Removal of cationic dye from water by activated pine cones

Adsorption of a cationic phenothyazine dye methylene blueonto activated carbon prepared from pine cones was investigated with the variation in parameters of contact time, dye concentration and pH. The kinetic data were found to follow the pseudo-second-order kinetic modelclosely. The equilibrium data were best represented by the Langmuir isotherm with maximum adsorption capacity of 233.1 mg g-1. Adsorption was favored by using a higher solution pH. Textural analysis by nitrogen adsorption was used to determine specific surface area and pore structure of the obtained carbon. Boehm titrations revealed that carboxylic groups are present in the highest degree on the carbon surface. The results indicate that the presented method for activation of pine cones could yield activated carbon with significant porosity, developed surface reactivity and considerable adsorption affinity toward cationic dye methylene blue

The correlation of metal content in medicinal plants and their water extracts

The quality of some medicinal plants and their water extracts from South East Serbia is determined on the basis of metal content using atomic absorption spectrometry. The two methods were used for the preparation of water extracts, to examine the impact of the preparation on the content of metals in them. Content of investigated metals in both water extracts is markedly lower then in medicinal plants, but were higher in water extract prepared by method (I), with exception of lead content. The coefficients of extraction for the observed metal can be represented in the following order: Zn > Mn > Pb > Cu > Fe. Correlation coefficients between the metal concentration in the extract and total metal content in plant material vary in the range from 0.6369 to 0.9956. This indicates need the plants to be collected and grown in the unpolluted area and to examine the metal content. The content of heavy metals in the investigated medicinal plants and their water extracts is below the maximum allowable values, so they are safe to use

Photocatalytic decolorisation of selected organic dyes by mesoporous tio2 thin films

The mesoporous TiO2 films were prepared by dip coating technique combined with the evaporation-induced self-assembly method using selected polymer templates. Influence of specific surface area, pore size, (nano)crystal structure and morphology of TiO2 films on the photocatalytic behaviour was investigated. In addition, particular process parameters were considered in decolorisation of organic dyes, such as: thickness of TiO2 films, initial concentration of selected pollutants and number of reaction cycles

Content of Trace Metals in Medicinal Plants and their Extracts

The heavy metals (Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn) contents of selected plant species, grown in Southeast region of Serbia, that are traditionally used in alternative medicine were determined. Among the considered metals, iron content was the highest one and varied from 137.53 up to 423.32 mg/kg, while the contents of Cu, Zn and Mn were remarkably lower, and ranged from 8.91 to 62.20 mg/kg. In addition, an analysis of plants extracts showed a significant transfer of heavy metals during extraction procedure; therefore, the corresponding extraction coefficients reached values up to 88.8%. Those were especially high in the ethanol based extracts. Moreover, it is was established that such coefficients mostly depend on the solvent nature and also on the treated plant species. The obtained results impose that medicinal plants from Southeast region of Serbia due to rather low content of heavy metals are appropriate for preparation of teas and medicinal extracts

Structural, Electronic and Mechanical Properties of Superhard B4C from First Principles

Boron carbide (B4C) has attracted great attention as a semiconducting material with excellent properties and has found various technological applications. High hardness value makes it a potentially superhard material as well as a low density, high degree of chemical inertness, high melting temperature, thermal stability, abrasion resistance, and excellent neutron absorption, contributed to the use of boron carbide as an abrasive material for extreme conditions, wear resistance components, body armors and as a nuclear absorber or solid-state neutron detector. However, B4C is known for its unusual structure, bonding, and substitutional disordering whose nature is not yet fully understood, and exhibits brittle impact behavior. In this study we investigated the chain-model structure with an arrangement of 12-boron atom icosahedra and linear 3-carbon atom chains, using available experimental data. We employed the DFT method with LDA and GGA- PBE functional, as implemented in the CRYSTAL17 software package. Electronic properties of boron carbide have been investigated by calculating the density of states (DOS) and band structure. Calculated mechanical properties have been investigated: bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young modulus, Poisson’s ratio, hardness, and elastic tensor constants, and compared with available experimental data

Electromagnetic characterization of Ni0.5Zn0.3Co0.2Fe2O4 bulk ceramics in the 1 MHz-12 GHz frequency range

In this paper, NiZnCo ferrite was produced by solid state synthesis, calcination at 1000 °C and sintering at 1250 °C in air atmosphere. The microstructure and phases of the sintered sample were analysed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. The magnetic properties of the ferrite were evaluated by magnetization and magnetostriction measurements. The complex magnetic permeability and complex permittivity were also measured between 1 MHz-12 GHz and the reflection loss (RL) was calculated in the 100 MHz-12 GHz frequency range. The results show that the ferrite sample presents magnetostrictive behaviour and a saturation magnetization of 71 Am2/kg. Complex permittivity measurements indicate that the material has dielectric behaviour in the whole frequency range studied, with ε′ varying between 7-40, and magnetic behaviour in frequencies between 1 MHz-5 GHz. The minimum RL was found at frequencies between 2.4-3.3 GHz and the calculated RL value for a thickness of 3 mm was lower than −10 dB in frequencies between 2.3-7.3 GHz. These results indicate potential application as microwave absorber in the S band

Electromagnetic characterization of Ni0.5Zn0.3Co0.2Fe2O4 bulk ceramics in the 1 MHz-12 GHz frequency range

In this paper, NiZnCo ferrite was produced by solid state synthesis, calcination at 1000 °C and sintering at 1250 °C in air atmosphere. The microstructure and phases of the sintered sample were analysed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. The magnetic properties of the ferrite were evaluated by magnetization and magnetostriction measurements. The complex magnetic permeability and complex permittivity were also measured between 1 MHz-12 GHz and the reflection loss (RL) was calculated in the 100 MHz-12 GHz frequency range. The results show that the ferrite sample presents magnetostrictive behaviour and a saturation magnetization of 71 Am2/kg. Complex permittivity measurements indicate that the material has dielectric behaviour in the whole frequency range studied, with ε′ varying between 7-40, and magnetic behaviour in frequencies between 1 MHz-5 GHz. The minimum RL was found at frequencies between 2.4-3.3 GHz and the calculated RL value for a thickness of 3 mm was lower than −10 dB in frequencies between 2.3-7.3 GHz. These results indicate potential application as microwave absorber in the S band

Structure Prediction and Mechanical Properties of Silicon Hexaboride on Ab Initio Level

Silicon borides represent very appealing industrial materials for research owing to their remarkable features, and, together with other boride and carbide-based materials, have very wide applications. Various Si–B phases have been investigated in the past, however a limited number of studies have been done on the pristine SiB6 compound. Structure prediction using a data mining ab initio approach has been performed in pure silicon hexaboride. Several novel structures, for which there are no previous experimental or theoretical data, have been discovered. Each of the structure candidates were locally optimized on the DFT level, employing the LDA-PZ and the GGA-PBE functional. Mechanical and elastic properties for each of the predicted and experimentally observed modifications have been investigated in great detail. In particular, the ductility/brittleness relationship, the character of the bonding, Young’s modulus E, bulk modulus B, and shear modulus K, including anisotropy, have been calculated and analyzed

Degradation of crystal violet over heterogeneous TiO2-based catalysts: The effect of process parameters

In this study, modified sol-gel method was employed to synthesize the pure and Zr-doped titania catalysts. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method was applied to determine porosity, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to study crystal structure, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate morphology and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to examine surface properties/total acidity of the obtained catalysts samples. Photocatalytic activity was tested in the reaction of crystal violet (CV) dye decolourization/degradation under UV light irradiation. The effects of several photocatalysis operational parameters were considered, such as catalyst dosage, initial dye concentrations, duration of UV irradiation treatment, as well as catalysts calcination temperatures and dopant amounts. The obtained results indicated faster dye decolourization/degradation with the increase of the catalyst dosage and the decrease of initial CV concentrations. The Zr-doping affects photocatalytic properties, i.e. CV decolourization/degradation of the prepared catalytic materials. Thus, addition of 5 wt.% of ZrO2 to titania increases photocatalytic effect for similar to 15% and addition of 10 wt.% of ZrO2 improves the photocatalytic efficiency of titania for nearly 30%