Preparation of magnetic nanoparticles coated with chitosan in one step by the coprecipitation method in the presence of different chitosan concentrations is reported here. Obtaining of magnetic superparamagnetic nanoparticles was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements. Scanning transmission electron microscopy allowed to identify spheroidal nanoparticles with around 10-11 nm in average diameter. Characterization of the products by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy demonstrated that composite chitosan-magnetic nanoparticles were obtained. Chitosan content in obtained nanocomposites was estimated by thermogravimetric analysis. The nanocomposites were tested in Pb2+removal from a PbCl2aqueous solution, showing a removal efficacy up to 53.6%. This work provides a simple method for chitosan-coated nanoparticles obtaining, which could be useful for heavy metal ions removal from water.

Chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles (CMNP) were obtained at 50 • C in a one-step method comprising coprecipitation in the presence of low chitosan content. CMNP showed high magnetization and superparamagnetism. They were composed of a core of 9.5 nm in average diameter and a very thin chitosan layer in accordance with electron microscopy measurements. The results from Fourier transform infrared spectrometry demonstrated that CMNP were obtained and those from thermogravimetric analysis allowed to determine that they were composed of 95 wt% of magnetic nanoparticles and 5 wt% of chitosan. 67% efficacy in the Pb +2 removal test indicated that only 60% of amino groups on CMNP surface bound to Pb, probably due to some degree of nanoparticle flocculation during the redispersion. The very low weight ratio chitosan to magnetic nanoparticles obtained in this study, 0.053, and the high yield of the precipitation reactions (≈97%) are noticeable.

Although the porosity in Al-SiC metal matrix composites (MMC) can be diminished; its existence is unavoidable. The purpose of this work is to study the effect of porosity on Young's modulus of SiC reinforced aluminum matrix composites. Finite element analysis is performed based on the unit cell and the representative volume element approaches. The reliability of the models is validated by comparing the numerical predictions against several experimental data ranging in lowand high-volume fractions and good agreement is found. It is found that despite the stress transfer from the soft matrix to the reinforcement remains effective in the presence of pores, there is a drop in the stress gathering capability of the particles and thus, the resulting effective elastic modulus of composite decreases. The elastic property of the composite is more sensitive to pores away the reinforcement. It is confirmed, qualitatively, that the experimentally reported in the literature decrease in the elastic modulus is caused by the presence of pores.

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