Comparative Study between Imprinted Polymer Technology and Economic Adsorption Methodologies for the Removal of Arsenic Species from Water

Among the various arsenic sources in the environment, water may pose the greatest threat to human health. Arsenic and its compounds are known to have adverse health effects on humans, including skin cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, and lung cancer, as well as vascular diseases of the legs and feet. There are a few separation methods that have been studied to remove arsenic species from water. Methods to remove arsenic species such as adsorption and ion exchange, coagulation and flocculation and membrane filtration have been developed to remove arsenic species from water. However, certain separation methods require a sophisticated equipment and are too expensive. From the different possible methods, this review is based in adsorption studies using imprinted polymer technology and economic sorbents as a media to remove arsenic from water. The details of adsorption processes for imprinted polymer technology have been discussed briefly and the comparative properties for arsenic species removal using different types of sorbents has been addressed significantly for being a user-friendly, highly extended and inexpensive methodology. However, a few drawbacks for each sorbent have been determined and the details was included in this review.

Robust Half-Metallic Character In KMnGe Half-Heusler Compound

The search for spin injectors and spin sources in spintronic devices is a significant facet of materials research today. Consequently, half-Heusler (HAH) KMnGe alloy has been recommended as one such admissible materials. Herein, a rigorous examination of the structural, magnetic and electronic properties of HAH KMnGe alloy is done using ab initio method within the bolstered up rendition of the functional by Perdew and his group. Our result shows that HAH KmnGe alloy expresses type-1 and type-2 HAH structural ground state at high and low pressures respectively, which may pose a challenge in application. Impressively, HAH KMnGe alloy exhibits half metallic characteristic with an indirect energy gap in the Γ-X symmetry k-point and direct band gap at X-point in the minority electronic spin states for type-1 and type-2 phase respectively. Our findings agree fundamentally with some previous findings in the literature and suggests that the HAH KMnGe alloy is a credible excellent spin source in future spintronic devices.

Extraction of Lignin from Empty Fruit Bunch Fiber via Microwave-Assisted Deep-Eutectic Solvent Heating

This work study about the extraction of lignin from Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB). It is a type of lignocellulosic waste produced during the palm oil extraction process. There are three main components of lignocellulosic, which is one of them is lignin. A deep eutectic solvent (DES) with microwave-assisted heating has been used as a process to extract the lignin from EFB and turn it into a value-product. This convenient method was started with the mixing of EFB and DES. After that, the mixture was heated via microwave synthesis reactor at different temperature and time parameters. The extracted lignin yield was dried and ground into a powder form. The highest lignin yield recovered is 30 % by the highest time and temperature. Interestingly, the purity of all lignin yields are above than 80 %. The highest yield of lignin was characterized. According to Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectra, there was a significant functional group of phenolic and aliphatic hydroxyl in lignin. Besides, the methoxy group was also configured in lignin spectra. The presence of conjugated alkene also conveyed the characteristic of lignin. The FTIR spectra were intensified with 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra where there was a chemical shift in lignin and raw EFB which was designated to aliphatic and aromatic protons bonded to a carbon atom. Three regions of decomposition occur in the Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) spectra. The initial decompose temperature of lignin was lower compare to raw EFB. Next, second-stage lignin decomposed at 434.14 ℃ with weight loss of 36.21 %. Lastly, for the final stage, lignin decomposes at 552.54 ℃. Moreover, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) spectra demonstrate that the Tg value of lignin managed to be identified. However, the Tg value of raw EFB cannot be well defined. As for the characterization in residual fractions of EFB, the lowest crystallinity index (CrI) value of raw EFB has proven the presence of lignocellulosic in its structure. The residual fractions that reacted at higher temperatures have an inflated value of CrI as they contain abundant left out cellulose.

Extraction of Lignin from Empty Fruit Bunch Fiber via Microwave-Assisted Acid Hydrotrope Solvent

Lignin is a sub-product from lignocellulose apart from cellulose and hemicellulose that produced from empty fruit bunch fiber (EFB). Lignin has low solubility and reactivity due to its bulky macromolecule structre. Being one of the wastes that being generated in massive amount, many alternatives has been taken to transform lignin into valuable products. To do so, many reactions are needed for the lignin to go through. In this study, lignin will be extracted from empty fruit bunch (EFB) with the aid of acid hydrotrope concentration of 30 % and microwave assisted with various extraction heating time and temperature. Characterization of lignin is done using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) while Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) used to characterize residues. The highest percentage of lignin yield and its purity obtained are 19.47 % and 96.63 % with the reaction time and temperature of the microwave is 30 minutes and 90 °C. From Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), a wide band at 3430.09 cm-1 and 3413.45 cm-1 are observed due to O-H stretching vibration. As for peak at 1123.17 cm-1 and 1051.26 cm-1, it correspond to syringyl and guaicyl unit in both lignin and raw EFB. As for Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), it shows that lignin decomposes slowly compared to raw EFB due to the aromatic structure of lignin that is very stable, therefore leading to difficulty of decomposing while from Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), after removing cellulose and hemicellulose, glass transition temperature (Tg) obtained from lignin DSC spectroscopy is 193.05 °C at heat flow of 1.15 mW/mg. Next, from Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the signals observed around 6.5 – 8.0 ppm indicate aromatic H in syringyl and guaiacyl unit only at lignin spectra while at 3.3 – 4.0 ppm, raw EFB has an intense peak compared to lignin which attribute to methoxyl group. When the residue of the lignin as well as the raw EFB powder is characterized using X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), the crystallinity index of the lignin with reaction time and temperature of the microwave 30 minutes and 90 °C is the highest, 69.28 %. As a conclusion, an admissible percent of lignin yield and purity is able to be obtained with addition of acid hydrotrope depending on the variables. From the spectroscopies characterization, it is proved that lignin characteristics and properties are compatible for the production of new and value added products.

Hybrid Carbon/Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer; A Frontier Material for Aerospace Industry : A Review on Mechanical Properties Enhancement

Composite is the combination of two or more materials that differ in properties and composition to form unique properties. This paper reported in the literature on the field of deformation of hybrid composite under tensile, shear and flexural loading are presented in this chapter. This article review provides insight and state of the art for mechanics of composites that provides underlying theory for understanding the deformation and behaviour for the hybrid composite under various loading conditions. This paper also discusses mechanical behaviour of hybrid composites under static loading (Tensile, Shear, Flexural). It is essential to understand the principle that governs the mechanics of composites of laminate under loading which also applicable to hybrid composites C/GFRP.The high modulus fibre, such as Carbon fibre offers stiffness and load bearing capabilities, whereas the low modulus fibre, such as glass fibre makes the composite more durable and low in cost

Estimating Road Vehicle Instantaneous Fuel Consumption by Aerial Traffic Observation with a Multi-Rotor Drone

This study presents a preliminary approach to estimate instantaneous fuel consumption base on image processing from aerial observation using a multi-rotor drone. A drone was deployed over an actual road traffic to capture images of vehicle activities and feed into a program that was developed in this study. The program identifies and tracks the vehicle activities using pixel-based adaptive approach. The vehicle activities were then processed into variables as an input for the generic vehicle model. Coupled with model constants, the generic vehicle model then estimates the instantaneous fuel consumption and CO2 emission and tags the estimated results on the tracked vehicle on the program user-interface. In comparison with the actual experimental measurements, the estimated instantaneous fuel consumption shows a trend with correlation coefficient of 0.741 with higher total fuel usage by 10.6%. The estimation results were useful to map the distribution of fuel consumption over the routes of the observed area in relation to the natural traffic.

Heavy metals in private car dusts collected from Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Gambang Campus: Contamination and human health risks

A pilot study was conducted to investigate the concentrations of seven heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Cr, Cd, Fe, Ni and Pb) in private car dusts collected from Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Gambang campus. Ten private cars were selected among UMP staffs and students, and the dust samples were obtained by using a conventional vacuum cleaner with a clean nylon sampling sock pre-inserted into the suction nozzle. All samples were acid-digested with aqua regia solution and analysed for metal concentration using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS). The highest mean concentrations were recorded for Fe (650± 480 mg/kg), followed by Zn (160 ± 110 mg/kg), Cu (76.2 ± 18.5 mg/kg), Pb (39.2 ± 99.1 mg/kg), Ni (6.39 ± 8.30 mg/kg), Cr (3.42 ± 5.90 mg/kg) and Cd (0.55 ± 1.40 mg/kg). Hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) values lower than 1 indicated no potential non-carcinogenic risks to the adult drivers.

Mechanical Stability, Electronic And Magnetic Properties Of Half- Heusler FeCrAs Alloy For Spintronics Application

The search for functional materials in spintronic devices has become a major component of material research in recent times. The structural, elastic, mechanical, electronic and magnetic properties of half-Heusler FeCrAs alloy (HHFCA) have been examined adopting spin-polarized density functional theory calculations. Our result shows that the hexagonal structure is the high pressure phase of the FeCrAs alloy while the half-Heusler structure is the more stable phase at ambient pressure. Also, the HHFCA is mechanically stable and exhibits half-metallic ferromagnetism besides an indirect band gap in the minority spin channel. The total magnetic moment in one formula unit of the alloy is 1.00 μB, in agreement with the Slater-Pauling rule and the bulk of the magnetic moment contributed by the Cr atoms. Furthermore, high Curie temperature of ~ 1000 K has been obtained for the HHFCA which suggests that it is a promising material for spintronic applications.

Robust Half-Metallic Character In KMnGe Half-Heusler Compound

The search for spin injectors and spin sources in spintronic devices is a significant facet of materials research today. Consequently, half-Heusler (HAH) KMnGe alloy has been recommended as one such admissible materials. Herein, a rigorous examination of the structural, magnetic and electronic properties of HAH KMnGe alloy is done using ab initio method within the bolstered up rendition of the functional by Perdew and his group. Our result shows that HAH KmnGe alloy expresses type-1 and type-2 HAH structural ground state at high and low pressures respectively, which may pose a challenge in application. Impressively, HAH KMnGe alloy exhibits half metallic characteristic with an indirect energy gap in the Γ-X symmetry k-point and direct band gap at X-point in the minority electronic spin states for type-1 and type-2 phase respectively. Our findings agree fundamentally with some previous findings in the literature and suggests that the HAH KMnGe alloy is a credible excellent spin source in future spintronic devices.

Mechanical Stability, Electronic And Magnetic Properties Of Half- Heusler FeCrAs Alloy For Spintronics Application

The search for functional materials in spintronic devices has become a major component of material research in recent times. The structural, elastic, mechanical, electronic and magnetic properties of half-Heusler FeCrAs alloy (HHFCA) have been examined adopting spin-polarized density functional theory calculations. Our result shows that the hexagonal structure is the high pressure phase of the FeCrAs alloy while the half-Heusler structure is the more stable phase at ambient pressure. Also, the HHFCA is mechanically stable and exhibits half-metallic ferromagnetism besides an indirect band gap in the minority spin channel. The total magnetic moment in one formula unit of the alloy is 1.00 μB, in agreement with the Slater-Pauling rule and the bulk of the magnetic moment contributed by the Cr atoms. Furthermore, high Curie temperature of ~ 1000 K has been obtained for the HHFCA which suggests that it is a promising material for spintronic applications.