Co-LDH or Co-LDH-Gibbsite precursors were prepared by wetness impregnation and co-precipitation of 9% CoII. Mixed oxides obtained from the calcination at 800°C were characterized by XRD, FTIR and SEM-EDS. XRD showed only spinel and periclase crystalline phases. The activity of total methane combustion for five mixed oxides was tested at atmospheric pressure between 350°C and 600°C. The material obtained from the Co-LDH-Gibbsite precursor ignites methane at T<350°C and completes the combustion at 565°C. The FTIR and SEM-EDS of the most active materials indicate that low Co/Al ratios facilitate the formation of surface cobalt spinel, thus improving methane combustion over mixed oxides.

Hydrothermal process is an essential phenomenon for seafloor metallic enrichments and mineral accumulations. The sea-water-oceanic crust circulations near all the submarine volcanic structures had led to the production of essential base metals, metallic sulfides and natural hydrogen. The non-renewable, slow growth and accumulation rate of the mineral deposits has made the search for more hydrothermal fields to be of utmost importance. Hydrothermal components in sediments are liable to act as geological records on the reconstruction of: history, intensity, location and environmental conditions of hydrothermal activities, with respect to their unique mineralogy and geochemistry. It further provides essential data for locating active and inactive hydrothermal systems. Here we highlight some of the integrated approach on the applications of isotopes, mineralogical and chemical investigations on hydrothermal influenced sediments from Mid Ocean Ridge System. These investigations on near ridge metalliferous sediments have been used to complement fluids and rock geochemistry, with respect to having an insight into the processes of sea-floor mineralization. This review has further suggested some important methodological approach to the understanding of the near vent marine sediments’ fingerprints.

The aim of this research is to get the graphite intercalation compound with high thermal stability and fire resistance. Firstly, the normal expandable graphite (EG) was prepared with potassium permanganate (KMnO4) as oxidant and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) as intercalator, respectively. Then, with (3-Aminopropyl)-trimethoxysilane (KH-550) as coupling agent, the boric acid (H3BO3) modified EG (EGB) was prepared by silane grafting method through H3BO3 bonded with EG. The analysis of X-ray powder diffractiometer and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy testified the existence of EGB. EGB showed better thermal stability and flame retardancy for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) than the referenced EG. Addition of 13.0 wt% of EGB improved the limiting oxygen index (LOI) of 87.0LLDPE/13.0EGB to 24.6%, which was obviously higher than that of pure matrix of 17.5%. Whereas, the LOI of 87.0LLDPE/13EG was 22.7%. Furthermore, when EGB combined with ammonium polyphosphate (APP), the LOI and UL-94 level of 87.0LLDPE/8.7EGB/4.3APP reached 27.1% and V-0, respectively.

Air pollution constitutes the largest among all of the environmental risks. Dust and soot fragments forms components of air particulates, which are released into the air as extremely small particles or liquid droplets. The basis of this research is to characterize toner ink powder and wood soot samples and the detection of metallic pollutants in wood soot (WS) and printer toner ink (PIS) for their physicochemical properties (pH, conductivity, bulk density and moisture content) and instrumental analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). Two non- destructive analytical techniques; Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (ED-XRF) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) were adopted for heavy metals (elemental) composition and mineralogy respectively. The pH of printer ink and wood soot shows higher pH value which indicates that they are alkaline. Low conductivity values were reported with low moisture, indicating easy fragmentation and spreading. The bulk density values for samples shows that the soot can be easily spread by air current to the environment. The EDS analysis indicates that the soot particles to be composed of primarily impure carbon, thus pointing at potential organic pollutants. The IR spectra show characteristics signals at 749.2 cm-1, 745.5 cm-1, 738.0 cm-1 and 745.5 cm-1 for wood soot and printer ink which correspond to C-H of aromatic group, 1703.4 cm-1, 1699.7 cm-1. The XRF analysis reveals high concentration of Chromium and other toxic metals. The mineralogical components of the soot and printer ink samples revealed the presence of associated minerals. Generally, levels of toxic metal exceed the permissible legislative limit for air samples.

A rapid, sensitive and accurate ultra-performance reversed phase liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of tamsulosin and tolterodine in pure form and pharmaceutical preparation. The developed UPLC method is superior to conventional HPLC with respect to speed, resolution, solvent consumption and cost. The separation was carried out on RP C18 nucleosil (1.7 µm, 5 cm x 2 mm) using an isocratic mode in eluting Tamsulosin and Tolterodine at 1.54 min and 2.43 min respectively with a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile and 0.025N potassium phosphate buffer pH 3.50 (60%:40%), respectively. Chromatographic run time was 5 min with a flow rate 0.5 ml/min and UV detection at 220 nm. The linearity for tamsulosin and tolterodine were in the range of 2-20 µg/mL for both drugs, showed excellent recoveries for bulk and tablet dosage form with a very low LOD of 4.29 and 0.59 ng/mL for tamsulosin and tolterodine, respectively. The method has been validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, specificity, and limit of detection, limit of Quantification, robustness, and ruggedness. The method which was developed was validated as per the ICH guidelines. Finally, the method was compared statistically with reference methods indicating that there is no significant difference between them in respect of precision and accuracy.

Various technological options are currently being assessed towards phosphorus recovery from waste streams. Premised on the development of sustainable appropriate technology, gastropod shell was thermally modified in this study to enhance its sorption capacity as a substrate material for P recovery from aquaculture used water. It was revealed that the thermal treatment impacted enhanced defects in the surficial morphologies of the gastropod shell leading to an increased P recovery efficiency; this was contrary to the general view that high P recovery efficiency of calcined calcium – rich materials was as a result of conversion of CaCO3 to CaO. Furthermore, about 60% P recovery was obtained and a substantial recovery of the total Nitrogen was also achieved. There was a significant improvement in the overall characteristics of the treated used water for safe disposal or reuse.

The impact of mineral deposit on their host agricultural soil, available water bodies and near atmospheric environment is of great concern. In this study, mineralogical characterization and leaching kinetics of metals from iron ores in Kogi States, were reported. Physicochemical parameters namely; electrical density, pH, bulk density and moisture content were also investigated. The SEM image of the iron ore appear compact with irregular shape. XRF analysis showed that, iron ore consist of 63.44 % Fe as major element, with the oxide composition of 90.71%. The XRD analysis of iron ore unveiled the presence of magnetite (88 %), hematite (9 %) and quartz (3 %) as associated mineral. Low concentration of iron (0.77-1.70 ppm) was observed to be leached from iron ore in the acidic medium, 0.35-1.10 ppm from basic medium and 0.32-0.88 ppm in the aqueous medium, The Shrinking core, Product-layer diffusion and leaching, controlled by diffusion were the three equations used to model the leaching parameters. The leaching experimental data of iron ore fit best into the diffusion- controlled model, with R2 = 0.94 for the acidic medium Hence, the rate determining step. The analysis shows good fit for the other kinetic models. Overall, result proved that, the environment around mining sites is chiefly contaminated by the metals leached from the ore (mineral) deposits. Hence, the need to monitor the pollution indices, the role of leaching, pollutant fate (transport and reaction) and the subsequent distribution of metals to neighboring environment.

Various complexes of DHA with transition-metal cations are known for their antifungal properties. Here, four novel Zn and Cd complexes were prepared via the substitution of water by pyridine andg-picoline using Zn(DHA)2(H2O)2 (2) and Cd(DHA)2(H2O)2 (3) as starting materials. The products were characterized by IR, UV, elemental analysis, TGA and NMR techniques, including correlation times and intermolecular distance measurements using the NULL pulse sequence. The experimental data were compared to the molecular modeling results using DFT and the semiempirical method PM3, confirming that the pentacoordinated Zn complexes have bipyramidal geometry while the Cd complexes have the expected octahedral geometry. These results show that substitution of Zn by Cd leads to an important modification of the coordination structure, especially when strong ligands are involved.

The present study aims to valorize the Typha australis stems, through second-generation bioethanol production using enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. The monitoring of fermentation kinetics parameters, such as pH, density, length of fermentation, and the Brix, indicated a great variability of these parameters during the fermentation process of the must with three Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, such as Angel brand Thermal-tolerant alcohol active dry yeast, Angel brand super alcohol active dry yeast and Angel super alcohol active dry yeast in the presence of urea (CON2H4) used as a growth factor. The distillation of musts after fermentation has yielded ethanol extraction rate (% v / v at 20 ° C) between 4.95and 44.93 after fractional distillation. The best performance in ethanolic bioconversion was recorded with Angel brand super alcohol active dry yeast. This Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains could be used as effective ferments, in perspective of intensive production of second-generation bioethanol with Typha australis stems.

Acetophenone oximes 1 – 5 along with their terphthaloyl oxime esters 6 – 10 have been synthesized in moderate to good yields. Only one oxime was formed in as E/Z two isomers in a ratio of (8:1). These resulting oxime derivatives were involved in an antifungal screening against the Aspergillus niger at concentration of 30 ppm. Two commercially available antifungal agents, clorotimazole and daktarin, were employed as references at the same concentration, 30 ppm. The antifungal results for the oxime derivatives 1 – 10 showed inhibitory levels ranging from 38% to 100%, whereas the antifungal potentials for the two references were found to be ~ 63% and 68% for clorotimazole and daktarin respectively.

Pollution resulting from increased human activities is threatening Lake Victoria, its effects are characterized by eutrophication, high turbidity, pH, iron(II) concentration and chemical oxygen demand (COD). In this study we have investigated the effect of Fe-montmorillonite clay from Chelel on turbidity, pH, concentration of iron, total suspended soils, total nutrients and COD of water sampled from Murchison bay watershed of Nakivubo channel south of Kampala. Varying amounts of clay powder was vigorously stirred with water samples for 5 minutes, filtered using Whatman paper at ambient temperatures. The optimum concentration of clay of 0.4 gL-1 was found to produce 73.5+2% fall in COD indicating elimination of microbes and organic waste. The pH of water became 6.3+ 0.2 showing that impurities had been bound to clay. The TSS and nutrients in MB water also decreased greatly when clay was stirred with water at ambient temperatures. The available data can be relied on to recommend use of this clay in treatment of waste water and/or sewage from Kampala. Further studies on combined use of clays with alums, zeolites and/or lime need to be carried out.

The interpretation and significance of the alternative form of Van’t Hoff equation in the context of effect of temperature on the equilibria of exothermic and endothermic processes has been discussed. The central role that entropy plays in determining the dependence of equilibrium constant on temperature has been emphasized.

Heavy metal pollution still poses a serious threat to human and the environment especially in urban settlement where industrial and vehicular activities are most prevalent. This study was carried out to investigate the level of heavy metal pollution in two local government areas in Ibadan metropolis using the leaves of plants as bio-indicators. Composite samples of Tridax procumbens (Tridax plant), Chromolaena odorata (Siam weed), Pennisetum purpureum (Elephant grass), were collected from different sites in industrial areas, along roadsides in these local government areas and control site during dry season and were digested according to standard procedures. The lead concentration in the digested samples were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Result of the analysis shows a significant level of lead in the leaf samples. Leaves of Tridax procumbens were found to be the most tolerant specie and therefore the most suitable bioindicator for lead pollution among the three plant species selected.

The pollution status of Lagos Lagoon was investigated to determine some physical and chemical parameters, in order to further understand its water quality. Five locations were selected according to the anthropogenic activities taking place in the areas. The measured parameters are water temperature, salinity, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) and alkalinity. The mean values ranged from 28.50-30.15°C for temperature, 7.86-8.50 for pH, ND-10.60‰ for salinity, 0.18-15.20µS/cm for electrical conductivity, 12.00-14.00 mg/l for alkalinity and 1.60-6.40 mg/l for dissolved oxygen. The statistical analysis of the measured physicochemical parameters revealed non-significant difference (p>0.05) across all stations in the physico-chemical parameters. Generally, the values obtained suggest the influence of anthropogenic activities especially the depletion of DO in most of the stations. Therefore, point source and non-point source pollution into the Lagos Lagoon should be controlled for the health and safety of the aquatic ecosystems. Generally, all the measured parameters were either below or within the permissible limits obtainable in the marine environment.

Studies were carried out to evaluate the adsorption efficiency of activated carbon produced from corn cob for the removal of Cd II ions from aqueous solution. The studies were carried out with due consideration of standard analytical procedures and instrumentation. Increase in the Cd II ions concentration from 90 to 180mg/l decreased the adsorption capacity of the adsorbent from 89.273 to 65.770%. Increase in the adsorbent’s dosage from 0.5 to 2.0g increased the adsorption of Cd II ions from 81.522 to 91.980%. At pH of 5.0, the adsorption process attained equilibrium with a peak adsorption of Cd II ion at 93.628%. At a contact of time of 30mins between the adsorbate (Cd II ions) at the adsorbent; the adsorption of Cd II ions reached a peak value of 92.410%. The adsorption of Cd II ions on the surface of the activated carbon increased from 90.436 to 93.210% with increase in temperature from 40o to 160oC. The decrease in Gibb’s free energy of adsorption of Cd II ions on the surface of the activated carbon revealed that the adsorption was favourable at high temperatures. The positive values of ?H and ?S shows that the adsorption process was endothermic.

In order to establish a research-based experimental platform for students to fully mobilize initiative and learning creativity, it is necessary to establish design and exploratory experiments to highlight independent exploration and innovation. Through experimental device improvement and material screening, the three parts of fluidization curve measurement, fixed bed drying and fluidized bed drying of spherical molecular sieve are integrated into an organic entirety. Especially, the traditional basic experiment is promoted to a design and research experimental project. Results show that students experimental design ability and comprehensive quality have been improved, and it also stimulated their learning interest, cultivated the creative ability.