In recent years, concerns have been raised about the occurrence of active raw materials and pharmaceutical ingredients that may be present in water, including wastewater, in the pharmaceutical industry. Wastewater treatment methods are not enough to completely remove active pharmaceuticals and other waste; thus, this study aims to assess the use of a multiwall carbon nanotube after derivatization and magnetization as a new and renewable absorbent for removing ibuprofen from an aqueous medium. The adsorbents were prepared by first oxidizing a multiwall carbon nanotube and then deriving the oxidized product with hydroxyl amine (m-MWCNT–HA), hydrazine (m-MWCNT–HYD), and amino acid (m-MWCNT–CYS). Adsorbents were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis (BET), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Batch adsorption studies were conducted to study the effects of pH, temperature, time, and initial concentration of the adsorbate. Adsorption isotherm, kinetics, and thermodynamics studies were also conducted. The results show that the optimal pH for nearly complete removal of Ibu in a short time at room temperature was 4 for three adsorbents. The adsorption followed the Langmuir isotherm model with pseudo-second-order kinetics. The percentage of removal of ibuprofen reached up to 98.4%, 93%, and 61.5% for m-MWCNT–CYS, m-MWCNT–HYD, and m-MWCNT–HA respectively. To the best of our knowledge, the grafted MWCNTs presented in this work comprise the first example in the literature of oxidized MWCNT modified with such functionalities and applied for ibuprofen removal.

The goal of this work was to develop polymer-based heterocycle for water purification from toxic pesticides such as difenoconazole. The polymer chosen for this purpose was cellulose nanocrystalline (CNC); two cellulose based heterocycles were prepared by crosslinking with 2,6-pyridine dicarbonyl dichloride (Cell-X), and derivatizing with 2-furan carbonyl chloride (Cell-D). The synthesized cellulose-based heterocycles were characterized by SEM, proton NMR, TGA and FT-IR spectroscopy. To optimize adsorption conditions, the effect of various variable such as time, adsorbent dose, pH, temperature, and difenoconazole initial concentration were evaluated. Results showed that, the maximum difenoconazole removal percentage was about 94.7%, and 96.6% for Cell-X and Cell-D, respectively. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies on the adsorption process showed that the adsorption of difenoconazole by the two polymers is a pseudo-second order and follows the Langmuir isotherm model. The obtained values of ∆G ° and ∆H suggest that the adsorption process is spontaneous at room temperature. The results showed that Cell-X could be a promising adsorbent on a commercial scale for difenoconazole. The several adsorption sites present in Cell-X in addition to the semi crown ether structure explains the high efficiency it has for difenoconazole, and could be used for other toxic pesticides. Monte Carlo (MC) and Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation were performed on a model of Cell-X and difenoconazole, and the results showed strong interaction.

Yatta is a town located nine kilometers south of Hebron city in the West Bank of Palestine. The town houses over 100,000 people of which 49% are females and has a population that doubles every 15 years. Yatta has been connected to a water network since 1974 serving nearly 85% of its households. The water network is old and inadequate to meet the needs of the population. Water supply made available to the area is limited, estimated at 20 L/capita/day. Residents are thus forced to rely on water vendors who supply water that is 400% more expensive with a lower quality compared to municipal water. Therefore, rainwater harvesting is a common practice in the area, with the majority of households owning at least one cistern. Rainwater harvesting is of great socio-economic importance in areas where water sources are scarce and/or polluted. In this research, the quality of harvested rainwater used for drinking and domestic purposes in Yatta was assessed throughout one year. A total of 100 samples were collected from cisterns with an average capacity of 69 m³, which are adjacent to cement-roof catchment areas of 145 m² average surface area. Samples were analyzed for a number of parameters including temperature, pH, alkalinity, hardness, turbidity, total dissolved solids, NO₃, NH₄, chloride and salinity. Results showed that most of the rainwater samples were within World Health Organization (WHO) and Environment Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines for chemical parameters. Microbiological contents such as total Coliforms and faecal Coliforms bacteria were tested. The research also addressed the impact of rainwater harvesting systems on different socio-economic attributes of the local community through a questionnaire that had been filled out before any sample was collected.

The present research is focused on a formulation with two active components as an anticorrosive polymer coating for 15CDV6 steel. The dual component formulation (epoxy-zinc phosphate (ZP) coating) consists of a polymeric epoxy resin Bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (DGEBA) cured with a polyaminoamide as a first component and zinc phosphate (Zn₃(PO₄)₂(H₂O)₄) (ZP) added in 5% by weight as a second component. The anticorrosive performance of the epoxy-ZP coating was evaluated against the standard coating, which consists of only one component, the cured polymeric epoxy resin. The two polymer coatings were evaluated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The surface morphology was of the two polymer coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The coated samples of 15CDV6 steel were tested in a harsh environment of corrosive electrolytes (3 wt % NaCl solution). Under these conditions, a very high impedance value was obtained for 15CDV6 steel coated with the epoxy-ZP coating. Even after exposure for a long period of time (5856 h), the performance was still acceptable, indicating that the epoxy-ZP coating is an excellent barrier. The standard epoxy coating provided an adequate corrosion protection performance for a short period of time, then the performance started to decline. The results were confirmed by surface characterization, a cross-sectional image obtained by optical microscopy for an epoxy-ZP coating applied on 15CDV6 steel exposed for 5856 h to a salt spray test showed that the coating is homogeneous and adheres well to the surface of the steel. So, the coating with a dual component could have great potential in marine applications as anticorrosive for steel.

As the need for water is increasing in Palestine, and the available water resources are barely sufficient to meet the demands of the current quality of life and the economy, air conditioner condensate water could be explored as an alternative water source. The objective of this study is to better understand the potential for recovery of condensate water from air conditioning systems in two Palestinian cities. In addition, this study aims to evaluate this water source in terms of quality and quantity. Generally, it was found that the condensate water has good quality, which conforms to the Palestinian standards for reused water for irrigation, except for turbidity, biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) measurements. Reflecting the heavy metal occurrence in the collected condensate water, no particular risk was recognized for drinking water or reused irrigation standards, except for manganese occurrence of 0.19 mg/L in one sample. From a single unit capacity, high quantities of water were observed of approximately 259 L and 453 L per month in Ramallah and Jericho cities, respectively. These figures should draw the attention of decision and policy makers to put in place strict technical guidelines to be followed for potential reuse of condensate water at the local level.

In this work, we have studied, formulated, prepared, and characterized the rheological and electrical behavior of a composite material based on an epoxy resin Diglycidyl Ether of Bisphenol A (DGEBA) reinforced with hexaglycidyl cyclotriphosphazene (HGCP). The epoxy system was cured with 4,4’-methylene dianiline (MDA). DGEBA-HGCP-MDA epoxy composite materials with reinforced HGCP which varied from 5% to 10% by weight were prepared by mixing in the molten state. The morphology was evaluated by SEM. The rheological behavior was studied using small deformation rheology. The electrical characterization was carried out with a frequency variation range from 1 Hz to 100 KHz at room temperature. These measurements revealed that the rheological and electrical behaviors strongly depend on the quantity of HGCP in the DGEBA matrix. The linear viscoelastic properties study reveals that the modulus of elasticity G’ is dependent on the amount of HGCP present in the epoxy resin DGEBA. The capacitance-frequency measurements suggest a distribution of localized states in the band gap of the blends.