Removing hazardous organic pollutants, such as 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and Congo red (CR) dyes from aqueous media and CO2 from the atmospheric medium remains a significant challenge. Herein, we report a facile in-situ synthetic approach for fabricating CuO-ZnO heterostructure photocatalysts through the surfactant-assisted co-precipitation method. The catalytic results demonstrate that the Cu1O-ZnO photocatalyst exhibits excellent activity under direct sunlight irradiation, owing to the heterostructure formation between the CuO and ZnO. The Cu1O-ZnO photocatalyst showed higher reaction rate constant (k) values of 0.20 min−1 for 4-NP and 0.09 min−1 for CR compared to previous reports. Additionally, efficient CO2 reduction was also achieved over Cu1O-ZnO photocatalyst. The optical and structural characterization results indicate that the improved photocatalytic reduction and degradation observed for the Cu1O-ZnO photocatalyst can be attributed to the strong synergistic interaction between p-type CuO and n-type ZnO and the construction of the p-n heterojunction. As a result, the absorption of visible light distinctly increased and inhibited the recombination rate of the photo-created electron-hole (e−/h+). Furthermore, the Cu1O-ZnO photocatalyst exhibited remarkable durability and recyclability, retaining high photoactivity (≥ 93%) after five cycles, demonstrating its potential for real-world applications in the photocatalytic reduction and degradation reactions under direct sunlight irradiation.
The aim of this study is to propose reliable equations to estimate the in-situ concrete compressive strength from the non-destructive test. Three equations were proposed: the first equation considers the number of rebound hummer only, the second equation consider the ultrasonic pulse velocity only, and the third equation combines the number of rebound hummer and the ultrasonic pulse velocity. The proposed equations were derived from non-linear regression analysis and they were calibrated with the test results of 372 concrete specimens compiled from the literature. The performance of the proposed equations was tested by comparing their strength estimations with those of related existing equations from literature. Comparis
... Show MoreIn this work; copper oxide films (CuO) were fabricated by PLD. The films were analyzed by UV-VIS absorption spectra and their thickness by using profilometer. Pulsed Nd:YAG laser was used for prepared CuO thin films under O2 gas environment with varying both pulse energy and annealing temperature. The optical properties of as-grown film such as optical transmittance spectrum, refractive index and energy gap has been measured experimentally and the effects of laser pulse energy and annealing temperature on it were studied. An inverse relationship between energy gap and both annealing temperature and pulse energy was observed.
Spray pyrolysis technique was subjected to synthesized (SnO2)1-x (TiO2: CuO) x Thin films on different substrates like glass and single crystal silicon using. The structure of the deposited films was studied using x-ray diffraction. A more pronounced diffraction peaks of SnO2 while no peaks of (CuO , TiO2 ) phase appear in the X-ray profiles by increasing of the content of (TiO2 , CuO) in the sprayed films. Mixing concentration (TiO2 , CuO) influences on the size of the crystallites of the SnO2 films ,the size of crystallites of the spray paralyzed oxide films change in regular manner by increasing of (TiO2 , CuO) amount. The effect of mixing concentration on the optical properties of the films was also investigated. The
... Show MoreSpray pyrolysis technique was subjected to synthesized (SnO2)1-x (TiO2: CuO) x Thin films on different substrates like glass and single crystal silicon using. The structure of the deposited films was studied using x-ray diffraction. A more pronounced diffraction peaks of SnO2 while no peaks of (CuO , TiO2 ) phase appear in the X-ray profiles by increasing of the content of (TiO2 , CuO) in the sprayed films. Mixing concentration (TiO2 , CuO) influences on the size of the crystallites of the SnO2 films ,the size of crystallites of the spray paralyzed oxide films change in regular manner by increasing of (TiO
... Show MoreThe present work aimed to study the efficiency of thermal osmosis process for recovery of water from organic wastewater solution and study the factors affecting the performance of the osmosis cell. The driving force in the thermo osmosis cell is provided by a difference in temperature across the membrane sides between the draw and feed solution. In this research used a cellulose triacetate (CTA), as flat sheet membranes for treatment of organic wastewater under orientation membrane of active layer facing feed solution (FS) and draw solution (DS) is placed against the support layer. The organic materials were phenol, toluene, xylene and BTX (benzene, toluene, and xylene) used as feed solution. The osmotic agent in draw solution was
... Show MoreThe research aims to use a new technology for industrial water concentrating that contains poisonous metals and recovery quantities from pure water. Therefore, the technology investigated is the forward osmosis process (FO). It is a new process that use membranes available commercial and this process distinguishes by its low cost compared to other process. Sodium chloride (NaCl) was used as draw solution to extract water from poisonous metals solution. The driving force in the FO process is provided by a different in osmotic pressure (concentration) across the membrane between the draw and poisonous metals solution sides. Experimental work was divided into three parts. The first part includes operating the forward osmosis process using T
... Show MoreIn recent years, observed focus greatly on gold nanoparticles synthesis due to its unique properties and tremendous applicability. In most of these researches, the citrate reduction method has been adopted. The aim of this study was to prepare and optimize monodisperse ultrafine particles by addition of reducing agent to gold salt, as a result of seed mediated growth mechanism. In this research, gold nanoparticles suspension (G) was prepared by traditional standard Turkevich method and optimized by studying different variables such as reactants concentrations, preparation temperature and stirring rate on controlling size and uniformity of nanoparticles through preparing twenty formulas (G1-G20). Subsequently, the selected formula that pr
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