Radiation Modification of Some Polymers and their Possible Biomedical and Industrial Applications

Abstract

GO was prepared by modified Hummer’s method and chemically reduced to RGO. (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, (FTIR), (SEM), and (TEM) techniques were used to characterized GO and RGO. The nanoparticles were trapped in the polymeric matrix to form (AAc/PVA)-GO and (AAc/PVA)- RGO nanocomposites using gamma irradiation technique. TiO2 was also trapped in the nanocomposite matrix to form (AAc/PVA)-GO-TiO2 and (AAc/PVA)-RGO-TiO2 for improving the catalytic activity. Characterization of the prepared nanocomposites was also performed. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared nanocomposites was investigated for the photodecolorization of aqueous DB71 dye under UV- irradiation. The effect of the initial dye concentration, pH, and hydrogen peroxide and UV irradiation time on the degradation of BD71 was examined. The prepared photocatalyst nanocomposites were used for decolorization of DB71dye as model of wastewater. The obtained results can be derived as the following: • XRD analysis of the synthesized GO and RGOobtained a diffraction peak at 11.3° with interlayer distance of 0.778 nm that was calculated by the Bragg's law and a new peak around 25.3° was observed with an interlayer spacing about 0.33 nm. • The Raman spectra of the synthesized GO showed a strong G band around 1571.15 cm-1, D band around 1338.20 cm-1, and (2D) band around 2855.84 cm-1 for GO.The Raman spectra of RGO showed that the disorder band D, the in-phase vibration band G, and 2D bands at 1343.48, 1600.75, and 2967.03cm -1 respectively. • FT-IR spectra of the synthesized GO and RGO showed the common characteristic peaks of them.