Selective adsorption of copper by amidoxime modified low-temperature biochar: Performance and mechanism.

Biochars prepared at 300-700 °C were functionalized with amidoxime groups to evaluate their selective adsorptive removal capabilities towards Cu(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II). The results show that the amidoxime modification significantly enhanced the the Cu(II) adsorption capacity of the biochar prepared at 300 °C (AOBC300) by 1.6 times, reaching 0.

Microalgae-derived biolubricants: Challenges and opportunities.

Lubricants are indispensable in the modern economy for controlling friction and wear across many industries. Traditional lubricants are derived from petroleum crude and can cause significant ecological impact if released into the environment. Microalgae have emerged as a potential alternative to petroleum crude for producing renewable and environmentally friendly biolubricants.

Ionic liquid supported hydrogel-lipase biocatalytic systems in asymmetric synthesis of enantiomerically pure S-ibuprofen.

Novel hydrogel biocatalysts with immobilized lipase, stabilized by ionic liquids (ILs) of different hydrophobicity, were synthesized and evaluated. Variations of the time of immobilization and ratio of substrates during hydrogel synthesis were considered to obtain the most stable biocatalyst with the highest activity. Physicochemical characterization proved the success of the hydrogel synthesis and enzyme deposition on the surface of the support.

Optimising microplastics analysis for quantifying and identifying microplastic fibres in laundry wastewater.

Current methods for measuring microplastic fibres (MPF) are cumbersome, time consuming and unscalable for routine high throughput analysis. This study reports a method for rapidly extracting, quantifying and analysing MPFs in laundry wastewater with several key improvements which vastly enhance overall efficiency and scalability of analysis. FT-IR surveying is employed as a preliminary step in analysis to quickly determine what polymers are present in a sample prior to fluorescence treatment.