In this research, a rationally-designed strategy was employed to address the crucial issue of removing nano-plastics (NPs) from aquatic environments, which was based on fabricating sea urchin-like structures of FeO magnetic robots (MagRobots). Through imitating the sea urchin's telescopic tube foot movement and predation mechanism, the unique structures of the MagRobots were designed to adapt to the size and surface interactions of NPs, leading to a high efficiency of NPs removal (99%), as evidenced by the superior performance of 594.3 mg/g for the removal of polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles from water, with 3300% increase over magnetic FeO without structural design. The adsorption process was further analyzed using density functional theory (DFT) models and adsorption experiments, indicating that it was driven by electrostatic interactions. MagRobots maintained an adsorption capacity of up to 328 mg/g over four cyclic experiments and demonstrated high-capacity adsorption (close to 400 mg/g) in natural water bodies. The results of the simulations were supported by experiments that verified the excellent adsorption performance, regeneration effect, and environmental stability of the MagRobots under both simulated and real-world water conditions. This ingenious structural strategy provided valuable perspectives for the development of efficient magnetic porous materials for wastewater treatment, which would have potential applications for the treatment of NPs in real aquatic ecosystems. The unique sea urchin-like structures of the MagRobots could offer an innovative approach to tackle the challenge of NPs removal.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2024.125501 | DOI Listing |
J Colloid Interface Sci
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China. Electronic address:
The oral administration of drugs for cancer therapy can maintain optimal blood concentrations, is biologically safe and simple, and is preferred by many patients. However, the complex lumen environment, mucus layer, and intestinal epithelial cells are biological barriers that hinder the absorption of orally administered drugs. In this study, sea urchin-like manganese-doped copper selenide nanoparticles (Mn-CuSe NPs) were designed using an anion exchange method and coated with calcium alginate and chitosan (AC) to form Mn-CuSe@AC capsules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Pollut
December 2024
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Quality Improvement and Ecological Restoration for Watersheds, Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China; Key Laboratory for City Cluster Environmental Safety and Green Development of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
In this research, a rationally-designed strategy was employed to address the crucial issue of removing nano-plastics (NPs) from aquatic environments, which was based on fabricating sea urchin-like structures of FeO magnetic robots (MagRobots). Through imitating the sea urchin's telescopic tube foot movement and predation mechanism, the unique structures of the MagRobots were designed to adapt to the size and surface interactions of NPs, leading to a high efficiency of NPs removal (99%), as evidenced by the superior performance of 594.3 mg/g for the removal of polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles from water, with 3300% increase over magnetic FeO without structural design.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTalanta
April 2025
State Key Laboratory of Environmental and Biological Analysis, Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, 224 Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, SAR, China. Electronic address:
Bile acids, a representative diagnostic indicator of liver function, are used to visualize the extent of liver injury. Numerous studies have shown that triclosan (TCS) exposure leads to abnormal bile acid metabolism. As a result, there is a requirement to develop a fast and smart means to quantitatively monitor abnormal bile acids from exposure to triclosan in bio-sample.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Colloid Interface Sci
March 2025
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China; Key Laboratory of Multi-Spectral Absorbing Materials and Structures of Ministry of Education, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China. Electronic address:
High-power applications, particularly in electromagnetic catapults, electric vehicles, and aerospace, necessitate the use of polymer dielectrics that demonstrate reliable performance in high-temperature environments. This study focuses on synthesizing three distinct morphologies of innovative wide-bandgap high-dielectric materials-hydroxyapatite (HAP). By conducting a combination of experiments and Multiphysics finite element simulations, a comprehensive comparison was made regarding the properties exhibited by three polyimide (PI) composites: PI/sea urchin-like HAP, PI/spherical HAP, and PI/rodlike HAP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Res
January 2025
School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China.
Due to its sea urchin-like structure, Schwertmannite is commonly applied for heavy metals (HMs) pollutant adsorption. The adsorption influence parameters of Schwertmannite are numerous, the traditional experimental enumeration is powerless. In recent years, machine learning (ML) has been gradually employed for adsorbent materials, but there is no comprehensive research on the Schwertmannite adsorbent.
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