An environmentally friendly technique was used to prepare titanium dioxide@ silver (core shell) (TiO₂@Ag NPs) using chard leaf extract, a natural stabilizer and reductant. A nanocomposite (NCs) of TiO₂@Ag supported by halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), TiO2@Ag/HNT NCs, was prepared under microwave irradiation. The microwave technique is used to accelerate the reaction and enhance the homogeneity of nanoparticle distribution. Spectroscopic and structural analyses were performed on the resulting nanocomposite. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed a clear crystalline structure with grain sizes ranging from 7 to 15 nm, with an average of ~11 nm, the transmission electron microscope (TEM) revealed that the size of nanoparticles in the TiO₂@Ag/HNT NCs sample ranges from 20 to 80 nm, with some localized agglomerations visible in specific areas. UV–Vis absorption spectra indicated significant optical activity in the visible and UV ranges, indicating improved photonic properties. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra revealed the presence of intergroup bonds. The active ingredients in the plant extract and the TiO2@Ag/HNT nanocomposite surface were found, indicating the extract’s role in stabilization. The zeta potential test showed good stability, with a value of −57 mV. The TiO₂@Ag/HNT NCs demonstrated high efficiency in the adsorption of heavy metal mercury (Hg(II)) from contaminated water, achieving a removal rate of 100%. This result reflects the unique effectiveness of the TiO₂@Ag/HNT and its outstanding ability to treat mercury pollution efficiently. These results demonstrate the potential for producing a multifunctional nanocomposite in an environmentally friendly and efficient manner, making it a practical option for various photocatalytic and water treatment applications.
Herein, we report designing a new Δ (delta‐shaped) proton sponge base of 4,12‐dihydrogen‐4,8,12‐triazatriangulene (compound
Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive airflow limitation that is preventable but not curable. It is associated with persistent symptoms that cause a considerable burden on individual productivity at work, and daily activities, and reduced quality of life, also burdening the healthcare system and society. Objectives: The study aims to measure the burden of COPD on patients in terms of daily activities and work productivity. It also seeks to investigate some inflammatory biomarkers' levels and their correlation with selected outcomes. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study on 120 stable COPD patients who were diagnosed and treated according to the GOLD guidelines at Kirkuk General Hospital's
... Show MoreThe collected premiums and the compensations paid are among the main variables that have a prominent role in determining the level of financial solvency of insurance companies, as the higher the financial solvency of the insurance company, the more attractive it is to the target audience to acquire the company's insurance services.
Hence the importance of the issue of the solvency of insurance companies, as it is one of the critical matters on which the effectiveness of the insurance company and its continuation in the labor market depend.
In this research, we try to clarify the role of collected premiums and compensations paid in determining the level of operational solvency of t
... Show MoreThis study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From
... Show MoreFor the design of a deep foundation, piles are presumed to transfer the axial and lateral loads into the ground. However, the effects of the combined loads are generally ignored in engineering practice since there are uncertainties to the precise definition of soil–pile interactions. Hence, for technical discussions of the soil–pile interactions due to dynamic loads, a three-dimensional finite element model was developed to evaluate the soil pile performance based on the 1 g shaking table test. The static loads consisted of 50% of the allowable vertical pile capacity and 50% of the allowable lateral pile capacity. The dynamic loads were taken from the recorded data of the Kobe e
This study tackles a fourth-order inverse problem involving a cantilever beam with nonlocal conditions to simultaneously calculate the beam’s displacement and an unknown time-dependent coefficient. A finite difference approach is suggested to discretize the hyperbolic fourth-order equation. A stability analysis for the proposed scheme is also provided. The indirect problem is the minimization of the misfit function. The goal of the minimization algorithm is to reduce the gap between the measured (noisy) data and the numerical computed solution provided by the model. To achieve stable results, Tikhonov’s regularization technique is employed, and two numerical test examples are shown to illustrate the suggested scheme's reliabilit
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