Partially carboxymethylated cotton dust waste for sorption of textile wastewater coloured with the cationic dye Basic Blue 41 as a model: synthesis,regeneration and biodegradability

The removal of residual dyes in coloured textile wastewaters is mandatory, and a significant portion of the dyes used are cationic. Textile factories mainly process cotton yarns, and 8 % of this virgin feedstock is lost as cotton dust waste (CDW). Using factorial experimental design, this dust was derivatised with monochloroacetic acid (MCAA) to produce a partially carboxymethylated cellulose (CM^?-CDW) with NaOH, MCAA and isopropanol for the retention of Basic Blue 41 dye (BB 41) (column and batch), and biodegradability was investigated. The dye retention efficiency was examined with additional experiments varying the initial concentration, contact time and addition of salts. Heteronuclear multiple bonding correlation-nuclear magnetic resonance confirmed the covalent insertion of CM^? groups in the cellulosic fibres. The selected matrix provided a dye sorption of 58.33 (column) and 64.50 mg/g (batch). The Langmuir isotherm was a good fit to the sorption data. The efficiency of uptake of BB 41 was predominantly dictated by the concentration of alkali in the matrix synthesis. Biodegradability by cellulases was similar when using uncharged and dye-charged matrices. The latter were fully regenerated by washing in dilute acid. Retention was proportional to the initial dye concentration and the contact time required to reach equilibrium, which was longer for higher dye concentrations. The addition of 10 mmol/l NaCl decreased BB 41 retention by 50 %. Therefore, CM^?-CDW proved effective for the removal of the cationic dye BB 41 and thus represents an important alternative in the treatment of coloured textile effluents.     

Surfaces in $$\mathbb {R}^7$$ obtained from harmonic maps in $$S^6$$S6.

We will investigate the local geometry of the surfaces in the 7-dimensional Euclidean space associated to harmonic maps from a Riemann surface \(\varSigma \) into \(S^6\). By applying methods based on the use of harmonic sequences, we will characterize the conformal harmonic immersions \(\varphi :\varSigma \rightarrow S^6\) whose associated immersions \(F:\varSigma \rightarrow \mathbb {R}^7\) belong to certain remarkable classes of surfaces, namely: minimal surfaces in hyperspheres; surfaces with parallel mean curvature vector field; pseudo-umbilical surfaces; isotropic surfaces.     

Ensemble effects of nickel in surfactant-less prepared Pt-Ni materials on the carbon monoxide oxidative removal

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - This work reports the effect of the Ni content in a PtxNiy/C electrode on the CO oxidation reaction. A series of complementary and physicochemical...     

Dynamics of topological defects in a spiral: a scenario for the spin-glass phase of cuprates

We propose that the dissipative dynamics of topological defects in a spiral state is responsible for the transport properties in the spin-glass phase of cuprates. Using the collective-coordinate method, we show that topological defects are coupled to a bath of magnetic excitations. By integrating out the bath degrees of freedom, we find that the dynamical properties of the topological defects are dissipative. The calculated damping matrix is related to the in-plane resistivity, which exhibits an anisotropy and linear temperature dependence in agreement with experimental data.     

Effect of substrate temperature on electrical and magnetic properties of epitaxial La1−x Pb x MnO3 films

Epitaxial La_1−x Pb _x MnO₃ (LPMO) thin films, grown on (100) SrTiO₃ substrates by laser ablation technique at different temperatures between 600 and 850°C, have been characterized for electrical and magnetic properties. The temperature dependence of resistivity showed that the metal-insulator transition temperature (T _MI) decreases with increasing substrate temperature, which has been attributed to decrease in Pb content in the filsm. The YBa₂Cu₃O _x /La_1−x MnO₃ heterostructures, exhibiting both superconductivity and ferromagnetism, have been fabricated.     

Quaternionic spherical wave functions

The scalar spherical wave functions (SWFs) are solutions to the scalar Helmholtz equation obtained by the method of separation of variables in spherical polar coordinates. These functions are complete and orthogonal over a sphere, and they can, therefore, be used as a set of basis functions in solving boundary value problems by spherical wave expansions. In this work, we show that there exists a theory of functions with quaternionic values and of three real variables, which is determined by the Moisil–Theodorescu‐type operator with quaternionic variable coefficients, and which is intimately related to the radial, angular and azimuthal wave equations. As a result, we explain the connections between the null solutions of these equations, on one hand, and the quaternionic hyperholomorphic and anti‐hyperholomorphic functions, on the other. We further introduce the quaternionic spherical wave functions (QSWFs), which refine and extend the SWFs. Each function is a linear combination of SWFs and products of ‐hyperholomorphic functions by regular spherical Bessel functions. We prove that the QSWFs are orthogonal in the unit ball with respect to a particular bilinear form. Also, we perform a detailed analysis of the related properties of QSWFs. We conclude the paper establishing analogues of the basic integral formulae of complex analysis such as Borel–Pompeiu's and Cauchy's, for this version of quaternionic function theory. As an application, we present some plot simulations that illustrate the results of this work. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Al-K-Auger energy spectra: Probing the electron dynamics in ion-solid interactions

K-Auger electron emission has been investigated for incident electrons and for different types of heavy ions interacting with mono-crystalline aluminum (100) targets at specific kinetic energies of 3 to 5 MeV/u. In an effort to gain a profound knowledge about the ionization and vacancy-decay dynamics for the K-shell in Al, spectra have been measured with different energy resolutions and angular distributions have been taken as well. Here we concentrate on the energy spectra — we identify the measured peak structures and we investigate different line intensities and mean target charge-states quantitatively, in comparison with theoretical results.     

An overview on flow methods for the chemiluminescence determination of phosphorus

A review on the flow analysis of phosphorus with chemiluminescence detection is presented. A brief discussion of the chemiluminescence principles and applications is given. Particular emphasis is devoted to coupling different flow techniques (flow injection, sequential injection, multicommutation, multisyringe flow injection, multi-pumping) to chemiluminescence detection. Enzymatic and non-enzymatic methods, mostly applied to environmental samples, are summarized and compared in terms of application range, detection limits, flow configuration, repeatability and sampling rate.