Kaolinite clay mineral with a layered silicate structure is an abundant resource in China. Due to its advantages of excellent stability, high specific surface area and environmental friendliness, kaolinite is widely used in environment decontamination. By using kaolinite as a carrier, the photocatalytic technology in pure photocatalysts of poor activities, narrow spectral responses, and limited electron transport can be overcome, and the nano-Ag disinfectant’s limitation of the growth and aggregation of nanoparticles is released. Moreover, pure kaolinite used as an adsorbent shows poor surface hydroxyl activity and low cation exchange, leading to the poor adsorption selectivity and easy desorption of heavy metals. Current modification methods including heat treatment, acid modification, metal modification, inorganic salt modification, and organic modification are carried out to obtain better adsorption performance. This review systematically summarizes the application of kaolinite-based nanomaterials in environmental decontamination, such as photocatalytic pollutant degradation and disinfection, nano silver (Ag) disinfection, and heavy metal adsorption. In addition, applications on gas phase pollutant, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), capture and the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are also discussed. This study is the first comprehensive summary of the application of kaolinite in the environmental field. The review also illustrates the efficiency and mechanisms of coupling naturally/modified kaolinite with nanomaterials, and the limitation of the current use of kaolinite.
It is attractive to explore practical approaches to optimize the photodegraded NO property of TiO2. Herein, a typical Z-shaped heterojunction C-TiO2/rGO composed of carbon-doped TiO2 and reductive graphene oxide (rGO) was constructed to optimize the NO removal efficiency through an in situ one-pot hydrothermal process with glucose as reductant and dopant. The C-TiO2/rGO (0.11%) composite displays a remarkable NO removal performance of 40.6% under visible light illumination. It was found that the C-TiO2 nanoparticles were tightly attached to the rGO sheets and had strong interactions with rGO, which induced a positive impact on not only the light absorption and photo-generated charge separation but also the NO adsorption and reactive oxygen species formation, resulting in boosted photodegrade NO activity. As to the photodegrade NO process over the C-TiO2/rGO, the HO• and O2 •− were the dominant radicals, of which the O2 •− radical originated from the interactions between C-TiO2 and rGO. We proposed a Z-scheme mechanism to illuminate the advanced photocatalytic activity of C-TiO2/rGO. This work affords an approach to developing effective photocatalysts in the NO purification field.
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