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Among various metal oxide nano particles, MgO NPs and ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in particular are gaining increasing attention due to their multifunctional characteristics, low cost and compatibility with textile materials. Each type of nanoparticle excels over others in certain properties. As such, it is often crucial to carry out comparative studies of NPs to identify the one showing higher efficiency/output for particular applications of textile products.

In the investigation reported in this paper, ZnO NPs and MgO NPs were synthesised via sol-gel technique and characterised. For comparative analysis, the synthesised NPs were evaluated for multiple properties using standard procedures before and after being applied on cotton fabrics by a dip-pad-dry-cure method.

XRD and FTIR analyses confirmed the successful synthesis of ZnO and MgO NPs. Homogeneous formation of desired NPs and their dense and uniform deposition on the cotton fibre surface were observed using SEM. ZnO NPs and MgO NPs coatings on cotton were observed to significantly enhance self-cleaning/stain removal properties achieving Grade 5 and Grade 4 categories, respectively. In terms of ultraviolet (UV) protection, ZnO or MgO NP coated fabrics showed UPF values of greater than 50, i.e. excellent in blocking UV rays. MgO NPs exhibited 20% cleaning efficiency in treating reactive dye wastewater against ZnO NPs which were 4% efficient in the same treatment, so MgO was more suitable for such type of treatments at low cost. Both NPs were able to impart multifunctionality to cotton fabrics as per requirement of the end products. However, ZnO NPs were better for stain removal from the fabrics while MgO NPs were appropriate for UV blocking.

It was therefore clear that multifunctional textile products could be developed by employing a single type of cost effective and efficient nano particles.

Water is a vital natural resource without which life on earth would be impossible. Properties of synthetic dyes like high stability and noxious nature make it difficult to remove them from the effluent. This review focuses on the removal of synthetic dyes using nanoparticles (NPs) based on the adsorption principle.

Adsorption technique is widely used to remove synthetic dyes from their aqueous solution for decades. Synthetic dye removal using NPs is promising, less energy-intensive and has become popular in recent years. NPs are in high demand for treating wastewater using the adsorption principle due to their tiny size and vast surface area. To maximise environmental sustainability, the utilisation of green-produced NPs as efficient catalysts for dye removal has sparked attention amongst scientists.

This review has prioritised research and development of optimal dye removal systems that can be used to efficiently remove a large quantity of dye in a short period while safeguarding the environment and producing fewer harmful by-products. The removal efficiency of synthetic dye using different NPs in wastewater treatment varies mostly between 75% to almost 100%. This review will aid in the scaling up of the wastewater treatment process.

There is a lack of research emphasis on the safe disposal of NPs once the reuse efficiency significantly drops. The relevance of cost analysis is equally critical, yet only a few papers discuss cost-related information.

Comprehensive and planned research in this area can aid in the development of long-term wastewater treatment technology to meet the growing need for safe and reliable water emphasising reuse and desorption efficiency of the NPs.

The purpose of this study is to develop active package films using clove essential oil (CEO) and biodegradable polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) with varying weight percentages of SiO₂ nanoparticles (SiO₂NPs), as well as to investigate the mechanical, barrier, thermal, optical, surface hydrophobicity and antibacterial properties of PBAT incorporated with CEO as a natural plasticizer and SiO₂NPs as a nanofiller.

PBAT-based bio-composites films were fabricated with different weight percentage of CEO (5% and 10%) and nanosilica (1% and 3%) by solution casting method. The packaging performance was investigated using universal testing machine, spectrophotometer, contact angle goniometer, oxygen and water vapour permeability tester. The antibacterial properties of PBAT-based nanocomposite and composite films were investigated using the ISO 22196 by zone of inhibition method.

The mechanical results exhibited that the addition of 10 Wt.% of CEO into PBAT increases the percentage of elongation, whereas, the addition of 3 Wt.% of SiO2NPs increases the tensile strength of the composite film. The presence of CEO in PBAT exhibits a good barrier against water permeability and SiO2NPs in the PBAT matrix help to reduce the opacity and hydrophobicity. The antimicrobial and thermal results revealed that the inclusion of 10 Wt.% of CEO and 3 Wt.% of SiO₂NPs into PBAT polymer improved antimicrobial and thermal resistance properties.

A new PBAT-based active packaging film developed using natural plasticizers CEO and nanofiller SiO₂ with a wide range of applications in the active food packaging applications. Moreover, they have good surface hydrophobicity, thermal stability, mechanical, barrier and antibacterial properties.

This contribution aims to introduce an effective low cost polymer-nanocomposite for possible application to achieve a super protection for highly damaged ancient Egyptian wall paintings.

SiO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol-gel method. Then, the polymer-nanocomposite was prepared by simple mixing and dispersing the nanoparticles into the tetraethoxysilane polymer solution, with the aid of an ultrasonic dismembrator. The application of the polymer-nanocomposite and other polymeric nanodispersions, on laboratory models, was performed by the brushing technique. Next, the materials stability was evaluated by means of digital optical microscope, colorimetry, FE-scanning electron microscope, measuring the static contact angle and water absorption rates.

The results were promising in creating a superhydrophobicity and the static contact angle (?S) measured for the polymer-nanocomposite reached 135o. An average of three measurements of the water absorption rate after polymer-nanocomposite treatment was 0.66 g/m2 s, compared to 2.60 g/m2 s for the control model (untreated). Further, an average of color difference (?E*) for the treated surface was 2.78, and after the accelerated thermal aging was 3.6. Observing the surface morphology, the polymer-nanocomposite enhanced the roughness of the treated surface and showed a high resistance to laboratory salt weathering.

Preparation of a polymer-nanocomposite by adding SiO2 and Al2O3 NPs to tetraethoxysilane polymer has been proposed. As a promising conservation material, the produced polymer-nanocomposite helped to form an efficient protective film.

This paper attains to develop an economic polymer-nanocomposite to maintain a high protection to damaged ancient Egyptian wall paintings and similar objects.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of Ha and the Nanoparticles (NP) volume fraction over the irreversibility and heat transport in Darcy–Forchheimer nanofluid saturated lid-driven porous medium.

The present paper highlights entropy generation because of mixed convection for a lid-driven porous enclosure filled through a nanoliquid and submitted to a uniform magnetic field. The analysis is achieved using Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer technique. The set of partial differential equations governing the considered system was numerically solved using the finite element method.

The main observations are as follows. The results indicate that the movement of horizontal wall is an important factor for the entropy generation inside the porous cavity filled through Cu–water nanoliquid. The variation of the thermal entropy generation is linear through NPs volume fraction. The total entropy generation reduces when the Darcy, Hartmann and the nanoparticle volume fraction increase. The porous media and magnetic field effects reduce the total entropy generation.

Interest in studying thermal interactions by convective flow within a saturating porous medium has many fundamental considerations and has received extensive consideration in the literature because of its usefulness in a large variety of engineering applications, such as the energy storage and solar collectors, crystal growth, food processing, nuclear reactors and cooling of electronic devices, etc.

By examining the literature, the authors found that little attention has been paid to entropy generation encountered during convection of nanofluids. Hence, this work aims to numerically study entropy generation and heat transport in a lid-driven porous enclosure filled with a nanoliquid.

In addition to agriculture, energy production, and industries, potable water plays a significant role in many fields, further increasing the demand for potable water. Purification and desalination play a major role in meeting the need for clean drinking water. Clean water is necessary in different areas, such as agriculture, industry, food industries, energy generation and in everyday chores.

The authors have used the different search engines like Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed to find the relevant articles and prepared this mini review.

The various stages of water purification include coagulation and flocculation, coagulation, sedimentation and disinfection, which have been discussed in this mini review. Using nanotechnology in wastewater purification plants can minimize the cost of wastewater treatment plants by combining several conventional procedures into a single package.

In society, we need to avail clean water to meet our everyday, industrial and agricultural needs. Purification of grey water can meet the clean water scarcity and make the environment sustainable.

This mini review will encourage the researchers to find out ways in water remediation to meet the need of pure water in our planet and maintain sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of nanoparticles as an additive on the tribological properties of calcium grease.

The nano additives in this research are with different concentration of multi carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and Talc powder (1, 2, 3, 3 and 5 per cent). The ratio of MWCNTs to Talc powder is 1:1. The tribological properties of hyper MWCNTs/Talc powder to calcium grease were evaluated using a pin-on-disk wear testing. The results show that the nano additives MWCNTs/Talc to calcium grease exhibit good performance in anti-wear and friction reduction. The action mechanism was estimated through analysis of the worm surface with x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope.

The result indicates that boundary film mainly composed of MWCNT and Talc powder, and other organic compound was formed on the worm surface during the friction test. In addition, the wear rate and coefficient of friction of nanogreases have shown excellent improvement about 80.62 and 63.44 per cent, respectively, at 4 Wt.% of MWCNTs/Talc powder. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of nanogrease increased about 51.72 per cent.

This study describes the inexpensive and simple fabrication of nanogrease for improving properties of lubricants, which improve power efficiency and extend lifetimes of mechanical equipment.

The flow and heat transfer of a hybrid nanofluid composed of kerosene and ZnO-Al2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) is investigated. The flow occurs over complex surfaces with stretching and shrinking features. The base fluid is electrically conducting, and an external magnetic field is added so that the nanofluid and the electric field are in equilibrium. Irrotational flow with viscous dissipation effects is considered.

The governing equations of the system are formulated, and a similarity transformation is used to convert the system of equations into ordinary differential equations, which are solved numerically. The friction coefficient of the flow and the Nusselt number are calculated for a wide range of parameters, and the results are presented in graphical form. In addition, dual solutions of the problem were noticed to occur for a certain range of the unsteadiness parameter. A stability analysis has been performed and presented to elucidate the behavior of these dual solutions.

For the solution of the upper branch, the velocity and temperature profiles of the nanofluid are enhanced by increasing the magnetic field parameter M, but the same variables decrease in the solution of the lower branch. The same trend is detected for the velocity of the fluid with the suction parameter. The temperature of the nanofluid decreases in both branches of the solution by increasing the Prandtl number. Similarly, they decrease with the suction parameter. The temperature of the nanofluid slightly increases in both branches of the solution by increasing the Eckert number. With the stability analysis the authors performed, it was determined that the solution is stable in the upper branch, but unstable in the lower branch.

The kerosene nanofluid with hybrid Zinc/Aluminum-oxide is presented for the first time in the literature.

This study aims to investigation of the guar gum-manganese dioxide (GG/MnO₂) nanocomposite (NC) synthesized using an environment-friendly method and the degradation of reactive yellow (RY 145) dye in the UV system.

Characterization of the GG/MnO₂ NCs were conducted using field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Experiments were conducted using a 1 L glass reactor coupled with Ultraviolet (UV-C) blue light bulb of wavelength 250 nm and power of 8 W.

The NC (2.25 g/L) displayed high RY 145 dye degradation (81%) with 10 mg/L of concentration at pH 3. The coefficient of determination (R² 0.99) also depicted that the model fits the experimental data. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the F-values of 464.75, 276.04 and 5.15 are related to the dose of GG/MnO₂ NCs, initial concentration of RY 145 dye and solution pH, respectively.

The GG/MnO₂ NCs followed by photo oxidation process (UV-process) could be used to degrade the RY 145 dye from synthetic wastewater.

There are two main innovations. One is that the novel process is performed successfully for RY 145 dye degradation. The other is that the optimized conditions are obtained by Box–Behnken design. Also, the effects of different variables on the RY 145 dye removal efficiency were investigated.

The durability of antimicrobial agents and its effectiveness is the most important factor for consumer usage. One important class of antimicrobial agents are inorganic metals and their metal oxides which can be prepared into nanoparticles and can be imparted to enhance the antimicrobial properties. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of three different polymeric binders during the application of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles on the antimicrobial and performance properties of the finished fabric.

In this study, ZnO nanoparticles were prepared by a wet chemical method. The nano-particles size distributions was determined using Nanoplus Dynamic Light Scattering particle size distribution analyzer and concentration of nano ZnO 0.1% (w/v) was applied with 2% (w/v) polymeric binders, namely, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyurethane (PU) and butyl acrylic (BA) on cotton fabric by pad dry cure method. The treated samples were tested for physical properties such as tearing strength, tensile strength, crease recovery and air permeability and antimicrobial properties using test method American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) 100. Further, the content of zinc in the treated samples was determined by the atomic absorption method. The treated fabric was analyzed using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopic and also tested for cytotoxicity as per International Organization for Standardization 10993.

The results indicated that the type of polymeric binders did not show any influence on the uptake of the zinc content. All treated samples showed positive results >99% with regard to antibacterial property. However, the polymeric treated samples showed a difference in physical properties. The ZnO nano-finish reduced the tensile strength and tearing strength of the fabrics. The difference in crease recovery for samples ZnO/PVA and ZnO/PU was not much except for ZnO/BA where it increased by 38%. The air permeability decreased after application for all treated samples, the lowest among treated samples was in ZnO/PU fabric. Further, ZnO/PVA finished fabric was found to retain antibacterial property up to 50 washes and was effective against MS2 Bacteriophage as a surrogate virus when analyzed as per AATCC 100–2012 test method, and therefore can be potentially used as health-care apparel such as doctors coat and scrub suits.

The outcome of this research is in its contribution to the field of reusable textiles. It highlights the use of nanotechnology to design and develop cotton fabrics for antimicrobial properties which has the potential of preventing the growth of harmful bacteria. The study brings forth the use of ZnO nanoparticles mixed with PVA binder on 100% cotton fabrics which exhibits antibacterial and antiviral properties with adequate wash durability. Currently, there is a high demand of effective durable textiles with barrier properties and the present study provides a promising solution to provide reusable textiles with a greater level of protection.