Table of contents

Editorial note

In this year, we celebrated the ranking of our university "Beni-Suef University" as the 1^st Egyptian University, 601-800 world wide and 301-400 in the physical sciences, 101-150 in the young universities as Times Higher Education published. It is also a great pleasure to announce that for the 1^st time we are included at Shanghai ranking (901-1000). We are willing to compete next year on advanced positions.

Faculty of Postgraduate studies for advanced sciences (PSAS) is an exclusive faculty, a 1^st class learning place that relocates you from multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary to transdisciplinary research in FOUR main departments working collectively to achieve the best prototypical education on both regional and international level.

PSAS is distinguished by an expertly qualified team working together with a large number of research facilities in the specified laboratories.

List of scientific committee is available in this pdf.

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Pharmaceutical residues that are considered as emerging contaminants have received increased interest in the last years due to their adverse effects on the environment. This is the first study on the assessment of diclofenac and caffeine in municipal waste water of Egypt. The study aims also to report the removal efficiency of waste water treatment plant and the ecological risk assessment of diclofenac and caffeine. Diclofenac and caffeine were detected in both influent and effluent of Tezmant waste water treatment plant (WWWP) in Beni-Suef governorate, Egypt with detection frequency of 100% by using UPLC-MS/MS method. The maximum detected concentrations were 27.85 µg/L for caffeine in February and 1.07µg/L for diclofenac in January, respectively. Caffeine showed higher removal efficiency (95.2%) than that of diclofenac (69.6%). Based on Predicted No Effect Concentration (PNEC) obtained from the literature, it is observed that diclofenac has high risk (RQ>1) on fish and low risk on algae and Daphnia. Meanwhile, caffeine showed low risk on all of the studied species.

Fuel cell has two essential problems, its cost and the durability, which hinder its commercialization. Platinum is the ideal catalyst that has high activity, stability and selectivity but has high cost. An attempt has been done to find a cheaper catalyst instead of platinum. Zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesized via sol-gel method using zinc acetate and citric acid in basic media with different calcination temperatures (420, 520 and 620 °C). From X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, the calculated particles size is 7.7, 15.6 and 19.3 nm as the calcination temperature of 420, 520 and 620°C, respectively, indicating that the particles size increases with increasing the calcination temperature. Different concentrations (5 and 10 wt.%) of ZnO nanoparticles with 10 wt.% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) were prepared and calcinated at 750 °C to get carbon/ZnO as a catalyst for fuel cell applications. A carbon core-shell surrounding by mono-disperse ZnO nanoparticles with large surface area that required for the new catalyst with believable morphology was shown by transmission electron microscope (TEM). Also, XRD presents high purity of the new composite with uniformly distinguishable peaks. Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy shows the change in the carbon/ZnO nanoparticles spectra due to ZnO characteristic vibration band at 440-460 cm⁻¹. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) exhibits a good promising catalytic activity and current density with oxidation behaviour is reported. Finally, ZnO used to enhance carbon electrochemically performance as a result of a novel non-precious catalyst.

Qarun Lake is one of the most important lakes in Egypt; it is the shrunken remnant of Moeris Lake. It is a closed ecosystem represented as a tank for discharged agricultural wastewater of El-Fayoum province. To assess the quality of the lake water for fishing and aquatic live utilization, Oregon water quality and metal pollution indices are computed. Based on the obtained results, water of the Qarun Lake is classified as very poor for the fishing utilization, where water quality index changed from 17.05 to 67.4 at the different stations. The metal indices; Pollution index (PI) and metal index (MI); showed that Qarun Lake water undergoes from a several grade of contamination for usage of aquatic life because of the enormous amount of wastes that discharging into the lake. Novel synthesized alginate nanocomposites (alginate, chitosan-alginate, and LDH-alginate and LDH-chitosan-alginate beads) were applied to remove heavy metal such as (Cd²⁺, Cu²⁺, Cr⁶⁺, Mn²⁺, Fe²⁺, Ni²⁺, Pb²⁺, and Zn²⁺) from different wastewater discharging into Qarun Lake. LDH-chitosan-alginate beads the exhibited the maximum removal efficiency that varied between 92.253 and 98.833 % for Cr⁶⁺ and Fe²⁺, respectively; in contrast, the alginate beads recorded the lowest one. The study indicated that the nanocomposite adsorbents, especially, LDH-chitosan-alginate beads are an effective substance for metal removal from different wastewater.

Chitosan is one of the most widespread biopolymer materials available in nature which is extracted from chitin. The main source of chitosan is the chitin that is extracted from exoskeletons of crustacean, such as shrimp and crabs, which are found in a huge amount of shells waste that produced from seafood companies around the world. The chitosan has several applications such as pharmaceutical, fertilizer and edible coating in food industries. The quality of the chitosan's depends on its extraction method, so in this research work we have studied the effect of grounding shrimp shell waste before the extraction step. The chemical and physical properties of the extracted chitosan were studied by using different techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The study showed that the films and powder produced from non-ground samples showed a higher purity of chitosan and better thermal stability than the chitosan produced from ground samples.

Chitosan-LDH (layered doubled hydroxide) composite was prepared for removal heavy metals and antimicrobial activity. It was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning electronic microscope (SEM). Studying various physicochemical parameters such as the effects of pH, adsorbent amount, and contact time for removing heavy metals were performed. The adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherm model were done to understand the adsorption process. The prepared composite exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against different gram positive (Lactobacillus sakei LMG 2313, Corynebacterium sp, Staphylococcus aureus 5247) and gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli AO5). Results were recorded in terms of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), which is the lowest concentration of antimicrobial/antifungal agent that will inhibit the visible growth of a microorganism after overnight incubation.

Different ratios of Mn₃O₄/CNT (carbon nano tubes) samples were prepared by ultrasonic and hydrothermal reactions. The added ratios of CNT: Mn wt./wt. were 0, 5, 15, 25, 35 and 50%. The phases of the samples were identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The particle morphology was studied with a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The lowest charge transfer resistance, R_ct was 19.18 Ω with cell of Mn₃O₄/35% CNT. For Li / Mn₃O₄-35% CNT cell, the specific discharge capacity was about 688 mAhg⁻¹ after 100 cycles, which was the highest value among the other cells at discharge current density 0.02Acm⁻².

Recently, there has been a growing interest in sulfated polysaccharides extracted from various natural sources due to their versatile biological activities that find great use in biomedical and industrial applications. In the present study, sulfated polysaccharides were extracted from green algae, Ulva lactuca and red algae, Jania rubens collected from Alexandria city coast, Egypt. Conventional and ultrasonic-assisted extraction methods were investigated under different operating parameters and the optimum conditions for extraction were obtained based on the yield. Algal extracts with optimum SPs yields were then tested for their phenolic and sugar contents, as well as their 1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) antioxidant activities. Optimum yields of both green and red algae were obtained via extraction under ultrasonic conditions for 4h. Higher yields were produced from the green algae as compared to the red ones. However, red algal extracts showed relatively higher antioxidant activities, possibly due to their higher mannose content.

Alexandria landfill site in El Hammam operated by Onyx since 2003 has been used as an Egyptian landfill case study. Methane generation rates have been estimated using three different simulation models namely: LandGEM, E-PLUS, and the 2006 IPCC Waste Model. The models were run using actual waste quantities disposed at this site together with projected waste quantities till the closure of the landfill site. Power consumption becomes economically feasible only if electricity price is increased locally.

In this study, 5-(3-nitrophenyllazo)-6-aminouracil was prepared by linking 3-nitro aniline to 6-aminouracil. The (1:1) complexes of this ligand with Fe⁺3, Co⁺², Ni⁺², Cu⁺² and Zn⁺² were prepared and characterized by elemental analysis for C, H and N, thermal analyses (TGA and DTA), FT-IR, ¹H NMR. The molecular weight of the ligand was determined by mass spectral measurement and its fragmentation pattern was reported. The metal content of the complexes was determined by EDTA complexometric titrations and the coordination number of metal in complexes was confirmed by magnetic susceptibility measurements. Antimicrobial activities for ligand and its complexes were studied. The IR and ¹H NMR studies confirmed that 5-(3-nitrophenyllazo)-6-minouracil behaves as monobasic bi dentate ligand bonding to the metal ion through both NH₂ group and N=N groups forming six membered ring and The magnetic moments measurements indicated octahedral geometry for Fe⁺³ complex, tetrahedron structure for Co⁺², Ni⁺², Cu⁺² complexes and square planar geometry for Zn⁺² complex. Antimicrobial activity measurements indicated that Co⁺² and Ni⁺² complexes are biologically active towards bacteria gram (-ve), gram (+ ve) and fungi, while Zn⁺² complex showed high resistance towards gram (+ ve) bacteria and medium resistance towards gram (-ve).

Facile sonochemical technique was used for the first time to synthesize Co₃O₄-graphene nanocomposites at room temperature. The nanocomposites under investigation were prepared with different Co₃O₄ molar ratios of nanoparticles. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and UV-vis spectroscopy. The results show that Co₃O₄ nanoparticles were distributed uniformly on the surface of graphene sheet. This work reports a simple preparation approach and recommends the described methodology for the decoration of graphene sheet surface with miscellaneous metal oxide nanoparticles.