Performance and mechanistic studies of rapid atenolol degradation through peroxymonosulfate activation by V, Co, and bamboo carbon catalyst.

Developing the Co-based catalysts with high reactivity for the sulfate radical (SO4-·)-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOPs) has been attracting numerous attentions. To improve the peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation process, a novel Co-based catalyst simultaneously modified by bamboo carbon (BC) and vanadium (V@CoO-BC) was fabricated through a simple solvothermal method. The atenolol (ATL) degradation experiments in V@CoO-BC/PMS system showed that the obtained V@CoO-BC exhibited much higher performance on PMS activation than pure CoO, and the V@CoO-BC/PMS system could fully degrade ATL within 5 min via the destruction of both radicals (SO4-· and O2-··) and non-radicals (1O2). The quenching experiments and electrochemical tests revealed that the enhancing mechanism of bamboo carbon and V modification involved four aspects: (i) promoting the PMS and Co ion adsorption on the surface of V@CoO-BC; (ii) enhancing the electron transfer efficiency between V@CoO-BC and PMS; (iii) activating PMS with V3+ species; (iv) accelerating the circulation of Co2+ and Co3+, leading to the enhanced yield of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, the V@CoO-BC/PMS system also exhibited satisfactory stability under broad pH (3-9) and good efficiency in the presence of co-existing components (HCO3-, NO3-, Cl-, and HA) in water. This study provides new insights to designing high-performance, environment-friendly bimetal catalysts and some basis for the remediation of antibiotic contaminants with SR-AOPs.

Porous covalent organic framework nanofibrous membrane for excellent enrichment and ultra-high sensitivity detection of trace organochlorine pesticides in water.

Developing adsorbents with high performance and long service life for effective extracting the trace organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) from real water is attracting numerous attentions. Herein, a self-standing covalent organic framework (COF-TpPa) membrane with fiber morphology was successfully synthesized by using electrospun nanofiber membranes as template and employed as solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coating for ultra-high sensitivity extraction and analysis of trace OCPs in water. The as-synthesized COF-TpPa membrane exhibited a high specific surface area (800.83 m2 g-1), stable nanofibrous structure, and excellent chemical and thermal stability. Based on the COF-TpPa membrane, a new SPME analytical method in conjunction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was established. This proposed method possessed favorable linearity in concentration of 0.05-2000 ng L-1, high sensitivity with enrichment factors ranging from 2175 to 5846, low limits of detection (0.001-0.150 ng L-1), satisfactory precision (RSD < 10 %), and excellent repeatability (>150 cycles), which was better than most of the reported works. Additionally, the density functional theory (DFT) calculations and XPS results demonstrated that the outstanding enrichment performance of the COF-TpPa membrane was owing to synergistic effect of π-π stacking effects, high specific surface area and hydrogen bonding. This work will expect to extend the applications of COF membrane to captures trace organic pollutants in complex environmental water, as well as offer a multiscale interpretation for the design of effective adsorbents.

Efficient dispersive solid phase extraction of trace nitrophenol pollutants in water with triazine porous organic polymer modified nanofiber membrane.

Detecting trace endocrine disruptors in water is crucial for evaluating the water quality. In this work, a innovative modified polyacrylonitrile@cyanuric chloride-triphenylphosphine nanofiber membrane (PAN@CC-TPS) was prepared by in situ growing triazine porous organic polymers on the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers, and used in the dispersive solid phase extraction (DSPE) to enrich trace nitrobenzene phenols (NPs) in water. The resluted PAN@CC-TPS nanofiber membrane consisted of numerous PAN nanofibers cover with CC-TPS solid spheres (∼2.50 µm) and owned abundant functional groups, excellent enrichment performance and good stability. In addition, the method based on PAN@CC-TPS displayed outstanding capacity in detecting the trace nitrobenzene phenols, with 0.50-1.00 µg/L of the quantification, 0.10-0.80 µg/L of the detection limit, 85.35-113.55 % of the recovery efficiency, and 98.08-103.02 of the enrichment factor, which was comparable to most materials. Meanwhile, when PAN@CC-TPS was adopted in the real water samples (sea water and river water), the high enrichment factors and recovery percentages strongly confirmed the feasibility of PAN@CC-TPS for enriching and detecting the trace NPs. Besides, the related mechanism of extracting NPs on PAN@CC-TPS mainly involved the synergistic effect of hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking and hydrophobic effect.

Enhanced lactic acid production from household food waste under hyperthermophilic conditions: Mechanisms and regulation.

An annual production of about 500 million tons of household food waste (HFW) has been documented, resulting in significant implications for human health and the environment in the absence of appropriate treatment. The anaerobic fermentation of HFW in an open system offers the potential to recover high value-added products, lactic acid (LA), thereby simultaneously addressing waste treatment and enhancing resource recovery efficiency. Most of LA fermentation studies have been conducted under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions, with limited research on the production of LA through anaerobic fermentation under hyperthermophilic conditions. This study aimed to produce LA through anaerobic fermentation from HFW under hyperthermophilic conditions (70 ± 1 °C), while varying pH values (5.0 ± 0.1, 7.0 ± 0.1, and 9.0 ± 0.1), and compare the results with LA production under mesophilic (35 ± 1 °C) and thermophilic (52 ± 1 °C) conditions. The findings of this study indicated that the combination of hyperthermophilic conditions and a neutral pH (pH7_70) yielded the highest concentration of LA, measuring at 17.75 ± 1.51 g/L. The mechanism underlying the high yield of LA at 70 °C was elucidated through the combined analysis of organics dissolution, enzymes activities, and 16S rRNA microbiome sequencing.

Insights into Enhanced Peroxydisulfate Activation with B and Fe Co-Doped Biochar from Bark for the Rapid Degradation of Guaiacol.

A boron and iron co-doped biochar (B-Fe/biochar) from Masson pine bark was fabricated and used to activate peroxydisulfate (PDS) for the degradation of guaiacol (GL). The roles of the dopants and the contribution of the radical and non-radical oxidations were investigated. The results showed that the doping of boron and iron significantly improved the catalytic activity of the biochar catalyst with a GL removal efficiency of 98.30% within 30 min. The degradation of the GL mainly occurred through the generation of hydroxyl radicals (·OHs) and electron transfer on the biochar surface, and a non-radical degradation pathway dominated by direct electron transfer was proposed. Recycling the B-Fe/biochar showed low metal leaching from the catalyst and satisfactory long-term stability and reusability, providing potential insights into the use of metal and non-metal co-doped biochar catalysts for PDS activation.

Insights to PFOS elimination with peroxydisulfate activation mediated by boron modified Fe/C catalysts: Enhancing mechanism of boron and PFOS degradation pathway.

In this study, the boron-doped iron-carbon composite (Fe@B/C-2) was prepared via a simple solvothermal and secondary calcination process by using iron metal-organic frameworks (Fe-MOFs) as precursor. The obtained Fe@B/C-2 possessed abundant active sites and low iron ion leaching, and exhibited excellent performance on peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation for efficient PFOS (10 mg/L) degradation (94 %) in 60 min, with 0.2 g/L of catalyst dosage, 1.0 g/L of PDS dosage and at 5.0 of initial pH. The radical scavenging and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) tests demonstrated that SO4·- and ·OH were the primary active species during PFOS elimination. Under the attack of these species, PFOS was first transformed into PFOA, followed by a sequential defluorination process, and lastly mineralized into CO2 and F-. Notably, DFT results revealed that Fe species, -BC3/-BC2O structures on the carbon matrix performed crucial roles in PDS activation. The extraordinary catalytic activity of Fe@B/C-2 was attributable to the synergistic effects of Fe nanoparticles and the B-doped on carbon matrix. The doped B not only could activate the inert carbon skeleton and provided more catalytic centers, but also could accelerate the electron transfer efficiency, leading to a boost in PDS decomposition.

Rapid PFOS mineralization with peroxydisulfate activation process mediated by N modified Fe-based catalyst.

As the cheap and efficient catalysts, the iron-based catalysts have been considered as one of the most promising catalysts for peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation and the development of high-performance iron-based catalysts are attracting growing attentions. In this work, a magnetic Fe-based catalysts (Fe/NC-1000) was obtained by using Fe modified ZIF-8 as the precursor and used to activate the PDS for the degradation of perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS). Morphology and structure analysis showed that the resulted Fe/NC-1000 catalyst was displayed porous spheres (40-60 nm) and mainly composed of Fe0, FeNx and carbon. When Fe/NC-1000 was employed to activate the PDS (0.1 g/L of catalyst dosage, 0.5 g/L of PDS dosage and at initial pH of 4.6), the Fe/NC-1000/PDS system exhibited excellent efficiency (97.9 ± 0.1) % for PFOS (10 mg/L) degradation within 30 min. The quenching tests and EPR results revealed that the Fe/NC-1000/PDS system degraded PFOS primarily through singlet oxygen (1O2) evolution and electron-transfer process. Besides, based on the degradation byproducts determined by LC-MS-MS, the PFOS first occurred de-sulfonation to form PFOA, and then the resulted PFOA underwent stepwise defluorination in the Fe/NC-1000/PDS system. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations and electrochemistry tests strongly confirmed that Fe/NC-1000 exhibited high electron transfer efficiency, resulting in promoted performance on activating PDS. Importantly, the results of Ecological Structure-Activity Relationship (ECOSAR) analysis showed that the intermediates were lowly toxic during the PFOS degradation, manifesting a green process for PFOS removal. This study would provide more understandings for the persulfate activation process mediated by Fe-based catalysts for Perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) elimination.

A biomass fiber adsorbent grafted with phosphate/amidoxime for efficient extraction of uranium from seawater by synergistic effect.

There are approximately 4 billion tons of uranium in the ocean, which is unmatched by the surface. Nevertheless, it's very challenging to extract uranium from the ocean due to the exceedingly low concentration of uranium in the ocean (about 3.3 µg L-1) as well as high salinity level. Current methods are often limited by selectivity, sustainability, economics, etc. Herein, phosphoric acid group and amidoxime group were grafted to skin collagen fibers through " initiated access" to design a new uranium extraction material, abbreviated as CGPA. Through laboratory simulation experiments, it is concluded that the maximum adsorption capacity of CGPA for uranium reaches 263.86 mg g-1. It has high adsorption, selectivity, and reusability for uranium. In the actual seawater extraction experiment, CGPA obtained 29.64 µg of uranium after extracting 10.0 L of seawater, and the extraction rate was 90.1%. The adsorbent has excellent effects in kinetics, selectivity, extraction capacity, renewability, etc. In the extraction of uranium from seawater, and is an economically feasible and industrially expandable adsorbent.

Fabrication of covalent organic frameworks modified nanofibrous membrane for efficiently enriching and detecting the trace polychlorinated biphenyls in water.

Enriching and detecting the trace pollutants in actual matrices are critical to evaluating the water quality. Herein, a novel nanofibrous membrane, named PAN-SiO2@TpPa, was prepared by in situ growing ß-ketoenamine-linked covalent organic frameworks (COF-TpPa) on the aminated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers, and adopted for enriching the trace polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in various natural water body (river, lake and sea water) through the solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) process. The resulted nanofibrous membrane owned abundant functional groups (-NH-, -OH and aromatic groups), outstandingly thermal and chemical stability, and excellent ability in extracting PCBs congeners. Based on the SPME process, the PCBs congeners could be quantitatively analyzed by the traditional gas chromatography (GC) method, with the satisfactory linear relationship (R2>0.99), low detection limit (LODs, 0.1∼5 ng L-1), high enrichment factors (EFs, 2714∼3949) and multiple recycling (>150 runs). Meanwhile, when PAN-SiO2@TpPa was adopted in the real water samples, the low matrix effects on the enrichment of PCBs at both 5 and 50 ng L-1 over PAN-SiO2@TpPa membrane firmly revealed the feasibility of enriching the trace PCBs in real water. Besides, the related mechanism of extracting PCBs on PAN-SiO2@TpPa mainly involved the synergistic effect of hydrophobic effect, π-π stacking and hydrogen bonding.

Ultra-efficient adsorption of diclofenac sodium on fish-scale biochar functionalized with H3PO4 via synergistic mechanisms.

Developing safe and efficient diclofenac sodium (DS) removal technology has become a critical issue. This study synthesized the fish-scale biochar by co-pyrolysis of fish scale and phosphoric acid (H3PO4). In addition to increasing the specific surface area and pore volume of fish-scale biochar, H3PO4 assisted in the formation of Graphitic N and sp2 C, as well as reacting with C═O groups to form a significant number of phosphorus-containing groups. All these functional groups could act as major active sites for DS adsorption. Adsorption data could well fit pseudo-second-order and Langmuir models. The maximum adsorption capacity of FSB600-15 for DS was 967.1 mg g-1, which was much better than that reported in the literature. Under the synergistic effect of various mechanisms (pore-filling effect, electrostatic attraction, H-bonding, π-π, and n-π electron donor-acceptor interactions), the DS ultra-efficient adsorption on FSB600-15 was realized. Meanwhile, the DS adsorption by FSB600-15 was an endothermic, spontaneous, and entropy-increasing process. Furthermore, the DS adsorption capacity was more than 426.5 mg g-1 in the actual water, which was sufficient for practical applications.

Effectively remove printing ink from plastic surface over quaternary ammonium-modified waste cooking oil.

The printing ink on the plastic surface will greatly reduce the quality of recycled plastic products. In this work, quaternary ammonium-modified waste cooking oil (WCOEQ) was fabricated using waste cooking oil, epichlorohydrin, and trimethylamine aqueous solution as raw materials, through ring-opening esterification and quaternary amination reaction. The synthesis conditions of WCOEQ were optimised, and the structure and properties of WCOEQ were characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, zeta potential, and 1H NMR. Furthermore, WCOEQ had excellent emulsifying performance, low kraft point, low critical micelle concentration value, good foaming, and stability, which could effectively reduce the surface tension of water, showing application potential in the field of plastic deinking. Importantly, compared with the waste cooking oil without deinking effect, the WCOEQ had an excellent deinking performance on the ink on the plastic surface, and the deinking efficiency could be improved by increasing the concentration of the deinking agent, the deinking temperature, and prolonging the pre-soaking and stirring time. The results of atomic force microscope, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, optical photos, and Leica microscope showed that the roughness changed significantly and the ink molecules were gradually peeling off. This work highlighted the potential of quaternary ammonium-modified waste cooking oil for excellent removal of printing inks on the plastic surface.

Example of removing printing ink from plastic surface using quaternary ammonium-modified waste cooking oil.

The printing ink on the plastic surface greatly reduces the quality of recycled plastic products. In this work, quaternary ammonium-modified waste cooking oil (WCOQE) was fabricated, using waste cooking oil, epichlorohydrin and trimethylamine aqueous solution as raw materials, by ring-opening esterification and quaternary amination reaction. The synthesis conditions of WCOQE were optimized, and the structure and properties of WCOQE were characterized by FTIR, zeta potential and 1H NMR. Furthermore, WCOQE had excellent emulsifying performance, low kraft point, low CMC value, good foaming and stability, which could effectively reduce the surface tension of water, showing application potential in the field of plastic deinking. Importantly, compared with the waste cooking oil without deinking effect, the WCOQE had an excellent deinking performance on the ink on plastic surface, and the deinking efficiency could be improved by increasing the concentration of deinking agent, the deinking temperature, and prolonging the pre-soaking and stirring time. The results of AFM, EDS, optical photos and Leica microscope showed that the roughness changed significantly, and the ink molecules were gradually peeling off. This work highlighted the excellent potential of quaternary ammonium-modified waste cooking oil for the removal of printing inks on the plastic surface.

The Investigation of the Influence of a Cu2O Buffer Layer on Hole Transport Layers in MAPbI3-Based Perovskite Solar Cells.

The passivation engineering of the hole transport layer in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has significantly decreased carrier accumulation and open circuit voltage (Voc) loss, as well as energy band mismatching, thus achieving the goal of high-power conversion efficiency. However, most devices incorporating organic/inorganic buffer layers suffer from poor stability and low efficiency. In this article, we have proposed an inorganic buffer layer of Cu2O, which has achieved high efficiency on lower work function metals and various frequently used hole transport layers (HTLs). Once the Cu2O buffer layer was applied to modify the Cu/PTAA interface, the device exhibited a high Voc of 1.20 V, a high FF of 75.92%, and an enhanced PCE of 22.49% versus a Voc of 1.12 V, FF of 69.16%, and PCE of 18.99% from the (PTAA/Cu) n-i-p structure. Our simulation showed that the application of a Cu2O buffer layer improved the interfacial contact and energy alignment, promoting the carrier transportation and reducing the charge accumulation. Furthermore, we optimized the combinations of the thicknesses of the Cu2O, the absorber layer, and PTAA to obtain the best performance for Cu-based perovskite solar cells. Eventually, we explored the effect of the defect density between the HTL/absorber interface and the absorber/ETL interface on the device and recommended the appropriate reference defect density for experimental research. This work provides guidance for improving the experimental efficiency and reducing the cost of perovskite solar cells.

Effectively remove p-arsanilic acid from water over amphiphilic amino modified collagen fiber.

Efficient and rapid removal of p-arsanilic acid (p-ASA) in water is very important in environmental protection and human health, however it is still a severe challenge in actual engineering. Herein, a novel sorbent (CF-PEI) was successfully fabricated by simply modifying the amphiphilic skin collagen fiber (CF) substrate with Polyethylenimine (PEI). The as-prepared CF-PEI exhibits high-efficiency adsorption for negatively charged p-ASA with aromatic rings due to the introduction of amino groups and the existence of hydrophobic bands, and the maximum adsorption capacity of CF-PEI for p-ASA was high up to 285.71 mg g-1. In addition, the adsorption mechanism of CF-PEI on p-ASA mainly includes electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bond and amphiphilicity. The multi-level all-fiber structure of CF makes it mainly focus on surface mass transfer with short mass transfer distance, and its capillary drainage effect can realize large flow and rapid separation. CF-PEI based on CF can realize the ability to separate low-concentration p-ASA with high flow rate and high efficiency. The effective processing volume was 12.5 L g-1 when the separation flux reached as high as 9931.27 L m-2 h-1. Notably, the p-ASA adsorbed on CF-PEI was almost completely eluted by NaOH (0.5 mol L-1). The adsorbent is convenient to prepare, recyclable, high in efficiency, and has a great application prospect in removing organic micro-pollutants.

Efficient extraction of trace organochlorine pesticides from environmental samples by a polyacrylonitrile electrospun nanofiber membrane modified with covalent organic framework.

Detecting and analyzing of the trace organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the real water has become a big challenge. In this work, a novel functional electrospun nanofiber membrane (PAN@COFs) was synthesized through the in situ growth of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) on a polyacrylonitrile electrospun nanofiber membranes under room temperature and used in the solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) to enrich trace organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in water. The resulted PAN@COFs composite consisted of numerous nanofibers coated ample porous COFs spheres (~ 500 nm) and owned stable crystal structure, abundant functional groups, good stability. In addition, the enrichment experiments clearly revealed that PAN@COFs exhibited rather outstanding performance on adsorbing the trace OCPs (as low as 10 ng L-1) with the enrichment of 482-2686 times. Besides, PAN@COFs displayed good reusability and could be reused 100 times. Notably, in the real water samples (sea water and river water), the high enrichment factors and recovery rates strongly confirmed the feasibility of PAN@COFs for detecting the trace OCPs. Furthermore, due to the synergy of π-π stacking interaction and hydrophobic interaction between the OCPs molecules and PAN@COFs, the OCPs could be efficiently adsorbed on PAN@COFs, even under the extremely low driving force.

Insights into efficient adsorption of the typical pharmaceutical pollutant with an amphiphilic cellulose aerogel.

An amphiphilic cellulose aerogel (HCNC-TPB/TMC) was fabricated by grafting 1,3,5-Tris (4-aminophenyl)benzene (TPB) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) onto the aldehyde nanocellulose through Schiff alkali and substitution reaction. The obtained HCNC-TPB/TMC exhibited good morphology with cellulose fiber and owned abundant hydrophilic amino and carboxyl groups and hydrophobic aromatic groups. The batch adsorption experiments demonstrated that HCNC-TPB/TMC showed excellent adsorption performance (Qmax = 526.32 mg g-1) for sodium diclofenac (DCF), wide pH applicability (4-10) and outstanding stability and reusability. The DCF adsorption obeyed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm, and underwent a spontaneous exothermic process. The main adsorption mechanisms involved electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonds, π-π stacking interaction and hydrophobic effect. Importantly, the introduced carboxyl aromatic groups on TMC could effectively strengthen the hydrogen bonds and the π-π stacking between HCNC-TPB/TMC and DCF.

Insights into enhanced peroxydisulfate activation with S doped Fe@C catalyst for the rapid degradation of organic pollutants.

In this study, the S modified iron-based catalyst (S-Fe@C) for activating peroxydisulfate (PDS) was fabricated by heating the S-MIL-101 (Fe) precursor at 800 °C. The resulted S-Fe@C composite mainly consisted of carbon, Fe0, FeS, FeS2, and Fe3O4, and showed strong magnetism. Compared with Fe@C obtained from MIL-101 (Fe), the S-Fe@C exhibited much higher performance (1.5 times larger) on PDS activation and the S-Fe@C/PDS could rapidly degrade various organic pollutants in 5 min under the attack of the species of SO4-·, 1O2, electro-transfer and Fe(IV). The S element in enhancing the PDS activation mainly involved two mechanisms. Firstly, the doped S could speed up the electron transfer efficiency, resulting in a promotion on PDS decomposition; secondly, the S2- S22- or S0 could achieve the circulation of Fe2+ and Fe3+, leading to the formation of non-radicals Fe(IV) and 1O2.

Rapid degradation of p-arsanilic acid and simultaneous removal of the released arsenic species by Co-Fe@C activated peroxydisulfate process.

In this study, a bimetallic composite catalyst (Co-Fe@C) was fabricated with calcination at high temperature (800 °C) by using Co-MIL-101 (Fe) as the precursor. The characterization results showed that the resulted Co-Fe@C composite mainly consisted of carbon, FeCo alloys, Fe3O4, Co3O4 and FeO, and owned evident magnetism. In addition, the Co-Fe@C was employed to activate the peroxydisulfate (PDS) to degrade a representative organic pollutant (p-arsanilic acid, p-ASA) and the main factors were optimized, which involved 0.2 g L-1 of catalyst dosage, 1.0 g L-1 of PDS dosage and 5.0 of initial pH. Under the optimal condition, Co-Fe@C/PDS system could completely degrade p-ASA (20 mg L-1) in 5 min. In the Co-Fe@C/PDS system, SO4-·, Fe(IV) and ·OH were the main species during p-ASA degradation. Under the attack of these species, p-ASA was first decomposed into phenols and then transformed into the organics acids and finally mineralized into CO2 and H2O through a series of reactions like hydroxylation, dearsenification, deamination and benzene ring opening. Importantly, most of the released inorganic arsenic species (93.40%) could be efficiently adsorbed by the catalyst.

Carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals with chiral nematic property from cotton by dicarboxylic acid hydrolysis.

Carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were produced from cotton linter using a mixture of a dicarboxylic acid (maleic acid or succinic acid) and its corresponding anhydride with or without catalyst in acetic acid as solvent. The low solubilities of these dicarboxylic acids can ease chemical recovery and decrease environmental impact (especailly maleic acid is a U.S. FDA approved indirect food additive (21CFR175-177)) and capital costs compared with the conventional concentrated sulfuric acid hydrolysis for producing CNCs. The dicarboxylic-acid-produced CNCs (DC-CNCs) contained surface carboxyl groups of approximately 0.5 mmol/g, with ranges of dimensions of 50-150 nm in diameter and 50-700 nm in length. Birefringence was observed in the DC-CNC suspensions above critical concentrations. However, fingerprint texture was only observed in the DC-CNC suspensions produced with catalyst p-toluenesulfonic acid. Scanning electron microscopy images of the cross section of DC-CNC films revealed a periodic ordered multilayer structure. DC-CNCs were also produced using recycled dicarboxylic acids.

Preparation of a Novel Cellulose-Styrene Copolymer Adsorbent and Its Adsorption of Nitrobenzene from Aqueous Solutions.

A novel cellulose-styrene copolymer adsorbent (cellulose-St) was prepared using free radical polymerization. Successful polymerization was confirmed through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Carbon 13 Solid Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (13C NMR) Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), etc. Cellulose-St possessed good hydrophobicity, and the best water contact angle of cellulose-St samples could reach 146°. It had the ability of adsorption for nitrobenzene (NB), and the adsorption process could be well described by the pseudo-second-order (R2 > 0.99) and three-stage intraparticle diffusion (R2 > 0.99) kinetic models. Furthermore, the dynamic adsorption experiments revealed that cellulose-St had the potential for continuous separation of NB in water, and the breakthrough point for the initial NB concentration of 10 mg/L reached 1.275 L/g. Moreover, cellulose-St exhibited excellent environmental adaptability that it could maintain its hydrophobicity and adsorption ability for NB in strong acids, strong alkalis, or organic solvents. The used cellulose-St could be reused after washing with ethanol and keep almost constant adsorption capacity after ten cycles.