Characterization of Sol-gel Derived Cobalt-doped Willemite via 2D Correlation Spectroscopy

Cobalt blue is one of the world’s most famous blue pigments, but it presents a threat to human health since it is toxic when inhaled or ingested. A safer and environmentally preferable way of obtaining cobalt blue-like pigments is doping of various nontoxic compounds with small amounts of cobalt. In this work, doping of zinc silicate (willemite, Zn2SiO4) was carried out with 5, 10, and 15 mol% of Co with the aim of obtaining Zn2–xCoxSiO4 solid solution. Thermal properties of sol-gel derived samples were examined with simultaneous differential thermal and thermogravimetric analysis (DTA/TGA), which showed dehydration, decomposition, and burning effects, accompanied with mass loss and willemite crystallization effect at 800 °C. X-ray powder diffraction analysis (XRD) indicated the formation of willemite phase at 800 °C, accompanied with ZnO phase and increase in willemite crystallinity with annealing temperature rise from 800 to 1100 °C. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed characteristic bands for present oxides and their bonds along with adsorbed water and carbon dioxide. Colouration of prepared samples changed with annealing temperature, whereas higher Co concentrations and temperatures accentuated the intense blue colour. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) revealed an increase in absorbance with annealing temperature and specific bands as a result of different Co coordination present in the samples. The 2D correlation analysis of FTIR and UV-Vis spectra of the samples thermally treated at various temperatures was utilized to investigate and correlate the changes in the structure with the rise of the annealing temperature. The obtained correlation facilitated the finding of optimal process parameters for the desired pigment quality. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Assessment of Cell Toxicity and Oxidation Catalytic Activity of Nanosized Zinc-doped Ceria UV Filter

The abundance of cerium in natural resources, its ability to absorb UV light while being transparent to visible light, as well as low photocatalytic activity make ceria (CeO2) a promising candidate for UV filter material in sunscreens. Doping with different elements can further decrease ceria catalytic and photocatalytic activity, thus preventing the degradation of other sunscreen ingredients. In this work, pure and zinc-doped ceria nanoparticles were prepared by a simple and environmentally benign hydrothermal synthesis, and characterized using various techniques. Fine ceria and doped ceria nanoparticles with particle sizes of 6.1±0.9 and 4.2±0.4 nm were prepared. In both samples, cubic ceria was the only crystalline phase, but the homogeneous distribution of zinc in the doped sample was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. Nanoparticles exhibited transparency in the visible region and absorbance in the UV region with band gap of 3.23 to 3.14 eV for pure and doped sample, respectively. The oxidation stability time, determined through Castor oil oxidation process, was 23 hours for the pure and 15 hours for the doped sample, which is quite satisfactory. In vitro cytotoxicity study showed that the prepared nanoparticles were well tolerated by human skin keratinocytes (HaCaT cell line) with no significant differences in skin cells viability. However, further investigations on in vivo systems are necessary to reach a firm conclusion regarding the toxicity of ceria and doped ceria nanoparticles, and other potential dopants should be considered for improvement of ceria properties for sunscreen application. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Mechanochemical synthesis of zincite doped with cadmium in various amounts

This work investigates the limit of Cd doping in ZnO derived by means of mechanochemical synthesis using CdCl2, ZnCl2 and Na2CO3 as precursors and NaCl as diluent. The prepared samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared attenuated total reflectance (FTIR ATR) spectroscopy, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS),N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), while photocatalytic efficiency has been evaluated for methylene blue degradation process. Zn for Cd replacement limits in the crystal lattice of ZnO derived via mechanochemical synthesis were found to be only 2%. For Cd present in a larger portion, CdO and CdCO3 phases appear. Cd doping limits in ZnO were not affected by the milling interval. However, it was observed that Cd doping impairs the nanocrystallinity of ZnO. The morphology and the electronic structure of ZnO and thus photocatalytic activity was inappreciably affected by the Cd doping