Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) methods have been used to investigate the water quality of Jajrood River (Iran) and to assess and discriminate the relative magnitude of anthropogenic and "natural" influences on the quality of river water. T, EC, pH, TDS, NH4, NO3, NO2, Turb., T.Hard., Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO4, SiO2 as physicochemical and TC, FC as biochemical variables have been analyzed in the water samples collected every month over a three-year period from 18 sampling stations along a 50 km section of Jajrood River that is under the influence of anthropogenic and natural changes. Exploratory analysis of experimental data has been... 

In this investigation, sol-gel synthesized nanoporous silica thin films, annealed at different temperatures, with long time superhydrophilic property have been studied. Two kinds of sol-gel silica thin films were fabricated by dip-coating of glass substrates in two different solutions; with low and high water. The transparent coated films were dried at 100 °C and then annealed in a temperature range of 200-500 °C. The average water contact angle of the silica films prepared with low water content and annealed at 300 °C measured about 5° for a long time (6 months) without any UV irradiation. Instead, adding water into the sol resulted in silica films with an average water contact angle... 

Dynamic hydrosalinity models are available, but are not used extensively on a large scale soil which receives wastewater from industrial areas, partly because adequate database are expensive to be obtained. Thus, for this reason, there is an urgent need to assess the salt and other pollutant loads collected in wastewater flows into the soil and/ or ground water systems. A conceptual hydrosalinity model was used on two major underlying principals of mass balance and steady state. This model was initially tested on the 4,117 km2 plains west of the Yazd-Ardakan district in the central part of Iran. This model was used at a time when the soil and ground water salinity problem was serious due to... 

A fiber coating from polyaniline (PANI) was electrochemically prepared and employed for solid phase microextraction (SPME) of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from water samples. The PANI film was directly electrodeposited on the platinum wire surface in sulfuric acid solution using cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique. The applicability of this coating was assessed employing a laboratory-made SPME device and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for the extraction of some PAHs from the headspace of aqueous samples. Application of wider potential range in CV led to a PANI with more stability against the temperature. The homogeneity and the porous surface structure of the... 

Water-quality modeling and prediction is a complicated task because of inherent randomness and uncertainties associated with various processes and variables throughout the stream environment and the lack of appropriate data. Hence, the results of mathematical models are always approximate, lying within an uncertainty. This paper describes and demonstrates the application of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water-quality model, QUAL2E-UNCAS, to the Zayandeh-Rood River in Iran. First-order reliability analysis is used to examine the variability of predicted water-quality parameters of total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, and biochemical oxygen demand. This analysis also... 

The present work deals with a novel approach for grafting a sol-gel based sorbent, using diazonium salts for preparation of an unbreakable capillary microextraction (CME) device in on-line combination with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The use of diazonium salts modifier allowed all types of metallic and non-metallic substrates to be used without any limitation. Substrates including copper, brass, stainless steel and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) were chosen to be functionalized by chemical or electrochemical reduction of 4-amino phenyl acetic acid. Then, 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propylamine (3TMSPA) was selected as the precursor and the only reagent for preparation of the... 

A simple, rapid and sensitive method based on microextraction in packed syringe (MEPS), in combination with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed. Polyaniline (PANI) nanowires network was synthesized and used as sorbent of MEPS for the multiresidue determination of selected analytes from triazine, organochlrorine and organophosphorous pesticides in aqueous samples. The PANI nanowires network was prepared using soft template technique and its characterization was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The presence of micelles in this methodology showed to be an important parameter in shaping the growing polymer. Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTAB) was used... 

A new method based on the combination of magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) and spectrofluorimetric determination was developed for isolation and preconcentration of fluoxetine form aquatic and biological samples using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) coated Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles (NPs) as a sorbent. The unique properties of Fe 3O 4 NPs including high surface area and strong magnetism were utilized effectively in the MSPE process. Effect of different parameters influencing the extraction efficiency of fluoxetine including the amount of Fe 3O 4 and SDS, pH value, sample volume, extraction time, desorption solvent and time were optimized. Under optimized condition, the method was successfully... 

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... 

Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-selective ion monitoring (GC-MS-SIM) was applied to the determination of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in water samples. The effect of main parameters affecting the extraction efficiency was studied simultaneously. From selected parameters, volume of extraction solvent, volume of dispersive solvent, and salt concentration were optimized by means of experimental design. The statistical parameters of the derived model were R 2=0.9987 and F=17.83. The optimal conditions were 42.0μL for extraction solvent, 0.30mL for disperser solvent and 5% (w/v) for sodium chloride. The calibration linear range... 

Superhydrophobic materials have attracted many attentions in recent years while their application in sample preparation remained almost intact. In this project, a rough surface of melamine formaldehyde foam was silanized by chemical deposition of trichloromethylsilane to form a highly porous and superhydrophobic material, presumably a suitable medium for extracting non–polar compounds such as benzene and its methyl derivatives. The prepared sorbent was packed in a needle for the headspace needle–trap microextraction of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX). Major parameters associated with the extraction/desorption processes were considered for optimization. Under the optimized... 

Efficient environmental management calls for the consideration of multiple pollutants, for which two main types of transferable discharge permit (TDP) program have been described: separate permits that manage each pollutant individually in separate markets, with each permit based on the quantity of the pollutant or its environmental effects, and weighted-sum permits that aggregate several pollutants as a single commodity to be traded in a single market. In this paper, we perform a mathematical analysis of TDP programs for multiple pollutants that jointly affect the environment (i.e., interactive pollutants) and demonstrate the practicality of this approach for cost-efficient maintenance of... 

A novel amino-functionalized polymer was synthesized using 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl amine (TMSPA) as precursor and hydroxy-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (OH-PDMS) by sol-gel technology and coated on fused-silica fiber. The synthesis was designed in a way to impart polar moiety into the coating network. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of this new coating showed the homogeneity and the porous surface structure of the film. The efficiency of new coating was investigated for headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) of some environmentally important chlorophenols from aqueous samples followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Effect of different... 

A new unbreakable solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber coating based on aniline-silica nanocomposite was electrodeposited on a stainless steel wire. The electropolymerization process was carried out at a constant deposition potential, applied to the corresponding aqueous electrolyte containing aniline and silica nanoparticles. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed the non-smooth and the porous surface structure of the prepared nanocomposite. The applicability of the new fiber coating was examined by headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) of some environmentally important polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), as model compounds, from aqueous samples.... 

A new type of composite material based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and sol-gel chemistry was prepared and used as sorbent for needle trap device (NTD). The synthesized composite was prepared in a way to disperse CNTs molecules in a sol-gel polymeric network. CNT/silica composites with different CNT doping levels were successfully prepared, and the extraction capability of each composite was evaluated. Effects of surfactant and the oxidation duration of CNTs on the extraction efficiency of synthesized composites were also investigated. The applicability of the synthesized sorbent was examined by developing a method based on needle trap extraction (NTE) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry... 

In this research, an attempt was made toward synthesizing a sol–gel–based silica aerogel and its subsequent coating on a copper wire by phase separation of polystyrene. Adaption of this new approach enabled us to coat the metallic wire with powder materials. The use of this method for coating, led to the formation of a porous and thick structure of silica aerogel. The coated wire was placed in a needle and used as the sorbent for in–tube solid phase microextraction of chlorobenzenes (CBs). The superhydrophobicity of sorbent on extraction efficiency was investigated by using different ratios of tetraethylorthosilicate/methyltrimethoxysilane. The surface coated with the prepared silica aerogel... 

A method based on direct immersion solid-phase microextraction (DI-SPME) coupled with high performance liquid chromatography combined with post-column photochemically induced fluorimetry derivatization and fluorescence detection (HPLC-PIF-FD) was developed to extract three pyrethroid insecticides, i.e. cyfluthrin, cypermethrin, and flumethrin from water samples. A sol-gel based coating fiber using 3-(trimethoxysilyl propyl) amine as precursor was prepared and used for the extraction of the pyrethroids from groundwater samples. A post-column photochemical reactor was designed and constructed for the derivatization of these environmentally important pollutants to increase their fluorescence... 

A headspace solid-phase dynamic extraction (HS-SPDE) technique was developed by the use of polypyrrole (PPy) sorbent, electropolymerized inside the surface of a needle, as a possible alternative to solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Thermal desorption was subsequently, employed to transfer the extracted analytes into the injection port of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The PPy sorbent including polypyrrole-dodecyl sulfate (PPy-DS) was deposited on the interior surface of a stainless steel needle from the corresponding aqueous electrolyte by applying a constant deposition potential. The homogeneity and the porous surface structure of the coating were examined using the... 

Sample preparation for non-target analysis is challenging due to the difficulty in the extraction of polar and non-polar analytes simultaneously. Most commercial solid sorbents lack the proper comprehensiveness for extraction of analytes with different physiochemical properties. A possible key is the combination of hydrophobic polymer and hydrophilic surface functional groups in solid based extraction methods in order to generate the susceptibility for retaining both polar and non-polar analytes. To pursue this goal, in this study, four polar groups including [sbnd]NH 2 , [sbnd]NO 2 , [sbnd]COOH, and [sbnd]COCH 3 were chemically bound to Amberlite XAD-4 substrate in order to prepare a...