Functional Nanocomposites Through NanocarbonsSynthesis and Applications

Resumen

Environmental pollution and the scarce of green energy source are urgent challenges that force scientist to explore novel materials to solve and relief the issues. Carbon nanocomposites are considered very promising in numerous fields and particularly, in environmental remediation and sustainable transformations. This work focused on different aspects of carbon nanocomposites preparations that help to understand and control their final performance in different applications. In particular, we have concentrated on some environmentally related applications, such as water remediation and biofuel production. Regarding water remediation, we first explored the antibacterial activity for E. Coli and B. Substilis from graphene oxide based particles with tailored shapes prepared by wet self-assembly. It was shown that the released surfactant CTAB from nanocomposite particles was responsible for the observed antibacterial activity. Then, we concentrated on the recovery and dehydration of ionic liquids (ILs) from aquatic environments using superhydrophobic, electrically conductive f-CNFs/chitosan based cryogels prepared by ISISA process and assembled in a flow-through configuration. In this case, the conductivity of nanocomposite (3.7 S/cm) allowed the ILs flux enhancement by means of Joule effect. The cryogels achieved ILs separations with water contents down to 0.3 %. Moreover, cryogel absorbed ILs (up to 30 g/g), while separation efficiencies remained up to 99 % after 5 cycles. Concerning to biofuel production, dehumidification of produced biofuels (i.e., ethanol) has also been approached with remarkable water uptake (12 mmol g−1) vs ethanol (2 mmol g−1) and methanol (4.9 mmol g−1) by using carbon-GO nanocomposites prepared through a deep eutectic solvent (DES) assisted sol-gel route and pyrolysis at different temperature. The adequate functionalization degree on the chosen carbon nanomaterial and the preparation of stable homogeneous and dispersions have been also addressed and allowed advanced performance in the final carbon nanocomposites