Eco-friendly synthesis from industrial wastewater of Fe and Cu nanoparticles over NaX zeolite and activity in 4-nitrophenol reduction

We deposited Fe and Cu over zeolite NaX (Fe/NaX and Cu/NaX) by adsorption from effluent industrial wastewater. We synthesized the zeolite NaX by the hydrothermal method. 5g of NaX completely adsorbed 350 and 380mg of Fe and Cu from the industrial wastewater, respectively, in 6h. The distribution of Fe and Cu over the NaX was uniform and amounted at 14 and 18mass%, respectively. Fe and Cu modify the morphology of the NaX zeolite: the particle size increased from 9\uce\ubcm to 10\uce\ubcm for the former and decreased to 3\uce\ubcm for the latter. Fe/NaX and Cu/NaX are less crystalline than NaX. BET analysis showed that the specific surface area decreased by 30% and 50% compared to NaX for Fe/NaX and Cu/NaX, but the ratio between meso- and micropores increased by 7 and 13 times, respectively. Fe/NaX and Cu/NaX synthesized by adsorption from industrial wastewater reduced +99% of 4-p-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in less than 100s, which is comparable to noble metal

Establishing a pre-mining baseline of natural radionuclides distribution and radiation hazard for the Bled El-Hadba sedimentary phosphate deposits (North-Eastern Algeria)

Since the implementation of the phosphate project in Bled El-Hadba (BEH) deposit, western region of Tébessa, no detailed study has been conducted to assess the natural radioactivity distribution and the associated radiological risk parameter for this open-pit mine. For the sake of determining a credible pre-mining reference database for the region of interest, 21 samples were collected from different geological layers of the above-mentioned deposit. Gamma Spectrometry was applied for measuring radioactivity using a high resolution HPGe semiconductor detector. The obtained activity results have shown a significant broad variation in the radioactive contents for the different phosphate samples. The total average concentrations (in Bq·kg−1) for 226Ra, 238U, 235U, 232Th and 40K computed for the different type of phosphate layers were found to be 570 ± 169, 788 ± 280, 52 ± 18, 66 ± 6 and 81 ± 18 respectively. The mean activity concentrations of the measured radionuclides were compared to other regional and worldwide deposits. The ratios between the detected radioisotopes have been calculated for spatial distribution of natural radionuclides in the study area. Based on the aforementioned activity concentrations, the corresponding radiation hazard parameters were assessed. Correlations between the obtained parameters were drawn and a multivariate statistical analysis (Pearson Correlation, Cluster and Factor analysis) was carried out in order to identify the existing relationships