B. Al-Najar

Green and Ecofriendly Materials for the Remediation of Inorganic and Organic Pollutants in Water

The widespread of organic and inorganic pollutants in wastewater from various industries, are responsible for serious environmental problems meanwhile represent a danger for human being. Therefore, the search of cost-effective methods of wastewater treatment containing in particular heavy metals and dyes, become of great importance. Noteworthy, adsorption has proven to be most effective technology for purification of wastewater from organic and inorganic pollutants. In this review, different types of green and ecofriendly materials (biosorbents, graphene-based composites, metal oxides, etc.) for dyes and heavy metals adsorption will be discussed. The biosorbents such as agricultural waste materials (waste seeds, orange peel, exhausted coffee ground powder, wood apple shell, sweet potato peels, wheat straws, etc.), activated carbon prepared from different types of agricultural waste (coconut husk, forest and wood-processing residues, papaya seeds, magnetic biochar etc.), graphene-based adsorbents and their derivatives, obtained by eco-friendly green synthesis, have been discussed and their adsorption activity has been described in details.

Co2+ substituted La2CuO4/LaCoO3 perovskite nanocomposites: synthesis, properties and heterogeneous catalytic performance

Cobalt substituted La2CuO4/LaCoO3 perovskite nanocomposites were prepared using a microwave combustion method. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that Co2+ substitution in La2CuO4 induced the formation of a secondary LaCoO3 phase with rhombohedral structure along with the existing orthorhombic (La2CuO4) structure. The orthorhombic/rhombohedral structured nanocomposites possessed an average crystallite size in the range of 36–46 nm and 21–49 nm, respectively. The Rietveld analysis confirmed the formation of these two phases. The appearance of FT-IR bands around 682 and 512 cm−1 was correlated to the orthorhombic stretching modes while the bands around 580 and 445 cm−1 were associated with the rhombohedral stretching modes thereby confirming the two-phase perovskite system. An optical study revealed two linear regions depicting two band gaps related to the La2CuO4 and LaCoO3 phases. The band gap was found to increase with an increase in the Co2+ doping fraction. Morphological observations using scanning electron microscopy showed intragranular pores and fused grains with distinct grain boundaries. The change in the magnetic properties was associated most probably with the exchange of the A and B sites within the La2CuO4 host lattice because of Co2+ doping, as well as the important phase composition of La2CuO4/LaCoO3 obtained from the ferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic transition. The BET surface area of the pure and doped nanocomposites was found to vary considerably within the range of 12.2–43.7 m2 g−1. The as-fabricated La2CuO4/LaCoO3 perovskite nanocomposites were evaluated for the conversion of glycerol to formic acid in a liquid phase batch reactor under atmospheric conditions. This La3+ based nanocomposite behaves as an efficient bifunctional catalyst with high conversion efficiency and selectivity around 96.5% and 95.1%, respectively.