Nanobubbles improve peroxymonosulfate-based advanced oxidation: High efficiency, low toxicity/cost, and novel collaborative mechanism.

Cl activated peroxymonosulfate (PMS) oxidation technology can effectively degrade pollutants, but the generation of chlorinated disinfection byproducts (DBPs) limits the application of this technology in water treatment. In this study, a method of nanobubbles (NBs) synergistic Cl/PMS system was designed to try to improve this technology. The results showed the synergistic effects of NBs/Cl/PMS were significant and universal while its upgrade rate was from 12.

Integrated photocatalysis adsorption processes for oxytetracycline removal: using volborthite and its composite with g-CN.

The photocatalytic-adsorption performance of the composites of volborthite (CuVA) and graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) was studied in this work using oxytetracycline (OTC) as model pollutant under LED light irradiation. CuVA at different weight percentages (10, 30, 50), namely, C10, C30, and C50, were loaded onto graphitic carbon nitride using wet chemical method. The physical, chemical, and optical properties were evaluated via various analytical techniques.

A novel mycelial pellet applied to remove polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: High adsorption performance & its mechanisms.

Mycelial pellets formed by Penicillium thomii ZJJ were applied as efficient biosorbents for the removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are a type of ubiquitous harmful hydrophobic pollutants. The live mycelial pellets were able to remove 93.48 % of pyrene at a concentration of 100 mg/L within 48 h, demonstrating a maximum adsorption capacity of 285.

Resource utilization of rice straw to prepare biochar as peroxymonosulfate activator for naphthalene removal: Performances, mechanisms, environmental impact and applicability in groundwater.

Herein, biochar was prepared using rice straw, and it served as the peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activator to degrade naphthalene (NAP). The results showed that pyrolysis temperature has played an important role in regulating biochar structure and properties. The biochar prepared at 900°C (BC900) had the best activation capacity and could remove NAP in a wide range of initial pH (5-11).

Oxidation of sulfamethazine by peracetic acid activated with biochar: Reactive oxygen species contribution and toxicity change.

Peracetic acid (PAA) as an emerging oxidative has been concerned increasingly due to its high oxidation capacity and low byproducts formation potential. This study was to investigate the oxidation of sulfamethazine (SMZ) by PAA activated with activated biochar (ABC) after thermal modification. The results demonstrated that PAA could be effectively activated by ABC to degrade SMZ in a wide pH range (3-9), which followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics (R > 0.

Mechanisms and product toxicity of activated carbon/peracetic acid for degradation of sulfamethoxazole: implications for groundwater remediation.

Carbon-based materials activated peracetic acid (PAA) to repair groundwater is an environmentally friendly and low-cost technology to overcome secondary pollution problems. In this study, thermally modified activated carbon (AC600) was applied to activate PAA to degrade sulfamethoxazole (SMX). And the effect of groundwater pH, chloride ion (Cl), bicarbonate (HCO), sulfate ion (SO), and natural organic matter (NOM) on SMX removal by AC600/PAA process was studied in detail.

Review on the contamination and remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in coastal soil and sediments.

The rapid economic and population growth in coastal areas is causing increasingly serious polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution in these regions. This review compared the PAHs pollution characteristics of different coastal areas, including industrial zones, commercial ports, touristic cities, aquacultural & agricultural areas, oil & gas exploitation areas and megacities. Currently there are various treatment methods to remediate soils and sediments contaminated with PAHs.

Accelerated sunlight photocatalysis through improved electron mobility between g-CN and BiPO nanomaterial.

Herein, we report a detailed study on creating heterojunction between graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) and bismuth phosphate (BiPO), enhancing the unpaired free electron mobility. This leads to an accelerated photocatalysis of 2,4-dichlorophenols (2,4-DCPs) under sunlight irradiation. The heterojunction formation was efficaciously conducted via a modest thermal deposition technique.

Transport of TiO and CeO nanoparticles in saturated porous media in the presence of surfactants with environmentally relevant concentrations.

Nanomaterials are threatening the environment and human health, but there has been little discussion about the stability and mobility of nanoparticles (NPs) in saturated porous media at environmentally relevant concentrations of surfactants, which is a knowledge gap in exploring the fate of engineered NPs in groundwater. Therefore, the influences of the anionic surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, SDBS), the cationic surfactant (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB), and the nonionic surfactant (Tween-80) with environmentally relevant concentrations of 0, 5, 10, and 20 mg/L on nano-TiO (nTiO, negatively charged) and nano-CeO (nCeO, positively charged) transport through saturated porous media were examined by column experiments. On the whole, with increasing SDBS concentration from 0 to 20 mg/L, the concentration peak of nTiO and nCeO in effluents increased by approximately 0.

Human health risk assessment of selected pharmaceuticals in the five major river basins, China.

Pharmaceuticals in aquatic environment have raised wide attention in recent years due to their potential adverse effects and bioaccumulation in biota. China has been a major producer and consumer of pharmaceuticals, however, the potential human health risk of these chemicals is yet to be determined in China. In this study, we evaluated available exposure data for twenty pharmaceuticals in surface waters from Chinese five major river basins (the Yangtze, Haihe, Pearl, Songliao, and Yellow River Basins), and human health risk assessment was performed.

Response of Plant Rhizosphere Microenvironment to Water Management in Soil- and Substrate-Based Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Systems: A Review.

As natural agroecology deteriorates, controlled environment agriculture (CEA) systems become the backup support for coping with future resource consumption and potential food crises. Compared with natural agroecology, most of the environmental parameters of the CEA system rely on manual management. Such a system is dependent and fragile and prone to degradation, which includes harmful bacteria proliferation and productivity decline.

Accelerated organics degradation by peroxymonosulfate activated with biochar co-doped with nitrogen and sulfur.

Engineered biochar is increasingly regarded as a cost-effective and eco-friendly peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activator. Herein, biochar doped with nitrogen and sulfur moieties was prepared by pyrolysis of wood shavings and doping precursor. The doping precursor consists of either urea, thiourea or 1:1 w/w mixture of urea and thiourea (denoted as NSB-U, NSB-T and NSB-UT, respectively).

Effects of EDTA on adsorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) by soil minerals in low-permeability layers: batch experiments and microscopic characterization.

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) can serve as a washing agent in the remediation of low-permeability layers contaminated by heavy metals (HMs). Therefore, batch adsorption experiments, where pure quartz (SM1) and mineral mixtures (SM2) were used as typical soil minerals (SMs) in low-permeability layers, were implemented to explore the effects of different EDTA concentrations, pH, and exogenous chemicals on the HM-SM-EDTA adsorption system. As the EDTA concentration increased, it gradually cut down the maximum Cd adsorption capacities of SM1 and SM2 from approximately 135 to 55 mg/kg and 2660 to 1453 mg/kg; and the maximum Pb adsorption capacities of SM1 and SM2 were reduced from 660 to 306 mg/kg and 19,677 to 19,262 mg/kg, respectively.

Silica colloids as non-carriers facilitate Pb transport in saturated porous media under a weak adsorption condition: effects of Pb concentrations.

Transport of environmental pollutants in groundwater systems can be greatly influenced by colloids. In this study, the cotransport of Pb and silica (SiO) colloids at different Pb concentrations was systematically investigated by batch adsorption and saturated sand column experiments. Results showed that SiO colloids had low adsorption capacity for Pb (less than 1% of the input) compared with sands.

Amalgamation of N-graphene quantum dots with nanocubic like TiO: an insight study of sunlight sensitive photocatalysis.

In this work, a sunlight-sensitive photocatalyst of nanocubic-like titanium dioxide (TiO) and N-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) is developed through a simple hydrothermal and physical mixing method. The successful amalgamation composite photocatalyst characteristics were comprehensively scrutinized through various physical and chemical analyses. A complete removal of bisphenol A (BPA) is attained by a synthesized composite after 30 min of sunlight irradiation as compared to pure TiO.

M/g-CN (M=Ag, Au, and Pd) composite: synthesis via sunlight photodeposition and application towards the degradation of bisphenol A.

In this work, natural sunlight successfully induced the deposition of gold (Au), silver (Ag), and palladium (Pd) nanoparticles (NPs) with 17.10, 9.07, and 12.

Mechanistic insights into plasmonic photocatalysts in utilizing visible light.

The utilisation of sunlight as an abundant and renewable resource has motivated the development of sustainable photocatalysts that can collectively harvest visible light. However, the bottleneck in utilising the low energy photons has led to the discovery of plasmonic photocatalysts. The presence of noble metal on the plasmonic photocatalyst enables the harvesting of visible light through the unique characteristic features of the noble metal nanomaterials.

Sugarcane juice derived carbon dot-graphitic carbon nitride composites for bisphenol A degradation under sunlight irradiation.

Carbon dots (CDs) and graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) composites (CD/g-CN) were successfully synthesized by a hydrothermal method using urea and sugarcane juice as starting materials. The chemical composition, morphological structure and optical properties of the composites and CDs were characterized using various spectroscopic techniques as well as transmission electron microscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results revealed new signals for carbonyl and carboxyl groups originating from the CDs in CD/g-CN composites while X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed distortion of the host matrix after incorporating CDs into g-CN.

Mechanistic Characteristics of Surface Modified Organic Semiconductor g-C₃N₄ Nanotubes Alloyed with Titania.

The visible-light-driven photocatalytic degradation of Bisphenol A (BPA) was investigated using the binary composite of alkaline treated g-C₃N₄ (HT-g-C₃N₄) deposited over commercial TiO₂ (Evonik Degussa GmbH, Essen, Germany). The existence and contribution of both TiO₂ and g-C₃N₄/HT-g-C₃N₄ in the composite was confirmed through various analytical techniques including powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-vis-DRS), and photoluminescence (PL) analysis. The results showed that the titania in the binary composite exhibited both pure rutile and anatase phases.

Sonophotocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A and its intermediates with graphitic carbon nitride.

Since bisphenol A (BPA) exhibits endocrine disrupting action and high toxicity in aqueous system, there are high demands to remove it completely. In this study, the BPA removal by sonophotocatalysis coupled with nano-structured graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN, GCN) was conducted with various batch tests using energy-based advanced oxidation process (AOP) based on ultrasound (US) and visible light (Vis-L). Results of batch tests indicated that GCN-based sonophotocatalysis (Vis-L/US) had higher rate constants than other AOPs and especially two times higher degradation rate than TiO-based Vis-L/US.

Palladium nanoparticles anchored to anatase TiO2 for enhanced surface plasmon resonance-stimulated, visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity.

Freely assembled palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) on titania (TiO2) nano photocatalysts were successfully synthesized through a photodeposition method using natural sunlight. This synthesized heterogeneous photocatalyst (Pd/TiO2) was characterized through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-DRS), Raman and photoluminescence (PL) analyses. The simple and smart synthesis anchored well the deposition with controlled Pd NPs size ranging between 17 and 29 nm onto the surface of TiO2.