فرهاد رحمانی

In the present study, the impact of immobilizing a BiOI-CuO heterojunction on clinoptilolite zeolite as a support for photocatalytic degradation of the organic pollutant methyl orange (MO) was investigated. To this aim, BiOI-CuO heterojunction photocatalysts with varying weight ratios of BiOI:CuO (2, 3, and 4) were synthesized and embedded in clinoptilolite matrix. Characterization techniques confirmed the successful synthesis of the photocatalysts. FESEM analysis revealed that immobilization of the heterojunction structure on the zeolite support reduced the number of agglomerations. This immobilization not only preserved the morphology of the semiconductors but also led to the formation of a more homogeneous and uniform structure. The results demonstrated enhanced photocatalytic performance for MO degradation due to the formation of a heterojunction between BiOI and CuO semiconductors and their immobilization on clinoptilolite. The combination of 20 wt.% BiOI and 10 wt.% CuO immobilized on clinoptilolite exhibited the highest removal efficiency for MO. This superior performance was attributed to the favorable dispersion and distribution of the active-phase semiconductors on the zeolite support, lower charge carrier recombination and an appropriate bandgap, as confirmed by characterization analyses. Under 2 h of UV light irradiation with a MO concentration of 20 ppm and a photocatalyst dosage of 0.5 g/L, a maximum MO removal efficiency of 85% was achieved under UV light irradiation.

Removal of bentazone herbicide through photodegradation process using nanostructured TiO2/Clinoptilolite composite was studied to investigate the potential of clinoptilolite natural support and the effect of the loaded TiO2 content on the process efficiency. For this purpose, TiO2/Clinoptilolite photocatalysts containing different amounts of titania (10, 20, 30, 40 wt.%) were synthesized using a simple and inexpensive wet impregnation method and characterized by XRD, FESEM, EDX, BET, PL, and UV-vis analyses. The characterization results confirmed the successful synthesis of nanocomposite samples and showed that the use of zeolitic support, reducing the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs, improves the dispersion of titania nanoparticles and reduces the accumulation of these particles. The performance results showed that by increasing the TiO2 loading up to 30 wt.%, the removal efficiency of bentazone increases, which is due to the greater number of available active sites. By further increasing the amount of TiO2 loading, the percentage of photocatalytic removal decreases because of the increment in the number of agglomerations on the catalyst surface and the decrement in the adsorption capacity. Also, the kinetic studies show a higher rate of bentazone degradation over the sample containing 30 wt.% of titania and the results follow the first-order kinetic reaction. In order to ensure the efficiency of the selected photocatalyst in the removal of other agricultural pesticides, its efficiency in the photocatalytic removal of paraquat herbicide was also evaluated, which showed good performance. Thus, it can be concluded that the immobilization of the optimal amount of titania on clinoptilolite, in addition to better and easier separation, leads to improved optical and structural properties, and ultimately increased photocatalytic performance.

The photocatalysis process can be an appropriate alternative for traditional methods of pharmaceutical wastewater treatment because of its complete mineralization of pollutants and an environmentally friendly method. In challenging the drawbacks of photocatalytic TiO2-based nanoparticles such as aggregation and separation, photocatalytic TiO2-CuO nanofibers were produced through electrospinning technique and their photocatalytic capability was evaluated.

A TiO2-CuO nanostructured composite was synthesized by loading CuO nanoparticles on the electrospun TiO2 nanofibers through solid state dispersion method and characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller), differential reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) analysis. By studying and exploring the photocatalysis of TiO2-CuO composite nanofibers in pharmaceutical wastewaters treatment, the synthesized sample was tested in the photodegradation of tetracycline as the most widely used antibiotics.

The XRD, FE-SEM and EDX results confirmed the synthesis of composite nanofibers. The XRD pattern showed the crystal structure of TiO2 was mainly in the form of anatase. FE-SEM images demonstrated the relatively uniform dispersion of CuO nanoparticles in nanofibers. The results of optical spectroscopy analysis revealed a lower band gap of the synthesized nanofibers compared to TiO2-free nanofibers and nanoparticles; and relatively low electron-hole recombination which are the main characteristics of an effective photocatalyst. The BET analysis depicted a specific surface area of 8.5 m2/g and a mesoporous structure of the synthesized product. Finally, the photocatalytic activity of composite nanofibers was investigated in the photodegradation of tetracycline at various pH levels of wastewater. The TiO2-CuO composite nanofibers exhibited tetracycline degradation efficiency of 71% at neutral pH which is in accordance with the obtained data on sample characterization. These observations and findings together with the comparison of the photocatalytic performance of the synthesized sample compared with literature review verify the photocatalytic characteristics and the capability of TiO2-CuO composite nanofiber in pharmaceutical wastewaters treatment.

The aims of this study were to immobilize K2O nanoparticles over bentonite clay; and evaluate and compare its performance with that of bare K2O nanoparticles in order to study the role of mineral support in the biodiesel production. For this purpose, a heterogeneous K2O/Bentonite nanocatalyst was sonochemichally prepared by loading 30 wt.% potassium hydroxide over bentonite and used in the transesterification reaction of sunflower oil. The obtained result was compared with homogeneous KOH catalyst and bare K2O. The physico-chemical properties of synthesized composite were investigated using XRD, FESEM, EDX, BET and FTIR analyzes. The results of the characterization analysis indicate the successful synthesis of the synthesized sample and suitable surface and structural properties of this sample for use in the transesterification process. XRD analysis confirmed the formation of the crystalline phase of K2O in the synthesized sample. FESEM images showed that the surface of bentonite has been covered by small K2O nanoparticles with uniform size distribution and dispersion. The results of EDX analysis confirmed the presence of all the elements used and there was no impurity in the catalyst structure. The catalytic results of the samples in operating conditions of methanol to oil molar ratio of 12:1, catalyst amount of 3 wt.%, reaction temperature of 65 C and reaction time of 3 h indicate acceptable efficiency of synthesized nanocomposite with production yield of 95.17% compared with K2O and KOH samples which had 80.57% and 76.62% production efficiencies, respectively. Also, biodiesel properties, were measured and compared to standards.

In the present research, the photocatalytic water splitting process has been carried out over titania nanoparticles immobilized on parent clinoptilolite and ion exchange-treated clinoptilolite with the aim of understanding the effects of chemical treatment method on the physicochemical properties and performance of catalyst, and assessing the effects of operational parameters including irradiation time, photocatalyst dosage and solution pH. To this aim, 10 wt.% of TiO2 nanoparticles were loaded over zeolitic supports using facile and cost effective solid state dispersion (SSD) method. Moreover, the synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, FESEM, EDX, BET, PL and UV-vis techniques. The characterization results indicate that less population of surface particle aggregates, a better dispersion of titania particles and stronger metal-support interaction as a result of higher surface area and more accessibility of the zeolite micro-channels were achieved using modified clinoptilolite support. The fine dispersion of TiO2 particles reflects higher surface density of active sites and separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs, which accounts for their better photocatalytic performance. Employing the ion exchange- treated clinoptilolite as support led to 30% increase in the photocatalytic activity of TiO2-treated clinoptilolite for hydrogen evolution compared to that of TiO2-based composite containing the bare clinoptilolite. By assessing the influence of the operational conditions on the efficiency of water splitting, a maximum hydrogen evolution (859.74 µmol g-1 h-1) was obtained with optimum condition set at irradiation time of 4 h, solution pH of 10 and photocatalyst dosage of 1 g L-1, which is about 12 times greater than that of pure TiO2 as the reference sample.

In this study, Ni-Co/Al2O3-MgO nanocatalysts with two Al/Mg ratios of 0.5 and 5 were synthesized successfully using the impregnation method. The synthesized nanocatalysts were characterized by XRD, FESEM, BET, and FT-IR. The Ni-Co/Al2O3-MgO (Al/Mg=5) nanocatalyst showed high activity among other samples, which is due to its desired textural properties. XRD analysis illustrated that the Ni-Co/Al2O3-MgO (Al/Mg=5) nanocatalyst has smaller and well-dispersed NiO crystals. Also, the Ni-Co/Al2O3-MgO (Al/Mg=5) nanocatalyst due to BET analysis has a high specific area. According to the FESEM images, nanoscale particles with uniform surface size distribution have been observed in the Ni-Co/Al2O3-MgO (Al/Mg=5) nanocatalyst. During the 600 min stability test, feed conversion, and H2/CO molar ratio remained at constant values for the superior nanocatalyst.

Photocatalytic process is one of the modern treatment methods which can be efficiently used for the treatment of wastewaters containing pollutants with priority such as hexavalent chromium. So in this study, the effects of various operating parameters and optimum conditions for the reduction of Cr (VI) in the presence of ZnO/HZSM-5 nanocomposite were investigated using a full factorial design method. In this study, ZnO/HZSM-5 nanocomposite was sanitized by Hydrothermal/impregnation method. The structure and morphology of Nanocomposite were studied by XRD, UV/vis, and FESEM techniques. In order to evaluate the photocatalytic reduction of hexavalent chromium using ZnO/HZSM-5 nanocomposite, full factorial technique was used. The effects of reaction time, pH, UV intensity, and initial chromium concentration were studied. The results of XRD showed that the nanocomposite was properly formed and had a crystalline phase. FESEM images showed that active phase (ZnO) was uniformly spread on the surface in nanometric size. The results of Fisher test (F-Value) indicated that the initial concentration of hexavalent chromium plays the most important role in the process. Under optimal conditions (initial concentration of chromium = 10 mg/L, UV light intensity = 125 W, pH = 5, and reaction time = 60 minutes), the removal efficiency was 98.72% with a desirability of 0.985 for hexavalent chromium. Finally, the normal probability analysis indicated that the data had a normal distribution. According to the result, it was indicated that the initial concentration of chromium was the most effective parameter in the process. Hence, the full factorial method can be used as an effective method for optimizing the conditions of the photocatalytic process in removing hexavalent chromium.

The use of Biogas as a feed for dry reforming of methane has many environmental and economical advantages. Despite the high activity and low cost of Ni/Al2O3 catalyst, it shows pour stability due to coke deposition and active phase sintering. In this study, the effect of the synthesis method (impregnation vs. sol-gel) was evaluated on (1) physicochemical properties, (2) activity and (3) stability of Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. Extraction of physicochemical properties of nanocatalysts by XRD, FESEM, FTIR, BET, PSD and TG-DTG showed that the sol-gel method produced amorphous phases, uniform nanoparticles´ distribution and a higher surface area in comparison with impregnation method. FTIR analysis confirmed the existence of desired functional groups and lack of spinel compounds which were in agreement with XRD analysis. PSD analysis (

Ni-based catalysts demonstrated the beneficial performance in oxidative dehydrogenation. Magnesium oxide and zirconium oxide have been used in order to supply basic and acidic properties for the catalyst, respectively. Thus, Ni/Z25M75 nanocatalyst has been synthesized and evaluated in the conversion of ethane to ethylene in the presence of oxygen and carbon dioxide. For comparison purposes, Ni/Z25M75 has been synthesized via two different methods. The obtained catalysts have been characterized by XRD, FESEM, EDX, BET and FTIR. The XRD analysis demonstrated that the sample prepared via impregnation had smaller crystallite size. Moreover, FESEM images illustrated larger particle size of the sample prepared using the sol-gel method. Finally, nano-catalyat practical evaluations during oxidative dehydrogenation were done in the range of 500-650 °C. According to the catalytic tests, the nanocatalyst synthesized via the impregnation had better performance in reaction in comparison to the sol-gel one in the terms of conversion and yield. In this study, %67.23 yield obtained using the nanocatalyst has beenprepared via impregnation method.

In this study, the applicability of zeolitic supports and effect of zeolitic supports on catalytic properties and performance of Cr-based nanocatalysts used in oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane with CO2 were investigated. In this regard, a series of chromium oxide-based catalysts containing 3.4 wt.% of Cr were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation of clinoptilolite, SAPO-34 and HZSM-5 chosen among the natural zeolites, zeo-type materials and synthetic zeolites, respectively. To this aim, clinoptilolite was purchased and SAPO-34 and HZSM-5 were successfully synthesized via the hydrothermal method as evidenced by XRD, FESEM, BET and EDX techniques. The formation of fewer agglomerations and better dispersion of surface nanoparticles over cubic-like particles of ZSM-5 compared to other zeolitic supports were
confirmed by FESEM images. The TPD-NH3 results revealed that more desirable acidic properties were obtained by employing clinoptilolite compared to other zeolitic supports, resulting in high stability. Based on the EDX results, a higher dispersion of chromium species could be achieved using synthetic supports especially HZSM-5 due to their much higher specific surface area. This reflects in the higher content of redox Cr species stabilized in comparison with SAPO-34 and clinoptilolite, which alongside homogenous and fine surface nanoparticles and fewer agglomerations account for the superior catalytic performance of Cr/ZSM-5. Based on the characterization results, the low surface area of clinoptilolite and low dispersion of Cr species in Cr/Clinoptilolite and surface coverage and micropore blockage in Cr/SAPO-34 are mainly responsible for low ethylene yield of this catalyst compared with implementing ZSM-5 support. It was found that Cr/ZSM5 effectively dehydrogenated ethane to ethylene in the presence of CO2 at 700 °C, giving 45.4% ethylene yield. Coke deposition as a result of the presence of strong acid sites is mainly responsible for decreasing trend observed for catalytic performance with increasing reaction time.

In this investigation, TiO2-ZrO2 combined support with composition of 25wt% ZrO2 and 75wt% TiO2 was prepared by coprecipitation method and impregnated with 5 wt% of Cr2O3 and 3 wt% of K2O. The synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, FESEM, EDX, BET, and FTIR techniques. All characterization studies revealed that the deposition of Cr2O3 and K2O on the TiO2-ZrO2 combined support had obvious effect on the surface and structural properties and catalytic activity in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene by carbon dioxide as a soft oxidant. The XRD analysis confirmed the formation of crystalline TiO2 and ZrO2 in the synthesized samples. The FESEM and EDX images represented the formation of homogeneous spherical type agglomerates within the nanometer range and uniform dispersion over the surface with an average particle size of about 75 nm. The BET results depicted high surface area of synthesized samples. Cr-K/TiO2-ZrO2 catalyst exhibited high performance towards the selective conversion of ethane to ethylene in the presence of CO2 (C2H4 yield of 39% as well as 97% ethylene selectivity at 700 °C), wherein Cr2O3 improved the conversion of ethane as a redox active phase and K2O enhanced the selectivity of ethylene, acting as a basic promoter.

Dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene in the presence of CO2 has been carried out over chromium oxide catalysts sonochemically supported on parent SAPO-34 and nanostructured LaAPSO-34 molecular sieve with the aim of understanding the effects of support nature and La incorporation on the physicochemical properties and performance of catalyst. Like SAPO-34, nanostructured LaAPSO-34 with nominal Si/Al ratio of 0.3 in the gel was successfully synthesized via one-pot hydrothermal method as evidenced by XRD, FESEM, BET, EDX and FTIR techniques. Based on the characterization results, La incorporation into the framework of SAPO-34, not only complete crystallinity of SAPO-34, but increases in the surface area resulted in higher dispersion of Cr species and more uniform surface morphology. This reflects in higher content of redox Cr species stabilized in comparison with parent SAPO-34(0.3), which accounts for superior catalytic performance and stability of Cr/LaAPSO-34 (0.30) nanocatalyst. Moreover, more active sites which have been attributed to the higher amount of OH groups for La-doped SAPO-34 were proved by FTIR analysis. By employing SAPO-34 supports, a reasonable catalytic performance was observed. Doping SAPO-34(0.3) by lanthanum metal endows a most efficient support applicable for the selective oxidative dehydrogenation process. It was found that Cr/LaAPSO-34(0.3) effectively dehydrogenated ethane to ethylene in the presence of CO2 at °700C even after 5 hrs on-stream operation, giving 45% and 93% ethylene yield and selectivity, respectively. Less sensitivity to deactivation during the course of running the reaction evidently indicated the synergism effect of lanthanum existence and ultrasound irradiation on alleviating the catalyst deactivation in ethane dehydrogenation with CO2.

Aims: The birth of an infant requiring cares in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is one of the stressful sources in life. The aim of this study was to determine the stressful sources in mothers of infants in NICU.
Instrument & In the descriptive study¡ all mothers of infants hospitalized in NICU of Hajar Hospital in Shahr-e-Kord were studied in 2011. The subjects (n=110) were selected by census method. Data was collected by family information form and Miles and Funk’s parent stress questionnaire. Data was analyzed by SPSS 18 software using Spearman and Kruskal-Wallis correlation analyses noticing data abnormality.
Findings: There were no significant correlation between educational level¡ type of child birth¡ mother’s job¡ and residence place and mothers’ stressors (p>0.05). There were significant and reverse correlations between environmental stressor and birth weight of infant (p=0.025; r=-0.213)¡ mother’s age (p=0.034; r=-0.203)¡ and income (p=0.002; r=-0.292). There was no significant correlation between relation stressor and any demographic characteristics. There were significant correlations between the status of home resident and environmental (p=0.031)¡ face (p=0.008)¡ and relation (p=0.0001) stressors.
The mothers describe their own experiences of NICU as stressful. In addition¡ the environmental stressors affect such experiences in the highest level.

In this study, the effect of sol-gel method on the physicochemical properties of Ni-Cu/Al2O3-ZrO2 nanocatalyst was evaluated in comparison to sequential impregnation method. The nanocatalysts characterization was assessed by XRD, FESEM, PSD, EDS, FTIR, and TG-DTG analysis. The characterization results showed that a more uniform particle size distribution is obtained by the sol-gel method compared to the impregnation one. However, the surface area of this catalyst reduced due to the reduction of porous media and high particles density. Moreover, the sol-gel synthesis method led to the formation of very closely amorphous phases and the enhanced alkaline properties as a result of more –OH stretching vibration. Reforming of methane with CO2 was performed over Ni-Cu/Al2O3-ZrO2 at atmospheric pressure. The catalysts performance is inquired as a function of reaction temperature (550- 850 °C) and the results are reported in terms of feed conversion and syngas ratio. In the studied temperature range, it was found that the sol-gel synthesized catalyst showed a high activity. The best results were gained at 850 °C. Syngas ratio at this temperature was 0.94, which was very close to the stoichiometry ratio.

The purpose of this research was the study of posture and aerobic power of the addicts .The subjects of the study were 132 addicts of Tabriz central prison, all of the subjects selected on base Odineski table randomly. Data collection were done through quetionnaire and physical examination and Astrand step test. Information of quetionnaire include :addiction history, movement habitual and personal characteristics. The posture examined by posture screen and New York test.Aerobic power was measured by Astrand step test. Data were analyzed by nonparametic method as chi-square and parametric method as independent t-sudent ,following results were concluded: Posture abnormalities were 98.5 %.The incidence of abnormalities were :forward head 71.2%, kyphosis 73.4%, lordosis 43.1%, tilted shoulder 73.4%, scoliosis 24.2%, jenue varum 43.1%, jenue valgume 15.9% and flat foot 37.8%. On base of Astred-Remond nomogram. The aerobic power was of addicts subjects in compare to normal subject was low. However there was not significant difefrence between aerobic power in the subjects that had kyphosis and not (p≤0/05). There were significant relation between addiction history with each other kyphosis, forward head,tilted shoulder and jenue varum (p≤0/05). The results of this study was cocluded that prevalance of the subjects abnormalities was in high level and their aerobic fitness was in unoptimal level,therefor, awarenessof optimal body alignment,more activites and changing of bad habitual posture and physicsl fitness exercises can be emphasized by P.E and administers for like groups.