RSC sustainability最新文献

{"title":"Overview of rough surface construction technology for cotton fabrics used in oil/water separation","authors":"Huanhuan Bai, Chengzhi Song, Limei Zheng, Tong Shen, Xu Meng and JinXing Ma","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00674G","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00674G","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The discharge of waste organic solvents, various oil/water mixtures and the frequent infiltration of oil into water bodies have created significant threats to the ecological environment. As a result, the separation and recovery of oil/water mixtures have been increasingly investigated by scholars. Many researchers have developed numerous separation materials with excellent separation efficiency and high separation flux, including filter materials, adsorption materials and smart materials with switchable wettability. Among them, natural cotton fabric has been widely studied as a separation material substrate due to its three-dimensional surface structure, porosity, excellent fiber adsorption capacity, recyclability, low cost, and biodegradability. As an oil/water separation material, it is essential for the substrate surface to have a micro–nano structure. Researchers typically use various methods to modify the surface of cotton fabrics with various kinds of micro–nano particles, which create a certain roughness on the fabric surface. These methods include dip-coating, spray-coating, and grafting reactions, followed by further modifications to obtain separation materials for various purposes. In this work, we review the technology of creating rough textures on the surface of cotton fabrics for oil/water separation.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 2","pages":" 676-697"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00674g?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143184550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Novel green fabrication of stable hydrogel beads from industrial waste lignin for efficient Pb(ii) ion removal†","authors":"Xiwen Hu, Muhammad Amirul Islam, Aria Khalili, Amir Aghaei, Jae-Young Cho and Mohtada Sadrzadeh","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00732H","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00732H","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The adsorption of water contaminants using renewable biopolymer hydrogel beads represents an environmentally friendly and economically viable solution for pollution control. Traditional methods for preparing these beads are often not green, are slow, and lack versatility in producing beads with specific biopolymer compositions. We utilized a novel, green and efficient approach using liquid nitrogen for the instantaneous cooling of solution droplets, facilitating the rapid formation of gelatin–lignin biopolymer beads. This process enables the production of beads from low-concentration solutions with various lignin-to-gelatin ratios, which is challenging with other techniques. The rapid cooling results in beads with a thin shell and a highly porous gel network, enhancing their stability under harsh chemical conditions. These beads exhibit superior lead (Pb(<small>II</small>)) ion adsorption performance, maintaining stability across 10 adsorption–regeneration cycles in both acidic and basic environments. The optimal bead composition of 0.45 lignin/0.55 gelatin achieved approximately 155 mg g<small>⁻¹</small> Pb(<small>II</small>) ion adsorption. The optimal beads exhibited a 3.5-fold higher adsorption capacity than gelatin-only beads, which disintegrated after three cycles, highlighting lignin's crucial role in enhancing bead stability and adsorption performance. The results further demonstrated that a dosage of 0.1 g was sufficient to achieve 96% removal of Pb(<small>II</small>) from 50 mL of solution with an initial concentration of 100 mg L<small>⁻¹</small>. The long-term stability and mechanical integrity of the beads were further enhanced through amide and ester crosslinking of lignin and gelatin using EDC as a zero-length crosslinker. A concentration of 1 mM EDC improved the adsorption capacity by 32% compared to the non-crosslinked beads over 10 adsorption–regeneration cycles. The influence of fabrication methods and swelling–deswelling cycles on bead morphology was analyzed using advanced cryo-SEM imaging. This innovative approach offers a more efficient, sustainable, and versatile method for producing high-value hydrogel beads from industrial waste byproducts.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 5","pages":" 2255-2272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00732h?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143918877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"CO2 conversion to CO by reverse water gas shift and dry reforming using chemical looping†","authors":"Keke Kang, Hiroshi Sampei and Yasushi Sekine","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00395K","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00395K","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Chemical looping technology provides an efficient means of sustainable CO<small>₂</small> conversion to the important chemical intermediate of CO or syngas by changing conventional co-feeding of reactant into alternating feeding. It presents the important benefits of simplified gas separation, improved selectivity, and more independently adjusted operation conditions compared to those of conventional reactions. Oxygen carriers (OCs) are pivotally important for the performance of chemical looping processes. Herein, recent advances of OCs for two representative chemical looping CO<small>₂</small> conversion technologies to CO are reviewed systematically: reverse water gas shift chemical looping (RWGS-CL) and dry reforming of methane by chemical looping (DRM-CL). The influence of composition along with surface and bulk structures of these OCs on conversion, selectivity, and lattice oxygen reactivity, are discussed to obtain better design and optimisation strategies for the tailored OCs. Moreover, modified Ellingham diagrams that exhibit the thermodynamic properties for potential metal oxides for the effective screening of active OCs of DRM-CL and RWGS-CL are proposed, yielding valuable insights not only into RWGS-CL and DRM-CL but also into other distinct chemical looping processes involving into the same reactions. Finally, a summary and prospects are presented for some challenges and future research orientation for CO<small>₂</small> conversion to CO <em>via</em> chemical looping.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 4","pages":" 1598-1628"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00395k?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143761677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ZnO/Co3O4 supported on carbon nanotubes as anode materials for high-performance lithium-ion batteries†","authors":"Songli Qiu, Jiafeng Wu, Liyu Chen and Yingwei Li","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00691G","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00691G","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Metallic oxides show great potential in achieving high specific capacity as electrodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, their inherent poor conductivity and significant volume expansion often result in inferior rate performance and reduced stability in electrochemical cycles. Here, we report a composite of ZnO and Co<small>₃</small>O<small>₄</small> wrapped in carbon nanotubes (denoted as ZnO/Co<small>₃</small>O<small>₄</small>@CNTs) with hierarchically porous architecture <em>via</em> pyrolysis–oxidation of a Zn/Co-zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) precursor. The dual-transition metal oxides can undergo abundant redox and alloying reactions with enhanced redox kinetics, while the CNT layers facilitate electron transfer and mitigate volume expansion. As a result, ZnO/Co<small>₃</small>O<small>₄</small>@CNTs exhibits high electrochemical performance with excellent lithium storage capability and high electronic and ionic diffusion kinetics, making it a promising anode material for LIBs. It achieves a high reversible capacity of 1156 mA h g<small>⁻¹</small> at a current density of 200 mA g<small>⁻¹</small> after 200 cycles, with an extremely low capacity degradation rate of about 0.54‰ per cycle.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 2","pages":" 995-1002"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00691g?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143184595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhanced dye removal and supercapacitor performance of polyethyleneimine-impregnated activated carbon derived from local eucalyptus biochar","authors":"Bordin Weerasuk, Threeraphat Chutimasakul, Nicha Prigyai and Tanagorn Sangtawesin","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00421C","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00421C","url":null,"abstract":"<p >This study evaluated the effectiveness of low-cost eucalyptus biochar (EUBC) as a precursor for activated carbon (EUAC), for methyl orange (MO) removal and supercapacitor applications. The surface charge was made positive by impregnating EUAC with a 10% weight polyethyleneimine (PEI) solution, improving anionic MO adsorption. The impregnation was verified by SEM and XPS, showing a nitrogen content of 9.39%. The adsorption capacity of the 10% wt PEI/EUAC is 142 mg g<small>⁻¹</small>, significantly surpassing previous reports. The adsorption mechanisms were described using the Sips isotherm and Elovich kinetics, indicating heterogeneous adsorption, physisorption and electrostatic interactions. In electrochemical tests, EUAC (263 F g<small>⁻¹</small>) and 10% wt PEI/EUAC (244 F g<small>⁻¹</small>) exhibited similar specific capacitances, six times higher than that of EUBC (40 F g<small>⁻¹</small>) at a current density of 1 A g<small>⁻¹</small>. However, EUBC electrodes exhibited nearly double the internal resistivity of those from EUAC and 10% wt PEI/EUAC, attributed to particle size, pore size, and surface area differences.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 2","pages":" 904-913"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00421c?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143184572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Selective dissolution and re-precipitation by pH cycling enables recovery of manganese from surface nodules†","authors":"Pravalika Butreddy, Sebastian T. Mergelsberg, Jennifer N. Jocz, Dongsheng Li, Venkateshkumar Prabhakaran, Andrew J. Ritchhart, Chinmayee V. Subban, Jon Kellar, Scott R. Beeler, Sarah W. Keenan and Elias Nakouzi","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00444B","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00444B","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Meeting global sustainable development and climate goals requires a rapid transition to renewable energy technologies. However, these emerging technologies rely on critical elements whose sourcing presents geopolitical and environmental challenges. In this study, we explore ferromanganese nodules from the Oacoma site in South Dakota as a viable feedstock for sourcing manganese, a critical element used in the production of battery cathodes, consumer electronics, and steel. The nodules are readily accessible from the surface site and primarily consist of rhombohedral metal carbonates, including manganese at 3.5–5.4 at% (9.2–14.1 wt%) relative to all the elements present in the nodules. Based on titration experiments and an equilibrium speciation model, we developed a strategy for extracting the manganese by selectively dissolving carbonate phases in acidic conditions, followed by selectively re-precipitating manganese oxide in alkaline conditions. Specifically, exposing the samples to pH 1.5–2 dissolved almost all the calcium and manganese ions, while retaining a significant portion of the iron and magnesium in the residual nodule powders. Subsequently, increasing the pH of the leachate to 5.7 resulted in the selective re-precipitation of predominantly iron hydroxide. Further increasing the pH of the leachate solution to 10.9 finally produced a relatively pure manganese oxide product. Our pH cycling approach recovered 65.7–74.2% of the manganese in the nodules at 70.3–85.4 at% (81.5–91.0 wt%) purity relative to the other metals, without the need for specialty chemicals, membranes, ligands, or resins, and without generating highly acidic wastes. We further performed a preliminary assessment of the scalability and industrial relevance of this process to explore these nodules as a feedstock for sustainable sourcing of manganese.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 2","pages":" 983-994"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00444b?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143184594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy materials redesign, reuse and repurpose","authors":"Cristina Pozo-Gonzalo, Bethan L. Charles, Xiaolei Wang and Erlantz Lizundia","doi":"10.1039/D4SU90068E","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU90068E","url":null,"abstract":"<p >A graphical abstract is available for this content</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 1","pages":" 19-20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su90068e?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142994192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Preparation of marine-sourced alginate fibres to produce composite paper from both green and blue carbons","authors":"RM. Muhammad Nur Fauzan, Kotchaporn Thangunpai, Akiko Nakagawa-Izumi, Mikio Kajiyama and Toshiharu Enomae","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00073K","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00073K","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Recent trends in papermaking have led to an increase in the use of alternative resources. Alginate fibres, derived from marine sourced brown seaweed (blue carbon), offer a potential alternative to wood pulp in paper production. The process of obtaining alginate involves pre-treatment, alkaline extraction, precipitation, and purification. Through successful extraction, alginates were obtained from <em>Laminaria japonica</em> (<em>L. japonica</em>) and <em>Sargassum polycystum</em> (<em>S. polycystum</em>) with yields ranging from 17.4% to 28.9% and 14.7% to 26.8%, respectively. The molecular mass of the alginates ranged from 0.68 × 10<small>⁵</small> to 2.74 × 10<small>⁵</small> g mol<small>⁻¹</small> for <em>L. japonica</em> and from 0.39 × 10<small>⁵</small> to 0.994 × 10<small>⁵</small> g mol<small>⁻¹</small> for <em>S. polycystum</em>. Calcium alginate fibres and wood pulp fibres were combined to create composites. The results from this study suggest that the composites achieved an optimum tensile index when the samples contained 50% calcium alginate fibres. Although the results were promising, the tensile index of the paper made exclusively from pulp fibres remained superior. Furthermore, thermal degradation tests demonstrated improved thermal stability for the composite papers compared to hardwood bleached kraft pulp (HBKP) sheets. In conclusion, a composite prepared from a mixture of calcium alginate and wood pulp fibres was successfully produced and overall 50% inclusion of calcium alginate fibres provided an optimum composite.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 1","pages":" 599-610"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00073k?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142994304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Photocatalytic abatement of ambient NOx by TiO2 coated solar panels†","authors":"Jesse Molar, Pierre Herckes and Matthew P. Fraser","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00516C","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00516C","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide (combined, known as NO<small>_<em>x</em></small>) and their contribution to ozone and photochemical smog generation are persistent issues in urban environments. Many technologies have been developed to alleviate this issue, including photochemical transformation. While previous experiments have focused on incorporating photocatalysts into paving and building materials, we report coating glass substrates for the eventual application to solar panels that are inherently positioned to optimize the amount of solar exposure they receive, creating a surface compatible with photocatalytic coatings. As most photocatalyst materials absorb the ultraviolet spectrum outside the light range used for energy production, this approach could enable dual-functionalized solar panels for energy generation and air remediation. Proof of concept testing was conducted to determine the effectiveness of TiO<small>₂</small>-based photocatalytic products to oxidize NO<small>_<em>x</em></small> to NO<small>₃</small><small>⁻</small>/HNO<small>₃</small>. It was found that the tested TiO<small>₂</small>-based photocatalytic products can successfully reduce NO<small>_<em>x</em></small> concentrations by up to 36%. With the success of laboratory proof of concept experiments, field testing was conducted to determine if glass panels coated with TiO<small>₂</small> products can reduce NO<small>_<em>x</em></small> concentrations in environmental conditions. Deionized water washes of the coated glass panels were analyzed through ion chromatography to determine the concentration of NO<small>₃</small><small>⁻</small> formed on the surface of the coated glass panels. Field testing resulted in flux values up to 33 mg of NO<small>₃</small><small>⁻</small> per m<small>²</small> per day and an average flux up to 8.8 mg of NO<small>₃</small><small>⁻</small> per m<small>²</small> per day, representing an order of magnitude value to evaluate possible large-scale implementation. Utilizing field testing results, scale-up estimations suggest widespread application would have a limited impact on total NO<small>_<em>x</em></small> concentrations. Still, at the local scale, deployment at sites with elevated NO<small>_<em>x</em></small> concentrations could meaningfully improve local air quality.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 2","pages":" 963-972"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00516c?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143184576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lanthanide-based metal–organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs): synthesis, properties and applications","authors":"Kankan Patra and Haridas Pal","doi":"10.1039/D4SU00271G","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00271G","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Micro- and meso-porous solid materials based on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been gaining significant attention for the last three decades as they offer diverse applications in a large number of areas. An advantage of these materials is that they can be rationally designed with desired characteristics using several metal ions belonging either to the s-, p-, d-, or f-block elements of the periodic table, in combination with suitable polytopic organic linkers (multidentate ligands), resulting in various structural and application aspects. Among the MOFs, those composed of lanthanide ions {Ln(<small>III</small>)}, commonly referred to as Ln-MOF systems, have attracted enormous attention because they display favorable characteristics, like large structural diversity, tailorable structural designs, tunable porosity, large surface area, high thermal stability, and immense chemical stability. All these characteristics are very useful for their widespread applications in diverse areas. Since Ln(<small>III</small>) ions possess higher coordination numbers compared to transition metal (TM) ions, Ln-MOF materials are generally more porous, offering better applications. Further, hybrid MOF systems consisting of both Ln(<small>III</small>) and TM ions (Ln–TM-MOF systems) can introduce additional features to these mixed metal porous materials for their much wider applications. Luminescence and magnetic properties of Ln(<small>III</small>) ions make these materials ideal for various display and sensing applications, in addition to their porosity-related applications. In this review article, our aim is to discuss the basic aspects, preparation methodologies, important properties, and utilizations of MOF materials with a special emphasis on Ln(<small>III</small>)-based MOF systems. Initially, a short introduction is provided on MOF systems, which is followed by other aspects of these materials as mentioned above. Subsequently, we sequentially highlight the interesting characteristics of these materials, including their structural aspects, porosity, magnetic properties, and luminescence behavior. Finally, some of the potential uses of these systems have been presented with special emphasis on their gas storage, catalysis and luminescence-based chemical sensing applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":74745,"journal":{"name":"RSC sustainability","volume":" 2","pages":" 629-660"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/su/d4su00271g?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143184538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}