Effect of different aging treatments on the transport of nano-biochar in saturated porous media

Widely used for soil amendment, carbon sequestration, and remediation of contaminated soils, biochars (BCs) inevitably produce a large number of nanoparticles with relatively high mobility. Geochemical aging alters chemical structure of these nanoparticles and thus affect their colloidal aggregation and transport behavior. In this study, the transport of ramie derived nano-BCs (after ball-milling) was investigated by different aging treatments (i.e., photo (PBC) and chemical aging (NBC)) as well as the managing BC under different physicochemical factors (i.e., flow rates, ionic strengths (IS), pH, and coexisting cations). Consequences of the column experiments indicated aging promoted the mobility of the nano-BCs. Compared to the nonaging BC, consequences of spectroscopic analysis demonstrated the aging BCs exhibited a number of tiny corrosion pores. Both of these aging treatments contribute to a more negative zeta potential and a higher dispersion stability of the nano-BCs, which is caused by the abundance of O-functional groups. Also the specific surface area and mesoporous volume of both aging BCs increased significantly, with the increase being more pronounced for NBC. The breakthrough curves (BTCs) obtained for the three nano-BCs were modelled by the advection-dispersion equation (ADE), which included first-order deposition and release terms. The ADE revealed high mobility of aging BCs, which meant their retention in saturated porous media was reduced. This work contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the transport of aging nano-BCs in the environment.

Effects of pyrolysis temperature and aging treatment on the adsorption of Cd2+ and Zn2+ by coffee grounds biochar

As an in-situ immobilization material for heavy metals, biochar can exist in the environment for thousands of years, while whether the natural aging would affect its heavy metals adsorption performance still remains unclear. Therefore, the coffee grounds biochar (CGB) was prepared under different pyrolysis temperatures (300, 500 and 700 °C) in this study, and the simulated artificial aging treatment was carried out to investigate the effects of pyrolysis temperature and aging treatment on Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ (both separate and combined conditions) adsorption performance of CGB. The result revealed that Fresh-CGB adsorption performance increased with increasing pyrolysis temperature, while the relationship was not so clear with Aged-CGB where adsorption performance peaked at medium pyrolysis temperature (500 °C) but reduced again as pyrolysis temperature increased to 700 °C. The changes of Aged-CGB adsorption performance for Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ represented the long-term performance of naturally aging biochar in environment, and a mid-range pyrolysis temperature would seem most appropriate for long-term application of biochar. The X-ray Diffraction (XRD) result revealed that the degree of graphitization of CGB increased with increasing pyrolysis temperature, which represents a stronger environmental stability as the weight loss of CGB300, CGB500 and CGB700 after aging treatment was 2.38%, 0.66%, and 0%, respectively. The EDS and FTIR results suggested that ion-exchange and complexation between CGB/Aged-CGB with Cd²⁺/Zn²⁺ played a dominant role in adsorption processes. In addition, the selectivity for Cd²⁺ was significantly improved after the aging treatment. This is desirable given the stronger toxicity of Cd²⁺ relative to Zn²⁺. In general, this study provides new insights into the practical application of biochar from the perspective of long-term effects.

Ultra-high strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys with high zinc content prepared via powder hot extrusion

In this paper, two kinds of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys with high Zn content (Al-8.1Zn-2.0Mg-2.3Cu-0.12Zr-0.12Sc and Al-10.5Zn-2.5Mg-1.5Cu-0.12Zr-0.12Sc) are fabricated by powder hot extrusion. Microstructure and mechanical properties are investigated by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and tensile tests. The results show that the formation of ultrafine grains and homogeneous second phases in as-extruded alloys is achieved by perfect metallurgical bonding during severe plastic deformation. After the optimal solution treatment and peak aging treatment, the strength of the two alloys reaches up to 734 MPa and 802 MPa, and the elongation is 9.8 % and 5.3 %, respectively. The excellent mechanical properties are attributed to the grain boundary strengthening, precipitation strengthening and homogenous microstructure. The element content has little effect on the grain size of the powder hot-extruded Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy, but high Zn and Mg contents can improve the density of strengthening phases while low Cu content can reduce the difficulty of solution treatment by inhibiting the precipitation of S(Al₂CuMg) phase.

Precipitation of β' phase and hardening in dental-casting Ag-20Pd-12Au-14.5Cu alloys subjected to aging treatments

The age-hardening behavior of the dental-casting Ag-20Pd-12Au-14.5Cu alloy subjected to aging treatment at around 673K is well known, and this hardening has been widely employed in various applications. To date, the age-hardening of this alloy has been explained to attribute to the precipitation of a β phase, which is a B2-type ordered CuPd phase or PdCuxZn1-x phase. In this study, results obtained from microstructural observations using a transmission electron microscopy and a scanning transmission electron microscopy revealed that a fine L10-type ordered β' phase precipitated in the matrix and a coarse-structure region (consisting of Ag- and Cu-rich regions) appeared after aging treatment at 673K and contributed to increase in hardness. The microstructure of the coarse β phase, which existed before aging treatment, did not change by aging treatment. Thus, it is concluded that the fine β' phase precipitated by aging treatment contributed more to increase in hardness than the coarse-structure region and coarse β phase.