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Commonly consumed vegetables and their surrounding soil samples are gathered from a farm located in Klang, Selangor. Gamma spectrometry has been utilized to analyze the activity concentration of the natural radionuclides, 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in nine vegetables and soil samples collected. These data are used to evaluate the hazard indices in the soil samples and their radiological exposure to humans. It is found that the external hazard index Hex ranged from 0. 05 to 0.44 with a mean value of 0.14. The internal hazard index Hin of the soil samples ranged from 0.05 to 0.56 with a mean value of 0.17. Both Hex and Hin average values are lower than the limit established by the European Commission for Radiation Protection. The absorbed dose rate DN, The annual ingestion dose Aeff, annual effective dose equivalent AEDE, and excess life-time cancer risk, are used to learn the potential risk on the general public consuming these vegetables. For the vegetable sample, it is found that the average value for the Dn is 6.70 nGyh-1 and ranged between 1.75 to 16.94 nGyh-1. The average value of Aeff is 10.17 pSv, and it ranges from 2.54 pSv to 22.89 pSv. The range of AEDE is between 2.15 pSv and 20.78 pS, with an average value of 8.21 pSv. Excess life-time cancer risk ELCR is used to determine the likelihood of cancer development due to the radiological exposure of consuming these vegetables. It is found that the average value of ELCR is 2.87-10-5, and the range is from 0.75-10-5 to 7.27-10-5. Both the Aeff and AEDE are found to be lower than the average world value recommended by UNSCEAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activity concentrations of naturally occurring radionuclides in vegetables and peat soil were investigated to determine the transfer factors of radionuclides from soil to vegetables obtained from farms in Klang Selangor. The results showed that the activity concentration ranges for 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in the soil of the vegetable were 2.72-46.54 Bqkg-1, 9.01-54.84 Bqkg-1, and 19.22-477.76 Bqkg-1, respectively. The activity concentration ranges for 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in various vegetable samples were 0.41-3.41 Bqkg-1, 0.02-3.56 Bqkg-1, and 16.22-317.49 Bqkg-1, respectively. The transfer factors from soil-to-plant for 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K were in the ranges of 0.01-0.67, 0.00-0.17, and 0.26-2.52, respectively. Radionuclide 40K has the highest transfer factor value in most vegetables, especially in the fruit type vegetable, and 232Th was found to have the lowest transfer factor value in all vegetables. The acquired results were compared to the levels that are globally recognized as acceptable. The transfer factor value of 40K was greater than 1 found in beans and fruit type vegetables, showing a similar value in other studies involving tropical plants, while transfer factor value for 226Ra was 15 times higher than the value reported in the data for tropical plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among various types of energy storage, the supercapacitor is regarded as the most promising device due to its long cycling life, good cycling stability, and high power density. A supercapacitor is generally composed of electrodes, electrolytes, and a separator. The separator is one of the most important components, serving to prevent internal short circuits between the anode and the cathode. Herein, a nanostructured-based separator in a PAN/PVDF nanofiber scheme is introduced for improving the electrochemical performance of the supercapacitor. Briefly, the membranes were produced via the electrospinning technique. All of the raw materials were blended in various compositions of PVDF for optimization purposes. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were carried out to identify the microstructure of the nanofibers. The electrochemical properties of the membrane were measured using galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD). Based on GCD, it was shown that the PAN/PVDF 20 wt% membrane exhibited the optimum gravimetric capacitance at 54.104 Fg-1 as evidenced by a high porosity percentage. Thus, the PAN/PVDF nanofiber has good potential as a separator for application in supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition Metal Nitrides (TMNs) are an emerging class of materials in the modern world with potential applications in energy generation, storage, and conversion. Significant attention has been devoted to two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials owing to their numerous advantages, including high surface area, mechanical strength, conductivity, and versatility in terms of functionalization with a variety of chemical groups. The potential benefits of incorporating TMN into 2D structures make this an alluring avenue for exploration. However, research on 2D TMNs has been limited due to the difficulty in their synthesis. This review comprehensively examines various 2D TMNs based on their structure, morphology, and optical properties, and discusses the challenges in synthesizing them and attempts to overcome these limitations. The review also covers the electrochemical and photocatalytic capabilities of different TMNs and how these properties are affected by their structure and morphology. Furthermore, the review identifies the areas that require further improvement and discusses the challenges that need to be addressed to advance the research on 2D TMNs. [Display omitted] • A review of structural, morphological and optical properties of 2D TMNs. • Correlation of these properties with their enhanced applications. • Challenges in synthesizing 2D TMNs and strategies for overcoming them. • Nitrides of molybdenum are the most studied 2D TMN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the rheological behaviour of Diglycidylether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) and Polyurethane (PU) based isotropic conductive adhesives (ICAs). Each of the systems were formulated with the following fillers: a) silver flakes, b) silver powder and c) mixture of silver flakes and silver powder. A volume fraction ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 silver fillers were added to the epoxy systems. Oscillatory stress sweep test was performed to evaluate the G' and G" of the DGEBA and PU based isotropic conductive adhesive pastes. The results show that the structural breakdown of DGEBA and PU pastes could be used to understand the processability and stability of the formulated system. The solid and liquid characteristics of the PU based ICAs were lower when compared to the isotropic conductive adhesives formulated with DGEBA epoxy resin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]