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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Manufacturing Processes and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2020) | Viewed by 12775

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Prof. Dr. Petru Negrea

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Faculty of Industrial Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Politehnica University Timisoara, Victoriei Square no. 2, 300006 Timisora, Romania
Interests: chemical engineering; pollution; rare earth; heavy metals; metal recovery; applied chemistry; chemical analyses; materials; adsorption; drinking water quality; waste water expertise
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Dr. Mihaela Ciopec

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Applied Chemistry and Engineering of Inorganic Compounds and the Environment, Politehnica University Timisoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania
Interests: removal metals ions; adsorbent materials; pollutants; polymers/biomaterials functionalization
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid development of human society over the last hundred years has resulted in a sharp increase in the number and amount of pollutants emitted into the environment, leading to severe imbalances. Simultaneously, an important technological advance has been observed which allows us to recover pollutants and remediate the environment.

Exploitation and conversion of natural resources in raw materials, used by various industries, leads to the apparition of environmental pollution. Broad diversification of industrial products used for improvement of our living conditions is responsible for most pollutant emissions. In this context, it is important to produce suitable materials (adsorbents, catalysts, and so on) to reduce the pollutant amount discharged into the environment. It is vital to properly characterize the produced materials in order to establish a correlation between material structure (microstructure) and its properties. Such a correlation is being established using different scanning characterization techniques: scanning electron microscopy, scanning probe, optical microscopy, and X-Ray diffraction.

Prof. Petru Negrea
Dr. Mihaela Ciopec
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

Specific forefront scanning based techniques
Experimental and theoretical approach used in scanning technologies
Specific materials and systems of interest
Specific applications of interests
Microstructure analysis
Microanalysis of the adsorbent materials
Scanning electron microscopy used for characterization of new materials
Size and chemical composition of the pollutant particles
SEM usage to highlight the interaction between different pollutant particles, and between pollutant particles and adsorbent materials
Interaction between different pollutants particles and any other relevant aspects for SEM, scanning probe, optical microscopy, etc.
Particle distribution and uncertainty

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 4549 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of Electrically Conducting Nanocomposite Material Polythiophene@NiO/Frt/GOx as Anode for Enzymatic Biofuel Cells

by Inamuddin and Khalid A. Alamry

Materials 2020, 13(8), 1823; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13081823 - 12 Apr 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 2566

Abstract

In this work, nano-inspired nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO) and polythiophene (Pth) modified bioanode was prepared for biofuel cell applications. The chemically prepared nickel oxide nanoparticles and its composite with polythiophene were characterized for elemental composition and microscopic characterization while using scanning electron microscopy. The electrochemical characterizations of polythiophene@NiO composite, biocompatible mediator ferritin (Frt) and glucose oxidase (GOx) catalyst modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode were carried out using cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), and charge-discharge studies. The current density of Pth@NiO/Frt/GOx bioanode was found to be 5.4 mA/cm². The bioanode exhibited a good bio-electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of the glucose. The experimental studies of the bioanode are justifying its employment in biofuel cells. This will cater a platform for the generation of sustainable energy for low temperature devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in New Material Production and Characterization Using Scanning Techniques)

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22 pages, 6159 KiB

Open AccessArticle

New Generation of Antibacterial Products Based on Colloidal Silver

by Bogdan Pascu, Adina Negrea, Mihaela Ciopec, Corneliu Mircea Davidescu, Petru Negrea, Vasile Gherman and Narcis Duteanu

Materials 2020, 13(7), 1578; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13071578 - 29 Mar 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2468

Abstract

The main objective of the present paper is the green synthesis of colloidal silver by ultrasonication starting from silver nitrate and using soluble starch as the reducing agent. Soluble starch has been used during synthesis because it is a cheap and environmentally friendly reactive. Silver colloid has been characterized by physicochemical methods: UV–VIS spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy. This colloidal material was prepared in order to prove and establish its toxicity on heterotrophic bacteria. Toxicity tests were carried out using test cultures with and without silver colloid with different concentrations. This way was possible to establish the minimum silver concentration that presents a toxic effect against used bacteria. Quantitative evaluation of bacterial growth was performed by using the Most Probable Number method. By counting the bacterial colony number, the antibacterial effect was determined for colloidal silver deposited onto the cotton gauze by adsorption. During the present study, we optimized the adsorption specific parameters: solid:liquid ratio, temperature, contact time, colloidal silver concentration. By thermodynamic, equilibrium and kinetic studies, the adsorptive process mechanism was established. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in New Material Production and Characterization Using Scanning Techniques)

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15 pages, 3513 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modified Chitosan for Silver Recovery—Kinetics, Thermodynamic, and Equilibrium Studies

by Bogdan Pascu, Cristina Ardean, Corneliu Mircea Davidescu, Adina Negrea, Mihaela Ciopec, Narcis Duțeanu, Petru Negrea and Gerlinde Rusu

Materials 2020, 13(3), 657; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13030657 - 01 Feb 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 1896

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the silver recovery from aqueous solutions. There are a variety of recovery methods, such as hydrometallurgical, bio-metallurgical, cementation, reduction, electrocoagulation, electrodialysis, ion exchange, etc. Adsorption represents a convenient, environment friendly procedure, that can be used to recover silver from aqueous solutions. In this paper we highlight the silver adsorption mechanism on chitosan chemically modified with active groups, through kinetic, thermodynamic, and equilibrium studies. A maximum adsorption capacity of 103.6 mg Ag(I)/g of adsorbent for an initial concentration of 700 mg/L was noticed by using modified chitosan. Lower adsorption capacity has been noticed in unmodified chitosan—a maximum of 75.43 mg Ag(I)/g. Optimum contact time was 120 min and the process had a maximum efficiency when conducted at pH higher than 6. At the same time, a way is presented to obtain metallic silver from the adsorbent materials used for the recovery of the silver from aqueous solutions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in New Material Production and Characterization Using Scanning Techniques)

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10 pages, 3969 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reliability Study of c-Si PV Module Mounted on a Concrete Slab by Thermal Cycling Using Electroluminescence Scanning: Application in Future Solar Roadways

by Firoz Khan, Béchir Dridi Rezgui and Jae Hyun Kim

Materials 2020, 13(2), 470; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13020470 - 19 Jan 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 2861

Abstract

Several tests were conducted to ratify the reliability and durability of the solar photovoltaic (PV) devices before deployment in the real field (non-ideal conditions). In the real field, the temperature of the PV modules was varied during the day and night. Nowadays, people have been bearing in mind the deployment of PV modules on concrete roads to make use of the space accessible on roads. In this regard, a comparative study on the failure and degradation behaviors of crystalline Si PV modules with and without a concrete slab was executed via a thermal cycling stress test. The impact of the concrete slab on the performance degradation of PV modules was evaluated. Electroluminescence (EL) results showed that the defect due to thermal cycling (TC) stress was reduced in the PV module with a concrete slab. The power loss due to the thermal cycling was reduced by approximately 1% using a concrete slab for 200 cycles. The R_sh value was reduced to approximately 91% and 71% after thermal cycling of 200 cycles for reference PV modules, respectively. The value of I₀ was increased to approximately 3.1 and 2.9 times the initial value for the PV modules without and with concrete, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in New Material Production and Characterization Using Scanning Techniques)

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13 pages, 5415 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance Degradation Analysis of c-Si PV Modules Mounted on a Concrete Slab under Hot-Humid Conditions Using Electroluminescence Scanning Technique for Potential Utilization in Future Solar Roadways

by Firoz Khan and Jae Hyun Kim

Materials 2019, 12(24), 4047; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12244047 - 05 Dec 2019

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2554

Abstract

The stability of the photovoltaic (PV) modules is critical when deployed in a non-ideal environment. Among the different factors, temperature and humidity are the two major factors affecting PV stability, making them significant causes of its degradation in terms of optoelectric and materials properties. Nowadays, with the increase in PV installation (here, we are only taking account of c-Si-based PV modules) to generate green electricity, effective space utilization is an important issue. Recently, people have been considering deploying PV modules on the road to utilize the space available on highways (roadways). This raises several new issues in the deployment of PV modules. However, issues related to temperature and humidity retain the same importance. Normally, these stability tests are performed in a damp-heat (DH) stress-testing chamber in an accelerated condition at 85 °C and 85% relative humidity (RH). In this work, c-Si PV modules were fixed over a concrete slab to prepare a PV interacted block, which can be used to build concrete-based roads. The performance of this PV on the concrete slab was tested in a DH stress-testing chamber in an accelerated condition at 85 °C and 85% RH for 4000 h. For the comparison, a PV module without concrete was also evaluated. The degradation of the PV modules was characterized using the electroluminescence scanning technique. After 2500 h of exposure to the DH conditions, the performance retention of the PV modules mounted on the concrete was 93.2%, which was nearly 5% higher than the module without the concrete slab. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in New Material Production and Characterization Using Scanning Techniques)

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