Exploring the potential of CoMoO4-modified graphitic carbon nitride to boost oxidation of amoxicillin micropollutants in hospital wastewater.

This study investigates the removal of amoxicillin micropollutants (AM) from hospital wastewater using CoMoO4-modified graphitic carbon nitride (CMO/gCN). Consequently, CMO/gCN exhibits notable improvements in visible light absorption and electron-hole separation rates compared to unmodified gCN. Besides, CMO/gCN significantly enhances the removal efficiency of AM, attaining an impressive 96.5%, far surpassing the performance of gCN at 48.6%. Moreover, CMO/gCN showcases outstanding reusability, with AM degradation performance exceeding 70% even after undergoing six cycles of reuse. The removal mechanism of AM employing CMO/gCN involves various photoreactions of radicals (•OH, •O2-) and amoxicillin molecules under light assistance. Furthermore, CMO/gCN demonstrates a noteworthy photodegradation efficiency of AM from hospital wastewater, reaching 92.8%, with a near-complete reduction in total organic carbon levels. Detailed discussions on the practical applications of the CMO/gCN photocatalyst for removal of micropollutants from hospital wastewater are provided. These findings underline the considerable potential of CMO/gCN for effectively removing various pollutants in environmental remediation strategies.

Improved photocatalytic oxidation of micropollutant in wastewater by solar light: assisted palladium-doped graphitic carbon nitride.

The escalating global industrial expansion has led to the extensive release of organic compounds into water bodies, resulting in substantial pollution and posing severe threats to both human health and the ecosystem. Among common micropollutants, bisphenol A (MP-BA) has emerged as a significant endocrine-disrupting chemical with potential adverse effects on human health and the environment. This study aims to develop an efficient photocatalyst, specifically by incorporating palladium-doped graphitic carbon nitride (Pd@GCN), to eliminate MP-BA pollutants present in industrial wastewater. The examination of optical properties and photoluminescence indicates that incorporating Pd into GCN enhances the visible light absorption spectra, which extends beyond 570 nm, and accelerates the separation rate of electron-hole pairs. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of MP-BA increases from 81.7 to 98.8% as the solution pH rises from 5.0 to 9.0. Moreover, Pd@GCN significantly improves the removal rate of MP-BA in wastewater samples, reaching an impressive 92.8% after 60 min of exposure to solar light. Furthermore, the Pd@GCN photocatalyst exhibits notable reusability over six cycles of MP-BA degradation, indicating its promising potential for the treatment of organic pollutants in wastewater under solar light conditions.

Natural Cellulose Fiber-Derived Photothermal Aerogel for Efficient and Sustainable Solar Desalination.

Aerogels are becoming a promising platform to fabricate photothermal materials for use in solar steam generation (SSG), which have remarkable application potential in solar desalination, due to their excellent thermal management, salt resistance, and considerable water evaporation rate. In this work, a novel photothermal material is fabricated by forming a suspension between sugarcane bagasse fibers (SBF) and poly(vinyl alcohol), tannic acid (TA), and Fe3+ solutions via hydrogen bonds of hydroxyl groups. After freeze drying, the fabricated SBF aerogel-based photothermal (SBFAP) material possesses a 3D interconnected porous microstructure, which could enhance water transportation ability, reduce thermal conductivity, and quickly dissolve salt crystals on the SBFAP surface. Thanks to the formation of micro/nanosized complexes between TA and Fe3+ ions on the SBFAP material, the SBFAP exhibits high light capture and water evaporation rate (2.28 kg m-2 h-1). In particular, due to strong hydrogen bonding and the SBF, the SBFAP material is reinforced, thereby exhibiting excellent structural stability in seawater. Moreover, the high salt tolerance of SBFAP favors its high desalination performance for at least 76 days of continuous evaporation under actual conditions. This research paves the way for the fabrication of natural cellulose fiber-based photothermal materials for application in solar desalination.

Improved Cr (VI) adsorption performance in wastewater and groundwater by synthesized magnetic adsorbent derived from Fe3O4 loaded corn straw biochar.

This work developed an easy method to utilize corn straw (CS) waste for sustainable development and reduce the volume of waste volume as well as bring value-added. The magnetic adsorbent was prepared by loading Fe3O4 onto biochar derived from corn straw (Fe@CSBC), then used for capturing Cr (VI) in groundwater and wastewater samples. The characterization of adsorbents showed that Fe3O4 was successfully loaded on corn straw biochar (CSBC) and contributed to the improvement of the surface area, and surface functional groups like Fe-O, Fe-OOH, CO, and O-H. The presence of iron oxide was further confirmed by XPS and XRD analysis and a magnetization value of 35.6 emu/g was obtained for Fe@CSBC. The highest uptake capacity of Cr (VI) onto Fe@CSBC and CSBC by monolayer were 138.8 and 90.6 mg/g, respectively. By applying magnetic adsorbent Fe@CSBC for the treatment of groundwater and wastewater samples, the chromium could be removed up to 90.3 and 72.6%, respectively. The remaining efficiency of Cr (VI) was found to be 84.5% after four times reused Fe@CSBC, demonstrating the great recyclable ability of the adsorbent. In addition, several interactions between Cr (VI) and Fe@CSBC like ion exchange, complexation, and reduction reaction were discussed in the proposed adsorption mechanism. This study brings an efficient method to turn corn straw biomass into an effective magnetic adsorbent with high adsorption performance and good reusability of Cr (VI) in groundwater as well as in wastewater.

Photodegradation of ciprofloxacin antibiotic in water by using ZnO-doped g-C3N4 photocatalyst.

Ciprofloxacin antibiotic (CIP) is one of the antibiotics with the highest rate of antibiotic resistance, if used and managed improperly, can have a negative impact on the ecosystem. In this research, ZnO modified g-C3N4 photocatalyst was prepared and applied for the decomposition of CIP antibiotic compounds in water. The removal performance of CIP by using ZnO/g-C3N4 reached 93.8% under pH 8.0 and an increasing amount of catalyst could improve the degradation performance of the pollutant. The modified ZnO/g-C3N4 completely oxidized CIP at a low concentration of 1 mg L-1 and the CIP removal efficiency slightly decreases (around 13%) at a high level of pollutant (20 mg L-1). The degradation rate of CIP by doped sample ZnO/g-C3N4 was 4.9 times faster than that of undoped g-C3N4. The doped catalyst ZnO/g-C3N4 also displayed high reusability for decomposition of CIP with 89.8% efficiency remaining after 3 cycles. The radical species including ·OH, ·O2- and h+ are important in the CIP degradation process. In addition, the proposed mechanism for CIP degradation by visible light-assisted ZnO/g-C3N4 was claimed.

Alginate-modified biochar derived from rice husk waste for improvement uptake performance of lead in wastewater.

In this work, alginate-modified biochar derived from rice husk waste was synthesized using a simple process. The modified biochar (MBC) and rice husk biochar (RhBC) were investigated for removing Pb (II) ions in wastewater. The BET result displayed significantly improved specific surface area of MBC up to 120 m2/g along with a total pore volume of 0.653 cm3/g. FTIR spectrums presented the higher oxygen-contained functional groups of MBC as compared to RhBC, resulting in increasing adsorption capacity of Pb (II). MBC had higher adsorption capacity (112.3 mg/g) and faster removal rate (0.0081 g mg-1 min-1) than those of RhBC (41.2 mg/g and 0.00025 g mg-1 min-1). Modified RhBC can remove more than 99% of Pb (II) from wastewater and it could be utilized for three cycles with a removal performance of over 90%. In addition, the Pb adsorption mechanism by using MBC was proposed and the practical application of MBC for the treatment of wastewater in Vietnam was discussed.

Flexible, affordable and environmentally sustainable solar vapor generation based on ferric tannate/bacterial cellulose composite for efficient desalination solutions.

Desalination by solar steam generation (SSG) system is a green technology to produce pure water, which can address the issue of water scarcity. A novel photothermal material for the SSG system was fabricated by immersing bacterial cellulose (BC) sequentially into tannic acid (TA) and iron(iii) (Fe3+) solutions. Surface analysis of the resulting BC-TA-Fe3+ (BTF) material showed that coordination nanocomplexes between Fe3+ and hydroxyl groups of TA were formed on the surface of cellulose nanofibers. BTF material exhibited high sunlight absorption (∼95%), hydrophilic, self-cleaning properties, and excellent structural stability. SSG systems based on BTF had an evaporation efficiency of 91% and an evaporation rate of 1.56 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun illumination. Then, an efficient desalination device based on the larger-scale BTF material was fabricated to produce freshwater, the amount of freshwater per day was 5.6 kg m-2 on a sunny day. BTF material, thus, showed great potential in seawater desalination applications along with simple, versatile, scalable, and affordable fabrication methods.

Common Origin of the Cerebellar Dual Somatotopic Areas Revealed by Tracking Embryonic Purkinje Cell Clusters with Birthdate Tagging.

One of the notable characteristics of the functional localization in the cerebellar cortex is the dual representation of the body (somatotopy) on its anterior-posterior axis. This somatotopy is conspicuous in the C1/C3 module, which is demarcated as the multiple zebrin-negative and weekly-positive stripes in dual paravermal areas in anterior and posterior lobules within the cerebellar compartments. In this report, we describe the early formation process of the cerebellar compartmentalization, particularly in the C1/C3 module. As developing PCs guide formation of the module-specific proper neuronal circuits in the cerebellum, we hypothesized that the rearrangement of embryonic Purkinje cell (PC) clusters shapes the adult cerebellar compartmentalization. By identifying PC clusters with immunostaining of marker molecules and genetical birthdate-tagging with Neurog2-CreER (G2A) mice, we clarified the three-dimensional spatial organization of the PC clusters and tracked the lineage relationships among the PC clusters from embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5) till E17.5. The number of recognized clusters increased from 9 at E14.5 to 37 at E17.5. Among E14.5 PC clusters, the c-l (central-lateral) cluster which lacked E10.5-born PCs divided into six c-l lineage clusters. They separately migrated underneath other clusters and positioned far apart mediolaterally as well as rostrocaudally by E17.5. They were eventually transformed mainly into multiple separate zebrin-negative and weakly-positive stripes, which together configured the adult C1/C3 module, in the anterior and posterior paravermal lobules. The results indicate that the spatial rearrangement of embryonic PC clusters is involved in forming the dual somatotopic areas in the adult mouse paravermal cerebellar cortex.

Reorganization of longitudinal compartments in the laterally protruding paraflocculus of the postnatal mouse cerebellum.

The paraflocculus and the neighboring smaller flocculus form a remarkable protrusion in the ventrolateral aspect of the mouse cerebellum, in which the longitudinal compartments are conspicuously oriented perpendicularly to the sagittal plane. The developmental process of such anatomical arrangements in these lobules has not been fully clarified. Here, we used the genetic tractability of pcdh10-lacZ knock-in (OL-KO), IP 3 R1-nls-lacZ transgenic (1NM13) and Gpr26cre-Ai9-AldocV mice to track the development of compartments and examined local longitudinal orientation of Purkinje cells within the paraflocculus and flocculus. We observed a distinct pcdh10-positive (pcdh10+) compartment in the flocculus, whereas the paraflocculus and other lobules had a continuous paravermal pcdh10+ compartment, in the embryonic OL-KO cerebellum. During the first postnatal week, the parafloccular pcdh10+ compartment shifted laterally to the most lateral edge in the caudal part of the protruding paraflocculus. Although the most medial edge of the parafloccular pcdh10+ compartment remained in the nonprotruding part of the paraflocculus, it was disrupted from the originally continuous pcdh10+ compartment in the copula pyramidis. The local longitudinal orientation changed gradually along with the mediolateral extent of the copula pyramidis, almost becoming perpendicular to the sagittal plane in the laterally connected paraflocculus in the adult cerebellum. This rotational change in orientation was derived from the short U-shaped embryonic cerebellum, in which the surfaces of the flocculus and paraflocculus were oriented laterally. These results indicated that the peculiar compartmental organization of the paraflocculus originates from the embryonic common hemispheric compartmental organization and shaped by the significant reorganization process in the first postnatal week.

The superior photocatalytic activity of Nb doped TiO2/g-C3N4 direct Z-scheme system for efficient conversion of CO2 into valuable fuels.

In this study, we firstly aimed to use Nb as dopant to dope into the TiO2 lattice in order to narrow band gap energy or enhance photocatalytic activity of the Nb-TiO2. Then, the prepared Nb-TiO2 was combined with g-C3N4 to establish Nb-TiO2/g-C3N4 direct Z-scheme system for superior reduction of CO2 into valuable fuels even under visible light. The obtained results indicated that the band gap energy of the Nb-TiO2 (2.91 eV) was lower than that of the TiO2 (3.2 eV). In the successfully established Nb-TiO2/g-C3N4 direct Z-scheme system, the photo-excited e- in the CB of the Nb-TiO2 combined with the photo-excited h+ in the VB of the g-C3N4 preserving the existence of e- in the CB of the g-C3N4 and h+ in the VB of Nb-TiO2, and thereby, the system produced numerous amount of available e-/h+ pairs for the reduction of CO2 into various valuable fuels. In addition, the produced e- of the Nb-TiO2/g-C3N4 existing in the CB of the g-C3N4, which the potential energy is approximately -1.2 V, would be strong enough for the reduction of CO2 to generate not only CH4 and CO but also HCOOH. Among established Nb-TiO2/g-C3N4 materials, the 50Nb-TiO2/50 g-C3N4 material was the best material for the CO2 reduction.

Electrophysiological Excitability and Parallel Fiber Synaptic Properties of Zebrin-Positive and -Negative Purkinje Cells in Lobule VIII of the Mouse Cerebellar Slice.

Heterogeneous populations of cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) are arranged into separate longitudinal stripes, which have different topographic afferent and efferent axonal connections presumably involved in different functions, and also show different electrophysiological properties in firing pattern and synaptic plasticity. However, whether the differences in molecular expression that define heterogeneous PC populations affect their electrophysiological properties has not been much clarified. Since the expression pattern of many of such molecules, including glutamate transporter EAAT4, replicates that of aldolase C or zebrin II, we recorded from PCs of different "zebrin types" (zebrin-positive = aldolase C-positive = Z+; and Z-) in identified neighboring stripes in vermal lobule VIII, in which Z+ and Z- stripes occupy similar widths, in the Aldoc-Venus mouse cerebellar slice preparation. Regarding basic cellular electrophysiological properties, no significant differences were observed in input resistance or in occurrence probability of types of firing patterns between Z+ and Z- PCs. However, the firing frequency of the tonic firing type was higher in Z- PCs than in Z+ PCs. In the case of parallel fiber (PF)-PC synaptic transmission, no significant differences were observed between Z+ and Z- PCs in interval dependency of paired pulse facilitation or in time course of synaptic current measured without or with the blocker of glutamate receptor desensitization. These results indicate that different expression levels of the molecules that are associated with the zebrin type may affect the intrinsic firing property of PCs but not directly affect the basic electrophysiological properties of PF-PC synaptic transmission significantly in lobule VIII. The results suggest that the zebrin types of PCs in lobule VIII is linked with some intrinsic electrophysiological neuronal characteristics which affect the firing frequency of PCs. However, the results also suggest that the molecular expression differences linked with zebrin types of PCs does not much affect basic electrophysiological properties of PF-PC synaptic transmission in a physiological condition in lobule VIII.