Amoxicillin photodegradation under visible light catalyzed by metal-free carbon nitride: An investigation of the influence of the structural defects.

Herein, the structural defects of metal-free polymeric carbon nitrides were controlled by making use of different precursors in their syntheses, i.e. melamine (CN-M) and thiourea (CN-T), as well as a 1:1 mixture of them (CN-1M:1 T). By controlling the structural defects, the electronic, morphological and chemical properties were modified. Additionally, the activities of synthesized PCNs were evaluated for amoxicillin photodegradation under visible light irradiation (16 mW cm-2). The results of photocatalytic tests showed that CN-T material has better efficiency (100 % removal within 48 h), which is directly related to the greater number of defects present in its structure with consequent improvement of electron-hole pairs separation efficiency. The CN-T material showed excellent stability with only 13 % decrease in its photocatalytic activity after the third cycle. A mechanism for amoxicillin degradation by CN-T was proposed based on the ESI-MS and the in situ EPR allied with spin trapping method investigations.

Characterization of compounds derived from copper-oxamate and imidazolium by X-ray absorption and vibrational spectroscopies.

In this work, compounds derived from copper-oxamate anions (ortho, meta, and para)-phenylenebis (oxamate) and imidazolium cations (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium) were synthesized. The compounds were characterized by Raman and FTIR spectroscopies and the band assignments were supported by DFT calculations. Strong IR bands from 1610 to 1700cm(-1) dominated the spectra of the complex and can be assigned to νCO vibrations of the [Cu(opba)](2-) anions by the comparison with the DFT data. In opposition to the FTIR spectra, the main vibrational bands in the Raman spectra are observed in the 1350-1600cm(-1) range. All bands in this region are associated to the modified benzene vibrations of the copper-phenylenebis(oxamate) anions. X-ray absorption near edge (XANES) at different energies (NK and Cu L2,3 edges) was also used to probe the interionic interactions. XANES data show that anion-cation interaction in the Cu-oxamate-imidazolium changes the electronic structure around the CuN sites in the oxamate anion.

Interionic interactions in imidazolic ionic liquids probed by soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

This work investigates pure ionic liquids (ILs) derived from an imidazolium ring with different carbonic chains and halides or bis(trifluoromethanesulfonilimide) (TFSI(-)) as anions, using X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) at different energies (N, S, O, F, and Cl edges) to probe the interionic interactions. XANES data show that the interaction with the anion is weaker when the cation is an imidazolium than when the salt is formed by smaller cations, as lithium, independently of the length of the carbonic chain attached to the imidazolium cation. The results also show that, for all studied ILs, it is not observed any influence of the anion on the XANES spectra of the cation, nor the opposite. 1-Methylimidazolium with Cl(-), a small and strongly coordinating anion, presents in the N K XANES spectrum a splitting of the band corresponding to nitrogen in the imidazolic ring, indicating two different chemical environments. For this cation with TFSI(-), on the contrary, this splitting was not observed, showing that the anion has a weaker interaction with the imidazolic ring, even without a lateral carbonic chain.

Structural and vibrational characterization of polyaniline nanofibers prepared from interfacial polymerization.

This work deals with the structural and vibrational characterization of PANI nanofibers prepared through interfacial polymerization using different concentrations of HCl aqueous solution. The results were compared to those obtained by PANI prepared through the conventional route. X-ray diffraction and small-angle X-ray scattering techniques showed that high concentrations of HCl solutions used in the preparation of the PANI nanofibers reduce their crystallinity. The increase of regions with granular morphology was also observed in the scanning electron microscopy images. The changes in the resonance Raman spectra from 200 to 500 cm (-1), FTIR spectra, and the EPR data of the PANI nanofibers reveal an increase in the torsion angles of C ring-N-C ring segments owing the formation of bipolarons in the PANI backbone higher than the PANI samples prepared by conventional route.

The role of cross-linking structures to the formation of one-dimensional nano-organized polyaniline and their Raman fingerprint.

In the present work, the resonance Raman, UV-vis-NIR and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) data of nanorods (about approximately 300 nm in diameter) and nanofibers (about approximately 93 nm in diameter) of PANI are presented and compared. The PANI samples were synthesized in aqueous media with dodecybenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA) and beta-naphtalenesulfonic acid (beta-NSA) as dopants, respectively. The presence of bands at 578, 1400 and 1, 632 cm(-1) in the Raman spectra of PANI-NSA and PANI-DBSA shows that the formation of cross-linking structures is a general feature of the PANI chains prepared in micellar media. It is proposed that these structures are responsible for the one-dimensional PANI morphology formation. In addition, the Raman band at 609 cm(-1) of PANI fibers is correlated with the extended PANI chain conformation.

Double-wall carbon nanotubes doped with different Br2 doping levels: a resonance Raman study.

This report focuses on the effects of different Br2 doping levels on the radial breathing modes of "double-wall carbon nanotube (DWNT) buckypaper". The resonance Raman profile of the Br2 bands are shown for different DWNT configurations with different Br2 doping levels. Near the maximum intensity of the resonance Raman profile, mainly the Br2 molecules adsorbed on the DWNT surface contribute strongly to the observed omega(Br-Br) Raman signal.

Spectroscopic investigation of conjugated polymers derived from nitroanilines.

For the first time, the resonance Raman spectroscopy was used to characterize polymers derived from meta- and para-nitroanilines. In order to improve the polymer structure analysis, other techniques were also used such as FTIR, UV-vis, XRD, XPS, EPR and N K-XANES. The insertion of strong electron-withdrawing groups (NO2) in polyaniline (PANI)-like backbone causes drastic changes in the lower energy charge transfer states, related to the polymer effective conjugation length. The resonance Raman data show that the NO2 moiety has a minor contribution on the CT state in poly(meta-nitroaniline), PMN, while in the poly(para-nitroaniline), PPN, the quinoid structure induced by para-substitution increases the charge density of NO2 groups, causing a more localized chromophore. The characterization of the imine nitrogen and of the protonated segments was done by XPS, N K-XANES and EPR spectroscopies and the lower polymerization degree of PPN, in comparison to PMN, is confirmed by XRD and TG data.