With the rapid development of industry, a large number of pollutants are discharged into the environment, causing many environmental problems, such as soil, water and air pollution, which poses a great threat to the ecological environment and human health. In recent years, with the rise and development of nanotechnology, various nanomaterials have been widely used in the treatment of environmental pollutants. Compared with traditional materials, nanomaterials have the advantages of large specific surface area and many active sites, and are considered to be excellent materials for handling many pollutants.

What is the nano material?

Nanomaterials means that the basic unit of the material is in a three-dimensional space, with at least one dimension in the range of 1-100nm. Nanomaterials can be divided into four categories according to their dimensions:

(1) Zero-dimensional nanomaterials (0D): The three-dimensional scales of materials are all within the nanoscale range, such as atomic clusters, quantum dots, and nanoparticles;

(2) One-dimensional nanomaterials (1D): Two dimensions in the three-dimensional space of materials are in the nanoscale range, such as nanowires, nanorods, nanobelts, and nanotubes;

(3) Two-dimensional nanomaterials (2D): One dimension in the three-dimensional space of the material is in the range of nanometers, such as nanosheets, nanomembranes, and nanoplates;

(4) Three-dimensional nanomaterials (3D): a block with a multi-level structure composed of the above-mentioned nanomaterials as basic units, such as flower balls assembled from nanosheets and hollow microspheres assembled from nanorods.

Among many environmental materials, environmental materials with nanostructures have become a hot spot in the environmental field due to their large specific surface area, many active sites, and strong pollutant removal capabilities.

Application of Synthetic Nanomaterials in Environmental Treatment

Synthetic nanomaterials are materials with a certain nanostructure synthesized by physical and chemical processing methods. Compared with natural nanomaterials, synthetic nanomaterials have purer components, more diverse structures, and more outstanding performance. Because synthetic nanomaterials generally have the characteristics of large specific surface area and many surface active sites, they have received continuous attention in the treatment of environmental pollutants.

However, the removal of pollutants by nanomaterials is closely related to its specific surface area. Generally speaking, a large specific surface area is conducive to the removal of pollutants. For nanomaterials, the smaller the size, the larger the specific surface area and the corresponding active sites, which is more conducive to the removal of pollutants. However, the smaller the size, the separation and recovery of the precipitate after the pollutant treatment becomes a major problem. However, when the particle size of the nanomaterial is large, its specific surface area is small, and the removal effect of pollutants is not good. In contrast, nanomaterials with multi-level structures generally have a larger specific surface area and better pollutant removal performance, so they have a broader application prospect in the environmental field.

In the environmental field, in addition to synthesizing nanomaterials with hierarchical structures through various methods, combining multiple nanomaterials together to prepare nanocomposites through a certain method is also a way to improve the properties of nanomaterials. While maintaining the properties of the original components, nanocomposite materials may also produce new properties that the original components do not have due to the composite.

In addition, the composite material can realize the complementary advantages of each component through the design of the raw materials, the distribution of each component and the process conditions, and maximize the advantages of each component. Compared with a single nanomaterial, nanocomposite materials composed of multiple nanomaterials often have better performance in the actual removal of complex pollutants.

For example, Panetal loaded MnO2 nanoparticles on graphene oxide films through in-situ redox reactions. The results showed that the presence of MnO2 nanoparticles increased the specific surface area of graphene oxide, and the nanocomposite exhibited extremely high simultaneous removal capabilities for the radionuclides Th(IV) and U(VI) in water.

The Fe3O4/sepiolite nanocomposite material obtained by Yuetal by the microwave-assisted method not only shows good dispersibility, but also has an excellent reduction and removal effect on low concentrations of Cr.

In addition, Liuetal uses nano-brucite curd as the substrate, and loads nano-zero-valent iron on the nano-sheets of brucite curd to avoid the aggregation of nano-zero-valent iron particles, thereby greatly improving the reduction and removal of heavy metal Pb(II). ability.

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