Publications by authors named "Branko Kordic"

Wastewater treatment plants play a crucial role in managing environmental pollutants, but they often release persistent contaminants like synthetic microplastic fibers (MPFs) into ecosystems. These microplastics, mainly from the textile industry and domestic washing of synthetic fabrics, are a major type of microplastic found in aquatic environments. Some harmful chemicals have an affinity for these microplastics, making them vectors for contaminants.

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Pure water scarcity is the most significant emerging challenge of the modern society. Various organics such as pesticides (clomazone, quinmerac), pharmaceuticals (ciprofloxacin, 17α-ethynilestradiol), and mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol) can be found in the aquatic environment. The aim of this study was to fabricate ZnO nanomaterial on the basis of banana peel extract (ZnO/BPE) and investigate its efficiency in the photocatalytic degradation of selected organics under various experimental conditions.

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This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of adsorption and photocatalysis techniques at removing the herbicide clomazone (CLO) and the antidepressant known as amitriptyline (AMI) from water. This study employed kinetic models to analyze the removal processes and assess the potential toxicity of the treated water. The structure and morphology of the prepared multi-walled carbon nanotubes were characterized as adsorbents by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared techniques, and Raman spectroscopy.

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In this research, an attempt was made to classify soil samples according to the different fractions of soil organic matter (SOM) using model systems in which the ratio of the fractions of SOM is chemically mimicked. A mixture of starch and nicotinamide was used for the labile organic matter model, while a standard of humic acid was used for the stabile organic matter. Changing the threshold value in the selected ranges after a permutation importance algorithm is conducted using train models and test data set, a list of selected important wavelengths and their importance scores were obtained.

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Soil pollution with heavy metals is a serious threat to the environment. However, soils polluted with heavy metals are considered good sources of native metal-resistant strains. spp.

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Bioavailability and movement of pollutants through land and underground flows are strongly related to some of the sediment characteristics, such as clay minerals and organic matter. Therefore, the determination of clay and organic matter content in sediment is of great importance for environmental monitoring. Clay and organic matter in sediment were determined using diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy in combination with multivariate analysis methods.

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Arsenic contamination of drinking water sources is a widespread global problem. Of the As species commonly found in groundwater, As(III) is generally more mobile and toxic than As(V). In this work, magnetic nanoparticles (MNp) modified with Fe-Mn binary oxide (MNp-FeMn) were synthesized in order to develop a low cost adsorbent with high removal efficiency for both arsenic species which can be readily separated from water using a magnetic field.

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