The presence of antibiotic residues such as ciprofloxacin (CIPR) in an aqueous environment is dangerous when their concentrations exceed the allowable. Therefore, eliminating these residues from the wastewater becomes an essential issue to prevent their harm. In this work, the potential of efficient adsorption of ciprofloxacin antibiotics was studied using eco-friendly ZSM-5 nanocrystals‑carbon composite (NZC). An inexpensive effective natural binder made of the sucrose-citric acid mixture was used for preparing NZC. The characterization methods revealed the successful preparation of NZC with a favorable surface area of 103.739 m2/g, and unique morphology and functional groups. Investigating the ability of NZC for adsorbing CIPR antibiotics conducted at different conditions showed that 0.3 g of NZC achieved outstanding adsorption for 150 ppm CIPR antibiotic from 100 mL solutions at mixing speed of 200 rpm, solution pH of 4–6, and solution temperature of 25–30 ◦C. Estimating the values of ΔH◦, ΔS◦, and ΔG◦ confirmed that the adsorption process of CIPR antibiotics by NZC was feasible, exothermic and spontaneous. The Freundlich and pseudo-second-order models well fitted the adsorption process's experimental data. The results of both the kinetic and isotherm studies showed that the adsorption process of CIPR antibiotics by NZC is simultaneously composed of physical and chemical adsorption on the heterogeneous adsorption sites in multilayers. Also, the intra-particle diffusion was not the controlling step and the external surface adsorption influenced the adsorption of CIPR. From the abovementioned results, NZC is recommended as a highly efficient adsorbent for the removal of CIPR-loaded effluents.
Density Functional Theory at the generalized-gradient approximation level coupled with large unit cell method is used to simulate the electronic structure of (II-VI) zinc-blende cadmium sulfide nanocrystals that have dimensions 2-2.5 nm. The calculated properties include lattice constant, conduction and valence bands width, energy of the highest occupied orbital, energy of the lowest unoccupied orbital, energy gap, density of states etc. Results show that lattice constant and energy gap converge to definite values. However, highest occupied orbital, lowest unoccupied orbital fluctuates indefinitely depending on the shape of the nanocrystal.
Abstract This research investigates how activated carbon (AC) was synthesized from potato peel waste (PPW). Different ACs were synthesized under the atmosphere's conditions during carbonation via two activation methods: first, chemical activation, and second, carbon dioxide-physical activation. The influence of the drying period on the preparation of the precursor and the methods of activation were investigated. The specific surface area and pore volume of the activated carbon were estimated using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method. The AC produced using physical activation had a surface area as high as 1210 m2/g with a pore volume of 0.37 cm3/g, whereas the chemical activation had a surface area of 1210 m2/g with a pore volume of 0.34 c
... Show MoreAcinetobacter baumannii ability to form biofilm makes it to be opportunistic pathogen causing of nosocomial infections and to be good survivor in adverse environmental conditions including medical devices and hospital environments. Six isolates of A. baumannii were isolated from drinking water and tested to investigate biofilm formation capacity on three different type of abiotic surface, also several factors were examined such as hydrophobicity, PH and temperature. All A. baumannii isolates displayed a positive biofilm on congored aga test CRA (pigmented colonies with black color) and Christensen's test (adhesive layer of stained material to the inside surface of the tube).The obtained data of microbial adhesion to hydrocarbons assay (MATH
... Show MoreIn this study, polymeric composites were prepared from unsaturated polyester as a base material with glass powder (fluorescent) in different weight ratios (4, 6, 8, 10,and 11%) as a support material and after comparison before and after reinforcement of the prepared composites, an increase was found. In the values of mechanical properties (hardness, compressive strength), the shock resistance values decreased, but an increase in temperature leads to an increase in the values of shock resistance, as well as the values of compressive strength And it reduces the hardness value.