Gate-to-grave assessment of plastic from recycling to manufacturing of TENG: a comparison between India and Singapore.

This study assesses the viability of recycled plastic-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for sustainable energy harvesting in India and Singapore, concurrently examining plastic waste management. Using material flow analysis and life cycle assessment, the findings revealed that in Singapore, waste-to-energy incineration has a lower environmental impact than landfilling and mechanical recycling, attributed to natural gas usage. In India, recycling offsets impacts from incineration and landfilling, contributing to a lower net environmental impact. Economic performance of a TENG module from PET recyclates showed a 20% carbon footprint reduction when scaling up from lab to industrial "freeze-drying" processes. Key challenges in TENG manufacturing processes are also assessed for future development. This research highlights the potential of recycled plastic-based TENGs in sustainable energy and waste management.

From Hazardous Waste to Green Applications: Selective Surface Functionalization of Waste Cigarette Filters for High-Performance Robust Triboelectric Nanogenerators and CO2 Adsorbents.

This article reports a novel and rational approach to convert waste cigarette filters (CFs), one of the largest sources of ocean pollution, into high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and efficient CO2-capturing adsorbents. CFs are plasticized cellulose acetate, which take several years to degrade. To revalorize these fibers, selective amine surface functionalization is performed (10PAL-20T-CFs). For the proof of concept, when the modified fibers are employed in a TENG, it could generate an output voltage (96.63 V) and current (9.37 µA) that are, respectively, 43 and 8 times higher than those obtained employing the pristine CFs for the nanogenerator. The proposed TENG displays an instantaneous peak power of 3.75 mW, which is higher than that of many recently reported TENGs made from cellulose materials. Moreover, the TENG displayed outstanding durability to humidity and high-performance stability when it is subjected to cyclic loading (i.e., 12,000 cycles of loading-unloading). A 9 cm2 TENG could effectively light up 100 or more colored light-emitting diodes when it is manually pressed. Finally, the modified filter fibers show an excellent CO2 adsorption capacity of 1.93 mmol/g, which is 9.2 times higher than that obtained using the pristine fibers. These results demonstrate that hazardous wastes such as CFs can be upcycled into valuable resources.

Roadmap to sustainable plastic waste management: a focused study on recycling PET for triboelectric nanogenerator production in Singapore and India.

This study explores the implications of plastic waste and recycling management on recyclates for manufacturing clean-energy harvesting devices. The focus is on a comparative analysis of using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) production, in two densely populated Asian countries of large economies, namely Singapore and India. Of the total 930,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated in Singapore in 2019, only 4% were recycled and the rest were incinerated. In comparison, India yielded 8.6 million tonnes of plastic waste and 70% were recycled. Both countries have strict recycling goals and have instituted different waste and recycling management regulations. The findings show that the waste policies and legislations, responsibilities and heterogeneity in collection systems and infrastructure of the respective country are the pivotal attributes to successful recycling. Challenges to recycle plastic include segregation, adulterants and macromolecular structure degradation which could influence the recyclate properties and pose challenges for manufacturing products. A model was developed to evaluate the economic value and mechanical potential of PET recyclate. The model predicted a 30% loss of material performance and a 65% loss of economic value after the first recycling cycle. The economic value depreciates to zero with decreasing mechanical performance of plastic after multiple recycling cycles. For understanding how TENG technology could be incorporated into the circular economy, a model has estimated about 20 million and 7300 billion pieces of aerogel mats can be manufactured from the PET bottles disposed in Singapore and India, respectively which were sufficient to produce small-scale TENG devices for all peoples in both countries.

Design of a Highly Efficient Wideband Multi-Frequency Ambient RF Energy Harvester.

For low input radio frequency (RF) power from -35 to 5 dBm, a novel quad-band RF energy harvester (RFEH) with an improved impedance matching network (IMN) is proposed to overcome the poor conversion efficiency and limited RF power range of the ambient environment. In this research, an RF spectral survey was performed in the semi-urban region of Malaysia, and using these results, a multi-frequency highly sensitive RF energy harvester was designed to harvest energy from available frequency bands within the 0.8 GHz to 2.6 GHz frequency range. Firstly, a new IMN is implemented to improve the rectifying circuit's efficiency in ambient conditions. Secondly, a self-complementary log-periodic higher bandwidth antenna is proposed. Finally, the design and manufacture of the proposed RF harvester's prototype are carried out and tested to realize its output in the desired frequency bands. For an accumulative -15 dBm input RF power that is uniformly universal across the four radio frequency bands, the harvester's calculated dc rectification efficiency is about 35 percent and reaches 52 percent at -20 dBm. Measurement in an ambient RF setting shows that the proposed harvester is able to harvest dc energy at -20 dBm up to 0.678 V.

Modulation of interfacial interactions toward strong and tough cellulose nanofiber-based transparent thin films with antifogging feature.

Cross-linking is often performed to overcome the weak mechanical properties of native polymer films in order to expand their functional properties and applications. While this approach offers enhanced strength to the film, the film also suffers from low flexibility, low toughness and high brittleness. However, in view of the growing demand for strong and tough transparent thin films, this article reported our study to develop films made from cellulose nanofiber (CNF) via tailoring the interfacial bonding interactions through the application of glycerol (Gly) and glutaraldehyde (GA), which functioned as a plasticizer and cross-linking agent, respectively. Among the prepared films, the 10GA-8Gly-CNF film exhibited the best results with regard to the enhancement in the tensile strength (21.1%), Young's modulus (10.6%), elongation at break (100%) and toughness (32.7%), as compared to the native CNF film. Importantly, treating the surface of the film to radiofrequency oxygen plasma endowed the film with antifogging property, without compromising the optical clarity.

Quad-Band Rectenna for Ambient Radio Frequency (RF) Energy Harvesting.

RF power is broadly available in both urban and semi-urban areas and thus exhibits as a promising candidate for ambient energy scavenging sources. In this research, a high-efficiency quad-band rectenna is designed for ambient RF wireless energy scavenging over the frequency range from 0.8 to 2.5 GHz. Firstly, the detailed characteristics (i.e., available frequency bands and associated power density levels) of the ambient RF power are studied and analyzed. The data (i.e., RF survey results) are then applied to aid the design of a new quad-band RF harvester. A newly designed impedance matching network (IMN) with an additional L-network in a third-branch of dual-port rectifier circuit is familiarized to increase the performance and RF-to-DC conversion efficiency of the harvester with comparatively very low input RF power density levels. A dual-polarized multi-frequency bow-tie antenna is designed, which has a wide bandwidth (BW) and is miniature in size. The dual cross planer structure internal triangular shape and co-axial feeding are used to decrease the size and enhance the antenna performance. Consequently, the suggested RF harvester is designed to cover all available frequency bands, including part of most mobile phone and wireless local area network (WLAN) bands in Malaysia, while the optimum resistance value for maximum dc rectification efficiency (up to 48%) is from 1 to 10 kΩ. The measurement result in the ambient environment (i.e., both indoor and outdoor) depicts that the new harvester is able to harvest dc voltage of 124.3 and 191.0 mV, respectively, which can be used for low power sensors and wireless applications.

Isolation of cellulose nanocrystals from different waste bio-mass collating their liquid crystal ordering with morphological exploration.

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) have been recognized as one of the most promising nanofillers in modern science and technology owing to their outstanding characteristics of renewability, biodegradability, excellent mechanical strength, and liquid crystalline behavior. Interestingly, these properties are dependent on their genetic and also on the isolation process. Therefore, this research aimed to unveil how the biological variations of cellulose can influence on the physical properties of the extracted CNCs. A standard optimized extraction process was adopted to isolate the CNCs from different sources. Extracted CNCs were compared through characterization tools, including Fourier Transformation Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetry Analysis (TGA), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and Polarized Optical Microscopy (POM). Different self-assembly patterns were observed for different CNCs, owing to their biological variations. The resultant nanocrystals displayed variable morphologies such as spherical, rod, and needle shape. The hydrodynamic diameter, crystallinity index, decomposition temperature, liquid crystallinity, and storage modulus were varied. Nanocrystals isolated from non-wood feedstock have shown a higher degree of polymerization of 108.2 and a high Crystllinity Index (C·I.) of 55.1%. The rod-like morphology with the liquid crystalline pattern was obtained at 3 wt% concentration for SCNC.

Dual Optical Signal-based Intraocular Pressure-sensing Principle Using Pressure-sensitive Mechanoluminescent ZnS:Cu/PDMS Soft Composite.

This paper presents a novel principle for intraocular pressure (IOP)-sensing (monitoring) based on a pressure-sensitive soft composite in which a dual optical signal is produced in response to impulsive pressure input. For the initial assessment of the new IOP sensing principle, a human eye is modeled as the spherically shaped shell structure filled with the pressurized fluid, including cornea, sclera, lens and zonular fiber, and a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis was performed to determine the correlation between the internal pressure and deformation (i.e., strain) rate of the spherical shell structure filled with fluid by formulating the finite element model. The FSI analysis results for human eye model are experimentally validated using a proof-of-conceptual experimental model consisting of a pressurized spherical shell structure filled with fluid and a simple air-puff actuation system. In this study, a mechanoluminescent ZnS:Cu- polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based soft composite is fabricated and used to generate the dual optical signal because mechanically driven ZnS:Cu/PDMS soft composite can emit strong luminescence, suitable for soft sensor applications. Similar to the corneal behavior of the human eye, inward and outward deformations occur on the soft composite attached to the spherical shell structure in response to air puffing, resulting in a dual optical signal in the mechnoluminescence (ML) soft composite.

Synergistic effect of polydopamine-polyethylenimine copolymer coating on graphene oxide for EVA nanocomposites and high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators.

While the demand for lightweight high-strength nanocomposites is immense, their progress has been severely limited due to inferior filler dispersion and filler-matrix interface adhesion. This article reports a novel modification of graphene oxide (GO) encapsulated by the copolymer of polydopamine (PD) and polyethylenimine (PEI) via a Michael addition reaction, aiming to create robust ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) nanocomposites even at very low amounts of filler loading by overcoming the above hindrances. It has been found that the addition of only 1.2 wt% modified GO (i.e., PD-PEI-rGO) increased the tensile strength, Young's modulus and storage modulus of EVA composites by 80%, 50% and 24%, respectively. These increments surpass many recent claims on relevant composites. Excellent molecular level dispersion was also observed from the fracture surface SEM images. Being amine-rich with high electron-donating capability and mechanically robust, the nanocomposite served as an outstanding tribopositive material, thereby generating 7.49 V and 4.06 µA output voltage and current, respectively, when employed in a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). The high electrical outputs led the device to light up 43 blue LEDs instantaneously upon hand pressing, demonstrating that the nanocomposite is indeed a promising candidate for harvesting green energy. Moreover, the nanogenerator displayed outstanding cyclic performance stability (even after 8000 cycles) and environmental durability.

A novel approach for fabricating highly tunable and fluffy bioinspired 3D poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) fiber scaffolds.

The excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability and chemo-thermal stability of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) have been harnessed in diverse practical applications. These properties have motivated the fabrication of high performance PVA based nanofibers with adequate control over the micro and nano-architectures and surface chemical interactions. However, the high water solubility and hydrophilicity of the PVA polymer limits the application of the electrospun PVA nanofibers in aqueous environments owing to instantaneous dissolution. In this work, we report a novel yet facile concept for fabricating extremely light, fluffy, insoluble and stable three dimensional (3D) PVA fibrous scaffolds with/without coating for multifunctional purposes. While the solubility, morphology, fiber density and mechanical properties of nanofibers could be tuned by optimizing the cross-linking conditions, the surface chemical reactivity could be readily enhanced by coating with a polydopamine (pDA) bioinspired polymer without compromising the stability and innate properties of the native PVA fiber. The 3D pDA-PVA scaffolds exhibited super dye adsorption and constructive synergistic cell-material interactions by promoting healthy adhesion and viability of the human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) within 3D micro-niches. We foresee the application of tunable PVA 3D as a highly adsorbent material and a scaffold material for tissue regeneration and drug delivery with close consideration of realistic in vivo parameters.

Polydopamine decoration on 3D graphene foam and its electromagnetic interference shielding properties.

3D graphene foam was recently demonstrated to exhibit excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance. In this work, we prepared 3D graphene foams by incorporating a surface modification process of graphene via self-polymerization of dopamine with a subsequent foaming process. The multiple roles played by polydopamine (PDA), including as nitrogen doping source and as an enhancement tool to achieve higher extent of reduction of the graphene through providing wider pathways and larger accessible surface areas were discussed in detail. Despite the presence of the PDA which acted as barriers among the graphene layers that hindered the electrons movement, the enhanced reduction of graphene sheets and the polarization effects introduced by PDA decoration compensated the negative effect of the barrier on EMI shielding effectiveness (SE). As a result, the PDA decorated 3D graphene foams showed improved EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) compared to PDA-free graphene foam (from 23.1 to 26.5dB). More significantly, the EMI shielding performance of the PDA decorated graphene foam was much superior to all existing carbon-based porous materials when the thickness of the specimen was considered.

Phthalonitrile-Based Carbon Foam with High Specific Mechanical Strength and Superior Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Performance.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance materials are urgently needed to relieve the increasing stress over electromagnetic pollution problems arising from the growing demand for electronic and electrical devices. In this work, a novel ultralight (0.15 g/cm(3)) carbon foam was prepared by direct carbonization of phthalonitrile (PN)-based polymer foam aiming to simultaneously achieve high EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) and deliver effective weight reduction without detrimental reduction of the mechanical properties. The carbon foam prepared by this method had specific compressive strength of ∼6.0 MPa·cm(3)/g. High EMI SE of ∼51.2 dB was achieved, contributed by its intrinsic nitrogen-containing structure (3.3 wt% of nitrogen atoms). The primary EMI shielding mechanism of such carbon foam was determined to be absorption. Moreover, the carbon foams showed excellent specific EMI SE of 341.1 dB·cm(3)/g, which was at least 2 times higher than most of the reported material. The remarkable EMI shielding performance combined with high specific compressive strength indicated that the carbon foam could be considered as a low-density and high-performance EMI shielding material for use in areas where mechanical integrity is desired.

Enhanced molecular level dispersion and interface bonding at low loading of modified graphene oxide to fabricate super nylon 12 composites.

Development of advanced graphene based polymer composites is still confronted with severe challenges due to its poor dispersion caused by restacking, weak interface bonding, and incompatibility with polymer matrices which suppress exertion of the actual potential of graphene sheets in composites. Here, we have demonstrated an efficient chemical modification process with polyethylenimine (PEI) to functionalize graphene oxide which can overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks and also can remarkably increase the overall strength of the nylon 12 composites even at very low graphene loading. Chemical modification was analyzed by various surface characterizations including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Addition of only 0.25 and 0.35 wt % modified GO showed 37% and 54% improvement in tensile strength and 65% and 74% in Young's modulus, respectively, compared with that of the neat polymer. The dynamic mechanical analysis showed ∼39% and 63% increment in storage modulus of the nanocomposites. Moreover, the nanocomposites exhibited significantly high thermal stability (∼15 °C increment by only 0.35 wt %) as compared to neat polymer. Furthermore, the composites rendered outstanding resistance against various chemicals.

Mussel-inspired polydopamine coated hollow carbon microspheres, a novel versatile filler for fabrication of high performance syntactic foams.

Syntactic foams, which can be synthesized by mechanical mixing of hollow microspheres with a matrix material, are a special class of lightweight composite materials. Developing of high-performance syntactic foams remains challenges. In this work, a facile and environmentally friendly surface modification method employing polydopamine (PDA) as a surface treatment agent for hollow carbon microspheres (HCMs) was used, aiming to extend the application of syntactic foams to seldom touched areas. The PDA coating was used as a strategy for interfacial interaction enhancement and also as a platform for further metal coating meant for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. The stronger interfacial interaction between microspheres and polymer matrix provided effective interfacial stress transfer, as a result of the syntactic foams with high strength to weight ratio. Furthermore, the PDA coating on HCMs served as a versatile platform for the growth of noble metals on the surface of PDA-HCMs. Silver nanoparticles was grown by PDA medium. The silver coated HCMs (Ag-PDA-HCMs) impacted the complex permittivity of the syntactic foams leading to high EMI shielding effectiveness (SE). The specific EMI SE reached up to 46.3 dB·cm(3)/g, demonstrated the Ag-PDA-HCMs/epoxy syntactic foam as a promising candidate for lightweight high-performance EMI shielding material.

Improved polymer encapsulation on multiwalled carbon nanotubes by selective plasma induced controlled polymer grafting.

Surface graft polymerization on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with several grafting mechanisms is nowadays a demanding field of nanocomposites in order to enhance the load carrying capacity, thus improving the overall performance of the composites. Here, we demonstrate the covalent grafting of a sulfonic acid terminated monomer, 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid onto sidewalls of MWCNTs via a comparative study between oxygen plasma induced grafting (OPIG), nitrogen plasma induced grafting (NPIG), and nitrogen + oxygen plasma induced grafting (NOPIG) with the aim to identify the most effective process for the preparation of polymer encapsulated carbon nanotubes. From the detail surface analysis, it has been noticed that NOPIG offered much better surface grafting than that of the OPIG and NPIG. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed that MWCNTs modified by NOPIG possess much thicker and uniform polymer coatings throughout. From thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), the grafting degree was found to be ~80 wt % for the NOPIG sample.

High performance of cyclic olefin copolymer-based capillary electrophoretic chips.

This paper demonstrates a simple, one step, and low cost surface modification technique for producing cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) polymer-based microcapillary electrophoresis chips consisting highly hemocompatible microchannels by UV-photografting with N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) monomer. An optimal condition has been identified to achieve the best surface grafting process. It has been found that this surface treatment enables extremely high surface wettability, hemocompatibility, and bond strength to the microchannels. The surface grafting was confirmed by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopic (ATR-FTIR) study. In vitro protein adsorption using fluorescent labeled bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA) into the COC microchannel results indicates that the modified chips have excellent protein resistance ability because of the increase of surface hydrophilicity. Hence, the modified chips showed fast, reproducible and high efficient separations of proteins (up to 51,000 theoretical plates per meter). Moreover, this surface modification process show no loss in the optical transparency to the modified microchannel surfaces: an important requirement for real capillary electrophoresis since the fluorescent intensity is directly related to the amount of adsorbed protein on the surface. Therefore, we believe that this simple and promising route of surface modification could be very useful for developing high performance COC microfluidic devices for the separation of proteins, amino acids, and other biomolecules.

Molecular interaction and properties of poly(ether ether ketone)/liquid crystalline polymer blends incorporated with functionalized carbon nanotubes.

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were functionalized with a carboxyl group (-COOH) to achieve better interfacial adhesions with both phases of the poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK) and liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) in their blend. These strong interfacial interactions among the functionalized MWCNTs, PEEK and LCP improved the mechanical properties of the polymer blend. Three different weight percentages (0.6%, 1.2% and 1.8%) of acid modified CNTs were used with PEEK-LCP blend, for the preparation of nanocomposites. In PEEK-LCP blend, the ratio of PEEK and LCP was maintained as 10:6 respectively. The tensile strength and modulus of the composites were improved by 51% and 73% respectively with the incorporation of only 1.2% of MWCNT-COOH as compared to the unfilled PEEK/LCP blend. Moreover, careful studies of the molecular interaction, morphological, dynamic mechanical and thermal properties confirmed that a better miscibility between PEEK and LCP had been constituted in the presence of MWCNT-COOH. Therefore, it was found that the functionalized MWCNTs not only played the traditional role as reinforcing filler, but also performed a novel role as a compatibilizer for the PEEK/LCP blends.

Improvement of properties of polyetherimide/liquid crystalline polymer blends in the presence of functionalized carbon nanotubes.

This article reports the effect of functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNT-COOH) on the morphological, dynamic mechanical, mechanical and thermal properties of polyetherimide (PEI)/liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) (Vectra A950) blends. The chemical modification of carbon nanotube enhanced the compatibility and the miscibility between PEI and LCP in the composites. Addition of functionalized MWNTs into the blend improved the thermal, mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of the composite due to the presence of strong interfacial interaction between the polymer matrixes and the nanotubes in polymer composites. The glass transition temperature (from tan delta) increased from 208 degrees C to 245 degrees C with the addition of 1.8 wt% functionalized MWNTs in the blend of PEI/LCP. The tensile strength of the composite with 1.8 wt% MWNT-COOH was enhanced by 61% and 44% as compared to PEI/LCP blend and pure PEI. The functional groups on the MWNTs surface played an important role in accelerating both the dispersion of MWNTs and the interfacial adhesion in the composites compared to raw MWNTs.