The team led by Huang Fuqiang, the principal researcher of the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully developed a new pollution control material. Within 2 weeks of light exposure, the water quality was significantly improved and the wastewater became clear. Related results won the National Natural Science Award at the beginning of this year. The awards are now successfully demonstrated in Shanghai, Anhui, and Jiangsu.
Huang Fuqiang introduced that the new material is a mixture of three-dimensional graphene tubes and black titanium dioxide. Its principle is 'physical adsorption + photochemical catalytic degradation'. The three-dimensional graphene tube is responsible for 'grabbing' toxic organic substances, black titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst, Absorbs up to 95% of the solar spectrum, degrades toxic organics into carbon dioxide and water.
In the past month, the team laid a total of more than 3000 photodegradable adsorptive nets for new materials in Shanghai, Anhui, and Jiangsu, covering nearly 40,000 square meters of water.
In Shanghai’s Tianshan Park and Zhongshan Park, the surrounding residents reported that the bottom of the lake is thick with muddy smell and the dead fish are often floating on the lake surface. After the photodegradation and adsorption net coated with new materials is spread on the lake surface, the bottom sludge is not moved. It can decompose organic matter into carbon dioxide and water, thereby increasing the oxygen content of the water body and enhancing the ability of water body self-purification and ecological restoration. The test results of the testing center of Shanghai Light Industry Environmental Protection Technology Research Institute and the Key Laboratory of Environmental Engineering of Jiangsu Academy of Environmental Sciences show Only 7 days after treatment, the representative indicators such as chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen and total phosphorus were improved from inferior five types of water to more than five types of water.
In Feidong County, Hefei City, Anhui Province, the team remedied the upper reaches of the Dingguang River, which was heavily polluted. Xue Tiecheng, director of the Water Environment Management Division of the Feidong County Environmental Protection Bureau, said that the Dingguang River is a typical compound polluted river channel. After that, the water quality indicators have increased by more than 60%.
According to reports, the new material can also degrade industrial wastewater such as printing and dyeing wastewater, tannery wastewater, etc., and efficiently absorb toxic heavy metals. Adding 1 g of porous new material can adsorb 1.476 g of lead ions. After simple acid treatment, it can be processed into high-value materials. At present, the results have gone out of the laboratory, to achieve a large-scale preparation, obtained more than 50 invention patents.
