i) immobilization of methyl acrylate followed by cysteamine and (ii) the sequence of immobilization reactions involving ethylene sulfide, methyl acrylate and finally cysteamine. In both cases the pendant chains have attached nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur basic centers. The corresponding structures were characterized through elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance in the solid state for carbon, thermogravimetry and scanning electron microscopy. The newly synthesized biopolymers have abilities to immobilize and controllably release the non-steroidal drug ibuprofen. The ibuprofen-loaded biomaterials as tablets or as films crosslinked with glutaraldehyde revealed that drug release is pH sensitive. The chemically modified chitosan may allow reduction of drug release in stomach fluids, since the functional groups cause a decrease in swelling rate at pH 1.2, opposite to the behavior that occurs at pH 7.4, that of nutritional fluid, where an increase of the rate of swelling occurs. In such conditions the negatively charge ibuprofen is electrostatically repelled by negative chitosan derivative surfaces.

High performance maleated lignocellulose epicarp fibers for copper ion removal

Abstract - Natural lignocellulosic fiber epicarp extracted from the babassu coconut ( Orbignya speciosa ) was chemically modified through reaction with molten maleic anhydride without solvent, with incorporation of 189.34 mg g -1 of carboxylic acid groups into the biopolymer structure. The success of this reaction was also confirmed by the presence of carboxylic acid bands at 1741 and 1164 cm -1 in the infrared spectrum. Identically, the same group is observed through 13 C NMR CP/MAS in the solid state, via high field signals in the 167 pm region. Both the precursor and the immobilized maleated biopolymers presented nearly the same thermal stability and similar crystallinity to cellulose. However, the pendant carboxylic groups have the ability to remove copper with maximum sorption through a batchwise process at pH 6.0, as expected from the point of zero charge, determined to be 6.45. The sorption kinetic data were fitted to pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, Elovich-chemisorption and intra-particle diffusion models and the equilibrium data were fitted to the Langmuir, the Freundlich and Tenkim isotherm models. Taking into account a statistical error function and determination coefficients, the data were fit to the pseudo-first and pseudo-second order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models, with a maximum sorption capacity of copper ions of 55.09 mg g