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Materials
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Advanced Materials for Remediation of Environmental Pollutants
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Advanced Materials for Remediation of Environmental Pollutants

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Smart Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2023) | Viewed by 8759

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mioara Petrus

E-Mail Website
Leading Guest Editor
National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Magurele, Romania
Interests: photoacoustic spectroscopy sensing; laser photoacoustic spectroscopy device development gases analysis; biomarkers; oxidative stress; laser–soft tissue interaction; numerical simulation of temperature distribution in tissue
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Cristina Achim

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Magurele, Romania
Interests: laser physics and applications; photoacoustic spectroscopy sensing; optical spectroscopy; laser photoacoustic spectroscopy device development; oxidative stress and biomarkers; analysis of gases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ana Bratu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Magurele, Romania
Interests: biophotonics; technology of lasers; photoacoustic spectroscopy; laser–matter interactions; medical applications of lasers; applications of CO2 lasers in life sciences and environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, the global environment is continuously dealing with an increasing amount of pollutants, including inorganic and organic compounds, micro- and nanoplastics, oils, heavy metals, paints, and surfactants, which enhance global warming. Due to their increasing presence, many fields of science are developing methods to mitigate the effects caused by these pollutants, as well as methods to improve their detection. Advanced materials can help to ensure a clean environment in a sustainable and friendly way. As such, nanomaterials have proven to be an interesting approach in treating pollutants. Organic pollutants are also a major factor in the current problem of environmental pollution, and research has found that certain materials can be created that enhance and catalyze photodegradation of organic pollutants. Polymers are of great interest in oil spill remediation, and as well as these nanowire membranes have been created that selectively bind with oils up to 20 times the weight ratio of water and can be resuspended in solution and be used again for multiple cycles. Sensing of pollutants has become important in developing ways to deal with them and supramolecular molecules have been developed which selectively bind to the specific pollutant of interest which can then be detected.

Environmental pollutants represent an important factor in the development of new materials, for finding innovative synthesis and technological solutions, as well as understanding the relationships of functional properties, which may all be reflected in your scientific contributions to this Special Issue. The forthcoming Special Issue of Materials, "Advanced Materials for Remediation of Environmental Pollutants", aims to follow the new advances in this field of research. It is our pleasure to invite you to contribute your research article, communication or review for this Special Issue.

Dr. Mioara Petrus
Dr. Cristina Achim
Dr. Ana Bratu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pollutants
  • degradation
  • photocatalysis
  • nanotechnology
  • numerical simulation
  • sensors

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 7230 KiB  
Article
Spent Coffee Grounds Derived Carbon Loading C, N Doped TiO2 for Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes
by Yanling Jin, Jiayi Wang, Xin Gao, Fang Ren, Zhengyan Chen, Zhenfeng Sun and Penggang Ren
Materials 2023, 16(14), 5137; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16145137 - 21 Jul 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1500
Abstract
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is an ideal photocatalyst candidate due to its high activity, low toxicity and cost, and high chemical stability. However, its practical application in photocatalysis is seriously hindered by the wide band gap energy of TiO2 and the [...] Read more.
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is an ideal photocatalyst candidate due to its high activity, low toxicity and cost, and high chemical stability. However, its practical application in photocatalysis is seriously hindered by the wide band gap energy of TiO2 and the prone recombination of electron-hole pairs. In this study, C, N doped TiO2 were supported on spent coffee grounds-derived carbon (ACG) via in situ formation, which was denoted as C, N–TiO2@ACG. The obtained C, N–TiO2@ACG exhibits increased light absorption efficiency with the band gap energy decreasing from 3.31 eV of TiO2 to 2.34 eV, a higher specific surface area of 145.8 m2/g, and reduced recombination rates attributed to the synergistic effect of a spent coffee grounds-derived carbon substrate and C, N doping. Consequently, the optimal 1:1 C, N–TiO2@ACG delivers considerable photocatalytic activity with degradation efficiencies for methylene blue (MB) reaching 96.9% within 45 min, as well as a high reaction rate of 0.06348 min−1, approximately 4.66 times that of TiO2 (0.01361 min−1). Furthermore, it also demonstrated greatly enhanced photocatalytic efficiency towards methyl orange (MO) in the presence of MB compared with a single MO solution. This work provides a feasible and universal strategy of synchronous introducing nonmetal doping and biomass-derived carbon substrates to promote the photocatalytic performance of TiO2 for the degradation of organic dyes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Remediation of Environmental Pollutants)
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17 pages, 3277 KiB  
Article
Ammonia Concentration in Ambient Air in a Peri-Urban Area Using a Laser Photoacoustic Spectroscopy Detector
by Mioara Petrus, Cristina Popa and Ana-Maria Bratu
Materials 2022, 15(9), 3182; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15093182 - 28 Apr 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2287
Abstract
Measuring ammonia from the environmental air is a sensitive and prioritized issue due to its harmful effects on humans, ecosystems, and climate. Ammonia is an environmental pollutant that has an important role in forming secondary inorganic aerosols, the main component of fine particulate [...] Read more.
Measuring ammonia from the environmental air is a sensitive and prioritized issue due to its harmful effects on humans, ecosystems, and climate. Ammonia is an environmental pollutant that has an important role in forming secondary inorganic aerosols, the main component of fine particulate matter concentrations in the urban atmosphere. Through this study, we present a gas analyzer that utilizes the technique of laser photoacoustic spectroscopy to measure ammonia concentration in three different sites located in Magurele, (44°20′58″ N 26°01′47″ E, 93 m altitude), Romania, from March to August 2021 at the breathing level of 1.5 m above ground. The ammonia concentrations from the ambient air were elevated in summer (mean of 46.03 ± 8.05 ppb (parts per billion)) compared to those measured in spring (18.62 ± 2.92 ppb), which means that atmospheric temperature affects ammonia concentrations. The highest mean ammonia concentrations occurred in August, with an ammonia concentration level of 100.68 ± 11.12 ppb, and the low mean ammonia concentrations occurred in March, with an ammonia level concentration of 0.161 ± 0.03 ppb. The results confirm that meteorological characteristics (i.e., temperature) and motor vehicles are major contributors to the elevated ammonia levels during the monitoring period. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Remediation of Environmental Pollutants)
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10 pages, 2101 KiB  
Article
Treatment of Wastewater Containing Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Using Activated Carbon Material
by Florinela Pirvu, Cristina Ileana Covaliu-Mierlă, Iuliana Paun, Gigel Paraschiv and Vasile Iancu
Materials 2022, 15(2), 559; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15020559 - 12 Jan 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2116
Abstract
This study presents an adsorbent material (activated carbon) used in the treatment of wastewater with the role of removing ibuprofen, acetaminophen, diclofenac and ketoprofen pollutants. The wastewater treatment efficiencies of the activated carbon were systematically investigated using adsorption kinetics. The parameters studied were: [...] Read more.
This study presents an adsorbent material (activated carbon) used in the treatment of wastewater with the role of removing ibuprofen, acetaminophen, diclofenac and ketoprofen pollutants. The wastewater treatment efficiencies of the activated carbon were systematically investigated using adsorption kinetics. The parameters studied were: pH (4 and 6 values of pH), initial concentration of wastewater (1, 5, and 10 mg/L), contact time (10 min), adsorbent quantity (0.1, 0.5, and 1 g), and isotherm models (Langmuir and Freundlich). The highest wastewater treatment efficiency was obtained at the 6 pH value. The determination of four anti-inflammatory drugs, frequently monitored in wastewater, was performed by a simple and fast method using the HPLC-technique-type DAD (diode array detector). The method was linear when the concentration ranged between 0.5 and 20 m/L for all compounds. The equilibrium concentration was obtained after 8 min. The octanol/water coefficient influenced the removal efficiency of the four drugs by the adsorbent material (activated carbon). The dose of activated carbon (0.1 to 1 g) significantly influenced the efficiency of wastewater treatment, which increased considerably when the dose of the adsorbent material increased. Using 1 g of the adsorbent material for the treatment of wastewater containing 1 mg/L initial concentration of pollutant compounds, the efficiencies were 98% for acetaminophen, 92% for diclofenac, 88% for ketoprofen and 96% for ibuprofen. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Remediation of Environmental Pollutants)
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13 pages, 4230 KiB  
Article
Experimental Investigation on Water Adsorption Using Laser Photoacoustic Spectroscopy and Numerical Simulations
by Cristina Popa, Mioara Petrus, Ana Maria Bratu and Irina Negut
Materials 2021, 14(19), 5839; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14195839 - 6 Oct 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1658
Abstract
In the present research we propose a model to assess the water vapors adsorption capacity of a SiO2 trap in the breathing circuit, aiming to reduce the loading of interfering compounds in human breath samples. In this study we used photoacoustic spectroscopy [...] Read more.
In the present research we propose a model to assess the water vapors adsorption capacity of a SiO2 trap in the breathing circuit, aiming to reduce the loading of interfering compounds in human breath samples. In this study we used photoacoustic spectroscopy to analyze the SiO2 adsorption of interfering compounds from human breath and numerical simulations to study the flow of expired breath gas through porous media. As a result, the highest adsorption rate was achieved with a flow rate of 300 sccm, while the lowest rate was achieved with a flow rate of 600 sccm. In the procedure of H2O removal from the human breath air samples, we determined a quantity of 213 cm3 SiO2 pearls to be used for a 750 mL sampling bag, in order to keep the detection of ethylene free of H2O interference. The data from this study encourages the premise that the SiO2 trap is efficient in the reduction of interfering compounds (like water vapors) from the human breath. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials for Remediation of Environmental Pollutants)
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