Water hyacinth derived hierarchical porous biochar absorbent: Ideal peroxydisulfate activator for efficient phenol degradation via an electron-transfer pathway.

In this paper, a facile hydrothermal pretreatment and molten salt activation route was presented for preparing a self-doped porous biochar (HMBC) from a nitrogenous biomass precursor of water hyacinth. With an ultrahigh specific surface area (2240 m g), well-developed hierarchical porous structure, created internal structural defects and doped surface functionalities, HMBC exhibited an excellent adsorption performance and catalytic activity for phenol removal via peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation. Specifically, the porous structure promoted the adsorption of PDS on HMBC, forming a highly active HMBC/PDS* complex and thereby increasing the oxidation potential of the system.

An iron-base oxygen-evolution electrode for high-temperature electrolyzers.

High-temperature molten-salt electrolyzers play a central role in metals, materials and chemicals production for their merit of favorable kinetics. However, a low-cost, long-lasting, and efficient high-temperature oxygen evolution reaction (HT-OER) electrode remains a big challenge. Here we report an iron-base electrode with an in situ formed lithium ferrite scale that provides enhanced stability and catalytic activity in both high-temperature molten carbonate and chloride salts.

Heteroatom-Doped Hierarchically Porous Biochar for Supercapacitor Application and Phenol Pollutant Remediation.

Biochars are considered as promising materials in energy storage and environmental remediation because of their unique physicochemical properties and low cost. However, the fabrication of multifunctional biochar materials with a well-developed hierarchical porous structure as well as self-doped functionalities via a facile strategy remains a challenge. Herein, we demonstrate a heteroatom-doped porous biochar, prepared by a hydrothermal pretreatment followed by a molten salt activation route.

Highly Dispersion CuO QDs Decorated BiWO S-Scheme Heterojunction for Enhanced Photocatalytic Water Oxidation.

Developing suitable photocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still a challenging issue for efficient water splitting due to the high requirements to create a significant impact on water splitting reaction kinetics. Herein, -type BiWO with flower-like hierarchical structure and -type CuO quantum dots (QDs) are coupled together to construct an efficient S-scheme heterojunction, which could enhance the migration efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers. The electrochemical properties are investigated to explore the transportation features and donor density of charge carriers in the S-scheme heterojunction system.

Phytohormones-induced senescence efficiently promotes the transport of cadmium from roots into shoots of plants: A novel strategy for strengthening of phytoremediation.

Due to the long growth period of plants, phytoremediation is time costly. Improving the accumulation of cadmium (Cd) in shoots of plants will promote the efficiency of phytoremediation. In this study, two senescence-relative phytohormones, abscisic acid (ABA) and salicylic acid (SA), were applied to strengthening phytoremediation of Cd by tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea S.

Construction of a Two-Dimensional Heterojunction by Stacking Bismuth Trioxide Nanoplates with Reduced Graphene Oxide for Enhanced Water Oxidation Performance.

In this study, a two-dimensional heterojunction consisting of bismuth trioxide nanoplates and layered reduced graphene oxide was synthesized using a facile growth route. A series of characterization tests indicated that the reduction of graphene oxide played a key role as an electron collector for enhancing photoinduced charge carrier separation efficiency. Thus, the as-prepared reduced graphene oxide/bismuth trioxide composite exhibited enhanced photocatalytic water oxidation, which was higher than that of pristine bismuth trioxide under simulated solar light irradiation.

High oxygen reduction reaction performance nitrogen-doped biochar cathode: A strategy for comprehensive utilizing nitrogen and carbon in water hyacinth.

In this study, a novel nitrogen-doped biochar oxygen reduction reaction cathode-water hyacinth carbon, was prepared by ZnCl molten salt carbonization without additional nitrogen source, which displayed a high performance in electro-Fenton (E-Fenton) process. The BET result shows that water hyacinth carbon achieved a much larger specific surface area (829 m·g) than non-melt salt carbonized one (323 m·g) and graphite powder (28 m·g). Furthermore, characterization by XPS and EIS shows that both pyridinic-N (43.

Remarkable improved electro-Fenton efficiency by electric-field-induced catalysis of CeO.

In this study, we designed a novel combined electro-Fenton system for the treatment of wastewater containing biological recalcitrant using electric-field-induced ceria (CeO) as the synergistic catalysts. It was found that by applying this CeO electro-Fenton system, the current efficiency improved from 74.49% to 109.

Toxic effects of cadmium on tall fescue and different responses of the photosynthetic activities in the photosystem electron donor and acceptor sides.

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb) is a turf grass species which is widely used for rhizoremediation of organic contaminants and shows notable prospects in heavy metal phytoremediation. In this study, different concentrations of cadmium ion (Cd) were applied to study toxic effects of Cd and responses of tall fescue by soilless culture. Tall fescue showed comparable high tolerance to Cd as Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.

Ascorbic Acid Alleviates Damage from Heat Stress in the Photosystem II of Tall Fescue in Both the Photochemical and Thermal Phases.

L-Ascorbate (Asc) plays important roles in plant development, hormone signaling, the cell cycle and cellular redox system, etc. The higher content of Asc in plant chloroplasts indicates its important role in the photosystem. The objective of this study was to study the roles of Asc in tall fescue leaves against heat stress.

Harvesting capacitive carbon by carbonization of waste biomass in molten salts.

Conversion of waste biomass to value-added carbon is an environmentally benign utilization of waste biomass to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution caused by open burning. In this study, various waste biomasses are converted to capacitive carbon by a single-step molten salt carbonization (MSC) process. The as-prepared carbon materials are amorphous with oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface.