Preparation of self-healing acrylic latex coatings using novel oil-filled ethyl cellulose microcapsules

Novel oil-filled microcapsules were prepared by introducing a phase separation method using ethyl cellulose as a shell-forming containing rapeseed oil. The prepared oil-filled microcapsules were evaluated by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and particle size analysis. Results showed that spherical microcapsules with a diameter of 10 to 45 μm and a rough porous shell were obtained. Carboxylated styrene/butadiene copolymer latex films containing various levels of these microcapsules were subjected to various levels of pre-elongation and their tensile properties were examined. The addition of oil-filled microcapsules resulted in a significant improvement in the modulus, strain-to-break, and toughness of the films. The self-healing mechanism of latex films was examined through the colorimetric measurements of the release of dye-containing following the pre-elongation of the samples. These measurements confirmed that pre-elongation of samples resulted in the release of oil within the latex films, hence plasticizing the surrounding polymeric network and partly restoring the mechanical properties of the pre-elongated films

Selective Oxidation of Crude Glycerol to Dihydroxyacetone in a Biphasic Photoreactor

In this paper, the first biphasic photoreactor was introduced and utilized for the conversion of glycerol to glyceraldehyde (GAD) and dihydroxyacetone (DHA) using water and ethyl acetate as dispersed (active) and continuous (inactive) phases, respectively. Increasing the ethyl acetate content in the reactor improved the DHA yield; however, the optimal DHA selectivity was obtained at an ethyl acetate to water ratio of 90:10 (vol/vol). Compared to a monophasic photoreactor containing only water and identical amounts of glycerol and photocatalyst, the biphasic reactor containing 90 vol % ethyl acetate increased the DHA yield by a factor of 2.9 (from 4.5% to 13%) and the concentration of DHA by approximately 14 times (from 0.08 mM to 1.1 mM) after 240 min. Additionally, photocatalytic conversion of crude glycerol extracted using a 90:10 (vol/vol) ethyl acetate-water mixture showed a similar DHA conversion and yield to that of pure glycerol

Electrospun Silica-Polyacrylonitrile Nanohybrids for Water Treatments

In this work, the removal of NOM (natural organic matter) as represented by humic acid by means of electrospun nanofiber adsorptive membranes (ENAMs) is described. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was used for the preparation of ENAMs incorporating silica nanoparticles as adsorbents. The addition of silica to the polymer left visible changes on the structural morphology and fibers’ properties of the membrane. The membrane samples were characterized by pure water permeability, contact angle measurement, SEM, XPS, and XRD. This study assesses the preliminary performance of PAN-Si membranes for the removal of natural organic matter (NOM). The membrane rejected the humic acid, a surrogate of NOM, from 69.57% to 87.5%

One-step synthesis of zwitterionic graphene oxide nanohybrid: Application to polysulfone tight ultrafiltration hollow fiber membrane

In this paper, novel zwitterionic graphene oxide (GO) nanohybrid was synthesized using monomers [2-(Methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide (SBMA) and N,N′-methylenebis(acrylamide) (MBAAm) (GO@poly(SBMA-co-MBAAm), and incorporated into polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber membrane for the effectual rejection of dye from the wastewater. The synthesized nanohybrid was characterized using FT-IR, PXRD, TGA, EDX, TEM and zeta potential analysis. The occurrence of nanohybrid on the membrane matrix and the elemental composition were analyzed by XPS. The as-prepared tight ultrafiltration hollow fiber membrane exhibited high rejection of reactive black 5 (RB-5, 99%) and reactive orange 16 (RO-16, 74%) at a dye concentration of 10 ppm and pure water flux (PWF) of 49.6 L/m2h. Fabricated nanocomposite membranes were also studied for their efficacy in the removal of both monovalent (NaCl) and divalent salts (Na2SO4). The results revealed that the membrane possesses complete permeation to NaCl with less rejection of Na2SO4 (<5%). In addition, the nanocomposite membrane revealed outstanding antifouling performance with the flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 73% towards bovine serum albumin (BSA). Therefore, the in-house prepared novel nanocomposite membrane is a good candidate for the effective decolorization of wastewater containing dye

Catalyst- and Stabilizer-Free Rational Synthesis of Ionic Polymer Nanoparticles in One Step for Oil/Water Separation Membranes

Ionic polymer nanoparticles (IPNs) were synthesized in one pot by quaternization precipitation polymerization (QPP) as a novel polymerization technique. QPP eliminated the usage of high-cost ionic monomers and reduced the number of steps for the preparation of IPN. The monomers 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and 4-vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) polymerized in the presence of azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) and underwent quaternization simultaneously, which yielded ionic poly(DMAEMA-co-VBC) nanoparticles in one step with the size of 50–80 nm without any stabilizer and catalyst. Similarly, 4-vinylpyridine (VP) and VBC polymerized in the presence of AIBN and underwent quaternization simultaneously, which yielded ionic poly(VP-co-VBC) nanoparticles in one step with the size of 70–90 nm without any stabilizer and catalyst. The as-synthesized IPN was further utilized for the fabrication of hydrophilic nanocomposite ultrafiltration membranes for oil/water separation. Fabricated hybrid membranes were characterized and studied for oil rejection properties. It exhibited an oil rejection of >96% with a pure water permeability of 219 L/m2 h bar

Hydrophilic nano-aluminum oxide containing polyphenylsulfone hollow fiber membranes for the extraction of arsenic (As-V) from drinking water

In the present work, hollow fiber ultrafiltration membranes were fabricated by incorporating intensified dosages of nano-aluminum oxide (nano-Al2O3; 0.6 wt%, 1.0 wt% and 1.5 wt%) into cellulose acetate (CA)/polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) and cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP)/PPSU by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) process. The topological structures and the morphologies were investigated using atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The crystalline and morphological structures of the nano-Al2O3 were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) respectively. Fourier transform infra-red spectroscope (FTIR) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis have been carried out to validate the dosages of nano-Al2O3, CA and CAP on PPSU membranes. The membrane's surface charge measurement of 1.5 wt% of nano-Al2O3 in CA/PPSU (ALCA-1.5) was scrutinized by zeta potential analysis. Membranes removed more arsenate oxide as the removal rate from membranes ALCA-1.5 and 1.0 wt% of nano-Al2O3 in CA/PPSU (ALCA-1) was 98.67% and 94.89% with retention permeabilities of 88.41 L/m2h bar and 53.53 L/m2h bar respectively from laboratory prepared 1 ppm of aqueous arsenic solution with pH in the range 6.8 ± 0.2 at 1 bar transmembrane pressure. In addition, membrane's antifouling analysis was performed using laboratory prepared 0.8 g/L (Bovine Serum Albumin) BSA as standard protein solution