A facile eco-friendly approach for acetampirid pesticide removal is presented. The method is based on the use of micro- and mesoporous activated carbon (TPAC) as a natural adsorbent. TPAC was synthesized via chemical treatment of tangerine peels with phosphoric acid. The prepared activated carbon was characterized before and after the adsorption process using Fourier- transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), particle size and surface area. The effects of various parameters on the adsorption of acetampirid including adsorbent dose (0.02–0.2 g), pH 2–8, initial adsorbate concentration (10–100 mg/L), contact time (10–300 min) and temperature (25–50 °C) were studied. Batch adsorption features were evaluated using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The adsorption process followed the Langmuir isotherm model with a maximum adsorption capacity of 35.7 mg/g and an equilibration time within 240 min. The adsorption kinetics of acetamiprid was fitted to the pseudo-second-order kinetics model. From the thermodynamics perspective, the adsorption was found to be exothermic and spontaneous in nature. TPAC was successfully regenerated and reused for three consecutive cycles. The results of the presented study show that TPAC may be used as an effective eco-friendly, low cost and highly efficient adsorbent for the removal of acetamiprid pesticides from aqueous solutions.

The use of cheap and eco-friendly adsorbents prepared from abundantly available pomegranate peel (Pomegranate activated carbons, PAC) and Banana peel (Banana activated carbons, BAC) compared with Commercial activated carbons (ACs) were used for the removal of an insecticide and nematicide oxamyl from aqueous solutions. The ACs were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscope, Transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive. The effects of initial pesticide concentration and contact time on the biosorption of oxamyl onto the three different adsorbents were investigated. The equilibrium data of kinetic studies were attained at 180 min. The experimental results show increasing adsorption of adsorbents with increasing oxamyl concentrations. The experimental isotherms data were analyzed using Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm equations. The best experimental data were obtained for all adsorbents by the Freundlich isotherm model with high correlation coefficients (R²≥ 0.9699). The results suggest that the oxamyl adsorption onto PAC, BAC, and Commercial AC is physical. Kinetic studies indicated that the pseudo-second-order fitted well to the experimental data. The results revealed that two adsorbents can be used as low-cost biosorbents for the oxamyl removal from aqueous solution.

The main objective of this work is to recycle unwanted industrial waste in order to produce innovative nanocomposites with improved mechanical, tribological, and thermal properties for use in various industrial purposes. In this context, powder metallurgy (PM) technique was used to fabricate iron (Fe)/copper (Cu)/niobium carbide (NbC)/granite nanocomposites having outstanding mechanical, wear and thermal properties. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) examinations were used to investigate the particle size, crystal size, and phase composition of the milled samples. Additionally, it was investigated how different volume percentages of the NbC and granite affected the sintered specimens in terms of density, microstructure, mechanical and wear properties, and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). According to the findings, the milled powders included particles that were around 55 nm in size and clearly contained agglomerates. The results showed that the addition of 4 vol.% NbC and 8 vol.% granite nanoparticles caused a reduction in the Fe–Cu alloy matrix particle sizes up to 47.8 nm and served as a barrier to the migration of dislocations. In addition, the successive increase in the hybrid concentrations led to a significant decrease in the crystal size of the samples prepared as follows: 29.73, 27.58, 22.69, 19.95 and 15.8 nm. Furthermore, compared with the base Fe–Cu alloy, the nanocomposite having 12 vol.% of hybrid reinforcement demonstrated a significant improvement in the microhardness, ultimate strength, Young’s modulus, longitudinal modulus, shear modulus, bulk modulus, CTE and wear rate by 94.3, 96.4, 61.1, 78.2, 57.1, 73.6, 25.6 and 61.9%, respectively. This indicates that both NbC and granite can actually act as excellent reinforcements in the Fe alloy.

The influence of micellar and Ca(OH)₂ water system on the rates of alkaline hydrolysis of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) was studied and evaluated quantitatively via capillary gas chromatography (CGC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The critical micelle concentrations and rate constants of reactions in the micellar phase were determined in micellar solutions of cationic, anionic or nonionic systems. An increase in the rates of alkaline hydrolysis of TNT was observed. Alkaline hydrolysis of TNT using mixture of nonionic surfactant micelles and anionic surfactant showed higher degradation than that with a cationic surfactant.