MGDA-assisted plant washing agent for improving the removal of Cd and Cu from farmland soils.

Utilizing plant extracts for soil washing is a promising and cost-efficient strategy to permanently remove toxic metals from farmland soils. However, the efficiency of current plant extracts in heavy metals removal is constrained by the need of excessively high liquid-solid ratios (>10:1), which limits their practical application in the farmland soils. To address this challenge, we developed a novel binary washing agent consisting of Fructus mume residue extract (RPM) and methylglycinediacetate acid (MGDA).

Morphological control of heterostructured nanowires synthesized by sol-flame method.

Heterostructured nanowires, such as core/shell nanowires and nanoparticle-decorated nanowires, are versatile building blocks for a wide range of applications because they integrate dissimilar materials at the nanometer scale to achieve unique functionalities. The sol-flame method is a new, rapid, low-cost, versatile, and scalable method for the synthesis of heterostructured nanowires, in which arrays of nanowires are decorated with other materials in the form of shells or chains of nanoparticles. In a typical sol-flame synthesis, nanowires are dip-coated with a solution containing precursors of the materials to be decorated, then dried in air, and subsequently heated in the post-flame region of a flame at high temperature (over 900°C) for only a few seconds.