A rapid rise in demands for thermal comfort in the building sector necessitates higher energy con... more A rapid rise in demands for thermal comfort in the building sector necessitates higher energy consumption for air conditioning, ventilation, space, and water heating systems. Recently, phase change materials (PCMs) have gained much attention from researchers for passive heating/cooling of space and water. PCM can store/release thermal energy as latent heat during its phase change process isothermally. Moreover, PCM facilitates solar energy harvesting by photothermal conversion and storage. However, major limitations of PCM include low thermal conductivity, leakage during phase change, and lack of photoabsorbance. Therefore, in this study, the shape-stabilized phase change composites were prepared by melt blending of Paraffin Wax (PW), Tetra Pak (TP), and expanded graphite (EG). PW is an organic PCM, widely being studied due to its high enthalpy, availability at various melting points, and chemical and thermal stability. In addition to providing shape stability and thermal conductivity enhancement of PCM, the usage of TP promotes the recycling of TP waste into useful products. The addition of EG contributes to the thermal conductivity increase of 3.6 times that of pure PW. Moreover, the excellent photoabsorption of EG and TP effectively converted the photo energy to thermal energy and stored it as latent heat by PW in the composite. Two types of composites using PW of melting points 44 ℃ and 64 ℃ were exhibited a photothermal conversion and storage efficiency of 80 and 55 %, respectively and which is promising for solar water heating applications.
Composite samples consisting of YBCO superconductor and low-density polyethylene have been prepar... more Composite samples consisting of YBCO superconductor and low-density polyethylene have been prepared. The standard resistance four-point method and contactless induction method based on Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect were used for characterizing transition properties, e.g. critical temperature of sintered YBCO precursor and composite samples, respectively. In all composite samples, no decrease of the critical temperature of YBCO precursor filler was observed.
Hybrid ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer (EPDM) nanocomposite foams were produced via compression ... more Hybrid ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer (EPDM) nanocomposite foams were produced via compression molding with enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption efficiency. The hybrid filler, consisting of 20 phr ferroelectric barium titanate (BT) and various loading fractions of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), synergistically increased the electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption characteristics of the EPDM foam. Accordingly, while the EPDM foam filled with 20 phr BT was transparent to the EM wave within the frequency range of 8.2–12.4 GHz (X-band), the hybrid EPDM nanocomposite foam loaded with 20 phr BT and 10 phr MWCNTs presented a total shielding effectiveness (SE) of ~22.3 dB compared to ~16.0 dB of the MWCNTs (10 phr). This synergistic effect is suggested to be due to the segregation of MWCNT networks within the cellular structure of EPDM, resulting in enhanced electrical conductivity, and also high dielectric permittivity of the foam imparted by the BT particles. Moreover, the total...
The adequate provision of clean water for the emerging population is a global issue. This emphasi... more The adequate provision of clean water for the emerging population is a global issue. This emphasises the importance of detecting and eradicating toxic pollutants from water and the environment. Being a major pollutant of water resources, the importance of detection and remediation of BTEX compounds from environment is highly significant and challenging. This review article summarises the recent studies provided in literature on the remediation of BTEX from aqueous solution by adsorption process. Adsorption technology is among the most promising technique in BTEX removal due to its low energy requirements, low operating costs, simplicity, and its effectiveness. Different types of adsorptive materials used in BTEX removal from aqueous media are explained together with its classification and effectiveness under number of physicochemical operation factors. The effect of various factors such as temperature, initial BTEX concentration, solution pH, and adsorbent dosage on the adsorption capacity and efficiency of BTEX removal by various adsorbents is discussed. It also addresses some prevailing gaps in this area of research together with some suggestions for the upcoming research focuses. Keywords Water treatment • BTEX removal • Adsorption • Adsorbents • Environmental remediation Highlights • BTEX removal from aqueous medium focusing entirely on adsorption method. • Different potential adsorbents are classified and compared together with their reported parameters. • The mechanism of adsorption by different adsorbents and their effectiveness under number of physiochemical factors is addressed. • The existing drawbacks and the proposed future prospects for adsorptive removal of BTEX from solution are proposed.
An interfacial adhesion improvement between low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and aluminum (Al) foi... more An interfacial adhesion improvement between low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and aluminum (Al) foil is an important challenge in designing multilayered packaging (TetraPak packaging type) due to insufficient inherent adhesion between both untreated materials. Therefore, extra adhesive layers are often used. The hydrophobic character of LDPE is responsible for poor adhesion to Al and can result in delamination. This study deals with the comparative study of the bulk modification of LDPE with various commercially available adhesive promoters with different chemical compositions to increase LDPE’s adhesive characteristics and ensure good adhesion in LDPE/Al laminates. A copolymer of ethylene and methacrylic acid; a terpolymer of ethylene, maleic anhydride, and acrylic ester; or maleated polyethylene (PE) were used as adhesive promoters, and their effect on adhesion improvement of LDPE to Al was investigated. The best adhesion improvement was observed in LDPE-modified samples with maleat...
Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-... more Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-layered (SL) MXene (Ti 3 C 2 T x) as a membrane for the separation of water/vegetable oil emulsions. Methods: Prepared membranes were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), profilometry, the contact angle measurements of various liquids in air, and the underwater contact angle of vegetable oil. The separation efficiency was evaluated by measuring the UV transmittance of stock solutions compared to the UV transmittance of the filtrate. Results: The MXene coating onto coPA mats led to changes in the permeability, hydrophilicity, and roughness of the membranes and enhanced the separation efficiency of the water/vegetable oil emulsions containing 10, 100, and 1000 ppm of sunflower vegetable oil. It was found that membranes were highly oleophobic (>124 •) under water, unlike in air, where the membranes showed high oleophobicity (<5 •). The separation efficiency of water/oil emulsions for both types of covered membranes reached over 99%, with a surface coverage of 3.2 mg/cm 2 Ti 3 C 2 T x (for ML-Ti 3 C 2 T x) and 2.9 mg/cm 2 (for SL-Ti 3 C 2 T x). Conclusions: The separation efficiency was greater than 98% for membranes covered with 2.65 mg/cm 2 of ML-Ti 3 C 2 T x , whereas the separation efficiency for membranes containing 1.89 and 0.77 mg/cm 2 was less than 90% for all studied emulsion concentrations.
Environmental remediation using green approaches for addressing various pollution-related issues,... more Environmental remediation using green approaches for addressing various pollution-related issues, especially water pollution, is in high demand. Here, we designed an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and stable sodium alginate-halloysite clay composite aerogel (SAHA) for oil/water separation via a two-step synthesis procedure, including ionic crosslinking and freeze-drying. The as-prepared SAHA aerogels were characterized in detail by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transformation infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Characterization of the SAHA aerogels revealed a three-dimensional porous microstructure with uniformly dispersed halloysite nanotubes (HA) within the alginate matrix. The elemental composition of the hydrogels investigated using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) revealed the presence of minerals, such as magnesium, sodium, aluminum, and silicon in the SAHA aerogels. The presence of a hydrophilic alginate matrix combined with these unique morphological characteristics resulted in SAHA aerogels with underwater oleophobicity and excellent oil/water separation efficiency (up to 99.7%). The ease of fabrication, excellent oil/water separation, and multiple performances make the SAHA aerogel an interesting candidate for practical applications in water recycling.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
This study deals with the efficient, low-cost, and scalable treatment of oily polluted waters inc... more This study deals with the efficient, low-cost, and scalable treatment of oily polluted waters including colloidal emulsions, oil-in-water mixtures, and free oil removal using melamine foams (MFs) modified by ferric chloride (FeCl3). Modified foams have superhydrophobic character due to the coordination of Fe3+ with free electron pairs on nitrogen and oxygen atoms within the melamine structure. The water contact angles (WCA) were 146° ± 2°, 148° ± 4°, 153° ± 2°, and 150° ± 4° for foams modified by the solutions with concentrations of 0.001 M, 0.005 M, 0.01 M, and 0.02 M, respectively. This modification enables the efficient treatment of various oil/water systems, including oil/water colloidal emulsions (99 vol% of the droplets have dimensions below 500 nm), oil-in-water mixtures up to 40 weight % of the oil component, and “free” oil removal as it was demonstrated in this study for the first time. The emulsions containing 100 ppm diesel oil (DO) were separated with 91.4% efficiency, a...
In the present study, polyamide (PA) was successfully reinforced with cellulose nanocrystal (CNC)... more In the present study, polyamide (PA) was successfully reinforced with cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) prepared from date palm leaves using two different techniques, electrospinning and the solution casting method, and a comparative study of these two systems was performed. The morphological, thermal, wetting, and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were analyzed for CNC content between 0 and 5 wt%. Morphological analyses showed different roughness in the fractured surface of neat PA and its nanocomposites after the addition of CNC. The modified composite is found to have a smooth surface without cracks and showed increased roughness with greater hydrophilicity and thermal stability. The nano-indentation results showed that the highest hardness was obtained at 5% CNC loading for the solution cast composite samples, which could be related to the relatively good CNC dispersion with good filler matrix bonding as evidenced by the morphological characterization. We also observed that ...
The occurrence of boron in low concentration is essential; however, a higher concentration of bor... more The occurrence of boron in low concentration is essential; however, a higher concentration of boron source in water has a toxic effect on humans as well as have retard effect on agricultural plant growth. Thus, the affordable and facile method to remediate water from higher boron concentrations is highly demanded. This report explores the ability of naturally occurring sustainable bio-waste os sepiae (cuttlefish bone, CFB) as an effective adsorbent for the removal of boron from water. Chemical activation of the os sepiae powder was examined to improve the efficiency of boron adsorption. A batch adsorption study for boron considering various parameters such as chemical modification of os sepiae, pH, initial boron concentration, and the temperature was scrutinized. Untreated (CFB), alkali-treated (CFB-D) and acid-treated (CFB-A) os sepiae powders were investigated and the adsorption capacities reached up to 53.8 ± 0.04 mg/g, 66.4 ± 0.02 mg/g and 69.8 ± 0.02 mg/g, respectively, at opti...
Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-... more Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-layered (SL) MXene (Ti3C2Tx) as a membrane for the separation of water/vegetable oil emulsions. Methods: Prepared membranes were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), profilometry, the contact angle measurements of various liquids in air, and the underwater contact angle of vegetable oil. The separation efficiency was evaluated by measuring the UV transmittance of stock solutions compared to the UV transmittance of the filtrate. Results: The MXene coating onto coPA mats led to changes in the permeability, hydrophilicity, and roughness of the membranes and enhanced the separation efficiency of the water/vegetable oil emulsions containing 10, 100, and 1000 ppm of sunflower vegetable oil. It was found that membranes were highly oleophobic (>124°) under water, unlike in air, where the membranes showed high oleophobicity (<5°). The separation efficiency of water/oil emulsions ...
The design of composite materials using environmentally compatible materials and adopting sustain... more The design of composite materials using environmentally compatible materials and adopting sustainable preparation techniques is very necessary for a better environment. The present study is a step towards developing an environmentally friendly alternative to foam-based composites. The aim of the study is to understand the effect of natural fibers from date palms on the property of foam biocomposites. We adopted an environmentally friendly method of compatibilization between the polymer and the fibers for better reinforcement. The compatibility was done by environmentally friendly physical modification using plasma treatment. Plasma treatment provides surface modification and is an economical solution for further processing. In fact, three types of interfaces have been created: (1) by the addition of maleic anhydride, (2) by the use of plasma-treated low-density polyethylene, (3) by the combination of maleic anhydride and plasma. The overall performance was best in the use of plasma ...
In this study, we report the isolation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from Isora plant fibers b... more In this study, we report the isolation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from Isora plant fibers by sulfuric acid hydrolysis and their assembly on hydrophilic cellulose and silicon-di-oxide (SiO2) surfaces via a layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition method. The isolated CNCs were monodispersed and exhibited a length of 200–300 nm and a diameter of 10–20 nm, a negative zetapotential (−34–39 mV) over a wide pH range, and high stability in water at various concentrations. The multi-layered structure, adsorbed mass, conformational changes, and anticoagulant activity of sequentially deposited anionic (sulfated) CNCs and cationic polyethyleneimine (PEI) on the surfaces of cellulose and SiO2 by LBL deposition were investigated using a quartz crystal microbalance technique. The organization and surface features (i.e., morphology, thickness, wettability) of CNCs adsorbed on the surfaces of PEI deposited at different ionic strengths (50–300 mM) of sodium chloride were analysed in detail by profilome...
The massive increase in the volumes of oily contaminated produced waters associated with various ... more The massive increase in the volumes of oily contaminated produced waters associated with various industrial sectors has initiated considerable technological and scientific efforts related to the development of new cleaning strategies. The petrochemical industry (oil and gas production and processing) contributes to those volumes by approximately 340 billion barrels per year. The removal of emulsified oily components is a matter of particular interest because the high emulsion stability necessitates sophisticated technological approaches as well as a deep theoretical understanding of key mechanisms of oil/water separation. This review deals with the theoretical aspects of the treatment of emulsified oil/water mixtures and is particularly focused on tertiary treatment, which means the reduction of the oil content from 70–100 ppm to below 10 ppm, depending on national regulations for water discharge. The review concerns the mechanisms of oil/water separation and it covers the (i) adsor...
Smart gel materials are capable of controlling and switching swelling, water state, and wettabili... more Smart gel materials are capable of controlling and switching swelling, water state, and wettability properties triggered by external stimuli. In this study, we fabricated a series of polyelectrolyte hydrogels bearing a 3-trimethylammoniumpropyl pendant to a methacrylamide-based backbone and examined the switchability with hydrophobic-like counteranions. The exchange between the initial chloride and camphor sulfate (CaS), dodecyl sulfate (DS), and perfluorooctanoate (PFO) counterions was investigated. The kinetics of the exchange showed that the fast exchange (within 4 h) of PFO allowed for a favorable coordination for ion pairing, resulting in a decrease in hydration. The reversibility of the exchange to the Cl− ion was only enabled for the CaS ion due to its bulkiness, while the PFO and DS hydrogels were unable to exchange, even by using tetrabutylammonium chloride, which is a structurally similar reagent, due to aggregation or the coagulates in the collapsed state of the linear ta...
To address the problem of ever-increasing oily wastewater management, due to its directional liqu... more To address the problem of ever-increasing oily wastewater management, due to its directional liquid transport property, membranes with asymmetric wettability can be effectively used for emulsion separation. This study reports the synthesis of electrospun polymer–clay nanocomposite nanofibers, using co-polyamide polymer (COPA) and halloysite nanotubes (HA) as filler. The influence of clay content on the morphological, thermal and dielectric properties of the polymer composite nanofiber was investigated comprehensively to address the material characteristics of the developed system. The surface structure analysis and contact angle measurements of the electrospun composite nanofibers confirms the change in surface roughness and wettability when the fillers are added to the polymer. The porosity of the composite electrospun nanofiber membrane was found to be 85% with an oil adsorption capacity of 97% and water permeability of 6265 L/m2 h. Furthermore, the asymmetric wettability-driven o...
Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2021
The low-density polyethylene/aluminum (LDPE/Al) joint in Tetra Pak food container provides stabil... more The low-density polyethylene/aluminum (LDPE/Al) joint in Tetra Pak food container provides stability and strength to food packaging, ensures protection against outside moisture, and maintains the nutritional values and flavors of food without the need for additives in the food products. However, it was found that the adhesion strength of LDPE with Al is weak or almost non-existent, due to the non-polar hydrophobic LDPE surface. Therefore, it was necessary to apply surface treatment to LDPE. Plasma-assisted grafting of the LDPE surface with different molecular weight compounds of polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used to improve LDPE/Al adhesion. It was found that this surface modification contributed to significantly improve the wettability of the LDPE surface, as was confirmed by contact angle measurements. The chemical composition changes after plasma treatment and modification process was observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (...
Environmental remediation using green approaches for addressing various pollution-related issues,... more Environmental remediation using green approaches for addressing various pollution-related issues, especially water pollution, is in high demand. Here, we designed an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and stable sodium alginate–halloysite clay composite aerogel (SAHA) for oil/water separation via a two-step synthesis procedure, including ionic crosslinking and freeze-drying. The as-prepared SAHA aerogels were characterized in detail by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transformation infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Characterization of the SAHA aerogels revealed a three-dimensional porous microstructure with uniformly dispersed halloysite nanotubes (HA) within the alginate matrix. The elemental composition of the hydrogels investigated using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) revealed the presence of minerals, such as magnesium, sodium, aluminum, and silicon in the SAHA aerogels. The presence of a hydrophil...
Boron is an essential micronutrient that has raised much interest, given the narrow balance betwe... more Boron is an essential micronutrient that has raised much interest, given the narrow balance between its necessity and toxicity. Both natural and anthropogenic emissions of boron into water sources can eventually deteriorate water quality and endanger the ecosystem. In this review, we first present a general outline of the importance of boron, boron chemistry in water, boron contamination, and its consequences followed by the recent progress in boron removal methods based on adsorption. The adsorbents for deboronation can generally be classified based on the functional groups present; chelating groups, metal oxides, and layered double hydroxides. To comprehensively address these adsorption methods, a detailed discussion on the reaction mechanism of each system is done followed by a summary of the progress in the field during the past 5 years. Finally, some characterization techniques used in deboronation studies and suggestions for future research and applications together with possi...
A rapid rise in demands for thermal comfort in the building sector necessitates higher energy con... more A rapid rise in demands for thermal comfort in the building sector necessitates higher energy consumption for air conditioning, ventilation, space, and water heating systems. Recently, phase change materials (PCMs) have gained much attention from researchers for passive heating/cooling of space and water. PCM can store/release thermal energy as latent heat during its phase change process isothermally. Moreover, PCM facilitates solar energy harvesting by photothermal conversion and storage. However, major limitations of PCM include low thermal conductivity, leakage during phase change, and lack of photoabsorbance. Therefore, in this study, the shape-stabilized phase change composites were prepared by melt blending of Paraffin Wax (PW), Tetra Pak (TP), and expanded graphite (EG). PW is an organic PCM, widely being studied due to its high enthalpy, availability at various melting points, and chemical and thermal stability. In addition to providing shape stability and thermal conductivity enhancement of PCM, the usage of TP promotes the recycling of TP waste into useful products. The addition of EG contributes to the thermal conductivity increase of 3.6 times that of pure PW. Moreover, the excellent photoabsorption of EG and TP effectively converted the photo energy to thermal energy and stored it as latent heat by PW in the composite. Two types of composites using PW of melting points 44 ℃ and 64 ℃ were exhibited a photothermal conversion and storage efficiency of 80 and 55 %, respectively and which is promising for solar water heating applications.
Composite samples consisting of YBCO superconductor and low-density polyethylene have been prepar... more Composite samples consisting of YBCO superconductor and low-density polyethylene have been prepared. The standard resistance four-point method and contactless induction method based on Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect were used for characterizing transition properties, e.g. critical temperature of sintered YBCO precursor and composite samples, respectively. In all composite samples, no decrease of the critical temperature of YBCO precursor filler was observed.
Hybrid ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer (EPDM) nanocomposite foams were produced via compression ... more Hybrid ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer (EPDM) nanocomposite foams were produced via compression molding with enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption efficiency. The hybrid filler, consisting of 20 phr ferroelectric barium titanate (BT) and various loading fractions of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), synergistically increased the electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption characteristics of the EPDM foam. Accordingly, while the EPDM foam filled with 20 phr BT was transparent to the EM wave within the frequency range of 8.2–12.4 GHz (X-band), the hybrid EPDM nanocomposite foam loaded with 20 phr BT and 10 phr MWCNTs presented a total shielding effectiveness (SE) of ~22.3 dB compared to ~16.0 dB of the MWCNTs (10 phr). This synergistic effect is suggested to be due to the segregation of MWCNT networks within the cellular structure of EPDM, resulting in enhanced electrical conductivity, and also high dielectric permittivity of the foam imparted by the BT particles. Moreover, the total...
The adequate provision of clean water for the emerging population is a global issue. This emphasi... more The adequate provision of clean water for the emerging population is a global issue. This emphasises the importance of detecting and eradicating toxic pollutants from water and the environment. Being a major pollutant of water resources, the importance of detection and remediation of BTEX compounds from environment is highly significant and challenging. This review article summarises the recent studies provided in literature on the remediation of BTEX from aqueous solution by adsorption process. Adsorption technology is among the most promising technique in BTEX removal due to its low energy requirements, low operating costs, simplicity, and its effectiveness. Different types of adsorptive materials used in BTEX removal from aqueous media are explained together with its classification and effectiveness under number of physicochemical operation factors. The effect of various factors such as temperature, initial BTEX concentration, solution pH, and adsorbent dosage on the adsorption capacity and efficiency of BTEX removal by various adsorbents is discussed. It also addresses some prevailing gaps in this area of research together with some suggestions for the upcoming research focuses. Keywords Water treatment • BTEX removal • Adsorption • Adsorbents • Environmental remediation Highlights • BTEX removal from aqueous medium focusing entirely on adsorption method. • Different potential adsorbents are classified and compared together with their reported parameters. • The mechanism of adsorption by different adsorbents and their effectiveness under number of physiochemical factors is addressed. • The existing drawbacks and the proposed future prospects for adsorptive removal of BTEX from solution are proposed.
An interfacial adhesion improvement between low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and aluminum (Al) foi... more An interfacial adhesion improvement between low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and aluminum (Al) foil is an important challenge in designing multilayered packaging (TetraPak packaging type) due to insufficient inherent adhesion between both untreated materials. Therefore, extra adhesive layers are often used. The hydrophobic character of LDPE is responsible for poor adhesion to Al and can result in delamination. This study deals with the comparative study of the bulk modification of LDPE with various commercially available adhesive promoters with different chemical compositions to increase LDPE’s adhesive characteristics and ensure good adhesion in LDPE/Al laminates. A copolymer of ethylene and methacrylic acid; a terpolymer of ethylene, maleic anhydride, and acrylic ester; or maleated polyethylene (PE) were used as adhesive promoters, and their effect on adhesion improvement of LDPE to Al was investigated. The best adhesion improvement was observed in LDPE-modified samples with maleat...
Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-... more Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-layered (SL) MXene (Ti 3 C 2 T x) as a membrane for the separation of water/vegetable oil emulsions. Methods: Prepared membranes were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), profilometry, the contact angle measurements of various liquids in air, and the underwater contact angle of vegetable oil. The separation efficiency was evaluated by measuring the UV transmittance of stock solutions compared to the UV transmittance of the filtrate. Results: The MXene coating onto coPA mats led to changes in the permeability, hydrophilicity, and roughness of the membranes and enhanced the separation efficiency of the water/vegetable oil emulsions containing 10, 100, and 1000 ppm of sunflower vegetable oil. It was found that membranes were highly oleophobic (>124 •) under water, unlike in air, where the membranes showed high oleophobicity (<5 •). The separation efficiency of water/oil emulsions for both types of covered membranes reached over 99%, with a surface coverage of 3.2 mg/cm 2 Ti 3 C 2 T x (for ML-Ti 3 C 2 T x) and 2.9 mg/cm 2 (for SL-Ti 3 C 2 T x). Conclusions: The separation efficiency was greater than 98% for membranes covered with 2.65 mg/cm 2 of ML-Ti 3 C 2 T x , whereas the separation efficiency for membranes containing 1.89 and 0.77 mg/cm 2 was less than 90% for all studied emulsion concentrations.
Environmental remediation using green approaches for addressing various pollution-related issues,... more Environmental remediation using green approaches for addressing various pollution-related issues, especially water pollution, is in high demand. Here, we designed an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and stable sodium alginate-halloysite clay composite aerogel (SAHA) for oil/water separation via a two-step synthesis procedure, including ionic crosslinking and freeze-drying. The as-prepared SAHA aerogels were characterized in detail by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transformation infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Characterization of the SAHA aerogels revealed a three-dimensional porous microstructure with uniformly dispersed halloysite nanotubes (HA) within the alginate matrix. The elemental composition of the hydrogels investigated using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) revealed the presence of minerals, such as magnesium, sodium, aluminum, and silicon in the SAHA aerogels. The presence of a hydrophilic alginate matrix combined with these unique morphological characteristics resulted in SAHA aerogels with underwater oleophobicity and excellent oil/water separation efficiency (up to 99.7%). The ease of fabrication, excellent oil/water separation, and multiple performances make the SAHA aerogel an interesting candidate for practical applications in water recycling.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
This study deals with the efficient, low-cost, and scalable treatment of oily polluted waters inc... more This study deals with the efficient, low-cost, and scalable treatment of oily polluted waters including colloidal emulsions, oil-in-water mixtures, and free oil removal using melamine foams (MFs) modified by ferric chloride (FeCl3). Modified foams have superhydrophobic character due to the coordination of Fe3+ with free electron pairs on nitrogen and oxygen atoms within the melamine structure. The water contact angles (WCA) were 146° ± 2°, 148° ± 4°, 153° ± 2°, and 150° ± 4° for foams modified by the solutions with concentrations of 0.001 M, 0.005 M, 0.01 M, and 0.02 M, respectively. This modification enables the efficient treatment of various oil/water systems, including oil/water colloidal emulsions (99 vol% of the droplets have dimensions below 500 nm), oil-in-water mixtures up to 40 weight % of the oil component, and “free” oil removal as it was demonstrated in this study for the first time. The emulsions containing 100 ppm diesel oil (DO) were separated with 91.4% efficiency, a...
In the present study, polyamide (PA) was successfully reinforced with cellulose nanocrystal (CNC)... more In the present study, polyamide (PA) was successfully reinforced with cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) prepared from date palm leaves using two different techniques, electrospinning and the solution casting method, and a comparative study of these two systems was performed. The morphological, thermal, wetting, and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were analyzed for CNC content between 0 and 5 wt%. Morphological analyses showed different roughness in the fractured surface of neat PA and its nanocomposites after the addition of CNC. The modified composite is found to have a smooth surface without cracks and showed increased roughness with greater hydrophilicity and thermal stability. The nano-indentation results showed that the highest hardness was obtained at 5% CNC loading for the solution cast composite samples, which could be related to the relatively good CNC dispersion with good filler matrix bonding as evidenced by the morphological characterization. We also observed that ...
The occurrence of boron in low concentration is essential; however, a higher concentration of bor... more The occurrence of boron in low concentration is essential; however, a higher concentration of boron source in water has a toxic effect on humans as well as have retard effect on agricultural plant growth. Thus, the affordable and facile method to remediate water from higher boron concentrations is highly demanded. This report explores the ability of naturally occurring sustainable bio-waste os sepiae (cuttlefish bone, CFB) as an effective adsorbent for the removal of boron from water. Chemical activation of the os sepiae powder was examined to improve the efficiency of boron adsorption. A batch adsorption study for boron considering various parameters such as chemical modification of os sepiae, pH, initial boron concentration, and the temperature was scrutinized. Untreated (CFB), alkali-treated (CFB-D) and acid-treated (CFB-A) os sepiae powders were investigated and the adsorption capacities reached up to 53.8 ± 0.04 mg/g, 66.4 ± 0.02 mg/g and 69.8 ± 0.02 mg/g, respectively, at opti...
Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-... more Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-layered (SL) MXene (Ti3C2Tx) as a membrane for the separation of water/vegetable oil emulsions. Methods: Prepared membranes were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), profilometry, the contact angle measurements of various liquids in air, and the underwater contact angle of vegetable oil. The separation efficiency was evaluated by measuring the UV transmittance of stock solutions compared to the UV transmittance of the filtrate. Results: The MXene coating onto coPA mats led to changes in the permeability, hydrophilicity, and roughness of the membranes and enhanced the separation efficiency of the water/vegetable oil emulsions containing 10, 100, and 1000 ppm of sunflower vegetable oil. It was found that membranes were highly oleophobic (>124°) under water, unlike in air, where the membranes showed high oleophobicity (<5°). The separation efficiency of water/oil emulsions ...
The design of composite materials using environmentally compatible materials and adopting sustain... more The design of composite materials using environmentally compatible materials and adopting sustainable preparation techniques is very necessary for a better environment. The present study is a step towards developing an environmentally friendly alternative to foam-based composites. The aim of the study is to understand the effect of natural fibers from date palms on the property of foam biocomposites. We adopted an environmentally friendly method of compatibilization between the polymer and the fibers for better reinforcement. The compatibility was done by environmentally friendly physical modification using plasma treatment. Plasma treatment provides surface modification and is an economical solution for further processing. In fact, three types of interfaces have been created: (1) by the addition of maleic anhydride, (2) by the use of plasma-treated low-density polyethylene, (3) by the combination of maleic anhydride and plasma. The overall performance was best in the use of plasma ...
In this study, we report the isolation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from Isora plant fibers b... more In this study, we report the isolation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from Isora plant fibers by sulfuric acid hydrolysis and their assembly on hydrophilic cellulose and silicon-di-oxide (SiO2) surfaces via a layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition method. The isolated CNCs were monodispersed and exhibited a length of 200–300 nm and a diameter of 10–20 nm, a negative zetapotential (−34–39 mV) over a wide pH range, and high stability in water at various concentrations. The multi-layered structure, adsorbed mass, conformational changes, and anticoagulant activity of sequentially deposited anionic (sulfated) CNCs and cationic polyethyleneimine (PEI) on the surfaces of cellulose and SiO2 by LBL deposition were investigated using a quartz crystal microbalance technique. The organization and surface features (i.e., morphology, thickness, wettability) of CNCs adsorbed on the surfaces of PEI deposited at different ionic strengths (50–300 mM) of sodium chloride were analysed in detail by profilome...
The massive increase in the volumes of oily contaminated produced waters associated with various ... more The massive increase in the volumes of oily contaminated produced waters associated with various industrial sectors has initiated considerable technological and scientific efforts related to the development of new cleaning strategies. The petrochemical industry (oil and gas production and processing) contributes to those volumes by approximately 340 billion barrels per year. The removal of emulsified oily components is a matter of particular interest because the high emulsion stability necessitates sophisticated technological approaches as well as a deep theoretical understanding of key mechanisms of oil/water separation. This review deals with the theoretical aspects of the treatment of emulsified oil/water mixtures and is particularly focused on tertiary treatment, which means the reduction of the oil content from 70–100 ppm to below 10 ppm, depending on national regulations for water discharge. The review concerns the mechanisms of oil/water separation and it covers the (i) adsor...
Smart gel materials are capable of controlling and switching swelling, water state, and wettabili... more Smart gel materials are capable of controlling and switching swelling, water state, and wettability properties triggered by external stimuli. In this study, we fabricated a series of polyelectrolyte hydrogels bearing a 3-trimethylammoniumpropyl pendant to a methacrylamide-based backbone and examined the switchability with hydrophobic-like counteranions. The exchange between the initial chloride and camphor sulfate (CaS), dodecyl sulfate (DS), and perfluorooctanoate (PFO) counterions was investigated. The kinetics of the exchange showed that the fast exchange (within 4 h) of PFO allowed for a favorable coordination for ion pairing, resulting in a decrease in hydration. The reversibility of the exchange to the Cl− ion was only enabled for the CaS ion due to its bulkiness, while the PFO and DS hydrogels were unable to exchange, even by using tetrabutylammonium chloride, which is a structurally similar reagent, due to aggregation or the coagulates in the collapsed state of the linear ta...
To address the problem of ever-increasing oily wastewater management, due to its directional liqu... more To address the problem of ever-increasing oily wastewater management, due to its directional liquid transport property, membranes with asymmetric wettability can be effectively used for emulsion separation. This study reports the synthesis of electrospun polymer–clay nanocomposite nanofibers, using co-polyamide polymer (COPA) and halloysite nanotubes (HA) as filler. The influence of clay content on the morphological, thermal and dielectric properties of the polymer composite nanofiber was investigated comprehensively to address the material characteristics of the developed system. The surface structure analysis and contact angle measurements of the electrospun composite nanofibers confirms the change in surface roughness and wettability when the fillers are added to the polymer. The porosity of the composite electrospun nanofiber membrane was found to be 85% with an oil adsorption capacity of 97% and water permeability of 6265 L/m2 h. Furthermore, the asymmetric wettability-driven o...
Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2021
The low-density polyethylene/aluminum (LDPE/Al) joint in Tetra Pak food container provides stabil... more The low-density polyethylene/aluminum (LDPE/Al) joint in Tetra Pak food container provides stability and strength to food packaging, ensures protection against outside moisture, and maintains the nutritional values and flavors of food without the need for additives in the food products. However, it was found that the adhesion strength of LDPE with Al is weak or almost non-existent, due to the non-polar hydrophobic LDPE surface. Therefore, it was necessary to apply surface treatment to LDPE. Plasma-assisted grafting of the LDPE surface with different molecular weight compounds of polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used to improve LDPE/Al adhesion. It was found that this surface modification contributed to significantly improve the wettability of the LDPE surface, as was confirmed by contact angle measurements. The chemical composition changes after plasma treatment and modification process was observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (...
Environmental remediation using green approaches for addressing various pollution-related issues,... more Environmental remediation using green approaches for addressing various pollution-related issues, especially water pollution, is in high demand. Here, we designed an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and stable sodium alginate–halloysite clay composite aerogel (SAHA) for oil/water separation via a two-step synthesis procedure, including ionic crosslinking and freeze-drying. The as-prepared SAHA aerogels were characterized in detail by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transformation infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Characterization of the SAHA aerogels revealed a three-dimensional porous microstructure with uniformly dispersed halloysite nanotubes (HA) within the alginate matrix. The elemental composition of the hydrogels investigated using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) revealed the presence of minerals, such as magnesium, sodium, aluminum, and silicon in the SAHA aerogels. The presence of a hydrophil...
Boron is an essential micronutrient that has raised much interest, given the narrow balance betwe... more Boron is an essential micronutrient that has raised much interest, given the narrow balance between its necessity and toxicity. Both natural and anthropogenic emissions of boron into water sources can eventually deteriorate water quality and endanger the ecosystem. In this review, we first present a general outline of the importance of boron, boron chemistry in water, boron contamination, and its consequences followed by the recent progress in boron removal methods based on adsorption. The adsorbents for deboronation can generally be classified based on the functional groups present; chelating groups, metal oxides, and layered double hydroxides. To comprehensively address these adsorption methods, a detailed discussion on the reaction mechanism of each system is done followed by a summary of the progress in the field during the past 5 years. Finally, some characterization techniques used in deboronation studies and suggestions for future research and applications together with possi...
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Papers by Igor Krupa