Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2018 Issue 1

The response of plant tissue to standard growth media varies widely due to the genetic diversity of the plant cultivars studied. The objective of this research was to determine the effects of micronutrients on date palm growth and which of these micronutrients are critical for improving growth combined with Paclobutrazol or without on in vitro of elongation stage. In vitro growth of two cultivars was determined by varying five treatments that included minor salts (EDTA-chelated iron, Cuso4,) alone or combined with Paclobutrazol. The effects of these five treatments of plantlet length, trunk thickness, rooting number and Chlorophyll A, B were investigated. The results obtained after three months showed that, increase copper sulphate on MS elongation media combined with Paclobutrazol was more effective for increasing strongly of trunk thickness as well as rooting number compared with normal MS level. While poor response was found when increase of Fe in the chelated form of Fe-EDTA on MS elongation media. For cultivars, shishy gave the highest plantlets length as well as root number, while the increase of trunk thickness was achieved with cultivar LuLu. The greatest formation of chlorophylls A, B was observed when increase copper sulphate on MS elongation media with cultivar LuLu. The survival rate after 3 months was related to the medium used during the elongation phase, the survival of plantlets reached to 98.66% with cultivar lulu at the acclimatization stage.

This study was carried out to assess hygiene conditions, food handling practices, food safety knowledge of food service providers (FSPs), and the microbial quality of food served in different food service establishments in Doha. Fifty-three FSPs were randomly selected among 200 FSPs. Face-to-face interviews with the food safety managers at each participating FSP were conducted using a survey consisting of 40-questions (demographic data on workers, HACCP training, knowledge on personal hygiene, and safe-food handling practices) in October-December 2015. In addition to survey questionnaire, a checklist was used to determine the implementation of international food safety standards by observing actual practices applied at each FSP. All FSPs who took part in the initial survey were also invited to participate in one of three one-day educational workshops focused mainly on important components of food safety management system and held in 2016. At the time of workshops, each participant was also encouraged to take part in the microbial quality assessment study. Out of 53 establishments, only 10 FSPs (2 fine-dine-in, 2 casual sit-in, 2 catering, 2 fast-food, and 2 takeaway) accepted to provide food and swab samples from their entities. At the time of each visit to select FSPs, various menu items (food cooked in a short time, ready-to-eat foods, vegetables, dairy-based deserts, sandwiches, and raw seafood, e.g. oysters) were sampled in duplicate (based on the daily menu prepared at the time of sampling) at different food preparation stages (receiving, food storage, food preparation, holding/cooking, and serving). The microbial quality of food samples (n = 105) served and swabs collected from food preparation surfaces (n = 58) were also assessed using select media (APC, MCA, XLT4, and LSA). The identification of positive samples was carried out using VITEK-2 system. After the microbial assessment, a follow-up survey consisting of 24 questions was developed to determine the impact of the educational trainings on food service providers' daily operational practices. The FSP managers who participated in the initial survey were invited by phone or email or in person to take part in the follow-up survey. Out of 53 FSPs, only 16 were available to answer the questions due to reasons beyond the control of the research team. The major reasons for a low participation were 1) several managers moved back to their country without any contact information, 2) many of them changed their jobs and there was a no way of communicating with them since they did not provide an alternative email or a phone number. The survey results indicated that average service years of FSPs was 11, the average age of food safety managers interviewed was 33, most managers (66%) had college degree, and 68% of them were trained on HACCP. It was demonstrated that casual-sit-in and fine-dine-in restaurants are the only FSP types which consistently kept records (100%), followed by fast-food (36%), and catering (14%) FSPs. The microbial analysis indicated that the average APC in food samples collected from all FSPs met the international standards, while the APC counts of swab samples were considered unsatisfactory since the levels were above 106 Log10 CFU/cm2. The highest bacterial count was reported in swab samples (7.26 Log10 CFU/cm2) collected from preparation area in takeaway restaurants. Concerning the target organisms (Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., and Listeria monocytogenes), among 105 food samples and 58 swab samples collected, 13 samples (8%) exhibited positive results for possible target pathogens. Positive samples were identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Pantoea spp. Overall, the participants were highly satisfied (average score: 4.39/5 ± 0.20) with the information presented in the training workshops held in 2016, indicating that the workshops helped improve their knowledge on food safety; change their attitudes towards safe handling foods, and inform them about the changes on food safety laws and regulations in Qatar. These results provided insight information on the aspects of behavioural changes that confirm the value of intervention studies. One important note which is important to mention that the participating managers indicated that they need open communication between the policymakers and the FSPs to be able to make sure that they will not be left behind if there is any changes/updates on food safety rules and regulations applied in the country. This issue is going to be addressed by posting constant updates on GSO (food safety standards applied in Qatar) on the website recently developed and hosted under the Ministry of Public Health website. Results obtained in this study might help food safety managers in these select FSPs to better understand the need for implementing effective control measures in order to prevent contamination and eventually protect the public health.

Identification of biological agents which is thermo- tolerance is a key success for biological control in the arid regions such as Arabian Peninsula. Date palm is one of the indigenous plants in this region. It can tolerate high temperature and survive the drought. It is expected that microbial communities associated with date palms would have similar characters. It would be reasonable to search for bio-agents from such microbial communities. This study is a apart of a project to identify microbial communities living in the phyllosphere and rhizosphere of date palms. Bacterial colonies were isolated from date palm leaflets and soil samples containing date palm roots. Samples were collected from the date palm experimental field at the Agricultural Research Farm, Rwdet Al-Faras, Qatar. Isolation of bacteria were conducted on nutrient agar media using the standard techniques. Hundred eighty five bacterial isolates were obtained. They were evaluated for their antagonism potentiality against Alternaria alternate as a causal agent for leaf spot diseases in date palm and Fusarium solani and Macrophomina phaseolina as causal agents for root rot in Phaseolus vulgaris crops. Suppression of mycelial growth of the pathogens were recorded as the result of the interaction between the pathogen and different bacteria. Two modes of action were observed. Eleven isolates grew on the area of inoculation but they suppressed the pathogen by their extracellular antifungal metabolites while the growth of 18 isolates spread all over the plate and prevented pathogens from growing either by their growth or by both the growth and the extracellular antifungal metabolites. Screening for thermos-tolerance were carried out by picking up a single colony from each bacterial isolate, inoculating it in 1 ml of LB liquid media and incubating the culture at 90 °C for 24 hours. Then they were cultured on nutrient agar media plates, incubated at 30 °C for 24 hours. The two separate evaluations of antagonism and thermos-tolerance of the bacterial isolates showed that only 18 isolates had both characters. These 18 isolates were exposed to high temperature then evaluated for their antagonism. Only 7 isolates kept their potential to suppress the growth of pathogens. This test demonstrated the possibility of losing the antagonism effect as a result of high temperature. In this test 90 °C/24 hours was used. Molecular identification was carried out to on the seven bacterial isolates. They were identified based on 16s rDNA sequencing using universal primers and standard procedures. They were Pseudomonas putida (3 isolates), Bacillus subtilis (2 isolates) and Bacillus megaterium (2 isolates). These species were reported to have a potential as a bioagents and some of their isolates were developed and being used commercially as biopesticide. We do not recommend using Pseudomonas putida as biopesticide because they might have a potential risk for human. They can cause infections in cases of immunocompromised patients It can be concluded that both thermos-tolerance and antagonism are important to have a successful bio pesticide in the arid region. Losing the antagonism after exposing to high temperature showed the importance of evaluating each bio-agent for this character. So far we did not elucidate the mechanism of losing the antagonism. In this experiment, a very high temperature for long time was used however using lower temperatures for shorter periods can reveal different results.

Energy security is one of the main national concerns, with population's growth and energy demand increase it becomes critical for countries to address the issue. Increasing energy production is extremely costly and could require investments to modify the power network infrastructure that is also expensive. Demand Side Management is a collection of methods and strategies that helps modifying the demand of consumers in order to cope with the limited energy production, avoiding tremendous expenses. DSM is often associated with the residential load profile in order to determine two aspects. Firstly the residential energy load profile is the main component that is required in order to understand how to apply DSM effectively. The load profile is often too complex, it exhibits unique patterns and characteristics as it is influenced by a number of social and economic factors, climate and the local policies also impacts the profile. Secondly the residential load profile has a useful role that helps us identify the viability of using solar photovoltaic and storage systems in households. The residential energy consumption represents a large portion of Qatar's total energy consumption and it is growing larger. By monitoring the energy profiles of 10 households chosen from different accommodation types, we can log and plot actual load profiles that can represent the domestic household energy profile of a province. The monitoring of the loads has to cover a yearlong period in order to demonstrate the climate impact on the load profiles. The energy consumption is represented by household appliances and mostly by HVAC or heating depending on the country's location. The loads are split into two categories, an elastic load that can be fixable for the user to operate at various times. The other type of loads is inelastic loads that have priority that impacts the comfort level of the user and cannot be shifted. These loads play a role in determining the shape of profile and the extent of degree to which it can be changed. The best way of monitoring the loads is through nonintrusive appliance load monitors in order to keep occupants disturbance at minimum. Smappee is a nonintrusive appliance load smart monitor that offers precision in energy reading as well as a remarkable user interface. These monitors measure the total energy consumption using current transformers. It logs power readings with a five minutes interval and uploads it to the cloud. The data can then be downloaded to a local server in order to be plotted into the load profiles. Ten Smappee monitors were installed in ten different houses and apartments in Doha during June and July 2017 and are expected to run for a year. The data will be used to plot a representation of Qatar's typical domestic load profile and to investigate the two aspects of DSM and the viability of PV and storage systems. A simple case study is carried out to assess the potential of DLC in the Education City Community Housing (ECCH). The ECHH accommodates the QF employees in a high-quality villas and apartments that ensure a high living standard. The ECHH consists of two lots that made of totally 639 housing units classified into five different dwelling types. Furthermore, the AC units installed have three different capacities (18, 11, 8 kW) and the capacity of the AC unit depends on the type of the housing unit. Table 1 EC Community Housing units by type of unit, area, and AC unit capacity Housing Type Area (m2) No. of Units AC Load (kW) Total Load Standalone V. Type 1 408 52 18 936 Standalone V. Type 2 389 17 18 306 3 Bedroom Attached V. 315 118 11 1,298 2 Bedroom Attached V. 219 108 11 1,188 3 Bedroom Apt. 256 72 11 792 2 Bedroom Apt. 161 200 8 1,600 1 Bedroom Apt. 109 72 8 576 Figure 1 Peak demand reduction achieved by the three different scenarios in the total electricity demand in Qatar.The case study comprises three scenarios; the first scenario is assuming 15-minute cycling for all buildings is performed. The second scenario is assuming 50% of the residents went on summer vacation, and their AC is cycled for 1 hour and 50% stayed here and their AC is cycled for 15 minutes in 4 groups such that the first group is cycled in the first 15 minutes of the hour, then the second group in the second 15 minutes of the hour and so on. It is believed that more than 50% of the residents leave the country for summer vacation, so the third scenario is similar to the second however, it is assuming 80% of the residents went to summer vacation and 20% stayed in Qatar. The results of these three scenarios are presented in Figure 1. Around 1.674 MW demand reduction could be achieved in the first scenario, while it could be increased if the long summer vacations are taken into consideration as seen in the 2nd and the 3rd scenarios where 3.557 MW and 5.44 MW demand reduction is achieved respectively. Such results provide critical insights in assessing demand reduction potential of Qatar and determining associated economic savings.

Oil and gas drilling companies spend around 20$ billion annually from which 15% is attributed to material and productive time losses. The most prevalent drilling problems are caused by the Bottom-Hole-Assembly failure which includes drill string and drill bit damage or fatigue failure. During normal operation, to achieve penetration that cannot be met by the drilling motor power section, the bit torque generates an increased reactive torque that acts in the opposite direction of the driving rotation. This sudden increase in reactive torque is transmitted through the drill string as torsional ‘stick-slip’ vibration, which is often regarded as one of the most damaging modes of vibration. Due to cyclical rotation acceleration and deceleration of the bit, Bottom-Hole-Assembly, or drill string, this phenomenon produces accumulation and release of energy stored as several turns of twist in the rotor. While downhole vibrations are difficult to prevent and cannot be totally eradicated, implementing of corrective methods may be highly efficient for drilling optimization. In the present work, the effect of drill mud on drilling dynamics is studied, then, a sinusoidal excitation is added to the drive torque and resulting impact on downhole equipment is presented. A laboratory scale arrangement consisting of a flexible rotor and a stator is used, and attention is paid to whirling and stick-slip motions of the drill string. The results are provided in the form of responses in the time and frequency domains. A non-linear coupled dynamic model of a rotor enclosed within a stator and subjected to non- linear mud film force is developed. Comparisons with simulations data are also included. The work is one of the first studies carried out on the influence of adding a sinusoidal excitation to the driving torque with the use of drill mud on drill-string whirling motions in a laboratory environment.

With the increased demand in energy resources, great efforts have been keen to develop advanced energy storage systems. A redox flow battery is a type of rechargeable battery where rechargablity provided by two chemical components dissolved in liquids and separated by a membrane. Energy is stored in the liquid electrolyte in external tanks, rather than in the battery cell. Flow batteries are technically similar to fuel cells are targeted at large-scale energy storage solutions. [1] Graphene based materials have attracted great attention for used as an alternative electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage system due to its unique properties of large surface area, chemical stability, super mechanical flexibility, high electric and thermal conductivities and an atomic thick two-dimensional sp2 hybridized carbon network. [2]To realize commercial use of graphene-based energy devices, it is highly desired to produce high-quality graphene at a low cost and large scale. Functionalization of graphene can further enhance its properties for efficient energy conversion and storage. Several innovative methods have been reported recently for functionalization of graphene, including mechanical exfoliation, surface polymerization vapor deposition (CVD), chemical exfoliation of graphite, sonication/intercalation,but these suffer from high manufacturing costs and technical difficulties.[3] Chemical doping of graphene with heteroatoms (e.g. Nitrogen) is one of the most feasible approaches to modulate its electronic properties. Traditionally, these methods often requires complicated processes and/or chemical reagents containing additional undesirable components in their structures. On the particular interest, mechanochemical ball milling process is a simple but efficient approach for producing edge-functionalized graphene nanoplatelets in large quantity and low cost. Previously, N-doped graphene materials generated by ball milling of graphite with N-containing gases like N2 and NH3 have been showed good electro catalytic activities for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). [4,5,6] But,the amount of Nirogen doping is not sufficient in the above case. Therefore, we prepared N-doped graphene (N-GNP) by ball milling of graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) with melamine, which is nitrogen-rich solid organic compound and followed by pyrolysis. Both the temperature as well as the mass ratio between GNP and melamine affect the nitrogen content. In the ball milling process, the strong shear forces generated between high-speed rotating balls caused the mechanochemical cracking of the graphitic C– C bonds and spontaneous incorporation of Nitrogen from melamine at the broken edges of graphitic frameworks as well as the consequent exfoliation of graphene nanoplatelet. From the XRD, the (N-GNP) has peak broadening, indicates the occurrence of the ball-milling-induced edge doping of GNP. The XPS plot reveals the presence of three different nitrogen species in the (N-GNP), namely pyridinic, pyrolic and quaternary Nitrogen. The as fabricated materials used as a slurry electrode and their performances were investigated for VO2+/VO2+ redox couple for vanadium redox flow battery (VRB). The cyclic voltammetry (CV) results revealed that the Nitrogen functionalization of Graphene noplatelet allowed remarkable improvements in terms of both the reversibility and the current density than as received GNP. Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used to further investigate that N-GNP is showing highest conductivity than GNP. Enhanced performance of N-GNP in terms of electrochemical activity and kinetic reversibility is owing to its electrical conductivity, surface area, graphitized surface and chemical stability of the electrodes affects the overall battery efficiency. References 1. P. Leung a, A.A. Shah, L. Sanz, C. Flox, J.R. Morante, Q. Xu, M.R. Mohamed,C. Ponce de Leon, F.C. Walsh, Journal of Power Sources, 360,2017, 243-283.2. H.-M. Tsai, S.-Y Yang, C.-C. M. Ma, X.F. Xie, Electro analysis, 2011, 23, 9, 2139 – 2143.3. RoshniYadav, C.K.Dixit, Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices,2017, 2141-149.4. H. Wang, T. Maiyalagan, X.Wang, ACS Catal. 2012, 2, 781 − 794.5. W. Shi, K.-Hsu Wu, J. Xu, Q. Zhang, B.Zhang,D. S. Su, Chemistry of Materials, 2017, 29, 8670-8678.6. L. Dai, Y. Xue, L.Qu, H.-J. Cho, J.-B. Baek, Chem. Rev., 2015, 115, pp 4823–4892.

Natural resources face growing demands and constraints in many regions as a result of economic, population growth and climate change. Due to those changes, it is extremely essential to invest towards water and energy nexus integration technologies since integrated thinking and actions can led to achieving a sustainable development and global supply of water and energy. The water-energy nexus and integration has been recently proposed to minimize water-energy footprint of an industrial park. It is required to develop a systematic approach for water-energy nexus network and interconnections among the processes. Previous research works mainly have presented the general superstructure and approach to develop economically optimal water networks that achieve a specified footprint target. In this work, one of the previous approach for water network has been extended with cooling systems options in order to capture the linkages between water and energy within industrial cities. The objective of this paper is to develop a framework for optimizing energy and water resources from processes that have a surplus of energy at various qualities. A systematic procedure is developed for optimizing and maximizing the benefits of these nexuses, considering power generation from a net surplus of waste heat energy from each plant by accounting for different sustainability metrics. The developed approach includes the use of composite curve analysis to first identify the potential for excess heat and then used to develop the combined water-energy network. A superstructure is generated to embed various configurations and related optimization formulation is solved to obtain an optimal process that economically satisfies the demand for water and energy considering some environmental metrics. Special emphasis is placed on capturing the synergy potentials from utilizing excess process heat and synergies across cooling and desalination systems, as well as synergies with the surroundings in terms of power and water exports from the industrial cluster. The work considers multiple objectives to explore trade-offs between minimum total annual cost and environmental sustainability metrics. A case study of an industrial cluster of typical processes operating in Qatar is presented to highlight the benefits of integration. It is shown how economically very attractive solutions across the nexus are identified by the proposed optimization-based approach. The results indicate that by water-energy integration the footprint reduction can be significant while economically is attractive too. Therefore, there is a great potential for savings water-energy resources by water-energy integrations. The work is contributed to sustainable development such as less pollution and resource minimization.

Haloxylon persicum Bunge ex Boiss &Buhse native and rare plant in the state of Qatar known as Ghada, Qadha, Rimth, it's endangered, high palatable species, a favored plant to stabilize sand dunes, conserve water and soil, prevent soil desertification, and improve environmental conditions. It's small tree or shrub to 3 m, trunk 10- 25 cm in girth; stem richly branched, glabrous; young branches slender, green; leaves 0.5 – 1.25 mm, scale-like, acute, connate into a cup, with a tuft of short hairs in the axil; flowers on short spicate branchlets. It's evergreen plant blooms at the end of August and during September. The freshly harvest seeds recorded high germination percentage but it's rapidly lost viability The species distribution in the Middle East, the species is distributed mainly in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, and central and northwestern Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula, the plant distributed in deep, often drifting sand. Previous studded recorded it east of Salwa at sand dunes (the area now known as Al Mashbiya), near the Saudi Arabian border. Haloxylon persicum used for grazed by camels; highly valued as firewood by Bedouin and desert villagers. Through years 2012 to 2017, the Genetic Resources Department, Department of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Municipality and Environment in Qatar collected, surveyed and has some inventory activities for flora in Qatar. but they did not record any distribution of Haloxylon persicum only recorded in Al Mashbiya at Lareeq the state of Qatar is home to some unique and important habitats, Qatar has very limited number of trees and shrubs but due to changes in land use, including increased development, camel overgrazing, human activities, habitat reduction has emerged as a significant threat to the biodiversity of this country. In the last decade, there has been increasing effort to protect and conserve global biological diversity. Significant importance has been placed on new development being undertaken in a sustainable way and the restoration of landscapes damaged by past actions. These genetic relatives of crops also still remain largely uncollected and therefore they are largely unevaluated and unavailable for future breeding programs in agriculture and farming. The conservation of these genetic resources preserves the invaluable raw material needed to develop new varieties of crops in response to changing environments and climate. Qatar is firmly committed to conserving its biodiversity and is party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and within this the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and has developed its own National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). Based on an assessment of the status of biodiversity in the country, Qatar's NBSAP identified a total of 11 strategic goals that identify the most pressing biodiversity issues in Qatar such as protected areas, agrobiodiversity and desertification, scientific research, education and public awareness, invasive alien species etc. To enable Qatar to address both the NBSAP and GSPC targets in relation to plant conservation effectively, fundamental baseline data needs to be obtained. Regional Red Lists following the IUCN Categories and Criteria are an invaluable tool to assess the risk of extinction to species within a country, informing national and regional conservation planning and directly addresses key objectives of both the GSPC and NBSAP. Many reports suggested the Haloxylon persicum Extinct in Qatar but the current study record the excellent site for distribution of Haloxylon persicum there are more than 50 individuals plant recorded using GPS points and satellites map. The distributions maps were prepared. The current research collected seeds, herbarium samples, and DNA samples and their conserved in Qatar gene bank and herbarium.

Electrocatalytic properties of Pt nanoparticles grown on MXene surface Sifani Zavahira, Jaroslav Filipb, Khaled A. Mahmoudc, Jan Tkacd Peter Kasaka,* a Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713 Doha, Qatar bDepartment of Environmental Protection Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Vavreckova 275, 76001 Zlín, Czech Republic c Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), P.O. Box 5825, Doha, Qatar d Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Department of Glycobiotechnology, Dubravska cesta 9, Bratislava, SK-84538; It is well known that modification of nanoparticles (NPs) allow precise tailoring of their physical and/or chemical properties. MXenes (Ti3C2TX) are 2D nanomaterials with a unique layered structure, hence are frequently studied in energy transformation and storage applications, especially for supercapacitor development. Metal (Au, Ag, Pd, Pt, Co..) and metal oxide (Mn3O4) modified MXenes, have shown significant increase in their catalytic properties compared to the pristine material, while MXene specifically contributing to the stability of the overall material. In this regard, we hypothesised that using MXene as the support material for Pt NPs will enhance the electrocatalytic water splitting efficiency of Pt catalyst, and this will allow us to use a low weight percentage of the otherwise expensive Pt. Hydrogen generation from water splitting produces clean energy, but the high overpotential hinder the rate of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Pt being the most efficient catalyst studied to date that can lower the overpotential of this demanding reaction, it is important to find avenues to minimize the amount of Pt used. In this study two Pt NP on MXene were prepared according to two different synthetic protocols. In the first approach (in-situ) Pt NPs were reduced from a Pt salt solution, and this resulted in partial oxidation of MXene layer in the vicinity of Pt4+ ions. Secondly, two catalysts were synthesised with the aid of NaBH4, external reducing agent for structure and activity comparison reasons. Different times of reaction in combination with loading of 5 % and 25 % of Pt in feed were chosen to further investigate the influence of the preparation conditions on the final NPs. Characterization by XRD, SEM, EDX and XPS revealed substantial differences in structure and composition of Pt/MXene nanohybrids synthesised in-situ and with reducing agent. Pt NPs prepared by reducing agent stacked into clusters and the initial Ti3C2TX MXene remained relatively unchanged after the Pt NP synthesis. Whereas, without NaBH4 the Pt precursor was more intensely reduced by the initial MXene particles, this in turn changed MXene NP structure. It was found that this method provided a nanohybrid with a higher overall concentration of Pt and the observed Pt NPs were assembled into larger clusters. HER was tested using cyclic voltammetry performed in a deaerated 100 mM H2SO4 acid solution. Significant boost in the HER rate was observed after modification of MXene with Pt NPs compared to that of pristine MXene (about 1 mA cm-2) irrespective of the synthetic protocol. Maximum current densities up to 61.4 ± 1.7 and 61.9 ± 9.9 mA cm-2 was achieved. This significant increase in current generation was accompanied with a shift of reaction onset potential. Catalytic performance of Pt NPs was tremendously enhanced in the Pt/MXene nanohybrids, thus these nanohybrides become attractive as HER electrocatalyst. Acknowledgements This contribution was supported by Qatar University Grant QUUG-CAM-2017-1. This work was made possible by NPRP grant No.: 6 - 381 - 1 – 078 and 9 - 219 - 2 - 105 from the Qatar National Research Fund (A Member of The Qatar Foundation).The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

نظرا لزيادة الاستثمارات و التطور الصناعي والتكنولوجي في عصرنا الحديث فقد ازداد الطلب على الطاقة الكهربائية لذا تقوم دول العالم سنويا بإنشاء العديد من محطات إنتاج الطاقة الكهربائية مما يؤدي بدوره الى زيادة الطلب على الوقود المستخدم لتشغيل محطات إنتاج الطاقة الكهربائية وهو ما يؤثر سلبا على صحة الأنسان والحيوان نتيجة انبعاث غاز ثاني اكسيد الكربون و الغازات الضارة الأخرى الملوثة البيئة والتي تعد أحد أكبر أسباب التغيرات المناخية والاحتباس الحراري. وتعتبر كفاءة الطاقة من أهم التحديات التقنية في عصرنا الحديث نظرًا لارتفاع تكاليف إنشاء محطات الطاقة الكهربية وانتاج الطاقة حتى تصل للمستهلك والذي يتحمل تكلفة انتاج الطاقة على عاتقه، لذا فقد اتجه العالم بأثره في البداية إلى استخدام مصادر الطاقة المتجددة و لكنها لم تلبي كمية الطلب المتنامي على الطاقة بالإضافة إلى ارتفاع تكاليف انتاج الطاقة من بعض المصادر المتجددة للطاقة مثل الطاقة الشمسية وطاقة الرياح وندرة أوعدم وجود مصادر الطاقة المتجددة في بعض البلا بالإضافة إلى أن مصادر الطاقة المتجددة لا تلبي إلا قدر بسيط من إحتياج الطاقة الكهربائية. وحديثا تم التوجه وبقوة إلى تحسين كفاءة الطاقة للأجهزة الكهربائية المنزلية كثيفة الاستهلاك والتي تستهلك قدر كبير من الطاقة يذهب جزء كبير منها هدرا بسبب عدم كفاءة هذه الأجهزة و عدم توفيرها للطاقة حيث تفقد حوالي ٩٠ % من الطاقة المستهلكة بواسطة لمبات التنجستين في صورة حرارة ولا يستفاد منها كضوء (الوظيفة الرئيسية للمبة) بل يتم المعاناة بعد ذلك من التخلص من تلك الحرارة عن طريق استهلاك قدر اكبر من الطاقة عن طريق المكيفات مما يتسبب في مضاعفة الاستهلاك. ومع التطور الكبير في أجهزة قياس الطاقة الكهربائية و ما مكنته من القدرة على جمع البيانات من الشبكة الكهربائية و قيمة الاستهلاك في جميع القطاعات سواء التجارية و الصناعية و المنزلية بل و تسجيل جميع العناصر المتعلقة بالاستهلاك للطاقة الكهربائية كالقيمة الفعلية للاستهلاك و معامل القدرة الكهربائية و الطاقة الغير فعالة و الحمال القصوى و فترات الذروة و القدرة على تحليل تلك البيانات بصورة سهلة جعلت من اليسير تحديد كيفية خفض الاستهلاك دون الحاجة انشاء محطات طاقة كهربائية جديدة أو صرف مبالغ كبيرة على صيانة المحطات الموجودة بالفعل. لذا فان البحث في تحسين كفاءة الطاقة للأجهزة المنزلية الكهربائية كثيفة الاستهلاك و انتاج أجهزة كهربائية منزلية و غير منزلية ذات كفاءة طاقة عالية قد يكون محور ارتكاز للعديد من العلماء و الباحثين و دعمت ذلك العديد من حكومات الدول المتقدمة لما له من مردود اقتصادي و بيئي حيث يوفر ملايين الدولارات سواء عن طريق خفض الانتاج و عدم الحاجة لبناء المزيد من محطات توليد الطاقة الكهربائية أو في علاج تأثيرات انبعاثات الغازات مثل غاز ثاني أكسيد الكربون وغيرها من الغازات الضارة و التي لها العديد من الأثار السلبية على البيئة وصحة الإنسان. يساهم الاستثمار في تحسين كفاءة الطاقة للأجهزة المنزلية في تحسين الأقتصاد عن طريق تشجيع الابتكار وخلق فرص عمل للبحث في مجال تحسين كفاءة الطاقة و الحفاظ على موارد الدول من الوقود كما تساهم في تعزيز استقلالية الدول, مما يسهم في الحفاظ على الطاقة إلى جانب تحقيق رضا المستهلكين من خلال توفير منتجات عالية الجودة و موفرة للطاقة و حماية البيئة من أضرار الانبعاثات الكربونية الضارة و تجنيب الحكومات إنشاء المزيد من محطات انتاج الطاقة الكهربائية التي تكلف مبالغ باهظة.