Grave-to-cradle upcycling of Ni from electroplating wastewater to photothermal CO2 catalysis

Abstract

Treating hazardous waste Ni from the electroplating industry is mandated world-wide, is exceptionally expensive, and carries a very high CO2 footprint. Rather than regarding Ni as a disposable waste, the chemicals and petrochemicals industries could instead consider it a huge resource. In the work described herein, we present a strategy for upcycling waste Ni from electroplating wastewater into a photothermal catalyst for converting CO2 to CO. Specifically, magnetic nanoparticles encapsulated in amine functionalized porous SiO2, is demonstrated to efficiently scavenge Ni from electroplating wastewater for utilization in photothermal CO2 catalysis. The core-shell catalyst architecture produces CO at a rate of 1.9 mol·gNi−1·h−1 (44.1 mmol·gcat−1·h−1), a selectivity close to 100%, and notable long-term stability. This strategy of upcycling metal waste into functional, catalytic materials offers a multi-pronged approach for clean and renewable energy technologies.

Confined Diffusion Strategy for Customizing Magnetic Coupling Spaces to Enhance Low‐frequency Electromagnetic Wave Absorption

“…Owing to the inevitable magnetic agglomeration, poor dispersity of magnetic NPs is also a problem during the nanocrystallization process, which severely inhibits the magnetic response ability. [31,32] Although doping magnetic NPs onto supports (SiO 2 ; [33] metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) or zeolites; [34] or carbon materials such as graphite, [35] graphene, [36] and carbon fibers [37] ) via impregnation, [38] atom layer deposition (ALD), [39] and pyrolysis [40] methods indeed improve the dispersity to some extent. However, the loading of magnetic NPs is limited, resulting in attenuation of the magnetic loss ability in the whole magnetic EMA materials.…”

Superstable Mineralization of Heavy Metals Using Low-Cost Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets: Toward Water Remediation and Soil Fertility Enhancement

“…In recent years, the recycling of waste heavy metal resources has become more important because of the high cost of raw metals and also the substantial costs associated with proper waste management . The recycling of waste heavy metal resources can thus have considerable economic benefits.…”

Nanostructured Materials for Photothermal Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation: Regulating Solar Utilization and Catalytic Performance

“…In addition, the catalyst has strong light absorption (Figure b). These results make the catalyst an excellent photothermal material, with a high equilibrium temperature of 401.8 °C under intense sunlight illumination (Figure c) …”

“…These results make the catalyst an excellent photothermal material, with a high equilibrium temperature of 401.8 °C under intense sunlight illumination (Figure 2c). 69 Similarly, nanoporous organic structures can also act as thermal insulators. Govorov et al have encapsulated zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) layers on two-dimensional graphene nanosheets.…”

“…(c) Surface temperature profiles of different samples under light illumination. Adapted with permission under a Creative Commons CC BY License from ref . Copyright 2022 Springer Nature.…”