Processes

Simazine and atrazine are widely used triazine herbicides frequently detected in surface water and groundwater due to their chemical stability and resistance to conventional treatment processes. In this study, biochar-activated persulfate (BC/PS) systems were investigated for the removal of simazine and atrazine, with emphasis on biochar feedstock, pyrolysis temperature, operational parameters, scavenger effects, and catalyst reusability. Hardwood- and corn cob-derived biochars produced at 400 °C (HW400 and CC400, respectively) and 700 °C (HW700 and CC700, respectively) were evaluated for persulfate activation. Adsorption experiments showed greater herbicide uptake by biochars produced at higher pyrolysis temperatures, with HW700 exhibiting the highest equilibrium adsorption capacities for both herbicides. Adsorption kinetic modeling showed that the best-fitting model varied among the investigated biochar–herbicide systems, indicating that adsorption kinetics depended on both biochar type and target herbicide. Persulfate alone exhibited negligible removal (<10%), whereas biochar-activated systems achieved substantially higher removal, with the highest performance observed at 3.0 mM persulfate and with BC700 materials. Removal was strongly pH-dependent, with the highest efficiencies observed under acidic and near-neutral conditions (pH 5.00–7.02), while alkaline conditions inhibited removal, particularly in systems containing corn cob-derived biochar. Scavenger experiments showed that herbicide removal was affected to different extents by MeOH, TBA, and NaN₃; however, these experiments did not allow unequivocal identification or quantitative determination of individual reactive species or reaction pathways. Repeated-use tests showed that overall removal performance was largely maintained over five consecutive cycles, although a gradual decrease was observed, particularly for atrazine removal. Experiments conducted in real wastewater resulted in lower removal efficiencies than those obtained in Milli-Q water, demonstrating a matrix effect under the investigated conditions. However, the specific wastewater constituents responsible for this effect could not be identified based on the available matrix characterization. Overall, the results demonstrate the potential of BC/PS systems for parent triazine herbicide removal under the investigated experimental conditions, while further evaluation of transformation products, toxicity, environmentally representative concentrations, and different water matrices is required to assess treatment performance and practical applicability.

Quality investigations in heat treatment require inspection results to be linked with processing histories, while conventional manufacturing execution systems distribute these records across separate modules. This study develops a read-only language-model interface with product and basket-time linkage and evaluates query execution separately from evidence correctness. A same-model comparison using GPT–OSS 20B covers 48 tasks and 288 attempted executions, with 273 complete responses. Frozen condition-screen counts were similar; asymmetrically reviewed scope corrections are not used as comparative evidence. Independent backend checks identified alarm-count inconsistencies before evidence reached the model. A retrospective, non-blinded review of 41 numerical fallbacks, assisted by artificial intelligence (AI), found six pre-fallback answers supported relative to the saved evidence, 34 containing unsupported or incorrect claims, and one indeterminate. These assessments do not independently validate the enterprise records. Three quality cases illustrate linkage to stage-specific furnace evidence, but incomplete basket coverage leaves the relationship between temperature deviations and hardness nonconformity undetermined. The study separates returned states, answer support, and independently verified facts when evaluating language-model access to manufacturing records.

In this paper, we describe and verify the structures and biological activity of novel metal complexes derived from 5-carboxy-2-thiouracil. We outline a synthesis method and assess the antimicrobial activity of newly formed Cu(II), Ni(II) and Co(II) complexes. Several syntheses were carried out with and without NaOH. The structures were verified using melting point analysis, MP-AES for Cu, Ni and Co and ICP-OES for sulfur, UV-Vis, ATR, solid-state and solution ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of these complexes and the free ligand were assessed against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as yeasts. The HCT-116 colorectal cell line (ATCC) was used for a cytotoxic assay. Only two Ni(II) complexes showed reduction in the number of viable tumor cells. None of the other compounds led to a significant reduction in the number of viable cells, as determined by one-way ANOVA statistical analysis.