A new cotton-based hydrogel nanocomposite was successfully prepared by free radical graft copolymerization of acrylamide (AAm) and acrylonitrile (AN) onto fabric followed by insertion of Ag nanoparticles. Ammonium persulfate (APS) was used as an initiator in the presence of a cross-linker, methylene bisacrylamide (MBA). Fourier transform infrared, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy were employed to confirm the structure of the hydrogel nanocomposite. Initially, the affecting variables onto graft polymerization (i.e. AAm, AN, MBA, APS, and silver concentrations) were systematically optimized to achieve a hydrogel with swelling capacity as high as possible. The resulted nanocomposite exhibits superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic properties. Therefore, the grafted fabric selectively separated water from oil/water mixtures with high separation efficiency. The influences of filter type, percentage of coated hydrogel on cotton, presence of silver nanoparticles, pH of solution, extracted oil type, as well as hydrogel nanocomposite on the separation efficiency of filters were also studied in detail. Moreover, pH of zero point charge (pHzₚc) of the hydrogel nanocomposite was determined by alkaline titration method, and a value of 6.5 was obtained.

The Tubarão River rises in Santa Catarina, Brazil, and has been historically affected by coal mining activities around its springhead. To evaluate its water conditions, an investigation regarding a possible decontamination gradient associated with the increased river flow toward the estuary, as well as the influence of seasonality over this gradient was performed through a series of biomarkers (vitellogenin, comet assay, lipid peroxidation, protein carbonylation, gluthatione, gluthatione S-transferase, acetylcholinesterase, light microscopy in liver, and scanning electron microscopy in gills) and chemical analysis (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in bile and metal analysis in sediment) in the cichlid Geophagus brasiliensis. Two collections (summer and winter) were made in four distinct sites along the river, while sediments were sampled between those seasons. As expected, the contamination linked exclusively to mining activities was not observed, possibly due to punctual inputs of contaminants. The decontamination gradient was not observed, although seasonality seemed to have a critical role in the responses of biomarkers and availability of contaminants. In the summer, the fish presented higher histopathological damages and lower concentrations of PAHs, while in the winter they showed both higher genetic damage and accumulation of PAHs. The Tubarão suffers impacts from diverse activities, representing health risks for wild and human populations.

A study on the surface modification of uncontaminated sediment dredged for new port development with surfactant was performed, and the effectiveness of surface modified sediment for in-situ capping to control pollutant (N, P) release from the contaminated coastal sediments into seawater was also investigated. From this experiment, the adsorbed amount of surfactants on the surface of sediment particles was increased with the increase in the surfactant concentration. A more feasible method for the sediment modification with surfactants was mechanical shaking for 3 h, compared to sonication for 30 min or microwave radiation for 3 min. The adsorption capacities of the sediments modified with cationic surfactant (hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide [HDTMA]) were 40 mg g⁻¹ for ammonia-nitrogen, 16 mg g⁻¹ for nitrate-nitrogen, 31 mg g⁻¹ for phosphorus, which are higher those of the sediment modified with anionic (SDS) and nonionic surfactants (TX-100). The capping layer with the sediment modified with HDTMA in column experiment was effective for inhibiting the release of nitrogen and phosphorus from the contaminated sediment into overlying seawater, indicating that the cationic surfactant modified sediment is reusable as a good in-situ capping material for contaminated coastal sediment.

Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) are extremely persistent and have been found extensively in the environment and wildlife. Oceans are the final sink for many persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including PFCs. However, to date, there has been a lack of studies that investigated the environmental consequences of PFCs on marine organisms. To fill in this gap, environmental toxicity of two dominant PFCs, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), was examined in a sentinel species, green mussel Perna viridis, using a series of biomarkers corresponding to different biological levels (molecular, cellular, and physiological). Correlations among these biomarkers were also investigated. The results showed that the tested compounds can induce a series adverse effect at different biological levels, including oxidative stress, DNA damage, membrane instability, suppressed filtration rate, and reduced body weight. Correlation analysis revealed that excess production of reactive oxygen species could be the major toxic pathway. An indirect mode of toxic action was also explored where adverse impacts could be secondary effects of PFC exposure. The joint analysis of biomarkers from multiple biological levels resulted in a comprehensive understanding of how PFC exposure can influence the health of organisms. The correlations of these biomarkers also provided a new perspective of the ecological consequences of PFCs.

The contamination of hazardous metal(loid) is one of the serious environmental and human health risks. This study isolated a total of 40 cadmium (Cd)- and arsenic (As)-resistant bacterial isolates from coastal sediments by pour plate technique using tryptic soy agar supplemented with Cd or As (50 mg l⁻¹) for use as metal(loid) bioremediation agents. Out of 40, 4 isolates, RCd3, RCd6, RAs7, and RAs10, showed a relatively higher growth rate in Cd- or As-supplemented culture media which were selected for further study. The selected isolates showed a high minimum inhibitory concentration (60–400 mg l⁻¹for Cd and 400–2200 mg l⁻¹for As), which demonstrated their remarkable Cd and As resistance capabilities. The metal(loid) removal efficiencies (0.032–0.268 μg Cd h⁻¹ mg⁻¹and 0.0003–0.0172 μg As h⁻¹ mg⁻¹[wet weight cell]) of selected isolates indicated their greater magnitude in absorbing Cd compared to As from water. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA sequences revealed that isolates RCd3, RCd6, RAs7, and RAs10 were closely related to Acinetobacter brisouii, Pseudomonas abietaniphila, Exiguobacterium aestuarii, and Planococcus rifietoensis, respectively. Because of high Cd and As resistance and removal efficiency, the selected isolates can survive in a high metal(loid)-contaminated environment and could be a potential tool for bioremediation of high metal(loid)-contaminated effluents to protect the aquatic environment.

In order to assess correctly the gases emissions from oil/gas field water and its contributions to the source of greenhouse gases (GHG) at the atmospheric temperature and pressure, a simulation experiment was first developed to study the natural emissions of GHG into the atmosphere in the southern gas field, Sichuan Basin, China. The result showed that methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) were the two gases that released from the gas field water. Time and temperature played important roles in GHG emissions, and the higher temperature was found to enhance carbon emissions. Under the lower/intermediate temperature conditions (5 and 15 °C), majority of gases were released from the gas field water during the first 2 h, whereas under the higher temperature conditions (30 °C), the majority of gas released from the gas field water continued for 12 h. By dividing the whole emission duration into six time durations (one time duration was 12 h), we calculated the fluxes of CH₄and CO₂. The substantial variation in the gas fluxes reflected that the cumulation of time also played a crucial role in the process of GHG emissions. In the first emission duration (0–12 h) at 30 °C, the maximum fluxes of CH₄and CO₂were 1.47 and 1.87 g/m³·h, respectively. The values were obviously higher than those in other durations, so were the fluxes shift in different durations at 5 and 15 °C. Additionally, we found that the emissions released from the gas field water which came from overpressure formation formed higher carbon emissions.

In this study, the adsorbent, magnetic NaY zeolite was synthesized for simultaneous removal of three toxic cationic dyes, methylene blue, crystal violet, and fuchsine, from aqueous solutions. The influences of five dominant parameters of pH, temperature, time, initial dyes concentration, and adsorbent mass on dyes adsorption were investigated. The percentage of dye removal was mathematically described as a function of experimental parameters and was modeled through central composite design (CCD). According to the predicted experiments, optimum conditions of 10.3, 50 °C, 45 min, 10 mg L⁻¹, and 46.2 mg, for pH, temperature, time, initial dyes concentration, and adsorbent mass were resulted, respectively. The maximum experimentally achieved dye removal percent of 98.4 ± 0.6, 98.1 ± 0.5, and 98.1 ± 0.3 were obtained, which were close to the percent of model dye removal prediction of 99.0, 98.6, and 98.4 for methylene blue, crystal violet, and fuchsine, respectively. This agreement showed that the central composite design model could ideally make an acceptable estimation of the process.

Textile industry is responsible for a large amount of wastewater inappropriate for both human consumption and aquatic species. Aquatic ecosystems are way more sensitive to the release of textile wastewater, and the usage of Winogradsky columns is interesting, once they are a simulated aquatic ecosystem in which the growth of algae and other microorganisms can be observed. In this research, simulated textile effluents with the dye Acid Blue 40 were treated with an electrolytic reactor, for a later ecotoxicological evaluation using Winogradsky columns. The algal and microbial population and primary production were measured. The results have shown that the electrolytic treatment was satisfactory when it comes to color removal, but the presence of the treated effluent in the Winogradsky columns changed the microecosystem. The number of algae identified decreased when exposed to certain effluents, and some algae groups even disappeared, while others such as Cyanophyceae were benefited.

From April 2006 to April 2007, the geographical and seasonal variation in nitrogen content in terricolous lichen (Cladonia portentosa) and atmospheric ammonia concentrations were measured at five heathland sites. The seasonal variation in the nitrogen content of the lichen was small, even though there was a large seasonal variation in the air concentration of ammonia. A sizable local variation in the nitrogen content of the lichen was found even at the scale of a few kilometres. The nitrogen content in the lichen showed a high correlation to the yearly mean value of the measured ammonia concentration in air at the different locations. This investigation is part of a larger attempt to incorporate effects of nitrogen in the conservation status of terrestrial habitat types.

Removal of hexavalent chromium by precipitation from wastewater has received increasing interest in recent years. This study described the behavior of chromium and iron coprecipitation mediated by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans DC in an artificial simulated acid environment. In four parallel groups with the different concentrations of chromium(VI) (30, 60, 90, 120 mg/L), the precipitation efficiencies of chromium were enhanced uniformly by A. ferrooxidans DC. But chromium coprecipitation efficiency reduced as the initial chromium concentration increasing at the early stage. Especially in the 30 and 60 mg/L chromium groups, the maximum precipitation efficiency of chromium was improved from 56.22, 55.01 to 75.72, 74.37 % on the fourth day. Additionally, the characteristics of the precipitates were analyzed by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Results showed that the precipitates were mainly present as jarosites and A. ferrooxidans was conducive to producing precipitates with good crystalline form and uniform dispersion with pH decrease, redox potential (ORP) increase, and iron oxidation. It can be concluded that the chromium could be incorporated into the jarosites through a certain biochemical reaction such as structural substitution, which shows a potential to remove chromium from wastewater by the bio-coprecipitation.