RESUMO
Environmental issues such as the wastewater have influenced each aspect of our lives. Coupling the existing remediation solutions with exploring new functional carbon nanomaterials (e.g., carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, graphene) by various perspectives shall open up a new venue to understand the environmental issues, phenomenon and find out the ways to get along with the nature. This review makes an attempt to provide an overview of potential environmental remediation solutions to the diverse challenges happening by using low-dimensional carbon nanomaterials and their composites as adsorbents, catalysts or catalysts support towards for the social sustainability.
RESUMO
On 11 March 2011, the day of the unforgettable disaster of the 9 magnitude Tohoku earthquake and quickly followed by the devastating Tsunami, a damageable amount of radionuclides had dispersed from the Fukushima Daiichi's damaged nuclear reactors. Decontamination of the dispersed radionuclides from seawater and soil, due to the huge amounts of coexisting ions with competitive functionalities, has been the topmost difficulty. Ferric hexacyanoferrate, also known as Prussian blue (PB), has been the most powerful material for selectively trapping the radioactive cesium ions; its high tendency to form stable colloids in water, however, has made PB to be impossible for the open-field radioactive cesium decontamination applications. A nano/nano combinatorial approach, as is described in this study, has provided an ultimate solution to this intrinsic colloid formation difficulty of PB. Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) were used to immobilize PB via the creation of CNF-backboned PB. The CNF-backboned PB (CNF/PB) was found to be highly tolerant to water and moreover, it gave a 139 mg/g capability and a million (106) order of magnitude distribution coefficient (Kd) for absorbing of the radioactive cesium ion. Field studies on soil and seawater decontaminations in Fukushima gave satisfactory results, demonstrating high capabilities of CNF/PB for practical applications.
RESUMO
Sodium cobalt hexacyanoferrate (CoFC)-encapsulating alginate beads reinforced with highly dispersed multiwalled carbon nanotubes were prepared for the aqueous removal of cesium and strontium ions. Carbon nanotubes enhanced the effective surface area, encapsulation ability and adsorption capacity of beads. Equilibrium and kinetic studies were conducted with different mathematical models. The goodness of mathematical fitting of experimental data on the adsorption isotherm model was in the order Langmuir higher than Freundlich. The maximum Cs(+)/Sr(2+) adsorption capacity of beads modified with carbon nanotubes were 133/72 mg/g and that of beads without carbon nanotubes were 121/70 mg/g. Similarly in kinetic models pseudo-second-order gave better fitting than pseudo-first-order. The performance of beads was consistent in a wide range of pH as well as in high ionic competitions. The fixed bed adsorption column analysis indicated that beads can be used for large scale treatment of cesium and strontium contaminated water.
RESUMO
Prussian blue encapsulated in alginate beads reinforced with highly dispersed carbon nanotubes were prepared for the safe removal of cesium ions from aqueous solutions. Equilibrium and kinetic studies were conducted using different models and the goodness of mathematical fitting of the experimental data on the adsorption isotherms was in the order Langmuir>Freundlich, and that of the kinetic models were in the order of pseudo second order>pseudo first order. Fixed bed adsorption column analysis indicated that the beads can be used for large scale treatment of cesium contaminated water.