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Abstract:
This study showed that a polylactide (PLA)-based composite filled with nanostructured hydroxyapatite (HAp) and a natural extract from the rhizome of Curcuma longa L. could provide an alternative to commonly used fossil-based plasticsfor food packaging. The incorporation of HAp into the PLA matrix had a positive effect on improving selected properties of the composites; the beneficial effect could be enhanced by introducing a green modifier in the form of an extract. Prior to the fabrication of the composite, the filler was characterized in terms of morphology and composition, and the composite was then fully characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and the mechanical, thermal, thermomechanical, and optical properties were investigated. The proposed material exhibits antioxidant properties against DPPH radicals and antibacterial performance against Escherichia coli (E. coli). The results showed that the nanocomposite has the highest antioxidant and antibacterial properties for 10 wt% HAp with an average diameter of rod-shaped structures below 100 nm. In addition, the introduction of turmeric extract had a positive effect on the tensile strength of the nanocomposites containing 1 and 5% HAp. As the resulting material adsorbs light in a specific wavelength range, it can be used in the medical sector, food-packaging, or coatings.

Keywords:
polylactide, hydroxyapatite, turmeric extract, curcumin extract, green composite

Keywords:
graphene, curcuminoids, poly(vinyl chloride), nanocomposites stability, polymer films

Abstract:
The rapidly growing production and usage of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) dramatically raises the number of harmful wastes. Consequently, the LIBs waste management processes, taking into account reliability, efficiency, and sustainability criteria, became a hot issue in the context of environmental protection as well as the scarcity of metal resources. In this paper, we propose for the first time a functional material—a magnetorheological fluid (MRF) from the LIBs-based liquid waste containing heavy metal ions. At first, the spent battery waste powder was treated with acid-leaching, where the post-treatment acid-leaching solution (ALS) contained heavy metal ions including cobalt. Then, ALS was used during wet co-precipitation to obtain cobalt-doped superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and as an effect, the harmful liquid waste was purified from cobalt. The obtained nanoparticles were characterized with SEM, TEM, XPS, and magnetometry. Subsequently, superparamagnetic nanoparticles sized 15 nm average in diameter and magnetization saturation of about 91 emu g−1 doped with Co were used to prepare the MRF that increases the viscosity by about 300% in the presence of the 100 mT magnetic fields. We propose a facile and cost-effective way to utilize harmful ALS waste and use them in the preparation of superparamagnetic particles to be used in the magnetorheological fluid. This work describes for the first time the second life of the battery waste in the MRF and a facile way to remove the harmful ingredients from the solutions obtained after the acid leaching of LIBs as an effective end-of-life option for hydrometallurgical waste utilization.

Keywords:
environment protection SPION, battery waste, toxic waste management, direct recycling, sustainability, circular economy, critical raw materials

Keywords:
hydroxyapatite, myo-inositol, 5-fluorouracil, anticancer treatment, SKOV-3, calendula extract, Langmuir trough

Keywords:
poly(vinyl chloride) plastisol, wood flour, polymer-wood composite film

Abstract:
In this work, a method to increase the dispersion of graphene (GN) in the matrix of rigid
poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) by using a natural plant extract from Curcuma longa L. (CE) is proposed. Currently, despite the increasing number of reports on the improvement of GN dispersion in PVC blends, still there is a need to find environmentally friendly and economical dispersion stabilizers. We proposed a stabilizer that can be easily obtained from a plant offering thermal stability and high effectiveness. PVC/GN nanocomposites stabilized with the proposed extract were investigated by SEM, AFM (structure), TGA, and Congo red test (thermal properties). Additionally, static and dynamic mechanical properties and electrical resistivity were measured. The use of CE as a graphene dispersant improved its dispersion in the PVC matrix, influenced tensile properties, increased the storage modulus and glass transition temperature, and extended the thermal stability time of nanocomposites. In this work, a CE extract is proposed as an efficient eco-friendly additive for the production of nanocomposites with an improved homogeneity of a nanofiller in the matrix and promising characteristics.

Keywords:
nanocomposites,graphene,poly(vinyl chloride),curcuma extract