Selective leaching and recovery of phosphorus from incinerated sewage sludge ash with CaO addition.

Incinerated sewage sludge ash (ISSA) with high PO content is a potential phosphorus resource that can replace the non-renewable phosphorus rocks. However, extracting phosphorus from ISSA using hydrometallurgical methods also dissolves a large amount of impurity metals into the leachate. Therefore, this study proposes a new method combining high-temperature reaction with CaO addition, selective leaching, and chemical precipitation for efficient and low-cost phosphorus recovery from ISSA.

Structure-activity relationships, product species distribution and the mechanism of effect of multi-component flue gas on Hg adsorption and oxidation over CuO/ACs.

A series of Cu-doped activated cokes (CuO/ACs) were synthesized an impregnation method and applied for the removal of elemental mercury (Hg). Structure-activity relationships between Hg removal and CuO/AC surface characteristics were identified. Hg removal over CuO/AC occurs through a combination of physisorption and chemisorption and is mainly dominated by chemisorption.

Ball billing induced highly dispersed nano-MgO in biochar for glucose isomerization at low temperatures.

The isomerization of glucose is a crucial step for biomass valorization to downstream chemicals. Herein, highly dispersed MgO doped biochar (BM-0.5@450) was prepared from rice straw via a solvent-free ball milling pretreatment and pyrolysis under nitrogen conditions.

Recycling and reuse of waste agricultural plastics with hydrothermal pretreatment and low-temperature pyrolysis method.

Recycling and reuse of agricultural plastics is an urgent worldwide issue. In this work, it is shown that low-density polyethylene (PE) typically used in mulch films can be converted into high-capacity P and N adsorbents through a two-step method that uses hydrothermal pretreatment (180 °C, 24 h) followed by pyrolysis at 500 °C with Ca(OH) additive. CaPE@HC500 materials prepared with the proposed two-step method were found to have high adsorption capacities for phosphate (263.

Zn-BTC MOF as Self-Template to Hierarchical ZnS/NiS Heterostructure with Improved Electrochemical Performance for Hybrid Supercapacitor.

Zn-BTC (H3BTC refers to 1, 3, 5-benzoic acid) MOF was used as a self-template and a zinc source to prepare ZnS/NiS with a layered heterogeneous structure as a promising electrode material using cation exchange and solid-phase vulcanization processes. The synergistic effect of the two metal sulfides enhances the application of ZnS/NiS. And the high specific surface area and abundant active sites further promote the mass/charge transfer and redox reaction kinetics.

Green synthesis of CaLaMnO with modulation of mesoporous and vacancies for efficient low concentration phosphate adsorption.

Phosphate concentrations in eutrophic surface waters are usually low, and efficient removal of low concentration phosphate remains a challenge. In this study, Ca-doped LaMnO synthesized at doping ratios, designated as CaLaMnO (x = 0, 0.2, 0.

A digital multimeter-based portable photoelectrochemical immunoassay for the detection of cardiac troponin I with enzymatic biocatalytic precipitation.

Early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) can significantly reduce mortality, which can be achieved by the highly sensitive detection of AMI-specific cardiac troponin I (cTnI) biomarkers. Herein a highly sensitive and portable photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunoassay for the detection of cTnI was innovatively fabricated based on an efficient photocurrent response of CuO coupling with a split-type enzymatic biocatalytic precipitation reaction with a digital multimeter readout. Initially, CuO cubic nanomaterials with a good photocurrent response were obtained by facile green room temperature synthesis and dropped on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) plates as photoactive materials (CuO/FTO).

The Oral Delivery System of Modified GLP-1 by Probiotics for T2DM.

The glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a peptide with incretin activity and plays an important role in glycemic control as well as the improvement of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the short half-life of the native GLP-1 in circulation poses difficulties for clinical practice. To improve the proteolytic stability and delivery properties of GLP-1, a protease-resistant modified GLP-1 (mGLP-1) was constructed with added arginine to ensure the structural integrity of the released mGLP-1 in vivo.

Catalytic hydrogenation of levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone over lignin-metal coordinated carbon nanospheres in water.

The hydrogenation of levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) has attracted much attention, as GVL can be used as biofuel, green solvent, and platform chemical. Inspired by Stöber method, various lignin-metal coordinated colloidal nanospheres (LCS) from lignin and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) were synthesized in which the metal ions (Co) replace formaldehyde as the crosslinker. The characterization of the catalyst revealed that alkali lignin was first self-assembled with CTAB through electrostatic attraction to form a lignin polymer, the subsequent addition of metal ions (Co) promoted the aggregation of lignin polymers and generated the LCS.

Green and Efficient Al-Doped LaFeAlO Perovskite Oxide for Enhanced Phosphate Adsorption with Creation of Oxygen Vacancies.

La-based metal oxide materials are environmentally friendly and show promise for phosphate adsorption. A series of Al-doped perovskite oxides, such as LaFeAlO, were prepared using a facile citric acid-assisted sol-gel method. The characterization results demonstrated that with optimized Al doping, there was a significant increase in the specific surface area and increased defect content of perovskite oxide LaFeAlO.

Recent Advances in Lignocellulose-Based Monomers and Their Polymerization.

Replacing fossil-based polymers with renewable bio-based polymers is one of the most promising ways to solve the environmental issues and climate change we human beings are facing. The production of new lignocellulose-based polymers involves five steps, including (1) fractionation of lignocellulose into cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin; (2) depolymerization of the fractionated cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin into carbohydrates and aromatic compounds; (3) catalytic or thermal conversion of the depolymerized carbohydrates and aromatic compounds to platform chemicals; (4) further conversion of the platform chemicals to the desired bio-based monomers; (5) polymerization of the above monomers to bio-based polymers by suitable polymerization methods. This review article will focus on the progress of bio-based monomers derived from lignocellulose, in particular the preparation of bio-based monomers from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) and vanillin, and their polymerization methods.

Electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid via metal-organic framework-structured hierarchical CoO nanoplate arrays.

Electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) was examined as an alternative to thermocatalytic methods in which two-dimensional (2D) cobalt-metal-organic framework (Co-MOF, ZIF-L-Co) nanoplate arrays were prepared on nickel foam (NF) and then transformed into hierarchical porous CoO nanostructures by chemical etching and low temperature annealing to form electrode materials. Hierarchical porous nanoarrays formed during synthesis enlarged the surface area of the as-prepared catalysts introduced a large number of defects and exposed active sites leading to reduced charge diffusion, improved mass transfer and efficient HMF oxidation. CoO/NF electrode materials were able to achieve a current density of 10 mA·cm at an overpotential of 105 mV in 1 M KOH with 10 mM HMF, which was reduced by 175 mV compared with water oxidation.

Highly Efficient Transfer Hydrogenation of Biomass-Derived Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol over Mesoporous Zr-Containing Hybrids with 5-Sulfosalicylic Acid as a Ligand.

The catalytic transfer hydrogenation of biomass-derived furfural to furfuryl alcohol under mild conditions is an attractive topic in biorefinery. Herein, mesoporous Zr-containing hybrids (Zr-hybrids) with a high surface area (281.9−291.

Solvent-Free Synthesis of MgO-Modified Biochars for Phosphorus Removal from Wastewater.

Adsorption is an efficient technology for removing phosphorus from wastewater to control eutrophication. In this work, MgO-modified biochars were synthesized by a solvent-free ball milling method and used to remove phosphorus. The MgO-modified biochars had specific surface areas 20.

Siloxane-modified MnO catalyst for oxidation of coal-related o-xylene in presence of water vapor.

In coal-combustion energy production, presence of water vapor in flue gas causes catalyst deactivation and leads to the release of large quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this study, design of a low-temperature, hydrophobic catalyst for flue gas purification was achieved by modifying support material with inorganic siloxane. Introduction of 5% water vapor into simulated flue gas at 300 °C reduced oxidation efficiency for o-xylene removal by 26% with unmodified MnO/γ-AlO catalyst, whereas with modified catalyst MnO-Si/γ-AlO oxidation efficiency was reduced by only 5%.

Additive-free hydrothermal leaching method with low environmental burden for screening of strontium in soil.

In this work, hydrothermal leaching was applied to simulated soils (clay minerals vermiculite, montmorillonite, and kaolinite) and actual soils (Terunuma, Japan) to generate organic acids with the objective to develop an additive-free screening method for determination of Sr in soil. Stable strontium (SrCl) was adsorbed onto soils for the study, and ten organic acids (citric, L(+)-tartaric, succinic, oxalic, pyruvic, formic, glycolic, lactic, acetic, and propionic) were evaluated for leaching Sr from simulated soils under hydrothermal conditions (120 °C to 200 °C) at concentrations up to 0.3 M.

2-Methoxyestradiol synergizes with Erlotinib to suppress hepatocellular carcinoma by disrupting the PLAGL2-EGFR-HIF-1/2α signaling loop.

Erlotinib, an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor has been introduced into cancer chemotherapy. However, the therapeutic effects of erlotinib in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain vaguely understood. Our previous study found that a hypoxia-mediated PLAGL2-EGFR-HIF-1/2α signaling loop in HCC decreased response to erlotinib.

Supercritical water pretreatment method for analysis of strontium and uranium in soil (Andosols).

Hydrothermal pretreatment of soils (Andosols) from Ibaraki prefecture (Japan) was used to improve methods for monitoring radioactive Sr and U. Calcined samples were pretreated with subcritical or supercritical water (SCW) followed by extraction with 0.5 M HNO solutions.

Role of impurity components and pollutant removal processes in catalytic oxidation of o-xylene from simulated coal-fired flue gas.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from coal-fired flue gas of thermal power plants have reached unprecedented levels due to lack of understanding of reaction mechanisms under industrial settings. Herein, inhibition mechanisms for catalytic oxidation of o-xylene in simulated coal-fired flue gas are elucidated with in-situ and ex-situ spectroscopic techniques considering the presence of impurity components (NO, NH, SO, HO). MnCe oxide catalysts prepared at Mn: Ce mass ratios of 6:4 are demonstrated to promote 87% o-xylene oxidation at 250 °C under gas hourly space velocities of 60,000 h.

Au-coated FeO core-shell nanohybrids with photothermal activity for point-of-care immunoassay for lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A on a digital near-infrared thermometer.

A portable photothermal immunoassay based on Au-coated magnetic FeO core-shell nanohybrids (Au-FeO) was developed for point-of-care (POC) testing of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A (Lp-PLA) on a digital near-infrared (NIR) thermometer. Au-FeO photothermal materials were first synthesized through reverse micelle method, and then functionalized with polyclonal rabbit anti-human Lp-PLA antibody. A sandwiched immunoreaction was carried out in polyclonal mouse anti-human Lp-PLA antibody-coated microplate using Au-FeO-labeled antibody as the detection antibody.

PLAGL2-EGFR-HIF-1/2α Signaling Loop Promotes HCC Progression and Erlotinib Insensitivity.

Background And Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, hence a major public health threat. Pleomorphic adenoma gene like-2 (PLAGL2) has been reported to play a role in tumorigenesis. However, its precise function in HCC remains poorly understood.