Global Water Mapping, Requirements, and Concerns over Water Quality Shortages

Water is a blessing and reason forsurvival on earth for human beings. Without water, it is not difficult to live on earth, but it is impossible. Water fulfills domestic, drinking, agricultural, and industrial requirements and makes everything useful for us. Unfortunately, rapid increase in population, unplanned agriculture practices, and industrial sector have become a serious issues for environment and for future needs. Water will be a very important issue for next generations to face. Safe water access up to 50−100 liters per day for drinking and sanitation is a right of every human being, recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in July 2010. Approximately, six billion people may suffer from scarcity of clean water by 2050. The agriculture sector is the largest consumer of freshwater around 70% followed by industry and domestic of 19 and 11%, respectively. The global demand for water is gradually increasing by 1% per year. Global demand for water is predicted to increase by 55% between the years 2000 and 2050. Existing global water demand has been projected to about 4600 km3 every year and estimation may increase up to 20−30%, in range of 5500−6000 km3 every year by 2050

Effect of doping on thin film solar cell efficiency based on ZnMn2O4 nanocrystals

International Congress on Semiconductor Materials and Devices (ICSMD) -- AUG 17-19, 2017 -- Selcuk Univ, Konya, TURKEYWOS:000495858400010The present study reports, for the first time, a facile synthesis for ternary ZnMn2O4 nanocrystals synthesized by a simple and low cost two-phase method. Those nanocrystals were used on thin film solar cell as active absorber layer. The resulting nanocrystals were characterized by XRD, TEM, AFM-MFM, FTIR and JV characterization techniques to investigate the crystalline behavior, chemical composition, morphology and optical properties. Two phase method allows the successful synthesis of oleic acid (OA) capped ZnMn2O4 nanocrystals with 5-10 nm particle size. After doping of the ZnMn2O4 nanocrystals at different ratios with P3HT:PCBM, an enhancement was observed in the solar cell performances based on thin films. The power conversion efficiency of P3HT:PCBM-ZnMn2O4 thin film solar cell was investigated by J-V characteristic curve and as a result of this study, the highest efficiency was achieved as 3.27% with a doping ratio of 1%. Thus we believe that this work will open a new perspective to the synthesis of ZnMn2O4 materials for applications in the field of energy conversion systems. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [109T881]; Selcuk UniversitySelcuk University [12101017]; Karamanoglu Mehmetbey UniversityKaramanoglu Mehmetbey University [02-YL-15]The authors would like to thank to TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) (109T881) for supporting this work as well as Selcuk and Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University for Scientific Research Foundation (12101017 and 02-YL-15, respectively)

SB-ATR FTIR Spectroscopic Monitoring of Free Fatty Acids in Commercially Available Nigella sativa (Kalonji) Oil

Free fatty acids (FFA) in Nigella sativa (N. sativa) commercial and seed oil were determined using single-bounce attenuated total reflectance (SB-ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Gravimetrical mixing was done by adding 0.1–40% oleic acids in neutralized N. sativa oil containing 0.1% FFA. FTIR spectroscopy technique and partial least square (PLS) calibration were used to detect the absorption region of carbonyl (C=O) which is in the range of 1690–1727 cm−1. The results of PLS calibration model and root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) are 0.999 and 0.449, respectively. Comparing the FFA obtained in N. sativa oil by using FTIR with the FFA obtained using AOCS titrimetric method shows a positive correlation and confirms that the described method is a useful procedure

Simpler and Faster Spectrophotometric Determination of Diclofenac Sodium in Tablets, Serum and Urine Samples

This work describes a simple, sensitive, rapid and economical analytical procedure for direct spectrophotometric evaluation of diclofenac sodium (DS) using aqueous medium without using a chemical reagent. Parameters like time, temperature, acidic and basic conditions and interference by analgesic drugs were studied for a 5µg ml-1 solution of DS at 276 nm. Under optimized parameters, a linear working range of 0.1–30 g ml-1 with regression coefficient of 0.9998 and lower detection limit of 0.01 g ml-1 was obtained. The method was applied for DS contents in tablets, serum and urine samples

Effect of storage at elevated temperature on the quality and stability of different almond oils: a comprehensive study

This study aimed to investigate the chemical changes and oxidative stability of almond oil varieties (Australian, American, and Iranian) during storage at 60 °C for 21 d. The physicochemical properties of oil were analyzed at various time intervals to determine its stability. The peroxide value, free fatty acid, p-anisidine, TOTOX, fatty acid composition, and effect on functional groups were evaluated to assess the quality of the almond oil during storage. The results showed a significant increase in PV and FFA, p-AV, totox of the almond oil during storage, indicating that oxidative degradation had occurred. During the oxidation process, some changes were observed in the following spectral regions: 3,700–3,150, 3,010–2,999, 1,800–1,600, and 1,200–900 cm−1. Whereas, the fatty acid composition of the almond oil remained relatively stable during storage, except for a small variation in oleic acid. Comparatively, American and Iranian almond oils showed better stability than the Australian almond variety. The findings of this study provide important insights into the oxidative stability of different almond varieties during storage and can aid in the development of strategies to prevent or mitigate oxidation in almond oil. The findings of this study could have significant implications for the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industry, particularly in the formulation and production of products that use almond oil as an ingredient