Oxidative Degradation of Tannic Acid in Aqueous Solution by UV/S2O82− and UV/H2O2/Fe2+ Processes: A Comparative Study

Antibacterial adhesive based on oxidized tannic acid-chitosan for rapid hemostasis

Currently, bacterial infections and bleeding interfere with wound healing, and multifunctional hydrogels with appropriate blood homeostasis, skin adhesion, and antibacterial activity are desirable. In this study, chitosan-based hydrogels were synthesized using oxidized tannic acid (OTA) and Fe3+ as cross-linkers (CS-OTA-Fe) by forming covalent, non-covalent, and metal coordination bonds between Fe3+ and OTA. Our results demonstrated that CS-OTA-Fe hydrogels showed antibacterial properties against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus)and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli), low hemolysis rate (< 2 %), rapid blood clotting ability, in vitro (< 2 min), and in vivo (90 s) in mouse liver bleeding. Additionally, increasing the chitosan concentration from 3 wt% to 4.5 wt% enhanced cross-linking in the network, leading to a significant improvement in the strength (from 106 ± 8 kPa to 168 ± 12 kPa) and compressive modulus (from 50 ± 9 kPa to 102 ± 14 kPa) of hydrogels. Moreover, CS-OTA-Fe hydrogels revealed significant adhesive strength (87 ± 8 kPa) to the cow's skin tissue and cytocompatibility against L929 fibroblasts. Overall, multifunctional CS-OTA-Fe hydrogels with tunable mechanical properties, excellent tissue adhesive, self-healing ability, good cytocompatibility, and fast hemostasis and antibacterial properties could be promising candidates for biomedical applications.

Photodegradation and photocatalysis of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): A review of recent progress

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are oxidatively recalcitrant organic synthetic compounds. PFAS are an exceptional group of chemicals that have significant physical characteristics due to the presence of the most electronegative element (i.e., fluorine). PFAS persist in the environment, bioaccumulate, and have been linked to toxicological impacts. Epidemiological and toxicity studies have shown that PFAS pose environmental and health risks, requiring their complete elimination from the environment. Various separation technologies, including adsorption with activated carbon or ion exchange resin; nanofiltration; reverse osmosis; and destruction methods (e.g., sonolysis, thermally induced reduction, and photocatalytic dissociation) have been evaluated to remove PFAS from drinking water supplies. In this review, we will comprehensively summarize previous reports on the photodegradation of PFAS with a special focus on photocatalysis. Additionally, challenges associated with these approaches along with perspectives on the state-of-the-art approaches will be discussed. Finally, the photocatalytic defluorination mechanism of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) following complete mineralization will also be examined in detail.

Biodegradable acids for pyrite depression and green flotation separation - an overview

Exponential increasing demands for base metals have made meaningful processing of their quite low-grade (>1%) resources. Froth flotation is the most important physicochemical pretreatment technique for processing low-grade sulfide ores. In other words, flotation separation can effectively upgrade finely liberated base metal sulfides based on their surface properties. Various sulfide surface characters can be modified by flotation surfactants (collectors, activators, depressants, pH regulators, frothers, etc.). However, these reagents are mostly toxic. Therefore, using biodegradable flotation reagents would be essential for a green transition of ore treatment plants, while flotation circuits deal with massive volumes of water and materials. Pyrite, the most abundant sulfide mineral, is frequently associated with valuable minerals as a troublesome gangue. It causes severe technical and environmental difficulties. Thus, pyrite should be removed early in the beneficiation process to minimize its problematic issues. Recently, conventional inorganic pyrite depressants (such as cyanide, lime, and sulfur-oxy compounds) have been successfully assisted or even replaced with eco-friendly and green reagents (including polysaccharide-based substances and biodegradable acids). Yet, no comprehensive review is specified on the biodegradable acid depression reagents (such as tannic, lactic, humic acids, etc.) for pyrite removal through flotation separation. This study has comprehensively reviewed the previously conducted investigations in this area and provides suggestions for future assessments and developments. This robust review has systematically explored depression performance, various adsorption mechanisms, and aspects of these reagents on pyrite surfaces. Furthermore, factors affecting their efficiency were analyzed, and gaps within each area were highlighted.

Combined organic coagulants and photocatalytic processes for winery wastewater treatment

Due to the consumers demand for quality wines, washing and disinfection operations are necessary in wine productions, leading to the generation of large volumes of winery wastewater (WW) with a high organic content which has the potential to cause irreversible environmental impacts. The aim and novelty of this work is the production of natural organic coagulants (NOCs) to be applied in coagulation-flocculation-decantation (CFD) process. To complement this treatment process, it is also aimed the performed a photo-Fenton process, combining hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and potassium persulfate (KPS). The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed that NOCs are carbon-based materials with adsorption capacity. Under the best operational conditions, NOCs achieved a turbidity removal between 86.2 and 98.9%, a total suspended solids (TSS) removal ranging between 85.0 and 94.9% and a dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal ranging between 14.1 and 44.9%. To degrade the DOC present in the WW, different advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) were tested. Results showed that KPS-photo-Fenton, under the best operational conditions [Fe²⁺] = 2.5 mM, [KPS] = 1.0 mM, pH = 3.0, radiation UV-C mercury lamp (254 nm), agitation 350 rpm, temperature 298 K, reaction time 240 min achieved a DOC removal of 91.2 and 96.8%, with a H₂O₂ consumption of 156.9 and 199.0 mM, respectively for red and white WW. With application of combined CFD-KPS-photo-Fenton process, it was observed an increase of DOC removal with lower H₂O₂ consumptions. The energy consumption of the photosystem was evaluated by application of electric energy per mass (E_EM). The application of KPS-photo-Fenton process achieved an E_EM of 0.308 and 0.0309 kWh/g/L DOC, with a cost of 2.05 and 2.59 €/g/L DOC respectively for red and white WW. The combination of CFD-KPS-photo-Fenton decreased significantly the costs of treatment and the treated wastewater achieved the Portuguese legal values for wastewater discharge. This work shows that NOCs are a promising technology that can be an alternative to traditional metal salts, the combination of sulfate radicals with hydroxyl radicals can achieve high DOC removal and the combination of CFD with KPS-photo-Fenton process can decrease the operational costs.

Gelatin and Tannic Acid Based Iongels for Muscle Activity Recording and Stimulation Electrodes

Iongels are soft ionic conducting materials, usually composed of polymer networks swollen with ionic liquids (ILs), which are being investigated for applications ranging from energy to bioelectronics. The employment of iongels in bioelectronic devices such as bioelectrodes or body sensors has been limited by the lack of biocompatibility of the ILs and/or polymer matrices. In this work, we present iongels prepared from solely biocompatible materials: (i) a biobased polymer network containing tannic acid as a cross-linker in a gelatin matrix and (ii) three different biocompatible cholinium carboxylate ionic liquids. The resulting iongels are flexible and elastic with Young's modulus between 11.3 and 28.9 kPa. The morphology of the iongels is based on a dual polymer network system formed by both chemical bonding due to the reaction of the gelatin's amines with the polyphenol units and physical interactions between the tannic acid and the gelatin. These biocompatible iongels presented high ionic conductivity values, from 0.003 and up to 0.015 S·cm^-1 at room temperature. Furthermore, they showed excellent performance as a conducting gel in electrodes for electromyography and electrocardiogram recording as well as muscle stimulation.

Enhanced dewaterability of waste activated sludge by UV assisted ZVI-PDS oxidation

Ultraviolet (UV) assisted zero-valent iron (ZVI)-activated sodium persulfate (PDS) oxidation (UV-ZVI-PDS) was used to treat waste activated sludge (WAS) in this study. The dewaterability performance and mechanism of WAS dewatering were analyzed. The results showed that UV-ZVI-PDS can obtain better sludge dewatering performance in a wide pH range (2.0-8.0). When the molar ratio of ZVI/PDS was 0.6, UV was 254nm, PDS dosage was 200 mg/g TS (total solid), pH was 6.54, reaction time was 20 min, the CST (capillary suction time) and SRF (specific resistance to filtration) were decreased by 64.0% and 78.2%, respectively. The molar ratio of ZVI/PDS used in this paper is much lower than that of literatures, and the contents of total Fe and Fe²⁺ in sludge supernatant remained at a low level, as 3.7 mg/L and 0.0 mg/L. The analysis of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and particle size distribution showed that the EPS could be effectively destroyed by UV-ZVI-PDS, the sludge flocs broken down into smaller particles, cracks and holes appeared, and then the bound water was released. At the same time, the highly hydrophilic tightly bound-EPS (TB-EPS) were converted into loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) and soluble EPS (S-EPS). During sludge pretreated by UV-ZVI-PDS, positively charged ions, such as Fe²⁺, Fe³⁺ and H⁺, produced in the reaction system could reduce the electronegativity of sludge surface, promote sludge particles aggregation, and then enhanced the sludge dewaterability.

Photo-Fenton-Like Treatment of Municipal Wastewater

In this work, the photochemical treatment of a real municipal wastewater using a persulfate-driven photo-Fenton-like process was studied. The wastewater treatment efficiency was evaluated in terms of total carbon (TC), total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) removal. Response surface methodology (RSM) in conjunction Box-Behnken design (BBD) and multilayer artificial neural network (ANN) have been utilized for the optimization of the treatment process. The effects of four independent factors such as reaction time, pH, K2S2O8 concentration and K2S2O8/Fe2+ molar ratio on the TC, TOC and TN removal have been investigated. The process significant factors have been determined implementing Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Both RSM and ANN accurately found the optimum conditions for the maximum removal of TOC (100% and 98.7%, theoretically), which resulted in complete mineralization of TOC at the reaction time of 106.06 min, pH of 7.7, persulfate concentration of 30 mM and K2S2O8/Fe2+ molar ratio of 7.5 for RSM and at the reaction time of 104.93 min, pH of 7.7, persulfate concentration of 30 mM and K2S2O8/Fe2+ molar ratio of 9.57 for ANN. On the contrary, the attempts to find the optimal conditions for the maximum TC and TN removal using statistical, and neural network models were not successful.

Tannic Acid Capped Copper Nanoclusters as a Cost-Effective Fluorescence Probe for Hemoglobin Determination

For the first time, we report on a copper nanoclusters based fluorescence sensor for hemoglobin (Hgb). The aggregation-induced quenching of tannic acid capped copper nanoclusters' (TACuNCs) fluorescence by a Hgb-H₂O₂ mixture that mimics the Fenton's reagent is used here for the selective determination of Hgb. It is possible to effectively determine Hgb using this sensitive and cost-effective sensor in the linear range of 5.0 × 10^-8 to 4.0 × 10^-9 M with a detection limit of 5.6 × 10^-10 M. The practical utility of the sensor is evident from the good recovery values obtained from Hgb spiked with artificial blood serum.

Electrolytic Oxidation as a Sustainable Method to Transform Urine into Nutrients

In this work, the transformation of urine into nutrients using electrolytic oxidation in a single-compartment electrochemical cell in galvanostatic mode was investigated. The electrolytic oxidation was performed using thin film anode materials: boron-doped diamond (BDD) and dimensionally stable anodes (DSA). The transformation of urine into nutrients was confirmed by the release of nitrate (NO3−) and ammonium (NH4+) ions during electrolytic treatment of synthetic urine aqueous solutions. The removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) during electrolytic treatment confirmed the conversion of organic pollutants into biocompatible substances. Higher amounts of NO3− and NH4+ were released by electrolytic oxidation using BDD compared to DSA anodes. The removal of COD and TOC was faster using BDD anodes at different current densities. Active chlorine and chloramines were formed during electrolytic treatment, which is advantageous to deactivate any pathogenic microorganisms. Larger quantities of active chlorine and chloramines were measured with DSA anodes. The control of chlorine by-products to concentrations lower than the regulations require can be possible by lowering the current density to values smaller than 20 mA/cm2. Electrolytic oxidation using BDD or DSA thin film anodes seems to be a sustainable method capable of transforming urine into nutrients, removing organic pollution, and deactivating pathogens.