Synthesis and applications of inverse vulcanized polysulfides from bio-crosslinkers

Elemental sulfur, an industrial by-product from petroleum industries worldwide, has drawn sufficient attention to researchers. The limited scope of application has caused a colossal surplus amount of elemental sulfur stacked in the open places. Several polysulfide synthesis processes, including condensation, free-radical process, and ionic copolymerization technique, were used but resulted in unstable products. A new polymerization technique, termed inverse vulcanization, has been introduced, which enabled different types of crosslinkers for polysulfide production and their scopes to explore numerous applications. The current paper concisely reviews the evolution and advances of using vegetable oils and plant extracts in inverse vulcanization to produce polysulfides. The alluring applications and properties have also been discussed briefly

Polysulfide: Sorbent made from waste cooking palm oil for petroleum refinery wastewater

Refinery industries produces almost 1.6 times wastewater compared to the petroleum products. Heavy metals and oily compounds are considered as most dangerous pollutants. Adsorption is the easiest and most effective method to treat the refinery wastewater. Polysulfides are cost effective and easy to produce in industrial scale. Waste cooking palm oil is the crosslinking monomer of polysulfide. It is abundant and itself hazardous. Elemental sulfur which is a by-product is abundant as well

Waste cooking palm oil as sustainable material for polysulfide synthesis : Characterization as a crosslinker for inverse vulcanization

Edible oils are becoming popular as crosslinkers to produce inverse vulcanized polysulfides. Waste palm cooking oil can be a suitable alternative as it is inexpensive and abundant in Malaysia. In the current work, the physicochemical properties were studied to analyze the potential of using waste palm cooking oil as a crosslinker. FTIR and GC-MS were done for molecular study, functional group analysis, and percentage of constituents. Data interpretation and comparison between fresh and waste palm cooking oil shows no significant structural and spectroscopic change. TGA was done to study the thermal stability and decomposition of both fresh and waste cooking oil. It is concluded that waste palm cooking oil can be a potential feedstock for inverse vulcanized polysulfides based on the experimental results

Synthesis of alumina from aluminium can waste to be applied as catalyst support for biodiesel production

Abundant of aluminum beverage cans are normally discarded after use have caused considerable land pollution and environmental problems. This research is therefore aimed to synthesize alumina from aluminum can waste which is one of the most common kind of waste. The objective of this research is to synthesize and characterize alumina produced from aluminum can waste, and to be applied as catalyst support in the biodiesel production. In this study, the alumina from aluminum can waste was produced via Sol-gel method by varying the aging time. Characterization of alumina was performed by using FTIR, XRD, BET, and SEM-EDX. The synthesized alumina was used as catalyst support for potassium nitrate catalyst to be applied in biodiesel production by using transesterification reaction of cooking oil. The biodiesel produced was analyzed by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) and FTIR. The experimental results revealed that the alumina powder synthesized at room temperature have high surface area which are suitable to be used as catalyst support of producing biodiesel. In conclusion, it has been demonstrated that it is possible to produce alumina from aluminum can waste that can be used as catalyst support for biodiesel production. From the GCMS and FTIR results, it was proven that biodiesel is produced

Utilization of cockle shell powder as an adsorbent to remove phosphorus-containing wastewater

The paper demonstrates the capability of using cockle shells as an adsorbent for phosphorus removal from simulated petrochemical wastewater, focusing on the actual condition of the petrochemical facultative pond. In this study, the physicochemical properties of shell powder were determined, such as the functional groups, surface morphology, crystalline structure, and surface area using FTIR, SEM, EDX, XRD, and BET. It was observed that the optimum conditions for effective phosphorus removal are under the presence of rotational speed (125rpm), higher dosage (7 g/L), and larger surface area (smaller particle size) of the shell powder. Fine powder achieved up to 52.27% of phosphorus removal after 40 min compared to coarse powder which could only give 16.67% removal. Additionally, calcined shell powder demonstrated a higher phosphorus removal rate, i.e., up to 62.37%, compared to raw shell powders. The adsorption isotherm was studied using Langmuir and Freundlich models, but the isothermal data fit better for the Freundlich model (R2 = 0.9836). Overall, this study has successfully generated a greener and low-cost adsorbent

Isolation and characterisation of nanofibrillated cellulose from N36 Ananas comosus leaves via ball milling with green solvent

The production of valuable materials from biomass into nanosized become the principal focus of the developing industries on achieving green-based composite product, designed for extensive range of applications. This study principally, focused on discovering green method for the utilisation of N36 Ananas comosus leaves fibre (PALF) to highly potential material. Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) were successfully isolated from PALF by ball milling with presence of isopropyl alcohol. The effect of isopropyl alcohol and the milling time on nano fibrillation were analysed through characterisation of NFCs including Field Emission Scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Xray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Zeta-potential (ZP), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) and Particle size analysis (PSA). Comparatively, the 1:4─15 min NFC sample which milled for 15 mins with 1 mL of cellulose suspension and 4 mL of IPA, express desirable features in the concern of morphology, fibre size, yield, crystallinity, thermal stability, and homogeneity on disintegration of PALF fibre. High thermal degradation temperature of 323 ℃ and crystallinity index of 67%, reveal the potential on reinforcing to improve the composite’s thermal stability and mechanical properties. Moreover, it exhibits excellent surface morphology, stability with low self-agglomeration, and uniformity in defibrillation with fibre diameter of 25.84 ± 8.30 nm, zetapotential of − 32.31 ± 2.51 and PDI of 0.103. Besides, the high yield of NFC (>90%), increase the feasibility of NFC production. Hence, addition of IPA gives significant impact on defibrillation by disrupt the intermolecular hydrogen bond, so that less milling time is convenient on production of NFC without causes severe damage on other properties

Recovering value from waste: Development of G-Nanocellulose derived from ananas comosus leaves

Malaysia is known as one of the largest producers of pineapple in Asia, at the same time it created a large quantity of waste; Pineapple leave fibre (PALF) is the main waste of this industry. Due to lack of study in agricultural waste management, Normally, PALF is left on the plantation for nutrient cycling or being burnt, and this circumstance may lead to air pollution. PALF possess higher cellulose (81.27%) content; lower lignin (3.46%) content than other natural fibre

Evaluation of La-Doped CaO Derived from Cockle Shells for Photodegradation of POME

Photocatalysis has merged to be one of the most promising technology in wastewater remediation. However, the application of photocatalysis in treating palm oil mill effluent (POME) is still limited. Many researches were conducted to explore simple and cost-effective alternatives to replace TiO2 for various industrial purposes. Therefore, the aim of this study is to synthesize and characterize lanthanum doped calcium oxide (La/CaO) as photocatalyst as well as to evaluate the performance of these photocatalysts in the degradation of POME. The photocatalyst used in this study was converted from cockle shells to transform into calcium oxide (CaO) through calcination process. The CaO produced was doped with 1 wt%, 3 wt%, and 5 wt% of lanthanum (La) using wet impregnation method to enhance its photocatalytic activity. The photocatalysts were characterised using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy-Dispersion X-ray (EDX) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICPMS). Then, this photocatalyst was performed on POME under UVC in a batch system by using different La/CaO at optimum catalyst dosage of 3.0 g/L. Through this research, it was found that the POME degradation through photocatalytic reaction was increased with the incorporation of La where 3 wt% La/CaO shows the highest POME degradation compared to others. This is due to the larger BET surface area that provides more active sites resulted from the incorporation of La. The findings of this study imply that the contaminants in POME can be reduced by utilizing CaO derived from cockle shells. Copyright © 2019 BCREC Group. All rights reserve