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Sustainability
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Research on Chemical Pollutants and Sustainable Environment Management
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Research on Chemical Pollutants and Sustainable Environment Management

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 29 August 2025 | Viewed by 2564

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Anna Turek

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Guest Editor
Institute of General and Ecological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, Zeromskiego Str. 116, 90-924 Lodz, Poland
Interests: environmental analytical chemistry; spectroscopy; environmental protection; soil; water and plant contaminants; metal migration in the environment; environmental monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Kinga Wieczorek

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Guest Editor
Institute of General and Ecological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, Zeromskiego Str. 116, 90-924 Lodz, Poland
Interests: river water quality; soil pollution; environmental analytical chemistry; multivariate statistical analysis; determination of metals in environmental samples
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue, “Research on Chemical Pollutants and Sustainable Environment Management”, of Sustainability.

The dynamic development of the world economy, combined with the rapid growth of the population, has had a negative impact on the natural environment for many years. The deteriorating condition of the environment observed in practically all countries requires the development of appropriate control systems. An important element of environmental control and management is monitoring; its purpose is to assess the condition and forecast the direction of changes occurring in the environment. The monitoring system includes collecting and processing data, preparing reports, and making data available to administrations, as well as to citizens. Monitoring is a tool in the assessment of environmental quality, as well as sustainable environmental resource management. An efficiently functioning, integrated monitoring system requires the development of appropriate research methods.

Given the complexity and wide scope of environmental research, this Special Issue welcomes articles presenting a holistic approach to the problems of pollution and environmental protection, as well as describing achievements in research methodology and data interpretation. Contributions from different disciplines can be highly effective in explaining the responses of environmental components to stressors and developing innovative solutions for the protection and restoration of the environment. In this context, we also invite you to present interdisciplinary works on methods of preventing environmental damage, protecting ecosystems, integrated and sustainable resource management, as well as strategies for the development of land and water management policies.

We invite original research articles and critical reviews on topics related (but not limited) to the following:

  • Chemical pollutants—sources, fate, migration, and accumulation in ecosystems.
  • Water, soil and plant quality control.
  • Water–soil–plant interactions.
  • The impact of land use on water and plant quality.
  • Policy in water and soil management.

Dr. Anna Turek
Dr. Kinga Wieczorek
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • chemical pollutants
  • migration
  • risk assessment
  • monitoring
  • water
  • soil
  • plant
  • environmental analysis

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 5018 KiB  
Article
Biotechnological Applications of the Ubiquitous Fungus Penicillium sp. 8L2: Biosorption of Zn(II) and Synthesis of ZnO Nanoparticles as Biocidal Agents
by Antonio Jesús Muñoz Cobo, Francisco Espínola Lozano, Manuel Moya Vilar, Celia Martín Valenzuela and Encarnación Ruiz Ramos
Sustainability 2025, 17(6), 2379; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17062379 - 8 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 933
Abstract
In this study, the capacity of the ubiquitous filamentous fungus Penicillium sp. 8L2 to remove Zn(II) ions present in synthetic solutions was studied and the optimal operating conditions were obtained based on a response surface methodology (RSM). The contact time was optimized through [...] Read more.
In this study, the capacity of the ubiquitous filamentous fungus Penicillium sp. 8L2 to remove Zn(II) ions present in synthetic solutions was studied and the optimal operating conditions were obtained based on a response surface methodology (RSM). The contact time was optimized through kinetic tests. Equilibrium tests were then carried out, which allowed biosorption isotherms to be obtained for several mathematical models. At the same time, the capacity of the fungal cell extract to transform metal ions into ZnO nanoparticles with a biocidal capacity was evaluated. Its inhibitory capacity for five microbial strains was then determined. The biosorption mechanisms and nanoparticle synthesis were characterized by different crystallographic, spectrophotometric and microscopic analytical techniques. It was confirmed that the metal was bound superficially but also in the periplasmic space with a strong bond to phosphate groups, both in the biosorption stage and during the synthesis and consolidation of the nanoparticles. In addition, the presence of hydroxyl, amino, carbonyl and methylene groups was identified, which could promote the synthesis of nanoparticles, since some of them have a reducing nature. The kinetics showed that the biosorption of Zn(II) occurred in two stages, the first very fast and the second slower. Equilibrium tests identified a maximum biosorption capacity of 52.14 mg/g for the Langmuir model under optimized conditions: a contact time of 5 days, pH 5.6 and a 0.2 g/L biomass dose. The success of the biological synthesis route was confirmed and ZnO nanoparticles with an average size of 18 nm were obtained. The data showed that the nanoparticles showed a good inhibition ability against the tested microorganisms, with values ranging from 62.5 to 1000 µg/mL. Penicillium sp. 8L2 is a promising ubiquitous microorganism in the field of heavy metal biosorption and applied biotechnology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Chemical Pollutants and Sustainable Environment Management)
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15 pages, 3679 KiB  
Article
Biosorption, Recovery and Reuse of Cu(II) by Penicillium sp. 8L2: A Proposal Framed Within Environmental Regeneration and the Sustainability of Mineral Resources
by Antonio Jesus Muñoz Cobo, Francisco Espinola Lozano, Manuel Moya Vilar, Celia Martin Valenzuela and Encarnación Ruiz Ramos
Sustainability 2024, 16(24), 11001; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162411001 - 15 Dec 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1295
Abstract
The copper contamination of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is a major global environmental problem. Copper is a metal used in many industrial and agricultural processes that is bioaccumulative and highly toxic, making its elimination, recovery and reuse of great interest for environmental sustainability. [...] Read more.
The copper contamination of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is a major global environmental problem. Copper is a metal used in many industrial and agricultural processes that is bioaccumulative and highly toxic, making its elimination, recovery and reuse of great interest for environmental sustainability. At the same time, the use of ubiquitous microorganisms is presented as a crucial tool in the field of the sustainability of mineral resources, which in many cases end up as bioaccumulative pollutants, since they can allow the recovery of metallic ions present in low concentrations and, in parallel, the reconversion of these into crystalline species that can be used in other technological fields. The potential of a ubiquitous microorganism, Penicillium sp. 8L2, to retain Cu(II) ions was investigated, as well as the ability of its cellular extract to synthesize CuO nanoparticles, which were subsequently evaluated as biocidal agents against five microorganisms. A response surface methodology was used to determine the optimal operating conditions of the biosorption process, setting the pH at 4.8 and the biomass concentration at 0.8 g/L and obtaining a maximum biosorption capacity at equilibrium of 25.79 mg/g for the Langmuir model. Different analytical techniques were used to study the biosorption mechanisms, which revealed the presence of surface adsorption and intracellular bioaccumulation phenomena involving different functional groups. The fungal cell extract allowed the successful synthesis of CuO-NPs with an average size of 22 nm. The biocidal tests performed with the nanoparticles showed promising values of minimum inhibitory concentrations between 62.5 and 500 µg/mL. Penicillium sp. 8L2 showed good potential for its application in the field of heavy metal bioremediation and for the green synthesis of nanoparticles useful in biomedicine. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Chemical Pollutants and Sustainable Environment Management)
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