Ts5136mm

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation was performed with a TESCAN TS5136 MM at 20 kV of accelerating voltage to image both surface and cross-section after Au-coating for 30 s. Samples were cut by IsoMet slow saw with diamond wafer blade to create smooth surface. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) was performed at 10 K min⁻¹ on DTG-60H under air gas with flow rate of 40 cm³ min⁻¹ at a heating rate of 10 °C per minute from 50 °C to 800 °C. Dynamic Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was performed on small slivers of real rhino horn (legally acquired) and our artificial rhino horn on a TA Q2000 instrument, with a heating rate of 5 °C per minute from −50 °C to 250 °C. For Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy the samples were powdered and mixed with KBr, then processed into pellets. The FTIR spectra were obtained with a Nicolet 6700 spectrometer (Thermofisher, the USA) in the range of 650–4000 cm⁻¹ with a resolution of 2 cm⁻¹ for 128 scans. Mechanical Properties were measured using Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA) performed on a TA Q800 under DMA multi-frequency strain mode. The constant parameters for all the DMTA tests are as follows: (i) in the frequency sweep, samples were tested from 100 Hz to 0.1 Hz, (ii) in the strain sweep, we applied the force with the frequency of 1 Hz.

SEM was used to examine the morphology of the ZnO-NPs (SEM, Vega Tescan TS5136MM). Using KBr pellets, the FTIR spectra were recorded with a Nicolet 6700 FTIR spectrometric analyzer. Furthermore, the BET technique was used to compute the specific surface area in the relative pressure range of 0.05–0.3. The Barrett–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) method was used to compute the mesopore size and distribution from the desorption curves, whereas the t-plot approach was used to calculate the micropore area values. The porosity (using the DFT approach) and surface area were measured using a N₂ adsorption–desorption isotherm analysis (Tristar 3000 apparatus, Micrometrics Instrument Corp., Norcross, GA, USA) (BET method). A UV-vis spectrophotometer was used to obtain the spectrophotometric readings (UV 4000, MRI, Stuttgart, Germany).
An XRD (D/Max 2550PC, Rigaku, Japan) diffractometer was used for X-ray diffractometry. The reflection-scanning mode was used to record the radical scan while changing 2 θ from 0° to 100°. A pH meter was used to determine the pH of the solution (Metrohm Herisau Digital E 532, Herisau, Switzerland).