The presence of organic dyes from industrial wastewater can cause pollution and exacerbate environmental problems; therefore, in the present work, activated carbon was synthesized from locally available oil palm trunk (OPT) biomass as a low-cost adsorbent to remove synthetic dye from aqueous media. The physical properties of the synthesized oil palm trunk activated carbon (OPTAC) were analyzed by SEM, FTIR-ATR, and XRD. The concurrent effects of the process variables (adsorbent dosage (g), methylene blue (MB) concentration (mg/L), and contact time (h)) on the MB removal percentage from aqueous solution were studied using a three-factor three-level Box–Behnken design (BBD) of response surface methodology (RSM), followed by the optimization of MB adsorption using OPTAC as the adsorbent. Based on the results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the three parameters considered, adsorbent dosage (X₁) is the most crucial parameter, with an F-value of 1857.43, followed by MB concentration (X₂) and contact time (X₃) with the F-values of 95.60 and 29.48, respectively. Furthermore, the highest MB removal efficiency of 97.9% was achieved at the optimum X₁, X₂, and X₃ of 1.5 g, 200 mg/L, and 2 h, respectively.

Radiopharmaceuticals (RPC) used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in nuclear medicine may contaminate surface areas due to spillage during its preparation or accident during RPC transfer from laboratory to the treatment room. Fluorine-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) is the most common RPC for positron emission tomography (PET) scan in nuclear medicine due to its ideal annihilation converted energy at 511 keV and short half-life at 109.8 min. Ineffective medical waste management of ¹⁸F-FDG may pose a risk to the environment or cause unnecessary radiation doses to the personnel and public. Depending on the incident rate of these events, simple decontamination methods such as the use of chemicals and swabs might not be cost-effective and sustainable in the environment. This study aims to propose an alternative method to decontaminate ¹⁸F-FDG by using graphene oxide (GO). GO was synthesised using the Hummers method while the physical morphology was analysed using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). ¹⁸F-FDG adsorption efficiency rate using GO nanolayers was analysed based on the kinetic study of the GO:¹⁸F-FDG mixtures. The chemical adsorbability of the material was analysed via UV–vis spectrophotometer to interlink the microstructures of GO with the sorption affinity interaction. Resultantly, the adsorption rate was effective at a slow decay rate and the optical adsorption of GO with ¹⁸F-FDG was dominated by the $\pi$ → ${\pi }^{*}$ plasmon peak, which was near 230 nm. By elucidating the underlining GO special features, an alternative technique to isolate ¹⁸F-FDG for the decontamination process was successfully proven.

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on creating sustainable and biodegradable materials for use in food packaging. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of incorporating Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNC)/ε-Polylysine (ε-PL) additives into a Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) matrix for food packaging. Different filler concentrations and PVA/ε-PL ratios (5:0.3 wt%), (5:0.6 wt.%), and (5:0.9 wt.%) were used to produce the PVA/CNC/ε -PL nanocomposite films through solvent casting. Additionally, PVA and PVA/CNC were prepared for control purposes. The thin film samples were then characterized using a visual inspection, thickness, optical microscopy, FTIR-ATR and XRD. Visual inspection of the nanocomposite films against the logo showed that the increasing weight ratio of CNC/ε-PL did not significantly affect the transparency of the nanocomposites, while those under the polarized optical microscopy exhibited the birefringent patterns observed in the samples with CNC. The FTIR-ATR analysis of the nanocomposite films revealed the functional groups associated with the PVA, CNC, ε-PL, and the mixtures are consistent. The tensile test demonstrated a substantial enhancement in the presence of CNC and CNC/ε-PL. In summary, the PVA/CNC/ε-PL nanocomposites present a promising potential as biodegradable materials for food packaging applications.

In this study, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) formed from oil palm (Elaeis guineesis) trunks (OPT) by using water-treated fibre and alkali bleaching technique