Benthic microbial fuel cells (BMFCs) are considered to be one of the eco-friendly bioelectrochemical cell approaches nowadays. The utilization of waste materials in BMFCs is to generate energy and concurrently bioremediate the toxic metals from synthetic wastewater, which is an ideal approach. The use of novel electrode material and natural organic waste material as substrates can minimize the present challenges of the BMFCs. The present study is focused on cellulosic derived graphene-polyaniline (GO-PANI) composite anode fabrication in order to improve the electron transfer rate. Several electrochemical and physicochemical techniques are used to characterize the performance of anodes in BMFCs. The maximum current density during polarization behavior was found to be 87.71 mA/m2 in the presence of the GO-PANI anode with sweet potato as an organic substrate in BMFCs, while the GO-PANI offered 15.13 mA/m2 current density under the close circuit conditions in the presence of 1000 Ω external resistance. The modified graphene anode showed four times higher performance than the unmodified anode. Similarly, the remediation efficiency of GO-PANI was 65.51% for Cd (II) and 60.33% for Pb (II), which is also higher than the unmodified graphene anode. Furthermore, multiple parameters (pH, temperature, organic substrate) were optimized to validate the efficiency of the fabricated anode in different environmental atmospheres via BMFCs. In order to ensure the practice of BMFCs at industrial level, some present challenges and future perspectives are also considered briefly.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a hazardous contaminant demonstrating endocrine disrupting properties, and assumed to be involved in the pathogenesis of various cancer diseases for instance prostate, lung and breast cancer. The objective of the present study was to estimate the BPA amounts in carbonated beverages from the Saudi Arabian market for the first time using an authenticated technique based on solid-phase extraction and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. A total of thirty-four carbonated beverages of different flavors, origin and packaging materials were studied. The beverage production periods were from February 2018 to July 2018 containing volume (250-1000 mL), packaging materials were of canned, glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. BPA amounts in canned (0.64-11.41 µg/L), glass bottled (1.92-29.56 µg/L) and PET plastic bottled (0.37-21.83 µg/L) were obtained with recovery (97.64-99.96%). Relatively, glass bottled has offered higher amounts of BPA compared to PET plastic bottled and canned samples. The unforeseen presence of BPA especially in glass bottled emphasizes the ubiquity of such compound beside the food fabrication chain, far off to the food packaging materials. Thus, a further knowledge on BPA amounts in glass bottled samples, in addition to threat assessment studies, is essential to defend human health.