The ubiquitous problem of pesticide in aquatic environment are receiving worldwide concern as pesticide tends to accumulate in the body of the aquatic organism and sediment soil, posing health risks to the human. Many pesticide formulations had introduced due to the rapid growth in the global pesticide market result from the wide use of pesticides in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The occurrence of pesticides in the water body is derived by the runoff from the agricultural field and industrial wastewater. Soluble pesticides were carried away by water molecules especially during the precipitation event by percolating downward into the soil layers and eventually reach surface waters and groundwater. Consequently, it degrades water quality and reduces the supply of clean water for potable water. Long-time exposure to the low concentration of pesticides had resulted in non-carcinogenic health risks. The conventional method of pesticide treatment processes encompasses coagulation-flocculation, adsorption, filtration and sedimentation, which rely on the phase transfer of pollutants. Those methods are often incurred with a relatively high operational cost and may cause secondary pollution such as sludge formation. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are recognized as clean technologies for the treatment of water containing recalcitrant and bio-refractory pollutants such as pesticides. It has been adopted as recent water purification technology because of the thermodynamic viability and broad spectrum of applicability. This work provides a comprehensive review for occurrence of pesticide in the drinking water and its possible treatment.

Some agricultural byproducts are useful for solving wastewater pollution problems. These byproducts are of low cost and are effective and ecofriendly. The study aim was to investigate the possibility of using pomegranate peel (PP) and date pit (DP) activated carbon (PPAC and DPAC, respectively) as sorbents to remove Cd(II) and Pb(II) from aqueous solutions. Agricultural wastes of DPs and PPs were subjected to carbonization and chemical activation with H₃PO₄ (60) and ZnCl₂ and used as adsorbents to remove Cd(II) and Pb(II) from their aqueous solutions. The physical characterizations of PPAC and DPAC, including determination of surface area, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, were performed. The following factors affected adsorption: solution pH, adsorbent dosage, initial metal ion concentration, and contact time. These factors were studied to identify the optimal adsorption conditions. The results showed that the maximum adsorptions of Cd(II) and Pb(II) were achieved at pH ranging from 6 to 6.5, 90min contact time, and 0.5g/L for PPAC and 1g/L for DPAC dosage. Furthermore, the adsorption efficiencies for both Pb(II) and Cd(II) were higher for PPAC than for DPAC. However, the recorded Q_max values for PPAC were 68.6 and 53.8mg/g for Pb(II) and Cd(II) and for DPAC were 34.18 and 32.90mg/g for Pb(II) and Cd(II), respectively. The Langmuir isotherm model fit the adsorption data better than the Freundlich model. Kinetically, the adsorption reaction followed a pseudo-second-order reaction model, with q_e ranging from 12.0 to 22.37mg/g and an R² value of 0.99.

Improper disposal of pharmaceutical drugs, including antibiotics, can affect the ecological system and generate serious health problems for living organisms. In this work, we have developed an electrochemical sensor based on a strontium manganese oxide/functionalized hexagonal boron nitride (SrMnO₃/f-BN) electrocatalyst for the detection of the antibiotic drug furaltadone (FLD). Various analytical techniques were used to characterize the physicochemical properties of the as-prepared SrMnO₃/f-BN composite. The as-fabricated SrMnO₃/f-BN composite electrode showed excellent sensing activity towards FLD, with a wide linear range (0.01–152.11 µM) and low detection limit (2.0 nM). The sensor exhibited good selectivity towards FLD for detection in the presence of various interfering species (nitro compounds, metal ions, and biological compounds). Interestingly, real-time analysis using the proposed SrMnO₃/f-BN composite was able to determine the FLD content in human urine and wastewater samples with good recovery. Hence, the as-developed SrMnO₃/f-BN modified sensor could be viable in practical applications to target the antibiotic drug FLD in both human fluids and environmental samples.

The potential of using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in combination with various other spectroscopic and statistical methods was assessed for characterizing pure and MgO-doped nylon (6/6) organic polymer samples. The pure samples, obtained through a polycondensation chemical technique, were artificially doped with MgO prior to analysis for comparative purposes. These artificially doped samples served as crucial reference materials for comparative analysis and reference purposes. The LIBS studies were performed under local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and optically thin plasma conditions. To assess the structural crystallinity of the nylon (6/6) polymer samples, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were employed to detect functional groups such as N-H, C-H, and C-N in the adsorbent polyamide nylon sample. Additionally, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of doping and temperature on the band gap and material reflectance across different sample temperatures. Chemical compositional analysis was performed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with the carbon C1s peak at 248.8 eV serving as a reference for spectrum calibration, along with energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, which demonstrated good agreement between the techniques. To validate the different methodologies, the results obtained from CF-LIBS and EDX were compared with those from the standard inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) technique. Finally, for classification analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the LIBS spectral data at different sample temperatures (25 °C, 125 °C, 225 °C, and 325 °C). The analyses demonstrated that the combination of LIBS with PCA, along with other methods, presents a robust technique for polymer characterization.

In this study, two metal oxide nanoparticles NiO and MnO₂ were synthesized from green sources Mentha spicata (M. spicata) extract and Malus domestica (M. domestica) peel extract, respectively. The optical and physical properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. Simple, precise, and new spectrophotometric probes were suggested for the determination of three cephalosporin antibiotics, including levofloxacin (LVX), cephalexin (CPX), and cefotaxime sodium (CTX) in their pure form and commercial products. The spectrophotometric detection of the selected drugs is based on the catalytic enhancement of NiO and MnO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) due to their unique optical properties. Linear relationships with main correlation coefficients 0.999 were obtained at 0.1–20, 1.0–80, and 0.001–100 µg mL⁻¹ for the three drugs in the presence of NiONPs, whereas 0.01–60, 0.1–160, and 0.01–80 µg mL⁻¹ were obtained in the presence of MnO₂NPs at absorption wavelengths 290, 262, and 235 nm for LVX, CPX and CTX, respectively. The analytical methods were validated and successfully used for determination of the instigated drugs in their bulk and commercial dosage forms.

The frequent occurrence of furazolidone (FZD) in environmental fluids reveals the ongoing increase in use and raises concerns about the need of monitoring it. To investigate the electrochemical behavior of FZD, a novel sensor of manganese molybdenum oxide (MMO) micro rods adorned three-dimensional porous carbon (PC) electrocatalyst was constructed. The crystalline structure and surface morphology of the MMO/PC composite was characterized by XRD, Raman, FESEM, and HR-TEM. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and amperometric(i-t) methods were used to assess the electrocatalytic activity of modified electrodes. In the presence of FZD, the as-fabricated MMO/PC modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) performed better at lower potentials with a greater peak current than other modified GCE. These results emanate from the synergistic effect of the MMO/PC suspension on the GCE. The electrochemical behavior of the amperometric(i-t) technique was used to determine FZD. Amperometric(i-t) detection yielded linear dynamic ranges of 150 nM to 41.05 µM and 41.05 to 471.05 µM with detection limits of 30 nM. The MMO/PC hybrid sensor was also effectively used to detect FZD in environmental fluids, yielding ultra-trace level detection.