A novel functional rGO aerogel was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. In this process, graphene oxide (GO) was used as the precursor and oxidant to synthesize the aerogels. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt (EDTA-2Na) and pyrrole monomer (reducing agent) were selected to use as hole scavenger and nitrogen sources. The obtained EDTA-2Na/polypyrrole (Ppy)/rGO aerogel (EPGA) has a high adsorption capacity for Cr(VI) anions, and the maximum adsorption capacity reached 361 mg/g at 298 K at pH of 2. In addition, EPGA exhibited a good ability to selectively remove Cr(VI) anions under the effect of coexisting ions (Cl⁻, NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻, PO₄³⁻, Ni⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Cd²⁺) and good regeneration ability. The kinetics process and adsorption isotherm can be fitted well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Freundlich isotherm model, respectively. The removal mechanism involved electrostatic interaction, reduction, ion exchange, and chelation process. This work provides a simple and environmentally friendly synthetic route for EPGA, which will be a potential candidate for efficient removal Cr(VI) anions from industrial wastewater.

The globe has faced technological affluence that enormously revolutionized the lives of humankind. Today, the manufacturing process of the energy sector, production sector, agriculture sector, and service sector is exclusively or partially based on ICT tools. The key intention of this investigation is to find out the impacts of the utilization of ICT on CO₂ emission. However, this investigation also evaluates the influence of investment in ICT and the trade of ICT tools on CO₂ emission. Further, the estimation examined the subsistence of environment Kuznets curve (EKC) theory, for the nation of Pakistan. The investigation employed an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and found that the utilization of ICT has a negative impact on CO₂ emission. Moreover, the long-run results revealed that the import of ICT equipment is more beneficial for the environment quality of Pakistan. However, ICT apparatus manufactured in Pakistan might produce electronic waste due to non-utilization of green technology. The study reported bidirectional causality between ICT and CO₂ emission. These results point towards that the emergence of ICT in industries and daily life possesses a significant and positive role in climate change in Pakistan. Also, this study corroborates the veracity of EKC in Pakistan.

Transport of environmental pollutants in groundwater systems can be greatly influenced by colloids. In this study, the cotransport of Pb²⁺ and silica (SiO₂) colloids at different Pb²⁺ concentrations was systematically investigated by batch adsorption and saturated sand column experiments. Results showed that SiO₂ colloids had low adsorption capacity for Pb²⁺ (less than 1% of the input) compared with sands. In saturated porous media, SiO₂ colloids showed a high mobility; however, with the increase of Pb²⁺ concentration in the sand column, the mobility of SiO₂ colloids gradually decreased. Notably, SiO₂ colloids could facilitate Pb²⁺ transport, although they did not serve as effective carriers of Pb²⁺. Under the condition of low Pb²⁺ concentration, SiO₂ colloids promoted the Pb²⁺ transport mainly through the way of “transport channel,” while changing the porosity of the medium and masking medium adsorption sites were the main mechanisms of SiO₂ colloid–facilitated Pb²⁺ transport under the condition of high Pb²⁺ concentration. The discovery of this non-adsorption effect of colloids would improve our understanding of colloid-facilitated Pb²⁺ transport in saturated porous media, which provided new insights into the role of colloids, especially colloids with weak Pb²⁺ adsorption capacity, in Pb²⁺ occurrence and transport in soil-groundwater systems.

In many developing countries, rising pollution and FDI inflows are positively correlated. This paper explores the existence of pollution haven hypothesis in Pakistan by employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test on yearly data from 1971 to 2014 for foreign direct investment inflow and four pollutants, i.e., CO₂ emissions, CO₂ emissions from solid fuels, SO₂ emissions, and GHG emissions. In each case, eight different models are tested by incorporating different explanatory variables with foreign direct investment inflow. The outcome of this study shows that in some of the models a positive long-term relationship exists between FDI inflow and CO₂ emissions, CO₂ emissions from solid fuels, and GHG emissions and a negative long-term relationship between FDI inflow and SO₂ emissions. Overall, we found no conclusive evidence of the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis for Pakistan. As Pakistan is taking active measures to attract more FDI, it is essential to introduce appropriate environmental policies and institutional reforms that do not hinder FDI inflows.

Continued long-term monitoring of vegetation activity in national key ecological function zones (NKEFZs) has implications for national ecological security and sustainability in China. We used Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI3g) dataset to map and analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of change in vegetation growth and their linkage with climate change and human activities in NKEFZs during 1982–2013. Statistically significant increases of growing season, spring, and autumn NDVI were observed during all or most periods while 25 NKEFZs are taken as a whole. Non-significant decreases of NDVI were found in 7 NKEFZs during a few periods, and obvious increases were observed during fifteen periods in all other NKEFZs. Vegetation growth in NKEFZs was mainly regulated by a thermal factor, and the dominant climatic drivers varied across different regions and seasons. The influence of temperature was stronger on vegetation activity in spring and autumn for those NKEFZs located in high latitudes and high elevations, while precipitation was the main climatic control factor for NKEFZs in the arid and semi-arid regions. The effects of human activity on the NDVI of NKEFZs were not ignored; a significant decrease of NDVI in the Sanjiang Plain may be related to the rapid change in land use from wetland into farmland.

Efficient analytical methods are required for optimizing dosage of veterinary antibiotics and hormones in order to reduce toxicity and antimicrobial resistance in the environment. Thus, the objective of this work was to develop a rapid and low-cost method for determination of hormone estradiol and antibiotic chlortetracycline in bovine and porcine blood serum by aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) extraction and capillary electrophoresis quantification. ATPS based on ionic liquid cholinium alaninate and citrate salt along with mixtures of protic and aprotic polar solvents were evaluated in terms of recovery of extraction (%R). The liquid-liquid equilibrium, phase diagrams, and tie lines are discussed. Antibiotic migrated to solvent-rich phase (R ≈ 89.0%) to all systems. Estradiol migrates to ionic liquid-rich phase; however, addition of 10% methanol changed partition to solvent-rich phase (R ≈ 89.7%). The method has high recovery and cleanliness, is cost-efficient, scalable, and hence is adequate for screening of antibiotics and hormones tested in animal blood serum for dosage optimization and to predict their environment.

Industries continuously emit xenobiotics into the environment, which increases risks of exposing humans and other biota to xenobiotics. Though various conventional and modern environmental remediation technologies are being employed, some of them are ineffective in removing xenobiotics, while others are costly and not feasible for large-scale utilization. Maize stover (MS) and rice husks (RH) are produced in abundance globally, which make them ideal and cost-effective feedstocks for large-scale biochar production for environmental remediation. Since either type of pristine MS and RH biochar may not be effective in removing some xenobiotics, the incorporation of modifiers into MS/RH biochars can help to form composite MS/RH biochar which in turn can better decontaminate water and soil. Thus, this review paper provides a comprehensive overview of the preparation, characterization, and environmental remediation using pristine and composite MS/RH biochar. Possible areas for composite MS/RH biochar applications and future perspectives of the technology in reducing xenobiotics are also proposed in this paper.

The hasty economic development in developing countries comes along with poorer air quality, which has severe toxicological effects on the environment and human health. This study is carried out to explore and empirically investigate the relationship between industrial pollution and health using the panel of middle-income countries (MIC) over 1990–2016. This study uses two indicators of health status, namely life expectancy and infant mortality, and two indicators of industrial pollution, namely carbon dioxide emissions and nitrous oxide emissions. This analysis is carried out using fixed effects (FE) technique on the grounds of the Hausman test. The empirical results suggest that industrial pollution tends to decrease life expectancy and increases infant mortality. In addition, this study suggests that the adverse impact of industrial pollution is greater in lower-middle-income countries (LMIC) in comparison with upper-middle-income countries (UMIC). This study recommends the programs to improve human health status and needs to focus on policies that mitigate industrial pollution burden.

Once released into natural water, the environmental behavior and fate of C₆₀ could inevitably been affected by humic acid (HA), sunlight, and hydrodynamic conditions. However, the combined effects of these factors are not so clear. Therefore, in the present study, effects of HA, sunlight, and agitation intensity on generation and properties of aqu/nC₆₀ were investigated. The results indicated that HA could increase the concentration of aqu/nC₆₀ mainly through the steric hindrance effect. The higher agitation intensity led to higher concentrations of aqu/nC₆₀ and more efficient steric stabilization was formed by HA. Sunlight irradiation promoted the surface oxidization and consequently enhanced the dispersion of C₆₀. The relative order of the influence on the UV/vis concentration was sunlight > agitation intensity > HA. In addition, HA might not always enhance the dispersion of aqu/nC₆₀ due to light screening/ROS scavenging, over-coating, or chain-like bridging mechanism. Therefore, evaluating the environmental behavior and fate of C₆₀ should take these factors into account together.

Chinese industrial structure is characterized by a large proportion of industries with high energy consumption and high pollution, such as coal, steel, and cement production, and with only a small proportion of green and environment protection industries. In order to optimize this structure, the Chinese government has clearly proposed to upgrade the industrial structure by solving funding problems in the field of environmental protection in the 13th 5-year plan. However, there are no systematic researches on how green credit affects industrial structure and what the corresponding effects are in the current theoretical circle. Therefore, by analyzing current situations of green credit and the industrial structure, this research explores mechanisms concerning the effects of green credit on the industrial structure. Furthermore, this study conducts an empirical research by using a fixed effects model constructed based on sample data from eastern, central, and western China from 2006 to 2016. The results find that (1) green credit mainly influences the industrial structure through capital and funding channels of enterprises. (2) On the whole, China’s green credit has significant effects on the transformation of the industrial structure. (3) Influences of green credit in China on the industrial structure are significantly different in each region. In order to effectively upgrade the industrial structure, for the related stakeholders, some effective ways are to establish a sound legal system for green credit, raise depth of understanding on green credit, and implement green credit according to local conditions.