Yahya Salem Al-Degs

A sensitive and simple sample pretreatment method based on a two‐phase solvent bar microextraction (SBME) technique coupled with HPLC–diode array detector (DAD) was developed for simultaneous extraction and determination of trace amounts of furosemide and carbamazepine in human urine and plasma samples. The significance of operational factors on carbamazepine and furosemide extraction efficiency % (EE%) was screened using full factorial design (FFD) while central composite design (CCD) was used to model the entire process. A quadratic model was found convenient to correlate the extraction EE% of selected drugs with dominant experimental factors. A Pareto chart was also used to examine the importance of factors on drugs’ EE%. The analytical performance of the method in urine and plasma samples demonstrated good linearity (R² ˃ 0.992) with detection limits ranging from 4.2 to 10.9 μg L⁻¹, and extraction recovery over 89.45% for both drugs in urine and plasma samples. A comparison against published methods was also performed and the results revealed that the developed method exhibits a confident sensitivity, feasible operation, and simple analysis for both drugs. Finally, the practicability of the validated SBME–HPLC–DAD method was demonstrated by successfully applying it to the analysis of furosemide and carbamazepine in real patient urine samples.

Since the dawn of nanoscience, producing nanomaterials in a simple, low-cost, and high-yield manner has been a major issue. For the commercial manufacturing of nanomaterials, various bottom-up and top-down methodologies have been established. High-energy dry ball milling is widely used for the production of diverse nanomaterials, nanograins, nanoalloys, and nanocomposites. Physical grinding of inorganic solid waste into nanosize (1–100 nm) has improved their industrial applications particularly as water adsorbent. Application of nanosize spent oil shale by top-down methodology as adsorbent for phenol is addressed in the current research. The collected spent oil shale (SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ making 45% of the material) has microstructure with average particle size of 56.6 μm. The dry grinding was performed in a vibrating ball mill at various grinding time (5–150 min) while keeping the grinding parameters constant including number of balls, ball size, total mass, vibration frequency, and amplitude. Upon grinding, the mean particle diameter of the bulk material was reduced to 191.8 and 85.2 nm using 0.5 and 0.1 mm grinding balls, respectively. The effect of grinding time on particle size and surface area was investigated; both particle size and surface area were not affected after 60 min of grinding. Physical grinding by 0.1 mm balls has notably improved surface area and total pore volume by 52% and 62%, respectively. Although nanosize particles (85.2 nm) perform better than bulk material for phenol uptake, they underwent serious aggregation at pH > 2 and ionic strength > 1.0 mM. Hence, the 191.8-nm size is selected to assess the effect of mechanical grinding on adsorption rate and equilibrium capacity for phenol as a common pollutant. Upon nanonization, adsorption rate of phenol was highly increased from 0.39 to 4.43 mg g⁻¹ min⁻¹ as analyzed by pseudo-second-order model. Adsorption isotherms were adequately presented by Sips model (prediction error 5.4–7.2%) with a maximum phenol retention capacity of 39.29 mg/g after nanonization compared to 10.71 mg/g for the raw material. The performance of the nanosize spent oil shale for phenol retention was promising when compared with advanced adsorbents like multiwalled carbon nanotube.

Background: Nano-materials have facilitated remarkable advances in the remediation of many environmental problems. A few studies have tackled the removal of Co(II) from aqueous solutions using nano-materials. Herein, we recently studied the retention kinetics of cobalt species on carbon nanotubes (CNT) bearing different amounts of TiO2 and Fe3O4 nano-materials individually. Method: CNT and their TiO2/Fe3O4-modified nano-material forms were well characterized. Cobalt retention by these adsorbents was investigated at different influencing factors: Co(II) content, solution pH, and time. The kinetic data were fitted with pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order rate models and intra-particle diffusion models for better elucidation of the mechanism of Co retention. Results: XRD evidenced the formation of TiO2 and Fe3O4. High loads of both oxides were needed for higher and faster Co retention by CNT. Co retention capacity increased with increasing the solution pH. The pseudo-second-order model presented the kinetics of Co retention at 30 oC, and 48% of available capacity was attained within the first hour of interaction by CNT-TiO2 and with a moderate S/L ratio of 0.5 g/L. Co retention was increased with the amount of oxide to reach a maximum value of 16. 40 mg/g (90.2% TiO2) and 13.60 mg/g (48.2% Fe₃O₄). The Jovanović equilibrium model predicted the maximum retention values as the nearest to the experimental ones. Conclusion: The potential of CNT-Fe3O4 /TiO2 nano-materials has been successfully demonstrated for the removal of cobalt, which makes them highly attractive and cost-effective adsorbents for wastewater treatment. The reported retention and removal rate values were relatively better than those seen in the literature. Loading different active oxides by CNT is an interesting research area as selective adsorbents can be fabricated with affordable experimental costs.

Since the dawn of nanoscience, producing nanomaterials in a simple, low-cost, and high-yield manner has been a major issue. For the commercial manufacturing of nanomaterials, various bottom-up and top-down methodologies have been established thus far. High energy dry ball milling has been widely used for the production of diverse nanomaterials, nanograins, nanoalloys, and nanocomposites. Physical grinding of inorganic solid wastes into nanosize (1-100 nm) seems to improve their industrial applications particularly as water adsorbent. Application of nanosize spent oil shale to sequestrate phenol is addressed in the current research. The collected spent oil shale (SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ making 45% of the material) has microstructure with average particle size of 56.6 µm. The dry grinding was performed in a vibrating ball mill at various grinding time (5-150 min) while keeping the grinding parameters constant including number of balls, ball size, mass, vibration frequency and amplitude. Upon grinding, the mean particle diameter of the bulk material was reduced to 191.8 and 85.2 nm using 0.5 and 0.1 mm grinding balls, respectively. To assess the influence of physical grinding, textural parameters are measured in addition to other chemical tests including specific surface area, pore volume, particle size distribution, X-ray fluorescence, pH_PZC, and phenol uptake. Although nanosize particles (85.2 nm) perform better than bulk material for phenol uptake, they underwent serious aggregation at pH > 2 and ionic strength > 1.0 mM. Hence, the 191.8 nm size is selected to assess the effect of mechanical grinding on sorption kinetics and equilibrium sorption capacity toward phenol as common pollutant.

Recently, there has been an interest in solvent extraction for extraction organic matter from oil shale. Heating of oil shale in an inert atmosphere facilitated the extraction of the organic matter by solvent extraction. In this research, shale oil obtained by Soxhlet extraction was separated and characterized, and this was not studied previously. The best Soxhlet extraction conditions were 25.0 g oil shale (preheated at 400 °C), particle size of 250–500 µm, 400.0 mL tetrahydrofurane, and 5.0 h extraction time, where 68% of the organic matter was extracted, which is considered a high value compared to published results. Both THF and dichloromethane were effective extractants, the former due to its moderate dipole moment and low hydrophobicity, while the later due to its high solubility factor (20.2) which can swell kerogen and facilitate organic extraction. The significant output of this research is the variability in the composition of oil obtained by solvent extraction compared to conventional thermal retorting, as the first has large fractions of saturated and polar compounds (85%) while small fractions of aromatics (11%). Spectroscopic analysis by FTIR and ¹H-NMR was important in identifying the components of the extracted oil, especially saturated hydrocarbons.

The importance of this study stems from incorporating social aspects with environmental indicators. A field survey was conducted using a multistage representative sample of 120 households, in addition to 43 dust samples. The results revealed a consensus of local residents who believe that the petroleum refinery, thermal plant, and wastewater treatment plant are harming their environment and causing negative health impacts. Moreover, more than 70% of residents believe that the Al‐Samra plant in addition 50% of residents believe that the thermal plant has negative impact on families’ health. The generated Krig map indicates the nonisotropic spatial distribution behavior of sulfur and contains high sulfate values (above 500 mg/kg) close to the petroleum refinery. The results demonstrate the importance of implementing more environment friendly systems to minimize the tremendous impact of local heavy industries on local communities and the natural environment.