Corncob is an agricultural biomass waste that was widely investigated as an adsorbent of contaminants after transforming it into activated carbon. In this research carbonization and chemical activation processes were achieved to synthesize corncob-activated carbon (CAC). Many pretreatment steps including crushing, grinding, and drying to obtain corncob powder were performed before the carbonization step. The carbonization of corncob powder has occurred in the absence of air at a temperature of 500 °C. The chemical activation was accomplished by using HCl as an acidic activation agent. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) facilitated the characterization of (CAC). The results showed the CAC has non-uniform morphological features with different shapes of its active sites. The prepared CAC was utilized in adsorption of sulfur in its highly complex form of dibenzothiophene (DBT). Particular adsorption parameters of contacting time, temperature, and adsorbent dose were optimized to select the best conditions. These certain conditions are then applied in the adsorption of different DBT concentrations. The maximum removal of DBT reached around 83% at optimal conditions of contacting time (30 min), temperature (60 °C), and adsorbent dose (3 g L-1). The removal efficiency was significantly increased by decreasing the initial concentration of DBT. The experimental data fitted well with the Freundlich isotherm model compared with the Langmuir one. The maximum capacity of CAC for adsorption of DBT at equilibrium was 833.3 mg g-1 at 60 °C. The findings of this research introduce the CAC as a feasible adsorbent for removal DBT from simulated liquid petroleum fuels.
Background: Colonization of soft denture liners by Candida albicans and other microorganisms continued to be a serious problem. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of incorporating silver nanoparticles into heat cured acrylic-based soft denture liner on the antifungal activity, and on water sorption, solubility, shear bond strength and color change of the soft lining material. Furthermore, evaluating the amount of silver released. Materials and methods: Silver nanoparticles were incorporated into soft denture liner in different percentages (0.05%, 0.1% and 0.2% by weight). Four hundred and twenty specimens were prepared and divided into five groups according to the test to be performed. The antifungal activity of the soft liner
... Show MoreThis research aims to study the effect of microwave furnace heat on the mechanical properties and fatigue life of aluminum alloy (AA 2024-T3). Four conditions were used inside microwave furnace (specimens subjected to heat as dry for 30 and 60min. and specimens subjected to heat as wet (water) for 30 and 60 min.), and compared all results with original alloy (AA 2024-T3). Tensile, fatigue, hardness and surface roughness tests were used in this investigation. It is found that hardness of dry conditions is higher than wet conditions and it increases with increasing of time duration inside microwave furnace for dry and wet conditions. Also, tensile strength has the same behavior of hardness, but it increases with decreasing
... Show MoreBackground: Occupational exposure to hazardous drugs occurs in all aspects of anticancer drug handling. Proper recommendations and guidelines should be applied to control and reduce exposure. Objective: To assess pharmacists' knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of anticancer drugs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at seven major hospitals in Baghdad City, Iraq, from December 2023 to February 2024. A pre-designed questionnaire was given to pharmacists who handled anticancer drugs in chemotherapy units. The questionnaire comprises sociodemographic data, knowledge of the safe handling of cytotoxic drugs and thoughts about exposure and risk, practices for safely handling cytotoxic drugs, and challenges for s
... Show MoreThe physical and elastic characteristics of rocks determine rock strengths in general. Rock strength is frequently assessed using porosity well logs such as neutron and sonic logs. The essential criteria for estimating rock mechanic parameters in petroleum engineering research are uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus. Indirect estimation using well-log data is necessary to measure these variables. This study attempts to create a single regression model that can accurately forecast rock mechanic characteristics for the Harth Carbonate Formation in the Fauqi oil field. According to the findings of this study, petrophysical parameters are reliable indexes for determining rock mechanical properties having good performance p
... Show MoreThis work is concerned with the study of the effect of cement types, particularly OPC and SRPC, which are the main cement types manufactured in Iraq. In addition, study the effect of mineral admixtures, which are HRM and SF on the resistance of high performance concrete (HPC) to internal sulphate attack. The HRM is used at (10%) and SF is used at (8 and 10)% as a partial replacement by weight of cement for both types. The percentages of sulphate investigated are (1,2 and 3)% by adding natural gypsum as a partial replacement by weight of fine aggregate. The tests carried out in this work are: compressive strength, flexural strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, and density at the age of 7, 28, 90 and 120 days.
The r
... Show MoreThe present paper deals with studying the effect of electrical discharge machining (EDM) and shot blast peening parameters on work piece fatigue lives using copper and graphite electrodes. Response surface methodology (RSM) and the design of experiment (DOE) were used to plan and design the experimental work matrices for two EDM groups of experiments using kerosene dielectric alone, while the second was treated by the shot blast peening processes after EDM machining. To verify the experimental results, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to predict the EDM models for high carbon high chromium AISI D2 die steel. The work piece fatigue lives in terms of safety factors after EDM models were developed by FEM using ANSY
... Show MoreThis paper presents an experimental and theoretical analysis to investigate the two-phase flow boiling heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of the refrigerant R-134a in the evaporator test section of the refrigeration system under different operating conditions. The test conditions considered are, for heat flux (13.7-36.6) kW/m2, mass flux (52-105) kg/m2.s, vapor quality (0.2-1) and saturation temperature (-15 to -3.7) ˚C. Experiments were carried out using a test rig for a 310W capacity refrigeration system, which is designed and constructed in the current work. Investigating of the experimental results has revealed that, the enhancement in local heat trans
... Show MoreVitrifications process one of the important methods to immobilize nuclear waste. In this research nuclear waste (Strontium Oxides) with molecular weight (5%) was immobilized by vitrification methods in two types of borosilicate glass (c-type) which are glass and glass-ceramics. To investigate the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of glass and glass-ceramic after immobilize nuclear waste these samples irradiated by gamma ray radiation. Co-60 was used as gamma a irradiation with dose rate 0.38 kGy/hr for different period of time. It’s found that gamma radiation affected the glass and glass-ceramic properties. From phase analysis by the x-ray diffraction for glass-ceramic samples proved that at doses 343kGy change the cry
... Show More