Aveen Faidhalla Jalal

Currently, the co-removal of heavy metals and anionic dyes from industrial wastewater is quite difficult due to the stability of both pollutants and their combined co-existence.

Exposure of humans to toxic chemicals can lead to significant health risks. This study evaluates the physicochemical parameters in the leachates of two local yogurt containers purchased from Erbil City, Iraq, comprising white plastic (WPC) and aluminum containers (ALC). Acetic acid, distilled water, ethanol, lactic acid, sodium carbonate, and sodium chloride at varying concentrations were examined as effective simulants for assessing leaching from the two containers (1.0 cm2 container/1.0 mL simulant). Leaching experiments were conducted under three different conditions, including Refrigerated/First Condition (1stC, 4±1°C for 72 hours), Ambient/Second Condition (2ndC, 25±2°C for 24 hours), and Elevated/Third Condition (3rdC, 60±2°C for 2 hours). After leaching, many tests, such as the change in physical state, pH measurement, estimation of leached oxidizable materials, UV absorbing materials (UV-AMs), weight loss (WL), and heavy metals (HMs) level, were examined for the obtained leachates. The observations showed that there was a significant change in the ALC specimens’ surface. Most of the analyzed HMs were found in levels below the permissible limits (1000 μg/L), except the content of lead was found above this limit in the ALC leachates using 5% sodium carbonate. The results showed that the maximum migration level of oxidizable matters and UV-AMs was observed in the leachates of ALC (3rdC, 5% sodium carbonate) and WPC (1stC and 2ndC, lactic acid), respectively. The WL was additionally recorded at a high level in many kinds of local yogurts. Results exceeded many international guidelines and clearly confirm that the continuous use of the ALC and WPC may contribute significantly to the daily intake of toxic chemicals and can pose a significant health hazard.

Heavy metals are recently introduced in the manufacturing of various household utensils. The objective of this study was to investigate different heavy metals contents in the composition of yogurts containers collected from the markets of Erbil City. The collected containers were aluminum containers and plastic containers with several colors. An inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer was used to analyse the contents of nine heavy metals including cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, and zinc. The level of total detected metal load found in the analyzed containers. The recorded level for total detected metal load in the overall aluminum containers sample was very high and approximately 27 times more than that level in the overall plastic containers sample. Lead and cadmium were known as toxic heavy metals and detected with a high amount in the aluminum containers composition. The total contamination in the aluminum containers composition was noticeably exceeded the permissible world limits for heavy metals in packaging materials. Results obtained clarified that the white color of plastic containers is more preferable and safer than the dark or other multi-color plastic containers items in terms of heavy metals. KEY WORDS: Aluminum and plastic container, Heavy metal, ICP-OES, Yogurt Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2024, 38(6), 1509-1519. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v38i6.1

The use of macrocyclic compounds to remove organic dyes is fascinating because they have a wide surface area range and can be used for different things. new (14E, 34E)-7-Hydroxy-7, 8, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27-Octahydro-6H, 16H, 33H Tetrabenzo[f,k,u,z][1,5,13,20]Tetraoxacycloheptacosine-16,33-Dione (HOTTD) was obtained by a simple high-dilution method, and characterized by FTIR, ¹H-NMR, FESEM, EDX, and XRD. It worked well in removing organic dyes from aqueous solutions. Contact time, pH, dosage, initial concentration and temperature were studied. The optimum conditions were achieved by using 20 mg/L dye concentration, 50 mg dose of adsorbent and pH 9.0 at room temperature. The adsorption process was remarkably fast and reached equilibrium within 10 min for both Brilliant Green and Malachite Green while 70 min for Safranin. The batch adsorption experiments followed a pseudo 2^nd order and Langmuir model with maximum adsorption capacity 19.26 mg/g, 18.28 mg/g, and 14.35 mg/g for Brilliant Green, Malachite green and Safranin respectively. The process was endothermic and spontaneous in nature. Adsorbent regeneration test provides an excellent value 5 times.

The new adsorbent was prepared by mixing cellulose with dicyclohexyl-18- crown-6 via microwave irradiation method and it was used to remove lead ions from aqueous solution. In contrast to the traditional way (in which grafted polymers are produced by using chemical-free radical producers), this method is rapid, reproducible, and gives a high quality product. Different physicochemical techniques such as FTIR, SEM, and XRD and TGA were used for the characterization of the produced adsorbent. Based on the ANOVA statistical value, the adsorption of Pb²⁺ ion onto grafted cellulose has been found to be significant, with very low probability (p) values (2+ ion removal from the analysis of variance. Pseudo-second-order and Langmuir equations were applied to the adsorption of Pb²⁺ ion and under the optimized conditions, the maximum absorption capacity in modified cellulose of Pb²⁺ was 58.3 mg/g. Various factors which affect metal ion adsorption, including temperature, power of hydrogen, shaking time, adsorbent quantity, and metal ions concentration were studied. More importantly, the adsorbent could be reused by using 0.1 M nitric acid. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

In this work, the magnetite nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄-NPs) synthesized using a simple, fast, and environmentally acceptable green approach. Gundelia Tournefortii Extract, an aqueous plant extract, was used for the first time in green synthesis to prepare nanoparticles as reducing, capping, and stabilizing agents. Such biomolecules as flavonoids, alkaloids, and antioxidants are found in the aqueous leaf extract, and their presence has been determined to have an important role in the synthesis of Fe₃O₄-NPs. The techniques used in this analysis include Fourier Transform Infrared, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction, Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer. The Vibrating Sample Magnetometer demonstrated that the samples were superparamagnetic, with a magnetization value of 48.6 emu/g. The prepared nanoparticle was applied to remove Chrystal Violet (CV), Malachite Green(MG), and Safranin (S) dyes from prepared aqueous solutions with the adsorption capacity of 13.9, 15.6, and 14.4 mg/g respectively.