Zinc oxide from aloe vera extract: two-level factorial screening of biosynthesis parameters.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) was biosynthesised from aloe vera plant extract. The aloe vera plant extract was used as a reducing agent in biosynthesis process. Green synthesis method was proposed because it is cost effective and environmentally friendly. ZnO was characterised using SEM, EDX, FTIR, and XRD analyses. The antibacterial property was tested against Escherichia coli. The effects of aloe vera volume (2-50) mL, precursor concentration (0.001-0.300) M, reaction time (20 min-48 h), and temperature of the reaction (26-200) °C on ZnO characteristics were investigated and screened using a two-level factorial method. Based on the observation and ANOVA analysis result, precursor concentration was the only significant parameter that affected the production of the ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). The EDX analysis proved the presence of ZnO while the SEM analysis confirmed the average size of ZnO particle size was in the range of (18-618) µm with a rod-shape appearance. The XRD analysis showed that the average crystallite size was 0.452 µm and it was in the hexagonal phase. It was also proven to have antibacterial property against E. coli.

Removal of As(iii) and As(v) from water using green, silica-based ceramic hollow fibre membranes via direct contact membrane distillation.

Arsenite [As(iii)] and arsenate [As(v)] removal by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) using novel hydrophobic green, silica-based ceramic hollow fibre membranes derived from agricultural rice husk was investigated in this work. The green ceramic hollow fibre membranes were prepared from amorphous (ASHFM) and crystalline (CSHFM) silica-based rice husk ash and modified to be hydrophobic via immersion fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) grafting of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane. Superhydrophobic contact angle values up to 157° and 161° were obtained for ASHFM and CSHFM, respectively. Remarkably, the membrane surface morphology mimicked a look-alike lotus-leaf structure with decrement in pore size after grafting via the silane agent for both membranes. The effect of arsenic pH (3-11), arsenic concentration (1-1000 ppm) and feed temperature (50-80 °C) were studied and it was found that feed temperature had a significant effect on the permeate flux. The hydrophobic CSHFM, with a flux of 50.4 kg m-2 h-1 for As(iii) and 51.3 kg m-2 h-1 for As(v), was found to be the best of the tested membranes. In fact, this membrane can reject arsenic to the maximum contaminant level (MCL) limit of 10 ppb under any conditions, and no swelling mechanism of the membranes was observed after testing for 4 hours.