Due to environmental concerns, increasing attention has been focused on the application and preparation of biobased polymers and their blends. In this study, cellulose, the most spread biopolymer on Earth, was used in the preparation of novel cotton/polypropyleneAu and cotton/polyethylene-Au nanocomposites via a green mechanochemical approach. First, mechanoradicals were generated by ball milling of the cotton and thermoplastics under cryo conditions, and then, these radicals were used in the reduction of Au ions to Au nanoparticles (Au NPs). Nanocomposites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). | Turkish Journal of Chemistry Turk J Chem 2020 44 1515-1527 http chem TÜBİTAK Research Article doi kim-2005-53 Catalytic activity of novel thermoplastic cellulose-Au nanocomposites prepared by cryomilling Joanna KWICZAK-YİĞİTBAŞI Department of Chemistry Bilkent University Ankara Turkey Received Accepted Published Online Final Version Abstract Due to environmental concerns increasing attention has been focused on the application and preparation of biobased polymers and their blends. In this study cellulose the most spread biopolymer on Earth was used in the preparation of novel cotton polypropylene- Au and cotton polyethylene-Au nanocomposites via a green mechanochemical approach. First mechanoradicals were generated by ball milling of the cotton and thermoplastics under cryo conditions and then these radicals were used in the reduction of Au ions to Au nanoparticles Au NPs . Nanocomposites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy SEM X-ray diffraction XRD and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS . The application of mechanochemistry in obtaining the cotton thermoplastic blends allowed homogenous and fine blending of the samples and in addition excluded the usage of toxic solvents. Since Au NPs exhibit a wide range of applications . in catalysis cotton thermoplastic-Au nanocomposites were used to catalyze the reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol followed by UV-Vis spectroscopy. Finally the hydrophobicity of the nanocomposites was alternated by tuning the blend composition. In the prepared nanocomposites cotton and thermoplastics acted as very good supporting matrices for the Au NPs and provided satisfactory access to the NPs. Key words Mechanochemistry cellulose-thermoplastic composites gold nanoparticles cryomilling 1. Introduction Cellulose the most common polymer in nature is built of β-D-glucopyranose units connected by β-1 4-glycosidic bonds 1 2 . This polysaccharide .
