The increasing drinking water demand in many countries leads to an increase in the use of desalination plants, which are considered a great solution for water treatment processes. Reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) systems are the most popular membrane processes used to desalinate water at high salinity. Both systems work by separating the ionic contaminates and disposing of them as a brine solution, but ED uses electrical current as a driving force while RO uses osmotic pressure. A direct comparison of reverse osmosis and electro-dialysis systems is needed to highlight process development similarities and variances. This work aims to provide an overview of previous studies on reverse osmosis and electro-dial

A comparative study was done on the adsorption of methyl orange dye (MO) using non-activated and activated corn leaves with hydrochloric acid as an adsorbent material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were utilized to specify the properties of adsorbent material. The effect of several variables (pH, initial dye concentration, temperature, amount of adsorbent and contact time) on the removal efficiency was studied and the results indicated that the adsorption efficiency increases with the increase in the concentration of dye, adsorbent dosage and contact time, while inversely proportional to the increase in pH and temperature for both the treated and untreated corn leav

Acinetobacter baumannii received attention for its multi-drug resistant associated with many severe infections and outbreaks in clinical environment. The aims of the study are to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility profile of clinically isolated A. baumannii, biofilm production, and the efficiency of Low Frequency Ultrasound (LFU) and honey to attenuate biofilm production. A total of 100 samples were taken from different sources from Baghdad hospitals. The susceptibility patterns revealed the percentage of pan drug resistant (PDR) isolates were 1.5 %, 72.7 % were extended drug resistant (XDR), 16.7 % were multidrug resistant (MDR), and 9.1 % were non MDR and sensitive to most antibiotics used. The ability to form

Catalytic reduction is considered an effective approach for the reduction of toxic organic pollutants from the environment, but finding an active catalyst is still a big challenge. Herein, Ag decorated CeO2 catalyst was synthesized through polyol reduction method and applied for catalytic reduction (conversion) of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP). The Ag decorated CeO2 catalyst displayed an outstanding reduction activity with 99% conversion of 4-NP in 5 min with a 0.61 min−1 reaction rate (k). A number of structural characterization techniques were executed to investigate the influence of Ag on CeO2 and its effect on the catalytic conversion of 4-NP. The outstanding catalytic performances of the Ag-CeO2 catalyst can be assigne

The plant occupied the largest area in the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles, especially the medicinal plants, and it has shown great potential in biotechnology applications. In this study, green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from Moringa oleifera leaves extract and its antifungal and antitumor activities were investigated. The formation of silver nanoparticles was observed after 1 hour of preparation color changing. The ultraviolet and visible spectrum, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques were used to characterize synthesis particles. Ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy showed a silver surface plasmon resonance band at 434

Dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis (SD) are common skin disorders affecting the scalp and extending to other body sites in the case of SD. They are associated with pruritus and scaling, causing an esthetical disturbance in the population affected.   Treatment of such conditions involves using a variety of drugs for long terms, thus optimizing drug formulation is essential to improve therapeutic efficacy and patient compliance. Conventional topical formulations like shampoos and creams have been widely used but their use is associated with disadvantages. To overcome such effects, novel topical nanotechnology-based formulations are currently under investigation. In the following article, we highlight recently published formulatio

In this work, p-n junctions were fabricated from highly-pure nanostructured NiO and TiO2 thin films deposited on glass substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The structural characterization showed that the prepared multilayer NiO/TiO2 thin film structures were highly pure as no traces for other compounds than NiO and TiO2 were observed. It was found that the absorption of NiO-on-TiO2 structure is higher than that of the TiO2-on-NiO. Also, the NiO/TiO2 heterojunctions exhibit typical electrical characteristics, higher ideality factor and better spectral responsivity when compared to those fabricated from the same materials by the same technique and with larger particle size and lower structural purity.

In the present work, the thermo-fluid characteristics of a heat exchanger formed of helical coiled tubes immersed in cold water are investigated experimentally. Two types of helical coiled tube are tested, a conventional vertical single helical coiled tube and a new triple vertical helical coiled tube in parallel connection called as meshed coils. The effect of hot water flow rates inside the tubes (ranges from 2.67 to 7.08 l/min), and its inlet temperatures (namely 50, 60, 70 and 80 °C) are investigated. The experimental results show that increasing the flow rate inside the meshed coils leads to decrease the temperature difference between inlet and outlet. An enhancement of heat transfer for meshed coils compared to single coil has been n