Photocatalytic Degradation of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Waste Using BiVO4 Based Catalysts

Disposal of palm oil mill effluent (POME), which is highly polluting from the palm oil industry, needs to be handled properly to minimize the harmful impact on the surrounding environment. Photocatalytic technology is one of the advanced technologies that can be developed due to its low operating costs, as well as being sustainable, renewable, and environmentally friendly. This paper reports on the photocatalytic degradation of palm oil mill effluent (POME) using a BiVO₄ photocatalyst under UV-visible light irradiation. BiVO₄ photocatalysts were synthesized via sol-gel method and their physical and chemical properties were characterized using several characterization tools including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), surface area analysis using the BET method, Raman spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). The effect of calcination temperature on the properties and photocatalytic performance for POME degradation using BiVO₄ photocatalyst was also studied. XRD characterization data show a phase transformation of BiVO₄ from tetragonal to monoclinic phase at a temperature of 450 °C (BV-450). The defect site comprising of vanadium vacancy (V_v) was generated through calcination under air and maxima at the BV-450 sample and proposed as the origin of the highest reaction rate constant (k) of photocatalytic POME removal among various calcination temperature treatments with a k value of 1.04 × 10⁻³ min⁻¹. These findings provide design guidelines to develop efficient BiVO₄-based photocatalyst through defect engineering for potential scalable photocatalytic organic pollutant degradation.     

电镀及化学镀磁记录介质薄膜的最新进展

本文综述了近年来国外电镀及化学镀磁记录介质薄膜的最新研究进展、电镀及化学镀镀液组成、工艺条件及其对薄膜性能的影响、存在问题及发展方向等．磁记录介质薄膜的制备，过去一直采用溅射方法，近年来国外开展了电镀及化学镀方法制备的研究．电镀方法包括水溶液电镀（如：Ｎｉ－Ｆｅ、Ｆｅ－Ｃｏ合金等）和非水溶液电镀（如Ｔｂ－Ｆｅ、Ｎｄ－Ｆｅ、Ｔｂ－Ｆｅ－Ｃｏ合金等），化学镀则是在Ｎｉ－Ｐ、Ｃｏ－Ｐ合金的基础上，通过添加其它金属盐，得到磁记录介质薄膜，如：Ｃｏ－Ｎｉ－Ｐ、Ｃｏ－Ｗ－Ｐ、Ｃｏ－Ｍｎ－Ｐ、Ｃｏ－Ｎｉ－Ｒｅ－Ｐ合金等     

Preparative gas chromatography with glass capillary columns

The present paper describes an automated system for preparative gas chromatography with glass capillary columns, controlled by a microprocessor. The effluent from the capillary column is divided by a pneumatically controlled splitter and any desired split ratio between traps and detector can be obtained. Moreover, a second pneumatic control allows instantaneous change-over to a different split ratio, thus minimizing loss of material during collection. The effluent containing the compounds of interest is passed through a multiple manifold and collected in coiled glass capillary traps. To ensure maximum trapping efficiency even for very small amounts of material, the inner walls of the capillary traps are wetted with a suitable solvent, which gives a quantitative recovery of micro- and nanogram amounts of material. After repetitive sampling, sufficient amounts of material can be obtained for NMR spectroscopy and possibilities exist to enrich trace components with the aid of a double column system. Two examples of such applications are given, employing mixtures of both synthetic and natural origin.     

Reflection and structural analyses of mirror-bright metal coatings

Reflection and structural analyses of different copper and zinc coatings were performed. The copper coatings were electrodeposited from a sulfate solution in the presence of thiourea, as well as in the presence of modified polyglycol ether, PEG 6000 and 3-mercaptopropanesulfonate. The zinc coating was electrodeposited from a sulfate solution in the presence of a dextrin/salicylaldehyde mixture. They were examined by STM and X-ray diffraction analysis, and measurements of the reflection of light from their surfaces were taken. The mean sizes of atomically flat parts of these surfaces were estimated by the STM software measurements, using options for the determination of the autocovariance function and the power spectral density function. It was shown that the mean sizes of atomically flat parts of the copper coatings were several times greater than the mean size of atomically flat parts of the zinc coating. This difference probably leads to the difference in the maximum degrees of mirror reflection between copper and zinc coatings.     

Practical aspects of Pt/Ir effluent splitters for multidetector GC and pneumatic solute switching

Practical details are given to produce low dead volume Pt/Ir to glass connections and a variety of components for effluent splitting and pneumatic solute switching. It is shown that the column effluents from a glass capillary column can be split in any desired ratio and maintained constant, regardless of column flow rate. Bandbroadening in the splitter remains negligible even for very low flow rates. A complex pneumatic system to be used for heartcutting with two glass capillary columns is shown.     

A novel spectrophotometric method for batch and flow injection determination of cyanide in electroplating wastewater

A sensitive and highly selective spectrophotometric method is described for the determination of cyanide. It is based on a reaction of cyanide with aquacyanocobyrinic acid heptamethyl ester (ACCbs) reagent (orange color) at pH 9.5 to give dicyanocobester (DCCbs) (violet color). The increase of the absorption bands of the reaction product at 368 and 580 nm and the decrease of the reagent band at 353 nm are linearly proportional to the cyanide concentration. The method is used in static mode for determining cyanide over the concentration range 0.04-1.20 μg ml⁻¹ with a detection limit of 0.02 μg ml⁻¹ and for hydrodynamic analysis of 0.4-5.2 μg ml⁻¹ cyanide. Application for batch and flow injection monitoring of cyanide in electroplating wastewater samples gives results agree within ± 1.2% with those obtained by the standard potentiometry using the cyanide ion selective electrode. The method is practically free from interferences by PO₄³⁻, NO₃⁻, NO₂⁻, SO₄²⁻, F⁻, Cl⁻, Br⁻, I⁻, S²⁻ and SCN⁻ ions and gives results with average recoveries of 97.6-99.2%. Advantages offered by using ACCbs as a chromogen for cyanide assay are: (i) high selectivity and sensitivity of the coordination site of the reagent towards cyanide ion; (ii) fast reaction, since legation takes place at the axial position of the reagent; (iii) good solubility and stability of the reagent in aqueous solutions over a wide pH range; (iv) high stability of the reagent (ACCbs) and the colored complex product (DCCbs) and (v) possible absorbance measurements at three different wavelengths.     

Electrochemical preparation of composite polyaniline coating and its application in the determination of bisphenol A, 4-n-nonylphenol, 4-tert-octylphenol using direct solid phase microextraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography

For SPME-HPLC, metal wires with better mechanical strength are preferred over the fused silica fibers. In this article, a novel composite polyaniline (CPANI) doped with PEG and polydimethylsiloxane coating (CPANI fiber) was prepared on a stainless steel wire by a three-electrode system: the fiber was used as the work electrode, a calomel electrode and a platinum electrode were used as the reference and the counter electrodes, respectively. To evaluate the new CPANI coating, the coating was used to extract three kinds of phenols (bisphenol A, 4-n-nonylphenol, and 4-tert-octylphenol) in water samples by direct-SPME mode and then desorbed in commercial SPME-HPLC interface to separation. The extraction procedure was also optimized. Five real water samples were investigated. Good recoveries were gained when environmental samples were analyzed.