A new kind of blend material was prepared by the incorporation of lignosulfonate calcium (LS), as the filler, into biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), as the polymeric matrix, with the process of melt mixing and subsequent compression molding. The nucleation of LS improved the crystalline properties of the PBS component in the blends. Combined with the rigidity nature of the LS filler, the Young's modulus values of the blends were enhanced. Furthermore, the introduction of LS in this biodegradable polyester slightly increased the hydrophilicity of the blends, shown as higher values of water uptake at equilibrium; this might facilitate the biodegradation of hydrophobic polyesters. Consequently, this study opened one way of enhancing the rigidity and decreasing the cost of biodegradable PBS-based polymeric plastics.

Three dimensional (3D) ZnO/ZnAl2O4 nanocomposites (ZnnAl-MMO) were synthesized by a simple urea-assisted hydrothermal process and subsequent high-temperature calcination. The as-prepared samples and their precursors were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and Photoluminescence spectra (PL). It was observed that the morphology of ZnnAl-MMO nanocomposites could be tuned from cubic aggregates, hierarchically flower-like spheres to porous microspheres by simply changing the molar ratio of metal cations of the starting reaction mixtures. The photocatalytic performance of ZnO/ZnAl2O4 nanocomposites in the photoreduction of aqueous Cr(VI) indicated that the as-prepared 3D hierarchical sphere-like ZnnAl-MMO nanocomposite showed excellent photocatalytic activity of Cr(VI) reduction under UV light irradiation. The results indicated that the maximum removal percentage of aqueous Cr(VI) was 98% within four hours at 10 mg/L initial concentration of Cr(VI), owing to the effective charge separation and diversion of photogenerated carriers across the heterojunction interface of the composite. Our study put forward a facile method to fabricate hierarchical ZnO/ZnAl2O4 composites with potential applications for wastewater treatment.

Bismuth nanoparticles (BiNPs) and Zinc Oxide photocatalysts (BiNPs/ZnO) with different Bi loadings were successfully prepared via a facile chemical method. Their morphology and structure were thoroughly characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-Vis (Ultraviolet-Visible) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence spectra (PL), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results showed that a modification of hexagonal wurtzite-phase ZnO nanoparticles with Bi is achievable with an intimate interfacial interaction within its composites. The performance of the photocatalytic Cr(VI) removal under visible light irradiation indicated that BiNPs/ZnO exhibited a superior removal performance to bare ZnO, Bi, and the counterpart sample prepared using a physical mixing method. The excellent performance of the BiNPs/ZnO photocatalysts could be ascribed to the synergistic effect between the considerable physical Cr (VI) adsorption and enhanced absorption intensity in the visible light region, due to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) as well as the effective transfer and separation of the photogenerated charge carriers at the interface.Very recently, as a semimetal, bismuth (Bi) has been excavated to have direct plasma photocatalytic ability mediated by SPR (surface plasmon resonance) [16]. This property would cause the absorbed electrons to resonate inside the metal, thereby increasing the absorption of photons, and this resonance mostly occurs in the visible light region [17][18][19][20]. Similar to noble metal elements, for instance Au [21,22], Ag [23,24], and Pt [25,26], Bi is also found to be a potential candidate to activate the wide band gap photocatalysts, and is thus widely applied as a cocatalyst due to its SPR effect; many groups have done research in this area [27,28], exploring cocatalysts Bi/CdS [29], Bi/g-C 3 N 4 [18], Bi/Bi 2 O 3 [30], and Bi/(BiO) 2 CO 3 [28]. Wang et al., described that Bi/CdS microspheres could efficiently elevate the visible light photocatalytic activity for methyl orange (MO) degradation, because of its enhanced visible light absorption and quickly charged separation caused by the introduction of Bi [29]. Dong et al., proclaimed that incorporating Bi into the semiconductor g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets showed an improved photodegradation capability of NO under visible light illumination, which could be assigned to the suppression of photodriven electrons-holes pairs, because Bi served as the recipient and communicator of the electron [18].Although photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants via photo-oxidation has been widely disclosed in most of cases where Bi-based catalysts were employed [31,32], work about the wastewater remediation via photoreduction using Bi cocatalysts was rarely found. In this work, the BiNPs/ZnO composites were prepared herein by an easy eco-friendly synthesis method compared to that reported with a so...

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The method of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations was used to investigate the interaction between the PLA and the attapulgite, and the influence of the temperature on the mechanical properties of the PLA and the PLA-attapulgite. After the PLA blends the attapulgite, the structures and properties of the PLA and the attapulgite change due to their strong interaction. However, this interaction weakens gradually with temperature increasing. The isotropy of the composite of PLA-attapulgite is strengthened in comparison with the PLA. In addition, the temperature can change the mechanical properties of the PLA-attapulgite, but the mechanical properties of the PLA are hardly influences on the temperature. The PLA-attapulgite is more rigid and tough than the PLA at the room temperature but the toughness of the composite of PLA-attapulgite becomes worse than that of the PLA at 350 K.