Journal of Physical Science最新文献

{"title":"Synthesis and Characterisations of Reduced Graphene Oxide Prepared by Microwave Irradiation with Sonication","authors":"Fika Fauzi, Fayyad Azizi, M. M. Musawwa, W. Dwandaru","doi":"10.21315/jps2021.32.2.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2021.32.2.1","url":null,"abstract":"Recently, reducing graphene oxide (GO) through microwave irradiation has been extensively explored in order to scale up the mass production of graphene. We report the simple technique to reduce GO by means of microwave irradiation combined with a sonication technique. The microwave-reduced GO (MWrGO) is formed by exposing a microwave onto GO powder in order to reduce the oxygen functional group and then followed by exfoliating via a sonication method. The time exposure of the microwave irradiation was 20 min with the powers of 450 W and 800 W. The UV-visible (UV-vis) spectra showed the evolution of GO into MWrGO indicated by the red shift of the absorption peak from 230 nm to 267 nm and disappearance of the shouldering peak at 300 nm. The reduction of the oxygen functional group has been proved by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. Furthermore, the scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) data demonstrated further confirmation of the reduction of GO and the formation of basal planes of sp2 carbon clusters of the sample due to the treatment. The EDS spectra revealed that the MWrGO by 800-W-irradiation had much less oxygen functional groups and much more carbon content than GO. The proposed synthesis method is simple and readily controlled for a mass production of graphene from GO.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77982565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Green Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Using Ixora Coccinea Leaf Extract for Ethanol Vapour Sensing","authors":"L. Joshi, Bal Vikram Khatri, Sumana Gyawali, Shiromani Gajurel, D. K. Chaudhary","doi":"10.21315/jps2021.32.2.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2021.32.2.2","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports the effects of natural plant proteins on the morphology of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) prepared via a precipitation method. Green synthesised ZnONPs have a wide range of uses such as biomedical applications, water purification, optical devices and gas sensors. The non-toxic and economical technique described in this article is favourable for large-scale production too. ZnONPs were produced from a zinc acetate precursor with dye extract of Ixora Coccinea (IC) leaves as a capping agent. The as-prepared ZnONPs were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), UV-visible (UV-vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) techniques. The XRD analysis showed an average crystallite size of 23 nm. The SEM analysis revealed a reduction in aggregation of ZnO crystallites due to addition of dye extracts of IC. EDX and UV-vis results confirmed the formation of pure ZnONPs. Finally, the gas sensing properties of ZnO films, prepared by doctor blade method, were used to detect ethanol vapour. The results showed gas response ratios of 28.7 and 5.4 at 800 ppm and 40 ppm exposure, respectively. Furthermore, the response time and recovery time were found to be 24 sec and 47 sec, respectively at 200 ppm exposure of ethanol vapour.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85548122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Co-precipitation Synthesis with a Variation of the Sulphur Composition of Kesterite Phase Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZSS) without Annealing Process","authors":"K. Pal, D. Maurya, P. Chaudhary, K. Thapa, B. Yadav","doi":"10.21315/jps2021.32.2.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2021.32.2.3","url":null,"abstract":"Commercially available compound CuInGa (S, Se) can be replaced with emerging quaternary compound Cu2ZnSnS4 (Copper Zinc Tin Sulphur or CZSS) for photovoltaic applications due to the high absorption coefficient and optimum bandgap. Unstable sulphur and the co-existence of binary and ternary phases in CZSS are the main obstacles for a single-phase kesterite quaternary compound. To overcome these issues, the researchers are synthesising the CZSS in presence of sulphur and selenium environment. The sulphurization and selenization are the constraints for the synthesis of CZSS and these processes make it costlier. In the present work, the wet-chemical method (i.e., co-precipitation method) was used to synthesise CZSS without vacuum annealing where the sulphur constituent was controlled by changing the stoichiometric ratio. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman analysis confirm that the synthesised CZSS was in polycrystalline and single-phase kesterite nature. The average crystallite sizes for thiourea 16, 18, 20 mmol were found 15 nm, 17 nm and 17 nm, respectively. Surface morphology of the as-prepared film was identified by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and optical bandgap of the film was obtained ~1.33 eV by UV-visible (UV-vis) analysis. The 18 mmol of thiourea with stoichiometric ratio 4:2:2:9 is found the best optimisation for synthesising the CZSS without vacuum annealing by the co-precipitation method. Thus, the thin film of such synthesised CZSS may be employed for the low-cost photovoltaic application.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85636463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Structural and electrical studies on zinc added magnesium oxide nanoparticles","authors":"Sumithraj Premkumar P.","doi":"10.21315/jps2020.31.3.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2020.31.3.6","url":null,"abstract":"Magnesium oxide (MgO, pure) and zinc added MgO nanoparticles were synthesised by a simple microwave assisted solvothermal method. The concentrations of impurity used in the present work were 0.25 M and 0.50 M. All samples were annealed at 400°C for 1 h to improve the ordering. The prepared pure and zinc added magnesium oxide nanoparticles were characterised by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). PXRD studies of pure and zinc added MgO nanoparticles showed that all samples belong to crystalline nature with cubic structure. The grain size of all samples were determined from the XRD results and it belongs to nano meter scale. The EDS confirmed the presence of zinc, magnesium and oxide elements in the respective prepared samples. The scanning electron microscope images confirmed that the prepared samples possess nanometer dimensions. The electrical properties such as AC conductivity, dielectric constant and dielectric loss were measured at different temperatures in the different frequency range by involving the impedance analyser of all the prepared samples.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77657196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mesophase behaviour of a cyanobiphenyl molecule in polar aprotic solvent: Rigidity effect","authors":"S. Nayak, P. L. Praveen","doi":"10.21315/jps2020.31.3.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2020.31.3.3","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, a theoretical study has been carried out on a liquid crystal compound named p-n-propyl cyanobiphenyl (3CB). The different modes of interaction energy values in a polar aprotic solvent (ethyl acetate) for small amount of translation and rotation are calculated. The corresponding probabilities have been calculated at both room temperature (300 K) and transition temperature (303.3 K). The rigidity parameter for stacking and in-plane interactions has been estimated and then the stability of molecule according to probability and rigidity at definite translation and rotation has been concluded. The change in the characteristics and stability of the compound at transition temperature has been observed. The dependence of mesophase behaviour with change in the certain configurations and orientation of the molecules have been discussed. These observed results provide an insight about the process of mesophase structure and its formation. The present compound may guide in establishing the other molecular models with transition temperature nearer to room temperature.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79271316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The influence of preparation factors on physical characteristics of chitosan nanoparticles","authors":"Norra Shamiela Ruslan, N. Mohtar, S. S. F. Rahiman, A. M. Gazzali","doi":"10.21315/jps2020.31.3.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2020.31.3.4","url":null,"abstract":"Chitosan has been shown to have great potentials in various pharmaceuticals and biomedical applications, including drug delivery. Derived from chitin abundantly available in the shells of crustaceans such as crabs and shrimps, this naturally occurring polysaccharide is classified based on its molecular weight: low, medium or high. This study aimed to explore the production of chitosan nanoparticles (NP) and the influence of different factors on the physical properties of the NP produced. These factors were the concentrations of acetic acid, chitosan flakes and tripolyphosphate (TPP). The design of experiment (DoE) approach was used to determine the optimum conditions for the production of chitosan NP, with particle size (nm) and polydispersity index (PdI) being set as the responses. The chitosan flakes were solubilised in acetic acid at a specific concentration determined by the DoE before dropwise addition of TPP in an ice bath. The mixture was stirred at room temperature and subsequently centrifuged to remove the unformed materials, and then was spray-dried into powder. The size, surface charge, shape and morphology of the particles produced were characterised and infrared analysis was conducted. The results showed that the particles were spherical, slightly positively charged (ζ-potential: +2.89 at pH 7) and the infrared analysis displayed important peaks of the chitosan NP. The DoE results showed that not all combinations of parameters could produce NP; hence, determination of concentration for each parameter is essential. The equation produced by the DoE will be a useful guide to minimise error in this circumstance. In conclusion, the acetic acid and chitosan flakes concentrations were found to influence the particle size positively, whilst the increment in TPP concentration will adversely affect the particle size. Similar pattern of response was also observed for the PdI of the particles. The methods used in this study has successfully produced spherical particles, with evidence of interactions between TPP and chitosan in the NP as shown in the infrared spectrum.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80351732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of Polymer Blending of Cellulose Acetate Butyrate for CO2/N2 Separation","authors":"S. Ng, Z. Jawad, P. Tan, Fui Chin Bridgid Lai, Lee Ren Jie","doi":"10.21315/jps2020.31.1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2020.31.1.5","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission has increased significantly. To overcome this issue, carbon capture and storage was implemented to remove CO2 due to its low energy consumption and economic advantages. As a result, membrane technology was introduced as one of the technologies for CO2 separation to capture CO2 from industrial processes. Cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) was selected as the material for polymeric membrane due to its high CO2 solubility. The CAB membrane was fabricated by blending two CAB polymers at different molecular weights of 70000 and 65000 using the wet-phase inversion method. A study of the parameter was carried out as it affected the structure and separation performance of the membrane in particular, polymer concentration. The results showed the satisfactory performance of CAB membrane blended with molecular weights of 70000 and 65000 at a ratio of 40:60 (M3) where, the CO2 permeance, nitrogen (N2) permeance and CO2 /N2 selectivity were 26.39 GPU, 7.73 GPU and 3.41 GPU, respectively. Hence, it is expected that this research may apply to membrane gas separation in industries such as power plants to separate CO2 from exhaust gas and reduce CO2 emissions.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76287013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mapping Buried Alluvial Layer Using Integrated Seismic Refraction and 2-D Resistivity Inversions at Sungai Batu, Kedah, Malaysia","authors":"R. Yusoh, N. Rosli, Nazrin Rahman, R. Saad, M. Saidin","doi":"10.21315/jps2020.31.1.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2020.31.1.8","url":null,"abstract":"Resistivity and seismic refraction are conventional methods in preinvestigations of subsurface structures, which are commonly employed and interpreted separately to reduce ambiguities from each method. Although integration of the two methods’ models into a single model was recently introduced, the integration still requires enhancement to generate an accurate subsurface profile. Therefore, an enhanced algorithm called closure coupling technique was developed to integrate 2-dimensional (2-D) models of resistivity and seismic refraction to become a single integrated model where one model influences the other model. The resultant integrated model is superior in mapping the subsurface compared with singular resistivity and seismic models. These methods were then applied on a pre-investigative field dataset in finding ancient river for archaeological point of interest. Due to complex geology, only slight changes were observed in the inverted model of the integrated data inversion for this archetype. Still, the combined model enhanced subsurface interpretation by highlighting the distribution of buried alluvial soil.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79318607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Discrete Phase Modelling Governing the Dynamics of Biomass Particles Inside a Fast Pyrolysis Reactor","authors":"Mohd Rahman Omar, N. Abdullah, A. Rais","doi":"10.21315/jps2020.31.1.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2020.31.1.7","url":null,"abstract":": The influences of several important biomass pyrolysis process parameters such as the biomass feedstock type, flow pressure, biomass feeding rate and biomass particle size play an important role to ensure an efficient pyrolysis process. Unfortunately, the determination of these parameters can be cumbersome and often requires the method of trial and error. As a result, our work discusses the idea of the application of discrete phase modelling (DPM) in the fast pyrolysis process so that the optimum value of these essential parameters can be determined numerically. The numerical test demonstrated in this paper involving the fast pyrolysis of wood indicates that the application of DPM in the simulation is feasible for obtaining the initial prediction of the optimum process parameters.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80213656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Influence of Embedding Different Loadings of MWCNTs on the Structure and Permeation of CAB Blended Membrane","authors":"Anas Khalid Abdelsalam Abdelgadir, Z. Jawad, Tan Peng Chee, Wee Siaw Khur","doi":"10.21315/jps2020.31.1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2020.31.1.2","url":null,"abstract":"Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been widely known to be the main contributor to global warming and temperature fluctuations. The CO2 gas is primarily found in the combustion of fossil fuels and natural gases. Several approaches were considered in the industry to minimise CO2 emissions such as ammonia scrubbing and membrane technology. In recent years, membrane technology has exhibited excellent CO2 separation performance especially the mixed matrix membrane (MMM) due to its combined properties of organic and inorganic materials. The small footprint and high efficiency of the membrane technology compared with the traditional gas separation processes has given it a distinct advantage. In this work, the MMMs are synthesised from the cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) polymer and the functionalised multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) through Chen’s soft-cutting method. This study aims to synthesise an excellent MMM with high separation performance by studying the effects of incorporating different amounts of MWCNTs fillers into the CAB blended membrane. The fabricated MMM was developed using 4 wt% of CAB with molecular weights of 12000, 65000 and 70000 mixed in a ratio of 1:1:1. The functionalised MWCNTs were incorporated into the CAB matrix with different filler loadings ranging from 0.0125 wt% to 0.2 wt%. The separation performance of the fabricated MMM was successfully conducted towards CO2/N2 separation. The highest CO2 and N2 gas permeance were exhibited from the MMM-0.025 with average values of 36.0 ± 0.4 GPU and 28.0 ± 0.2 GPU, respectively. Further, the highest CO2/N2 selectivity Influence of Different MWCNTs Loadings 16 exhibited from the MMM-0.025 was 1.3 ± 0.1. The outcome of this research confirmed the positive effects of different Mn and MWCNTs filler amounts on the performance of the MMM.","PeriodicalId":16757,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physical Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82946295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}