Adsorption of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution by carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals

A novel nanoadsorbent for the removal of heavy metal ions is reported.Cotton was first hydrolyzed to obtain cellulose nanocrystals（CNCs）.CNCs were then chemically modified with succinic anhydride to obtain SCNCs.The sodic nanoadsorbent（NaSCNCs） was further prepared by treatment of SCNCs with saturated NaHCO 3 aqueous solution.Batch experiments were carried out with SCNCs and NaSCNCs for the removal of Pb 2＋ and Cd 2＋.The effects of contact time,pH,initial adsorption concentration,coexisting ions and the regeneration performance were investigated.Kinetic studies showed that the adsorption equilibrium time of Pb 2＋ and Cd 2＋ was reached within 150 min on SCNCs and 5 min on NaSCNCs.The adsorption capacities of Pb 2＋ and Cd 2＋ on SCNCs and NaSCNCs increased with increasing pH.The adsorption isotherm was well fitted by the Langmuir model.The maximum adsorption capacities of SCNCs and NaSCNCs for Pb 2＋ and Cd 2＋ were 367.6 mg/g,259.7 mg/g and 465.1 mg/g,344.8 mg/g,respectively.SCNCs and NaSCNCs showed high selectivity and interference resistance from coexisting ions for the adsorption of Pb 2＋.NaSCNCs could be efficiently regenerated with a mild saturated NaCl solution with no loss of capacity after two recycles.The adsorption mechanisms of SCNCs and NaSCNCs were discussed.

Intensified wintertime secondary inorganic aerosol formation during heavy haze pollution episodes(HPEs) in Beijing,China

Air pollution in China is complex,and the formation mechanism of chemical components in particulate matter is still unclear.This study selected three consecutive heavy haze pollution episodes(HPEs)during winter in Beijing for continuous field observation,including an episode with heavy air pollution under red alert.Clean days during the observation period were selected for comparison.The HPE characteristics of Beijing in winter were:under the influence of adverse meteorological conditions such as high relative humidity,temperature inversion and low wind speed;and strengthening of secondary transformation reactions,which further intensified the accumulation of secondary aerosols and other pollutants,promoting the explosive growth of PM_(2.5).PM_(2.5)/CO values,as indicators of the contribution of secondary transformation in PM_(2.5),were approximately 2 times higher in the HPEs than the average PM_(2.5)/CO during the clean period.The secondary inorganic aerosols(sulfate nitrate and ammonium salt)were significantly enhanced during the HPEs,and the conversion coefficients were remarkably improved.In addition,it is interesting to observe that the production of sulfate tended to exceed that of nitrate in the late stage of all three HPEs.The existence of aqueous phase reactions led to the explosive growth sulfur oxidation ratio(SOR)and rapid generation of sulfate under high relative humidity(RH>70%).

Chemical Components, Variation, and Source Identification of PM1 during the Heavy Air Pollution Episodes in Beijing in December 2016

Air pollution is a current global concern. The heavy air pollution episodes（HPEs） in Beijing in December 2016 severely influenced visibility and public health. This study aims to survey the chemical compositions, sources, and formation processes of the HPEs. An aerodyne quadruple aerosol mass spectrometer（Q-AMS） was utilized to measure the non-refractory PM1（NR-PM1） mass concentration and size distributions of the main chemical components including organics, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and chloride in situ during 15–23 December 2016. The NR-PM1 mass concentration was found to increase from 6 to 188 μg m–3 within 5 days. During the most serious polluted episode, the PM1 mass concentration was about 2.6 times that during the first pollution stage and even 40 times that of the clean days. The formation rates of PM2.5 in the five pollution stages were 26, 22, 22, 32, and 67 μg m^（–3） h–1, respectively. Organics and nitrate occupied the largest proportion in the polluted episodes, whereas organics and sulfate dominated the submicron aerosol during the clean days. The size distribution of organics is always broader than those of other species, especially in the clean episodes. The peak sizes of the interested species grew gradually during different HPEs. Aqueous reaction might be important in forming sulfate and chloride, and nitrate was formed via oxidization and condensation processes. PMF（positive matrix factorization） analysis on AMS mass spectra was employed to separate the organics into different subtypes. Two types of secondary organic aerosol with different degrees of oxidation consisted of 43% of total organics. By contrast, primary organics from cooking, coal combustion, and traffic emissions comprised 57% of the organic aerosols during the HPEs.

A large-scale outdoor atmospheric simulation smog chamber for studying atmospheric photochemical processes:Characterization and preliminary application

Understanding the formation mechanisms of secondary air pollution is very important for the formulation of air pollution control countermeasures in China.Thus,a large-scale outdoor atmospheric simulation smog chamber was constructed at Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences(the CRAES Chamber),which was designed for simulating the atmospheric photochemical processes under the conditions close to the real atmospheric environment.The chamber consisted of a 56-m^(3) fluorinated ethylene propylene(FEP) Teflon film reactor,an electrically-driven stainless steel alloy shield,an auxiliary system,and multiple detection instrumentations.By performing a series of characterization experiments,we obtained basic parameters of the CRAES chamber,such as the mixing ability,the background reactivity,and the wall loss rates of gaseous compounds(propene,NO,NO_(2),ozone) and aerosols(ammonium sulfate).Oxidation experiments were also performed to study the formation of ozone and secondary organic aerosol(SOA),including α-pinene ozonolysis,propene and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene photooxidation.Temperature and seed effects on the vapor wall loss and SOA yields were obtained in this work:higher temperature and the presence of seed could reduce the vapor wall loss;SOA yield was found to depend inversely on temperature,and the presence of seed could increase SOA yield.The seed was suggested to be used in the chamber to reduce the interaction between the gas phase and chamber walls.The results above showed that the CRAES chamber was reliable and could meet the demands for investigating tropospheric chemistry.

Temperature dependence of the heterogeneous uptake of acrylic acid on Arizona test dust

In this study, the temperature dependence of the heterogeneous uptake of acrylic acid on Arizona test dust （ATD） has been investigated within a temperature range of 255-315 K using a Knudsen cell reactor. Combined with diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy （DRIFTS） experiment, it was found that acrylic acid could adsorb on ATD via surface OH groups and convert to carboxylate on the particle surface. The kinetics study suggests that the initial true uptake coefficient （yt） of acrylic acid on ATD decreases from （4.02 ± 0.12） x 10-5 to （1.73 ± 0.05） x 10-5 with a temperature increase from 255 to 315 K. According to the temperature dependence of uptake coefficients, the enthalpy （AHobs） and entropy （ASobs） of uptake processes were determined to be -（9.60± 0.38） KJ/mol and -（121.55 ± 1.33） l.K/mol, respectively. The activation energy for desorption （Edes） was calculated to be （14.57 ± 0.60） KJ/mol. These results indicated that the heterogeneous uptake of acrylic acid on ATD surface was sensitive to temperature. The heterogeneous uptake on ATD could affect the concentration of acrylic acid in the atmosphere, especially at low temperature.