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Water is a precious natural resource. Unfortunately, bodies of water become polluted by waste, such as untreated wastewater and detritus, along with oil spills, with minimum or no consideration for their limited capacity to renew themselves. Among these pollutants, dyes are harmful as they are persistent and not biodegradable in nature. The present study demonstrates the removal of crystal violet (CV), a toxic cationic dye, by using three systems: Peroxymonosulfate (PMS), UV-254 nm radiation and UV/P5MS. The effects of various parameters, such as the effects of the initial dose of crystal violet, initial concentration of PMS, pH, typical inorganic ions, etc., were also investigated. The effect of pH was investigated in the range of 1.92–12.07. Similarly, the effect of various anions such as NO2•−, HCO3•−, CO3•2−, SO4•2− and CH3COO•− was investigated for the degradation of target pollutants. The order of degradation of crystal violet was UV/PMS > PMS > UV with removal efficiencies of 97%, 76% and 42%, respectively, at reaction times of 60 min. The degradation of crystal violet was enhanced significantly at a pH range of 10.52–12.07. Electrical energy per order (EE/O) values for UV/PMS, PMS and UV were calculated to be 1.68, 3.62 and 48.96 KWh/m3/order, respectively. The addition of inorganic ions inhibited the removal of CV in the order of SO4•2− > NO2•− > HCO3•− > CO3•2− > CH3COO•−. Moreover, the kinetic studies on the degradation of CV by the UV-254 nm, PMS, and UV/PMS systems, were also carried out and found to follow pseudo-first-order kinetics. The study revealed that oxidation processes are most efficacious for the removal of organic dyes from wastewater.

In this study, amidoxime-functionalized silica decorated with copper (AFS-Cu) was fabricated and tested for its catalytic application. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction were employed to characterize its structure and morphology. The application of AFS-Cu as a catalyst for the catalytic reduction of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous media using NaBH4 as reductant was evaluated. The ability to reuse as well as the effect of catalyst dose and pH of solution on the catalytic activity was investigated. The reduction of MB followed pseudo-first-order kinetics and the rate constant (k) was 0.6224 min(-1). AFS-Cu was found to be a highly effective catalyst for MB reduction reaction and can be easily recovered and reused several times with no appreciable loss of catalytic activity.

A total of 605 eligible respondents took part in this survey (population size 1630046161 and required sample size 591) with an age range of 18 to 100. A large proportion of the respondents are aged less than 50 (82%) and male (62.15%). The majority of the respondents live in urban areas (60.83%). A total of 61.16% (370/605) of the respondents were willing to accept/take the COVID-19 vaccine. Among the accepted group, only 35.14% showed the willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine immediately, while 64.86% would delay the vaccination until they are confirmed about the vaccine s efficacy and safety or COVID-19 becomes deadlier in Bangladesh. The regression results showed age, gender, location (urban/rural), level of education, income, perceived risk of being infected with COVID-19 in the future, perceived severity of infection, having previous vaccination experience after age 18, having higher knowledge about COVID-19 and vaccination were significantly associated with the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines. The research reported a high prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Bangladesh., Comment: Accepted by PLOS ONE: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257096

A novel amidoxime-based silica adsorbent was prepared by using radiation-induced grafting technique. Grafting of acrylonitrile (AN) on silanized silica that was silanized by vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) was carried out in solvent-free system. The grafting of AN was increased with increasing the absorbed dose and monomer concentration in the mixture. Grafting of 748% of AN was achieved at 20 kGy dose. The nitrile groups of acrylonitrile grafted silica (AN-g-S) were chemically converted into amidoxime groups. The structure of AN-g-S and its corresponding products was investigated by FTIR, SEM, TGA, BET, and XRD analysis. FTIR and EDX analysis confirmed the grafting of AN onto silica surface. The changed morphology of SEM images shows the presence polyacrylonitrile layers on silica particles. The adsorption application of amidoxime-grafted silica (AO-g-S) was studied against Cu2+. Its adsorption capacity is strongly depended on the pH of the solution and 172 (mg/g) of Cu2+ uptake was obtained at pH 5.0. The developed adsorbent has potential application to remove heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45437.