Temperature Programmed Desorption Approach in Understanding the Development of Semiconductors and Catalyst

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 10(1): 213-229 Author: Asishana Paul Onivefu Received:  14 August  2023/Accepted 20 November 2023 This comprehensive article review delves into the extensive utility of temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) as a valuable technique for understanding the intricate development of semiconductors and catalysts. TPD serves as a powerful tool that provides profound insights into the surface chemistry of materials, enabling researchers to gain a comprehensive understanding of various crucial aspects. The article covers a wide range of TPD aspects, including the analysis of surface functional groups, system temperature control, the impact of oxidation and surface treatment, the significance of heat treatment, the dynamics of adsorption and desorption processes, the thermodynamics underlying TPD measurements, surface group characterization techniques, accurate analysis, and measurements considerations, and the importance of sequential surface treatment. By comprehending these multifaceted aspects, researchers can effectively optimize the performance of semiconductors and catalysts, as well as develop novel materials with enhanced properties. Ultimately, the article emphasizes the remarkable versatility and power of TPD in the dynamic realm of semiconductor and catalyst development

Hydrocarbon Generation Potential of the ETA Zuma Coal Mines, Anambra Basin, Nigeria: Insight from Organic Petrography

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 10(2): 60-76 Authors: Habeeb Ayoola Ayinla*, Musa Azeez Ololade, Ola-Buraimo Abdulrazaq Olatunji, Sule Peter Isaac, David Emmanuel, Baba Aminu Mu'awiya, Francis, Joseph Amobi Received:   09 May  2023/Accepted 27 November 2023 The ongoing exploration at the ETA Zuma coal mine uncovers a large coal reserve with unassessed details concerning its hydrocarbon potential.  Thus, organic petrography characterization of sedimentary facies in the mine was carried out to determine the organic matter quantity, quality, and thermal maturity of the potential source rock in the area. The organic petrography method employed involves kerogen preparation for investigation of hydrocarbon potential following the routine palynological slide preparation for biostratigraphic study with slight modification. This involves the non-inclusion of the oxidation stage in the kerogen slide preparation. The results indicate that the kerogens (palynomorphs) show fair abundance and diversity with depth, especially for the claystone and coal. A quantitative-rich occurrence of pollens and spores was retrieved in some samples (depths 12.5-19.7 m, and 23.8 m) with a similar trend in the dinoflagellates recovery. This interval (12.5-23.8 m) which is composed of coal and claystones recorded a reasonable quantity of organic matter (from 20-27) that could generate hydrocarbon. Based on the palynomorph recovery, the study area has mainly Kerogen Type II and III characterized by terrestrial and marine source input. The intervals 12.5-18.8 m, 19.3 m, 19.7 m, 21.3-23.8 m which show yellow-brown and brown-coloured forms represent stages 2 and 3 on the Thermal Alteration Index (TAI) scale. This is an indication that the organic matter within the claystone and coal is thermally matured with source potential capable of generating both oil and gas

Petrographic Studies of Migmatite-Gneiss, Quartzites and Pegmatites Complex in Crusher Area of Lokoja, Kogi State, Nigeria

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 10(1): 73-84 Authors: Ajogwu Cordelia Odinaka*, Mu’awiya Baba Aminu, Christopher Dalom, Aaron Enechojo Auduson, Yohanna Andarawus, Frankie Ojo Balogun, Nengak Musa, Ibrahim Yusuf Anzaku, Pam Dajack Dung, Andrew Changde. Nanfa, Okiyi, Ijeoma Millicent, Sadiq Mohammed Salisu and Tolulope Idiat Ogunsanya Received: 11 August 2023/Accepted 30 September 2023 The studied Area is situated in Lokoja Local Government Area of Kogi state, this forms part of the Lokoja sheet on latitudes 07°49'N to 07°51'N and longitude 006°38E to 006°40'E and covers an area of 200km2 on a scale of 1: 50,000. The study area is situated in the southern Bida Basin and the Basement complex of Nigeria. However, the major rocks encountered during the fieldwork was migmatitegneiss, porphyroblastic gneiss and pegmatite which is the parts of the migmatite-gneiss complex of the Nigerian Basement. Laboratory analysis (thin section) was conducted to determine the mineralogical composition of the rocks, the minerals include quartz, feldspars, micas and opaque minerals. The research area is characterized by overflowing groundwater which supplies streams and rivers for agricultural and domestic usage. Economically, the major economic minerals of the rocks include feldspar, quartz and micas. The feldspars if in large quantity will be mined for ceramic factories for the production of ceramics, tiles and fillers and enhancer in paint, plastic and rubber. Large clasts of quartz also occur in the pegmatite and can be mined and used to produce abrasive minerals. Quartz can be used in railway blasts, they serve as decorative stones, and they are also used in covering of walls and roofing. The quartzite and gneissic rocks in the study area can be blasted and cut into various sizes and shapes and thus be used for road construction and building design. A variety of uses for metamorphosed gneiss exist in buildings, such as ornamental stone applications etc

A Mathematical Model of Gang Membership and Control

Communication In Physical Science, 2023, 9(1): 12-24 Authors: Anorue, Onyinyechi Favour* and Atuma, David Esther Received: 23 November 2022/Accepted 18 January 2023 There is an increasing growth in gang membership worldwide and especially our nation Nigeria, this prompted the study as a means to contribute to the social stability of the country. We considered gang membership as an infectious disease that spreads through out a given population. We formulated a modified SEIR model to look into the transmission dynamics of gang by bringing into consideration, control techniques as measures to reduce the spread and activities of gang members. In analyzing the model, we proved that the disease free-equilibrium is locally and globally asymptotically stable when the reproduction number  and unstable when  The transmission pattern shows that investments in job provisions, technical crafts and programs geared towards recreation and other after-school activities factored into a compartment continues to be the best resource in curbing gang membership and its activities considering from rehabilitation point of view in the numerical simulation

Nanoremediation Research in Nigeria: A Review

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 9(1):47-62 Chisom Friday*, Okenwa Uchenna Igwe and Jude Chidozie Nnaji Received: 15 January 2023/Accepted 25 March 2023 Research on the application of nanotechnology in environmental remediation has been on the increase globally owing to the promising outcomes on the efficient and effective use of nanomaterials in the removal of contaminants from the environment in comparison to their bulkier counterparts and the traditional remediation technologies. This paper aimed to review the status of nanoremediation research in Nigeria. This study also highlighted the various remediation technologies and the applications of nano remediation in soil, water and air remediation. The materials employed in this review were obtained from research papers published in various journals. Results obtained showed that only little research on nanoremediation exist, as most published works in nanotechnology concentrated on biomedical applications. This review acknowledges funding as the major challenge facing nano remediation research in Nigeria. If Nigeria is to keep up with international trends in nano remediation techniques, research funding is urgently needed as it will elevate the nation's technological and socioeconomic standing

Health Risk Assessment of Natural Radionuclides Ingestion from Selected Edible Crops in Farmlands Around Limestone Excavation Area in Ewekoro, Ogun State

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 9(4): 500-510 Olusegun Sowole *, Kolawole Abiodun Egunjobi and Adebola Daniel Awofodu Received: 22 April 2023/Accepted 26 August 2023 Natural radionuclides are found in the air, water and soil. They are introduced to the plants through the leaves and absorption of nutrients and water from the soil by the roots. The presence of radionuclides in plants can affect directly humans through the consumption of the plant or indirectly through the food chain. The concentrations of natural radionuclides in some crops from farms around Ewekoro limestone excavation area in Ewekoro town, Ogun State in Nigeria, were determined and the annual committed effective dose to the consumers was also determined. In addition, soil samples from the farms where each crop was planted were collected to determine the transfer factor and the radiological safety of people on the farms. The gamma spectrometry method was used for the analysis. The highest concentrations of 40K, 238U and 232Th in crops were 856.13 ± 32.25Bqkg-1, 35.27 ± 5.91Bqkg-1 and 13.39 ± 2.75Bqkg-1 respectively. The average annual committed effective dose of the natural radionuclides to the consumers was calculated to be 0.9214mSvyr-1, which was below the limit of 1.0mSvyr-1 recommended globally. The average excess lifetime cancer risk of the radionuclides consumption to the consumers was determined to be 3.225 x , which was below the recommended limit of 1.45 x  and therefore indicated that the ingestion of these radionuclides through the consumption of these crops has no significant radiological health hazard to the consumers. However, the average annual effective dose equivalent of the radionuclides from soils within the investigated farms showed an average value of 0.0458 mSvyr-1, which was below the limit of 1 mSvyr-1. Average excess lifetime cancer risk was determined to be 0.1547 x  which was below the recommended limit, indicating that the farmers and the people in the environs were not exposed to radiological health hazards

Maximizing an Investment Portfolio for a DC Pension with a Return Clause and Proportional Administrative Charges under Weilbull Force Function

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 10(1): 14-30 Author: Njoku, K. N. C. Received 26 August 2023/Accepted 09 September 2023 In this paper, investment in a defined contributory (DC) pension fund system with a return clause of premium and proportional administrative charges is studied under geometric Brownian motion (GBM) and Weilbull mortality force function. To actualize this, an investment portfolio with a risk-free asset and a risky asset which follows the GBM model is considered such that the returned premium is with interest from an investment in risk-free asset and the Weilbull force function is used to determine the mortality rate of members during accumulation phase. Furthermore, the game-theoretic technique is applied to obtain an optimization problem from the extended Hamilton Jacobi Bellman equation. By using the mean-variance utility and variable separation technique, an investment strategy (IS) is obtained for the risky asset comprising of the risk-free interest rate, instantaneous volatility, administrative charges, the appreciation rate of the risky asset and the mortality force function was obtained together with the efficient frontier which gives the relationship between the investment expectation and the risk involvement in the investment. Furthermore, some numerical simulations were obtained to study the impact of some sensitive parameters of the IS. It was observed that the administrative charges and the mortality rate affect the IS to be adopted. Therefore, an insight into how these parameters behave is very essential in the development of an I

Lehmann Type II-Lomax Distribution: Properties and Application to Real Data Set

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 9(1):63 - 72 Alhaji Modu Isa, Aishatu Kaigama, Akeem Ajibola Adepoju and Sule Omeiza Bashiru Received: 15 January 2023/Accepted 25 March 2023 In this paper, we proposed a new compound probability distribution known as the Lehmann Type II-Lomax (LTL) distribution generated from the Lehmann Type II Family of distribution and derived some of its mathematical properties such as entropy, moments, moment-generating functions, and order statistics. Parameters of the new distribution were estimated using a maximum likelihood estimator. One dataset was used to illustrate the usefulness of the model. The newly developed model outperformed its competitor

Phytoconstitution and Antimicrobial Activity of Costus Lucanusianus Floral Volatile Extract

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 9(1):73 -79 Authors: Akens Hamilton-Amachree and Ngozi M. Uzoekwe Received: 12 December 2022/Accepted 30 March 2023 Information on volatile constituents of plant extracts have a significant backing to theseveral biological activities and applications of plants. Consequently, in this work, phyto content and the antimicrobial activity of the volatile floral extract of Costus lucanusianus are investigated in this work to complement the information database on plant volatile components. The volatile constituents of the floral part were extracted using the conventional hydrodistillation technique and its phyto-constitution was determined via Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) instrumentation. The antimicrobial pharmacological activity was established using the pour method against eight (8) strains of microbes. The volatile extract has a total of twenty-three (23) phytochemicals comprising eight (8) sesquiterpenes, four (4) sesquiterpenoids and eleven (11) non-terpenoids. The major identified constituents are           4-(3-hydroxy-2-methoxyphenyl)-but-2-one (38.29%), 1-(4-Hydroxymethoxy-phenyl)dec-4-en-3-one (13.83%),[S-(R*,S*)] 5-(1,5-dimethyl-4-hexenyl)-2-methyl-1,3-cyclohexad- iene  (7.66%), 1-(1,5-dimethyl-4-hexenyl)-4-methyl- benzene (6.13%), decanal (4.35%),[S-(R*,S*)]-3-(1,5-dimethyl-4-hexenyl)-6-methy- lene- cyclohexene (3.47%) and β-bisabolene (2.76%). The antimicrobial activity witnessed a dose-dependent gradient extract–inhibitory relationship. The highest inhibitory activity was observed at 100 mg/ml for all the strains. There was no inhibition observed below 12.5 mg/ml for Escherichia coli and Fusarium spp. while Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtillis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Candida albicanandKlebsiela pneumonia showed no inhibition below 6.25 mg/ml. The present study has established that the floral part of Costus lucanusianus has volatile constituents with antimicrobial potenc

Improved Photochemical Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell using Tectona grandis and Magnifera indica Dye Mix

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2023, 9(2):163-171 Onen Alfred Ikpi, Etim Emmanuel Edet*, Abah Abah Victor, Ogofotha Godwin Oghenekeno. Received: 02 February 2023/Accepted 05 May 2023 The generation of electrical energy from photo-voltaic conversions was achieved by fabricating a variety of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSC) using natural dye extracts from Magnifera indica (M. Indica) and Tectona grandis (T. Grandis). This study explores the spectral characteristics of the dyes in Ultraviolet, Visible and infrared regions. An Incident Photon-Current Efficiency (IPCE) of η = 0.0307% was obtained with a short circuit current of up to Jsc = 6.597 mA cm–2, an open circuit voltage of Voc = 0.05 V and a fill factor of 0.537 for the DSSC using the mixed dye. DSSC from M. Indica showed the highest open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.1V. The efficiency for the DSSC when dyes were individually used was 0.0004 and 0.0241% for T. Grandis and M. Indica dyes respectivel