Preparation and Characterization of Magnetite Talc (Fe3_{3}O4_{4}@Talc) Nanocomposite as an Effective Adsorbent for Cr(VI) and Alizarin Red S Dye

In this work, the adsorption of Cr(VI) ions and the organic dye Alizarin Red S (ARS) was investigated using magnetite talc (Fe$_{3}$O$_{4}$@Talc) nanocomposite. Different characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to demonstrate the physical and chemical properties of the fabricated Fe$_{3}$O$_{4}$@Talc nanocomposite. In addition, the adsorption isothermic, kinetic, and thermodynamic properties were illustrated. The results demonstrate that the investigated adsorption processes obeyed the Langmuir isotherm model for Cr(VI) and the Freundlich isotherm model for ARS dye, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 13.5 and 11.76 mg·g$^{-1}$, respectively, controlled by pseudo second-order kinetics. Regeneration and reusability studies demonstrated that the prepared Fe$_{3}$O$_{4}$@Talc nanocomposite is a promising and stable adsorbent with considerable reusability potential

Synthesis of Ni-Fe-CO3_3 layered double hydroxide as Effective Adsorbent to remove Cr(VI) and ARS-dye from aqueous media

Ni$^2$/Fe$^{3＋}$LDH, (Ni-Fe-CO3 LDH) with Ni/Fe molar ratio 3.0 was synthesized by co-precipitation for the remediation of chromium (VI), and Alizarine Red-S (ARS-dye) as anionic species. The investigated adsorbent was characterized by TGA, SEM, XRD, BET and FTIR. The effect of the hydrogen ion concentration of the medium, shaking time, ARS-dye and/or Cr(VI) concentration and adsorbents mass on the process was studied. The results of Ni-Fe-CO$_3$ LDH fitted well with the pseudo-second-order model. Langmuir isotherm is more favor than the Freundlich isotherm with maximum capacity ($Q_{max}$) of 69.9 and 6.1 mg/g for ARS-dye and Cr(VI), respectively

Reservoir Management by Reducing Evaporation Using Floating Photovoltaic System: A Case Study of Lake Nasser, Egypt

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. The shortage of water is a major obstruction to the social and economic development of many countries, including Egypt. Therefore, there is an urgent need to properly manage water resources to achieve optimum water use. One way of saving available water resources is to reduce evaporation that leads to the loss of a large amount of water from reservoirs and open lakes. This paper aims to use a floating photovoltaic system (FPVS) to cover a lake’s water surface to reduce evaporation and also for energy production. This methodology was applied to Lake Nasser as one of the largest lakes in the world where much evaporation happens due to its large area, arid environments, and the shallow depths of some parts of the lake. The estimated evaporation from the lake was 12.0 × 109 m3/year. The results show that covering 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the lake can save about 2.1, 4.2, 6.3, 7.0, and 8.4 × 109 m3/year and produce energy of 2.85 × 109, 5.67 × 109, 8.54 × 109, and 11.38 × 109 MWh/year, respectively. Covering areas of shallow water depth was more efficient and economical. The results show that covering 15% of the lake’s area (depths from 0.0 to 3.0 m) can save 2.66 × 109 m3/year and produce 1.7 MWh/year. Covering 25% of the lake’s area (depths from 0.0 to 7.0) can save 3.5 × 109 m3/year and produce 2.854 MWh/year. Using an FPVS to cover parts of Lake Nasser could help manage water resources and energy production for Egypt to overcome the likely shortage of water resources due to population growth. This system could be applied in different locations of the world which could help in increasing water resources and energy production, especially in arid and semi-arid regionsThis work was supported by the projects of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic, VEGA 1/0217/19: Research of Hybrid Blue and Green Infrastructure as Active Elements of a Sponge City, VEGA 1/0308/20: Mitigation of hydrological hazards—floods and droughts—by exploring extreme hydroclimatic phenomena in river basins, and the project of the Slovak Research and Development Agency APVV‐18‐0360: Active hybrid infrastructure towards a sponge city

Graphene Oxide@Heavy Metal Ions (GO@M) Complex Simulated Waste as an Efficient Adsorbent for Removal of Cationic Methylene Blue Dye from Contaminated Water

Graphene oxide (GO) was heavily used in the adsorption process of various heavy metal ions (such as copper (Cu) and iron (Fe) ions), resulting in a huge waste quantity of graphene oxide@metal ions complex. In this research, the authors try to solve this issue. Herein, the GO surface was loaded with divalent (Cu2+) and trivalent (Fe3+) heavy metal ions as a simulated waste of the heavy metal in various removal processes to form GO@Cu and (GO@Fe) composites, respectively. After that, the previous nanocomposites were used to remove cationic methylene blue (MB) dye. The prepared composites were characterized with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), transition electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR), Raman, and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS) before and after the adsorption process. Various adsorption factors of the two composites towards MB-dye were investigated. Based on the adsorption isotherm information, the adsorption process of MB-dye is highly fitted with the Langmuir model with maximum capacities (mg g−1) (384.62, GO@Cu) and (217.39, GO@Fe). According to the thermodynamic analysis, the adsorption reaction of MB-species over the GO@Cu is exothermic and, in the case of GO@Fe, is endothermic. Moreover, the two composites presented excellent selectivity of adsorption of the MB-dye from the MB/MO mixtur

Azides in the Synthesis of Various Heterocycles

In this review, we focus on some interesting and recent examples of various applications of organic azides such as their intermolecular or intramolecular, under thermal, catalyzed, or noncatalyzed reaction conditions. The aforementioned reactions in the aim to prepare basic five-, six-, organometallic heterocyclic-membered systems and/or their fused analogs. This review article also provides a report on the developed methods describing the synthesis of various heterocycles from organic azides, especially those reported in recent papers (till 2020). At the outset, this review groups the synthetic methods of organic azides into different categories. Secondly, the review deals with the functionality of the azido group in chemical reactions. This is followed by a major section on the following: (1) the synthetic tools of various heterocycles from the corresponding organic azides by one-pot domino reaction; (2) the utility of the chosen catalysts in the chemoselectivity favoring C−H and C-N bonds; (3) one-pot procedures (i.e., Ugi four-component reaction); (4) nucleophilic addition, such as Aza-Michael addition; (5) cycloaddition reactions, such as [3+2] cycloaddition; (6) mixed addition/cyclization/oxygen; and (7) insertion reaction of C-H amination. The review also includes the synthetic procedures of fused heterocycles, such as quinazoline derivatives and organometal heterocycles (i.e., phosphorus-, boron- and aluminum-containing heterocycles). Due to many references that have dealt with the reactions of azides in heterocyclic synthesis (currently more than 32,000), we selected according to generality and timeliness. This is considered a recent review that focuses on selected interesting examples of various heterocycles from the mechanistic aspects of organic azides

Review of the Recent Advances in Electrospun Nanofibers Applications in Water Purification

Recently, nanofibers have come to be considered one of the sustainable routes with enormous applicability in different fields, such as wastewater treatment. Electrospun nanofibers can be fabricated from various materials, such as synthetic and natural polymers, and contribute to the synthesis of novel nanomaterials and nanocomposites. Therefore, they have promising properties, such as an interconnected porous structure, light weight, high porosity, and large surface area, and are easily modified with other polymeric materials or nanomaterials to enhance their suitability for specific applications. As such, this review surveys recent progress made in the use of electrospun nanofibers to purify polluted water, wherein the distinctive characteristics of this type of nanofiber are essential when using them to remove organic and inorganic pollutants from wastewater, as well as for oil/water (O/W) separation

Recent Progress and Potential Biomedical Applications of Electrospun Nanofibers in Regeneration of Tissues and Organs

Electrospun techniques are promising and flexible technologies to fabricate ultrafine fiber/nanofiber materials from diverse materials with unique characteristics under optimum conditions. These fabricated fibers/nanofibers via electrospinning can be easily assembled into several shapes of three-dimensional (3D) structures and can be combined with other nanomaterials. Therefore, electrospun nanofibers, with their structural and functional advantages, have gained considerable attention from scientific communities as suitable candidates in biomedical fields, such as the regeneration of tissues and organs, where they can mimic the network structure of collagen fiber in its natural extracellular matrix(es). Due to these special features, electrospinning has been revolutionized as a successful technique to fabricate such nanomaterials from polymer media. Therefore, this review reports on recent progress in electrospun nanofibers and their applications in various biomedical fields, such as bone cell proliferation, nerve regeneration, and vascular tissue, and skin tissue, engineering. The functionalization of the fabricated electrospun nanofibers with different materials furnishes them with promising properties to enhance their employment in various fields of biomedical applications. Finally, we highlight the challenges and outlooks to improve and enhance the application of electrospun nanofibers in these applications

Chitosan-Functionalized-Graphene Oxide (GO@CS) Beads as an Effective Adsorbent to Remove Cationic Dye from Wastewater

In this study, the preparation of graphene oxide@chitosan (GO@CS) composite beads was investigated via continuous dropping techniques to remove methylene blue (MB)-dye from an aqueous media. The prepared beads were characterized using various techniques before and after the adsorption of MB. The experimental results showed that the adsorption processes fit the kinetic pseudo-second-order and Langmuir isotherm models. Moreover, the GO@CS beads achieve maximum adsorption capacities of 23.26 mg g$^{−1}$, which was comparable with other adsorbents in the literature. An important advantage of our adsorbent is that the GO@CS can remove 82.1% of the real sample color within 135 min

Fabrication and Characterization of Effective Biochar Biosorbent Derived from Agricultural Waste to Remove Cationic Dyes from Wastewater

The main aim of this work is to treat sugarcane bagasse agricultural waste and prepare an efficient, promising, and eco-friendly adsorbent material. Biochar is an example of such a material, and it is an extremely versatile and eco-friendly biosorbent to treat wastewater. Crystal violet (CV)-dye and methylene blue (MB)-dye species are examples of serious organic pollutants. Herein, biochar was prepared firstly from sugarcane bagasse (SCB), and then a biochar biosorbent was synthesized through pyrolysis and surface activation with NaOH. SEM, TEM, FTIR, Raman, surface area, XRD, and EDX were used to characterize the investigated materials. The reuse of such waste materials is considered eco-friendly in nature. After that, the adsorption of MB and CV-species from synthetically prepared wastewater using treated biochar was investigated under various conditions. To demonstrate the study’s effectiveness, it was attempted to achieve optimum effectiveness at an optimum level by working with time, adsorbent dose, dye concentration, NaCl, pH, and temperature. The number of adsorbed dyes reduced as the dye concentrations increased and marginally decreased with NaCl but increased with the adsorbent dosage, pH, and temperature of the solution increased. Furthermore, it climbed for around 15 min before reaching equilibrium, indicating that all pores were almost full. Under the optimum condition, the removal perecentages of both MB and CV-dyes were ≥98%. The obtained equilibrium data was represented by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Additionally, the thermodynamic parameters were examined at various temperatures. The results illustrated that the Langmuir isotherm was utilized to explain the experimental adsorption processes with maximum adsorption capacities of MB and CV-dyes were 114.42 and 99.50 mgg$_{−1}$, respectively. The kinetic data were estimated by pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order equations. The best correlation coefficients of the investigated adsorption processes were described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Finally, the data obtained were compared with some works published during the last four years

A Novel P@SiO2 Nano-Composite as Effective Adsorbent to Remove Methylene Blue Dye from Aqueous Media

This work aims to prepare a novel phosphate-embedded silica nanoparticles (P@SiO2) nanocomposite as an effective adsorbent through a hydrothermal route. Firstly, a mixed solution of sodium silicate and sodium phosphate was passed through a strong acidic resin to convert it into hydrogen form. After that, the resultant solution was hydrothermally treated to yield P@SiO2 nanocomposite. Using kinetic studies, methylene blue (MB) dye was selected to study the removal behavior of the P@SiO2 nanocomposite. The obtained composite was characterized using several advanced techniques. The experimental results showed rapid kinetic adsorption where the equilibrium was reached within 100 s, and the pseudo-second-order fitted well with experimental data. Moreover, according to Langmuir, one gram of P@SiO2 nanocomposite can remove 76.92 mg of the methylene blue dye. The thermodynamic studies showed that the adsorption process was spontaneous, exothermic, and ordered at the solid/solution interface. Finally, the results indicated that the presence of NaCl did not impact the adsorption behavior of MB dye. Due to the significant efficiency and promising properties of the prepared P@SiO2 nanocomposite, it could be used as an effective adsorbent material to remove various cationic forms of pollutants from aqueous solutions in future works