Sharif Digital Repository

A novel solid-phase microextraction(SPME) fiber was prepared using sol-gel technology with ethoxylated nonylphenol as a fiber coating material. The fiber was employed to develop a headspace SPME-GC-MS method suitable for quantification of 13 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water samples. Surface characteristics of the fibers were inspected by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy as well as by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM measurements showed the presence of highly porous nano-sized particles in the coating. Important parameters affecting the extraction efficiency such as extraction temperature and time, desorption conditions as well as ionic strength have been... 

A high-temperature-resisant solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was prepared based on polyetherimide (PEI) by the electrospinning method. The PEI polymeric solution was converted to nanofibers using high voltages and directly coated on a stainless steel SPME needle. The scanning electron microscopy images of PEI coating showed fibers with diameter range of 500-650 nm with a homogeneous and smooth surface morphology. The SPME nanofibers coating was optimized for PEI percentage, electrospinning voltage, and time. The extraction efficiency of the coating was investigated for headspace SPME of some environmentally important polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from aqueous samples followed by... 

This paper presents a new method for spectrophotometirc detection of sulfide applying fungal peroxidase immobilized on sodium alginate. The sensing scheme was based on decrease of the absorbance of the orange compound, purpurogallin produced from pyrogallol and H2O2 as substrates, due to the inhibition of peroxidase by sulfide. Absorbance of purpurogallin was detected at 420nm by using a spectrophotometer. The proposed method could successfully detect the sulfide in the concentration range of 0.6-7.0μM with a detection limit of 0.4μM. The kinetic parameters of Michaelis-Menten with and without sulfide were also calculated. Possible inhibition mechanism of peroxidase by sulfide was deduced... 

This article investigates phenol removal from an aqueous solution by using enzymatic and photocatalytic methods and the efficiency of these methods has been compared. In enzymatic and photocatalytic methods, Coprinus cinereus, peroxidase enzyme and commercial TiO2 powders (Degussa P-25) in aqueous suspension were used, respectively, in ambient temperature. The effects of different operating parameters such as duration of process, catalyst dosage or enzyme concentration, pH of the solution, initial phenol concentration and H2O2 concentration on both processes were examined. In enzymatic method, efficiency of degradation reached 100% within 5min, while in the photocatalytic method, the... 

The remediation of nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) enhanced by surfactant and nanoparticles (NP) has been investigated in numerous studies. However, the role of NP-assisted surfactants in the dissolution process is still not well discussed. Besides, there is a lack of empirical dissolution models considering the effects of initial residual saturation Strap, NAPL distribution, and surfactant concentration in NAPL-aqueous phase systems. In this work, micromodel experiments are conducted to quantify mass transfer coefficients for different injected aqueous phases including deionized water, SDS surfactant solutions, and NP-assisted solutions with different levels of concentrations and flow... 

Hydroxylated aromatic compounds (HACs) are considered to be primary pollutants in a wide variety of industrial wastewaters. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is suitable for the removal of these toxic substances. However, development of a mathematical model and optimization of the HRP-based treatment considering the economical issues by novel methods is a necessity. In the present study, optimization of phenol removal from wastewater by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was carried out using response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite design (CCD). As the initial experimental design, 2 4-1 half-fraction factorial design (H-FFD) is accomplished in triplicate at two levels to select the... 

In this study, the enhanced trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation performance was investigated by polyvinyl alcohol coated calcium peroxide nanoparticles (PVA@nCP) as an oxidant in Fe(II)-based catalytic systems. The nanoscale iron sulfide (nFeS), having an average particle size of 115.4 nm, was synthesized in the laboratory and characterized by SEM, TEM, HR-TEM along with EDS elemental mapping, XRD, FTIR, ICP-OES, and XPS techniques. In only ferrous iron catalyzed system (PVA@nCP/Fe(II)), TCE degradation was recorded at 58.9% in 6 h. In comparison, this value was increased to 97.5% or 99.7% with the addition of citric acid (CA) or nFeS in PVA@nCP/Fe(II) system, respectively. A comparative... 

In this study, the enhanced trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation performance was investigated by polyvinyl alcohol coated calcium peroxide nanoparticles (PVA@nCP) as an oxidant in Fe(II)-based catalytic systems. The nanoscale iron sulfide (nFeS), having an average particle size of 115.4 nm, was synthesized in the laboratory and characterized by SEM, TEM, HR-TEM along with EDS elemental mapping, XRD, FTIR, ICP-OES, and XPS techniques. In only ferrous iron catalyzed system (PVA@nCP/Fe(II)), TCE degradation was recorded at 58.9% in 6 h. In comparison, this value was increased to 97.5% or 99.7% with the addition of citric acid (CA) or nFeS in PVA@nCP/Fe(II) system, respectively. A comparative... 

Two carbon composite materials were prepared by mixing avocado biochar and methyl polysiloxane (MK). Firstly, MK was dissolved in ethanol, and then the biochar was added at different times. In sample 1 (R1), the time of adding biochar was immediately after dissolving MK in ethanol, and in sample 2 (R2), after 48 h of MK dissolved in ethanol. The samples were characterized by nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements obtaining specific surface areas (SBET) of 115 m2 g−1 (R1) and 580 m2 g−1 (R2). The adsorbents were further characterized using scanning electron microscopy, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, adsorption of vapors of n-heptane and water, thermal analysis, Bohem titration, pHpzc, and... 

In this study, a series of Zirconium-based MOF and chitosan composites (MOF-808/chitosan) were synthesized as efficient adsorbent for Cr(VI) ions elimination from aqueous solution. MOF-808/chitosan structure and morphology was characterized by FE-SEM, EDX, XRD, BET, zeta potential analysis, FT-IR, XPS techniques. The kinetic studies ascertained that Cr(VI) adsorption over MOF-808/chitosan followed pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption isotherms fitted the Langmuir isotherm model, implying on homogeneously adsorption of Cr(VI) on the surface of MOF-808/chitosan. According to the Langmuir model, the maximum capacity was obtained to be 320.0 mg/g at pH 5. Thermodynamic investigation... 

This article deals with the adsorption performances of the unmodified nanodiamond (ND) and thermally oxidized nanodiamond (Ox-ND) for the removal of different heavy metal ions such as Fe (III), Cu (II), Cr (VI), and Cd (II) from wastewater. The adsorption capacities of the ions onto adsorbents are higher and follow the order: Ox-ND-3 > Ox-ND-1.5 > ND, which is consistent with their surface areas, zeta potentials, and the presence of carboxyl groups, suggesting that electrostatic attractions between the positive metal ions and the negatively charged adsorbents are the predominant adsorption mechanisms. Adsorption capacities of these adsorbents were found to be 26.8, 31.3, and 45.7 mg/g for Fe... 

A novel high-throughput device based on 96-micro-solid phase extraction (96-μ-SPE) system was constructed for multiresidue determination of nine pesticides in aquatic samples. The extraction procedure was performed on a commercially available 96-well plate system. The extraction module consisted of 96 pieces of 1cm×3cm of cylindrically shaped stainless steel meshes. The prepared meshes were fixed in a home-made polytetrafluoroethylene-based constructed ninety-six holes block for possible simultaneous immersion of meshes into the center of individual wells. Dodecyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate was copolymerized as a monolithic polymer and placed in the cylindrically shaped... 

In the present study, CS-CA nanoparticle was prepared for forming a new amide linkage, by grafting the amino groups of CS in the presence of carboxylic groups of CA that acts as cross-linking agent. The as-prepared CS-CA nanoparticle samples were characterized by use of dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques, which showed that the cross-linking agent preserved during the chemical modifications. The adsorption capacity of the CS-CA nanoparticles for the removal of Cr (VI) in aqueous solution was studied. The adsorption equilibrium data... 

The adsorption of chromium compounds from solutions by a composite of polyaniline/poly ethylene glycol (PANi/PEG) was investigated in this study. Experiments were conducted in batch mode under various operational conditions including agitation time, solution pH, PANi/PEG dose and initial concentration of chromium salts. Results showed that concentration of PEG at synthesizing stage has a significant effect on the capacity of produced composite for removal of chromium. Morphologically, PANi/PEG composite is closely dependent on the concentration of PEG. Maximum removal of hexavalent chromium was experienced when 2. g/L of PEG was used in synthesis of PANi/PEG. Removal of hexavalent chromium... 

In this study a membrane biological reactor (MBR) was operated at 25±1 °C and pH = 7.5±0.5 to treat synthetic wastewater containing high phenol concentrations. Removal efficiencies of phenol and chemical oxygen demand (COD)were evaluated at four various hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 24, 12, 8, and 4 hours. The removal rate of phenol (5.51 kg-Phenol kg-VSS-1 d-1), observed at HRT of 4 h,was the highest phenol degradation rate in the literature.According toCODtests, therewere no significant organic matter in the effluent, and phenol was degraded completely by mixed culture. Substrate inhibition was calculated from experimental growth parameters using the Haldane, Yano, and Edward... 

In the current study, electrospun-based ionic liquid (IL) doped polyamide (PA) nanofibers were prepared and used as the coating material of solid phase microextration device in the fiber geometry. Addition of IL, decyl-3-methylimidazolium mono bromate, increased the conductivity of the PA solution facilitating the electrospining process. The scanning electron microscopy images of decyl-3-methylimidazolium mono bromated/polyamide nanofibers showed the decreased diameter of the nanofibers in the range of 35–160 nm compared to the PA nanofiber. The factors affecting the structure of nanofibers (e.g. ratio of decyl-3-methylimidazolium mono bromate to PA, coating time and applied voltage) were... 

This work reports on the potential application of UiO-66 in gas sweetening and its structural stability against water, air, dimethylformamide (DMF), and chloroform. The UiO-66 nanoparticles were solvothermally synthesized at different scales and activated via solvent exchange technique using chloroform, methanol, and ethanol. Thus prepared and aged MOFs were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis. The chloroform-activated MOF showed the largest surface area among all activation solvents, and presented high uptakes of 8.8 and 4.3 mmol/g for CO2... 

FeVO4/CeO2 was applied in the electro-Fenton (EF) degradation of Methyl Orange (MO) as a model of wastewater pollution. The results of the characterization techniques indicate that FeVO4 with triclinic structure and face-centered cubic fluorite CeO2 maintained their structures during the nanocomposite synthesis. The effect of applied current intensity, initial pollutant concentration, initial pH, and catalyst weight was investigated. The MO removal reached 96.31% and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal 70% for 60 min of the reaction. The presence of CeO2 in the nanocomposite plays a key role in H2O2 electro-generation as a significant factor in the electro-Fenton (EF) system. The metal... 

The thermophilic bacterium Nocardia otitidiscaviarum strain TSH1, originally isolated in our laboratory from a petroindustrial wastewater contaminated soil in Iran, grows at 50 °C on a broad range of hydrocarbons. Transformation of naphthalene by strain TSH1 which is able to use this two ring-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) as a sole source of carbon and energy was investigated. The metabolic pathway was elucidated by identifying metabolites, biotransformation studies and monitoring enzyme activities in cell-free extracts. The identification of metabolites suggests that strain TSH1 initiates its attack on naphthalene by dioxygenation at its C-1 and C-2 positions to give... 

A fiber coating from polyaniline (PANI) was electrochemically prepared and employed for solid phase microextraction (SPME) of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from water samples. The PANI film was directly electrodeposited on the platinum wire surface in sulfuric acid solution using cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique. The applicability of this coating was assessed employing a laboratory-made SPME device and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for the extraction of some PAHs from the headspace of aqueous samples. Application of wider potential range in CV led to a PANI with more stability against the temperature. The homogeneity and the porous surface structure of the...