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Emerging contaminants in polluted waters: Harnessing Biochar's potential for effective treatment
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This review explores how biochar, a carbon-rich material made from organic waste, can be used to remove a wide range of pollutants from contaminated water, including microplastics, heavy metals, antibiotics, and PFAS. Biochar works through multiple mechanisms like adsorption, electrostatic interactions, and chemical bonding, and can be enhanced through surface modifications. The study highlights biochar as a low-cost, adaptable tool for addressing emerging water contaminants.
Biochar is a carbon-rich, sponge-like material with intricate functionalities, making it suitable for various environmental remediation applications, including water treatment, soil amendment and, additives in construction materials, anaerobic digesters, and electrodes, among others. Its easy adaptability and low cost make it particularly attractive. This review highlights a range of biochar and surface-modified biochar exhibiting high uptake and degradation efficiencies for a broad spectrum of contaminants, including humic acid, disinfection by-products (DBPs), radioactive materials, dyes, heavy metals, antibiotics, microplastics, pathogens, Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and cytotoxins. The study provides a detailed discussion on different classes of pollutants and their removal mechanisms using biochar, covering processes like physical and chemical adsorption, electrostatic interactions, π-π interactions, hydrogen bonding, as well as surface complexation, chelation, among others. This review article stands out for its comprehensive exploration of biochar's effectiveness in removing a wide range of emerging contaminants, as well as recent advancements in the removal of conventional pollutants like heavy metals and antibiotics.
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Adsorption of Pollutants from Wastewater by Biochar: A Review
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This review examines how biochar, a carbon-rich material made from organic waste, can be used to remove pollutants including microplastics, heavy metals, and organic chemicals from wastewater. Biochar works by adsorbing contaminants onto its surface, and its effectiveness can be improved through chemical modifications. The technology offers a low-cost, sustainable approach to water treatment that could help reduce microplastic contamination in water supplies.
Biochar-based adsorption technologies for microplastic remediation in aquatic ecosystems
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This review examines the use of biochar, a carbon-rich material made from organic waste, as a tool for removing microplastics from water. Biochar can effectively adsorb microplastic particles due to its porous structure and surface chemistry, and it can be produced cheaply from agricultural waste. The technology shows promise as an affordable and sustainable approach to reducing microplastic contamination in waterways, though challenges remain in scaling it up for real-world water treatment.
A review on waste biomass-derived biochar: Production, characterisation, and advanced analytical techniques for pollutants assessment in water and wastewater
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This review pulls together current research on biochar, a charcoal-like material made from waste plant matter, showing how it can be produced and used to filter out harmful pollutants like heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and microplastics from water. This matters because these contaminants can end up in our drinking water and food supply, and biochar offers a low-cost, eco-friendly way to remove them before they reach us. As a review, this paper doesn't present new experiments but instead summarizes and organizes existing science to help researchers improve water treatment methods going forward.
Trends in the applications of biochar for the abatement of microplastics in water
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This review examines how biochar can be used to remove microplastics and nanoplastics from water, summarizing recent advances in biochar modification strategies that improve adsorption capacity and minimize secondary pollution risks.
Removal of micro- and nano-plastics from aqueous matrices using modified biochar – A review of synthesis, applications, interaction, and regeneration
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This review examines how modified biochar materials can be used to remove micro- and nanoplastics from water. Researchers found that chemical functionalization and nanoparticle integration of biochar significantly improve its ability to capture plastic particles through mechanisms like electrostatic interaction and physical adsorption. The study also highlights challenges in regenerating used biochar for sustainable reuse in water treatment applications.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.