The effect of electron irradiation on structural and optical properties of TiO2 particles has been studied. The crystallinity change was observed at low dose irradiation (4-20 kGy) while phase transformation from pure anatase to mixture of anatase-rutile was inevitable after 100 kGy without significant change in crystallinity. The highest fraction of rutile:anatase ratio was 20:80 obtained at 700 kGy. Morphology study demonstrated that TiO2 particles were spherical, nano-sized and heavily agglomerated with no obvious microstructural changes were observed after irradiation. The direct and indirect band gap (Eg) showed a decrement at low dose but re-increased after irradiation at >100 kGy. The highest Eg was at 700 kGy which can be explained by the changes of TiO2 atomic structure in the presence of mixture anatase:rutile. Therefore, the electron beam irradiation does affect both structural and optical properties of TiO2 nanoparticles. This is expected to affect the photocatalytic activity of TiO2.
A 57-year-old male chronic smoker with underlying diabetes mellitus presented with dysphonia associated with cough, dysphagia and reduced effort tolerance of 3 months’ duration. Videoendoscope finding revealed bilateral polypoidal and erythematous true and false vocal fold with small glottic airway. The patient was initially treated as having tuberculous laryngitis and started on antituberculous drug. However, no improvement was observed. CT of the neck showed erosion of thyroid cartilage, which points to laryngeal carcinoma as a differential diagnosis. However, the erosion was more diffuse and appeared systemic in origin. The diagnosis of laryngeal perichondritis was made when the histopathological examination revealed features of inflammation, and the tracheal aspirate isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The patient made a good recovery following treatment with oral ciprofloxacin.
The raw material of the extraction process is dust from the electric arc furnace dust (EAFD). EAFD is a byproduct of steel mills which comprises mainly of iron (33-35%) and zinc (22-27%). In this study, ZnO was extracted and purified from EAFD using solvent extraction technique to remove other impurities. Solvent extraction process can easily be adapted into small and large capacities. Characterization of the samples has been done and the results show the production of purity of ZnO samples was quite high. The sample was characterized using equipment such as X-ray fluorescence, XRF, X-ray diffraction, XRD and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM).
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