Equilibrium data and its analysis with the Freundlich model in the adsorption of arsenic(V) on granular ferric hydroxide

Quantitative characterizations of mOR-EG activated by vanilla odorants using advanced statistical physics modeling

An advanced monolayer adsorption model of an ideal gas was successfully employed to investigate the adsorption of vanillin, vanillin methyl ether, vanillin ethyl ether, and vanillin acetate odorants on mouse eugenol olfactory receptor mOR-EG. In order to understand the adsorption process putatively introduced in olfactory perception, model parameters were analyzed. Hence, fitting results showed that the studied vanilla odorants were linked in mOR-EG binding pockets with a non-parallel orientation, and their adsorption was a multi-molecular process (n > 1). The adsorption energy values that ranged from 14.021 to 19.193 kJ/mol suggested that the four vanilla odorants were physisorbed on mOR-EG (ΔE^a < 40 kJ/mol) and the adsorption mechanism may be considered as an exothermic mechanism (ΔE^a > 0). The estimated parameters may also be utilized for the quantitative characterization of the interactions of the studied odorants with mOR-EG to determine the corresponding olfactory bands ranging from 8 to 24.5 kJ/mol.

Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles for the Adsorption of Pentavalent Arsenic from Water: Effects of Calcination

The occurrence of heavy metal ions in water is intractable, and it has currently become a serious environmental issue to deal with. The effects of calcining magnesium oxide at 650 °C and the impacts on the adsorption of pentavalent arsenic from water are reported in this paper. The pore nature of a material has a direct impact on its ability to function as an adsorbent for its respective pollutant. Calcining magnesium oxide is not only beneficial in enhancing its purity but has also been proven to increase the pore size distribution. Magnesium oxide, as an exceptionally important inorganic material, has been widely studied in view of its unique surface properties, but the correlation between its surface structure and physicochemical performance is still scarce. In this paper, magnesium oxide nanoparticles calcined at 650 °C are assessed to remove the negatively charged arsenate ions from an aqueous solution. The increased pore size distribution was able to give an experimental maximum adsorption capacity of 115.27 mg/g with an adsorbent dosage of 0.5 g/L. Non-linear kinetics and isotherm models were studied to identify the adsorption process of ions onto the calcined nanoparticles. From the adsorption kinetics study, the non-linear pseudo-first order showed an effective adsorption mechanism, and the most suitable adsorption isotherm was the non-linear Freundlich isotherm. The resulting R² values of other kinetic models, namely Webber-Morris and Elovich, were still below those of the non-linear pseudo-first-order model. The regeneration of magnesium oxide in the adsorption of negatively charged ions was determined by making comparisons between fresh and recycled adsorbent that has been treated with a 1 M NaOH solution.

Optimization of Cd (II) removal from aqueous solution by natural hydroxyapatite/bentonite composite using response surface methodology

Toxic cadmium (Cd) was removed from water using eggshell-based hydroxyapatite (HAp) grafted bentonite (HAp/bentonite) composite through a straightforward chemical synthesis route. The as-prepared adsorbents were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis (BET). Optimization of the initial adsorbate concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, and contact time—all of which affect the adsorption process—was performed using the central composite design (CCD) of the response surface methodology (RSM). 99.3 percent adsorptive removal efficiency was observed at an initial concentration of 61.58 mg/L of Cd (II), with an adsorbent dosage of 1.58 g, a solution pH of 5.88, and a contact time of 49.63 min. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed, and the multiple correlation coefficient (R2) was found to be 0.9915 which confirms the significance of the predicted model. The Langmuir isotherm model best represented the adsorption isotherm data, which also predicted a maximum sorption capacity of 125.47 mg/g. The kinetic data were best described by the pseudo-second order model.

Operational Constraints of Detecting SARS-CoV-2 on Passive Samplers using Electronegative Filters: A Kinetic and Equilibrium Analysis

In developing an effective monitoring program for the wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA), the importance of sampling methodology is paramount. Passive sampling has been shown to be an effective tool to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater. However, the adsorption characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on passive sampling material are not well-understood, which further obscures the relationship between wastewater surveillance and community infection. In this work, adsorption kinetics and equilibrium characteristics were evaluated using batch-adsorption experiments for heat-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (HI-SCV-2) adsorption to electronegative filters. Equilibrium isotherms were assessed or a range of total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations (118, 265, and 497 mg L-1) in wastewater, and a modeled qmax of 7 × 103 GU cm-2 was found. Surrogate adsorption kinetics followed a pseudo-first-order model in wastewater with maximum concentrations achieved within 24 h. In both field and isotherm experiments, equilibrium behavior and viral recovery were found to be associated with wastewater and eluate TSS. On the basis of the results of this study, we recommend a standard deployment duration of 24-48 h and the inclusion of eluate TSS measurement to assess the likelihood of solids inhibition during analysis.

Effects of Different Concentrations of BSA on In Vitro Corrosion Behavior of Pure Zinc in Artificial Plasma

When medical metallic materials are implanted in the body and come into contact with the body fluid environment, proteins will be rapidly adsorbed on the surface and affect the corrosion process of the material. Currently, there is no uniform understanding of the effect of protein adsorption on the corrosion behavior of materials due to the limitations of the nature of metal materials, protein concentrations, and different media environments. The effect of various bovine serum albumin (BSA) concentrations in artificial plasma (AP) on the corrosion behavior of pure Zn during 14 days of immersion was investigated in this research. The corrosion rate of pure Zn was slowed down by the addition of BSA, and the decelerating effect of lower protein concentration on the corrosion rate of Zn was more significant in the initial stage of immersion. With prolonging the immersion time, the corrosion rate of pure Zn in different media slowed down and stabilized, and the corrosion rates of pure Zn showed a decreasing trend with an increase of BSA concentration. Furthermore, the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model was utilized to study the relationship between the BSA concentration and corrosion behavior of pure Zn and to analyze the role of proteins in the degradation mechanism of pure Zn. This work could be useful for further exploration of potential clinical applications of zinc alloys.

Research Progress on Adsorption of Arsenic from Water by Modified Biochar and Its Mechanism: A Review

Arsenic (As) is a non-metallic element, which is widely distributed in nature. Due to its toxicity, arsenic is seriously harmful to human health and the environment. Therefore, it is particularly important to effectively remove arsenic from water. Biochar is a carbon-rich adsorption material with advantages such as large specific surface area, high porosity, and abundant functional groups, but the original biochar has limitations in application, such as limited adsorption capacity and adsorption range. The modified biochar materials have largely enhanced the adsorption capacity of As in water due to their improved physicochemical properties. In this review, the changes in the physicochemical properties of biochar before and after modification were compared by SEM, XRD, XPS, FT-IR, TG, and other characterization techniques. Through the analysis, it was found that the adsorbent dosage and pH are the major factors that influence the As adsorption capacity of the modified biochar. The adsorption process of As by biochar is endothermic, and increasing the reaction temperature is conducive to the progress of adsorption. Results showed that the main mechanisms include complexation, electrostatic interaction, and precipitation for the As removal by the modified biochar. Research in the field of biochar is progressing rapidly, with numerous achievements and new types of biochar-based materials prepared with super-strong adsorption capacity for As. There is still much space for in-depth research in this field. Therefore, the future research interests and applications are put forward in this review.

Iron Carbon Catalyst Initiated the Generation of Active Free Radicals without Oxidants for Decontamination of Methylene Blue from Waters

In conventional oxidation technologies for treatment of contaminated waters, secondary pollution of the aqueous environment often occurs because of the additional oxidants generated during the process. To avoid this problem, Fe/NG catalyst composites without additives were developed in this study for decontamination of methylene blue (MB) from waters. The Fe/NG catalyst, composed of carbon nitride and iron chloride (FeCl3·6H2O), was prepared by high temperature pyrolysis. It is an exceptionally efficient, recoverable, and sustainable catalyst for degradation of organic matter. The morphological characteristics, chemical structure, and surface properties of the catalyst composites were investigated. The catalyst exhibited high MB removal efficiency (100%) within 30 min under ambient temperature and dark conditions. The experiments indicated that an MB degradation effect was also applicable under most acid–base conditions (pH = 2–10). The characterization results using electron spin resonance and analysis of intermediate products demonstrated that free radicals such as ·OH and ·O2− were produced from the Fe/NG composites in the heterogeneous system, which resulted in the high MB degradation efficiency. Moreover, the catalysis reaction generated reducing substances, triggering iron carbon micro-electrolysis to spontaneously develop a microcurrent, which assisted the degradation of MB. This study demonstrates the feasibility of Fe/NG catalysts that spontaneously generate active species for degrading pollutants in an aqueous environment at normal temperature, providing an attractive approach for treating organic-contaminated waters.

Surfactant-like Peptide Self-Assembled into Hybrid Nanostructures for Electronic Nose Applications

An electronic nose (e-nose) utilizes a multisensor array, which relies on the vector contrast of combinatorial responses, to effectively discriminate between volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In recent years, hierarchical structures made of nonbiological materials have been used to achieve the required sensor diversity. With the advent of self-assembling peptides, the ability to tune nanostructuration, surprisingly, has not been exploited for sensor array diversification. In this work, a designer surfactant-like peptide sequence, CG₇-NH₂, is used to fabricate morphologically and physicochemically heterogeneous "biohybrid" surfaces on Au-covered chips. These multistructural sensing surfaces, containing immobilized hierarchical nanostructures surrounded by self-assembled monolayers, are used for the detection and discrimination of VOCs. Through a simple and judicious design process, involving changes in pH and water content of peptide solutions, a five-element biohybrid sensor array coupled with a gas-phase surface plasmon resonance imaging system is shown to achieve sufficient discriminatory capabilities for four VOCs. Moreover, the limit of detection of the multiarray system is bench-marked at <1 and 6 ppbv for hexanoic acid and phenol (esophago-gastric biomarkers), respectively. Finally, the humidity effects are characterized, identifying the dissociation rate constant as a robust descriptor for classification, further exemplifying their efficacy as biomaterials in the field of artificial olfaction.

Arsenic removal by manganese-doped mesoporous iron oxides from groundwater: Performance and mechanism

FeMn bimetallic oxides have been widely used in catalytic adsorption due to their large pore size, large specific surface area and mesoporous structure, which have great potential for high As groundwater remediation. In this study, FeMn composite oxide was synthesized by template-free route and forming mesopores through high temperature calcination, and its efficiency and mechanism for As removal were subsequently investigated. The results showed that the different Fe/Mn molar ratios and calcination temperatures have important effect on FeMn composite oxides performance. For all synthesized materials, the largest specific surface area is 388.6 m²/g of Fe₁Mn₁-300. The maximum As absorption capacity was also reached by Fe₁Mn₁-300, which is 59.44 mg/g for As(III) and 31.68 mg/g for As(V), respectively. As removal efficiency was further evaluated through batch adsorption experiments conducted with five variables, initial As concentration, adsorption equilibrium time, pH, solid-to-liquid ratio, and competitive ions. The adsorption capacity of the material reaches to the maximum when the initial As concentration is 40 mg/L, and that for As(III) and As(V) is 74.05 and 38.09 mg/g, respectively. When the pH rises, the adsorption capacity generally shows a decreasing trend, thus acidic conditions are more conducive to the adsorption reaction. The optimum solid-to-liquid ratios for removal 10 mg/L of As(III) and As(V) are 0.3 mg/L and 1 mg/L, respectively. The order of competitive ions effects on As removal is: PO₄^3- > HCO₃^- > SO₄^2- ≈ NO₃^- ≈ Cl^-. The adsorption mechanisms for As by FeMn composite oxides included adsorption, co-precipitation and oxidative chelation, which was a combination of physical and chemical process.

NaCl template-assisted synthesis of self-floating COFs foams for the efficient removal of sulfamerazine

The preparation of hierarchical porous covalent organic frameworks (HP-COFs) is of great significance due to their inherent porosity and low density. However, it is still very challenging owing to the poor machinability of COFs. Herein, a simple and cost-efficient strategy for the synthesis of HP-COFs was proposed. In particular, p-toluenesulfonic acid and NaCl, both of which can be recycled, are utilized as catalyst and template, respectively. The resulting HP-TpBD-900 featuring abundant macropore and mesopore as well as large specific surface area (~700 m² g^-1) possessed self-floating ability and was turned out to be a promising adsorbent for the efficient removal of sulfamerazine (SMR) in aqueous solution. The maximum adsorption capacity is 168 mg g^-1, which is more than twice in comparison to that of material prepared without NaCl template. In addition, no significant decrease in adsorption capacity was observed after 5 cycles. Furthermore, the density functional theory (DFT) method was utilized to elucidate the adsorption mechanism, which could be dominated by hydrogen bonding and C-H···π interaction. This work not only provides a new strategy for the synthesis of HP-COFs, but also contributes to boosting the application of COFs in the field of wastewater treatment.

Optimization of the adsorption and removal of Sb(iii) by MIL-53(Fe)/GO using response surface methodology

In this study, a graphene oxide metal–organic framework (MIL-53(Fe)/GO) composite adsorbent was successfully synthesized using a simple method at room temperature.

Cattail fibers as source of cellulose to prepare a novel type of composite aerogel adsorbent for the removal of enrofloxacin in wastewater

In this study, cattail was researched as a natural cellulose source to extract cellulose. Dewaxing, alkali and bleaching treatments were carried out for the cattail fibers (CFs). The FTIR, SEM and XRD results indicated that hemicellulose and lignin were successfully removed from the CFs, and the content of cattail cellulose increased from 41.66 ± 1.11% to 89.72 ± 1.07%. Subsequently, cellulose aerogel was prepared by the extracted cattail cellulose. The Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) was uniformly loaded onto the surface of cellulose aerogel by the in situ growth, and ZIF-8 Cattail Cellulose Aerogel (ZCCA) was finally prepared. The SEM, FTIR, XRD and TGA results further confirmed the successful preparation of ZCCA. Additionally, the results of the adsorption experiment showed that ZCCA had excellent adsorption performance for enrofloxacin, and the maximum adsorption capacity of enrofloxacin reached 172.09 mg·g^-1 while showing good reusability. The adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model. Thermodynamic studies showed that the adsorption of enrofloxacin was a spontaneous endothermic reaction and that the adsorption mechanism involves the interaction of hydrogen bonds, electrostatic and π-π stacking.

Surface Modification of Reduced Graphene Oxide Beads: Integrating Efficient Endotoxin Adsorption and Improved Blood Compatibility

As a pathogenic toxin, endotoxins are the culprit for endotoxemia and can be generally removed from the blood by hemoperfusion. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is a promising endotoxin sorbent for hemoperfusion owing to its excellent adsorption capacity, but it has the side effect of nonspecific adsorption and low blood compatibility. Polymyxin B (PMB) acts as an organic affinity ligand that can specifically bind endotoxins. As a natural anticoagulant, heparin (Hep) can reduce the risk of coagulation and improve the blood compatibility of materials. Herein, an rGO bead adsorbent was prepared by coupling with PMB and Hep and used for endotoxin adsorption; in this, polydopamine (pDA) served as an active coating for immobilization of PMB and further coupling with Hep. The physicochemical characteristics indicated that PMB and Hep were successfully immobilized on rGO beads with a hierarchical pore structure. PMB endowed rGO beads with higher adsorption capacity (143.84 ± 3.28 EU/mg) and good adsorption selectivity for endotoxins. Hep significantly improved the blood compatibility of rGO beads. These modified rGO beads also achieved good adsorption capacity and adsorption selectivity for endotoxins in plasma, serum, or blood. Therefore, rGO/pDA/PMB/Hep beads are potential adsorbents for endotoxins in hemoperfusion.

Strategy for the advanced treatment of simulated tail water of dyeing wastewater based on a short-cut photocatalysis/algal degradation hybrid technology

Refractory organic pollutants in tail water of dyeing wastewater treatment have aroused wide concern. Their efficient and cost-effective removal reduced their threat to public health and ecosystem. Herein, a novel short-cut photocatalysis/algal degradation-based hybrid technology was implemented in efficient removal of methylene blue (MB) in simulated tail water using reliable titanium dioxide and common Chlorella pyrenoidosa, and the mechanisms in processes were emphasized. The treatment efficiency was significantly improved via pretreatment before chemical and biological degradation. MB of 79.71% was concentrated as the adsorption of the modified titanium dioxide and the collection of titanium dioxide by inorganic coagulant. The supernatant with low concentration of MB after coagulation was able to be directly treated by Chlorella pyrenoidosa. MB of 93.7% was degraded and transformed to intermediates in short-cut photocatalysis under visible light in 1 h. The intermediates owning the low biological inhibition were easily further degraded by Chlorella pyrenoidosa in 6 days. Mechanism analysis implied that the modified titanium dioxide was not simple monolayer adsorption, and physical adsorption was dominant. The coagulant played an essential role of charge neutralization in collection of the modified titanium dioxide. The removal of photocatalytic intermediates was divided to fast adsorption of Chlorella pyrenoidosa, low desorption in lag period of algae, and gradual biodegradation that accompanied with the increase of algal cell quantity.

Adsorption of Malachite Green by extracellular polymeric substance of Lysinibacillus sp. SS1: kinetics and isotherms

Use of novel biological materials as adsorbents for removal of xenobiotics is gaining significance owing to their exceptional advantages. An extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) produced by Lysinibacillus sp. SS1 had rough porous surface as observed by SEM analysis. Adsorption ability of EPS was estimated against various textile dyes such as Malachite Green (MG), Methyl Orange, Congo Red and Coomassie Blue. About 82% of MG (100 mg/L) was adsorbed onto 2.5 mg EPS within 30 min. Effect of MG concentration, EPS weight, agitation speed and incubation time on adsorption, studied by one factor at a time approach, revealed that adsorption was influenced by all factors. Maximum adsorption of 99.01 ± 0.61% was achieved at 100 mg/L MG, 10 mg EPS, 120 RPM in 75 min with maximum adsorption capacity of 247.5 mg/g. Kinetics was affected by MG and EPS amounts, with shift from pseudo first to pseudo second order with increase in concentration. Adsorption of MG by EPS of Lysinibacillus sp. SS1 was identified as unilayer chemisorption as it followed Langmuir isotherm with maximum adsorption capacity (Q _m ) of 178.57 mg/g (R ² = 0.9889). This is the first report on potential of EPS produced by Lysinibacillus sp. SS1 as novel biodegradable adsorbent with high efficacy of MG removal from aqueous solutions.

Insight into the key factors in fast adsorption of organic pollutants by hierarchical porous biochar

Low-cost biochar adsorbent owning great potential for environmental remediation faces a bottleneck in application for its unsatisfied adsorption performance. Compared to the efforts on increasing adsorption capacity, improving adsorption speed which is important for treatment efficiency is often neglected. Herein, a hierarchical porous biochar (HPB) derived from shrimp shell was prepared and exhibited good adsorption capacity (Q_m>300 mg/g) and fast adsorptive equilibrium (≤10 min) towards three typical aromatic organics, whose adsorption universality was further proved by two-way ANOVA analysis. Whereafter, model analysis demonstrated that, the adsorptive forms (mono- and multi-layers) on HPB depended on whether the contaminant is charged. Compared to the benzene-ring site of organics, the charged site contributed 5.13 times to adsorption promotion in monolayer but -0.49 times in inhibition for multilayers forms. Simultaneously, functional group sites contributed relatively weak (0.023 to 0.342 times only). Following structural control revealed that, hierarchical pore structure of HPB was the key for the fast adsorption speed, and highly graphitic structure was important for the high adsorption capacity. This study aims to provide an advanced biochar adsorbent, not only in adsorption capacity but also in adsorptive speed, and reveal the relationship between the structure and adsorption performance of biochar.

Statistical physics modeling and interpretation of the adsorption of enantiomeric terpenes onto the human olfactory receptor OR1A1

The statistical physics approach has been well studied by our research team for liquid and gaseous adsorption systems. This treatment is based on the grand canonical partition function to give new interpretations of the adsorption process at molecular level for chemical senses: olfaction and taste. This work represents a contribution to understand the olfaction mechanism of four of enantiomeric terpenes by applying a statistical physics treatment that allows giving a physico-chemical meaning to parameters involved in the analytical model. It is possible to estimate the number of adsorbed molecules per site, the anchorage number, the receptor density, the concentration at half saturation and the molar adsorption energy. Through this selection of the best fitting model and through fitted values of these parameters, we showed that the adsorption of carvone and limonene enantiomers is not a multilayer process but a monolayer monosite process (monolayer adsorption model with identical and independent sites (n ≠ 1)). The physico-chemical model parameters can be used for the energetic characterization of the interactions between the carvone and the limonene enantiomers and the human olfactory receptor OR1A1 and the determination of an olfactory band of order of 14 kJ/mol, 7 kJ/mol, 9 kJ/mol, 8 kJ/mol for (R)-(-)-carvone, (S)-(+)-carvone, (R)-(+)-limonene and (S)-(-)-limonene, respectively, through the determination of the adsorption energy values and the adsorption energy distributions (AEDs). Thanks to the grand canonical formalism in statistical physics, the negative values of the Gibbs free enthalpy indicate that the adsorption process of the four enantiomeric terpenes onto the human olfactory receptor OR1A1 was spontaneous. The exothermic adsorption mechanism involved in the olfactory perception was explained via the negative values of the internal energy.

A kinetic/thermodynamic study of transparent co-adsorbents and colored dye molecules in visible light based on microgravimetric quartz-crystal microbalance on porous TiO2 films for dye-sensitized solar cells

In this study, a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) in situ method is used to study the kinetic and thermodynamic processes of the adsorption of ruthenium-based dyes (N719, N3, N749), and the co-adsorbent chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) on the TiO2 film surface. The results of the kinetic studies show that the adsorption rate of N749 is slightly higher than the other two dyes, and the adsorption rate of CDCA is more sensitive to temperature change. The adsorption mechanism of the dye and CDCA on the surface of TiO2 can be reasonably inferred based on the result of the activation energy. The isotherm adsorption model studies show that the ratio of the number of surface molecules (296 K) is n(N719) : n(N3) : n(N749) : n(CDCA) = 0.69 : 1.48 : 0.50 : 1. The Keq value of CDCA is about two orders of magnitude smaller than that of all the dye molecules, which indicates that the adsorption strength of CDCA is much weaker than that of the dye molecules. Thermodynamic studies show that the adsorption reaction is an endothermic reaction. The ΔS is ΔS(N3 = 143.11 J mol-1) > ΔS(N719 = 112.72 J mol-1) > ΔS(N749 = 109.43 J mol-1) > ΔS(CDCA = 96.14 J mol-1). The Gibbs free energy ΔG is negative, and indicates that the adsorption reaction of the four molecules on the surface of the TiO2 film is spontaneous. The results of this paper show that the tedious and lengthy experimental process of the traditional method can be simplified by QCM. In addition, the development of this study provides a certain theoretical and experimental basis for future studies on the interaction mechanism between dyes and co-adsorbents.