Preparation and characterization of some additives for polymers from natural resources using nano catalysts / Moataz Ahmed Elsawy Mahmoud Abdelhak ; Supervised Maher Zaki Elsabee , Labiba Ismail Hussie , Hala Fikry Naguib

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Physical Chemistry

This work is dealing with producing environmentally friendly materials from vegetable oil as renewable resources that can be used as alternative materials to petroleum. The preparation and the application of these materials are the main target of the project. The primary objective of the study is the investigation of the capability of using domestic microwave as a reactor for producing biodiesel through transesterification of jojoba oil-wax with four different alcohols using homogeneous alkali catalyst and heterogeneous nano-alkali catalyst, investigation of the properties of the products as biodiesel, and comparing the properties of the produced esters with jojoba properties. The second target is to study the effect of jojoba oil and its derivatives as additives for biopolymers in order to improve its poor mechanical properties and poor antibacterial capacity. Further improvement could be achieved by mixing the jojoba oil or its derivatives with other additives like chitosan nanoparticles, which can lead to better oil dispersion in the polymer matrix. The biological activity of the mixtures is expected to increase dramatically and appreciably improve the shelf life of vegetables coated with any of the produced mixture

Issued also as CD