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Research Progress in Nanomaterials for Environmental Remediation
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Research Progress in Nanomaterials for Environmental Remediation

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2025 | Viewed by 1186

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Daniela Caschera

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Guest Editor
Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, ISMN-CNR, via Salaria km 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo Scalo, Rome, Italy
Interests: hybrid organic–inorganic nanocomposites; surface treatments; plasma technologies; smart textiles; environmental remediation; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Roberta G. Toro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
Interests: nanomaterials; photocatalysis; metal oxide nanoparticles stabilized by organic molecules and natural polymers for wastewater treatment application; thin films; metal–organic chemical vapor deposition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Maria Rosaria Plutino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials, ISMN–CNR, Palermo, c/o Department ChiBioFarAm, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: materials chemistry; green chemistry; nanotechnology; environmental remediation; advanced materials; functional coating; colloidal nanoparticles; smart and hi-tech textiles; (waste)water treatment; multifunctional hybrid materials and nanocomposites; sensing technologies; bio-based blended polymers; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water contamination is one of the most serious threats to human health and ecosystems on a global scale. The quality of drinking water has gradually deteriorated globally due to population increase, fast industrialization, climate change, and a lack of effective water quality management. Numerous dangerous environmental pollutants, both organic and inorganic, have become a significant global issue in water bodies. Chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, membrane filtration, coagulation–flocculation, flotation, and electrochemical processes have all been used to treat water and wastewater.

Nanotechnology has shown considerable promise in the realm of water treatment, boosting the effectiveness and efficiency of water decontamination while also providing a sustainable method of securing water supply. Various carbon-, metal-, metal-oxide-, silica-based nanomaterials for water remediation have been studied and tested in the realm of material science. The development of environmentally sustainable nanomaterials with distinct advantages, such as high efficiency and selectivity, earth abundance, recyclability, low-cost manufacturing processes, and stability, has been prioritized in recent years, even though several significant challenges and constraints remain unresolved.

This Special Issue places a special emphasis on recent progress in safe-by-design nanomaterials and the enhancement of their adsorption, photocatalytic, and antibacterial properties (i.e., thorough their synthesis and functionalization by green and/or sustainable approaches) for their application as innovative and eco-friendly solutions for water decontamination.

Dr. Daniela Caschera
Dr. Roberta G. Toro
Dr. Maria Rosaria Plutino
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • smart nanomaterials
  • nanohybrids
  • nanocomposites
  • green chemistry
  • sustainable technologies
  • water remediation
  • circular economy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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17 pages, 4600 KiB  
Article
Efficient Photodegradation of Thiocyanate Ions in Mining Wastewater Using a ZnO-BiOI Heterojunction
by Darlington C. Ashiegbu, David Nkhoesa, Rudolph Erasmus and Herman Johanes Potgieter
Materials 2024, 17(15), 3832; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17153832 - 2 Aug 2024
Viewed by 678
Abstract
Mining industries have long relied on cyanidation as the primary method for gold extraction, but this process generates thiocyanates as a problematic byproduct, posing challenges for wastewater treatment and recycling. The stability of thiocyanates makes their reduction or elimination in mining wastewater difficult. [...] Read more.
Mining industries have long relied on cyanidation as the primary method for gold extraction, but this process generates thiocyanates as a problematic byproduct, posing challenges for wastewater treatment and recycling. The stability of thiocyanates makes their reduction or elimination in mining wastewater difficult. In this study, a p-n heterojunction of ZnO and BiOI was created and evaluated for its ability to photodegrade thiocyanate ions under simulated solar conditions. Various analytical techniques revealed a highly porous structure with a sponge-like morphology and agglomeration in the synthesized heterojunction. The compound exhibited crystalline patterns without impurity peaks, a slight red shift in absorbance, and Type IV isotherm adsorption. The synthesized heterostructure achieved the complete destruction of thiocyanate ions in less than 30 min. The investigation of different process parameters indicated that the destruction of the contaminant by the heterostructure was influenced by the initial thiocyanate concentration, which decreased as the thiocyanate concentration increased. The peak photodestruction reaction was observed at pH 7. By applying a pseudo-first-order kinetic model, it was found that increasing the catalyst mass to 15 mg raised the rate constant from 0.188 to 0.420 min−1, while increasing the pH to 10 led to a 3.5-fold reduction. The strong correlation between the observed data and the predicted values of the pseudo-first-order kinetic model was indicated by the observed (R2) values. The findings of this study hold potential significance for mining industries, as it offers a potential solution for eliminating cyanide and thiocyanates from mining wastewater. The elimination of thiocyanate generation in the cyanidation process is crucial for mining companies, making this study valuable for the industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Progress in Nanomaterials for Environmental Remediation)
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