Contributions of van der Waals Interactions and Hydrophobic Attraction to Molecular Adhesions on a Hydrophobic MoS2 Surface in Water

Assessing explicit models of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances adsorption on anion exchange resins by rapid small-scale column tests

Managing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination has gained worldwide attention due to their ubiquitous occurrence in water systems. Anion exchange resins (AERs) have been proven effective in removing both long-chain and short-chain PFASs. In this study, an explicit model was developed to describe the breakthrough behavior of an individual PFAS as a single solute onto anion exchange resin in a column filtration process. The model was further modified to predict the breakthrough curve of co-existing PFASs on AER in multi-solute systems by incorporating a separation factor describing the competitive adsorption and a blockage factor describing the loss of adsorption sites. Rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs) were performed with six AERs of various properties and three model PFASs in both single- and multi-solutes systems. The breakthrough behaviors of RSSCTs for both single- and multi-solute systems were found adequately described by the models developed in this study. The experiments and accompanied model simulations reveal some important relationships between the AER performance and the properties of both the AERs and the PFASs.

Anion exchange resin removal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from impacted water: A critical review

A key gap in the literature on the treatment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in impacted water is the absence of a review article dedicated to anion exchange resin (AER) treatment. This gap is important because previous research has consistently shown adsorption by AER to be one of the most effective treatment processes for PFAS removal from impacted water, and AER is one of the most commonly deployed technologies in the field. Given the scope of the previous review articles on PFAS removal by various adsorbent types, the sections on AER do not explore the full depth of PFAS and AER interactions nor cover the breadth of AER testing conditions. Accordingly, the goal of this paper was to critically review the available peer-reviewed literature on PFAS removal from water by AER. The specific objectives of the review were to synthesize the previous literature results on (1) batch adsorption behavior, (2) impact of water chemistry conditions, (3) continuous-flow adsorption, (4) adsorption modeling, (5) regeneration, and (6) weak-base AER. Following from critical review of the literature, the future research priorities discussed include: (i) improving the underlying science that governs PFAS-resin interactions, (ii) improving methods for resin regeneration and management of PFAS-contaminated concentrate streams, and (iii) comparative life cycle environmental and economic analyses for ion exchange treatment systems relative to competing technologies.

Role of Electrostatics in the Heterogeneous Interaction of Two-Dimensional Engineered MoS2 Nanosheets and Natural Clay Colloids: Influence of pH and Natural Organic Matter

Few-layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanosheets are poised to be at the core of low-voltage electronic device development. Upon environmental release, these two-dimensional (2D) structures can interact with abundant natural geocolloids. This study probes the role of dimensionality in modulating the aggregation behavior of 2D MoS₂ nanosheets with plate-like geocolloids (i.e., homoionized kaolinite and montmorillonite clays). MoS₂ nanosheets were exfoliated using an ethanol/water mixture, and aggregation kinetics were investigated with time-resolved dynamic light scattering at low monovalent salt concentrations and at three pH levels, in the presence and absence of Suwannee River humic acid (SRHA). Results indicate that pH and particle ratios are key to modulating the stability of MoS₂/clay systems. At pH 4, aggregation of MoS₂ increased with increasing MoS₂/clay ratios and approached maximum values of 0.09 and 0.06 nm/s in the binary systems with montmorillonite and kaolinite, respectively. Electrostatic attraction facilitates heteroaggregation at pH values of 4 and 6; differences in the clay structures (i.e., face-face or face-edge aggregates) might explain the resulting MoS₂/clay aggregate configurations, which were probed via the evolution of particle size distribution. The presence of only 0.1 mg/L SRHA drastically suppresses the heteroaggregation propensity of MoS₂ nanosheets with geocolloids (to less than 0.01 nm/s at all pH values tested). The high stability of these heterogeneous systems under environmentally relevant conditions can increase the likelihood for cellular uptake and long-distance transport of MoS₂.

Pre-oxidization-induced change of physicochemical characteristics and removal behaviours in conventional drinking water treatment processes for polyethylene microplastics

Microplastics (MPs), as emerging pollutants, have attracted worldwide attention due to their ecological and biological toxicity. As microplastics have been detected frequently in drinking water, it is essential to evaluate the physicochemical property change and removal behaviors of MPs in drinking water treatment processes. This study selected polyethylene microplastics (PE-MPs) as the representative, and investigated the variations in its physicochemical characteristics after oxidizing by several conventional pre-oxidants (potassium permanganate, sodium hypochlorite, and ozone). Furthermore, coagulation, sedimentation, and filtration experiments were conducted to verify whether pre-oxidization influenced the removal of microplastics. The results indicate that pre-oxidization indeed changed the hydrophobicity, specific surface area, and functional groups of PE-MPs surface exposing to water phase. These changes affected the adsorption of trace pollutants with different hydrophobicity (acesulfame, carbamazepine, and nitrobenzene). However, such changes showed a subtle effect on the removal of PE MPs by coagulation–sedimentation–filtration processes. Current findings suggest that pre-oxidization may increase the risk of pathogenic microorganisms due to the increasing oxidization-induced shelter ability of MPs towards microorganisms.

This study revealed whether the conventional pre-oxidization processes in drinking water treatment can affect PE MPs′ physicochemical characteristics and their removal behavior in the subsequent drinking water treatment processes.

Understanding the Thermodynamics of the Binding of PAMAM Dendrimers to Graphene: A Combined Analytical and Simulation Study

We investigate the thermodynamics of the binding of a poly(amidoamine) dendrimer to an uncharged graphene sheet as a function of the pH level using umbrella sampling simulations and a mean-field theory for generations three and four. We find that the dendrimer strongly binds to the graphene sheet ( O (100) kcal/mol) from our potential of mean force (PMF) calculations. In specific, we find that the dendrimer binds the most at neutral pH (∼7) and the least at low pH (∼4). We explain this nonmonotonic nature of the dendrimer's adsorption by studying the interactions contributing to the PMF, i.e., the dendrimer-graphene, dendrimer-water, and dendrimer-ion interactions. We also corroborate our PMF calculations with molecular mechanics generalized Born surface area analysis and free energies obtained from a mean-field theory of Flory-Huggins-Debye-Hückel type [ Muthukumar , M. , J. Chem. Phys. 2010 , 132 , 084901 ], including electrostatic interactions. We find that the van der Waals interactions between the dendrimer and the graphene alone cannot capture the accurate trends in the binding free energies (BEs) as a function of pH. The solvent and the counterions present in the system are also found to have a major influence on these trends. We demonstrate that the dendrimer-graphene and dendrimer-water interactions become favorable, whereas the dendrimer-ion interaction becomes unfavorable, as the dendrimer binds to graphene. These opposing effects lead to the observed nonmonotonicity in the BE trends. Our theoretical model also reproduces these trends in the subinteractions contributing to the PMF. To the best of our knowledge, this is a novel attempt where an equivalence between theory and simulations is made in the context of the dendrimer's adsorption.

Effect of Nano-SnS and Nano-MoS2 on the Corrosion Protection Performance of the Polyvinylbutyral and Zinc-Rich Polyvinylbutyral Coatings

In this paper, four composite coatings of nano-SnS/polyvinylbutyral (PVB), nano-MoS2/PVB, nano-SnS-Zn/PVB, and nano-MoS2-Zn/PVB were prepared, and their anti-corrosion mechanism was analyzed by experimental and theoretical calculations. The results of the electrochemical experiments show that the effect of nano-MoS2 on the corrosion protection performance of PVB coating is better than that of nano-SnS in 3% NaCl solution, and that the addition of Zn further enhances this effect, which is consistent with the results of weight loss measurements. Furthermore, the observation of the corrosion matrix by the field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) further confirmed the above conclusion. At last, the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation were carried out to investigate the anti-corrosion mechanism of the nanofillers/PVB composites for the copper surface. The results show that both nano-SnS and nano-MoS2 are adsorbed strongly on the copper surface, and the binding energy of nano-MoS2 is larger than that of nano-SnS.