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Ever since the global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19) in the early part of 2020, there is no doubt that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has placed great tension...

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Thin films of copper-zinc sulphide (CxZn1-xS) have been deposited by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) technique at 400 °C on soda-lime substrates. The films contained copper dithiocarbamate and zinc dithiocarbamate of various concentrations. The effect of the precursor’s concentration was investigated using Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. The precursors’ FTIR spectrums have the characteristics of copper sulphide and zinc sulphide absorption bands below 800 cm-1. The optical properties for all the samples were studied by reading the absorbance and transmittance spectra in the range of 300 - 900 nm. The results indicate direct bandgap energy that ranged between 2.20 to 3.42 eV. The films were found to have a very high transmittance in the visible and near-infrared regions and an average reflectance of about 0.14 in the same regions. Optical constants like refractive index, extinction coefficient, and optical conductivity were estimated as a function of photon energy. The various properties exhibited by the films indicate that the films can find application in various optoelectronic devices.

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Several agronomic waste-materials are presently being widely used as bio-adsorbents for the treatment of toxic wastes such as dyes and heavy metals from industrial activities, which has resulted in critical global environmental issues. Therefore, there is a need to continue searching for more effective means of mitigating these industrial effluents. Synthetic aromatic dyes such as Acid Brown (AB14) dye are one such industrial effluent that is causing a serious global issue owing to the huge amount of these unsafe effluents released into the ecosystem daily as contaminants. Consequently, their confiscation from the environment is critical. Hence, in this study, Mandarin-CO-TETA (MCT) derived from mandarin peels was utilized for the removal of AB14 dyes. The synthesized biosorbent was subsequently characterized employing FTIR, TGA, BET, and SEM coupled with an EDX. The biosorption of this dye was observed to be pH-dependent, with the optimum removal of this dye being noticed at pH 1.5 and was ascribed to the electrostatic interaction between the positively charged sites on the biosorbent and the anionic AB14 dye. The biosorption process of AB14 dye was ideally described by employing the pseudo-second-order (PSO) and the Langmuir (LNR) models. The ideal biosorption capacity was calculated to be 416.67 mg/g and the biosorption process was indicative of monolayer sorption of AB14 dye to MCT biosorbent. Thus, the studied biosorbent can be employed as a low-cost activated biomass-based biosorbent for the treatment of AB14 dyes from industrial activities before they are further released into the environment, thus mitigating environmental contamination.