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.
A simple physical technique was used in this study to create stable and cost-effective copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles from pure copper metal using the pulsed laser ablation technique. The synthesis of crystalline CuO nanoparticles was confirmed by various analytical techniques such as particle concentration measurement using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), the energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine the crystal size and identify of the crystal structure of the prepared particles. The main characteristic diffraction peaks of the three samples were consistent. The corresponding 2θ is also consistent, and the cytotoxicity of the nanoparticles was
... Show MoreThis manuscript studied the effect of U-CFRP wrapped sheet anchorage on the flexural performance of unbonded post-tensioned PC members subjected to partial strand damage and strengthened using CFRP Near-Surface Mounting techniques. The program includes six girders as a control girder, a girder with strand damage of 14.2%, and four girders strengthened by CFRP laminates using the NSM technique with and without U-CFRP wrapped sheet anchorages. The testing results show that the strand damage of 14.2% has reduced the flexural strength of the girder by 5.71%. The NSM-CFRP laminate has a significant effect on flexural strength by 17.4%. On the other hand, the application of end U-CFRP wrapped sheet anchorages improves flexural
... Show MoreThe Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) process has become one of the most important processes to enhance oil recovery in both secondary and tertiary recovery stages and through immiscible and miscible modes. Its advantages came from the ability to provide gravity-stable oil displacement for improving oil recovery, when compared with conventional gas injection methods such as Continuous Gas Injection (CGI) and Water – Alternative Gas (WAG). Vertical injectors for CO2 gas were placed at the top of the reservoir to form a gas cap which drives the oil towards the horizontal oil producing wells which are located above the oil-water-contact. The GAGD process was developed and tested in vertical wells to increase oil r
... Show MoreRealizing the full potential of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) highlights many design issues, particularly the trade-offs concerning multiple conflicting improvements such as maximizing the route overlapping for efficient data aggregation and minimizing the total link cost. While the issues of data aggregation routing protocols and link cost function in a WSNs have been comprehensively considered in the literature, a trade-off improvement between these two has not yet been addressed. In this paper, a comprehensive weight for trade-off between different objectives has been employed, the so-called weighted data aggregation routing strategy (WDARS) which aims to maximize the overlap routes for efficient data aggregation and link cost
... Show MoreRecently, detecting dynamic patterns for growing communities in social networks have attracted significant attention. The objective of dynamic community detection is to analyze and identify clusters in complex networks that change over time. Different optimization algorithms, including both single-objective and multi-objective approaches, have been employed to address the challenge of dynamic community detection. Although current evolutionary algorithms for identifying community structure can traverse extensive areas of partition space, they often become stuck in local minima. In addition, limited studies have addressed this issue by integrating local search strategies with evolutionary algorithms for community identification. This paper in
... Show MoreA study conducted a laboratory experiment to measure the release of potassium and the dissolution of feldspar minerals in soils from different locations in Karbala Province (Ain Al-tamur, Qasr Al-Akhyar, Fadak Farm). The study involved the addition of organic acids (fulvic and humic) and mineral acids (sulfuric and phosphoric) at concentrations of 5% and 10% to sand-separated soil samples obtained through wet sieving. Feldspar minerals were identified using a polarized light microscope, and the percentage of each type of feldspar mineral was calculated. The results demonstrated that organic acids outperformed mineral acids in releasing potassium at both concentrations. Among the organ
Dry gas is considered one of the most environmentally friendly sources of energy. As a result, developing an efficient strategy for storing this gas has become essential. In this work, MOF-199 was synthesized and characterized in order to investigate the MOF-199 in dry gas adsorption using a built-in volumetric system (methane, ethane, and propane from Basrah gas company). The MOF-199 (metal organic framework) was synthesized using the solvothermal method at 373K for 24h, and then it was characterized. The dry gas adsorption on MOF-199 was studied under various conditions (adsorbent dosage, contact time, temperature, and pressure). The isothermal adsorption of the dry gas had been studied on MOF-199 using two types of mo
... Show MoreA theoretical study on corrosion inhibitors was done by quantum calculations includes semi-empirical PM3 and Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods based on B3LYP/6311++G (2d,2P). Benzimidazole derivative (oxo(4- ((phenylcarbamothioyl) carbamoyl)phenyl) ammonio) oxonium (4NBP) and thiourea derivative 2-((4- bromobenzyl)thio) -1H-benzo[d] imidazole (2SB) were used as corrosion inhibitors and an essential quantum chemical parameters correlated with inhibition efficiency, EHOMO (highest occupied molecular orbital energy) and ELUMO (lowest molecular orbital energy). Other parameters are also studied like energy gap [ΔE (HOMO-LUMO)], electron affinity (EA), hardness (Δ), dipole moment (μ), softness (S), ionization potential (IE), absolut
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