Biochar assisted cultivation of Chlorella protothecoides for adsorption of tetracycline and electrochemical study on self-cultured Chlorella protothecoides.

Microalgae present a viable mechanism for purifying aquatic environments through the absorption of organic pollutants. In this paper, Chlorella protothecoides was cultured in a tetracycline environment, and biochar was added during the cultivation process. Compared with conventionally cultured Chlorella protothecoides, the addition of biochar for cultivation under a tetracycline environment increased the biomass of Chlorella protothecoides by 13.26 %. Moreover, the adsorption of tetracycline by biochar alone was not complete, but when mixed with Chlorella protothecoides, tetracycline was completely removed, which proved the biosorption of Chlorella protothecoides for low concentrations of tetracycline. Finally, the cultured Chlorella protothecoides was used further to prepare electrode materials, and it was found that the specific capacitance of the material reached 233.15F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. In this study, the use of biochar and Chlorella protothecoides to jointly adsorb tetracycline is of great significance for environmental protection and microalgae cultivation.

Fabrication of uniform lignin nanoparticles with tunable size for potential wound healing application.

The construction of lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) with both lignin properties and nanomaterial properties through controlling the morphologies and structures of lignin is one of the effective ways to realize its application in the field of biomedicine. Firstly, the morphology and chemical structure of LNPs were studied in detailed. The results showed that the chemical structural characteristics of LNPs had not changed significantly and its morphology was more regular shape and narrower size distribution (50-350 nm). Besides, LNPs also exhibited excellent water dispersion stability and high negative zeta potential. Subsequently, LNPs as wound dressings had good antioxidant property, excellent adsorption capacity of protein, outstanding bactericidal activity and remarkable biocompatibility, suggesting that LNPs did not interfere with cell proliferation during wound healing. Finally, the in vivo results of mouse wounds further illustrated that treatment of wounded skin wounds with LNPs enhanced its effective healing. After 15 days, as compared with the untreated control and original lignin (OL) groups, the wounds treated of LNPs was completely closed and granulation tissue formation was advanced. Overall, this study can be a good method for high-value applications of LNPs, and highlighting the advantages of using lignin as medical adjuvant nanomaterials to accelerate wound healing.

The Synthesis of h-BN-Modified Z-Scheme WO3/g-C3N4 Heterojunctions for Enhancing Visible Light Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline Pollutants.

The photocatalytic performance of common photocatalysts is limited by their low surface area, insufficient absorption of light energy, and fast photogenerated electron-hole recombination rate. The introduction of Z-scheme photocatalysts decorated with hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has already been confirmed to be an effective way to extend the surface area and increase the charge separation, thereby enhancing the photocatalytic performance. In this study, a hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)-decorated WO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst was successfully synthesized via an in situ method using tungstic acid, melamine, and hexagonal boron nitride as the precursors. The physical and chemical properties of the resulting samples were thoroughly characterized. The surface, morphological, and optical properties of the resulting materials were thoroughly characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, UV-vis DRS, BET surface areas, PL, and ESR analysis. The WO3/g-C3N4/BN composite exhibited a much higher photocatalytic activity for tetracycline degradation under visible light irradiation than pure g-C3N4, WO3, and BN. The favorable photocatalytic activity of WO3/g-C3N4/BN composites can be ascribed to the increased surface area and enhanced separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs by adding h-BN nanosheets and forming the WO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction. This work indicates that the WO3/g-C3N4/BN photocatalyst is a promising material in wastewater treatment.