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In this work, electrochemically exfoliated graphene oxide-based photocatalyst was synthesised with the help of single- (sodium dodecyl sulphate; SDS) and triple-chain (sodium 1,4-bis(neopentyloxy)-3-(neopentylcarbonyl)-1,4-dioxobutane-2-sulfonate; TC14) anionic surfactants. The hybrid photocatalyst is a system consisting of surfactant-assisted electrochemically exfoliated graphene oxide (sEGO) and zinc oxide (ZnO). The system was prepared by exfoliating graphite in the presence of surfactant and ZnO, and it was used for the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye. Of these different surfactants, the triple-chain TC14 exhibited 98.53% MB removal, which was significantly higher than the system with SDS surfactant (50.94%) or ZnO alone (42.33%). Observations through field-emission scanning electron microscopy suggested an enhanced exfoliation degree upon increasing the number of surfactant chains. Results from zeta potential measurement also revealed increased system stability along with a hig.....

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In this study, durian shell-based activated carbon (DAC) was produced via chemical activation method by utilising durian shell and sulphuric acid (H2SO4) as the starting material and activating agent, respectively. The incorporation of H2SO4 in the DAC production process resulted an improvement in the surface properties and adsorption capacity of the produced DAC adsorbent. Field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis further showed that the produced DAC possessed a porous structure which was beneficial for dye adsorption application. Under operating conditions of 500°C and 3 hours carbonisation temperature and time, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, total pore volume and BET average pore diameter were measured to be 242.03 m2/g, 0.028 cm3/g and 2.28 nm, respectively. The adsorption performance of the produced DAC was then investigated using methylene blue (MB) as the model adsorbate. The optimum MB dye removal and adsorption capacity were found to be 92.05% a.....

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The development of scalable membrane-based separation processes has attracted considerable interest on laboratory and industrial scales. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is one of the most widely used fluoropolymer materials for membrane fabrication due to its excellent mechanical strength, good thermal stability and chemical resistance as well as aging resistance. However, the hydrophobic nature of PVDF has resulted in serious membrane fouling during the filtration process. From the past decade, the embedment of hydrophilic materials in/on PVDF-based membranes can significantly alter the membrane’s morphology and surface properties. Therefore, based on most articles retrieved from Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, etc., this article provides the overview of the recent development of PVDF-based membranes during the recent several decades. The detailed information regarding PVDF as a polymer material as well as the main challenge in the development of PVDF-based membranes with bet.....

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