New progress in the removal mechanisms of environmental contaminants (organics and heavy metals) by biochar was achieved

Recently, associate professor Lian’s group, Agro-environmental Protection Institute, for the first time found that the negative charge-assisted H-bond plays a crucial role in antibiotic sulfamethoxazole adsorption by low-temperature herb residue biochar, which throws light on the development and environmental applications of the low-temperature biochars. Moreover, they developed a novel synthesis method to load MnO_x nanoparticles on biochars uniformly. After coated with MnO_x, the adsorption capacity of biochar for Cu²⁺ was significantly increased, which was higher than that of commercial activated carbons. This result provides novel methodology for the synthesis of efficient adsorbents and remediation of heavy metal polluted soils. Both of the above results were published on Chemical Engineering Journal (IF = 4.058) in Jan. and March, 2014, respectively.