Lazaro Huerta

Facile Solventless Synthesis of a Nylon-6,6/Silver Nanoparticles Composite and Its XPS Study

Silver nanoparticles were synthesized and supported on thin nylon membranes by means of a simple method of impregnation and chemical reduction of Ag ions at ambient conditions. Particles of less than 10 nm were obtained using this methodology, in which the nylon fibers behave as constrained nanoreactors. Pores on nylon fibres along with oxygen and nitrogen from amide moieties in nylon provide effective sites for in situ reduction of silver ions and for the formation and stabilization of Ag nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed that silver nanoparticles are well dispersed throughout the nylon fibers. Furthermore, an interaction between nitrogen of amides moieties of nylon-6,6 and silver nanoparticles has been found by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

Composite Fiber Based on Sisal Fiber and Calcium Carbonate

The impregnation of a raw sisal fiber in a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide generated a fiber coated by a remarkable quantity of calcium carbonate and calcium oxide. However, some detachments of the inorganic coating were observed at microscopic level, and interstices in the external walls, filled by the precipitated material, were less visible than in raw fiber. Additionally, some fiber components have been removed by the preliminary sodium silicate washing. The final composite exhibited more amorphous characteristics than the original raw fiber, as well as its mechanical behavior was very similar to an elastomeric material with more homogeneous mechanical properties than the original raw fiber.

Synthesis and characterization of Cu-doped polymeric carbon nitride

ABSTRACT Polymeric carbon nitride doped with copper through a solid-state reaction was characterized by several techniques, among them are UV-visible spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, etc. The material is a semiconductor with a wide band gap of 2.74 eV. Sites of both Cu(I) and Cu(II) were detected, apparently only coordinated by the polymer. The material comprises crumpled nanosheets, and is substantially an amorphous layered material with a prevalent 2D structure with low inter-planar interactions, as shown by X-ray diffractometry and TeraHertz spectroscopy. Photo-oxidation of benzyl alcohol was used to probe the active sites of the material, comparing them with the non-doped material. The higher activity and selectivity toward salicylic alcohol of the non-doped material can be due to both a more localized electron transfer and a longer lifetime of the hole–electron pair. Cu-CN favored the oxidation of hydroxymethyl group. Therefore, the presence of copper can favor different reaction pathways with respect to the non-doped material.

Photocatalytic activity of a new composite material of Fe (III) oxide nanoparticles wrapped by a matrix of polymeric carbon nitride and amorphous carbon

ABSTRACT Polymeric carbon nitride was synthesized from urea and doped with Cu and Fe to act as co-catalysts. The material doped with Fe was a new composite material composed of Fe(III) oxides (acting as a co-catalyst) wrapped by the polymer layers and amorphous carbon. Furthermore, the copper doped material was described in a previous report. The photocatalytic degradation of the azo dye direct blue 1 (DB) was studied using as photocatalysts: pure carbon nitride (CN), carbon nitride doped with Cu (CN-Cu) and carbon nitride doped with Fe (CN-Fe). The catalysts were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method (BET), etc. The adsorption phenomenon was studied using the Langmuir and Freundlich models. For the kinetic study, a solution of 500 mg L−1 of DB1 was treated with each catalyst, visible light and H2O2. The dye concentration was measured by spectrophotometry at the wavelength of 565 nm, and the removal of the total organic content (TOC) was quantified. BET analysis yielded surface areas of 60.029, 20.116 and 70.662 m2g−1 for CN, CN-Cu and CN-Fe, respectively. The kinetics of degradation were pseudo-first order, whose constants were 0.093, 0.039 and 0.110 min−1 for CN, CN-Cu and CN-Fe, respectively. The total organic carbon (TOC) removal reached the highest value of 14.46% with CN-Fe.

Synthesis and structural characterization of tris (methacrylato)chromium(III)

A straightforward synthetic route to produce tris(methacrylato)chromium(III), Cr(O2C(CH3)C=CH2)3, by reacting sodium methacrylate with an aqueous solution of CrCl3 gave a blue microcrystalline powder, insoluble in most common solvents. Electronic spectroscopy (UV-Vis), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), were employed to characterize Cr(O2C(CH3)C=CH2)3. Morphology and elemental composition of this compound were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), respectively. Spherical particles of approximately 2.5 µm in diameter were obtained. Thermal stability of the product was investigated via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The spectroscopic studies revealed that the coordination sphere around the chromium ion corresponds to a chelating bidentate carboxylate-Cr(III) complex. Thermal stability above 350°C, and spherical shape particles of few micrometers in diameter, suggest a potential application of this novel compound as a catalyst in oxidation reactions.