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An efficient, economical, environment-friendly and easy separable catalyst to treat environmental contaminants is an enduring attention in recent years due to their great potential for environmental protection and remediation. Here we have reported the excellent performance of polyaniline activated heterojunctured Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 catalyst to degrade azo dye in an aqueous solution at ambient condition. The catalyst was prepared via a simple facile polymerization procedure. The physicochemical properties and structure of the synthesized catalyst was confirmed by TGA, PXRD, FTIR, SEM, HRTEM, XPS, EDX, and DRS techniques. The developed catalyst has shown an accelerated degradation ability of an organic pollutant Orange ll Sodium salt azo dye about 100% for the dye concentration of 50 ppm within five minutes at ambient conditions with 1 g/l loading of catalyst. Simple facile synthesis, easy separation by an external magnet, good reusability and high degradation capability of the catalyst may promote the practical applications of the heterostructured catalyst at ambient condition for water remediation. The present study also explored possible credible charge transfer directions and mechanism of photocatalysis supported by trapping experiments and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurement for the effective improvement of photocatalytic activity and enhancement of the visible light adsorption.

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Elastomer toughened poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT)/organoclay [Cloisite 30B, organo-montmorillonite (OMMT)] nanocomposites were prepared via melt blending using a micro-compounder. In this work, two types of impact modifiers, ultra low density polyethylene grafted glycidyl methacrylate (ULDPE-g-GMA, IM1) and ethylene-methyl acrylate-glycidyl methacrylate (E-MA-GMA, IM2) were used, and a detailed comparison of the effect of both was made. With respect to the impact strength, 2 wt% of ULDPE-g-GMA produced a better result as compared to 2 wt% E-MA-GMA. Therefore, 2 wt% of ULDPE-g-GMA is considered as the optimized percentage for the preparation of nanocomposites. Being an impact modifier, ULDPE-g-GMA decreases the yield stress, tensile modulus and breaking strength of pure PBT. This issue was addressed in this paper by using organoclay, which may improve the tensile properties of PBT materials. The content of ULDPE-g-GMA was kept constant, whereas organoclay (OMMT) content was varied from 2 to 5 wt% in nanocomposites. The melting and crystallization behavior of pure PBT, impact modified PBT and its nanocomposites were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Crystalline morphology was investigated using polarizing optical microscopy (POM) at 185°C, 195°C, and 205°C crystallization temperatures. The optimum increase in tensile modulus of the elastomer toughened PBT nanocomposites was seen with a 3 wt% addition of organoclay.