Nguyen Chi Thanh’s research while affiliated with Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education and other places

In this research, we successfully prepared a new hybrid coming from platinum nanoparticles (4–5 nm) deposited on surface of high‐conductive titanium nitride nanorods (Pt NPs/TiN NRs) supported by carbon cloth (CC) substrate. The hybrid owns specific physicochemical properties caused by the blend between merits of different components to produce synergistic effects for boosting active site amount, reasonably regulated free energy, and charge/mass transfers. The material of Pt NPs/TiN NRs on CC requires a low overpotential of 37 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline medium. Since the material is employed at a nonenzymatic glucose sensor, it exhibits a sensitivity of 0.00399 mA µM⁻¹ cm⁻², good linear detection range of 20–1040 µM, and small LOD of 14.3 µM. In addition, the material also reveals good selectivity and high retention of around 90.2% after continuous operation of 500 s. The performance of Pt NPs/TiN NRs surpasses behaviors of recently reported electrocatalysts, thus suggesting it as a promising catalyst towards toward cost‐effective HER and glucose detection.

In this research, a couple of hybrid electrodes materials based on Co(OH)2 nanosheets-coupled flexible non-woven fabric network (Co–OH@NWF) and Fe2O3 nanoparticles-deposited nitrogen-doped graphene (Fe2O3@NG) for asymmetric supercapacitors was prepared by facile synthesis methods. The Co–OH@NWF was prepared by one-step electrodeposition of cobalt precursor on NWF substrate, while the Fe2O3@NG was prepared via one-step chemical reaction in presence of Fe precursor and graphene oxide nanosheets. The electrochemical outcomes reveal that developed electrode materials display high capacitance. Specifically, the positive electrode of Co–OH@NWF shows a capacitance of 238.8 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 while the negative electrode of Fe2O3@NG on NWF exhibits a capacitance of 109 F g−1 at 1 A g−1. In addition, both the electrodes demonstrate good rate capability and excellent cycling stability. These favorable achievements evidence that Co–OH@NWF//Fe2O3@NG is a promising couple of electrode materials for high-efficiency supercapacitors.

This paper studies and evaluates the mechanical properties of a blend of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The HDPE/PET blends are prepared by injection molding PET into HDPE with a ratio of 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%, respectively. After the injection molding, the samples are measured for tensile strength according to standard D638. As a result, the tensile values of HDPE/PET gradually decreased with the ratio of 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% (PET) and 18.45, 17.31, 15.45, and 14.43 MPa, respectively. It was shown that the tensile strength of the HDPE/PET composite decreased gradually as the PET percentage increased because the penetration of PET in the HDPE structure increased the elastic modulus of the PET ratio, leading to a decrease in tensile strength. The packaging is known to be mostly blown from HDPE, which has many outstanding features. However, some disadvantages exist, such as low bending strength, low heat distortion temperature, low transparency, and, most importantly, packaging. The packaging blown from HDPE is unstable. This problem is a limited application of HDPE in the packaging industry. To improve the recycling of plastic packaging from HDPE, adding PET is the most effective way. PET plastic packaging is transparent, flexible, toxic, and difficult to recycle, so it can only be used once. Incorporating PET into HDPE will improve the transparency and mechanical properties of HDPE and reduce the cost of PET plastic, and reduce environmental pollution.

Petroleum-based polymers have raised significant environmental concerns. It is critical to create compostable, good biocompatibility, and nontoxic polymers to replace petroleum-based polymers. Thus, this research was performed to extract the gelatin from fish waste cartilage and coated it over the surface of spherical shaped pre-synthesized ZnNPs along with a suitable plasticizer to produce the biodegradable film. The presence of gelatin on the surface of ZnNPs was first confirmed using UV–visible spectrophotometers, as well as the characteristic functional groups involved in the coating were investigated using Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The morphological appearance of gelatin coated ZnNPs was ranged from 41.43 to 52.31 nm, the shape was found as platonic to pentagonal shape, and the fabricated film was observed through Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The thickness, density, and tensile strength of fabricated film were found to be 0.04–0.10 mm, 0.10–0.27 g/cm3, and 31.7 kPa. These results imply that the fish waste cartilage gelatin coated ZnNPs-based nanocomposite can be used for film preparation as well as a wrapper for food and pharmaceutical packaging.

The starch is one of the most essential food stuff and serves as a raw material for number of food products for the welfare of human. During the production process enormous volume of effluents are being released into the environment. In this regard, this study was performed to evaluate the physicochemical traits of Manihot esculenta processing effluent and possible sustainable approach to treat this issue using Eichhornia crassipes based biochar. The standard physicochemical properties analysis revealed that the most the parameters (EC was recorded as 4143.17 ± 67.12 mhom-1, TDS: 5825.62 ± 72.14 mg L-1, TS: 7489.21 ± 165.24 mg L-1, DO: 2.12 ± 0.21 mg L-1, BOD 2673.74 ± 153.53 mg L-1, COD: 6672.66 ± 131.21 mg L-1, and so on) were beyond the permissible limits and which can facilitate eutrophication. Notably, the DO level was considerably poor and thus can support the eutrophication. The trouble causing E. crassipes biomass was used as raw material for biochar preparation through pyrolysis process. The temperature ranging from 250 to 350 °C with residence time of 20-60 min were found as suitable temperature to provide high yield (56-33%). Furthermore, 10 g L-1 concentration of biochar showed maximum pollutant adsorption than other concentrations (5 g L-1 and 15 g L-1) from 1 L of effluent. The suitable temperature required to remediate the pollutants from the effluent by biochar was found as 45 °C and 35 °C at 10 g L-1 concentration. These results conclude that at such optimized condition, the E. crassipes effectively adsorbed most of the pollutants from the M. esculenta processing effluent. Furthermore, such pollutants adsorption pattern on biochar was confirmed by SEM analysis.

The heavy metal pollution is a serious environmental pollution around the globe and threatens the ecosystem. The physicochemical traits (pH, Electrical conductivity, hardness, NPK, Al, Fe, Cd, Cr, Pb, Mg, and Mn) of soil sample collected from the polluted site were analyzed and found that the most of the metal contents were beyond the acceptable limits of national standards. The metals such as Mn (1859.37 ± 11.25 mg kg-1), Cd (24.86 ± 1.85 mg kg-1), Zn (795.64 ± 9.24 mg kg-1), Pb (318.62 ± 5.85 mg kg-1), Cr (186.84 ± 6.84 mg kg-1), and Al (105.84 ± 5.42 mg kg-1) were crossing the permissible limits. The pre-isolated L. ferrooxidans showed considerable metal tolerance to metals such as Al, Cd, Cr, Pb, Mg, and Mn at up to the concentration of 750 μg mL-1 and also have remediation potential on polluted soil in a short duration of treatment. The greenhouse study demonstrated that the bio/phytoremediation potential of metal tolerant L. ferrooxidans and R. communis under various remediation (A, B, and C) groups. Surprisingly, remediation group C demonstrated greater phytoextraction potential than the other remediation groups (A and B). These results strongly suggest that coexistence of L. ferrooxidans and R. communis had a significant positive effect on phytoextraction on metal-contaminated soil.

Mining is one of the major contributors for land degradation and severe heavy metals based soil pollution. In this study, the physicochemical properties of magnesite mine soil was investigated and assess the optimistic and eco-friendly remediation approach with Hibiscus rosa-sinensis with the effect of pre-isolated Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans. The physicochemical properties analysis results revealed that most the parameter were either too less or beyond the permissible limits. The pre-isolated A. thiooxidans showed remarkable multi-metal tolerance up to 800μg mL-1 concentration of Cr, Cd, Pb, and Mn. Heavy metal content in polluted soil was reduced to avoid more metal toxicity by diluting with fertile control soil as 80:20 and 60:40. The standard greenhouse experiment was performed to evaluate the phytoextraction potential of H. rosa-sinensis under the influence of A. thiooxidans in various treatment groups (G-I to G-V). The outcome of this investigation was declared that the multi-metal tolerant A. thiooxidans from G-III and G-II showed remarkable effect on growth and phytoextraction ability of H. rosa-sinensis on metal polluted magnesite mine soil in 180 d greenhouse study. These results suggested that the combination of H. rosa-sinensis and A. thiooxidans could be used as an excellent hyper-accumulator to extract metal pollution from polluted soil.