Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-05-16T13:29:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 3062751 bytes, checksum: 5355db4f5e8fd0c5ecd86a23e5d0ad77 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-16T13:29:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 3062751 bytes, checksum: 5355db4f5e8fd0c5ecd86a23e5d0ad77 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The single-phase extraction is based on the formation of a homogeneous mixture formed ideally between two immiscible phases (aqueous and organic) and a third component in the two immiscible phases, is added to achieve opalescence. In this mixture the complexation reactions occur and the subsequent extraction is performed by breaking the phase equilibrium by addition of an excess of the components of the mixture. However, the automation of this method by analyzing flow injection requires a device with a significant degree of complexity and difficult to control operating parameters. The objective of this study was to develop an automatic method of extracting single phase using flow-batch in question applied to the quantification of chromium in water and in commercial samples of vinegar by atomic absorption spectrometry graphite furnace. To this end, modifications have been made both in the mixing chamber (two outputs) as the extraction method, in which more suited to this proposal chemical systems were studied. The performance of the method was attested by statistical tests, in terms of precision (RSD <12%), accuracy (recovery between 82 and 108%), (m0 = 0.32 pg L-1 and LOQ = 0.86 μgL -1) and analytical frequency (26h-1). In this new strategy, the whole process of extraction was performed in mixing chamber quickly, simply and with adequate sensitivity to GF AAS technique. Moreover, it was possible to analyze samples of different matrices using the same method / A extração em fase única baseia-se na formação de uma mistura homogênea entre duas fases idealmente imiscíveis (uma aquosa e uma orgânica) e um terceiro componente miscível em ambas as fases, que é adicionado até atingir a opalescência. Nesta mistura ocorrem as reações de complexação e, a subsequente extração é realizada pela quebra do equilíbrio de fases através da adição de excesso de um dos componentes da mistura. Entretanto, a automação deste método através da análise por injeção em fluxo exige um aparato com significativo grau de complexidade e de difícil controle dos parâmetros operacionais. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi desenvolver uma metodologia automática de extração em fase única utilizando análise em fluxo-batelada aplicada à quantificação de cromo em águas e amostras comerciais de vinagre por espectrometria de absorção atômica em forno de grafite. Para isto, foram feitas modificações tanto na câmara de mistura (duas saídas) como na técnica de extração, na qual foram estudados sistemas químicos mais adequados a esta proposta. O desempenho do método foi atestado através de testes estatísticos, em termos de precisão (RSD < 12%), exatidão (recuperação entre 82 e 108%), (m0 = 0,32 pg L-1 e LOQ = 0,86 μgL-1), e frequência analítica (26 h-1). Nesta nova estratégia, todo o processo de extração foi realizado na câmara de mistura de forma rápida, simples e com sensibilidade adequada para a técnica GF AAS. Além disso, foi possível analisar amostras de diferentes matrizes usando o mesmo método.

A citricultura, introduzida no Brasil na época da colonização e explorada comercialmente a partir dos anos 30 do século passado, é um setor de grande importância para o agronegócio brasileiro. Atualmente, o Brasil detém 50% da produção mundial de laranja e cerca de 85% de toda exportação mundial, representando uma captação de divisas de cerca de 2,5 bilhões de dólares por ano, devido principalmente à exportação do suco de laranja. Apesar do suco ser o principal produto de exportação da citricultura, vários subprodutos com valor comercial são obtidos durante seu processo de produção, tais como os óleos essenciais cítricos. Esses subprodutos localizam-se na casca da fruta e são obtidos durante o processo de extração do suco de laranja por prensagem a frio. Devido ao uso intensivo de pesticidas na citricultura e que muitas vezes se acumula na casca da fruta é comum à obtenção de óleos essenciais com resíduos de pesticidas, o que reduz seu preço de mercado internacional e limita sua inserção em mercados exigentes como o Europeu, Japonês e Americano, por exemplo. Este trabalho propõe o desenvolvimento de metodologias eletroanalíticas para a determinação de alguns pesticidas amplamente utilizados na citricultura brasileira e que têm sido encontrados nos óleos essenciais produzidos pelas indústrias de processamento. Inicialmente, foram realizados testes para avaliação da eletroatividade de três pesticidas (piridafention, cihexatina e bromopropilato) amplamente utilizados no Brasil, mas que são proibidos na maioria dos países importadores, sendo, portanto, de importância estratégica. Utilizando-se a técnica de voltametria cíclica verificou-se que o piridafention apresenta resposta sobre o eletrodo compósito de grafite-poliuretana (GPU), a cihexatina apresentou eletroatividade sobre o eletrodo de filme de bismuto e o bromopropilato não foi eletroativo nas superfícies eletródicas testadas. Varreduras realizadas com voltametria cíclica mostraram que o piridafention apresenta um pico de redução em -0,80 V (vs. EECS) sobre eletrodo compósito de GPU em meio ácido (tampão Britton-Robinson 0,1 mol L-1) com características de processo irreversível. Em seguida, desenvolveu-se uma metodologia eletroanalítica, utilizando a técnica de voltametria de onda quadrada (SWV), com a otimização do pH da solução (1,0) e demais parâmetros da SWV como a frequência (80 s-1), amplitude do pulso (50 mV) e incremento de varredura (&Delta;Ei = 5 mV). Curvas analíticas foram obtidas no intervalo de 1,46 a 17,1 µmol L-1, apresentando boa linearidade, com coeficiente de determinação (r2) de 0,998. Os limites de detecção (LD) e de quantificação (LQ) obtidos foram de 0,27 µmol L-1 e 0,92 µmol L-1, respectivamente. A precisão da metodologia desenvolvida foi avaliada por meio da repetibilidade e a reprodutibilidade e a exatidão determinada pelo erro relativo. Os testes de recuperação realizados pelo método de adição de padrão forneceram valores de 98%. A metodologia eletroanalítica desenvolvida para determinação do piridafention foi aplicada em amostras de óleo essencial de laranja, contaminadas com três níveis de concentração 1,5, 2,9 e 5,9 µmol L-1. Foram avaliados quatro procedimentos de extração líquido-líquido, utilizando água Milli-Q como extrator: i) agitação manual da mistura (10 mL de óleo e 10 mL de água) por 4 minutos com repetição do procedimento por 3 vezes; ii) agitação magnética da mistura (5 mL de óleo e 50 mL de água) por 20 minutos em uma única etapa, à temperatura ambiente; iii) agitação magnética da mistura (5 mL de óleo e 50 mL de água) por 20 minutos em uma única etapa, à temperatura de 45°C; iv) agitação da mistura em mesa orbital com tempo de agitação variando de 5 até 180 minutos. Os melhores resultados foram obtidos com o procedimento utilizando a agitação por mesa orbital (iv), sendo recomendado, portanto, para extração do piridafention em amostras de óleo essencial de laranja. No caso da cihexatina, os testes realizados visando à determinação de uma metodologia eletroanalítica mostraram uma baixa reprodutibilidade do eletrodo filme de bismuto inviabilizando a sua aplicação na eletroanálise da cihexatina. Entretanto, devido à importância da cihexatina e do bromopropilato recomenda-se a realização de mais estudos eletroquímicos com o objetivo de se estabelecer novos métodos de análise. / The citrus production introduced in Brazil during the colonization period and commercially exploited since 1930, is very important for the Brazilian agribusiness. Currently, Brazil is responsible for 50% of the total world citrus production and for about 85% of the citrus world exportation trade, representing an income of about 2.5 billion dollars for the country yearly. The orange juice is the major product of the citrus industry, but other commercially valuable byproducts can be obtained during the manufacturing process, such as the citrus essential oils. These byproduct, located at the orange fruit exocarp, are extracted during the juice production process by cold pressing. Due to the use of pesticides in the citrus production, these agrochemicals can be occasionally presented in extracted essential oil products as unwished residues, which significantly reduce their values in the international market and restrict their insertion in exigent markets as the European, Japanese and North American, for instance. This study aim to develop electroanalytical methodologies for the determination of some pesticides widely employed in the Brazilian citrus production and that has been found in the essential oils produced by the processing industries. Preliminar tests were conducted to evaluate the electroactivity of three pesticides (pyridaphention, cyhexatin and bromopropylate) widely applied in Brazil, but not regulated for use in most of the importing countries. Using the cyclic voltammetry technique, these experiments showed that pyridaphenthion presented a good electrochemical response on the graphite-polyurethane composite electrode (GPU), cyhexatin showed electroactivity on thin bismuth film electrode and bromopropylate was not electroactive on the tested electodes. Studies conducted using cyclic voltammetry showed that pyridaphenthion presents a reduction peak in -0.8 V (vs. ESCE) on GPU in acidic medium (Britton - Robinson buffer 0.1 mol L- 1(BR)) with features of an irreversible process. The electroanalytical methodology for pyridaphenthion analysis was developed using square wave voltammetry (SWV) with optimization of pH (1.0) and the SWV scanning parameters, as pulse frequency (80 s-1), amplitude (50 mV), and increment (&Delta;Ei = 5 mV). An analytical curve was obtained for concentrations ranging from 1.46 a 17.1 µmol L-1, showing good linearity expressed in the determination coefficient (r2) of 0.998. The detection limit (LOD) and quantification limit (LOQ) obtained were 0.27 µmol L-1 and 0.92 µmol L-1, respectively. The precision was evaluated by means its repeatability and reproductibility, while accuracy was assessed by means relative error. Recovery experiments conducted using the standard addition method provided a concentration recovering level of 98%. The electroanalytical methodology developed for pyridaphenthion was applied in citrus essential oil samples spiked with three concentration levels 1.5, 2.9 and 5.9 µmol L-1. Four liquid-liquid extraction procedures were evaluated using only Milli-Q purified water as extracting agent: i) manual stirring of the mixture (10 mL of essential oil and 10 mL of water) during 4 minutes, repeating the procedure three times; ii) magnetic stirring of the mixture (5 mL of essential oil and 50 mL of water) during 20 minutes, in a single step, at room temperature; iii) magnetic stirring of the mixture (5 mL of essential oil and 50 mL of water) during 20 minutes, in a single step, at 45o C; iv) orbital shaking of the mixture (5 mL of essential oil and 50 mL of water) for different period of times varying from 5 to 180 minutes. The best results were obtained with the procedure using the orbital shaking table (iv), which is, therefore, recommended for extraction of pyridaphention residues in citrus essential oils samples. For the cyhexatin, studies carried out aiming to determine an electroanalytical methodology, showed low reproducibility of the bismuth film, preventing its application in the electroanalysis of cyhexatin. However, due to the importance of these pesticides in citrus essential oils production it is recommended additional studies regarding the electrochemistry and electroanalysis of these chemicals.

In this thesis, we investigate the entanglement and magnetic properties of frustrated spin systems and correlated electronic properties of conjugated carbon systems. In chapter 1, we present different approaches to solve the time-independent, nonrelativistic Schr¨odinger equation for a many-body system. We start with the full non-relativistic Hamiltonian of a multi nuclear system to describe the Born - Oppenheimer approximation which allows the study of electronic Hamiltonian which treats nuclear positions parametrically. We then also describe ab initio techniques such as the Hartree-Fock Method and density functional theories. We then introduce model Hamiltonians for strongly correlated systems such as the Hubbard, Pariser-Parr-Pople and Heisenberg models, and show how they result from the noninteracting one-band tight-binding model. In chapter 2, we discuss various numerical techniques like the exact diagonalization methods and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method. We also discuss quantum entanglement and the success of DMRG which can be attributed to the area law of entanglement entropy. In chapter 3, we study here different regions in phase diagrams of the spin-1/2, spin-1 and spin-3/2 one-dimensional antiferromagnetic Heisenberg systems with nearest-neighbor (J1) and next-nearest-neighbor (J2) interactions and dimerization (d ). Frustration arises for specific relative signs of the interactions J1 and J2. In particular, we analyze the behavior of the bipartite entanglement entropy and fidelity at the gapless to gapped phase transitions and across the lines separating different phases in the J2−d plane. All the calculations in this work are based on exact diagonalizations of finite systems. In chapter 4, we study Heisenberg spin-1/2 and spin-1 chains with alternating ferromagnetic (JF 1 ) and antiferromagnetic (JA 1 ) nearest-neighbor interactions and a ferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interaction (JF 2 ). In this model frustration is present due to non-zero JF 2 . The model with site spin s behaves like a Haldane spin chain with site spin 2s in the limit of vanishing JF 2 and large JF 1 /JA 1 . We show that the exact ground state of the model can be found along a line in the parameter space. For fixed JF 1 , the phase diagram in the space of JA 1 −JF 2 is determined using numerical techniques complemented by analytical calculations. A number of quantities, including the structure factor, energy gap, entanglement entropy and zero temperature magnetization, are studied to understand the complete phase diagram. An interesting and potentially important feature of this model is that it can exhibit a macroscopic magnetization jump in the presence of a magnetic field; we study this using an effective Hamiltonian. In chapter 5, we study correlated electronic properties of zigzag and armchair fused naphthalenes and polyperylene systems in the presence of long-range electronelectron interactions. We find that the ground state of zigzag fused naphthalene system is a higher spin state, while the ground state of armchair fused naphthalene is a singlet. The spin gap of polyperylene is unusually small and the ground state is a singlet. Our calculations of optical gap and two-photon gap suggest that polyperylene should exhibit fluorescence. From the charge gap calculation, we predict that in zigzag fused naphthalene and polyperylene systems, excitons are weakly binding. Peierls type of distortion is negligible in zigzag fused naphthalene and polyperylene systems, however, in armchair fused naphthalene system, interior bonds have tendency to distort in low-lying excited states. In chapter 6, we study the ground state spin of the Heisenberg spin-1/2 nearestneighboring antiferromagnetic exchange models of systems with fused odd member rings. In particular, we compute the ground state spin of fused three and five membered rings as well as fused five membered rings. In the thermodynamic limit, the ground state of the fused three and five membered system is a higher spin state, while fused five membered system shows a singlet ground state, for all system sizes.

Metal ion contamination in surface and ground water is a major threat as it has a direct implication on the health of terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna. Lead (Pb2+), mercury (Hg2+), cadmium (Cd2+), nickel (Ni2+), copper (Cu2+) and cobalt (Co2+) are few of these metal ions which are classified under the high risk category. Of these, lead and mercury are of greater concern, as even nanomolar concentrations can be lethal, as they can be bio-accumulated and result in physiological as well as neurological disorders. In Asian countries like India and China, heavy metal pollution is more prevalent, as a consequence of poor governmental policies or ineffective or inadequate measures to combat this problem. In recent times, the monitoring and assessment of water pollution is a critical area of study, as it has a direct implication for its prevention and control. The major techniques used for metal ion detection are atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), X-ray fluorescence, ion chromatography, neutron activation, etc. Alternatively, the electrochemical, optical and electrical methods provide a platform for the fabrication of portable devices, which can facilitate the on-site analysis of samples in a rapid and cost-effective manner. This has led to a new field of research called chemical sensors or chemo sensory devices. The main aim of this study is to develop various chemosensory materials and test their response towards metal ion sensing. In this study, electroactive polymers have been synthesized for various sensor applications. The focus has been to design synthesize and test various functionalized electroactive polymers (FEAP) for the development of electrochemical, optical and chemoresistive sensors. Electroactive polymers like polyaniline, polypyrrole, polypyrrole grafted to exfoliated graphite oxide and dipyrromethene conjugated with p-(phenylene vinylene) have been synthesized and evaluated after functionalizing with metal coordinating ligands. These metal coordinating ligands were selected, in order to enhance their metal uptake capacity. Various metal ligands like imidazole, tertiary amine group, iminodiacetic acid, and dipyrromethene incorporated either in the polymer backbone or as a part of the backbone have been chosen for the metal binding. These functionalized electroactive polymers (FEAP) served as active material for metal ion sensing. The present investigation is subdivided into three sections. The first part includes design and chemical synthesis of the functionalized polymers by a series of organic reactions. The synthesis has been followed up by characterization using spectroscopic methods including NMR, FTIR, GCMS and Mass spectrometry. In the second part of the investigation, the synthesized polymer has been characterized for the changes in electronic, electric and optical properties after interaction with the selected metal ions. For this, the FEAP is allowed to interact with various metal ions and the changes in the relevant properties have been measured. This includes the study of changes in the conductivity, electronic properties like absorption or emission of the polymer, changes in the redox properties, etc. The third phase of investigation deals with the fabrication of the devices using the active FEAP. The sensor devices comprised of either films, or electrode modified with FEAP or solution of the FEAP, in combination with an appropriate technique has been used for the sensing. The major objectives are enumerated below 1. Functionalzation of polyaniline with imidazole functional group to get imidazole functionalized polyaniline (IMPANI) and study of the electronic, electrical and optical properties of the same. 2. Preparation of films of IMPANI and study of the change in conductivity of the film upon interaction with various metal ions, namely Cu2+, Co2+ and Ni2+ in their chloride form. 3. Synthesis of amine functionalized aniline monomer and chemical graft polymerization onto exfoliated graphite oxide as a substrate to synthesise the amine funtionalised polyaniline grafted to exfoliated graphite oxide (EGAMPANI). Modification of the carbon paste electrode (CPE) with EGAMPANI and study of the electrode characteristic. 4. Study of the electrode properties of EGAMPANI modified carbon paste electrode. 5. Evaluation of the EGAMPANI modified carbon paste electrode as a multi-elemental voltammetric sensor for Pb2+, Hg2+ and Cd2+ in aqueous system. 6. Functionalization of polypyrrole with iminodiacetic acid and characterization of the polymer to synthesis iminodiacetic acid functionalized polypyrrole (IDA-PPy). 7. Modification of the CPE with IDA-PPy by drop casting method and evaluation of the Pb2+ sensing properties. 8. Study of the effect of other metal ions say Hg2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Cu2+ and Cd2+ on the anodic stripping current of Pb2+ using EGAMPANI modified CPE. 9. Synthesis of dipyrromethene-p-(phenylene vinylene) conjugated polymer for heavy metal ion sensing. 10. Study of the changes in the optical absorption and emission properties of the polymer in THF and evaluation of the change in these optical properties upon interaction with the metal ions as analyte. The salient findings of the research work are highlighted as follows, In the first synthesis, aniline has been functionalized with imidazole group and this monomer has been chemical oxidatively polymerized to obtain imidazole functionalized polyaniline (IMPANI). The synthesized polymer possesses a nano-spherical structure, as confirmed from the morphological characterisation using scanning electron microscopy. The IMPANI has been interacted with a representative metal ion, copper (II) chloride, and the copper complexed polymer (Cu-IMPANI) has been subjected to various studies. The coordination of copper with IMPANI results in an increase of molecular weight of the polymer as a result of aggregation, as observed from dynamic light scattering measurements. Apart from this, a significant finding is the decrease of the pH of the system after copper ion coordination attesting to the generation of a secondary hydrochloride ion during the coordination of the copper to the imidazole side chain. This is further confirmed by an increase in conductivity of the Cu-IMPANI compared to IMPANI, measured using the four-probe technique. The increase of conductivity due to copper coordination is one order of magnitude higher. The films which have been prepared from IMPANI and Cu-IMPANI exhibit different morphology. The Cu-IMPANI film prepared by prior co-ordination of Cu ion with IMPANI powder shows a flaky structure, which is not preferable for the conductivity measurements, as a consequence of discontinuity in the medium. To overcome this problem, IMPANI films were initially prepared and then interacted with copper ions for a desired duration, before measurement of the conductivity. This latter procedure enabled the preparation of smooth films for the development of chemoresistive sensors. In continuation of the initial study highlighted above, IMPANI films of thickness 0.02 ± 0.001 mm have been prepared using IMPANI and PANI in DMPU in the ratio of 7:3 by mass. After exposure of the films with respective metal chlorides, such as Ni2+, Co2+ and Cu2+, a change in conductivity is observed in the concentration range of 10-2 to 1 M of metal chlorides. The sensor response may be arranged in the sequence: Ni2+ > Cu2+ > Co2+ at 1M concentration. On the contrary, films prepared from PANI-EB under identical conditions do not exhibit any appreciable change in conductivity. The optimum exposure time is determined to be 10 min for a maximum change in conductivity, after exposure to the chosen metal ions. In the second system taken up for investigation, a tertiary amine containing polyaniline (AMPANI) has been grafted to exfoliated graphite oxide. The amine containing polyaniline grafted to exfoliated graphite oxide (EGAMPANI) has been characterised for structural, morphological and elemental composition. The grafting percentage has been determined to be 7 % by weight of AMPANI on the EGO surface. The synthesized EGAMPANI (5 weight %) has been used to modify carbon paste electrode (CPE) for electrochemical sensor studies. Based on the differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetric studies, the electrochemical response may be arranged in the following sequence: Pb 2+>Cd 2+>Hg 2+ The minimum detection levels obtained are 5×10-6, 5×10-7, and 1.0×10-7 M for Hg2+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ ions respectively. In the next study, an iminodiacetic acid functionalized polypyrrole (IDA-PPy) has been synthesized and characterised for its elemental and structural properties. This has been further used to modify the CPE by drop casting method and used for the specific detection of Pb2+ in acetate buffer. Various parameters governing the electrode performance such as concentration of depositing solution, pH of depositing solution, deposition potential, deposition time, and scan rate, have been optimized to achieve maximum performance and found to be 20 μl, 4.5, -1.3 V, 11 min, 8 mV s-1 respectively for the chosen parameters. Additionally, the influence of other heavy metal ions on the lead response has been studied and it is observed that Co, Cu and Cd ions are found to be interfering. Further, the response of Cd, Co, Cu, Hg, Ni and Zn on IDA-PPy functionalized electrode has been evaluated. The selectivity of IDA-PPy modified electrode for Pb2+ is observed in the concentration range of 1 × 10-7 M and below. The IDA-PPy modified CPE shows a linear correlation for Pb2+ concentration in the range from 1×10-6 to 5×10-9 M and with a lowest limit of detection (LLOD) of 9.6×10-9 M concentration. The efficacy of the electrode for lead sensing has also been evaluated with an industrial effluent sample obtained from a lead battery manufacturing unit. The fourth synthesis pertained to the development of an optical sensor for Fe2+, and Co2+ ions. For this, dipyrromethene as a metal coordinating ligand in conjugation with p-phenylenevinylene has been synthesized and tested for its structural as well as optical properties. It is observed that the polymer shows three absorptions, namely at 294 nm, 357 nm and a major absorption observed as a broad band ranging from 484 to 670 nm. The emission spectrum of the polymer excited at 357 nm shows a characteristic blue emission with a maximum intensity centered at 425 nm. The emission quenching in the presence of various metal ions have been tested and are found to be quenched in presence of Fe2+ and Co2+ ions. All the other metal ions tested namely, Cr3+, Cu2+, and Zn2+ are not found to exhibit any change in the emission spectra below the concentration of 1 × 10-4 M. The linear correlation of the emission intensity with the concentration of the Co2+ and Fe2+ ions has been determined using Stern-Volmer plot. For Co2+ the Stern-Volmer regime is observed from 1×10-4 to 9×10-4 M concentration and the quenching constant Ksv is determined to be 8.67 ×103 M-1. For Fe2+, the linearity is found to be in the regime of 1×10-5 to 9×10-5 M and the quenching constant Ksv is determined to be 7.90 × 103 M-1. In conclusion, different electroactive polymers functionalized with metal coordinating ligands have been synthesized, characterised and evaluated for metal sensing applications. Techniques like electrochemical, optical and conductivity have been used to characterise the response of these FEAP towards metal sensing. It is can be concluded that the electrochemical sensors are more reliable for sensing especially at very low concentrations of metal ions such as Pb, Cd and other techniques like optical and conductimetric are good for detecting metal ions namely Fe, Co, Ni, Cu. The selectivity towards the metal ions is a function of the metal chelating ligand and the extent of sensitivity is dependent upon the technique employed.

This report has investigated the ethical issues associated with mining or processing of materials that make them considered as controversial. For each material, the main areas of use and the top producing countries are analysed, followed by social and/or environmental issues as well as potential problems in the future. In total, 13 materials are discussed, of which most are minerals. The overall issues, that are recurring throughout the report and are important to be aware of are: child labor, low safety standards, mining activity resulting in deforestation or harming biodiversity, mining processes that affect communities (e.g. because of large water consumption) and the risks associated with widespread illegal mining. The report also provides research about organisations and initiatives that aim to affect the problems, and gives a brief view over tools that can be used to increase awareness of these issues.

In this thesis, a Sb/C composite electrode for sodium-ion batteries isprepared by a simple high energy ball milling and calenderingmethod. The prepared Sb/C composite electrode was assembled in ahalf-cell and symmetrical cell setups in order to perform avariety of electrochemical measurements.The composite electrode showed a reversible specific capacity of595 mAh/g, at a discharge/charge current rate of 15 mA/g. Theelectrode also showed a relatively good performance (compared toprevious studies) of 95% capacity retention after more than 100cycles, at a higher discharge/charge current rate of 60 mA/g. Theelectrode furthermore showed excellent self-dischargecharacteristics, in pause tests implemented over 200 hours (overeight days), which underlined the electrode materials good shelflife properties. A series of Sb/C symmetrical cells assembledthrough-out the project, furthermore, highlighted the stability ofthe solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer formed on the Sb/Ccomposite electrode during cycling. Scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used tocharacterize the surface morphology and composition of the Sb/Celectrode, respectively.A non-milled and milled (12 hours) graphite electrodes were alsoprepared for reference and comparison. The milled graphite matrixelectrode provided a reversible capacity of 95 mAhg-1 and acoulombic efficiency (CE) of 99% in over 250 cycles, at a currentrate of 30 mA/g. Milled and non-milled graphite were characterizedwith SEM and Raman spectroscopy, to help have a fundamentalunderstanding of the particle size and material phase,respectively.

Ordinary concrete is the most commonly used building material, but nowadays the requirements for low energy consumption, durability of structures together with their easy diagnostics as well as ecological production raises. This thesis deals with cement and aluminosilicate composites with content of conductive fillers, which allows to monitor the change in electrical properties, most commonly electrical resistance in dependence on mechanical stress. In the experimental part of the thesis, test beams were produced based on alkali-activated slag with content of carbon nanotubes, graphite powder, carbon black and carbon fibre. The beams were subjected to flexural loading in a three-point bending configuration and the shift in electrical resistance was monitored.

In this thesis, the structural and mechanical changes, which took place in flake graphite cast iron after electron beam surface melting and chrome-nickel surface alloying, were studied. Furthermore, the effect of set parameters on properties and depth of the melted and alloyed region is also analyzed. In the experimental part, the analyzed microstructures, micro-hardness and the distribution of elements after melting and alloying, were presented. Structural differences of material regions caused by melting were described based on microstructures. In the end of diploma thesis, the conclusions of using EB technology for surface melting and alloying were discussed.

Production of construction materials requires a large amount of energy. That can be decreased by using of waste materials. This thesis deals with the self-sensing properties of composites. It presents electrical properties of building materials and their measurement. In the experimental part, the influence of conductive fillers on the self-sensing properties of aluminosilicate composites was examined. Test cubes were made of alkali-activated slag with a content of graphite powder, carbon black, carbon fibers, steel fibers or carbon nanotubes. The fractional change in resistence during cyclic compressive loading was monitored.

This diploma thesis is focused on the surface hardening of cast irons with spheroidal graphite. The work describes a theoretical analysis of the structure and properties of cast irons and individual methods suitable for surface hardening. The practical part describes the production of cast iron castings with spheroidal graphite, on which the surface hardening is performed, tensile test, hardening of produced castings by induction and laser surface hardening, preparation of samples for measuring microhardness and metallographic analysis of metal structures.