Facile extraction and characterization of calcium hydroxide from paper mill waste sludge of Bangladesh.

Herein, paper mill waste sludge (PMS) from two different sources has been investigated to extract calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2 by a facile and inexpensive extraction process. PMS samples, collected from local paper mill plants of Bangladesh, were the main precursors wherein HCl and NaOH were used for chemical treatment. The as-synthesized products were analysed by a variety of characterization tools including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) elemental analyses. Our studies confirm that the extracted product contains Ca(OH)2 as a major content, albeit it also includes CaCO3 phase owing to the inescapable carbonation process from the surrounding environment. The particle size of the synthesized products is in the range of 450-500 nm estimated from SEM micrographs. The crystallite domain size of the same estimated from XRD analyses and was found to be approximately 47 and 31 nm respectively for product-A and product-B considering major (101) Bragg peak of Ca(OH)2. The yield percentage of the isolated products is about 65% for samples collected from both sources.

Reuse of gamma-ray irradiated textile wastewater: implications on the growth of Capsicum frutescens plant.

This investigation concentrates on the possibility of using gamma radiation for the decomposition of organic pollutants in textile wastewater and reuse as irrigation water. The wastewater sample was irradiated at four different absorbed doses of 3, 5, 8, and 10 kilo Gray (kGy). After irradiation at 8-10 kGy, physicochemical parameters, i.e., pH, turbidity, EC, total suspended solids (TSS) and total dissolved solids (TDS), have decreased sharply and approached to the expected value recommended by Department of Environment (DoE), Bangladesh. At 10 kGy absorbed dose, 59.0 % biological oxygen demand (BOD5) and 71.6 % chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal has been achieved, accelerating the enhancement in biodegradability index (BOD5/COD). Ammonium and total nitrogen have improved up to 87.0 % and 94.5 % after irradiation at 10 kGy doses. Subsequently, the treated textile wastewater samples were reused to grow Capsicum frutescens plants to inspect the fertility responses. When Capsicum plants were nourished by textile wastewater irradiated at 8-10 kGy, increased values were observed in the plant morphological parameters such as dry masses of the fruits (from 2.25 to 3.02 g), moisture content (from 91.35 to 92.62%), root length (from 13.21 to 16.56 cm), average plant height (from 2.42 to 4.07 cm/week), average number of leaves (from 14 to 16 nos./week), and total number of fruits (from 25 to 40 nos.) in comparison to those plants nourished by simply water and raw wastewater. The elemental analysis confirmed that negligible amounts of heavy metals were found in Capsicum fruits at higher absorbed doses. In contrast, helpful macro and micronutrients for plant production were raised to sufficient levels at 8-10 kGy, which can be the optimum doses for gamma irradiation to treat textile wastewater for maintaining sustainable water resources.

Adsorption Mechanism of Methylene Blue by Graphene Oxide-Shielded Mg-Al-Layered Double Hydroxide From Synthetic Wastewater.

Pollution of water resources by various pollutants is a global environmental issue, particularly, dye pollution has a major contribution to it. From various studies, it is confirmed that adsorption is an excellent remediation technique compared to others. Mg-Al-layered double hydroxides (LDHs) intercalated with NO3- ions act as an effective adsorbent-removing ionic species like heavy metal and dyes. Another popular nanomaterial is graphene oxide (GO), which is successfully used as an adsorbent for different pollutants like dye and heavy metal ions. It is prepared based on the modified Hummers method. In this study, GO was introduced on the surface of LDH to improve its adsorption capacity. The adsorption process is well described by the Freundlich model. The maximum adsorption capacity was obtained at around 0.5 and 0.85 mmol of methylene blue (MB) per gram of Mg-Al LDH and modified Mg-Al LDH with GO, respectively. The reaction kinetics of MB with both adsorbents is determined to be the pseudo-second-order. To get more insights of the mechanism, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was conducted among the modified Mg-Al LDH with GO and MB molecules at both low- and high-concentration environments, which demonstrated that the developed composite adsorbs MB molecules predominantly onto its GO surface and then the MB molecules are adsorbed by the LDH surface. C-H···O (2.49-3.04 Å) and pi-donor···H-O (2.45-3.05 Å) are the major driving forces behind the strong adsorbability. Besides, S···H-O, S···O,N···O-H, pi···lone pair, pi···sigma, pi···cation, and alkyl···hydrophobic interactions play important roles in stabilizing the MB molecules onto the surface of the composite.

A novel method to delaminate nitrate-intercalated MgAl layered double hydroxides in water and application in heavy metals removal from waste water.

Nitrate-intercalated MgAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) was successfully delaminated in water by a facile and effective method upon reflux at 120 °C for 24 h followed by sonication at 40 °C for 5 h. This process is environmentally friendly since water is the only solvent used. The delaminated nanosheets were characterized by microscopic, spectroscopic, and particle size analyses. The delamination process successfully produced octahedron-shaped single-layer nanosheets 50-150 nm in size. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data confirmed that the surface elements and their chemical status are consistent with the basic layer of MgAl LDH. The delaminated nanosheets displayed higher adsorption capacity for removing heavy metals from waste water than the original powdered LDH. After treating the waste water, a sharp and intense peak in the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) pattern of the precipitate confirms the restacking of the LDH nanosheets.

Correction to: Determination of trace metal concentration in compost, DAP, and TSP fertilizers by neutron activation analysis (NAA) and insights from density functional theory calculations.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained an error in the body text and in Tables 4 and 6. The corrected version of the sentences and Tables are given below.

Determination of trace metal concentration in compost, DAP, and TSP fertilizers by neutron activation analysis (NAA) and insights from density functional theory calculations.

Leaching of toxic metals from fertilizers is a growing concern in an agricultural country like Bangladesh due to the serious consequences in health and food chain. Fertilizers used in farming fields and nurseries (plant sales outlet) in the mid-southern part of Bangladesh were collected for the determination of toxic metals. This study employed the neutron activation method and a relative standardization approach. Three standard/certified reference materials, namely NIST coal fly ash 1633b, IAEA-Soil-7, and IAEA-SL-1 (lake sediment), were considered for elemental quantification. Concentration of As (2.63-16.73 mg/kg), Cr (40.93-261.77 mg/kg), Sb (0.47-63.58 mg/kg), Th (1.44-19.16 mg/kg), and U (1.90-209.41 mg/kg) were determined in fertilizers. High concentrations of Cr, Sb, and U were detected in some compost and phosphate fertilizers (TSP and diammonium phosphate (DAP)) in comparison with the IAEA/European market standard and other studies. Quantum mechanical calculations were performed to understand the molecular level interaction of CrO3, Sb2O3, and AsO3, with DAP by employing density functional theory with the B3LYP/SDD level of theory. Our results indicated that CrO3 and Sb2O3 have strong binding affinity with DAP compared to AsO3, which supports the experimental results. These compounds attached to the phosphate group through covalent-like bonding with oxygen. The frontier molecular orbital calculation indicated that HOMO-LUMO gap of the AsO3-DAP (5.46 eV) and Sb2O3-DAP (6.48 eV) complexes are relatively lower than the CrO3-DAP, which indicates that As and Sb oxides are chemically more prone to attach with the phosphate group of DAP fertilizer.