Ricerc@Sapienza

The present research project is focused on the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures on commercially available electrospun nylon nanofibres to be used as interlaminar reinforcements in polymer matrix composites. The main aim is to evaluate whether these hierarchically nanostructured mats can increase the through-the-thickness properties of the resulting composites under low velocity impact conditions. At the same time the presence of photoreactive species (ZnO) makes them attractive for wastewater treatment in photocatalytic processes. In this regard photocatalytic tests will be performed to evaluate the degradation of methylene blue (MB) used as model compound under UV light irradiation. The growth of ZnO structures will be developed by means of a hydro-thermal technique, because of its simplicity and low operating temperatures that are not expected to compromise the mechanical properties of nylon nanofibres. The project is intended to optimize the morphology of ZnO nanostructures considering several process parameters, such as the number of seeding cycles, the growth time and the concentration of reagents. The optimization will involve a trade-off among good mechanical performance, thermal stability and homogeneous distribution over the electrospun nanofibres.