Mounir El Achaby

Flexible textile-based electronic systems are emerging as promising candidates for next-generation wearable technologies due to their mechanical compliance, lightweight nature, and seamless integration into garments. In this work, a metamaterial-inspired dual-band flexible textile antenna based on a wool-felt substrate is presented for body-centric wireless applications. The proposed device is designed as a flexible electronic structure integrating coplanar waveguide (CPW) feeding with symmetric square-ring resonators to enable compact size and dual-band electromagnetic functionality. The wool-felt substrate serves as a functional textile material offering low density, high flexibility, and stable dielectric behavior under mechanical deformation. The fabricated structure exhibits an overall dimension of 40 × 52 mm2, making it suitable for garment-integrated electronic systems. Experimental results demonstrate two impedance bandwidths of 3.11–3.70 GHz and 5.52–6.89 GHz (|S11| < −10 dB), covering sub-6 GHz 5G and ISM wireless communication bands. The proposed flexible electronic system achieves measured gains of 1.81 dBi and 4.35 dBi at the lower and upper frequency bands, respectively, with good agreement between simulated and experimental results. Mechanical bending analysis confirms stable electromagnetic performance, with resonance shifts below 1%, indicating robust mechanical–electromagnetic coupling under deformation. Furthermore, specific absorption rate (SAR) analysis verifies compliance with international safety standards for on-body wireless operation. Owing to its combination of a functional textile substrate, compact architecture, and stable dual-band performance, the proposed wool-felt-based flexible antenna represents a promising candidate for wearable and body-centric electronic systems.

Flexible antennas represent key enabling components for emerging Internet-of-Things (IoT) platforms and next-generation wireless communication systems.

The updated image illustrates the entire process rather than focusing only on the coating formulation, providing a more comprehensive and accurate visual summary of the work.

Widespread discharge of oily wastewater from industrial processes, combined with accidental oil spills, poses a significant challenge to the environment and human health. Hence, the efficient separation of oil/water mixtures is a pressing issue for sustainable development. Hydrophobic/oleophilic materials based on cellulose fibers modified with silanes show increasing interest for the selective separation of oil and water, but it remains difficult to achieve simple processing while ensuring stability, durability, environmental friendliness, and low cost. Here, a hydrophobic membrane was produced via a simple one-step modification by immersing the paper substrate (UNPr) in hydrolyzed 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). Heat treatment at 120 °C promoted interfacial interactions between the NH₂–NH₂ and NH₂–OH groups via conformational rearrangements that oriented the −NH₂ groups toward the fiber surfaces (inward), resulting in a transition from hydrophilic to hydrophobic surfaces. This modified paper showed a water contact angle (WCA) of over 134° and oil spread immediately with an oil contact angle (OCA) of ∼0°; moreover, the average pore volume of the membrane was 246.75 ± 469.3 μm³, which improved its selectivity and enabled efficient separation of even small water droplets.

The advancement of sustainable carbon materials necessitates the implementation of scalable and environmentally benign processing methodologies that circumvent energy-intensive graphitization and the utilization of fossil-derived precursors.

The rapid advancement of modern civilization has increased the demand for heavy metals, while the exhaustion of high-grade natural ore supplies compels the investigation of alternate metal sources. Simultaneously, industrial activities cause substantial amounts of inorganic solid waste every year globally, and pyrrhotite ash (PA) represents a notable case for study. PA is an inorganic solid waste produced during the manufacture of phosphoric acid from roasted pyrrhotite ore and contains valuable metals, including Fe. Currently, PA is stored in large open spaces without treatment, posing significant environmental challenges. In response, this study aimed to extract iron oxide particles, identified as a potential raw material for the preparation of new materials. In this work, we develop a full synthesis process of ferromagnetic hematite particles from PA, through acid leaching, followed by a hydrothermal and co-precipitation reaction. Both techniques were effective and led to the production of α-Fe₂O₃ (hematite structure) as confirmed by XRD, SEM, TGA, and Raman spectroscopy techniques, while magnetic properties were determined by using VSM at room temperature. The results revealed that the extracted hematite particles exhibit ferromagnetic behavior.

The objective of this research is to develop environmentally friendly, risk-free and effective adsorbent composite beads that remove Cu(II) ions from aqueous solutions using cost-effective biopolymers (Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and sodium alginate (AL)). The synthesized hydrogel beads (AL@CMC) were dried using two drying modes, namely air-drying and freeze-drying, and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. The study investigated factors such as pH, adsorbent dosage, reaction time, Cu(II) ions concentration, and temperature to elucidate the adsorption mechanisms involved in removing copper ions. The results indicated that the hydrogel exhibited a maximum adsorption capacity of 99.05 mg·g⁻¹, which is highly competitive compared to previous studies; the AL@CMC beads prepared in this work show a significantly higher adsorption capacity, improved stability due to the interpenetrated biopolymer network, and a clear enhancement from freeze-drying, which greatly increases porosity and active surface area. In addition, the pseudo-second-order nonlinear kinetic model best described the experimental data, implying the chemical nature of the adsorption process. Furthermore, the thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption process was endothermic, spontaneous, and homogenous. A Monte Carlo simulation model was utilized to ensure compatibility with the adsorption mechanism, in order to delve deeper into the intricacies of the adsorption process and gain a more comprehensive understanding of its underlying mechanisms and behavior. In conclusion, the prepared hydrogel beads proved to be an effective adsorbent for efficiently removing copper ions, making them a promising solution for addressing Cu(II) ion pollution.

Green ZnO@graphite electrode enables simultaneous copper detection and energy storage in aqueous media.