The current study investigated the effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZONPs) and oxytetracycline (OTC) supplementation on broilers’ behavior, performance, carcass quality, biochemical parameters, and intestinal microbial populations and birds’ response to Newcastle disease (ND) vaccine. A total of 336 seven-day-old IR broiler chicks were randomly allotted to six dietary treatments containing 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 ppm ZONPs or 50 ppm OTC. Each diet was fed to 7 replicates (8 birds/pen). The results clarified that 10 ppm ZONPs significantly improved the body weight gain and feed conversion in comparison to the control. No changes in behavior were recorded. The 10 ppm and 30 ppm ZONPs and OTC significantly reduced the gizzard weight in comparison to the control. While, 10 ppm ZONPs significantly increased the spleen weight, and all ZONPs doses increased bursa weight in comparison to the control and OTC groups. 20 ppm ZONPs increased the eviscerated yield and edible yield in comparison to the control and OTC groups. 40 ppm ZONPs increased pH, reduced meat color and overall acceptability in comparison to the control. In addition, results revealed that the 20 ppm ZONPs increased Calcium (Ca), High density low cholesterol (HDL-C), reduced urea (UA) and triglyceride (TG). Also, 40 ppm ZONPs and OTC increased creatinine (Cr) and reduced ND-HI titer in comparison to the control. For microbial population, OTC group was significantly lower than ZONPs groups in the total anaerobic, aerobic and lactobacilli count. In conclusion, the dietary inclusion of ZONPs can be applied as antibiotic growth promoter substitutions in broilers’ diet. However, further investigations are still needed.

 

The effect of Sb at% on different temperature ranges dc-electrical conductivity are reported for thermally evaporated Se85−xTe15Sbx(x = 2.5, 5 and 7.5 at.%) glassy thin films. The structure and surface morphology of the considered samples were studied by the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) measurements. The electrical conduction in the Se85−xTe15Sbx chalcogenide glass system was found to be determined by different conduction mechanisms with different activation energy values at various temperature ranges. The relation between various structural parameters and the electrical activation energies was investigated. The analysis of the high-temperature conductivity data identified that the conduction mechanism on the basis of thermionic emission occurs over the grain boundaries according to Seto's model. In the amorphous to crystalline phase transition region, a model has been modified to describe the conduction mechanism. The modification is considering the percolation effects alongside with the effect of thermally activated electrical conductivity of the formed crystalline grains embedded in the sample amorphous matrix. The calculated electrical conductivity was found to be effectively fitted to the temperature-dependent electrical conductivity measurements for thermally evaporated Se85−xTe15Sbx films and showed promising candidates to be examined in different chalcogenide systems .

Composite nanostructures composed of transition metal oxides are promising materials in catalyst, supercapacitor, and gas sensors. Here we have used Ni for the enhancement of the CuO gas sensor toward methane gas. High-quality Ni_x/CuO nanocomposites (where x = 0.0 to 10%) have been synthesized by the simple method of solid–solid reaction. A nanoparticle structure was obtained. The size of the nanoparticle can be controlled easily by adjusting the relative Ni concentration in Ni/CuO nanoparticles. The relative diffusion amount of Ni to CuO was proved to be the key factor to influence the sensing sample properties. XRD patterns and HRTEM image confirmed the preparation of Ni_x/CuO phase, which showed a decline in crystallite size from ~ 17.8 to 14.6 nm (XRD). FESEM and TEM images also exhibited the effect of Ni content on the particle size of CuO. EDX mapping confirmed that the NiO fine particles were distributed semi-uniform at low Ni concentration; however, they aggregated at high Ni concentration. The sensing properties were done at different temperatures and various concentrations of methane gas. It was illustrated that the increase of Ni up to 5% showed an improvement in the sensor response of CuO toward methane compared to the pure phase of CuO and NiO, as well. The maximum-response temperature was 250 °C at which the sensor response is ~ 4.9 (390%), which is four times higher than the CuO and NiO pure phases. The present nanocomposites could detect CH₄ at lower levels of explosive level (5%). The mechanism of gas sensing is explained depending on the electronic structure changes.

The present study reports the investigation of the structure, morphology, optical and electronic properties of the annealed thin films of the semiconducting Ge₁₀Se₇₅Ag₁₅ composition. The crystalline phases Ag₂Se, GeSe₂ and Se were found in the Ge₁₀Se₇₅Ag₁₅ thin films and their crystallites size, strain and the dislocation density were changed by the variation of the temperature. These results confirmed the occurrence of the amorphous-crystallization phase transition in Ge₁₀Se₇₅Ag₁₅ films. Many linear, nonlinear optical and electronic parameters were determined which also showed a variation with the temperature. The dependence of the refractive index on the electronic polarizability was examined. The band gap increased from 1.67 to 1.85 eV while the width of localized tail states decreased from 0.022 to 0.010 eV with the increasing the annealing temperature which indicates that the localized states have a role in controlling the band gap of the investigated films. The relation between the refractive index and band gap enabled us to get the values of the refractive index by different methods. Also from the present results we conclude that the annealing temperature has a role in tuning as well as optimizing the optical and electronic parameters of the fabricated films. The results were discussed in terms of different proposed models.

The effect of S b a t% on structural and linear/nonlinear optical properties was studied theoretically and experimentally for S e 85− x T e 15 S b x (x= 10, 12.5 a n d 15 a t%) glasses. The structural characterization was examined using EDX, XRD, DTA and FTIR. The calculated mean coordination number N C N, average constraints number N s, overall mean bond energy E b and average heat of atomization H S increase with S b a t%, which reflects an increase in the system rigidity and correlated to the increase in crosslinking with Sb at%. The linear/nonlinear optical constants such as optical energy gap E g, Urbach's energy E e, linear refractive index n, nonlinear refractive index n 2, the third order susceptibility χ (3) and the electronic polarizability α p are all evaluated and discussed for the studied films. The dispersion parameters were analyzed using Wemple-DiDomenico model of single oscillator model and the optical/electrical/thermal conductivities and electronic properties were deduced. The optical energy gap Eg, optical conductivities σopt and single oscillator energy Eo decreased while the Urbach's energy Ee and the refractive index n increased with Sbat%. Assessment of linear/nonlinear and other optical and physical parameters shows that Se70Te15Sb15 could be a candidate for several photonic applications.

Ge15Se75Zn10 thin films were deposited onto cleaned glass substrates by the vacuum thermal evaporation technique. The as-deposited and annealed thin films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and optical spectroscopy. The average particle sizes of the crystallized GeSe and ZnSe phases increase with increasing annealing temperature. Some optical parameters of the as-deposited and annealed Ge15Se75Zn10 thin films were studied using both transmittance T(λ) and reflectance R(λ) measurements. The analysis of T(λ) and R(λ) data revealed the existence of direct optical band gap (EG) and the corresponding values were calculated to be 2.913, 2.802 and 2.692 eV for the as-deposited and annealed thin films at 373 and 423 K, respectively. The dispersion of the refractive index is discussed in terms of the single oscillator Wemple-Didomenico (WD) model. The width of band tails of localized states (Ee), the single oscillator energy (E0), the dispersion energy (Ed), the high frequency dielectric constant (εL) and the steepness parameter (S) were estimated.

In recent paper anodization of copper foams in 0.1 M K₂CO₃ is reported. Anodization was performed in the voltage range of 5–25 V and in all the cases oxides with a developed surface area were obtained. However, anodizing only at 20 and 25 V resulted in the formation of nanostruc-tures. In all the cases, the products of anodizing consisted of crystalline phases like cuprite (Cu₂O), tenorite (CuO), parameconite (Cu₄O₃) as well as spertiniite (Cu(OH)₂). Copper foams after ano-dizing were applied as catalysts in the photocatalytic decolorization of a model organic compound such as methylene blue. The highest photocatalytic activity was observed for samples anodized at 25 V and closely followed by samples anodized at 5 V. The anodized copper foams proved to be a useful material in enhancing the photocatalytic efficiency of organic dye decomposition.

Object: Copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles (NPs) and copper oxide doped with various percentage of nickel (Ni) have been successfully prepared using the solid-solid reaction method.
Methods: The obtained powders of these CuO NPs have been calcined at various temperatures of 350°C, 450°C, 550°C and 650°C. These NPs have been characterized by Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and Fourier Transformation Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).
Results: XRD results obtained a pure phase of the as-prepared CuO NPs. The average crystallite size determined from XRD increases with certain calcination temperature. Doping of Ni in CuO NPs is extensively studied. The increase of Ni from 0.5% to 10% causes a decrease in the average crystallite size observed in FESEM studies. Moreover, magnetic properties are investigated for as-prepared CuO, CuO calcined at 650°C, and CuO doped 10% Ni.
Conclusion: The magnetic observations illustrated that, at the maximum applied field of 1.5 kOe, the magnetic response with a maximum moment M ≤ 0.01 emu/g for CuO NPs is achieved. This could be related to the uncompensated surface spins. Moreover, the magnetic response with a maximum moment is doubled in CuO NPs doped with 10% Ni.

The studied thin films of Ge_xSe_100−x compositions were synthesized with thermal evaporation technique at room temperature. The effect of composition on the structure of the prepared films was characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The stoichiometry of the studied compositions was examined by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The film thickness and refractive index were calculated by Swanepoel’s method. The structural analysis showed that the as-prepared Ge_xSe_100−x (x = 10, 15, 20 and 30 at.%) films exhibit the amorphous state while other films containing 25, 35 and 40 at.% of Ge are polycrystalline. On the other hand, the GeSe and Se crystalline phases are obtained for the annealed films. The analysis of the optical spectra showed that EgEg increases with increasing Ge content up to a x = 30 at.% and then decreases with further increase of the Ge concentration. Other many optical parameters such as optical conductivity, dispersion energy and dissipation factor were determined and strongly affected by the variation of the composition.

Copper oxide and cobalt oxide (Co3O4, CuO) nanocrystals (NCs) have been successfully prepared using microwave irradiation. The obtained powders of the nanocrystals (NCs) were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric (TGA) analysis and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The obtained results confirm the presence of both nanooxides which have been produced during chemical precipitation using microwave irradiation. TEM micrographs have shown that the obtained nanocrystals are characterized by high dispersion and narrow size distribution. The results of X-ray diffraction confirmed those obtained from the transmission electron microscope. Optical absorption analysis indicated the direct band gap for both kinds of the nanocrystals.