احمد آریافر

In this report, for the first time, the synthesis of nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO) was carried out by the extract of Ferula plant. No chemical reducing agents, toxic stabilizers, or dangerous solvents were used for the synthesis of nickel oxide nanoparticles, and all fabrication steps were carried out in a green and mild conditions. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) were employed to determine the phase type and morphology of biosynthesized nickel oxide nanoparticles. After characterization, in order to take a step to protect the environment, biosynthesized nickel oxide nanoparticles were utilized as an effective photocatalyst for the degradation of bromothymol blue as an organic dye. In this manner, a UV lamp was used to activate the nickel oxide photocatalyst. The degradation percentage of bromothymol blue dye reached %77.08 within 3 hours. To evaluate the feasibility of using nickel oxide nanophotocatalyst in industry, the degradation of bromothymol blue was performed on real wastewater and successful results were obtained.

In the present work, the cadmium oxide (CdO) nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized using the Ferula extract. Ferula acts as a naturally-sourced reducing agent and stabilizer for the construction of the CdO NPs. The biosynthesized CdO NPs are characterized by different techniques such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR), spectroscopy and field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). After ensuring a successful synthesis of the CdO NPs, their photocatalytic activity is studied for the degradation of ciprofloxacin antibiotic in aqueous media under the sunlight. Approximately 95% degradation of ciprofloxacin using the CdO NPs is achieved after 60 minutes. The recycling experiments confirm the high stability and durability of the CdO NPs. Therefore, this work illustrates an efficient strategy for the photo-degradation of ciprofloxacin, and provides a new insight into the removal of pharmaceutical contaminants in aquatic environments.

Northwestern part of Iran is one of the important metal bearing zones and the Baluqaya region which is one of the interesting parts of this area, was selected as the study area. In this research the endmembers were extracted from ASTER dataset and then were compared with spectral library to find matching reference minerals for them. Subsequently, the abundances of endmembers were exracted using the matched filtering technique. Then, the classification and distribution maps of minerals were extracted by implementing the floating threshold as a novel technique on endmembers abundance maps. The mineralogical data of the study area are also involved in the floating threshold method. This method classifies areas with high abundance values of endmembers that probabily have high potential for mineralization. The results delineated argillic and advanced argillic alterations at the midwest of the study area. By performing of robust principal component analysis (RPCA) on ICP-MS geochemical data, correlation of gold concentrations with that of antimony and arsenic was detected in the remote sensing derived alteration area. Finally, it is concluded that a possible high sulfidation epithermal mineralization system has developed in the study area

Kordagan 1:100,000 sheet is located in the northern Lut structural block and in South Khorasan province. In this area, mineralogy is mainly a vein controlled by fault structures with a northwest-southeast trend. In order to improve the results of the exploration, three solutions were used. To eliminate interfering elements and obtain clean factors in the multivariate statistical technique of stepwise factor analysis (SFA) was used. In addition to eliminate ineffective elements in the calculations, the elements that were not related to vein-type copper mineralization were also excluded. Finally, using the GMPI method, the obtained anomalies were intense. During the exploratorion operations in the Kordgan region, 836 stream sediment and 30 duplicate samples were taken. The samples were analyzed by ICP method by the Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran. Through the SFA in three step, the elements Ag, Ni and Cd were omitted from factor analysis calculations. In the next step, the elements Co, Cr, Fe, Mn, Sc, Ti, V, Zn, Sr, and W, which did not correspond to vein-type copper mineralization, were removed and factor analysis was prformed again. The results classified the elements into three factors, which were integrated and classified by GMPI method. Based on the results, eight favorable exploration areas were detected. These area was entirely compatible with the former investigation and also faults and favorable geological units for veins reserves such as Andesite and Andesitic tuff with Eocene age. It seems that the applied methods, by using multi-elemental geochemical signatures and integrating them appropriately, can identify and deduce anomalies consistent with other exploratory evidence.

Nowadays, due to population growth, the optimal use of land is a paramount importance. For example, in mining areas, a large area is occupied for the mining purpose which sometimes exceeds several hectares. In this regard, the amount of destruction and the environmental harms resulted from mining increases upon the rise of quantity and capacity of mines. On the other hand, since both mineral products and environment are a necessity for humans, one cannot be sacrificed for the other one. So, the logical solution is concurrent development. To this end, the reclamation of areas left after mining could be very effective. Therefore, the purpose of this study is finding a suitable alternative for the reclamation of the Jubon sand mine, by taking into account the potentials of the region to achieve the goal of sustainable development.

In this research, firstly the (previous) works done for the reclamation of similar mines were studied, then by examining the potentials of the region, different alternative for mine reclamation were proposed. Then, each of the alternatives was evaluated based on different criteria such as topography, slope, soil type, ownership, access road, beneficiary’s motivation and etc. Finally, in order to select the most appropriate alternative for mine reconstruction method of Similarity to Fuzzy Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) was used.

Given that deciding on a suitable alternative for mine reclamation is a multi-criteria issue and the criteria are in conflict with each other. On the other hand, in decision-making issues, human thoughts are associated with uncertainty, and this uncertainty influenced the process of decision-making. The FTOPSIS method which takes into account all the indicators were very effective.

Land reclamation and environmental regeneration is an effective way to use land resources economically and help to coordinate people and land in the mining area. Successful and sustainable reclamation requires an interdisciplinary approach that leads to an integrated and effective plan to rehabilitate environmental, hydrological, aesthetic and recreational conditions. Therefore, the need for holistic approach in decision-making and the use of different people with different jobs, specialties, experiences, backgrounds and scientific perspectives, along with the use of multi-criteria fuzzy decision-making techniques can be very effective. Therefore, in this article, in order to determine the appropriate alternative for reconstruction by examining the effective infrastructure factors in reclamation and the use of various scientific resources, among the seven proposed alternatives, considering 17 effective criteria, the alternative of creating a business area was selected as a suitable option.

One of the main challenges about geochemical exploration is the selection of an appropriate method for anomaly separation from background. In this field, many approaches including statistical methods, artificial intelligence, soft computing and compositional methods have been developed. Each method has some weak and strong points. Research literature showed the statistical hybrid models were used less in this field.

Nowadays, the hybrid models have been considered to enhance the intensity of geochemical anomalies. Until now, only some hybrid models were used. The most important of them are neuro-fuzzy and genetic algorithm model, multifractal-neural network model, fractal-U statistic model, fractal-wavelet model and factor analysis-neural network model. The previous studies indicate that the univariate and multivariate statistic methods and artificial neural networks were mainly used as hybrid model. The main goal of this research is the identification of mineral potential of Au, Sb and As in Basiran 1:100000 sheet, which is located in 180 Km of West of Birjand, through using factor-fractal hybrid model. For this purpose, the 585-stream sediment geochemical data, which were taken by Trade, Mine and Industry Organization of South Khorasan, were analyzed for 20 elements including of Sb, As, Au, Ba, Se, Mn, Ti, Cr, Zn, Cu, Fe, Co, Ag, Sn, Mo, Ni, Pb, W, Hg and Bi.

In first step, the data have been studied by R-mode factor analysis and 5 factors were extracted. With respect to the goal, the third factor with the best linear combination of Sb, Au and As elements, was elected. Afterwards, the factor scores were calculated and depicted on the map of factor’s scores. Consequently, fractal method was applied on the concentration area based on third factor scores, and the thresholds values were determined. Finally, based on threshold values, the map of hybrid factor-fractal model was illustrated. Comparison of both obtained results using hybrid model and concentration-area fractal model indicated that the hybrid model is more effective. As indicated in the following figure, the position of heavy metal samples are located on identified mineralized zone using factor-fractal hybrid model.

In this paper, recognition of mineral potential of Au, As and Sb using factor-fractal hybrid model, is a new idea and innovation. For validation of hybrid model results, 6 heavy metal samples were gained and studied. The results of heavy metal studies confirmed the existence of gold particles in samples. The drawn results stated a good agreement (more than 90 percent) between heavy metal locations and identified mineral potential area by using the hybrid model.

The process of pollutant adsorption from industrial wastewaters is a multivariate problem. This process is affected by many factors including the contact time (T), pH, adsorbent weight (m), and solution concentration (ppm). The main target of this work is to model and evaluate the process of pollutant adsorption from industrial wastewaters using the non-linear multivariate regression and intelligent computation techniques. In order to achieve this goal, 54 industrial wastewater samples gathered by Institute of Color Science & Technology of Iran (ICSTI) were studied. Based on the laboratory conditions, the data was divided into 4 groups (A-1, A-2, A-3, and A-4). For each group, a non-linear regression model was made. The statistical results obtained showed that two developed equations from the A-3 and A-4 groups were the best models with R2 being 0.84 and 0.74. In these models, the contact time and solution concentration were the main effective factors influencing the adsorption process. The extracted models were validated using the t-test and F-value test. The hybrid PSO-based ANN model (particle swarm optimization and artificial neural network algorithms) was constructed for modelling the pollutant adsorption process under different laboratory conditions. Based on this hybrid modeling, the performance indices were estimated. The hybrid model results showed that the best value belonged to the data group A-4 with R2 of 0.91. Both the non-linear regression and hybrid PSO-ANN models were found to be helpful tools for modeling the process of pollutant adsorption from industrial wastewaters.

Nowadays, the tunnels based on the public’s needs may be built in unfavorable geological conditions. In most of these situations, the use of mechanized excavation technology is unavoidable to improve the performance and safety. Mechanized tunneling in difficult conditions with many risks, including the fault zones, water inflow and squeezing that tunneling operations could stop for a long time. It is very important to predict and assess the hazards because of the large volume of investment in such projects. In this study, it was tried to investigate the stability and convergence of environment and water inflow in seven section of the second part of the Emamzadeh Hashem (AS) tunnel using analytical and numerical methods after identification of the geological characteristics and geotechnical risks. Then, the most risky section was investigated and introduced using Fuzzy Delphi Analytical Hierarchy Process (FDAHP) and PROMETHEE methods. Thus, after selecting criteria, including the instability of the tunnel, water inflow and squeezing, the weighting of each criterion was determined using FDAHP method according to the severity, rate and probability of disaster. Finally, the most risky section of the second part of Emamzadeh Hashem (AS) tunnel was evaluated using the PROMETHEE method. Thus the H-3 section was introduced and selected as the most risky section based on geotechnical properties. The results of this study showed that a combination of multiple criteria decision making, analytical, numerical and fuzzy methods can be used to predict and evaluate the geotechnical risks and doing disaster risk reducing actions to reduce the risk.

The study on the quality of groundwater is important for drinking, industry and agriculture purposes. In this research, the hydrochemical data collected from exploitation wells in Gonabad basin- Khorasan Razavi, have been studied in period of 5 years (from 85 to 90). Graphical methods and classification of underground water quality show that the type of water is mainly that of sodium sulfate. Spatial distribution of water quality using multivariate statistical R-mode model states that water quality in this basin is affected by two factors. The first factor which is known as salinity and water hardness in plain is the linear combination of Ca2, Mg2, Na, SO42-, Cl-, TH and EC. The second factor is the combination of HCO3-, CO32- and pH which indicates water alkalinity for which higher pH is an evidence. Further in the research, the modeling of quality parameters TDS, EC and TH is done with chemical parameters such as primary ions and pH using artificial neural network. The comparison of results obtained from filed with those of neural network is very analogous showing the high ability of this method for water quality prediction. Therefore, in case of lack of data in the area, this model can be used to predict water quality in target locations. The results can be used to environmental management and better exploitation of groundwater resources.

The Geophysical and geochemical approaches have been used widely for investigation of environmental contaminations. The main goal of this research is the study of heavey metal accumulation in soil and also investigation of the penetrating depth of drainage in soil in Qaleh- Zari Copper Mine which located at the 180 km of south west of Birjand. To achieve the goal، 2 dimensional electrical resistivity tomography method has been used. For determination of penetrating depth، a 2D electrical resistivity tomography profil has been designed with length of 520 m perpendicular to the study area. In following، 210 point has been picked. The obtained results indicate that the electrical resistivity in affectin area has been reduced up to 3 ohm-meters whereas the resistivity of surrounding formation is above 2000 ohm-meter. The geoelectric sections show that the penetrating depth of drainage is approximately 30m. The existence of joints and fractures within the bed rock which results in groundwater penetration and probably contamination from tailings dam can be the reason of decrease in resistivity of bed rock. Geotechnical studies in the study area imply to the existence of shear zone in the site. Consequently، environmental geochemistry using of enrichemnt index (EI)، geo-accumulation index (GAI) and pollution index (PI) have been performed. For this purpose، the some samples from soil (3 samples) and drainage (1 sample) have been collected. Data analusis using above indexes show that the concentration of heavy metalts (V، Cr، Mn، Fe، Co، Ni، Cu، Mo، Hg، As، Ag، Pb، Cd، Zn) have been increased by increasing of depth. So، the solis have been polluted in area. This leads to a decreation in formations resistivity that verify the results obtained from the electrical Tomography. The results of such studies can be used to manage the environmental impacts in mine.

The mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks of the ophiolitic complex in eastern Birjand) between Sulabest in southern part to north of Gazik in northern part) Have been studied. According to plot of data on diagrams and the result of mineralogy and geochemistry, gabbros and some peridotites belong to cummulate series of spreading sea floor magma (MORB) where some peridotites are of metamorphic (tectonics) types. Magmatic series of igneous rocks are tholeiitic. Trace elemental patterns similarities on spider diagrams also confirming the relations of these rocks to Mg-rich basaltic magma of MORB type. Geothermobarometry results of some rocks, based on different calibrations, show temperatures of 944˚C for gabbros to 1294˚C for peridotites. Temperature pressure calculations based on Holland and Powell thermocalc method, indicate, rocks crystallization conditions of 748˚C and 17.46 Kb for gabbros to 1282˚C and 24.7 -33.6Kb for peridotites. Most obtained temperatures, particularly the thermocalc ones, for crystallization conditions of these rocks from an initial Mg-rich magma, MORB type, in spreading sea floor seems to be reasonable.