Novel molybdenum (Mo)-doped nickel oxide (NiO) Nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by using a simple sonochemical methodology and the synthesized NPs were investigated for antioxidant, and ...antibacterial applications. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the crystal systems of rhombohedral (21.34 nm) and monoclinic (17.76 nm) were observed for pure NiO and Mo-doped NiO NPs respectively. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results show that the pure NiO NPs possess irregular spherical shape with an average particle size of 93.89 nm while the Mo-doped NiO NPs exhibit spherical morphology with an average particle size of 85.48 nm. The ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrum further indicated that the pure and Mo-doped NiO NPs exhibited strong absorption band at the wavelengths of 365 and 349 nm, respectively. The free radical scavenging activity of NiO and Mo-doped NiO NPs was also investigated by utilizing several biochemical assays. The Mo-doped NiO NPs showed better antioxidant activity (84.2%) towards ABTS. + at 200 µg/mL in comparison to their pure counterpart which confirmed that not only antioxidant potency of the doped NPs was better than pure NPs but this efficacy was also concentration dependant as well. The NiO and Mo-doped NiO NPs were further evaluated for their antibacterial activity against gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis) and gram-negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli) bacterial strains. The Mo-doped NiO NPs displayed better antibacterial activity (25 mm) against E. coli in comparison to the pure NPs. The synthesized NPs exhibited excellent aptitude for multi-dimensional applications.
Organic pesticides are major sources of soil pollution in agricultural lands. Most of these pesticides are persistent and tend to bio accumulate in humans upon consumption of contaminated plants. In ...this study, we investigate different natural soil samples that were collected from agricultural lands. The samples revealed the presence of 18 pesticides that belong to four different groups including organochlorines (OCP), organophosphorus (OPP), carbamates (Carb), and pyrethroids (Pyrth). The photocatalytic degradation of the five most abundant pesticides was studied in the presence and absence of 1% TiO
or ZnO photocatalysts under UV irradiation at a wavelength of 306 nm. The five abundant pesticides were Atrazine (OCP), Chlorpyrifos methyl (OPP), Dimethoate (OPP), Heptachlor (OCP), and Methomyl (Carb). The results showed that photolysis of all pesticides was complete under UV radiation for irradiation times between 64-100 h. However, both photocatalysts enhanced photocatalytic degradation of the pesticides in comparison with photolysis. The pesticides were photocatalytically degraded completely within 20-24 h of irradiation. The TiO
photocatalyst showed higher activity compared to ZnO. The organochlorine heptachlor, which is very toxic and persistent, was completely degraded within 30 h using TiO
photocatalyst for the first time in soil. The mechanism of photocatalytic degradation of the pesticides was explained and the effects of different factors on the degradation process in the soil were discussed.
Electrochemical CO
2
reduction reaction (CO
2
RR) into useful by products have received great and remarkable attention due to its promising route to mitigate the potential challenges regarding large ...CO
2
emissions in the atmosphere. This technology will lead to recycle CO
2
and achieve a carbon-neutral economy. This review summarizes the timeline of using metal and metal oxide catalysts and the latest developments CO
2
RR electrocatalysts, with a focus on systems producing C1 chemicals such as CO, HCOOH, CH
4
, and CH
3
OH. We first give a general introduction covering of the evolution of scientific production in the last two decades, the significance of this process, reaction mechanisms, catalyst evaluation criteria, and the broad spectrum of electrocatalysts. Some of the important contributions made to this field over the two past decades yielding the aforementioned C1 chemicals have then been reviewed. Finally, future directions and recommendations have been discussed to promote this technology to the industrial scale.
Electric vehicles (EVs) have been heavily used to minimize the worldwide pollution. Battery storage system is the most important and expensive system in these vehicles. An accurate battery management ...system (BMS) must be applied to monitor and control the battery states. From these measurements, the residual useful life (RUL) is estimated to avoid any further safety issue which can destroy the battery system or vehicle, or harm the passengers. Many features are required to be measured to estimate the battery states and then estimate the RUL such as battery voltage, current, and temperature according to the time. These measurements are taken using embedded system, and the measured data are stored in data files. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), long short-term memory (LSTM), support vector regressors (SVRs), random forest (RF), and boosting methods have been implemented to estimate the battery RUL. Moreover, many optimization algorithms such as particle swarm optimizer (PSO) and whale optimization algorithm (WOA) are integrated with the extreme learning machine (ELM) to estimate the battery RUL. The root mean square error (RMSE) is considered the main factor that has been used to judge which algorithm is more accurate than the other. It is found that both PSO-ELM and WOA-ELM supersede the machine learning tools, where the RMSE values are 1.46% and 1.51%, respectively. These values are 2.24%, 2.25%, 2.74%, 2.84%, and 3.56% LightGBM, random forest, AdaBoost, XGBoost, and CatBoost algorithms, respectively.
Single-phase bismuth silver oxysulfide (BiAgOS) was prepared by a hydrothermal method. Its structural, morphological, and optoelectronic properties were investigated and compared with those of ...bismuth copper oxysulfide (BiCuOS). Rietveld refinement of the powder X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the BiAgOS and BiCuOS crystals have the same structure as ZrSiCuAs, tetragonal space group P4/nmm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses confirmed that BiAgOS has a high purity, in contrast with BiCuOS, which tends to have Cu vacancies. The Ag has a monovalent oxidation state, whereas Cu is present in the +1 and +2 oxidation states in the BiCuOS system. Combined with experimental measurements, density functional theory calculations employing the range-separated hybrid HSE06 exchange-correlation functional with spin–orbit coupling quantitatively elucidated photophysical properties such as absorption coefficients, effective masses, and dielectric constants. BiCuOS and BiAgOS were found to have indirect bandgaps of 1.1 and 1.5 eV, respectively. Both possess high dielectric constants and low electron and hole effective masses. Therefore, these materials are expected to have strong exciton dissociation capabilities and excellent carrier diffusion properties. This study reveals that BiAgOS is a promising candidate for photoconversion applications.
In this study, cerium oxide nanorods (CeO
-NRs) were synthesized by using the phytochemicals present in the
extract. The physiochemical characteristics of the as-prepared CeO
-NRs were investigated ...by using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The SEM and UV-VIS analyses revealed that the acquired nanomaterials possessed a rod-like morphology while the XRD results further confirmed that the synthesized NRs exhibited a cubic crystal lattice system. The antioxidant capacity of the synthesized CeO
-NRs was investigated by using several in vitro biochemical assays. It was observed that the synthesized NRs exhibited better antioxidant potential in comparison to the industrial antioxidant of the butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The biochemical assays, including lipid peroxidation (LPO), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and catalase activity (CAT), were also performed in the human lymphocytes incubated with the CeO
-NRs to investigate the impact of the NRs on these oxidative biomarkers. Enhanced reductive capabilities were observed in all the assays, revealing that the NRs possess excellent antioxidant properties. Moreover, the cytotoxic potential of the CeO
-NRs was also investigated with the MTT assay. The CeO
-NRs were found to effectively kill off the cancerous cells (MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line), further indicating that the synthesized NRs exhibit anticancer potential as well. One of the major applications studied for the prepared CeO
-NRs was performing the statistical optimization of the photocatalytic degradation reaction of the methyl orange (MO) dye. The reaction was optimized by using the technique of response surface methodology (RSM). This advanced approach facilitates the development of the predictive model on the basis of central composite design (CCD) for this degradation reaction. The maximum degradation of 99.31% was achieved at the experimental optimized conditions, which corresponded rather well with the predicted percentage degradation values of 99.58%. These results indicate that the developed predictive model can effectively explain the performed experimental reaction. To conclude, the CeO
-NRs exhibited excellent results for multiple applications.
Gas separation process is an effective method for capturing and removing CO2 from post‐combustion flue gases. Due to their various essential properties such as ability to improve process efficiency, ...polymeric membranes are known to dominate the market. Trade‐off between gas permeability and selectivity through membranes limits their separation performance. In this study, solution casting cum phase separation method was utilized to create polyethersulfone‐based composite membranes doped with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silico aluminophosphate (SAPO‐34) as nanofiller materials. Membrane properties were then examined by performing gas permeation test, chemical structural analysis and optical microscopy. While enhancing membranes CO2 permeance, SAPO‐34 and CNTs mixture improved their CO2/N2 selectivity. By carefully adjusting membrane casting factors such as filler loadings. Using Taguchi statistical analysis, their carbon capture efficiency was improved. The improved mixed‐matrix membrane with loading of 5 wt% CNTs and 10 wt% SAPO‐34 in PES showed highly promising separation performance with a CO2 permeability of 319 Barrer and an ideal CO2/N2 selectivity of 12, both of which are within the 2008 Robeson upper bound. A better mixed‐matrix membrane with outstanding CO2/N2 selectivity and CO2 permeability was produced as a result of the synergistic effect of adding two types of fillers in optimized loading.
Synthesis and characterization of carbon‐capturing hybrid membranes doped with SAPO‐34 CNTs.
Due to their favorable characteristics, lithium-ion batteries have a dominant share of the battery market. There are a number of issues related to the use and management of Lithium-ion batteries in ...this paper, specifically with regard to the safe operation of the batteries as well as methods for balancing their cells. With the help of a passive cell balancing algorithm and a cell measurement circuit, a battery management system with a passive cell balancing algorithm has been developed. The purpose of this paper is to improve the efficiency of the balancing algorithm by implementing and analyzing a cell modelling method from the literature, with the aim of improving its performance. The results of this study showed that the use of the cell modelling system was able to improve the balancing algorithm’s balancing and charging times by 12.6%. Further, to validate the results obtained from the measurement system and the cell modelling system, an analysis was conducted of uncertainty propagation in order to validate the results. As part of future research, broader testing conditions may be used in order to better understand the positive impact of the cell modelling system on the balancing algorithm in the future.
Experimental investigations were conducted on Mg-3Zn-0.6Zr alloy under different ECAP conditions of number of passes, die angles, and processing route types, aimed at investigating the impact of the ...ECAP parameters on the microstructure evolution, corrosion behavior, and mechanical properties to reach optimum performance characteristics. To that end, the response surface methodology (RSM), analysis of variance, second-order regression models, genetic algorithm (GA), and a hybrid RSM-GA were utilized in the experimental study to determine the optimum ECAP processing parameters. All of the anticipated outcomes were within a very small margin of the actual experimental findings, indicating that the regression model was adequate and could be used to predict the optimization of ECAP parameters. According to the results of the experiments, route Bc is the most efficient method for refining grains. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results showed that the 4-passes of route Bc via the 120°-die exhibited higher corrosion resistance. Still, the potentiodynamic polarization results showed that the 4-passes of route Bc via the 90°-die demonstrated a better corrosion rate. Furthermore, the highest Vicker’s microhardness, yield strength, and tensile strength were also disclosed by four passes of route Bc, whereas the best ductility at fracture was demonstrated by two passes of route C.
Herein, we have synthesized different BWO samples at different temperatures and evaluated their electrochemical oxidation of Rhodamine B dye in an aqueous medium. The prepared samples were ...characterized using X-ray diffraction combined with Rietveld refinements, scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive elemental mapping, and thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses. All the samples crystallize in the orthorhombic Pca21 structure. The crystallite size increased with temperature. The calculated surface areas from the XRD data ranged from 38 to 7 m2 g−1 for BWO-600 to BWO-900, respectively. The optimal BWO loadings on the GCE electrode were 5 × 10−8 mol cm−2 recording the best electrocatalytic efficiency for RhB electrodegradation in 15 min (100%) in 0.1 M of NaCl. The BWO-600 recorded the best activity compared to other BWO samples. The electrocatalytic activity was explained by the high surface area and small crystallite size compared to the other samples. The BWO-600 showed extended electrode reutilization for up to four cycles of reuse under the reported conditions.
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