l taghavi

Recently, the contamination of microplastics (MPs) has emerged as a globally significant issue, raising concerns across all environmental matrices, particularly in marine environments. This study investigates the ingestion of MPs by Psettodes eromei, a commercially important demersal fish in the northern Oman Sea, Iran, with the aim of assessing the presence and characteristics of MPs in gills, guts, and skin. A total of 154 microplastic particles were identified across all tissues examined. These MPs were characterized based on their physical (size, shape, and color) and chemical (polymer types) attributes using a stereomicroscope and Raman spectroscopy respectively. The results showed that fibers were the most prevalent shape and blue and black being the dominant colors. MPs predominantly ranged in size from 50-200 µm. Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) were the most common polymers detected. These findings highlight the pervasive nature of MP contamination in marine environments and raise concerns about potential health risks to humans consuming contaminated seafood. Hence, it can provide crucial baseline data on MP pollution in the Oman Sea. Moreover, contributes to our understanding of the environmental impacts of plastic waste on marine ecosystems and food webs.

 The present study investigates the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters in removing one of the essential phenolic derivatives (2-chlorophenol) by zinc oxide nanocatalysts synthesized by the green method, during photocatalytic and sonocatalytic progress.

 The present study is an experimental study conducted in the research laboratory of the Department of Chemistry of Ardabil Islamic Azad University. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the photocatalytic and ultrasonic process in the removal of 2-chlorophenol, the first nanocatalyst was prepared by the green method using a paper flower species called Bougainvillea spectabilis. After ensuring the synthesis accuracy with the help of various technologies, essential parameters affecting the removal efficiency of 2-chlorophenol, such as concentration, amount of nanocatalyst, solution pH, and temperature, were investigated, and the most suitable conditions for removal during photocatalytic and ultrasonic processes were identified.

 The XRD spectrum confirms the synthesis of zinc oxide nanocrystals. The uniform hexagonal nature of ZnO nanoparticles with a size between 12 and 31 nm was confirmed using SEM and TEM images. Elemental analysis (EDX) showed that the synthesized pure nanoparticles contained 74.94 wt. % of zinc and 25.06 wt. % of oxygen. Examination of 2-chlorophenol removal from aqueous solution in dark conditions showed that the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models best follow the removal process. Investigation of the removal kinetics of the studied phenolic derivative with high line regression coefficient introduced pseudo-second-order kinetics for the removal process of 2-chlorophenol.

 According to the thermodynamic parameters obtained in this study, the negative values of Gibbs free energy changes (ΔG°) at all temperatures studied during the photocatalytic and sonocatalytic removal process showed that the removal reaction is spontaneous. Also, the positive enthalpy changes (ΔH°) during the removal process by the nanoparticles synthesized from the paper flower indicated that the removal process is endothermic. Our research showed that the synthesized nanoparticles could be used for photocatalytic and sonocatalytic removal of 2-chlorophenol from the aqueous medium with an efficiency of 90.21 and 82.54%, respectively.

Nonylphenol (NP) is important as a toxic xenobiotic compound, carcinogenic and endocrine disrupter by interfering with the hormonal system of organisms. It originates from the degradation of Nonylphenol ethoxylates (nonionic surfactants). Due to its physicochemical characteristics, such as low solubility and high hydrophobicity, nonylphenol accumulates in sewage sludge, effluents from sewage treatment, river water sediments, soil and surface water. Since NP is the most toxic and abundant alkylphenols, the use and production of such compounds have been banned in EU member countries and strictly monitored in many other countries such as Canada and Japan. Due to its toxicity and bioaccumulation effects on organism especially aquatic life, making rules and regulations along with analysis and measurement of NP are important. Consequently, there is a concern within some industries about the possibility of future regulations that may impose the removal or reduction of micro pollutants by providing alternatives with lower toxicity and stability, cost and suitable efficiency. The significance of upgrading sewage treatment processes with advanced treatment technologies for removal of these contaminants in range of the standards is considered. In this regard, several methods with high efficiency have been proposed for treatment wastewater with NP compounds such as adsorption by Nano-adsorbents and Nano-particles, biosorption, advanced oxidation, photodegradation, etc., as well as the methods for reduction of NP from sludge such as composting and aerobic stabilization.