“Preparation, Characterization and Application of Some Nanocomposites for Removal of different radionuclides from liquid radioactive waste”

Abstract

The field of nanoscience and nanotechnology has reached an interesting period of development and excitement in many scientific fields in the last few years. Many of the properties and phenomena associated with nanomaterials and polymer nanocomposites require the understanding of their chemistry because many of their applications are related to chemical structure of these materials. The work presented in this thesis is divided into three chapters, references, and both Arabic and English summary. The first chapter, Introduction, includes adequate information about nanotechnology, polymer nanocomposites, some approaches used to synthesis of polymer nanocomposites and application of polymer nanocomposites. Also, it contains ion-exchangers and different information about naturally occurring sorbents, synthetic inorganic sorbents. It also presents a brief idea about metal oxides, TiO2 nanoparticles, ZnO nanoparticles, Sb2O3 nanoparticles and related polymer nanocomposites. Chapter 2 (Experimental): This chapter includes the experimental conditions and the materials used to synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles via sol-gel method and synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles and Sb2O3 nanoparticles via precipitation method. Also, it contains the preparation procedure for TiO2-poly styrene Summary 118 by ionic polymerization. TiO2 nanoparticles, ZnO nanoparticles and Sb2O3 nanoparticles incorporated into poly (acrylamide-sodium styrene sulfonate) were synthesized by gamma irradiation at dose rate, 20 KGy. In addition, this chapter includes the methods used to characterize nanoparticles and polymer nanocomposites such as: X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TG), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Chapter 3 (Results and Discussion): This chapter includes the results and discussion of the prepared metal oxide nanoparticles and polymer nanocomposites, characterization and batch studies. (I) Characterization - The XRD results showed that TiO2 (anatase phase) was formed and the main XRD peak of TiO2 appeared in the case of TiO2/P (AAm-SSS). - The characteristic XRD peaks of ZnO nanoparticles and Sb2O3 nanoparticles were shown in XRD figure for nanoparticles and polymer nanocomposites which confirm the presence of it in polymer matrix. - From thermal analysis: addition of metal oxide nanoparticles to polymer matrix enhance the thermal stability. - The TGA curves of TiO2/P (AAm-SSS), ZnO/P (AAm-SSS) and Sb2O3/P (AAm-SSS) nanocomposite shifted towards higher temperatures. Summary 119 - The TGA curves shifted from 615 °C for pure polymer to 650 °C 705 °C and 710 °C for TiO2/P (AAm-SSS), ZnO/P (AAm-SSS) and Sb2O3/P (AAm-SSS) nanocomposite, respectively. - From TG results, Sb2O3 nanoparticles are the most stabilizer agent then ZnO and TiO2 respectively. - The enhancement of the thermal properties such as thermogravimetric analysis was explained by postulating the presence of inorganic filler increase the cross linking degree. - With the last decomposition, the TiO2/P (AAm-SSS), ZnO/P (AAm-SSS) and the Sb2O3/P (AAm-SSS) nanocomposite are decomposed into sulfur dioxide and ammonia. - The functional groups which characterized the prepared polymer nanocomposites were confirmed by FTIR