STARCH IS DISTINGUISHED FOR ITS EXCELLENT BIOCOMPATIBILITY AND CONTROLLABLE BIODEGRADABILITY AND HAVE NEW USES IN SPECIALIZED TECHNICAL AREAS. HOWEVER, DESPITE OF WIDESPREAD USE IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY, THE USE OF STARCH FILMS FOR FOOD PACKAGING HAS BEEN STRONGLY LIMITED BECAUSE OF THE POOR BARRIER PROPERTIES AND WEAK MECHANICAL STRENGTH [1]. STARCH/STARCH NANO CRYSTAL (SNC) BIO HYBRID NANO COMPOSITE FILMS WERE PREPARED WITH SNC AND STARCH AQUEOUS SOLUTION [2]. IN THIS WORK, WE INCORPORATED SNC, WHICH WERE ACIDIC HYDROLYZED FROM POTATO STARCH GRANULES, INTO WATERBORNE STARCH SOLUTION IN DIFFERENT AMOUNT OF SNC. SNC SIZE WAS ABOUT 75±10 NM THAT DETERMINED BY USING DYNAMIC LIGHT SCATTERING (DLS). X-RAY DIFFRACTION PATTERNS SUGGESTED THAT EXFOLIATED NANO COMPOSITE COULD BE ACHIEVED. FURTHERMORE, THE TENSILE STRENGTH AND YOUNG’S MODULUS WERE IMPROVED NOTABLY, WHICH INCREASING SNC CONTENT. THE COMPLEXATION OF STARCH WITH SNC WAS CONFIRMED BY DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING CALORIMETRY IN WHICH A SECOND GLASS TRANSITION WAS DETECTED AT HIGHER TEMPERATURES. BASED ON THE OBTAINED RESULTS, IT CAN BE INFERRED THAT THE STARCH BASED BIO HYBRID FILMS ARE POTENTIAL MATERIALS TO BE USED IN FOOD PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY [3].

CURRENTLY, WASTEWATER TREATMENT DUE TO LOSS OF WATER RESOURCES, INCREASING WASTE AND OTHER HAZARDOUS MATERIALS HAS BECOME A SERIOUS PROBLEM. THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT BY METHODS APPROPRIATE TO THE HEALTH OF HUMANS, ANIMALS AND THE ENVIRONMENT HAS BEEN EVALUATED. DIFFERENT METHODS HAVE BEEN USED FOR INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT. RECENTLY, DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY OF THESE INDUSTRIES AND ECONOMICAL PURPOSE, THE ADSORPTION METHOD WITH LOW COST AND EASE OF UTILIZATION HAS BEEN STUDIED. INTRODUCTION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO INCREASE THE AVAILABILITY OF CLEAN WATER IS ALMOST FIFTY YEARS AGO. NANO FILTRATION MEMBRANES WERE DEVELOPED DURING THE 1970S AND 1980S. IN THE MEMBRANE PROCESS, USING DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEMBRANES FOR DRINKING WATER PRODUCTION FROM SEAWATER, BRACKISH AND SALINE WATER, WASTEWATER, SURFACE WATER AND GROUNDWATER HAS EXPANDED RAPIDLY. THE INTERACTION OF MINERAL POWDERS WITH REACTIVE SITE OF NATURAL POLYMERS AND MONOMERS RESULT IN A SUPERABSORBENT COMPOSITE. SUPERABSORBENT COMPOSITES BASED ON SYNTHETIC POLYMERS OR NATURAL POLYMERS HAVE BEEN REPORTED.IN THIS PAPER, WE INVESTIGATED THE SYNTHESIS OF NANO COMPOSITES BASED ON POLY (VINYL ALCOHOL) IN THE PRESENCE OF MONTMORILLONITE POWDER USING CARRAGEENAN. THE NANO COMPOSITE STRUCTURE WAS CONFIRMED USING FTIR SPECTROSCOPY AND THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE SAMPLES WAS EXAMINED BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM). THE INFLUENCE OF THE PARAMETERS, WHICH CAN BE ALTERED GELATION TIME AS A PARAMETER FOR ASSESSING THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF THE RESULTANT NANO COMPOSITES WAS INVESTIGATED IN DETAILS. THE RESULTING NANO COMPOSITE WAS EXAMINED TO REMOVE CATIONIC CRYSTAL VIOLET DYE FROM WATER. IT WAS REVEALED THAT THE BY INCLUSION OF MONTMORILLONITE NANOCLAY, THE DYE ADSORPTION CONTENT OF NANO COMPOSITE HYDROGEL (NH) WAS SIMILAR AS CLAY-FREE HYDROGEL (H). BUT THE RATE OF DYE ADSORPTION WAS INCREASED.

SELF-ASSEMBLED MIXED-BRUSHES WITH CO-CONTINUOUS SURFACE MORPHOLOGIES WERE DEVELOPED FROM MELT OF POLY(ETHYLENE GLYCOL)-B-POLYSTYRENE (PEG-B-PS) AND POLY(ETHYLENE GLYCOL)-BPOLY( METHYL METHACRYLATE) (PEG-B-PMMA) DIBLOCK COPOLYMERS BY SELF-SEEDING TECHNIQUE [1]. SOME ASPECTS OF SOLUTION GROWN MATRIX-DISPERSED MIXED-BRUSHES HAVING CONTROLLABLE CHARACTERISTICS WERE BRIEFLY RECALLED [2] AND COMPLEMENTED IN ORDER TO COMPARE THEM WITH THE BEHAVIOR OF CORRESPONDING MELT GROWN MIXED-BRUSHES. HERE, THE HOMOGENEOUS MIXTURE OF BLOCK COPOLYMERS SYNTHESIZED BY ATOM TRANSFER RADICAL POLYMERIZATION (ATRP) WAS PUT ONTO A UV CLEANED SILICON WAFER UNDER HIGH PURE NITROGEN ATMOSPHERE, AND UNDERWENT THE MELTING TEMPERATURE (65OC FOR 30 MINUTES), PRIMARY CRYSTALLIZATION TEMPERATURE ((−10OC FOR 5-6 H), THE SELF-SEEDING TEMPERATURE (41OC FOR 30 MIN) AND SECONDARY CRYSTALLIZATION TEMPERATURE (23-30OC FOR 2-3 DAYS) IN A TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLABLE OIL BATH. THE PRECEDING OBSERVATIONS IMPLIED SOME MAJOR DIFFERENCES WHICH EXIST BETWEEN TWO GROWTH SYSTEMS. AN OBVIOUS DEDUCTION MADE FROM AFM HEIGHT IMAGES WAS THAT THE PATTERNED LEOPARD-SKIN LIKE SURFACE MORPHOLOGY OF SOLUTION INDUCED MIXED-BRUSH SINGLE CRYSTALS [2] CHANGED TO CO-CONTINUOUS MORPHOLOGIES IN MELT STATE. BESIDE THE ALTERATION OF GROWTH ENVIRONMENT FROM SOLUTION TO THE MELT, THIS PHENOMENON WAS ASSIGNED TO THE DOMINANT KINETIC EFFECT REPLACED BY THE PREVAILED THERMODYNAMIC EFFECT IN DILUTE SOLUTION SYSTEMS. THE RATIO OF PMMA- TO PS-COVERED SURFACE AREA ON THE SUBSTRATE OF MELT GROWN MIXED-BRUSH SINGLE CRYSTALS (50.50) INCREASED AS COMPARED TO THE CORRESPONDING SOLUTION GROWN MIXED-BRUSH SINGLE CRYSTALS (20.80M). OWING TO ACCELERATED KINETIC IN MELT GROWN MIXED-BRUSH SINGLE CRYSTALS THE THICKNESSES FOR THE SAME MOLECULAR WEIGHTS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER. SIMILAR TRENDS, NEVERTHELESS, OBSERVED FOR THE THICKNESS VARIANCES VS. MOLECULAR WEIGHT AND CRYSTALLIZATION TEMPERATURE. THE LATERAL SIZE OF MELT GROWN SINGLE CRYSTALS WERE TO AN EXTENT 4 TIMES LARGE AS SOLUTION GROWN SINGLE CRYSTALS (24 VS. 6 ΜM). THE THICKNESSES WERE EVIDENT BY THE INTERFACE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION (IDF) OF THE SMALL ANGLE X-RAY SCATTERING (SAXS) INVESTIGATION. CONTRARY TO GROWN SINGLE CRYSTALS FROM DILUTE SOLUTION WITH (120), (110) AND (020) PRISMS [3], IN MELT STATE THE GENERAL SHAPES ARE HEXAGONAL HAVING (140) AND (100) GROWTH FACES.