Sonochemical synthesis of holmium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles: Characterization, sonocatalysis of reactive orange 29 and kinetic study

Ho3+ -doped BaGd2 ZnO5 green-emitting phosphor for solid-state lighting: synthesis, characterization, and photoluminescence properties

In this work, we present the synthesis of a green-emitting series of BaGd2 ZnO5 :xHo3+ (0.5-3 mol%) phosphors using a high-temperature solid-state reaction method. Phase purity and crystal structure information were evaluated through X-ray powder diffraction patterns. Optical properties were examined through diffuse reflectance spectra, revealing that the prepared phosphor exhibited a band gap of 4.65 eV. The effect of Ho3+ doping on the morphology and ion distribution on the surface was assessed using scanning electron microscopy and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry techniques, respectively. The excitation spectra of the synthesized phosphor exhibited a charge transfer band and strong absorption transitions. The emission spectra displayed typical holmium emission characteristics, featuring a strong green emission band associated with f-f transitions from 5 F4  + 2 S2  → 5 I8 . Decay dynamics of the synthesized phosphor exhibited a single-exponential decay pattern, with lifetimes ranging from 0.103 to 0.053 ms. The intrinsic radiative lifetime, calculated through Auzel's fitting was determined to be 0.14 ms. Using the emission spectra, colorimetric behaviour was analyzed, revealing that the Commission Internationale de l'éclairage (CIE) coordinates exclusively lay within the green region at (0.285, 0.705), with an impressive colour purity of 99.6%. Given these marked properties, the synthesized phosphor exhibits great potential for a wide range of green-emitting applications, including displays, white light-emitting diodes, and security signage.

Encapsulation of ZnO and Ho:ZnO Nanoparticles in the Core of Wrinkled Mesoporous Silica

Wrinkled mesoporous silica (WMS) has a flower- or dendritic-like morphology, tunable pore size, and highly ordered and accessible three-dimensional (3D) pore structures. In this research, a method to encapsulate semiconductor nanoparticles in the core of the wrinkled mesoporous silica during synthesis is described. Highly uniform zinc oxide and holmium-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized by a sonochemical method. Zinc oxide and holmium-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles have been encapsulated in wrinkled mesoporous silica during synthesis. The ZnO@WMS and Ho:ZnO@WMS particles have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis spectroscopy, fluorescence, dynamic light scattering (DLS), confocal microscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD).

Reactive Blue 19 dye removal by UV-LED/chlorine advanced oxidation process

In recent years, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have indicated the greatest potential in the removal of stable organic compounds, including dyes. In this study, the ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) combined with chlorine was evaluated to remove Reactive Blue 19 (RB19) dye from aqueous solution. The effect of key experimental parameters including pH, initial chlorine concentration, initial dye concentration, and reaction time on the performance of UV-LED irradiation, UV-LED/chlorine, and the chlorination method for the removal of RB19 was studied in this research. Results showed that, more than 99% of RB19 was removed after 30 min of reaction time under optimized conditions (pH = 5, [chlorine] = 300 μM, and [RB19] = 20 mg L^-1) with apparent kinetic rate constant (k_app) of 17.1 × 10^-2 min^-1 in UV-LED/chlorine process. However, for the chlorination method, removal efficiency was 64.7% (k_app = 3.41 × 10^-2 min^-1) with an apparent kinetic rate constant of 0.0341 min^-1. Results also showed that UV-LED irradiation is not effective at all in removing RB19. The scavenging assay showed that OH^• radicals (67.23%) had the highest contribution in RB19 removal in UV-LED/chlorine process while Cl^• (17.82%) and [Formula: see text] (8.56%) had a minor role in the degradation of the dye. The RB19 degradation kinetics analysis revealed that the processes of UV-LED/chlorine and chlorination degradation followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. In this study, the impact of chloride, nitrate, bicarbonate, carbonate, sulfate, and sulfite anions on the performance of the process was investigated. It indicated that sulfite anion has the most negative impact on the RB19 removal process. By evaluating the synergistic effect between UV-LED lamp and chlorine, a synergy index of 5.0 was obtained for the UV-LED/chlorine process. The results presented that the UV-LED/chlorine process has a better performance than each of them alone and has the necessary efficiency for RB19 removal. Measuring COD reported its removal efficiency of 98% during the UV-LED/chlorine process under optimized conditions. Experiments continued with textile factory wastewater and indicated 30.9% of its COD removed after treatment when 1.0 μM chlorine was used.

Engineered Zn-based nano-pesticides as an opportunity for treatment of phytopathogens in agriculture

People's desire for food has never slowed, despite the deterioration of the global agricultural environment and the threat to food security. People rely on agrochemicals to ensure normal crop growth and to relieve the existing demand pressure. Phytopathogens have acquired resistance to traditional pesticides as a result of pesticdes' abuse. Compared with traditional formulations, nano-pesticides have superior antimicrobial performance and are environmentally friendly. Zn-based nanoparticles (NPs) have shown their potential as strong antipathogen activity. However, their full potential has not been demonstrated yet. Here, we analyzed the prerequisites for the use of Zn-based NPs as nano-pesticides in agriculture including both intrinsic properties of the materials and environmental conditions. We also summarized the mechanisms of Zn-based NPs against phytopathogens including direct and indirect strategies to alleviate plant disease stress. Finally, the current challenges and future directions are highlighted to advance our understanding of this field and guide future studies.

Ho3+-Induced ZnO: Structural, Electron Density Distribution and Antibacterial Activity for Biomedical Application

The current investigation focused on the synthesis and characterization of Zn_1-xHo_xO (X = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08) materials. The rare-earth Ho³⁺-doped ZnO materials have been prepared using a chemical precipitation process. The phase pure hexagonal structured ZnO crystal system has been observed by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization. The detailed structural analysis of prepared materials has been investigated by the Rietveld refinement method. The surface morphology and elemental composition of the prepared materials have been characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDAX). The presence of vibrational links associated with various functional groups has been displayed by FTIR spectroscopy. The energy gap of synthesized materials has been studied using UV-Vis spectroscopy. To study the luminescence activity of produced materials, photoluminescence (PL) analysis has been utilized. The light-green emission at around 507 nm has been obtained by synthesized materials under 380-nm excitation. In addition, the electron density distribution has been accomplished in synthesized materials. At 6% of Ho³⁺, substituted ZnO exposes the maximum covalent and ionic nature between Zn-O bond along with horizontal and vertical axis, respectively. Moreover, the antibacterial activity of synthesized materials has been done through Proteus vulgaris and Enterococcus faecalis. Following that the destruction of human red blood cells has been examined by hemolysis investigation. All experimental results suggested that the 6% of Ho³⁺ dopant is the optimized level of ZnO host lattice. The present work paves a promising path to get efficient material for biomedical applications.

Unveiling Semiconductor Nanostructured Based Holmium-Doped ZnO: Structural, Luminescent and Room Temperature Ferromagnetic Properties

This research work describes the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures doped with Ho³⁺ ions using a conventional sol-gel synthesis method. The nanostructured produced exhibited a wurtzite hexagonal structure in both ZnO and ZnO:Ho³⁺ (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 mol%) samples. The change in morphology with addition of Ho³⁺ dopants was observed, which was assigned to Ostwald ripening effect occurring during the nanoparticles' growth. The photoluminescence emission properties of the doped samples revealed that Ho³⁺ was emitting through its electronic transitions. Moreover, reduced surface defects were observed in the Holmium doped samples whose analysis was undertaken using an X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) technique. Finally, enhanced room temperature ferromagnetism (RT-FM) for Ho³⁺-doped ZnO (0.5 mol%) samples with a peak-to-peak line width of 452 G was detected and found to be highly correlated to the UV-VIS transmittance results.

Sonochemical Synthesis, Characterization and Optical Properties of Tb-Doped CdSe Nanoparticles: Synergistic Effect between Photocatalysis and Sonocatalysis

In this study, Tb-doped CdSe nanoparticles with variable Tb³⁺ content were synthesized by a simple sonochemical technique. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The sono-photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared specimens were assessed for the degradation of Reactive Black 5. The experimental results show that the sono-photocatalytic process (85.25%) produced a higher degradation percentage than the individual sono- (22%) and photocatalytic degradation (8%) processes for an initial dye concentration and Tb-doped CdSe dosage of 20 mg/L and 1 g/L, respectively. Response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to assess model and optimize the impacts of the operational parameters, namely, the Tb³⁺ content, initial dye concentration, catalyst dosage, and time. The addition of benzoquinone results in remarkably inhibited degradation and the addition of ammonium oxalate reduced the removal percentage to 24%. Superoxide radicals and photogenerated holes were detected as the main oxidative species.

Synthesis of Ni(ii)-phosphotungstic acid/nanocrystalline HZSM-5 catalyst for ultra clean gasoline in a single-stage reactor

An excellent catalyst for hydrodesulfurization, aromatization and olefin hydrogenation of FCC gasoline, is designed in this paper.

Adsorption, degradation, and mineralization of emerging pollutants (pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals) by nanostructures: a comprehensive review

This review discusses a fresh pool of research findings reported on the multiple roles played by metal-based, magnetic, graphene-type, chitosan-derived, and sonicated nanoparticles in the treatment of pharmaceutical- and agrochemical-contaminated waters. Some main points from this review are as follows: (i) there is an extensive number of nanoparticles with diverse physicochemical and morphological properties which have been synthesized and then assessed in their respective roles in the degradation and mineralization of many pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, (ii) the exceptional removal efficiencies of graphene-based nanomaterials for different pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals molecules support arguably well a high potential of these nanomaterials for futuristic applications in remediating water pollution issues, (iii) the need for specific surface modifications and functionalization of parent nanostructures and the design of economically feasible production methods of such tunable nanomaterials tend to hinder their widespread applicability at this stage, (iv) supplementary research is also required to comprehensively elucidate the life cycle ecotoxicity characteristics and behaviors of each type of engineered nanostructures seeded for remediation of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals in real contaminated media, and last but not the least, (v) real wastewaters are extremely complex in composition due to the mix of inorganic and organic species in different concentrations, and the presence of such mixed species have different radical scavenging effects on the sonocatalytic degradation and mineralization of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Moreover, the formulation of viable full-scale implementation strategies and reactor configurations which can use multifunctional nanostructures for the effective remediation of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals remains a major area of further research.

Review on the treatment of organic pollutants in water by ultrasonic technology

The application of ultrasonic technology in the treatment of organic pollutants in water has attracted more and more attention in recent years. Compared with conventional treatment, ultrasonic treatment is more efficient and time saving. Ultrasonic technology is effective for the degradation of many refractory organic pollutants. In this paper, the principle, influencing factors and various methods of ultrasonic degradation of organic pollutants are studied in view of ultrasonic treatment alone, ultrasound treatment methods combined with biocatalysts, chemical oxidation and adsorption techniques, respectively. In addition, the problems existing in the treatment of organic pollutants in water by ultrasonic technology are analyzed and the development direction is put forward.

Heterogeneous sonocatalytic degradation of anazolene sodium by synthesized dysprosium doped CdSe nanostructures

Undoped and Dy-doped CdSe nanoparticles are synthesized and then characterized by the SEM, XRD, FT-IR, XPS and BET methods, which verify successful preparation of the doped catalyst. The sonocatalytic degradation of anazolene sodium as a model azo dye is higher than sonolysis process and the 2% Dy-doped CdSe with band gap of 1.42eV exhibits the greatest sonocatalytic performance. The decolorization efficiency (DE%) of sonocatalysis with 2% Dy-doped CdSe, undoped CdSe and sonolysis after 90min of the process is 91.32%, 56.13% and 39.14%, respectively. In addition, the sonocatalytic degradation of anazolene sodium increases with enhancement of the dopant, catalyst dosage, ultrasonic power, dissolved gasses and decreasing of initial anazolene sodium concentration. Furthermore, with addition of chloroform, sulfate, chloride and ethanol as the radical scavengers, the DE% decreases indicating the controlling mechanism of free radicals for the dye degradation. Besides, the results reveal the appropriate reusability of the catalyst and various degradation by-products are identified using the GC-MS technique. Eventually, the empirical kinetic model is expanded by nonlinear regression analysis for prediction of pseudo first-order constants in various operational conditions.