Raw sewage is widely used on agricultural soils in urban areas of developing countries to meet water shortages. Although it is a good source of plant nutrients, such sewage also increases the heavy metal load to soils...Raw sewage is widely used on agricultural soils in urban areas of developing countries to meet water shortages. Although it is a good source of plant nutrients, such sewage also increases the heavy metal load to soils, which may impact the food chain. Management options for sewage contaminated soils includes addition of nontoxic compounds such as lime, calcium sulfate and organic matter, which form insoluble metal complexes, thus reducing metal phytoavailability to plants. In this paper we review the variation in irrigation quality of sewage at different sites and its impact on the quality of soils and vegetables. Although quality of sewage was highly variable at source, yet the effluent from food industries was relatively safe for irrigation. In comparison effluent samples collected from textile, dyeing, calendaring, steel industry, hospitals and clinical laboratories, foundries and tanneries were hazardous with respect to soluble salts, sodium adsorption ratio and heavy metals like zinc, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, cobalt and cadmium. The sewage quality in main drains was better than that at the industry outlet, but was still not safe for irrigation. In general, higher accumulation of metals in fruits and vegetable roots was recorded compared to that in plant leaves, Edible parts of vegetables （fruits and/or leaves） accumulated metals more than the permissible limits despite the soils contained ammonium bicarbonate diethylenetriaminepentaacetie acid extractable metals within a safe range. In either case further scientific investigations are needed to ensure safe management strategies. Cadmium appeared to be the most threatening metal especially in leafy vegetables. It is advisable to avoid leafy vegetables cultivation in sewage irrigated areas everywhere to restrict its entry into food chain.展开更多
Half-Heusler compounds are an impressive class of materials with a huge potential for different applications such as in future energy, especially in the fields of thermoelectrics and solar cells. We present ab fnitio ...Half-Heusler compounds are an impressive class of materials with a huge potential for different applications such as in future energy, especially in the fields of thermoelectrics and solar cells. We present ab fnitio total energy calculations within the modified Becke-Johnson generalized gradient approximation （mBJ-GGA） to obtain the physical properties of SrAlGa compounds. The structural, elastic, acoustic, electronic, chemical bonding, optical, and thermoelectric properties are calculated and compared with the available calculation data. The SrAlGa is found to be a small-band-gap （0.125-0.175 eV） material, suitable for thermoelectric applications with a relatively high Seebeck coefficient. Also, SrAIGa has the potential in the optoelectronic applications due to high optical conductivity and reflectivity in the infrared and visible region of electromagnetic spectra.展开更多
A new potential approximation known as modified Becke-Johnson based on density functional theory is applied to compute the electronic band profile and optical response of CdIn2O4, CdGa2O4 and CDAl2O4 compounds. The di...A new potential approximation known as modified Becke-Johnson based on density functional theory is applied to compute the electronic band profile and optical response of CdIn2O4, CdGa2O4 and CDAl2O4 compounds. The direct band gap with common LDA, GGA and EV-GGA is drastically underestimated compared with modified 13ecke-Johnson approximation, whose results are significantly closer to the experimental findings. The optical properties like dielectric constant, refractive index, reflectivity, optical conductivity and absorption coefficient axe also computed. A unique characteristic associated with cation replacement is studied; the replacement of cation In by Ga and Ga by AI significantly reduces the direct energy band gap in these compounds. This variation is of crucial importance for band gap dependent optical properties of these compounds, which is also proof for applications of these compounds in optoelectronic devices.展开更多
文摘Raw sewage is widely used on agricultural soils in urban areas of developing countries to meet water shortages. Although it is a good source of plant nutrients, such sewage also increases the heavy metal load to soils, which may impact the food chain. Management options for sewage contaminated soils includes addition of nontoxic compounds such as lime, calcium sulfate and organic matter, which form insoluble metal complexes, thus reducing metal phytoavailability to plants. In this paper we review the variation in irrigation quality of sewage at different sites and its impact on the quality of soils and vegetables. Although quality of sewage was highly variable at source, yet the effluent from food industries was relatively safe for irrigation. In comparison effluent samples collected from textile, dyeing, calendaring, steel industry, hospitals and clinical laboratories, foundries and tanneries were hazardous with respect to soluble salts, sodium adsorption ratio and heavy metals like zinc, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, cobalt and cadmium. The sewage quality in main drains was better than that at the industry outlet, but was still not safe for irrigation. In general, higher accumulation of metals in fruits and vegetable roots was recorded compared to that in plant leaves, Edible parts of vegetables （fruits and/or leaves） accumulated metals more than the permissible limits despite the soils contained ammonium bicarbonate diethylenetriaminepentaacetie acid extractable metals within a safe range. In either case further scientific investigations are needed to ensure safe management strategies. Cadmium appeared to be the most threatening metal especially in leafy vegetables. It is advisable to avoid leafy vegetables cultivation in sewage irrigated areas everywhere to restrict its entry into food chain.
文摘Half-Heusler compounds are an impressive class of materials with a huge potential for different applications such as in future energy, especially in the fields of thermoelectrics and solar cells. We present ab fnitio total energy calculations within the modified Becke-Johnson generalized gradient approximation （mBJ-GGA） to obtain the physical properties of SrAlGa compounds. The structural, elastic, acoustic, electronic, chemical bonding, optical, and thermoelectric properties are calculated and compared with the available calculation data. The SrAlGa is found to be a small-band-gap （0.125-0.175 eV） material, suitable for thermoelectric applications with a relatively high Seebeck coefficient. Also, SrAIGa has the potential in the optoelectronic applications due to high optical conductivity and reflectivity in the infrared and visible region of electromagnetic spectra.
文摘A new potential approximation known as modified Becke-Johnson based on density functional theory is applied to compute the electronic band profile and optical response of CdIn2O4, CdGa2O4 and CDAl2O4 compounds. The direct band gap with common LDA, GGA and EV-GGA is drastically underestimated compared with modified 13ecke-Johnson approximation, whose results are significantly closer to the experimental findings. The optical properties like dielectric constant, refractive index, reflectivity, optical conductivity and absorption coefficient axe also computed. A unique characteristic associated with cation replacement is studied; the replacement of cation In by Ga and Ga by AI significantly reduces the direct energy band gap in these compounds. This variation is of crucial importance for band gap dependent optical properties of these compounds, which is also proof for applications of these compounds in optoelectronic devices.
