Next Sustainability最新文献

Energy consumption within buildings, predominantly driven by non-renewable sources, remains a substantial contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This is primarily attributed to the demand for occupant comfort, encompassing air-conditioning, lighting, and electrical usage. In response to this pressing challenge, switchable smart windows have emerged as a highly promising solution applicable to both residential and commercial structures. By effectively modulating light and heat, these windows offer a multifaceted approach to energy conservation, encompassing reduced heat loss, diminished reliance on artificial lighting, and consequential cost savings. This research paper critically evaluates the latest advancements in electrically actuated smart windows, with a specific focus on AC-powered variants such as Suspended Particles, Liquid Crystal, and DC-powered Electrochromic windows. The study meticulously delves into the operational principles, technical parameters, advantages, limitations, prospects, applications, energy-saving potential, and market penetration of these intelligent window technologies. Notably, the investigation extends to key thermal metrics like overall heat transfer coefficient and solar heat gain coefficient, alongside optical attributes including correlated colour temperature (CCT) and colour rendering index (CRI). Furthermore, the report delves into the intricate challenges associated with integrating smart windows into building infrastructure, presenting viable solutions and perspectives to address these concerns. These challenges encompass the absence of standardized regulations within the UK, elevated costs, technical intricacies, limited research and development, and uncharted compatibility with both new constructions and retrofit designs. Through a comprehensive analysis, this paper endeavours to shed light on potential avenues to surmount these obstacles, ultimately unlocking the full potential of smart windows in establishing energy-efficient built environments.

Municipal solid waste incineration fly ash was selected as the alkaline Ca-bearing solid waste, and a series of direct aqueous carbonation experiments using 10% CO₂ gas were conducted to showcase the capability of ultrafine bubbles (UFBs) in enhancing carbonation efficiency. Results from the experiments, conducted using a one-pass water flow system, revealed that carbonation without UFBs increased the CO₂ content of the ash from 59 to 200 mgCO₂/g (an increase of 141 mgCO₂/g), while the presence of UFBs elevated it to 237 mgCO₂/g (an increase of 178 mgCO₂/g). Consequently, the introduction of UFBs led to a 26% increase in CO₂ content in ash [(178−141) / 141]. This improvement was primarily attributed to the enhanced carbonation efficiency for particles ≥ 46 µm. The positive impact of UFBs was more evident (62% increase in CO₂ content in ash) in experiments using a water circulation system, where carbonation proceeded at a faster rate compared to the one-pass water flow system. In terms of the mechanism, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses indicated that UFBs facilitated the removal of CaCO₃ deposition, which inhibited Ca(OH)₂ dissolution. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate the favorable influence of UFBs on fly ash carbonation efficiency.

Nanotechnology represents a burgeoning scientific field that focuses on materials within the nanometer size range. Nanoparticles, categorized as incidental, engineered and naturally occurring nanoparticles (NONPs), constitute a critical aspect of nanotechnology. Incidental nanoparticles are inadvertently generated as byproducts, engineered nanoparticles are synthesized by humans for diverse applications and NONPs exist naturally in the environment. NONPs are further categorized based on their location in the environment, such as Naturally Occurring Carbon Nanoparticles, Naturally Occurring Metal Nanoparticles, NONPs present in food, NONPs of biological origin and NONPs present in the aquatic environment. NONPs exhibit ubiquity, spanning the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. They exhibit distinct properties in comparison to their bulk counterparts, such as a substantial surface area-to-volume ratio, immune-boosting capabilities, scavenger activity, nutritional significance and electron-donor attributes. NONPs have been utilized by humans since ancient times. Owing to these properties, they have been used unknowingly in various fields like medicine, cosmetics, decor, textile and the food industry. NONPs are found in artifacts such as Copper Ruby and the Lycurgus Cup, as well as in medicine, cosmetics and the food industry. Even today, NONPs continue to play pivotal roles in diverse fields such as cancer treatment, biosensors and the food industry. Also they contribute to environmental processes, soil fertility, nutrient transport and bioremediation. This review sheds light on multifaceted significance of NONPs in our evolving scientific landscape and comprehensively explores the history, sources, properties, types and uses of NONPs. It also focuses on the fate of NONPs in water, soil and plants and their environmental and human hazards. A special section on the environmental transformation of NONPs is included.

Formation damage mechanisms and the corresponding control technology for the tight gas reservoirs have been reported, whereas few studies have discussed ultra-deep fractured tight gas reservoirs. Ultra-deep fractured tight gas reservoirs were susceptible to be damaged owing to geological conditions and engineering status. Taking the ultra-deep fractured tight gas reservoirs located in the Tarim Basin as an example, ultra-tight, high-pressure, high temperature (HPHT), and high-salinity formation water, ultra-low water saturation and fracture networks were identified as special geological characteristics. High-density oil-based drill-in fluids and serious lost circulation were the special engineering status. Challenges in laboratory experiments to evaluate formation damage include rigorous experimental conditions and unsuitable experimental methods. In addition, improving the formation protection ability of working fluids and minimizing the formation damage induced by the sequential use of different types of working fluids were the main challenges associated with using working fluids. Challenges in lost circulation control include the failure of plugging zone due to the degradation of lost circulation materials and repeated lost circulation due to the strength reduction of the plugging zone soaked in diesel oil. Recommendations for key technologies to improve targeted formation damage control technology have been proposed. The comprehensive analysis of these issues provides a road-map for researching formation damage control technologies.

The high-entropy concept is receiving attention as an advanced design strategy to functionalize material properties by tuning the disorderliness of the system. High-entropy materials have garnered significant recognition in the realm of energy storage due to their versatile and diverse material properties. In recent times, there has been active exploration of traditional materials as positive electrodes in sodium-ion batteries. Nevertheless, under profound sodiated conditions, these materials tend to exhibit sluggish kinetics and unfavourable phase transitions, leading to significant capacity degradation and subpar rate capability. High-entropy concepts successfully tune the configurational entropy by adjusting the stoichiometric balance of active/inactive cations to address the drawbacks. The recent developments and research progress on high-entropy materials for sodium-ion batteries are reviewed in this article, with a focus on the advantages of configurational entropy modulation for improving electrochemical performances. The positive aspects of high-entropy cathode materials as well as the key challenges are finally outlined to realize practical sodium-ion batteries.

This study investigates an easy synthesis method of magnetic activated carbon (Fe₃O₄/AC) composites by ultrasonic mechanical blending of Fe₃O₄ particles and activated carbon (AC) powder at different mass ratios. The materials with the best performance were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), specific surface and porosity analyzer (BET), hysteresis loop meter (VSM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The as-prepared Fe₃O₄/AC was used to remove the contaminant methylene blue (MB) from solution. The effects of initial solution pH, material dosage, and temperature on MB removal were studied. A series of batch experiments demonstrated that the Fe₃O₄/AC with a mass ratio of Fe₃O₄ to AC = 1:5 showed a higher adsorption capacity of 251.3 ± 2.0 mg/g at 20 °C and pH = 6.5. Isotherm and kinetic studies indicated that the MB adsorption onto Fe₃O₄/AC was exothermic in a chemical monolayer adsorption process. The purification mechanism of Fe₃O₄/AC was investigated, FT-IR results showed that MB molecules adhered to Fe₃O₄/AC after purification. From the results of XPS full spectrum and high resolution spectrum, the possible purification mechanism is inferred as follows: electronic transfer between =N⁺ in MB and CO/C─O in Fe₃O₄/AC, as well as π-π interaction between the skeleton sheet of Fe₃O₄/AC and aromatic ring of MB. This study provides the theoretical reference and experimental basis for recovery and utilization of easily-obtained Fe₃O₄/AC to remove MB from wastewater.

Two reduced graphene oxides (rGO) were synthesized using two carbon sources, namely pristine graphite (rGO-PG), and recovered graphite (rGO-RG) (graphite recovered from spent Li-ion batteries) by modified hummers method and followed by the chemical reduction method to compare their supercapacitive performances. Their supercapacitance is found to be highly competitive and comparable with each other, except for their rate capabilities. The rate capability of rGO-RG is found to be inferior compared to rGO-PG. The supercapacitive behavior of both rGO’s was evaluated using five different aqueous electrolytes. The specific capacitance, specific energy, specific power, and columbic efficiencies exhibited by rGO-RG and rGO-PG were superior in the presence of 1 M H₂SO₄ and are 36 F g¹, 7.1 Wh kg¹, 0.88 kW kg¹ and 96.55 %; and 40 F g¹, 7.9 Wh kg¹, 0.66 kW kg¹ and 97.36 %, respectively. Both the rGOs exhibited no deterioration in their performance up to 10,000 continuous charge and discharge cycles at a current density of 10 A g¹; rather, they exhibited enhancement in their performances with an increase in charge and discharge cycles. The enhancement exhibited by rGO-RG is superior to that of rGO-PG, which is 844 % (272 F g¹) higher than its initial performance (29 F g¹).

In this work, we report the use of spent rooibos tea leaves to fabricate activated carbon and use it to adsorptively remove the toxic Remazol Brilliant Blue R (RBBR) from the aqueous solution. The resulting activated carbon (SRTLAC) was characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller N₂ adsorption/desorption for surface area analysis, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction for morphological, functional group and crystallinity analyses. A Taguchi design approach was employed to determine the optimal conditions for the RBBR adsorption onto SRTLAC. Among the process variables studied, the sorbent dosage, initial concentration, and pH predominantly affected the removal capacity. The maximum removal of 246.5 mg/g was attained at the highest initial RBBR concentration of 120 mg/L, solution pH of 2, sorbent dosage of 20 mg, and agitation time of 110 min. The analysis of variance results showed that RBBR initial concentration contributed the most significant percentage (95.33 %) towards the removal uptake, highlighting its considerable impact. The adsorption data collected at various concentrations (20 – 120 mg/L) were modelled using three non-linear regression isotherms and kinetic models. The Langmuir isotherm model provided the optimal fit for adsorption, suggesting a monolayer and homogenous sorption system with a maximum capacity of 491.38 mg/g. Meanwhile, the pseudo-2^nd order kinetic models accurately elucidated the sorption mechanism. The RBBR species interacted with the SRTLAC functional groups via hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole interactions, and ion-dipole forces. Therefore, SRTLAC presents a powerful tool for ridding the environment of RBBR dye pollution.

Boehmite is a mineral of aluminum oxyhydroxide widely used as a catalyst support, adsorbent for dyes, and a key component in producing advanced optical and electronic devices. This study focuses on the synthesis of boehmite using recycled metallic aluminum through acid digestion (HCl) and subsequent precipitation by pH correction (NaOH). The aluminum source used was can seals, which were characterized using various techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XRD analysis confirmed a boehmite-like phase of the recycled aluminum oxyhydroxide powder. SEM analysis revealed that the synthesized boehmite-like powder consisted of agglomerate plates, which influences its thermal and optical behavior, resulting in a lower dihydroxylation temperature and smaller band gap (∼3.7 eV) compared to the literature value (∼5.5 eV) for boehmite. The boehmite-like powder derived from recycling was used as a precursor for the synthesis of manganese aluminate (MnAl₂O₄). XRD analysis confirmed the formation of the MnAl₂O₄ galaxite phase, with XPS and absorbance spectroscopy in the visible region indicating the presence of mainly Mn²⁺ ions. The resulting brown manganese aluminate powder exhibited stability in harsh chemical environments, with a color change imperceptible to the human eye. Moreover, a near-infrared (NIR) reflectance of approximately 50% was achieved, superior to other brown pigments reported in the literature. These findings suggest that recycled aluminum can seals in aluminate have potential applications as pigments for coatings.