The controversy related to the environment pollution is increasing in human life and in the eco-system. Especially, the water pollution is growing rapidly due to the wastewater discharge from the industries. The only way to find the new water resource is the reuse of treated wastewater. Several remediation technologies are available which provides a convenience to reuse the reclaimed wastewater. Heavy metals like Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cd, Hg, etc. contributes various environmental problems based on their toxicity. These toxic metals are exposed to human and environment, the accumulation of ions takes place which causes serious health and environmental hazards. Hence, it is a major concern in the environment. Due to this concern, the significance of developing technology for removing heavy metals has been increased. This paper contributes the outline of new literature with two objectives. First, it provides the sketch about treatment technologies followed by their heavy metal capture capacity from industrial effluent. The treatment performance, their remediation capacity and probable environmental and health impacts were deliberated in this review article. Conclusively, this review paper furnishes the information about the important methods incorporated in lab scale studies which are required to identify the feasible and convenient wastewater treatment. Moreover, attempts have been made to confer the emphasis on sequestration of heavy metals from industrial effluent and establish the scientific background for reducing the discharge of heavy metals into the environment.

Efficient techniques for the removal of toxic heavy metals from aquatic environment: A review

Oil/water separation is a field of high significance as it has direct practical implications for resolving the problem of industrial oily wastewater and other oil/water pollution. Therefore, the development of functional materials for efficient treatment of oil-polluted water is imperative. In this feature article, we have reviewed the recent progress of oil/water separation technologies based on filtration and absorption methods using various materials that possess surface superwetting properties. In each section, we present in detail representative work and describe the concepts, employed materials, fabrication methods, and the effects of their wetting/dewetting behaviors on oil/water separation. Finally, the challenges and future research directions of this promising research field are briefly discussed.

Oil/water separation techniques: a review of recent progresses and future directions

Two dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (2D-hBN), an isomorph of graphene with a very similar layered structure, is uniquely featured by its exotic opto-electrical properties together with mechanical robustness, thermal stability, and chemical inertness. It is thus extensively studied for application in field effect transistors (FETs), tunneling devices, deep UV emitters and detectors, photoelectric devices, and nanofillers. 2D-hBN is considered as one of the most promising materials that can be integrated with other 2D materials, such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), for the next generation microelectronic and other technologies. Although it is by itself an insulator, it can well be tuned by several strategies in terms of properties and functionalities, such as by doping, substitution, functionalization and hybridization, making 2D-hBN a truly versatile type of functional materials for a wide range of applications. In this review, the distinct structural characteristics of 2D-hBN, doping- and defect-induced variations in energy bands and structures, and resultant properties, are presented. There are a wide variety of processing routes that have been developed for 2D-hBN, including also those for doping, substitution, functionalization and combination with other materials to form heterostructures or h-BNC hybrid nanosheets, which are systematically elaborated for novel functions. The comprehensive overview provides the types of the state-of-the-art 2D-hBN made by new synthesis strategies, where the mainstream approaches include exfoliation, chemical vapor deposition, and gas phase epitaxy, together with several other new methods that have been successfully developed in the past few years. On the basis of the extraordinary electrical and functional properties and thermal–mechanical stability, the applications of hBN-based nanosheets as substrates and dielectrics, passivation layers, and nanofillers in nanodevices and nanocomposites are discussed, together with the peculiar optical and wetting characteristics.

Two dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (2D-hBN): synthesis, properties and applications

Recent trends of heavy metal removal from water/wastewater by membrane technologies

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are studied for the design of advanced nanocomposite membranes, primarily due to their ultrahigh surface area, regular and highly tunable pore structures, and favorable polymer affinity. However, the development of engineered MOF-based membranes for water treatment lags behind. Here, thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes containing poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) modified ZIF-8 (mZIF) in a polyamide (PA) layer were constructed via a facile interfacial polymerization (IP) method. The modified hydrophilic mZIF nanoparticles were evenly dispersed into an aqueous solution comprising piperazine (PIP) monomers, followed by polymerizing with trimesoyl chloride (TMC) to form a composite PA film. FT-IR spectroscopy and XPS analyses confirm the presence of mZIF nanoparticles on the top layer of the membranes. SEM and AFM images evince a retiform morphology of the TFN-mZIF membrane surface, which is intimately linked to the hydrophilicity and adsorption capacity of mZIF nanopa...

Elevated Performance of Thin Film Nanocomposite Membranes Enabled by Modified Hydrophilic MOFs for Nanofiltration.

A modified mussel-inspired method to fabricate TiO2 decorated superhydrophilic PVDF membrane for oil/water separation

Novel polyvinylidene fluoride nanofiltration membrane blended with functionalized halloysite nanotubes for dye and heavy metal ions removal.

h-BN decorated with Fe3O4 nanoparticles through mussel-inspired chemistry of dopamine for reinforcing anticorrosion performance of epoxy coatings

Preparation and characterization of a novel PVDF ultrafiltration membrane by blending with TiO2-HNTs nanocomposites

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is modified by a simple and green method based on self-oxidation of dopamine and epoxy groups functionalized silane (KH560) grafting. The surface modification and microstructure of h-BN are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The poly(dopamine) and epoxy groups not only increase the compatibility of the h-BN and enhance its interaction with epoxy matrix but also exhibit a remarkable superiority in enhancing the anticorrosion performance of epoxy coatings. In addition, the anticorrosion mechanisms of h-BN@PDA-KH560 are tentatively discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lei Zhang

Papers

A modified mussel-inspired method to fabricate TiO2 decorated superhydrophilic PVDF membrane for oil/water separation

Novel polyvinylidene fluoride nanofiltration membrane blended with functionalized halloysite nanotubes for dye and heavy metal ions removal.

h-BN decorated with Fe3O4 nanoparticles through mussel-inspired chemistry of dopamine for reinforcing anticorrosion performance of epoxy coatings

Preparation and characterization of a novel PVDF ultrafiltration membrane by blending with TiO2-HNTs nanocomposites

Poly(dopamine) assisted epoxy functionalization of hexagonal boron nitride for enhancement of epoxy resin anticorrosion performance