•Nano catalysts and other nanomaterials for remediation of organic pollutants in water.•Types of nanomaterials catalyzing water remediation from organic pollutants.•Types and structures of organic ...pollutants in water to remediate with catalysts.•Oxidation, adsorption, degrading organic pollutants for water remediation.
With the industrial development, population increasing and climate change, water pollution becomes a critical issue around the world. As a result, the remediation of water pollution urgently calls for new advanced technologies. This review specifically deals with nanocatalysts and other nanomaterials for water remediation of organic pollutants. It systematically summarizes the types and structures of organic pollutants, and the classes of nanomaterials and their application for the remediation of organic pollutants in water. Unlike inorganic heavy metals that are of limited types of pollutants, organic molecules are more than millions with various functional groups, properties and applications. The organic contaminants generally contain pharmaceuticals, personal care products, endocrine disruptors, pesticides, detergents, organic dyes, and common industrial organic wastes. Nanomaterials used for organic pollutants remediation can be generally classified as inorganic nanomaterials (e.g. transition metal/metal oxide/metal sulfide nanoparticles, carbon-based nanomaterials) and organic molecule-based nanomaterials (e.g. metal-organic frameworks, nanomembranes, and organic polymer-based nanomaterials). Oxidation, adsorption, and degradation are the most common strategies employed for nanomaterials remediation of organic pollutants in water. The types of substrate activation modes involve coordination, electron transfer, photo-redox, radical reactions, adsorption, ligand activation, electrostatic, π-π, hydrophobic, acid-base, H-bonding interactions, and van der Waals interactions.
Electrocatalytic reduction is a promising approach to remediate nitrate (NO3 –), one of the world’s most widespread water pollutants. In the present work, we elucidate activity and selectivity trends ...of transition metals for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to benign or value-added products such as N2 and NH3. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we find that the adsorption strengths of oxygen and nitrogen atoms act as descriptors for the overall activity and selectivity of nitrate reduction electrocatalysts. Nitrate reduction rates, volcano plots, surface species coverages, and the degree of rate control were predicted for transition metal electrocatalysts as a function of applied potential using DFT-based microkinetic modeling. Our microkinetic model rationalizes a number of experimental observations including the activity trends of pure metals and our in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements of competitive adsorption between hydrogen and nitrate on Pt/C. We also predict that Fe3Ru, Fe3Ni, Fe3Cu, and Pt3Ru are promising catalysts for nitrate electroreduction toward N2 with relatively high activity and selectivity. Ultimately, this work gives insight into nitrate reduction on transition metal surfaces and can guide the design of improved electrocatalysts for nitrate remediation.
Fouling of polymeric membranes remains a major challenge for long‐term operation of oily‐water remediation. The common reclamation methods to recycle fouled membranes have the issues of either ...incomplete degradation of organic pollutants or damage to filter membranes. Here, a calcinable polymer membrane with effective reclamation after fouling is reported, which shows full recovery of the original oil/water separation efficiency. The membrane is made of polysulfonamide/polyacrylonitrile fibers by emulsion electrospinning, followed by hydrothermal decoration of TiO2 nanoparticles. The bonding structured fibrous membrane displays outstanding thermal stability in air (400 °C), strong acid/alkali resistance (at the pH range from 1 to 13), and robust tensile strength. As a result, the chemically fouled polymeric membrane can be easily reclaimed without decreasing in separation performance and mechanical properties by annealing treatment. As a proof‐of‐concept, the as‐prepared membrane is integrated into a wastewater separation tank, which achieves a high water flux over 3000 L m−2 h−1 and oil rejection efficiency of 99.6% for various oil‐in‐water emulsions. The presented strategy on membrane fabrication is believed to be an effective remedy for membrane fouling, and should apply in a wider field of filtration industry.
A calcinable polymer membrane with revivablility is rationally designed for oily‐water remediation. The interbonding structured TiO2@PSA/PAN fibrous membrane exhibits a high water flux, excellent separation efficiency, and robust thermal stability (400 °C). More importantly, the fouled membrane can be easily reclaimed without decrease in separation performance and mechanical property by annealing treatment.
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•CuS/CaCO3 nanocomposite with NIR absorption was synthesized by using eggshell as template.•The effects of several free radicals on catalytic properties of nanomaterials induced by ...NIR light were discussed.•The bactericidal effect of ROS on bacteria was discussed.•CuS/CaCO3 nanocomposite has enhanced catalytic and antibacterial properties when triggered by NIR light.
The full utilization of sunlight and design of high-efficient and low-cost photocatalysts with robust stability for wastewater treatment is still a challenging task. Herein, we report an economic and simple strategy to prepare a novel photocatalyst by using eggshell as template and support. Rod-like Copper sulphide (CuS) nanoparticles are uniformly coated on the surface of porous eggshell to form CaCO3/CuS nanocomposite. Under NIR irradiation, the nanocomposite shows a high catalytic activity for 4-nirophenol (4-NP) reduction and strong photothermal ablation behavior against bacteria. A 98% degradation rate can be completed in 15 min, superior to that in the absence of Near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation. Bacterial inactivation ability is also closely related with photocatalyst concentrations and NIR power. A possible mechanism is suggested, which is attributed to the synergistic photocatalytic, photothermal, photodynamic effects. Our study indicates that waste eggshell not only can be used as an efficient support to immobilize nanoparticles, but also can act as reaction resource to provide active carbonate radicals (CO3−), which play an important role on target degradation molecules.
•Review the synthesis procedure of cellulose-metal organic frameworks (MOFs).•Highlight the potential applications of CelloMOFs.•Investigate the advantages and disadvantages of CelloMOFs.•Propose the ...future trends and potential applications of CelloMOFs.
Cellulose–MOFs (CelloMOFs) are attractive hybrid materials that make available a range of hitherto unattainable properties by conjugating cellulosic materials with metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). CelloMOFs have demonstrated a great potential to be applied in several fields such as water remediation, air purification, gas storage, sensing/biosensing, and biomedicine. CelloMOFs can act as an efficient adsorbent to remove emerging contaminants such as metals, dyes, drugs, antibiotics, pesticides, and oils in water via adsorption. They can be also used as catalysts for catalytic degradation, reduction, and oxidation of organic pollutants. They have been applied as filters for air purification via removing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulate matter (PMs). Biomedical applications such as antibacterial, drug delivery, biosensing were also reported for CelloMOFs materials. This review summarized the synthesis, characterization, and applications of cellulose-MOFs materials. It covered a broad overview of the status of the combination of cellulose in micron to nanoscale with MOFs. At the end of the review, the challenges and outlook regarding CelloMOFs were discussed. Hopefully, this review will be a useful guide for researchers and scientists who are looking for quick access to relevant references about CelloMOFs hybrid materials and their applications.
The present review showcases the scientific progress in the field of dual-functional photocatalysis for hydrogen evolution coupled with the oxidation of chemical substances. Considering that hydrogen ...is a promising alternative to fossil fuels, photocatalytic water splitting represents an approach to produce hydrogen using abundant solar energy. However, the industrialization of this process has not occurred yet, mainly due to limitations related to the high cost, toxicity, poor stability, or low efficiency of the majority of the photocatalytic systems employed for water reduction. An approach to tackle these limitations is by taking advantage of the oxidative energy of the holes and by replacing the expensive and often toxic sacrificial electron donors with either organic pollutants (targeting their degradation) or organic substances that can be oxidized to added-value products. Following this 2-fold strategy, the production of sustainable hydrogen is accompanied by either the oxidative degradation of pollutants or the valorization of organic processes, in a single process. Herein, a detailed overview of the advancements in this dual-purpose field is offered, along with a discussion of the basic principles, the differences between similar fields, and how these can be distinguished. Although in its infancy, this dual-purpose technology has received radically increasing scientific interest over the past few years; this is expected, as the utilization of this approach can overcome multiple major environmental challenges, such as global warming, water scarcity, and pollution.
Global water pollution by various pollutants is becoming an urgent problem. The conversion of durian fruit waste into adsorbents can help to mitigate this issue. Transforming durian waste into ...adsorbents can reduce pollution risk from waste discharged directly into the environment, while also effectively eliminating existing contaminants. Here, this work explores the potential of durian fruit waste and supplies insights into the synthesis and application of durian fruit waste-derived adsorbents such as biosorbents, modified-biosorbents, biochars, activated carbons, and composites. Several factors affecting the adsorption process of pollutants and the mechanism how pollutants can be adsorbed onto durian fruit waste-derived adsorbents are elucidated. This review also analyzes some aspects of limitations and prospects of biosorbents derived from durian fruit waste. It is anticipated that the promising properties and applications of durian fruit waste-derived adsorbents open up a new field for water waste treatment.
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•Sustainable and effective bioasorbents can be produced from durian fruit waste•Chemical activation is the most critical step to increase surface area and porosity•Durian fruit waste-adsorbents can easily remove dyes, heavy metals, and antibiotics•Prominent reusability of durian fruit waste-adsorbents was obtained, with 5-6 cycles
Sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOPs) have attracted increasing attention for the degradation of organic contaminants in water. The oxidants of SR-AOPs could be activated to ...generate different kinds of reactive oxygen species (ROS, e.g., hydroxyl radicals (OH), sulfate radicals (SO4−), singlet oxygen (1O2), and superoxide radicals (O2−)) by various catalysts. As one of the promising catalysts, cobalt-based catalysts have been extensively investigated in catalytic activity and stability during water remediation. This article mainly summarizes recent advances in preparation and applications of cobalt-based catalysts on peroxydisulfate (PDS)/peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation since 2016. The review covers the development of homogeneous cobalt ions, cobalt oxides, supported cobalt composites, and cobalt-based mixed metal oxides for PDS/PMS activation, especially for the latest nanocomposites such as cobalt-based metal-organic frameworks and single-atom catalysts. This article also discussed the activation mechanisms and the influencing factors of different cobalt-based catalysts for activating PDS/PMS. Finally, the future perspectives on the challenges and applications of cobalt-based catalysts are presented at the end of this paper.
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•Cobalt-based catalysts performed excellent catalytic activity for SR-AOPs.•The development of cobalt-based catalysts for PDS/PMS activation was summarized.•The activation mechanisms and influencing factors of different cobalt-based catalysts for activating PDS/PMS were discussed.•Future perspectives on the challenges and applications of cobalt-based catalysts were proposed.
The competition impact and feedstock type on the removal of water pesticides using biochar have not yet been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, here we investigated the potentiality of three ...different biochars (BCs) derived from rice husk (RHB), date pit (DPB), and sugarcane bagasse (SBB) biowastes for the simultaneous removal of ten pesticides from water in a competitive adsorption system. The BCs structural characterization and morphology were investigated by XRD, FTIR spectroscopy and SEM analysis. The potential adsorption mechanisms have been investigated using various isothermal and kinetic models. RHB showed the highest removal percentages (61% for atrazine/dimethoate and 97.6% for diuron/chlorfenvinphos) followed by DPB (56% for atrazine/dimethoate and 95.4% for diuron/chlorpyrifos) and then SBB (60.8% for atrazine/dimethoate and 90.8% for chlorpyrifos/malathion). The higher adsorption capacity of RHB and DPB than SBB can be due to their high total pore volume and specific surface area (SSA). Langmuir model described well the sorption data (R2 = 0.99). Adsorption equilibrium was achieved after 60 min for RHB, and 120 min for both DPB and SBB. The optimum adsorbent dose (g/L) was 10 for RHB and 4 for DPB and SBB. The removal efficiency of pesticides was enhanced by decreasing pH from 9 to 5 by RHB and to 3 by DPB and SBB. XRD and FTIR spectroscopy confirmed that BCs contain some active adsorption groups and metal oxides such as MgO, SiO, Al2O3, CaO, and TiO2 that can play an effective role in the pesticides sorption. BET-N2 adsorption analysis demonstrated that the BC pore size contributes significantly to pesticide adsorption. These findings indicate that RHB, DPB, and SBB have ability for adsorption of water pesticides even under acidic conditions. Therefore, the rice husk, date pit, and sugarcane bagasse biowastes could be pyrolyzed and reused as effective and low-cost sorbents for elimination of hazardous substances such as pesticides in the aqueous environments.
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•Rice husk(RHB), date pit(DPB)& sugarcane bagasse(SBB) biochar removed ten water pesticides•RHB removal efficacy was higher (61–97%) than DPB (56–95%) and SBB (60–91%)•RHB showed faster (60 min) removal ability than DPB & SBB (120 min)•BCs removed diuron, chlorpyrifos & chlorfenvinphos more than atrazine & dimethoate•The BCs removal efficiency was higher in the acidic than the alkaline water
In recent years, the expansion of industrial sectors has imposed a burden on water resources globally owing to unsustainable consumption and discharges into the environment. Here, a Co3V2O8 ...(CV)/hexagonal boron nitride (HBN) heterojunction has been constructed using an applicable solid-state technique that produces efficient photocatalytic action during water cleanup activities. The nanocomposite was studied utilizing different approaches such as XRD, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, EDX, XPS, UV–Vis spectroscopy, EIS, PL, BET, and M − S plots. The pristine HBN has a band gap of 5 eV, while the CV/HBN nanocomposite has a band gap of 1.8 eV. According to our findings, the photocatalyst has a high degradation ratio of up to 98.1%, 89.8%, 87.5%, 96.5%, and 90.2% in brilliant cresyl blue (CB), rhodamine-B (Rh–B), amoxicillin (AMX), metronidazole (MNZ), and industrial wastewater (IW) under visible light irradiation, correspondingly. It emphasizes that the remarkable photocatalytic activity is mostly due to the photocatalyst's superior performance and dominant absorption of visible light, as well as the efficient photogenerated carrier separation brought about by the interaction of cobalt vanadate and HBN. The catalyst demonstrated stable behavior, adhering to five reuse cycles. The present research reveals that the CV/HBN nanocomposite is a very stable and active photocatalyst that may be used as an alternative to costlier noble metal-based photocatalysts in photocatalysis applications. When compared to untreated IW, the degraded IW sample exhibits superior plant growth, which is visible from the phytotoxicity tests.
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