Generation of environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) on solid particles has recently attracted increasing research interest. EPFRs potentially have high reactivity and toxicity. However, the impact of EPFRs on organic contaminant behavior is unclear. We hypothesized that EPFRs in biochars can degrade organic contaminants and play an important role in organic contaminant behavior. We observed obvious degradation of p-nitrophenol (PNP) in the presence of biochars, through the detection of NO3(-) as well as organic byproducts. The extent of PNP degradation was correlated to the intensity of EPR signals of biochar particles. tert-Butanol (a •OH scavenger) did not completely inhibit PNP degradation, indicating that •OH could not fully explain PNP degradation. The decreased PNP degradation after tert-butanol addition was better correlated with reduced PNP sorption on biochars. PNP degradation through the direct contact with EPFRs in biochar particles could be an important contribution to the PNP concentration reduction in the aqueous phase. The coating of natural organic matter analogue (tannic acid) on biochars did not considerably inhibit PNP degradation, suggesting the ability of biochars to degrade PNP in soil and natural water. Similar EPFR-promoted degradation was observed for five different types of biochars and one activated carbon, as well as one additional chemical (p-aminophenol). Therefore, organic chemical degradation by EPFRs in biochars can be a common process in the environment and should be incorporated in organic chemical fate and risk studies.

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The mining and burning of low-rank coal in Xuanwei, China have attracted a great deal of research attention because of the generated polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the high incidence of lung cancer in this region. Given the abundant transition metals in the allitic soil, we hypothesized that environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) are formed in this region and the potential risk had not been addressed. Strong electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signals of 3.20 × 10 - 3.10 × 10 spins/g were detected in environmental samples, including chimney soot, coal, soil and total suspended particles (TSP). These EPR signals did not significantly change after 18-months storage and had g-values in the range of 2.0039-2.0046, suggesting typical organic free radicals. Similar strong EPR signals were observed in PAH (anthracene and pyrene as model compounds) degradation on simulated soil particles and lasted over one month even when the applied PAHs were 100% degraded. Based on g-value and bond width, we propose that EPR signals detected in TSP and soot originated from both coal combustion and PAH photodegradation. Further research is thus urgently required to investigate EPFR generation, exposure and risk in Xuanwei to better understand the cause of high lung cancer incidence.

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This study aims to apply Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS Data) to monitor water quality parameters including chlorophyll-a, secchi disk depth, total phosphorus and total nitrogen at Chaohu Lake. In this paper, multivariate regression analysis, Back Propagation neural networks (BPs), Radial Basis Function neural networks (RBFs) and Genetic Algorithms-Back Propagation (GA-BP) were applied to investigate the relationships between water quality parameters and the MODIS bands combinations. The study results indicated that a simple, efficient and acceptable model could be established through multivariate regression analysis, but the model precision was relatively low. In comparison, BPs, RBFs and GA-BP were significantly advantageous in terms of sufficient utilization of spectra information and model reliance. The relative errors of BPs, RBFs and GA-BP were below 35%. Based on method comparison, it can be concluded that GA-BP is more suitable for simulation and prediction of water quality parameters by applying genetic algorithm to optimize the weight value of BP network. This study demonstrates that MODIS data can be applied for monitoring some of the water quality parameters of large inland lakes.

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Although dissolved organic matter (DOM) could effectively disperse carbon nanotubes (CNTs), sorption characteristics of DOM-suspended CNTs are unclear. In this study, we evaluated the relative contribution to the overall sorption from dissolved humic acid (DHA) coating (decreased sorption) and CNT dispersion (increased sorption). We observed that the sorption coefficients of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) on DHA-suspended CNTs were up to 2 orders of magnitude higher than that on aggregated CNTs. Although the mass percent of suspended CNTs were low (generally less than 1%), their contributions to SMX adsorption were up to 20%. Because DHA and SMX did not interact with each other due to their negative charges, the suspended CNTs may not be completely coated by DHA and they had considerable hydrophobic surface exposed. Importantly, this study provided the first evidence in aqueous phase of the significantly increased surface area of DHA-suspended CNTs relative to the aggregated ones based on (1)H NMR relaxometry measurements. This study emphasizes that in comparison to aggregated CNTs, the suspended ones have amply exposed surface area and thus have greater environmental impacts, such as enhancing the mobility, transport, and possibly exposure of organic contaminants.