Sharif Digital Repository

A highly efficient polybutylene terephthalate (PBT)-based nanocomposite containing nickel oxide nanoparticles was synthesized by electrospinning technique and used as a fiber coating for solid phase microextraction. The influential morphological parameters and capability of the prepared nanocomposite including the NiO content, the coating time, the PBT concentration and applied voltage were considered for optimization. The applicability of the synthesized fiber coating was examined by headspace solid phase micro extraction and gas chromatography mass spectrometry detection of some volatile organic compounds in aqueous samples. Among the synthesized nanocomposites and pristine PBT nanofibers,... 

In this study, we implement a numerical model to predict secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from semi- and intermediate-volatility organic compounds emitted from in-use gasoline and diesel vehicles. The model is formulated based on the volatility basis set (VBS) approach, and it accounts for OH oxidation of unspeciated low-volatility organics, which are classified by their volatility. This model incorporates SOA formation data from smog chamber and emission measurements of vehicle exhaust in a Hybrid framework to calculate the contribution of both traditional and non-traditional SOA precursors to total SOA formation observed in photo-oxidation experiments. Emission and SOA formation... 

A chemiresistive sensor is described for the lung cancer biomarker hexanal. A composite consisting of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles and multiwalled carbon nanotubes was used in the sensor that is typically operated at a voltage of 4 V and is capable of selectively sensing gaseous hexanal at room temperature. It works in the 10 to 200 ppm concentration range and has a 10 ppm detection limit (at S/N = 3). The sensor signal recovers to a value close to its starting value without the need for heating even after exposure to relatively high levels of hexanal  

A gradient derived base layer extractive phase was synthesized and applied for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in saliva samples using the headspace cooled in–tube microextraction (HS–CITME) method. The base layers from three different sols of phenyltriethoxysilane (PTES), octyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) and methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) as nonpolar precursors were individually dip coated on the stainless steel wires (SSW). Then, the hydrolyzed polar precursor aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) reacted with the silanol groups already formed on the surface of SSWs via controlled rate infusion (CRI) method. The presence of polar and non–polar functional groups on the... 

The spatiotemporal variability of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in Tehran, Iran, is not well understood. Here we present the design, methods, and results of the Tehran Study of Exposure Prediction for Environmental Health Research (Tehran SEPEHR) on ambient concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene (BTEX), and total BTEX. To date, this is the largest study of its kind in a low- and middle-income country and one of the largest globally. We measured BTEX concentrations at five reference sites and 174 distributed sites identified by a cluster analytic method. Samples were taken over 25 consecutive 2-weeks at five reference sites (to be used for... 

Petroleum monoaromatics including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) are among the notorious volatile organic compounds that contaminate water and soil. In this study, a surfactant- modified natural zeolite and its relevant granulated nanozeolites were evaluated as potential adsorbents for removal of petroleum monoaromatics from aqueous solutions. All experiments performed in batch mode at constant temperature of 20°C and pH of 6.8 for 48 h. The results revealed that the amount of BTEX uptake on granulated zeolites nanoparticles were remarkably higher than the parent micron size natural zeolite (in the order of four times). The isotherms data were analyzed using five models... 

In the present work, the roles of inorganic oxide nanoparticles on the extraction efficiency of polyethylene terephthalate-based nanocomposites were extensively studied. Four fiber coatings based on polyethylene terephthalate nanocomposites containing different types of nanoparticles along with a pristine polyethylene terephthalate polymer were conveniently electrospun on stainless steel wires. The applicability of new fiber coatings were examined by headspace-solid phase microextraction of some environmentally important volatile organic compound such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX), as model compounds, from aqueous samples. Subsequently, the extracted analytes were... 

The aim of this study is to introduce an extractive phase based on gradient concept by continuous changing in chemical functional groups for non–targeted analysis. For this purpose, three different two–component coatings containing (3–aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APTES) as polar and either phenyltriethoxysilane (PTES), octyl–trimethoxysilane (OTMS) or methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) as nonpolar precursors were formed on the modified stainless steel wires using controlled rate infusion (CRI) method. The presence of polar and/or non–polar functional groups on the surface of substrate was evaluated by Fourier–transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) together with contact angles determined... 

Multivariate curve resolutions (MCR) along with other chemometric techniques are proposed to improve the analysis of Iranian Elettaria cardamomum (E. cardamom) essential oil with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In addition, multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) is used to obtain pure elution and mass spectral profiles for the components present in each chromatographic segment as well as their relative concentrations. This strategy was also used to overcome the problems of baseline offset, asymmetric peaks, retention time shifts, and overlapped and embedded peaks occurring during GC-MS analysis. The analysis of GC-MS data revealed that 42 components... 

The main aim of this work was to assess the ability of Bayesian multivariate adaptive regression splines (BMARS) and Bayesian radial basis function (BRBF) techniques for modelling the gas chromatographic retention indices of volatile components of Artemisia species. A diverse set of molecular descriptors was calculated and used as descriptor pool for modelling the retention indices. The ability of BMARS and BRBF techniques was explored for the selection of the most relevant descriptors and proper basis functions for modelling. The results revealed that BRBF technique is more reproducible than BMARS for modelling the retention indices and can be used as a method for variable selection and... 

Hexagonal core–shell SiO2[–MOYI]Cl–]Ag nanoframeworks were synthesized via surface modification of hexagonal silica nanoparticles prepared from perlite (EP) as a cheap and abundant raw material. The prepared samples were well characterized by X-ray diffraction powder (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area analysis, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD patterns confirmed that Ag and AgCl crystalline phases were successfully loaded on the surface. The TEM images were also implied that the... 

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled to gas chromatography (GC) was applied to the extraction of phenol and some of its volatile derivatives in water samples. The SPME fiber consisted of a thin layer of polyaniline, which was electrochemically coated on a fine Pt wire. The stability of the coating was such that it could be used at temperatures as high as 325 °C, without any deterioration. The effects of various parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were studied, simultaneously. From these, optimization of the extraction temperature, extraction time, coating thickness, sample pH, salt concentration and desorption time was carried out by means of a (26-2) fractional factorial... 

Biological treatment of waste gas styrene vapor was investigated in a three-stage bench-scale biofilter. Yard waste compost mixed with shredded hard plastics in a 25:75 v/v ratio of plastics:compost was inoculated with thickened municipal activated sludge. Microbial acclimation to styrene was achieved by exposing the system to an inlet concentration (CIn) of 0.25 g m -3 styrene and an empty bed retention time (EBRT) of 360 s for 30 days. Under steady-state conditions, maximum elimination capacity (EC) obtained was 45 g m-3 h-1 at a loading rate (L) of 60 g m -3 h-1 (CIn of 2 g m-3 and EBRT of 120 s). Reduction of retention time adversely impacted the performance resulting in the maximum EC... 

We synthesized a titanium dioxide–polyaniline core–shell nanocomposite and implemented it as an efficient sorbent for the needle-trap extraction of some volatile organic compounds from urine samples. Polyaniline was synthesized, in the form of the emeraldine base, dissolved in dimethyl acetamide followed by diluting with water at pH 2.8, using the interfacial polymerization method. The TiO2 nanoparticles were encapsulated inside the conducting polymer shell, by adapting the in situ dispersing approach. The surface characteristics of the nanocomposite were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. After... 

Monometallic and bimetallic supported metal oxides catalysts on γ-alumina were prepared by heterogeneous deposition-precipitation. The γ-alumina used as a support was synthesized by the sol-gel and the co-precipitation methods. Supports and catalysts were characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The performance of the prepared catalysts was studied for total oxidation of toluene in air at different relative humidity and oxidation temperatures. Efficiency of bimetallic catalysts for deep oxidation of toluene was... 

Various aspects of land use regression (LUR) models for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were systematically reviewed. Sixteen studies were identified published between 2002 and 2017. Of these, six were conducted in Canada, five in the USA, two in Spain, and one each in Germany, Italy, and Iran. They were developed for 14 different individual VOCs or groupings: benzene; toluene; ethylbenzene; m-xylene; p-xylene; (m/p)-xylene; o-xylene; total BTEX; 1,3-butadiene; formaldehyde; n-hexane; total hydro carbons; styrene; and acrolein. The models were based on measurements ranging from 22 sites in El Paso (USA) to 179 sites in Tehran (Iran). Only four studies in Rome (Italy), Sabadell (Spain),... 

Volatile components of saffron from different regions of Iran were extracted by ultrasonic-assisted solvent extraction (USE) and were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Self-modeling curve resolution (SMCR) was proposed for resolving the co-eluted GC-MS peak clusters into pure chromatograms and mass spectra. Multivariate curve resolution-objective function minimization (MCR-FMIN) and multivariate curve resolution-alternating least square (MCR-ALS) were successfully used for this purpose. The accuracy of the qualitative and quantitative results was improved considerably using SMCR techniques. Comparison of the results of saffron from different regions of Iran showed... 

Volatile organic compounds are a major cause of air pollution; therefore, VOCs are a serious fulmination for the environment. According to studies, adsorption processes have a high performance for the removal of pollutants that by selecting the proper absorbent, efficiency will be improved. In this work performance of two metal organic frameworks are studied so porous materials named MIL-101(Cr) and MIL-53(Fe) as an adsorbent for the removal of ethylbenzene have been synthesized hydrothermally. The materials were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, adsorption of ethylbenzene, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM),...