Environmental Chemistry Letters最新文献

Pollution and the rising energy demand are two major society issues, requiring urgent solutions. Here, we review the simultaneous production of hydrogen and removal of pollutants, with a focus on mechanisms, synthesis of photocatalysts, and applications. Remarkably, this method utilizes organic pollutants as sacrificial agents for photocatalytic hydrogen production, thus both reducing pollution and producing energy. Metal-doped, cocatalyst-loaded, organic and inorganic composite, heterostructure and heterojunction photocatalysts are described. We present applications to the removal of antibiotics and organic dyes. Pollutant degradation rates range from 5.3 to 100%, with hydrogen evolution of 13.7–2724.89 μmol·g^–1h^–1.

Paracetamol, a common pain reliever, has seen a significant rise in use, particularly during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This widespread consumption has led to increased levels of paracetamol in the environment through wastewater discharge. This raises concerns about its potential impact on aquatic ecosystems. Here, we review the state-of-the-art methods for removing paracetamol from wastewater, focusing on adsorption techniques. We explore how different materials and operational conditions influence the effectiveness of this approach. We also discuss the potential of combining adsorption with oxidative methods for enhanced removal. We further assess the environmental impact by critically examining the ecotoxicological effects of paracetamol on aquatic organisms. This analysis compares established toxicity values with those observed in studies using real wastewater samples. Finally, we highlight the specific needs for further research and development of efficient and sustainable strategies to mitigate paracetamol pollution, ensuring the safety of both human and aquatic life.

Lowering the adverse effects of climate change requires advanced methods to decrease atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. Here, we review the use of carbonic anhydrase nanobiocatalysts for carbon dioxide sequestration, with emphasis on inorganic, organic, and polymeric nanomaterials. Inorganic nanomaterials include metal and metal oxide, carbon-based, and nonmetallic nanomaterials. Hybrid nanomaterials comprise metal–organic frameworks and nanoflowers. Factors influencing the properties of nanobiocatalysts such as interactions between carbonic anhydrase and the nanoscale support are presented. The immobilization of carbonic anhydrase onto nanomaterials overcomes the limitations associated with its free form, such as short shelf life, challenging separation, and poor reusability. We discuss the potential for large-scale applications.

Phosphorus is an essential element influencing both food security via plant fertilization, and water pollution through excessive phosphorus use, yet the phosphorus cycle in ecosystems is poorly known. In particular, beyond adsorption, the role of iron and manganese oxides in catalyzing the abiotic dephosphorylation of biomolecules is debated. Here, we studied the reactions of ribonucleotides, containing different phosphate bonding, with goethite, hematite, and birnessite. We employed both high-resolution mass spectrometry of solution species and molecular modeling simulations of ribonucleotide-mineral complexes. Results disclose an up to fivefold preferential hydrolytic cleavage of a phosphoanhydride bond over a phosphoester bond, indicating that mineral-catalyzed reactions reflect the hierarchy reported for the activity of phosphatase enzymes. The fourfold higher catalytic reactivity of goethite and birnessite versus hematite is explained by mineral-specific binding rather than surface area differences. Corresponding simulated adsorbate conformations at the water–mineral interfaces are proposed. Overall, our findings provide new insights on the catalytic recycling of organic phosphorus species by mineral oxides.

Polystyrene microplastics, especially those smaller than 10 μm, reduce male fertility in murine models, but whether they affect male reproduction in humans is poorly understood. Here, we studied polystyrene microplastics smaller than 10 μm in human semen samples and evaluated their toxicity to human sperm. We also tested the use of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to remove nanoplastics and decrease their toxicity in human sperm. Results show that human semen is contaminated by approximately 3.57 ± 0.32 μg/mL polystyrene microplastics smaller than 10 μm. Polystyrene nanoplastics of 25–100 nm penetrate and damage human sperm at semen-relevant concentrations of 5 and 50 μg of nanoplastic per mL, while 0.5–10 μm polystyrene microplastics bind to the sperm. We also found that 25-nm polystyrene nanoplastics exhibited a synergistic toxicity with bisphenol A on human sperm. Nonetheless, we observed that environmental microplastics released from disposable paper cups do not pose a significant hazard to human sperm under our conditions. Furthermore, magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can aggregate and coprecipitate with 25-nm polystyrene nanoplastics to eliminate their adverse effects on human sperm.

Some pharmaceutical and personal care products, including endocrine disruptors, are polluting ecosystems, thus requiring advanced materials and methods for detection and remediation. Here we review carbon nanotubes for detection and remediation of pharmaceutical and personal care products, with focus on green synthesis of hybrid carbon nanotubes, removal of pollutants, and deep learning networks to predicts adsorption. Pollutants include bisphenol, phthalates, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin. We found that magnetic carbon nanotubes are easily recovered from water with a relatively low production cost. Functionalized carbon dots/carbon nanotube hybrids can detect ciprofloxacin contamination at 0.001 mg/L. Some studies report the adsorption of 95% or the photocatalytic degradation of 100% of pollutants using magnetic carbon nanotubes.

The use of fossil fuels has been essential to the development of society, but has also contributed partly to global warming. For example, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industries have increased by 60% since 1990, calling for the recycling of modern biomass in the context of a carbon neutral economy. Here we review the hydrothermal conversion of biomass into biofuels, chemicals and biomaterials with emphasis on subcritical water properties, hydrolysis of biomass, steam explosion, fractionation, carbonization, liquefaction, gasification, and fractionation of bio-oil. We observe that hydrothermal conversion of biomass in the presence of water at subcritical conditions produces value-added compounds with high process efficiency. Subcritical water allows rapid reaction rates, low mass transfer resistance, and gas-like diffusivity.

1.6 Million metric tons of spent carbon electrodes modify carbon-rich solid wastes from aluminum electrolysis are produced annually, threatening ecosystems by cyanide and fluoride pollution. Here, we review carbon-rich solid wastes with focus on sources and hazards, detoxification, separation, recovery, recycling and disposal. Treatment techniques include roasting, calcination, vacuum distillation, flotation, water leaching, acid leaching, alkali leaching, complexation leaching, and alkali fusion. Waste can be disposed of alone or in combination with other waste such as cooper slag, sludge, red mud, and coal gangue. Recovery of fluorides and applications of recycled carbon are presented. Fluoride and carbon materials are separated based on differences in hydrophobicity, volatility, flammability, acidity, and alkalinity. The fluorides prepared from the solution are mainly aluminum hydroxyfluoride hydrate and cryolite.

The access to clean and drinkable water is becoming one of the major health issues because most natural waters are now polluted in the context of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Moreover, most pollutants such as antibiotics escape conventional wastewater treatments and are thus discharged in ecosystems, requiring advanced techniques for wastewater treatment. Here we review the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize pharmaceutical wastewater treatment systems, with focus on water quality, disinfection, renewable energy, biological treatment, blockchain technology, machine learning algorithms, big data, cyber-physical systems, and automated smart grid power distribution networks. Artificial intelligence allows for monitoring contaminants, facilitating data analysis, diagnosing water quality, easing autonomous decision-making, and predicting process parameters. We discuss advances in technical reliability, energy resources and wastewater management, cyber-resilience, security functionalities, and robust multidimensional performance of automated platform and distributed consortium, and stabilization of abnormal fluctuations in water quality parameters.

The accelerating climate warming requires fast methods to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Here, we converted carbon dioxide into titanium carbide using four magnetrons which were sequentially operated to emit microwave on titanium swarf. Carbon dioxide molecules dissociated in the plasma to react with ionized titanium atoms to form a stable titanium carbide product, using a microwave frequency is 2.3 gigahertz and 800 watts electrical power for each magnetron. Results show a reduction of carbon dioxide concentration from 2000 to 385 ppm within 30 s. Titanium carbide could be further functionalized as a three-dimensional printed gas sensor.