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•Novel S-CQDs/hollow tubular g-C3N4 photocatalyst was successfully fabricated.•HTCN-C(2) exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity for Escherichia coli photodestruction.•The changes ...of Escherichia coli morphology and inside contents were verified by SEM images.•h+, O2− and OH radicals participate in the photocatalytic degradation process.•Cycle experiments revealed the outstanding photo-stability and reusability.
Microbial contamination and antibiotic pollutions diffusely exist in wastewater system, and contaminated water poses a threat to public health. Therefore, there is a need to effectively remove biohazard and antibiotic contamination from wastewater systems. In this paper, sulfur doped carbon quantum dots (S-CQDs)/hollow tubular g-C3N4 photocatalyst (HTCN-C), prepared via ultrasonic assisted synthesis strategy, was regarded as an efficient catalyst for the degradation of antibiotic (tetracycline) and destruction of a typical Gram-negative bacterium (Escherichia coli) in imitated wastewater system. The unique structures of hollow tubular g-C3N4 and loading of modified carbon quantum dots enhanced electron transfer and charge separation, leading to a significant improvement in photocatalytic efficiency. Benefiting from these merits, the optimized catalysts (HTCN-C(2)) exhibited superior performance with a reaction rate of 0.0293 min−1 for tetracycline (TC) degradation and 99.99% destruction of Escherichia coli under visible-light irradiation. Moreover, the characterization of UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra, photoluminescence technique, transient photocurrent responses and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy also verified the good optical and electrochemical properties of resultant samples. Our current work indicates that HTCN-C has great potential in degradation of antibiotic and destruction of bacterium for practical wastewater treatment.
The wide use of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) has led to increasing concern about its human health risks over the past decade. In vivo and in vitro studies are important and effective means to ...ascertain the toxic effects of PFOS on humans and its toxic mechanisms. This article systematically reviews the human health risks of PFOS based on the currently known facts found by in vivo and in vitro studies from 2008 to 2018. Exposure to PFOS has caused hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, immunotoxicity, thyroid disruption, cardiovascular toxicity, pulmonary toxicity, and renal toxicity in laboratory animals and many in vitro human systems. These results and related epidemiological studies confirmed the human health risks of PFOS, especially for exposure via food and drinking water. Oxidative stress and physiological process disruption based on fatty acid similarity were widely studied mechanisms of PFOS toxicity. Future research for assessing the human health risks of PFOS is recommended in the chronic toxicity and molecular mechanisms, the application of various omics, and the integration of toxicological and epidemiological data.
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•Assessing human health risks of PFOS by in vivo and in vitro studies are reviewed.•Exposure to PFOS can cause significant human health risks.•The chronic toxicity and molecular mechanisms need further study.•Integration of the toxicological and epidemiological data is recommended.
As a newly emerging class of porous materials, covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have attracted much attention due to their intriguing structural merits (
e.g.
, total organic backbone, tunable ...porosity and predictable structure). However, the insoluble and unprocessable features of bulk COF powder limit their applications. To overcome these limitations, considerable efforts have been devoted to exploring the fabrication of COF thin films with controllable architectures, which open the door for their novel applications. In this critical review, we aim to provide the recent advances in the fabrication of COF thin films not only supported on substrates but also as free-standing nanosheets
via
both bottom-up and top-down strategies. The bottom-up strategy involves solvothermal synthesis, interfacial polymerization, room temperature vapor-assisted conversion, and synthesis under continuous flow conditions; whereas, the top-down strategy involves solvent-assisted exfoliation, self-exfoliation, mechanical delamination, and chemical exfoliation. In addition, the applications of COF thin films including energy storage, semiconductor devices, membrane-separation, sensors, and drug delivery are summarized. Finally, to accelerate further research, a personal perspective covering their synthetic strategies, mechanisms and applications is presented.
This review presents a comprehensive summary of the synthesis and applications of covalent organic framework thin films.
We investigated the abundance of microplastics in freshwater, treated water, and household tap water from the drinking water supply chain in Changsha, China. The abundance was 2173–3998 (mean = ...2753), 338–400 (mean = 351.9), and 267–404 (mean = 343.5) particles L
−1
in freshwater, treated water, and tap water, respectively. Fibrous and fragments made up the majority (> 70%) in all water samples, and most polymers were composed of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate. Microplastics in tap water were related to materials of transportation pipelines in drinking-water supply chain. Although plastics are corrosion-resistant, the slight fragmentation and abrasion may occur during drinking water treatment transportation. This study provided a proof for the occurrence of microplastics in drinking water, which may offer a reference for microplastic removal during drinking water treatment, and the formulation of standards for microplastic content in drinking water.
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•Application of carbon nanomaterials for pollutants removal.•Toxicity impact of carbon nanomaterials.•Degradation of carbon nanomaterials.•Future perspectives of graphene based ...adsorbents.
Carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) are novel nanomaterials with excellent physicochemical properties, which are widely used in biomedicine, energy and sensing. Besides, CNMs also play an important role in environmental pollution control, which can absorb heavy metals, antibiotics and harmful gases. However, CNMs are inevitably entering the environment while they are rapidly developing. They are harmful to living organisms in the environment and are difficult to degrade under natural conditions. Here, we systematically describe the toxicity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene (GRA) and C60 to cells, animals, humans, and microorganisms. According to the current research results, the toxicity mechanism is summarized, including oxidative stress response, mechanical damage and effects on biological enzymes. In addition, according to the latest research progress, we focus on the two major degradation methods of chemical degradation and biodegradation of CNTs, GRA and C60. Meanwhile, the reaction conditions and degradation mechanisms of degradation are respectively stated. Moreover, we have prospects for the limitations of CNM degradation under non-experimental conditions and their potential application.
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•The roles of biochar in resource recovery from water are overviewed.•Resource recovery of components, water, and energy using biochar are discussed.•Efficiency enhancement strategies ...for resource recovery by biochar are evaluated.•The value and practical re-application of recovered resources are summarized.•The developments of biochar-based resource recovery are proposed.
Over the past few decades, the shortage of water resource has prompted a shift in human concept about waste water: from waste to valuable resource. Utilizing wastewater can not only mitigate water scarcity, but also provide an opportunity for nutrient and energy recovery, further offsetting part of the exploitation of valuable resources. When establishing resource recovery systems of wastewater, the implemented technology and materials should be preferentially considered in order to achieve economically feasible and environmentally responsible solutions. The advantages of biochar in cost, nutrient retention and pollutant adsorption efficiency endow its possibility for resource recovery. Thus, understanding the relationship between biochar and resource recovery is essential to develop the applications of biochar in environment remediation and wastewater utilization. However, to this date there is no comprehensive review that establish the relevance between biochar and recycled substance. In this review, we aim to evaluate the roles of biochar in resource recovery from wastewater. Recyclable substances with the presence of biochar mainly include components, water resource and energy. Viable and effective methods for different recovered targets are classified. In particular, through revealing the interrelationship between biochar production methods and recovered substances, we try to provide the guideline for biochar selection. The re-application and value of recovered substances are also summarized comprehensively. Moreover, the current problems, existing limitations, and promising industrial application value of biochar in resource recovery from water are also put forward. This review can create awareness about the possibility of various options for resources recovery from water with biochar and contribute to further development and demonstration in wastewater treatment.
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•Surfactant-assisted synthesis is a promising method for photocatalyst synthesis.•Surfactant would efficiently enhance the photocatalytic activity of photocatalysts.•Surfactant can ...regulate the morphology and structure of photocatalysts.•Influencing factors and recent advances are highlighted.
The presence of large amounts of contaminants in the environment would result in ecological and health hazards. The photocatalytic technologies have been developed to use sunlight to remove contaminants in recent years. Researchers are primarily focused on developing high-performance photocatalysts. This review discusses the effects of surfactant on the structural morphology, physicochemical properties and contaminant removal performance of photocatalysts. The mechanism and synthesis method of surfactant-assisted photocatalysts are reviewed. Meanwhile, the effects of surfactant type, surfactant concentration, solution pH, synthesis method and calcination temperature on the photocatalysts are also discussed in detail. In addition, we summarized the recent advances and the application of surfactant-assisted photocatalysts in the environmental remediation. Finally, the future researches on surfactant-assisted photocatalysts are also proposed. This review provides new insights into the use of surfactants to prepare photocatalysts with well-defined shape and excellent performance to enhance photocatalytic efficiency for removing pollutants.
Bentonite is a natural and environmentally clay mineral, and bentonite-derived mesoporous materials (BDMMs) were obtained conveniently from the alkali and acid treatment of bentonite. In the present ...study, BDMMs were explored for immobilization of laccase obtained from Trametes versicolor. As a result, bentonite-derived mesoporous materials-Laccase (BDMMs-Lac) was developed for the removal of tetracycline (TC). The enzyme immobilization process was carried out through physical adsorption contact (ion exchange adsorption, hydrogen bond adsorption, and Van der waals adsorption) between the BDMMs and laccase. The process of immobilization remarkably increased its operating temperature. The BDMMs-Lac exhibited over 60% removal efficiency for TC within 3 h in the presence of 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT). In conclusion, BDMMs-Lac showed more promising potential than free laccase for practical continuous applications.
•BDMMs were expediently obtained from alkali & acid treatment of original bentonite.•Surface areas and average pore sizes of BDMMs were improved nearly by 74 and 2 times.•The thermal stability of BDMMs-Lac was highly improved compared to free laccase.•In the presence of HBT, BDMMs-Lac could remove 60% of TC within 180 min.
This study proposes a facile one-pot solvothermal method to prepare Ni-doped MIL-53(Fe) nanoparticles as high-performance adsorbents for doxycycline removal. The morphology and structure of the ...samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, fourier transform infrared spectrum and thermogravimetric analysis. These results reveal that nickel was doped into MIL-53(Fe) successfully via a facile reaction, and the obtained Ni-doped MIL-53(Fe) nanoparticles showed excellent stability. The adsorption activities were evaluated in terms of the removal efficiencies of doxycycline (DOX) in aqueous solution. According to the response surface quadratic model (RSM), the optimal adsorption conditions were concentration of DOX 100 mg/L, temperature 35 °C, ionic strength 5 g/L and pH 7. The as-synthesized Ni-doped MIL-53(Fe) nanoparticles showed better adsorption capacity of 397.22 mg/g compared with other adsorbents. The investigation of adsorption mechanism demonstrated that the adsorption process was dominated by electrostatic and π-π stacking interactions. The Ni-doped MIL-53(Fe) nanoparticles with improved adsorption activities would have a great potential in DOX removal from aqueous environment.
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•Ni-doped MIL-53(Fe) nanoparticles were applied to remove doxycycline for the first time.•RSM was used to determine the optimum adsorption conditions for doxycycline removal.•Electrostatic and π-π stacking interactions were possible adsorption mechanisms.•Ni-doped MIL-53(Fe) was suggested as a reusable and efficient adsorbent.
Autoimmune diseases are a group of heterogeneous diseases with diverse clinical manifestations that can be divided into systemic and organ-specific. The common etiology of autoimmune diseases is the ...destruction of immune tolerance and the production of autoantibodies, which attack specific tissues and/or organs in the body. The pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases is complicated, and genetic, environmental, infectious, and even psychological factors work together to cause aberrant innate and adaptive immune responses. Although the exact mechanisms are unclear, recently, excessive exacerbation of pyroptosis, as a bond between innate and adaptive immunity, has been proven to play a crucial role in the development of autoimmune disease. Pyroptosis is characterized by pore formation on cell membranes, as well as cell rupture and the excretion of intracellular contents and pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β and IL-18. This overactive inflammatory programmed cell death disrupts immune system homeostasis and promotes autoimmunity. This review examines the molecular structure of classical inflammasomes, including NLRP3, AIM2, and P2X7-NLRP3, as the switches of pyroptosis, and their molecular regulation mechanisms. The sophisticated pyroptosis pathways, including the canonical caspase-1-mediated pathway, the noncanonical caspase-4/5/11-mediated pathway, the emerging caspase-3-mediated pathway, and the caspase-independent pathway, are also described. We highlight the recent advances in pyroptosis in autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, Sjögren's syndrome and dermatomyositis, and attempt to identify its potential advantages as a therapeutic target or prognostic marker in these diseases.
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