Organic–inorganic functional hybrid polymeric materials are well known for the efficient removal of contaminants from wastewater.

The functionalization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes was performed through the treatment of multiwalled carbon nanotubes with ozone using UV-ozone irradiation to improve their dispersion in polystyrene matrix. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes–polystyrene nanocomposites were prepared at different multiwalled carbon nanotubes weight ratios to investigate the effect of multiwalled carbon nanotubes loadings on the electrical, optical, and rheological properties of polystyrene matrix. The obtained results revealed that incorporation of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes into polystyrene improved the electrical, optical, and rheological properties of neat polystyrene which indicated that multiwalled carbon nanotubes were well dispersed in the polymer matrix. Results obtained from DC and AC electrical measurements revealed that the percolation threshold was around 0.8 wt% multiwalled carbon nanotubes and incorporation of 3% multiwalled carbon nanotubes into polystyrene increased polystyrene electrical conductivity up to six orders of magnitude. Besides, increasing of multiwalled carbon nanotubes loadings increased the relative dielectric permittivity, dielectric loss, and loss tangent while decreased the total impedance of polystyrene matrix. Rheological results indicated that incorporation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes into polystyrene elevated the magnitudes of storage modulus and loss modulus up to two orders of magnitude with increasing of multiwalled carbon nanotubes loadings up to 3 wt%. Finally, the addition of multiwalled carbon nanotubes to polystyrene matrix enhanced the UV/visible absorption of polystyrene and decreased the optical energy gap with a total reduction ratio of 5.8% compared to neat polystyrene with increasing multiwalled carbon nanotubes loadings up to 2 wt%.

Two groups of polymer nanocomposite samples were synthesized. One of them was Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) loaded with different concentrations of carbon nanopowder (CNP), while the other was PVC loaded with different concentrations of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The dependence of the tensile mechanical parameters, rheological properties and the dc electrical conductivity on the concentration of either filler was investigated. Results revealed a lower electrical and mechanical percolation threshold of CNTs than CNP. Concentration of CNTs of 1 wt% increases the elastic modulus 2.3 times greater than CNP at a concentration of 2 wt%. The storage modulus and the complex viscosity studied at a frequency of 0.1 Hz had the same behavior as the elastic modulus. The glass transition temperature was slightly changed with the addition of either nanofiller. The behavior of the temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity was found to be temperature independent in the studied range for composites containing CNTs, while composites containing CNP showed an activated one at relatively high temperatures. At concentrations in the percolation region of either CNP or CNTs, a jump region in the I-V characteristics was observed with a highest slope of 36.35 at 1 wt% of CNTs. Otherwise the conduction mechanism of the charge carriers was determined and found to be Ohmic.

This paper investigates the mechanism of light-soaking effects in inverted organic photovoltaic devices with zinc oxide and aluminum doped ZnO electron transport layers, which is important for development of low-cost and stable solar cells.

In this research work, SnO2, NiO and SnO2/NiO nanocomposites were synthesized at low temperature by modified sol–gel method using ultrasonication. Prepared samples were investigated for their properties employing various characterization techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed the purity and phase of the samples as no secondary phase was detected. The average crystallite size of the nanocomposites was found to decrease from 19.24 to 4.53 nm with the increase in NiO concentration. It was confirmed from SEM micrographs that the material has mesoporous morphology. This mesoporous morphology resulted in the increase of the surface to mass ratio of the material, which in turn increases the specific capacitance of the material. The UV–Visible spectra showed the variation in the band gap of SnO2/NiO at different weight ratio ranging from 3.49 to 3.25 eV on increasing NiO concentration in the samples. These composites with different mass ratio of SnO2 and NiO were also characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy that showed shifting of the peaks centered at 545 cm−1 in the spectra for NiO/SnO2 nanocomposite. The analysis of the electrochemical performance of the material was done with the help of cyclic voltammetry and Galvanostatic charge–discharge. The specific capacitance of the synthesized samples with different concentration of SnO2 and NiO was analyzed at different scan rates of 5 to 100 mV/s. Interestingly, 7:1 mass ratio of NiO and SnO2 (SN7) nanocomposite exhibited a maximum specific capacitance of ~ 464 F/g at a scan rate of 5 mV/s and good capacitance retention of 87.24% after 1,000 cycles. These excellent electrochemical properties suggest that the SnO2/NiO nanocomposite can be used for high energy density supercapacitor electrode material.