Although the development of constructing oil-water separation materials is quick, the defects of using harmful regents, weak stability and single function still exist. Here, we report an effective and less-harmful system with poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/ZnO composite solution to fabricate robust superhydrophobic surfaces for oil-water separation and removal of organic pollutant. The obtained samples were characterized by a range of instruments. The water contact angle (WCA) of coated cotton was 155.6°, which attributed to the synergetic effect of low surface energy of PDMS and roughness of ZnO nanoparticles. The coated cotton was tolerant to mechanical damage, various corrosive solvents and temperature conditions. The emphasis of this study is the combination of superhydrophobicity and photocatalysis, resulting in multifunctional cotton with dual self-cleaning properties, outstanding oil-water separation ability and efficient water purification property. When utilized a simple laboratory facility, the cotton could separate water from oil-water mixture with a high efficiency (99.3%). Furthermore, the dyed water could be purified with coated cotton through photocatalysis under UV light and became colorless. Meanwhile, this mild and facile method could also be utilized to modify other porous substrates, such as PET, silk, non-woven and sponge. Therefore, the characteristics of environmental protection and easy operation make this cotton a desirable candidate for extensive applications in self-cleaning, oil-water separation and water purification.

There is currently great interest in replacing fossil-oil with renewable fuels in energy production. Fast pyrolysis bio-oil (FPBO) made of lignocellulosic biomass is one such alternative to replace fossil oil, such as heavy fuel oil (HFO), in energy boilers. However, it is not known how this fuel change will alter the quantity and quality of emissions affecting human health. In this work, particulate emissions from a real-scale commercially operated FPBO boiler plant are characterized, including extensive physico-chemical and toxicological analyses. These are then compared to emission characteristics of heavy fuel-oil and wood fired boilers. Finally, the effects of the fuel choice on the emissions, their potential health effects and the requirements for flue gas cleaning in small-to medium-sized boiler units are discussed.The total suspended particulate matter and fine particulate matter (PM₁) concentrations in FPBO boiler flue gases before filtration were higher than in HFO boilers and lower or on a level similar to wood-fired grate boilers. FPBO particles consisted mainly of ash species and contained less polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metals than had previously been measured from HFO combustion. This feature was clearly reflected in the toxicological properties of FPBO particle emissions, which showed less acute toxicity effects on the cell line than HFO combustion particles. The electrostatic precipitator used in the boiler plant efficiently removed flue gas particles of all sizes. Only minor differences in the toxicological properties of particles upstream and downstream of the electrostatic precipitator were observed, when the same particulate mass from both situations was given to the cells.

Knowledge of distribution of toxic metal in crop is essential for studying toxic metal uptake, transportation and bioaccumulation, and it is important for environmental pollution monitoring. In this study, the macro spatial distribution of chromium in rice leaves was visualized by re-heating dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (DPLIBS) and chemometric methods. After the optimization of two important parameters (delay time and energy ratio) in DPLIBS, chromium prediction model was established based on global spectra. The global model achieved acceptable performance while slight overfitting for model was found because of numerous irrelevant variables. Feature variables including emissions from chromium and other elements were successfully selected by the values of regression coefficient in partial least square regression model. Best performance was achieved by using the feature variables and support vector machine, with correlation coefficient of prediction of 0.959, root mean square error of prediction of 13.4 mg/kg and residual predictive deviation of 3.6. Finally, the distribution of chromium in rice leaves was visualized with the best prediction model. The distribution image showed that chromium distributed approximately symmetrically along the vein and was likely to be accumulated in leaf apex. The preliminary results provide an approach for investigating the macro spatial distribution of elements in crops, which is important for environmental protection and food safety.

Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) are important pollutants that contaminate agricultural soils. We determined the effects of di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) on the production of reactive oxygen species, photosynthesis, and activity of antioxidant enzymes in wheat planted in fluvo-aquic soils. DBP- and DEHP-induced oxidative stress decreased the values of the photosynthetic/fluorescence parameters (except for intercellular carbon dioxide concentration) and chlorophyll content at the seedling, jointing, and booting stages. Moreover, the non-stomatal factor responsible for the net decrease in photosynthetic efficiency was identified as the decrease in fluorescence resulting from the decreased amount of chlorophyll a returning from the excited to the ground energy state. The content of superoxide anions and hydrogen peroxide in wheat leaves and roots increased with increasing DBP and DEHP supplementation, compared to the control. Antioxidant enzyme activities in the leaves and roots at the seedling stage increased at DBP and DEHP levels of 10 and 20 mg kg⁻¹, respectively, and the enzyme activities at the jointing and booting stages increased with increasing concentrations of the chemicals, compared to the control. These results demonstrated that increased levels of antioxidant enzymes play a significant role in protecting plant growth under DBP and DEHP stress.

Iron-bearing clays are ubiquitously distributed as mineral dusts in the atmosphere. Bromophenols were reported as the major products from thermal decomposition of the widely used brominated flame retardants (BFRs). However, little information is available for the reactivity of iron associated with mineral dusts to interact with the atmospheric bromophenols and the subsequent toxic effects. Herein, three common clay minerals (montmorillonite, illite and kaolinite) were used to simulate mineral dusts, and the reactions with gaseous 2-bromophenol were systematically investigated under environmentally relevant atmospheric conditions. Our results demonstrate that structural Fe(III) in montmorillonite and Fe(III) from iron oxide in illite mediated the dimerization of 2-bromophenol to form hydroxylated polybrominated biphenyl and hydroxylated polybrominated diphenyl ether. The surface reaction is favored to occur at moisture environment, since water molecules formed complex with 2-bromophenol and the reaction intermediates via hydrogen bond to significantly lower the reaction energy and promote the dimerization reaction. More importantly, the formed dioxin-like products on clay mineral dust increased the toxicity of the particles to A549 lung cell by decreasing cell survival and damaging cellular membrane and proteins. The results of this study indicate that not only mineral dust itself but also the associated surface reaction should be fully considered to accurately evaluate the toxic effect of mineral dust on human health.

There is increasing concern that climate change may make organisms more sensitive to chemical pollution. Many pesticides are indeed more toxic at higher mean temperatures. Yet, we know next to nothing about the effect of another key component of climate change, the increase of daily temperature fluctuations (DTFs), on pesticide toxicity. Therefore, we tested the effect of the pesticide chlorpyrifos under different levels of DTF (constant = 0 °C, low = 5 °C (current maximum level) and high = 10 °C (predicted maximum level under global warming)) around the same mean temperature on key life history and physiological traits of Ischnura elegans damselfly larvae in a common-garden experiment. At all levels of DTF, chlorpyrifos exposure was stressful: it reduced energy storage (fat content) and the activity of its target enzyme acetylcholinesterase, while it increased the activity of the detoxification enzyme cytochrome P450 monooxygenase. Notably, chlorpyrifos did not cause mortality or reduced growth rate at the constant temperature (0 °C DTF), yet increased mortality 6x and reduced growth rate with ca. 115% in the presence of DTF. This indicates that daily short-term exposures to higher temperatures can increase pesticide toxicity. Our data suggest that when 5 °C DTF will become more common in the studied high-latitude populations, this will increase the toxicity of CPF, and that a further increase from 5° DTF to 10 °C DTF may not result in a further increase of pesticide toxicity. Our results highlight the biological importance of including daily temperature fluctuations in ecological risk assessment of pesticides and as an extra dimension in the climate-induced toxicant sensitivity concept.

China has been faced with severe haze pollution, which is hazardous to human health. Among the air pollutants, PM2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) is the most dangerous because of its toxicity and impact on human health and ecosystems. However, there has been limited research on PM2.5 particle toxicity. In the present study, we collected daily PM2.5 samples from January 1 to March 31, 2018 and selected samples to extract water-soluble species, including SO42−, NO3−, WSOC, and NH4+. These samples represented clean, good, slight, moderate, and heavy pollution days. After extraction using an ultrasonic method, PM2.5 solutions were obtained. We used Chlorella as the test algae and studied the content of chlorophyll a, as well as the variation in fluorescence when they were placed into the PM2.5 extraction solution, and their submicroscopic structure was analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results showed that when the air quality was relatively clean and good (PM2.5 concentration ≤ 75 μg m−3), the PM2.5 extraction solutions had no inhibiting effects on Chlorella, whereas when the air quality was polluted (PM2.5 concentration > 75 μg m−3) and heavily polluted (PM2.5 concentration > 150 μg m−3), with increasing PM2.5 concentrations and exposure time, the chlorophyll a content in Chlorella decreased. Moreover, the maximum photochemical quantum yield (Fv/Fm) of Chlorella obviously decreased, indicating chlorophyll inhibition during polluted days with increasing PM2.5 concentrations. The effects on the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters were also obvious, leading to an increase of energy dissipated per unit reaction center (DIo/RC), suggesting that Chlorella could survive when exposed to PM2.5 solutions, whereas the physiological activities were significantly inhibited. The TEM analysis showed that there were few effects on Chlorella cell microstructure during clean days, whereas plasmolysis occurred during light- and medium-polluted days. With increasing pollution levels, plasmolysis became more and more apparent, until the organelles inside the cells were thoroughly destroyed and most of the parts could not be recognized.

Abiotic reduction represents an attractive technology to control U(VI) contamination. In this work, an abiotic route of U(VI) reduction with humic acid at mineral surfaces is proposed and reaction mechanisms are addressed by periodic density functional theory calculations. Different influencing factors such as ligand effect, content of CO₃²⁻ ligands and substituent effect are inspected. The coordination chemistry of uranyl(VI) surface complexes relies strongly on substrates and ligands, and the calculated results are in good agreements with experimental observations available. For the OH⁻ ligand, two competitive mechanisms co-exist that respectively produce the U(IV) and U(V) species, and the former is significantly preferred because of lower energy barriers. Instead, the NO₃⁻ ligand leads to the formation of U(V) while for the Cl⁻ ligand, the U(VI) surface complex remains very stable and is not likely to be reduced because of very high energy barriers. The U(V) and U(IV) complexes are the predominant products for low and high CO₃²⁻ contents, respectively. Accordingly, the abiotic reduction processes with humic acid are efficient to manage U(VI) contamination and become preferred under basic conditions or at higher CO₃²⁻ contents. The U(VI) reduction is further promoted by introduction of electron-donating rather than electron-withdrawing substituents to humic acid. Electronic structure analyses and vibrational frequency assignments are calculated for the various uranium surface complexes of the reduction processes, serving as a guide for future experimental and engineered studies. The molecular-level understanding given in this work offers an abiotic route for efficient reduction of U(VI) and remediation of U(VI)-contaminated sites at ambient conditions.

Epidemiological studies on the impact of outdoor temperature to human health have demonstrated the capability of humans to adapt to local climate. However, there is limited information on the association between indoor temperature and human health, despite people spending most of their time indoors. The problem stems from the lack of sufficient indoor temperature measurement in the population. To overcome this obstacle, this paper presents an indirect epidemiological approach to evaluate the impact of high indoor temperature on mortality. The relationships between indoor-outdoor temperatures in different climate zones identified in the literature were combined with the outdoor temperature-mortality curves of the same locations to obtain the local indoor minimum mortality temperatures (iMMT), the temperature at which mortality is lowest, which by implication is the temperature at which the population is most comfortable on average. We show that the iMMT varies and has a weak linear relationship with the distance to the equator, which provides evidence of human adaptation to local indoor temperatures. These findings reinforce the adaptive comfort theory, which states that people can adapt to local indoor environment and establish their thermal comfort. Recognising the human adaptability to local climate will direct flexible and optimized policy to protect public health against extreme temperature events. This will also help reduce energy consumption for regulating indoor temperature without compromising the occupants’ health.

Urban heat island (UHI), an iconic consequence of anthropogenic activities and climate condition, affects air pollution, energy use, and health. Therefore, better understanding of the temporal dynamics of UHI is required for sustainable urban planning to mitigate air pollution under a changing climate. Here, we present the evolution of UHI intensity (UHIi) and its controlling factors in the Seoul metropolitan area, Korea, over the last 56 years (1962–2017), which has experienced unique compressed economic growth and urban transformation under monsoon climate. The analysis demonstrated an inverted U-shape long-term variation of UHIi with the progress of urban transformation and economic climate which has not been reported in Asian cities before. Meanwhile, short-term variations in UHIi are related to both diurnal temperature range and duration after rainfall event unlike previous studies, and the UHIi was exacerbated by heat waves. Our findings suggest that the UHIi will exhibit different temporal dynamics with future changes in the monsoon climate, and heat waves in the urban area will be reinforced if current rapid urbanization continues without a shift toward sustainable and equitable development. Asian cities that are likely to face the similar urbanization trajectory and the implications are that urban (re)development strategy considers changes in rainfall magnitude and timing due to monsoon system variation under changing climate and plans to mitigate synergy between heat wave and UHI in this area.