Occurrence, fate, and potential impacts of wood preservatives in the environment: Challenges and environmentally friendly solutions.

Wood preservation has gained global prevalence in recent years, primarily owing to the renewable nature of wood and its capacity to act as a carbon sink. Wood, in its natural form, lacks intrinsic resilience and is prone to decay if left untreated; hence, wood preservatives (WPs) are used to improve wood's longevity. The fate and potential hazards of wood preservatives to human health, ecosystems, and the environment are complex and depend on various aspects, including the type of the preservative compounds, their physicochemical properties, application methods, exposure pathways, environmental conditions, and safety measures and guidelines.

Establishing a water-to-energy platform via dual-functional photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic systems: A comparative and perspective review.

Light-driven photocatalytic (PC) and photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) systems are vital technologies being extensively explored for wastewater treatment and energy production. Although the photo(electro)catalytic applications in both the energy production and wastewater remediation function on the similar principle of photo-induced charge transfer, most preceding research has been focused on either the energy recovery or wastewater treatment as these two applications demand distinct reaction parameters and catalyst properties. The present review reveals the scientific progress in dual-functional PC and PEC processes that enable simultaneous energy recovery (e.

Correction to: The consequences of coronavirus outbreak on commodity markets.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00934-4.].

Largest democracy in the world crippled by COVID-19: current perspective and experience from India.

The outbreak of novel and recent coronavirus disease 2019, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, has made an emergency throughout the world. In India, the outspread of the pandemic was observed on 3 March 2020, and after that exponential growth in the cases was observed in the country. Owing to the widespread transmission, high population density, high testing capacity and ineffective treatment, a continuous rise in cases was observed due to the pandemic in India.

A shock like no other: coronavirus rattles commodity markets.

The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) originated in China has now covered around 213 countries globally. It has posed health calamities which have threatened the world with the emergence. Owing to the number of confirmed cases still rising every day, it has now become a phase of an international health emergency.

Current perspective of COVID-19 spread across South Korea: exploratory data analysis and containment of the pandemic.

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is regarded as a highly contagious disease that has challenged the healthcare systems worldwide with confirmed cases approaching 12 million and more than 50,000 deaths. Considering the worldwide cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), it remains a pandemic and the vaccines and therapeutic agents have yet to be developed to stop the spread of this outbreak. Due to the unavailability of specific treatment for the COVID-19, it can be viewed that the risk of cluster infection will continue to be present within the intermittent and small-scale outbreaks.

A facile synthesis of Cs loaded TiO nanotube photoelectrode for the removal of 4-chloroguaiacol.

In this study, novel Cesium (Cs) doped TiO nanotubes photoelectrode (Cs/TiONTs) were synthesized by simple electrochemical anodization method and characterized by several physicochemical techniques. In particular, the photocatalytic (PC), electrocatalytic (EC) and photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) activity of newly synthesized Cs/TiONTs electrodes was investigated using 4-Chloroguaiacol (4-CG). The effect of operating parameters like Cs concentration, electrolyte concentration, external current and pH on degradation efficacy was examined.

Decomposition of antibiotic ornidazole by gamma irradiation in aqueous solution: kinetics and its removal mechanism.

An efficient gamma radiolytic decomposition of one of the extensively used pharmaceutical ornidazole (ORZ) was explored under different experimental conditions by varying initial concentrations, solution pHs, and doses and concentrations of inorganic ([Formula: see text]) and organic (t-BuOH) additives. The results showed that low ORZ concentrations could be efficiently decomposed using gamma irradiation. The decomposition was followed by pseudo first-order reaction kinetics with rate constant values of 2.

Assessment of reaction intermediates of gamma radiation-induced degradation of ofloxacin in aqueous solution.

Gamma radiolytic degradation of an antibiotic, ofloxacin (OFX) was investigated under different experimental conditions. The parameters such as initial OFX concentration, solution pH, absorbed dose and the concentrations of inorganic (CO) and organic (t-BuOH) additives were optimized to achieve the efficient degradation of OFX. The degradation dose constant values of OFX were calculated as 2.

Natural soil mediated photo Fenton-like processes in treatment of pharmaceuticals: Batch and continuous approach.

This paper manifests the potential viability of soil as a cost-free catalyst in photo-Fenton-like processes for treating pharmaceuticals at large scale. Naturally available soil without any cost intensive modification was utilized as a catalyst to degrade pharmaceuticals, specifically ornidazole (ORZ) and ofloxacin (OFX). Soil was characterized and found enriched with various iron oxides like hematite, magnetite, goethite, pyrite and wustite, which contributes toward enhanced dissolution of Fe than Fe in the aqueous solution resulting in augmented rate of photo-Fenton reaction.