Fiber support prevents colloid-facilitated contamination induced by dissolution-precipitation of a calcium phosphate adsorbent.

During the adsorptive removal of hazardous metal contaminants, dissolution-precipitation of sparingly soluble adsorbents may result in the formation of toxic colloidal suspensions, triggering secondary pollution. Therefore, we studied the prevention of colloid-facilitated contamination in a model adsorption system of dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD, CaHPO4·2H2O) and Cd2+ as an adsorbent and adsorbate. Upon adding pure DCPD powder into a 500 mg L-1 Cd2+ solution of pH â‰Œ 7.0, aggregates of spheroidal Cd-bearing primary particles, within 0.040-0.95 µm size range, were generated via dissolution-precipitation. The accumulated volume of these submicron particles (10.8%) was greater than that of the submicron particles from the exposure of DCPD to deionized water (4.48%). While the Cd-carrying submicron particles, which are responsible for colloidal recontamination, appeared to form via homogeneous nucleation, their formation was suppressed using polyacrylonitrile fibers (PANFs) as supporting substrates. Thus, heterogeneous nucleation on PANFs formed hexagonal columnar microparticles of a new phase, pentacadmium dihydrogen tetrakis (phosphate) tetrahydrate (Cd5H2(PO4)4·4H2O). Together with dissolution-precipitation on the native DCPD, nucleation and growth on the PANFs accelerated the depletion of the dissolved species, reducing the degree of supersaturation along the DCPD-water interface. Although the PANFs decreased the Cd adsorption capacity to 56.7% of that of DCPD, they prevented the formation of small aggregates of Cd-bearing particles. Other sparingly soluble adsorbents can be compounded with PANF to prevent the generation of toxic colloids.

Leaching of structural Ca2+ ions from a chalcogenide adsorbent by H+ lifts Cs(I) uptake.

Acidic wastewater containing radioactive 137Cs is difficult to treat by selective adsorption. Abundant H+ under acidic conditions damages the structure of adsorbents and competes with Cs+ for adsorption sites. Herein, we designed a novel layered calcium thiostannate (KCaSnS) that contains Ca2+ as a dopant. The dopant Ca2+ ion is metastable and larger than the ions attempted before. The pristine KCaSnS demonstrated a high Cs+ adsorption capacity of 620 mg/g at 8250 mg/L Cs+ solution and pH 2, which is 68% higher than that at pH 5.5 (370 mg/g), a trend opposite to all previous studies. The neutral condition allowed the release of Ca2+ present only in the interlayer (∼20%); whereas the high acidity facilitated the leaching of Ca2+ from the backbone structure (∼80%). The complete structural Ca2+ leaching was made possible only by a synergistic interaction of highly concentrated H+ and Cs+. Doping a large enough ion, such as Ca2+, to accommodate Cs+ into the Sn-S matrix upon its liberation opens a new way of designing high-performance adsorbents.

Highly selective cesium removal under acidic and alkaline conditions using a novel potassium aluminum thiostannate.

The pH values of nuclear wastewater are extremely low or high, which make the efficient removal of 137Cs a major concern among the issues for safety management and environmental remediation. Existing metal sulfides for Cs+ adsorption have shown poor performance at acidic and alkaline conditions, and the reason has not been revealed yet. Herein, a novel potassium aluminum thiostannate (KAlSnS-3) adsorbent was designed and its Cs+ adsorption mechanism over a wide pH range was investigated. We hypothesized that Al3+ dopant on Sn4+ sites would allow stable adsorption for Cs+ upon its partial release at acidic and alkaline conditions. As a result, KAlSnS-3 demonstrated excellent adsorption performance across a broad pH range (1-13), and high selectivity toward Cs+, even under high salinity conditions (in tap water Kd = 3.12 × 104 mL/g; and in artificial seawater Kd = 3.42 × 103 mL/g). KAlSnS-3 also exhibited rapid adsorption kinetics (R = 97.6% in the first minute), a remarkable adsorption capacity (259.31 mg/g), and a high distribution coefficient (2.09 × 105 mL/g) toward Cs+. In addition, the high reusability of KAlSnS-3 was observed, suggesting its potential for real-world applications. The mechanism for enhancing performance at low and high pH values was discussed with the evidence of crystallinity, elemental concentrations, and binding energy of electrons based on the concept of electrostatic interactions and chemical affinity. In summary, this work provides insights into the mechanism of Cs+ removal under a wide pH range, and the impressive Cs+ adsorption performance indicates the application potential of KAlSnS-3 in wastewater treatment.

A review on the recycling processes of spent auto-catalysts: Towards the development of sustainable metallurgy.

Spent auto-catalysts are considered as promising platinum group metals (PGMs) resources based on their rapidly increasing demand along with the underlying uncertainty of the sustainability and long-term availability of PGMs. Recycling spent auto-catalysts presents attractive advantages, particularly for the conservation of primary resources reserves, and for the reduction of negative environmental impact due to exploitation. PGM reclamation is the major aim of recycling operations despite their minor concentration in spent auto-catalysts, which implies that the remaining materials are disposed of as unwanted solid waste after the extraction process. This poses a genuine challenge, as well as a motivation to develop recycling processes for spent auto-catalysts capable of recovering all components/valuable metals, while moderating environmental pollution and global warming. The focus herein involves the description of the available technologies, including pyro- and hydro-metallurgical processes, to recover PGMs from spent auto-catalysts, and specifically an analysis of the developmental trends in recycling methods to ensure "sustainable metallurgy".

Prevention of coalescence during annealing of FePt nanoparticles assembled by convective coating.

FePt nanoparticle suspension was synthesized by reduction of platinum acetylacetonate and decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl in the presence of oleic acid and oleyl amine. The composition of the synthesized nanoparticles was Fe40Pt60. To prevent the coalescence during annealing of FePt nanoparticles we tried two steps of convective coating, where first coating was for silica particle assembly on a silicon substrate and second one was for FePt nanoparticles on the silica layers. It was observed by scanning electron microscopy that FePt nanoparticles were dispersed on the silica surface. After being annealed at 700 degrees C for 30 minutes under nitrogen atmosphere, the particle size of FePt nanoparticles increased slightly from 4 nm to 6 nm but dispersity of the nanoparticles was maintained. Magnetic hysteresis of Fe40Pt60 nanoparticles coating on silica layer after annealing showed typical characteristics of hard magnetic materials, and no incorporation of soft magnetic materials. It was suggested that convective self-assembly with the parallel use of pre-coating that offers solvent flux weakening capillary force between FePt nanoparticles was an effective method to prevent coalescence of nano-sized particles under high temperature annealing.

In vivo tracking of mesenchymal stem cells labeled with a novel chitosan-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles using 3.0T MRI.

This study aimed to characterize and MRI track the mesenchymal stem cells labeled with chitosan-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide (Chitosan-SPIO). Chitosan-SPIO was synthesized from a mixture of FeCl(2) and FeCl(3). The human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSC) were labeled with 50 microg Fe/mL chitosan-SPIO and Resovist. The labeling efficiency was assessed by iron content, Prussian blue staining, electron microscopy and in vitro MR imaging. The labeled cells were also analyzed for cytotoxicity, phenotype and differentiation potential. Electron microscopic observations and Prussian blue staining revealed 100% of cells were labeled with iron particles. MR imaging was able to detect the labeled MSC successfully. Chitosan-SPIO did not show any cytotoxicity up to 200 microg Fe/mL concentration. The labeled stem cells did not exhibit any significant alterations in the surface markers expression or adipo/osteo/chondrogenic differentiation potential when compared to unlabeled control cells. After contralateral injection into rabbit ischemic brain, the iron labeled stem cells were tracked by periodical in vivo MR images. The migration of cells was also confirmed by histological studies. The novel chitosan-SPIO enables to label and track MSC for in vivo MRI without cellular alteration.

Fabrication of CaFe2O4/MgFe2O4 bulk heterojunction for enhanced visible light photocatalysis.

A bulk heterojunction photocatalyst of interfacing CaFe(2)O(4) and MgFe(2)O(4) nanoparticles is highly active for oxidative degradation of isopropyl alcohol and hydrogen production from water under visible light, because the exciton easily reaches the interface and dissociates to minimize recombination.