A series of multifunctional silver-doped titanium dioxide (Ag/TiO2) nanocomposites with various silver contents were synthesized by the peroxo sol–gel method using TiCl4 as a precursor and H2O2 as a peptizing agent. The sol was used to coat a glass substrate, thereby forming a thin film. The antiviral and antibacterial activities of the Ag/TiO2 films and their use in the photocatalytic degradation of an aqueous solution of methylene blue were investigated. The as-prepared materials were characterized using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The antiviral and antibacterial activities of the samples were tested against Escherichia coli, the influenza A virus (H1N1), and enterovirus. It was observed that an optimum Ag:TiO2 weight ratio of 1:100 enabled the highest activity in the photocatalytic degradation of an aqueous solution of methylene blue under irradiation with either ultraviolet or visible light. Moreover, the same composition remarkably exhibited extremely high antibacterial and virucidal effectivenesses greater than 99.99% against E. coli and infectious viruses after illumination with ultraviolet A. The presence of silver on TiO2 significantly enhanced its photocatalytic activity. Thus, the excellent photocatalytic activities and reusability of the Ag/TiO2 nanocomposite render it applicable as a coating material for several purposes.

Polymers filled with conducting fibers to provide electrical conductivity performance have received great attention due to the requirements of many engineering applications. In the present article, injection molding of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)/carbon-fiber composites using applied gas counter pressure (GCP) was conducted and the overall fiber orientation and associated through-plane electrical conductivity (TPEC) of each layer (core, shear and skin layers) and various locations (far gate, center and near gate) were characterized. Results show that GCP had significant effects on the fiber orientation and skin layer thickness, resulting in decreases in the fiber orientation level (FOL) value in all locations and TPEC increases with increasing GCP in the core region of the molded composites (improvement of 62% when 100 bar GCP was applied). However, the effect of increased skin layer thickness in reducing TPEC was stronger than the effect of decreased FOL in raising TPEC when GCP was applied. This resulted in the overall TPEC falling slightly with increasing GCP. The results also show that the electrical conductivity followed the sequence of far gate > center > near gate and the FOL followed the order of core layer < shear layer < skin layer. The results obtained in this investigation reveal the potential application of GCP technology associated with mold temperature control in injection molding to manufacture products with enhanced electrical conductivity in the future.