Resourcelized conversion of livestock manure to porous cage microsphere for eliminating emerging contaminants under peroxymonosulfate trigger

Water self-purification via electron donation effect of emerging contaminants arousing oxygen activation over ordered carbon-enhanced CoFe quantum dots

The release of emerging contaminants (ECs) into aquatic environments poses a significant risk to global water security. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), while effective in removing ECs, are often resource and energy-intensive. Here, we introduce a novel catalyst, CoFe quantum dots embedded in graphene nanowires (CoFeQds@GN-Nws), synthesized through anaerobic polymerization. It uniquely features electron-rich and electron-poor micro-regions on its surface, enabling a self-purification mechanism in wastewater. This is achieved by harnessing the internal energy of wastewater, particularly the bonding energy of pollutants and dissolved oxygen (DO). It demonstrates exceptional efficiency in removing ECs at ambient temperature and pressure without the need for external oxidants, achieving a removal rate of nearly 100.0%. The catalyst's structure-activity relationship reveals that CoFe quantum dots facilitate an unbalanced electron distribution, forming these micro-regions. This leads to a continuous electron-donation effect, where pollutants are effectively cleaved or oxidized. Concurrently, DO is activated into superoxide anions (O2•-), synergistically aiding in pollutant removal. This approach reduces resource and energy demands typically associated with AOPs, marking a sustainable advancement in wastewater treatment technologies.

Resourcelized conversion of poultry feces to ordered carbon with electron poor/rich microregions for water purification induced by peroxymonosulfate

For the sustainable reutilization of poultry feces (PF) to reduce environmental pollution, we present a novel approach for converting PF into a highly effective catalyst, consisting of trace copper (Cu) and sulfur (S) linked with ordered graphitized carbon (CS/CPF) for wastewater purification. Raman and EPR results verified that the disorderly organic matters in PF are transformed into orderly graphene structures that complexed with Cu to form large numbers of electron-poor/rich microregions on CS/CPF surface. The electrons from electron-rich organic pollutants can be directly captured by dissolved oxygen (DO) to produce abundant reactive oxygen species due to the enhanced electron polarization via the construction of Cu-S-C bond bridge on CS/CPF surface, which greatly enhance the removal efficiency of pollutants. CS/CPF achieves 100% removal for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) in just 10 min after adding trace peroxymonosulfate (PMS), keeping efficient catalytic activity after continuous reactions for 240 h. This strategy offers a practical and sustainable solution for the efficient resource recovery of poultry feces.

Salinity-mediated water self-purification via bond network distorting of H2O molecules on DRC-surface

High salinity has plagued wastewater treatment for a long time by hindering pollutant removal, thereby becoming a global challenge for water pollution control that is difficult to overcome even with massive energy consumption. Herein, we propose a novel process for rapid salinity-mediated water self-purification in a dual-reaction-centers (DRC) system with cation-π structures. In this process, local hydrogen bond networks of H2O molecules can be distorted through the mediation of salinity, thereby opening the channels for the preferential contact of pollutants on the DRC interface. As the result, the elimination rate of pollutants increased approximately 32-fold at high salinity (100 mM) without any external energy consumption. Our findings provide a novel technology for high-efficiency and low-consumption water self-purification, which is of great significance in environmental remediation and even fine chemical industry.