Role of nanomaterials in water treatment applications: a review.

The detection of explosives is one of the current pressing concerns in global security. In the past few decades, a large number of emissive sensing materials have been developed for the detection of explosives in vapor, solution, and solid states through fluorescence methods. In recent years, great efforts have been devoted to develop new fluorescent materials with various sensing mechanisms for detecting explosives in order to achieve super-sensitivity, ultra-selectivity, as well as fast response time. This review article starts with a brief introduction on various sensing mechanisms for fluorescence based explosive detection, and then summarizes in an exhaustive and systematic way the state-of-the-art of fluorescent materials for explosive detection with a focus on the research in the recent 5 years. A wide range of fluorescent materials, such as conjugated polymers, small fluorophores, supramolecular systems, bio-inspired materials and aggregation induced emission-active materials, and their sensing performance and sensing mechanism are the centerpiece of this review. Finally, conclusions and future outlook are presented and discussed.

Fluorescence based explosive detection: from mechanisms to sensory materials.

Highly porous N-doped carbons have been successfully prepared by using KOH as activating agent and polypyrrole (PPy) as carbon precursor. These materials were investigated as sorbents for CO2 capture. The activation process was carried out under severe (KOH/PPy = 4) or mild (KOH/PPy = 2) activation conditions at different temperatures in the 600–800 °C range. Mildly activated carbons have two important characteristics: i) they contain a large number of nitrogen functional groups (up to 10.1 wt% N) identified as pyridonic-N with a small proportion of pyridinic-N groups, and ii) they exhibit, in relation to the carbons prepared with KOH/PPy = 4, narrower micropore sizes. The combination of both of these properties explains the large CO2 adsorption capacities of mildly activated carbon. In particular, a very high CO2 adsorption uptake of 6.2 mmol·g−1 (0 °C) was achieved for porous carbons prepared with KOH/PPy = 2 and 600 °C (1700 m2·g−1, pore size ≈ 1 nm and 10.1 wt% N). Furthermore, we observed that these porous carbons exhibit high CO2 adsorption rates, a good selectivity for CO2-N2 separation and it can be easily regenerated.

/pdf/n-doped-polypyrrole-based-porous-carbons-for-co2-capture-1ulslcd72m.pdf

N-Doped Polypyrrole-Based Porous Carbons for CO2 Capture

Most of the metal ions are carcinogens and lead to serious health concerns by producing free radicals. Hence, fast and accurate detection of metal ions has become a critical issue. Among various metal ions arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and chromium are considered to be highly toxic. To detect these metal ions, electrochemical biosensors with interfaces such as microorganisms, enzymes, microspheres, nanomaterials like gold, silver nanoparticles, CNTs, and metal oxides have been developed. Among these, nanomaterials are considered to be most promising, owing to their strong adsorption, fast electron transfer kinetics, and biocompatibility, which are very apt for biosensing applications. The coupling of electrochemical techniques with nanomaterials has enhanced the sensitivity, limit of detection, and robustness of the sensors. In this review, toxicity mechanisms of various metal ions and their relationship towards the induction of oxidative stress have been summarized. Also, electrochemical biosensors employed in the detection of metal ions with various interfaces have been highlighted.

A review on detection of heavy metal ions in water – An electrochemical approach

A review on various electrochemical techniques for heavy metal ions detection with different sensing platforms

The strong adsorbability of Ag(I) and Hg(II) ions onto fine poly(o-phenylenediamine) (PoPD) microparticles synthesized through a chemically oxidative polymerization of o-phenylenediamine was system...

Powerful Reactive Sorption of Silver(I) and Mercury(II) onto Poly(o-phenylenediamine) Microparticles

An initiator is applied to synthesize single-walled carbon nanotube/polyaniline composite nanofibers for use as high-performance chemosensors. The composite nanofibers possess widely tunable conductivities (10(-4) to 10(2) S/cm) with up to 5.0 wt % single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) loadings. Chemosensors fabricated from the composite nanofibers synthesized with a 1.0 wt % SWCNT loading respond much more rapidly to low concentrations (100 ppb) of HCl and NH(3) vapors compared to polyaniline nanofibers alone (120 s vs 1000 s). These nanofibrillar SWCNT/polyaniline composite nanostructures are promising materials for use as low-cost disposable sensors and as electrodes due to their widely tunable conductivities.

Carbon nanotube/polyaniline composite nanofibers: facile synthesis and chemosensors.

Fine microparticles of poly(p-phenylenediamine) (PpPD) and poly(m-phenylenediamine) (PmPD) were directly synthesized by a facile oxidative precipitation polymerization and their strong ability to adsorb lead ions from aqueous solution was examined. It was found that the degree of adsorption of the lead ions depends on the pH, concentration, and temperature of the lead ion solution, as well as the contact time and microparticle dose. The adsorption data fit the Langmuir isotherm and the process obeyed pseudo-second-order kinetics. According to the Langmuir equation, the maximum adsorption capacities of lead ions onto PpPD and PmPD microparticles at 30 degrees C are 253.2 and 242.7 mg g(-1), respectively. The highest adsorptivity of lead ions is up to 99.8 %. The adsorption is very rapid with a loading half-time of only 2 min as well as initial adsorption rates of 95.24 and 83.06 mg g(-1) min(-1) on PpPD and PmPD particles, respectively. A series of batch experiment results showed that the PpPD microparticles possess an even stronger capability to adsorb lead ions than the PmPD microparticles, but the PmPD microparticles, with a more-quinoid-like structure, show a stronger dependence of lead-ion adsorption on the pH and temperature of the lead-ion solution. A possible adsorption mechanism through complexation between Pb(2+) ions and ==N-- groups on the macromolecular chains has been proposed. The powerful lead-ion adsorption on the microparticles makes them promising adsorbents for wastewater cleanup.

Rapid and effective adsorption of lead ions on fine poly(phenylenediamine) microparticles.

Novel copolymer nanoparticles were easily synthesized with a polymerization yield of 59.3 % by an oxidative precipitation polymerization of aniline (AN) and m-sulfophenylenediamine (SP) in HCl without any external stabilizer. The polymerization yield, size, morphology, electroconductivity, solubility, solvatochromism, lead and mercury ion adsorbability of the HCl-doped copolymer salt particles were studied by changing the AN/SP ratio. The AN/SP (80:20) copolymer particles are found to have the minimal number-average diameter(84.4 nm), minimal size polydispersity index (1.149), high stability, good long-term stability, powerful redispersibility in water, high purity, and clean surface because of a complete elimination of the contamination from external stabilizer. The copolymer salts possess a remarkably enhanced solubility, interesting solvatochromism, and widely adjustable electroconductivity moving across nine orders of magnitudes from 10(-9) to 10(0) S cm(-1). The AN/SP (70:30) copolymer particles have the highest Hg2+ adsorbance and adsorptivity of 497.7 mg g(-1) and 98.8 %, respectively, which are much higher values than those of other materials. The sorption mechanism of lead and mercury ions on the particles is proposed. The copolymer bases with 5-10 mol % SP unit show excellent film formability, flexibility, and smooth appearance. The copolymer should be very useful in the fabrication of cost-effective conductive nanocomposite with low percolation threshold and in removal of toxic metallic ions from waste water.

Synthesis and Heavy‐Metal‐Ion Sorption of Pure Sulfophenylenediamine Copolymer Nanoparticles with Intrinsic Conductivity and Stability

A series of novel copolymer microparticles from 4-sulfonic diphenylamine (SDP) and 1,8-diaminonaphthalene (DAN) was facilely prepared by a chemically oxidative polymerization. The structures and properties of the microparticles were systematically characterized by several important techniques. The microparticles exhibit good water resistance and high thermostability. Their electrical conductivity significantly rises after HCl doping or Ag adsorption. The Ag+ reactive adsorbability of the microparticles was optimized by carefully regulating the SDP/DAN ratio, particle size, and Ag+ solution pH. Both the introduction of SDP units into DAN polymer chains and the diminution of the particle size can effectively increase the capacity and rate of Ag+ adsorption. In particular, the Ag+ adsorbance on SDP/DAN (30/70) copolymer microparticles reaches 2.0 g g-1, which is the highest silver adsorption capacity reported thus far. A novel mechanism of Ag+ reactive adsorption on the microparticles containing a large numb...

Xin-Gui Li

Papers

Powerful Reactive Sorption of Silver(I) and Mercury(II) onto Poly(o-phenylenediamine) Microparticles

Carbon nanotube/polyaniline composite nanofibers: facile synthesis and chemosensors.

Rapid and effective adsorption of lead ions on fine poly(phenylenediamine) microparticles.

Synthesis and Heavy‐Metal‐Ion Sorption of Pure Sulfophenylenediamine Copolymer Nanoparticles with Intrinsic Conductivity and Stability

Facile Synthesis and Highly Reactive Silver Ion Adsorption of Novel Microparticles of Sulfodiphenylamine and Diaminonaphthalene Copolymers