Development of cellulose-based composites using gamma irradiation for use as flexible electrodes and CO2 adsorbents

This research was to investigate the flexible polyaniline/polyvinyl alcohol/cellulose (PANI/PVA/cellulose) electrode material with manifold features is ready to become part of energy storage devices. Here, a cellulose-reinforced PVA composite with various PANI loadings via a one-pot method of being physically cross-linked by gamma irradiation was prepared and demonstrated with a morphologically porous network structure with the potential to crosslink hydrogen bonds and ionic interactions from gamma irradiation. The water contact angle performance of 2 wt.% PANI/PVA/cellulose showed hydrophilic features at 65.81°, while the porosity performance demonstrated an impact on the compatibility of the electrode and electrolyte at 67.6 %. Furthermore, the most excellent mechanical properties were revealed by the 0.5 wt.% PANI/PVA/cellulose. Electrical conductivity was advantageous for electrochemical reactions, and PANI loading studies ensured effective electron transmission with an electrical conductivity of up to 3.68 x 10-4 S/m. Overall, it was all theorized that the approach would make a great candidate and foundation for further research on energy storage devices. For the next scope, this research was to investigate the role of amine-functionalized adsorbents in the disintegration and reconstitution of native cellulose into regenerated cellulose (RC). After that, gamma radiation was used to graft polyethylenimine (PEI) onto the surface of the porous RC. The maximum degree of grafting observed was 59.14%, achieved with a 10% (v/v) PEI concentration and 30 kGy of radiation. The existence of N-H stretching was established using FTIR. When compared to RC, XRD showed that crystallinity increased on grafting. The results then revealed a higher amount of nitrogen from the amine groups by CHNS results. TGA and DSC results demonstrated the thermal degradation behavior, highlighting the strong covalent interaction between amine and hydroxyl groups. FE-SEM images, which aligned with CLSM results, illustrated that the amine groups significantly altered the surface structure of the interior pores of RC-g-PEI, as evidenced by a reduction in surface roughness following amine impregnation. Furthermore, Carbon dioxide adsorption capacity of the RC-g-PEI adsorbent was measured at 2.58 mmol/g. The surface functional groups of RC-g-PEI were examined using FTIR and XPS both before and after CO2 adsorption to determine the effective alteration of the amine-functionalization surface onto RC.