An overview on the preparation and properties of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) organic and carbon gels reveals the fascinating and remarkably flexible properties of RF carbon and organic gels and how these properties are related to the synthesis and processing conditions. The structural properties can be easily tailored by rigidly controlling such conditions. However, slight variations in some conditions may cause drastic variations in the structural characteristics, and hence properties. Therefore, the effects of different conditions must be well-understood before attempting to tailor organic or carbon gels to specific applications. The most important factors that affect the properties of an organic gel are the precursor concentrations, the catalyst type and concentration, the time and temperature of curing, and the drying method. In addition to these factors, characteristics of activated carbon gels also depend on the pyrolysis temperature and the activation method. These conditions impact the structural and performance characteristics significantly.

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Background Water pollution due to the disposal of heavy metals in water bodies is one of the most global concerns that adversely affect the ecosystem and human health because of their non-biodegradability and potential of accumulation. Copper is one of the most present metals in the environment released mainly from disposing of agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, mining operations, chemical, pharmaceutical, and paper manufacturing industries into stream bodies. The elevated exposure to Cu(II) causes severe toxicity, diabetes, anemia, kidney disorders, liver damage, and death. Main body Several researchers developed detection methods and techniques for Cu(II) detection in the different water samples and sources to ensure that Cu(II) concentration falls within the acceptable limit range, including atomic and molecular spectrophotometry, mass spectroscopy, sensors, voltammetry, and chromatography. This review spotlights recent Cu(II) detection trends in water samples, highlighting their detection limits, advantages, and disadvantages. Conclusion Based on the water sample, detection limit, method cost, an appropriate analysis can be used. Recent trends of Cu(II) detection in water samples include atomic and molecular spectrophotometry, mass spectroscopy, sensors, voltammetry, and chromatography. The principle, definitions, experimental work, advantages, and disadvantages of each method are discussed and highlighted.

Since the early spring of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) outbreak has hindered traditional face-to-face teaching and hands-on, traditional delivery of laboratory courses, forcing universities to migrate from the traditional way of teaching to a remote online approach. Although few studies addressed the pandemic's impact on educational outcomes, no studies are found to investigate the impact of the remote online teaching approach on laboratory courses. This paper highlights the impact of the online teaching approach, coupled with flipped learning pedagogy, as a substitute for traditional laboratories. The course learning outcomes and assessment tools are analyzed and discussed for 46 students enrolled in the Unit Operations Laboratory course in the chemical engineering program at Qatar University. Results show that the course learning outcomes are achieved effectively using the hybrid online-flipped learning pedagogy, which can be considered for computerized traditional laboratories as a moderation solution to alleviate pandemic COVID-19 confinement on learning outcome. This methodology can also be sustained in the future to facilitate the teaching of such lab courses, even in normal conditions, to optimize the resources and avail the delivery of such courses to a larger audience who may have various obstacles to attending traditional lab courses.

One of the main goals of assignments in the academic environment is to assess the students’ knowledge and mastery of a specific topic, and it is crucial to ensure that the work is original and has been solely made by the students to assess their competence acquisition. Therefore, Text-Matching Software Products (TMSPs) are used by academic institutes to ensure academic integrity and address plagiarism. However, some students find ways to trick TMSPS. In this paper, files with the common tricks students do to beat TMSPS have been created and investigates with nine academic level TMPS to evaluate their effectiveness against these tricks, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each TMSP, and providing instructors with some practical tips on checking plagiarism effectively and spotting any tricks to cheat without getting noticed.

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Current industrial civilization relies on conventional energy sources and utilizes large and inefficient energy conversion systems. Increasing concerns regarding conventional fuel supplies and their environmental impacts (including greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change) have promoted the importance of renewable energy (RE) sources for generating electricity and heat. This comprehensive review investigates integrating renewable energy sources (RES) with thermal energy storage (TES) systems, focusing on recent advancements and innovative approaches. Various RES (including solar, wind, geothermal, and ocean energy sources) are integrated with TES technologies such as sensible and latent TES systems. This review highlights the advantages and challenges of integrating RES and TES systems, emphasizing the importance of hybridizing multiple renewable energy sources to compensate for their deficiencies. Valuable outputs from these integrated systems (such as hydrogen production, electric power and freshwater) are discussed. The overall significance of RES–TES hybrid systems in addressing global energy demand and resource challenges is emphasized, demonstrating their potential to substitute fossil-fuel sources. This review provides a thorough understanding of the current state of RES–TES integration and offers insights into future developments in optimizing the utilization of renewable energy sources.

The computer‐based Aspen Plus® Sensitivity Analysis Tool (APSAT) was used as a virtual environment to mimic a gas absorption lab experiment in the Unit Operations Lab within the curriculum for the Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at Qatar University. A pool of 35 students enrolled in three lab sections was utilized. The approach was applied in three stages to foster the attainment of the learning outcomes of the experiment by testing and evaluating some parameters that cannot be examined using the physical lab equipment. Results show that the approach helped the students gain a profound understanding and address conceptual mistakes while discussing the results of the APSAT outputs. Students who were engaged in the APSAT activity demonstrated a strong interest in this approach. This approach can be implemented to facilitate the teaching of lab courses. Furthermore, it is a practical choice to optimize the resources and a good substitute for lab experiments in case of any pandemic, confinement or interest in testing the effects of hazardous conditions to ensure sustaining the learning outcomes from corresponding experiments.