Four decades of advanced research about Non-Conventional Materials and Technologies (NOCMAT) such as bamboo and composites reinforced with natural fibers have shown that it is now possible to produce and use high performance NOCMAT. Bamboo and composites reinforced with vegetable fibers are capable, meeting most engineering demand in terms of strength, stiffness, toughness and energy absorption capability. The greatest challenge of the 21st century is the need for cost-effective, durable and eco-friendly construction materials that will meet the global needs of infrastructure regeneration and rehabilitation which alone can enhance the quality of life for all the people of the world. This paper summarizes some results of judicious combination of different matrix reinforced with vegetable fibers, especially bamboo. These sustainable ecological materials are strong, ductile and capable of absorbing large amounts of energy. They could find extensive applications in the engineering particularly in developing countries. Specifically, the development of durable composites reinforced with vegetable fibers and bamboo poses an important challenge to the science and skills of engineering. This challenge could create the most useful, eco-friendly construction materials backed by an endless supply of renewable natural resources. In addition the paper presents results of some ongoing research concerning bamboo and how vegetable fibers such as hemp plant, before the invention of Nylon was the most used materials in all aspects of human life around the globe and why it was banned.

In this work, ionic liquid gel polymer electrolyte is used to fabricate solid-state hybrid supercapacitors with microporous PEDOT and graphene asymmetric electrodes. The PEDOT electrode was prepared by ultra-short pulsed current electro-polymerization over flexible graphite sheets. The graphene electrode of 600 m2g-1 surface area was formed by slurry coating using graphene platelets of thickness 8 nm and size <2 μm. The ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIBF4) was mixed with poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) P(VdF-HFP) to form gel electrolyte. The quasi rectangular cyclic voltammetry (CV) plots in the voltage range -0.2 to +2.0V and the charge-discharge (CD) curves show highly capacitive behavior. The optimized 0.1M LiClO4 doping of IL gel electrolyte increases specific capacitance to 70.4 mF.cm-2. Increase in IL electrolyte thickness from 30 to 54 µm improves discharge capacitance from 10.6 to 23.3 mF.cm-2 and energy density from 2.90 to 5.86 Wh.kg-1. Hybrid solid-state supercapacitor has a flat stackable platform which easily integrates with solar cell module for direct storage of solar electricity. This paper describes the electrode synthesis, design and electrochemical properties of PEDOT/graphene hybrid supercapacitor and the charging characteristics by solar cells for evaluating energy storage performance in backing up the solar cell generated electricity.

We report a simple approach to fabricate high performance energy storage devices based on aqueous inorganic ink comprised of hexagonal MnO2 nanosheets. The MnO2 ink exhibits long term stability. Continuous thin films can be formed on various substrates without using any binder. To obtain a flexible electrode for capacitive energy storage, we printed the MnO2 ink on commercially available A4 paper pre-treated by multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The electrode exhibited a maximum specific capacitance of 90.8 mF/cm2. The electrode could maintain 98.7% capacitance retention for 1,000 cycles at 10 mV/s. The MnO2 ink could be a potential candidate for large-scale production of flexible and printable electronic devices for energy storage and conversion.

Disodium terephthalate (Na2TP), which is a disodium salt of terephthalic acid, is very promising organic electrode material for Na-ion batteries. We present an ab initio study of Na binding mechanism with Na2TP molecule. Specially, we provide the interaction energy of Na atom(s), effect of Na concentration on interaction energy, electronic properties of clean and Na attached Na2TP, and Na binding mechanism with Na2TP. We show that up to eight Na atoms can be attached to a single Na2TP molecule. The interaction energy of Na atoms varies from -0.79 to -0.66 eV with attachment of one to eight Na atoms. The adsorbed Na atom interacts with O atoms of carboxylate group and Na atoms of the salt molecule. The interaction between adsorbed Na and C atoms of the molecule is found to be not important for Na bindings. Attachment of a single Na atom generates a singly occupied orbital which becomes doubly occupied with attachment of second Na atoms. Attachment of more than two Na atoms leads to electron occupation of bonding orbitals formed between Na atoms and the carboxylate groups.

Flexible zinc-air batteries were fabricated using an inexpensive screen-printing technique. The anode and cathode current collectors were printed using commercial nano-silver conductive ink on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate and a polypropylene (PP) membrane, respectively. Air cathodes made of blended carbon black with inexpensive metal oxides including manganese oxide (MnO2) and cerium oxide (CeO2), were studied. The presence of the metal oxides in the air cathodes enhanced the oxygen reduction reaction which is the most important cathodic reaction in zinc-air batteries. The battery with 20 %wt CeO2 showed the highest performance and provided an open-circuit voltage of 1.6 V and 5 – 240 mA.cm-2 ohmic loss zone. The discharge potential of this battery at the current density of 5 mA.cm-2 was nearly 0.25 V higher than that of the battery without metal oxides. Finally, the battery was tested for its flexibility by bending it so that its length decreased from 2.5 to 1 cm. The results showed that the bending did not affect characteristics on potential voltage and discharging time of the batteries fabricated.

Zero Valent Iron nanoparticles (nZVI) were synthesized and immobilized on electrospun carbon nanofibers (ECNFs) surface in a controllable manner through redox reaction. The novel nanomaterial, ECNFs-supported nZVI (nZVI@ECNFs), were evaluated for Cr(VI) ions removal from water for the first time. nZVI@ECNFs outperformed stand-alone nZVI as well as state-of-the-art nZVI research for Cr(VI) remediation in water. nZVI@ECNFs with 0.4 g/L nZVI loading could remove 100% Cr(VI) from 50 mg/L Cr(VI) aqueous solution in as little as 5 min at pH = 4. This is enabled by coupling nanofibrous form ECNFs with dispersed distribution of individual and/or cluster nZVI on surface of ECNFs. It is envisioned that nZVI@CNFs is going to serve as a novel supported nZVI nanomaterial for super-fast heavy metal remediation in ground water and waste water treatment with adjustable high capacity as well as straightforward and energy-saving heavy metal recovery.

For several decades additives have been incorporated into polymeric systems to improve desirable properties, and eliminate undesirable properties. When added to a polyethylene film, the additives migrate to the films’ surface and their concentration decreases; over time the additive’s effect desists. To solve this problem, efficient methods for extended performance are being sought. Extended additives’ performance is necessary to avoid frequent substitution of polyethylene films for different applications (e.g. greenhouses plastic coverings); as a result, reducing plastic waste and contributing to environmental sustainability. Over the course of our work, a new method of additives’ controlled migration has been developed, by grafting the additive molecules to nano-particles (NPs) via a radical reaction. The particles were used as physical migration retarders. Nano-particles were chosen due to their small size, which does not scatter light significantly. It was thus possible to make composites that retain their optical clarity. Furthermore, the small size of the particles leads to a large interfacial area for grafting. This work focuses on additives such as antifogs (AF) and UV protecting agents. The NPs serve as physical migration retarders, as well as UV protecting agents; the organic grafted molecules serve as AF additives. The existence of the grafted AF molecules to the NP’s surfaces was confirmed; the polyethylene containing AF grafted particles (LLDPE/AF-NPs) has shown satisfactory and promising AF and UV protection performance.

Nano zinc oxide (ZnO) and Calcium doped zinc oxide (CZ) nanopowders were synthesized by sol–gel method from zinc acetate di-hydrate and an adequate quantity of calcium chloride hexa-hydrate. Calcium doped zinc oxide (CZ) were prepared at different Ca concentrations from 1 wt% (CZ1) to 5 wt% (CZ5). The obtained nanopowders were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The objective of this work is to find a new and highly efficient nanomaterial for the adsorption of heavy metals from waste water. For this reason, the nanopowders were used to uptake heavy metals (Cr, Cd, and Ni) from aqueous solution. The obtained results show that the incorporation of Ca in nanoparticles zinc oxide (ZnO) increases the capacity adsorption of nanopowders and CZ3 is more efficient than the other Ca-doped samples. In this work we studied also the effect of pH and the pyrolysis temperature of the nanopowders on the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution by CZ3.

The disposal of materials at the end of their lifecycle, especially for complex manufactured products, presents challenges in terms of both protecting the environment and human health. In particular, used automobiles are disposed of by removal of various component parts, followed by shredding. In this study, air particulates were collected over several days by DRUM impactor downwind of an automobile shredding plant, size separated, and analyzed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), in order to determine their particle size distribution and corresponding chemical composition. Results for larger particles, ranging in size from 2.5 to 10.0 μm, showed mainly diatoms and salts, from the plant’s ocean side location, and aluminosilicates, consistent with geological sources. As particle size decreased from 10 μm to 0.09 μm, particle loading decreased, and composition shifted to mainly oxygen and sulfur, indicative of sulfates, which along with nickel and vanadium that were detected, could be attributed to emissions from nearby shipping traffic. Iron was found to be present, including in spherical particles that were ∼ 2 μm in diameter, indicating they originated from a high temperature process. Spherical iron particles also were found to correlate with plant operations, making them a useful “tracer” material for plant emissions. Lead, cerium, barium, chromium and zinc were also detected and their possible correlation to plant feedstocks is discussed. The implications of these results for the environment, particularly soil and water deposition, and for human health as a result of inhalation, are discussed.