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Mining industries have long relied on cyanidation as the primary method for gold extraction, but this process generates thiocyanates as a problematic byproduct, posing challenges for wastewater treatment and recycling. The stability of thiocyanates makes their reduction or elimination in mining wastewater difficult. In this study, a p-n heterojunction of ZnO and BiOI was created and evaluated for its ability to photodegrade thiocyanate ions under simulated solar conditions. Various analytical techniques revealed a highly porous structure with a sponge-like morphology and agglomeration in the synthesized heterojunction. The compound exhibited crystalline patterns without impurity peaks, a slight red shift in absorbance, and Type IV isotherm adsorption. The synthesized heterostructure achieved the complete destruction of thiocyanate ions in less than 30 min. The investigation of different process parameters indicated that the destruction of the contaminant by the heterostructure was influenced by the initial thiocyanate concentration, which decreased as the thiocyanate concentration increased. The peak photodestruction reaction was observed at pH 7. By applying a pseudo-first-order kinetic model, it was found that increasing the catalyst mass to 15 mg raised the rate constant from 0.188 to 0.420 min−1, while increasing the pH to 10 led to a 3.5-fold reduction. The strong correlation between the observed data and the predicted values of the pseudo-first-order kinetic model was indicated by the observed (R2) values. The findings of this study hold potential significance for mining industries, as it offers a potential solution for eliminating cyanide and thiocyanates from mining wastewater. The elimination of thiocyanate generation in the cyanidation process is crucial for mining companies, making this study valuable for the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A UK sourced fly ash (coded UKFA) was introduced into polypropylene (PP)/polyethylene (PE) based composites at different PP/PE ratios to investigate its effect on the physical and mechanical properties of the material. Composites containing 65% wt. fly ash modified with commercial peroxide (DCP) and commercial coupling agent (C800) were prepared via batch mixing and compression moulding. The usage of DCP led to the formation of cross-linked PE, which was responsible for highly viscous composites. The newly formed cross-linked PE, together with chain scission of PP, would promote phase separation. Mechanically less stiff materials were produced, especially at high PE levels, because of the larger rubbery interfacial region, despite the good matrix-filler adhesion increasing the strength balance. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:1239-1247, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers, INTRODUCTION The ever-increasing demand for energy and convenient consumer packaging result in tons of residues and waste produced every year in all countries around the world. Most of the world [...]

Problems relating to the abrasion of equipment is one of the most important issues in mining and associated industries. Hardening is a method of protecting metal equipment, metal tools, or important components against erosion, corrosion, and abrasion. This can be achieved by welding a thin layer of abrasion-resistant metal onto the surface of the work piece. The useful life of a piece of equipment or parts can be significantly increased by applying abrasion-resistant coatings, thereby reducing repair or replacement costs associated with damaged parts. This process is inexpensive in the production of parts and is often economically justifiable. This study focuses on measuring the abrasion resistance of a nano high-entropy alloy against copper oxide and high-grade iron ores. When a base alloy was coated with the nano high-entropy alloy, the abrasion indexes of iron and copper ores decreased from 0.0001647 kg to 0.0000908 kg and from 0.0001472 kg to 0.0000803 kg, respectively. The standard deviation, repeatability, and reproducibility were calculated for the alloy steel blade covered with nano high entropy alloy (N-HEA), producing values of 0.00016, 0.00047, and 0.00040, respectively, while a standard alloy steel blade exhibited values of 0.0003, 0.00047, and 0.00042, respectively. High-entropy alloys and high-entropy nano-alloys have not been used as practical coatings in the mineral industry in any form to date. Utilizing high-entropy nano-alloys in this industry would introduce innovative alternatives for customers, thereby increasing competitive advantages and providing international markets and customers = with the most efficient choices of operational materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

S235JR steel is used in many applications, but its resistance to the erosion processes has been poorly studied. To investigate this resistance, cavitation, and slurry erosion tests were conducted. These tests were carried out at different erosion intensities, i.e., different flow rates in the cavitation tunnel with a system of barricades and different rotational speeds in the slurry pot. The steel was tested as-received and after thermal treatment at 930 °C, which lowered the hardness of the steel. To better understand the degradation processes, in addition to mass loss measurements, surface roughness and hardness were measured. Along with increasing erosion intensity, the mass loss increased as well. However, the nature of the increase in mass loss, as well as the effect of steel hardness on this mass loss, was different for each of the erosion processes. In the cavitation erosion tests, the mass loss increased linearly with the increase in flow velocity, while in the slurry tests this relationship was polynomial, indicating a strong increase in mass losses with an increase in rotational speed. Cavitation erosion resulted in stronger and deeper strain hardening than slurry. Surface damage from cavitation erosion tests was mainly deep pits, voids, and cracks during the slurry tests, while flaking was the most significant damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the preparation and characterization of efficient adsorbents for tertiary treatment (oil content below 100 ppm) of oil/water emulsions. Powdered low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was modified by radio-frequency plasma discharge and then used as a medium for the treatment of emulsified diesel oil/water mixtures in the concentration range from 75 ppm to 200 ppm. Plasma treatment significantly increased the wettability of the LDPE powder, which resulted in enhanced sorption capability of the oil component from emulsions in comparison to untreated powder. Emulsions formed from distilled water and commercial diesel oil (DO) with concentrations below 200 ppm were used as a model of oily polluted water. The emulsions were prepared using ultrasonication without surfactant. The droplet size was directly proportional to sonication time and ranged from 135 nm to 185 nm. A sonication time of 20 min was found to be sufficient to prepare stable emulsions with an average droplet size of approximately 150 nm. The sorption tests were realized in a batch system. The effect of contact time and initial oil concentrations were studied under standard atmospheric conditions at a stirring speed of 340 rpm with an adsorbent particle size of 500 microns. The efficiency of the plasma-treated LDPE powder in oil removal was found to be dependent on the initial oil concentration. It decreased from 96.7% to 79.5% as the initial oil concentration increased from 75 ppm to 200 ppm. The amount of adsorbed oil increased with increasing contact time. The fastest adsorption was observed during the first 30 min of treatment. The adsorption kinetics for emulsified oils onto sorbent followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoparticle-doped polymer inclusion membranes (NP-PIMs) have been prepared and characterized as new materials for the removal of arsenate and phosphate from waters. PIMs are made of a polymer, cellulose triacetate (CTA), and an extractant, which interacts with the compound of interest. We have used the ionic liquid (IL) trioctylmethylammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) as the extractant and have investigated how the addition of nanoparticles can modify membrane properties. To this end, inorganic nanoparticles, such as ferrite (Fe3O4), SiO2 and TiO2, and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), were blended with the polymer/extractant mixture. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and contact angle measurements have been used to characterize the material. Moreover, PIM stability was checked by measuring the mass loss during the experiments. Since Aliquat 336 acts as an anion exchanger, the NP-PIMs have been explored in two different applications: (i) as sorbent materials for the extraction of arsenate and phosphate anions; (ii) as an organic phase for the separation of arsenate and phosphate in a three-phase system. The presence of oleate-coated ferrite NP in the PIM formulation represents an improvement in the efficiency of NP-PIMs used as sorbents; nevertheless, a decrease in the transport efficiency for arsenate but not for phosphate was obtained. The ease with which the NP-PIMs are prepared suggests good potential for future applications in the treatment of polluted water. Future work will address three main aspects: firstly, the implementation of the Fe3O4-PIMs for the removal of As(V) in real water containing complex matrices; secondly, the study of phosphate recovery with other cell designs that allow large volumes of contaminated water to be treated; and thirdly, the investigation of the role of MWCNTs in PIM stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MoS2@ZnO nanoheterostructures were synthesized by electrospark erosion of zinc granules in a hydrogen peroxide solution and simultaneous addition of MoS2 nanostructured powder into the reaction zone. The morphology, size of the crystallites, as well as elemental and phase composition of the prepared structures, were examined using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. It was found that the synthesized products represent heterostructures containing MoS2 nanoparticles formed on ZnO nanoparticles. Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence analysis were also used for characterization of the prepared heterostructures. The obtained MoS2@ZnO nanostructures revealed an intense broad emission band ranging from 425 to 625 nm for samples with different fractions of MoS2. Photocatalytic measurements showed that the maximal hydrogen evolution rate of the prepared nanoheterostructures was about 906.6 μmol·g−1·h−1. The potential of their application in photocatalytic water splitting was also estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trace element content of clinkers (and possibly of cements) can be used to identify the manufacturing factory. The Mg, Sr, Ba, Mn, Ti, Zr, Zn and V content of clinkers give detailed information for the determination of the origin of clinkers produced in different factories. However, for the analysis of such complex data there is a need for algorithmic tools for the visualization and clustering of the samples. This paper proposes a new approach for this purpose. The analytical data are transformed into a two-dimensional latent space by factor analysis (probabilistic principal component analysis) and dendograms are constructed for cluster formation. The classification of South African clinkers is used as an illustrative example for the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title compound, C21H17N3O3, is a new polymorph of an already published structure [Shashidhar et al. (2006 ▶). Acta Cryst. E62, o4473-o4475]. The previously reported structure crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/c, whereas the structure reported here is in the tetra-gonal space group I41/a. The bond lengths and angles are similar in both structures. The mol-ecule adopts an extended conformation via intra-molecular N-H⋯O and O-H⋯N hydrogen bonds; the terminal phenyl ring and the hy-droxy-lphenyl ring are twisted with respect to the central benzene ring by 44.43 (7) and 21.99 (8)°, respectively. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, weak C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds and weak C-H⋯π inter-actions into a three-dimensional supra-molecular network.

In the title compound, C21H19ClN2O2, the benzene ring and the naphthalene ring system are oriented at a dihedral angle of 65.24 (10)°. In the crystal, N-H⋯O, C-H⋯N and C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol-ecules, forming chains along the b-axis direction. Further C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the chains, forming corrugated sheets lying parallel to (10-1).

The title compound, C14H10Cl2N2O·H2O, has a nearly planar extended conformation [C-N-N-C = -173.66 (15)°]. The dihedral angle between the aromatic rings is 4.6 (2)°. The water mol-ecules alternate with benzohydrazide mol-ecules in chains formed by O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds which run parallel to the a axis. These chains are linked to neighboring chains through N-H⋯O and C-H⋯O inter-actions, forming a layer parallel to (001).

The crystal structures of a new polymorph and seven new derivatives of 2-(1-phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine have been characterized and examined along with three structures from the literature to identify trends in their intermolecular contact patterns and packing arrangements in order to develop an insight into the crystallization behaviour of this class of compound. Seven unique C-H···X contacts were identified in the structures and three of these are present in four or more structures, indicating that these are reliable supramolecular synthons. Analysis of the packing arrangements of the molecules using XPac identified two closely related supramolecular constructs that are present in eight of the 11 structures; in all cases, the structures feature at least one of the three most common intermolecular contacts, suggesting a clear relationship between the intermolecular contacts and the packing arrangements of the structures. Both the intermolecular contacts and packing arrangements appear to be remarkably consistent between structures featuring different functional groups, with the expected exception of the carboxylic acid derivative 4-(4-(pyridin-2-yl)-1H-1,2,3-triazol-1-yl) benzoic acid (L11), where the introduction of a strong hydrogen-bonding group results in a markedly different supramolecular structure being adopted. The occurrence of these structural features has been compared with the packing efficiency of the structures and their melting points in order to assess the relative favourability of the supramolecular structural features in stabilizing the crystal structures.

The complete mol-ecule of the title compound, C32H28N2, is generated by crystallographic inversion symmetry. The dihedral angles between the central aromatic ring and the pendant adjacent rings are 61.37 (16) and 74.20 (14)°. The N-H group does not participate in hydrogen bonds and there are no aromatic π-π stacking inter-actions in the crystal.

The title mol-ecule, C(9)H(10)BrNO(2), excluding methyl-ene H atoms and the C-OH group, is essentially planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.037 (2) Å for the N atom. The N-C-C-O torsion angle is -63.1 (3)°. The mol-ecular structure is stabilized by a weak intra-molecular N-H⋯O(carbonyl) hydrogen bond, forming an S(6) motif. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by O-H⋯O and C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional network.