Advances in Engineered Nanostructures for Detection, Control and Removal of Environmental Pollutants

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Nanoscience and Nanotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2024) | Viewed by 4018

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protect ion Technical University “Gh.Asachi” of Iasi, Bd. D. Mangeron, Iasi 700554, Romania
Interests: porous nanostructured materials; nanostructured assemblies; non-toxic nanostructures used in water and air depollution processes
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Guest Editor
Department of Sustainable Materials, VITO Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
Interests: layered double hydroxides and oxides; structural design; 3D shaping of powders; adsorption and catalytic applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Increasing environmental pollution worldwide has led to a tremendous boost in the advancement of environmental nanotechnology by exploring advanced engineered nanostructures to improve the removal of various pollutants. In this context, this Special Issue welcomes original articles and reviews describing the latest progress in fabricating novel nanostructured materials with enhanced capabilities to control, detect, and remove pollutants from the environment.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

- Nanostructures with functionalities to control and detect environmental pollutants;

- Engineering novel functionalities of nanomaterials for environmental clean-up;

- Nanostructures for catalytic/photocatalytic elimination of pollutants from water, air, or soil;

- Porous nanoarchitectures for adsorption of chemical pollutants;

- Studies on photo/catalytic reactions and sorption mechanisms applied to environmental nanotechnology.

Dr. Gabriela Carja
Dr. Elena M. Seftel
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • nanostructures
  • nanotechnology
  • environmental clean-up

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 5755 KiB  
Article
Fe-Ce/Layered Double Hydroxide Heterostructures and Their Derived Oxides: Electrochemical Characterization and Light-Driven Catalysis for the Degradation of Phenol from Water
by Mihaela Mureseanu, Nicoleta Cioatera and Gabriela Carja
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(6), 981; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13060981 - 8 Mar 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2001
Abstract
Fe-Ce/layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were synthesized via a facile route by exploiting the “structural memory” of the LDH when the calcined MgAlLDH and ZnAlLDH were reconstructed in the aqueous solutions of FeSO4/Ce(SO4)2. XRD analysis shows the formation [...] Read more.
Fe-Ce/layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were synthesized via a facile route by exploiting the “structural memory” of the LDH when the calcined MgAlLDH and ZnAlLDH were reconstructed in the aqueous solutions of FeSO4/Ce(SO4)2. XRD analysis shows the formation of heterostructured catalysts that entangle the structural characteristics of the LDHs with those of Fe2O3 and CeO2. Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, TG/DTG, SEM/EDX and TEM results reveal a complex morphology defined by the large nano/microplates of the reconstructed LDHs that are tightly covered with nanoparticles of Fe2O3 and CeO2. Calcination at 850 °C promoted the formation of highly crystallized mixed oxides of Fe2O3/CeO2/ZnO and spinels. The photo-electrochemical behavior of Fe-Ce/LDHs and their derived oxides was studied in a three-electrode photo-electrochemical cell, using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), Mott–Schottky (M-S) analysis and photo-electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (PEIS) measurements, in dark or under illumination. When tested as novel catalysts for the degradation of phenol from aqueous solutions, the light-driven catalytic heterojunctions of Fe-Ce/LDH and their derived oxides reveal their capabilities to efficiently remove phenol from water, under both UV and solar irradiation. Full article
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12 pages, 1449 KiB  
Article
Significance of Ionic Character Induced by Ga-Doped γ-Al2O3 on Polyethylene Degradation to the Precursors of Gasoline and Diesel Oil with a Trace Amount of Wax
by Syed Kamran Haider, Amol Uttam Pawar, Don Keun Lee and Young Soo Kang
Nanomaterials 2022, 12(18), 3122; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12183122 - 9 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1813
Abstract
Polyethylene degradation has a significant ecological impact but is also economically beneficial because it generates fuels and useful chemical products. Our study mainly describes the cleavage of C-C and C-H bonds when polyethylene (dispersed in 1-octadecene) was low-temperature heat-treated in two steps, at [...] Read more.
Polyethylene degradation has a significant ecological impact but is also economically beneficial because it generates fuels and useful chemical products. Our study mainly describes the cleavage of C-C and C-H bonds when polyethylene (dispersed in 1-octadecene) was low-temperature heat-treated in two steps, at 180 and 250 °C, for 24 h for each step. Finally, it was converted to a mixture of the precursors of gasoline and diesel oil with a trace amount of wax. A series of reactions resulted in cracking, dehydrogenation and oxidation, hence producing polycarboxylic acids and saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons. ESI-MS analysis revealed that mixed oil consisted of low carbon number hydrocarbons and their derivatives of carboxylic acids, with the carbon number ranging from C-6 to C-18. In the trace amount of wax, complicated carboxylic acids and hydrocarbons with carbon number C-22 to C-58 were also identified. FT-IR analysis further confirmed the presence of carboxylic acid derivatives and double bonds in the degradation products. γ-Al2O3 nanorods effectively catalyzed the degradation process by enhancing the C-C chain length in the products. Lewis acid (Al) and Lewis base (oxygen) in the γ-Al2O3 induced ionic character of the C-C bond chain, which led to the efficient cracking of the C-C bond. Poor shielding effect, smaller atomic size and greater ionization energy made Ga a stronger Lewis acid compared to Al; hence, Ga-doped γ-Al2O3 catalyzed the degradation process even more effectively. Full article
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Review

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37 pages, 6476 KiB  
Review
Recent Advances in Biomass-Based Materials for Oil Spill Cleanup
by Dan Ouyang, Xiaotian Lei and Honglei Zheng
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(3), 620; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13030620 - 3 Feb 2023
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4872
Abstract
Oil spill on sea surfaces, which mainly produced by the oil leakage accident happened on tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, has bring irreversible damage to marine environments and ecosystems. Among various spill oil handling methods, using sorbents to absorb and recover [...] Read more.
Oil spill on sea surfaces, which mainly produced by the oil leakage accident happened on tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, has bring irreversible damage to marine environments and ecosystems. Among various spill oil handling methods, using sorbents to absorb and recover spill oils is a perspective method because they are cost-effective and enable a high recovery and without secondary pollution to the ecosystem. Currently, sorbents based on biomass materials have aroused extensively attention thanks to their features of inexpensive, abundant, biodegradable, and sustainable. Herein, we comprehensively review the state-of-the-art development of biomass-based sorbents for spill oil cleanup in the recent five years. After briefly introducing the background, the basic theory and material characteristics for the separation of oil from water and the adsorption of oils is also presented. Various modification methods for biomass materials are summarized in section three. Section four discusses the recent progress of biomass as oil sorbents for oil spill cleanup, in which the emphasis is placed on the oil sorption capacity and the separation efficiency. Finally, the challenge and future development directions is outlined. Full article
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