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This work aimed to synthesize the aluminium oxide nanoparticles using Ixoro coccinea leaf extract. Furthermore, the synthesized Ixoro coccinea aluminium oxide nanoparticles (I–Al2O3-NPs) and nanocomposites (I–Al2O3-NC), including them as the fillers in a chitosan matrix were characterized, and I–Al2O3-NC was applied to remove the toxic metals (TMs) including Cd, Ni, and Pb from water. Optimization of different batch experimental adsorption parameters (pH, concentration of TMs, dose of I–Al2O3-NC, temperature, and time of contact) was done to check the feasibility of I–Al2O3-NC for maximum removal of TMs from water. The extreme adsorption capacities using nanocomposites for Cd, Ni, and Pb were 66.0, 60.0, and 66.4 mg g−1, respectively. The I–Al2O3-NC followed the Freundlich isotherm model for removing Cd and Ni while showing the monolayer surface coverage for the removal of Pb. For this process, the best-fitted kinetic model was the pseudo-second-order equation. The enthalpy, entropy, and free energy of metal ion adsorption, among other parameters of thermodynamics, were estimated. The process was found to be exothermic, advantageous, and spontaneous. Kinetic studies show that intra-particle diffusion is essential for eliminating TMs. In addition, I–Al2O3-NC was applied for the adsorption of TMs from surface water and determined to be effective in removing these contaminants up to an acceptable drinking water standard. Regeneration of adsorbent suggested that green synthesized I–Al2O3-NC may be an active tool for removing Cd, Ni, and Pb ions from contaminated water. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.

The current study aimed to synthesize and characterize the Duranta erecta leaves extract-based iron oxide nanoparticles (D-Fe3O4-NPs) and chitosan biopolymer-based nanocomposites (D-Fe3O4-NC). The synthesized D-Fe3O4-NC was applied for the adsorptive removal of cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), and lead (Pb) from water. The nanostructure, porous, rough, crystalline structure, and different functional groups of chitosan and D-Fe3O4-NPs in D-Fe3O4-NC showed that the D-Fe3O4-NC is feasible for suitable adsorbents for quantitative removal of Cd, Cr, and Pb. Based on the batch experiments, the influences of pH, adsorption time, contents of Cd, Cr, and Pb in solution, and temperature were successfully optimized. The adsorption capacities of D-Fe3O4-NC for Cd, Cr, and Pb were observed at 74.4, 76.0, and 75.2 mg g−1, respectively. The adsorption isotherms fitted the Freundlich Model equation well, and the adsorption kinetics followed pseudo-second-order kinetics for the adsorption of these toxic metals. D-Fe3O4-NC showed an excellent recyclable efficiency up to multiple analyses (n = 20). The D-Fe3O4-NC was an excellent adsorbent for removing toxic metals from municipal and hand pump water samples (% removal >93%). Therefore, the proposed D-Fe3O4-NC is the most efficient and selective adsorbent for removing Cd, Cr, and Pb from drinking water up to recommended permissible limit. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

The biosynthesis of the iron oxide nanoparticles was done using Ixoro coccinea leaf extract, followed by the fabrication of iron oxide nanobiocomposites (I-Fe3O4-NBC) using chitosan biopolymer. Furthermore, the synthesized I-Fe3O4-NPs and I-Fe3O4-NBC were characterized, and I-Fe3O4-NBC was applied to remove toxic metals (TMs: Cd, Ni, and Pb) from water. The characterization study confirmed that the nanostructure, porous, rough, crystalline structure, and different functional groups of chitosan and I-Fe3O4-NPs in I-Fe3O4-NBCs showed their feasibility for the application as excellent adsorbents for quantitative removal of TMs. The batch mode strategy as feasibility testing was done to optimize different adsorption parameters (pH, concentrations of TMs, dose of I-Fe3O4-NBC, contact time, and temperature) for maximum removal of TMs from water by Fe3O4-NBC. The maximum adsorption capacities using nanocomposites for Cd, Ni, and Pb were 66.0, 60.0, and 66.4 mg g?1, respectively. The adsorption process follows the Freundlich isotherm model by I-Fe3O4-NBC to remove Cd and Ni, while the Pb may be adsorption followed by multilayer surface coverage. The proposed adsorption process was best fitted to follow pseudo-second-order kinetics and showed an exothermic, favorable, and spontaneous nature. In addition, the I-Fe3O4-NBC was applied to adsorption TMs from surface water (%recovery > 95%). Thus, it can be concluded that the proposed nanocomposite is most efficient in removing TMs from drinking water up to recommended permissible limit. © 2022, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.

The aim of present study was to evaluate the antihyperglycemic and antihyperlipidemic effects of aerial parts of Rubus ulmifolius Schott on streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic albino mice. A total of 48-, 60-day-old either sex (male and female) albino mice were treated with, normal control; 2% Tween-80 suspension (diabetic control); glibenclamide (500 μg/kg/orally); RU methanol extract (150 mg/kg/orally) (RUCrd1); RU methanol extract (300 mg/kg/orally) (RUCrd2); RU chloroform extract (150 mg/kg/orally) (RUC); RU ethyl acetate extract (150 mg/kg/orally) (RUE); and RU butanol extract (150 mg/kg/orally) (RUB) for a period of 15 days. Diabetes was induced in albino mice by single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg/b/w). After 15 days, group treated with glibenclamide, RUCrd1, RUCrd2, RUC, RUE and RUB exhibited a significant (P > 0.05) decrease in blood glucose level as compared to diabetic control groups. The total cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density lipoproteins as well as serum creatinine level, serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase, serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and alkaline phosphatase were also significantly (P > 0.05) decreased in glibenclamide, RUCrd1, RUCrd2, RUC, RUE and RUB groups albino mice as compared to diabetic control. It was concluded that Rubus ulmifolius Schott extract has positive effect as hypoglycemic and antihyperlipidemic on diabetic albino mice.

This paper describes the implementation of a neural network based hurdle avoidance controller for a car like robot using a low cost single chip 89C52 microcontroller. The neural network is the multilayer feed-forward network with back propagation training algorithm. The network is trained offline with tangent-sigmoid as activation function for neurons and is implemented in real time with piecewise linear approximation of tangent-sigmoid function. Results have shown that up-to twenty neurons in hidden layer can be deployed with the proposed technique using a single 89C52 microcontroller. The vehicle is tested in various environments containing obstacles and is found to avoid obstacles in its path successfully.

The junior level Power Electronics Lab is an important component of Electrical Engineering curriculum at University of The Punjab, Lahore. It serves to familiarize the students with the design simulation and analysis of power electronic converters. In this paper, design and implementation of a low cost microcontroller based controlled rectifier training module for single-phase system to be utilized in Power Electronics Lab is presented. The module comprises of various units. The first unit is zero crossing detector followed by the pulse shifting unit, pulse shaping unit, pulse isolation unit, thyristor unit, diode unit, load unit, current sense unit, voltage sense unit and finally rpm sense unit. Various experiments are designed to study the different configurations of the controlled rectifiers. These configurations include half converter, semi converter, full converter, dual converter, series semi converter and series full converter. Some types of AC voltage controllers can also be studied. This system may readily be extended to study three phase-controlled rectifiers.