Chemosphere最新文献

Background: Intestinal organoid has emerged as an energetic tool for modeling intestine physiology and relevant diseases in vitro. Here, we reported that development of intestinal organoids could be used to explore the toxicology mechanism for combination effects of low dose nanoplastic (NPs) chronic exposure and acute radiation on intestine injury, the two classical chemical and physical substances.

Methods: Integrated acute radiation-induced intestine injury model in vivo and mice intestinal organoids in vitro were conducted in this study.

Results: First, through in vivo study, we found low dose NPs exposure could aggravate acute radiation-induced intestine injury including exacerbating damaged intestinal epithelial structure, shortened and fractured intestinal villi. Second, using an intestinal organoid model, we observed that low-dose NPs reduced radiation-induced proliferation and exacerbated inflammatory damage, which promoted inflammatory damage through elevated TGF-β1 expression, increased Smad3 phosphorylation, and diminished Smad7 expression. Furthermore, immunohistochemical and Western blot analyses of intestinal tissues further confirmed that low-dose nanoplastics enhance radiation-induced intestinal damage via activation of the TGF-β1/p-Smad3 signaling pathway.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that low-dose NPs may exacerbate the radiation-induced intestinal damage and inflammation process in vivo and in vitro. Our study highlights, for the first time, the potential for intestine organoids serving as powerful tool for explore the combination effects of two chemical and physical substances in toxicology investigation.

Bisphenols (BPs) are pervasive environmental contaminants extensively found in indoor environments worldwide. Despite their ubiquitous presence and potential health risks, there remains a notable gap in the comprehensive reviews focusing on BPs in indoor dust. Existing literature often addresses specific aspects such as exposure pathways, transformation products, or biomonitoring techniques, but lacks a consolidated, in-depth review encompassing all these facets. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the global distribution of BPs, emphasizing their prevalence in diverse indoor settings ranging from households and workplaces to public areas. Variations in BP concentrations across these environments are explored, influenced by factors such as industrial activities, consumer product usage patterns, and geographical location. Exposure assessments highlight ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact as primary pathways for BP exposure, with ingestion being particularly significant for vulnerable groups such as infants and young children. Studies consistently reveal higher concentrations of BPs in urban indoor dust compared to rural settings, reflecting the impact of urbanization and intensive consumer practices. Moreover, BPs from mobile sources like vehicles contribute significantly to overall human exposure, further complicating exposure assessments. The review also delves into the transformation of BPs within indoor environments, emphasizing the diverse roles of physical, chemical, and biological processes in generating various transformation products (TPs). These TPs can exhibit heightened toxicity compared to their parent compounds, necessitating deeper investigations into their environmental fate and potential health implications. Critical examination of biomonitoring techniques for BPs and their metabolites underscores the importance of non-invasive sampling methods, offering ethical advantages and practicality in assessing human exposure levels. The emerging use of bioindicators, encompassing plants, animals, and innovative approaches like spider webs, presents promising avenues for effectively monitoring environmental contamination.

The practical use of plastics has rapidly increased owing to their superior physicochemical properties. Despite their excellent physicochemical properties, the short lifespan of plastics has inevitably led to a substantial generation of plastic waste. As such, strategic mitigation of the hazardous potential of plastic waste has been regarded as significant in waste management. In particular, establishing a reliable recycling platform for packaging plastic waste is of great importance considering its massive generation. To identify a strategic means of abating the hazardous potential of plastic waste, legislative enactment for their legal management must also be implemented. This review emphasizes the mechanical and chemical recycling methods for polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene, and polyvinyl chloride, and discusses a technical platform for converting plastic waste into value-added chemical products. This study also offers a perspective on sustainable valorization as a practical alternative to circular resources.

The hydraulic conditions vary significantly across different segments of the drinking water distribution system (DWDS), leading to distinct variations in water quality throughout the system. Understanding these changes in water quality and biofilm development over time is crucial for enhancing drinking water management efficiency. This study focused on replicating the hydraulic conditions found in transmission and distribution pipelines within a specific pipeline path of the DWDS in Singapore using a biofilm annular reactor series system (BARSS). The BARSS experiment revealed that the total residual chlorine (TRC) concentration in water was greatly influenced by both flow velocity and the amount of biofilm present. TRC decay occurred more rapidly at higher flow velocity and was influenced by bacterial growth under fast flow conditions. Furthermore, UV₂₅₄ levels in the water decreased with extended water age in the BARSS, due to the degradation of organic matters into smaller molecules. The study also found that higher TRC concentrations had a more pronounced inhibitory effect on biofilm formation and the proliferation of minor taxa. In the last part of the study, a predictive model for TRC concentration was developed using water quality parameters from preceding stages in the BARSS. This model demonstrated excellent prediction accuracy for TRC concentration, with a mean square error (MSE) of 0.0110 and R² of 0.9893.

Genes in microorganisms influence the biological processes in anaerobic digestion (AD). However, key genes involved in the four metabolic steps (hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis) remain largely unexplored. This study investigated the abundance and distribution of key functional genes in full-scale anaerobic digesters processing food waste (FWDs) and municipal wastewater (MWDs) through 16S rRNA gene and shotgun metagenomic analysis. Our results revealed that FWDs exhibited a higher abundance of key genes in the metabolic steps, despite having significantly lower microbial diversity compared to MWDs. Pathways and genes associated with syntrophic oxidation of acetate (SAO) and butyrate (SBO) were more present in FWDs. SAO potentially used both the conventional reversed Wood-Ljungdahl pathway and its integration with the glycine cleavage system in FWDs, which complements pathways for acetate oxidation under ammonia stress conditions. Similarly, genes associated with SBO (atoB and croR) were notably more prevalent in FWDs compared to MWDs with an 8.4-fold and 108-fold increase, respectively, indicating the adaptation of SBO bacteria to convert butyrate into acetate. The higher abundance of key genes in FWDs was driven by microbes adapting to the feedstock compositions with higher levels of substrate content, volatile fatty acids, and ammonia. This study quantified the genes central to AD metabolism and uncovered the contributions of microbial diversity, gene abundance, syntrophy, and feedstock characteristics to the functionality of AD processes. These findings enhance understanding of the microbial ecology in AD and provide a foundation for developing innovative strategies to enhance biogas production and waste management.

Herein, conductive polyaniline (PANI) was chemically polymerized on the surface of a bismuth-based metal-organic framework (Bi-MOF) to form conductive PANI@Bi-MOF composites. FT-IR and PXRD measurements verified the successful production of PANI@Bi-MOF, whereas SEM, TEM, and EDAX mapping demonstrated that PANI was uniformly coated on the surface of Bi-MOF. The resulting PANI@Bi-MOF composites were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), then used to develop a sensitive electrochemical sensor for the detection of lead ions based on differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV). The developed sensor possessed a low detection limit of 0.0108 μg/L and a wide linear detection range (0.025-20 μg/L). The sensor was successfully applied for the detection of Pb²⁺ in real water samples, showing negligible response to other coexisting metal cations. This work offers a feasible approach for detecting Pb²⁺ ions in water.

Peri-urban conserved natural or semi-natural areas provide several ecosystem services and assist in reducing air pollution in cities. The aim of this study is to assess the contribution to the improvement of air quality of a small area (<1 km²) adjacent to a city in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), which is seriously affected by vehicular and industrial emissions of pollutants. Hydrocarbon (HC) and carbonyl compounds (CC) levels were determined, by employing TO-15 and TO-11A US EPA Methods, respectively, in both the urban and green areas. The results showed that the concentrations of anthropogenic HC were approximately 1.7-2.1 times higher in the urban area which confirms that the natural park assists in the dispersion and reduction of pollutants. In the case of the CC compounds, for samples that were collected in the morning, the total mean and median values were 1.3-1.6 times higher in the urbanized zone, while during the afternoon the green area showed values that were 1.5-1.9 times higher. These results suggest that in the green area, the emission or formation of CC compounds through photochemical processes is significant, particularly in the afternoon. Anyway, the ozone forming potential was found to be lower within the natural park in both periods, which confirms the positive role played by conserved natural areas outside or surrounding extensive metropolitan areas in the reduction of atmospheric pollution, in spite of the negative impact of anthropogenic emissions.

This study highlights the use of loblolly pine derived biochar for the removal of harmful algal bloom toxin, Saxitoxin (STX), from water. Biochar samples were prepared at varying pyrolysis temperatures (400, 600 and 800 °C) for 60 min. As pyrolysis temperature increases, enhancement in surface porosity was observed (S_BET = 7.26 ± 0.2 m²/g to 408.15 ± 6.19 m²/g) while a decline in oxygen-containing functional groups was observed (1517.80 ± 14.98 μmol/g to 823.01 ± 7.72 μmol/g). This study aimed to discover the effects of adsorption parameters such as biochar dosage amount, contact time, initial concentration and initial pH on Saxitoxin adsorption. These studies revealed impressive results with >90 % toxin removal with dosage rate of 0.01 g/L, contact time of 30 min, and increasing percent removal with increasing initial STX concentration and initial pH in water. Maximum uptake was calculated for P400 with adsorption capacity of 314.37 μg/g. This showed that surface functionality showed higher affinity for STX uptake, which may be possible due to hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, ion-exchange, and π-π interactions. Applied kinetic models indicated both physisorption and chemisorption interactions with best fit supporting the Elovich models. Complementary, adsorption isotherm analysis confirmed the multilayer adsorption behavior of the Freundlich model. Therefore, these findings support the viable use of biochar material for the remediation of STX waters.

Invincible growth in waste production is the consequence of overpopulation, which should be addressed to reduce the occupied landfill surface needed for their disposal and to alleviate the leachate of extremely hazardous material into the soil and water bodies. In this study, copper (Cu) was extracted from fly ash of a municipal solid waste incinerator by an electro-chemical method, which was optimized to recover the highest amount of Cu, and then it was chelated with 4-aminobenzoic acid (AM) and terephthalic acid (TM) in an aqueous phase. The obtained composites were then heated to form a porous calcinated copper-carbon composite and utilized to adsorb the forever contaminant of PFOS from aqueous solutions. As the calcinated composite of Cu/AM with a ratio of 1:1 removed a greater amount of PFOS from the aqueous solution than Cu/TA, it was utilized as the ultimate adsorbent. The platform adsorbent was subjected to multiple characterizations, including XRD, FESEM, elemental mapping, TEM, BET, EDS, ICP-OES, FTIR, DLS, and point of zero charges, as well as optimization of several operational parameters involving pH, adsorbent dosage, initial PFOS concentration, and contact time. At the neutral pH, under the optimal conditions (adsorbent dosage of 1 g L^-1 and 5 h), 97.23% of PFOS was eliminated from the solution spiked with 5 mg L^-1 of PFOS. The equilibrium data were best fitted with Frundlich isotherm, and the maximum adsorption capacity of 402 mg g^-1 was achieved. The optimal conditions were also applied to PFOA, demonstrating high adsorption of different types of PFAS. The recovery tests of the adsorbent conducted 5 times on the solution spiked with 10 mg L^-1 of PFOS showed a slight decrease in PFOS removal at least for 5 regeneration cycles, demonstrating the high adsorption capacity and its reusability, thereby validating its feasibility for large-scale applications.

A novel graphene-bridged MoS₂/Co₃O₄ (MCG) nanohybrid was well fabricated by a hydrothermal route. The purpose of valuable and economical S-scheme systems with vigorous interface interactions is pressing to photocatalytic efficiency and efficient utilization. While mighty progress has been created with respect to charge carrier bridges, the charge transferring ability of the facility charge carrier bridges is far from capable owing to lower electrical conductivity. The photocatalytic antibacterial tests were performed with visible light activity, and the results exhibited that the as-prepared MCG nanohybrid with powerful interfacial coupling presented excellent photodegradation performance in comparison with bare MoS₂ and Co₃O₄ samples for the removal of methylene blue (MB) and E-coli with visible light irradiation. In addition, a better photocatalytic MB capability and antibacterial activity of 99.5 % and 100 % are approached through MCG-4 nanohybrid, which is 2.76 and 8.32 folds higher than that of the pristine MoS₂ sample. The PL measurements and EIS analysis also illustrated that MCG-4 nanohybrid possesses a great separation efficiency of photoinduced charge carriers. This work provides a new objective for high-potential S-scheme photocatalysts and their utilization in the field of environmental remediation.