Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda.
J Environ Manage. 2023 Oct 1;343:118236. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118236. Epub 2023 May 24.
Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are characterized by superior magnetic properties, high surface area to volume ratio, and active surface functional groups. These properties aid in removal of pollutants from water, through adsorption and/or photocatalysis, justifying the choice of IONPs in water treatment systems. IONPs are usually developed from commercial chemicals of ferric and ferrous salts alongside other reagents, a procedure that is costly, environmentally unfriendly and limits their mass production. On the other hand, steel and iron industries produce both solid and liquid wastes which in most cases are piled, discharged into water streams or landfilled as strategies to dispose them off. Such practices are detrimental to environmental ecosystems. Given the high content of iron present in these wastes, they can be used to generate IONPs. This work reviewed published literature through selected key words on the deployment of steel and/or iron-based wastes as IONPs precursors for water treatment. The findings reveal that steel waste-derived IONPs have properties such as specific surface area, particle sizes, saturation magnetization, and surface functional groups that are comparable or sometimes better than those synthesized from commercial salts. Furthermore, the steel waste-derived IONPs have high removal efficacy for heavy metals and dyes from water with possibilities of being regenerated. The performance of steel waste-derived IONPs can be enhanced by functionalization with different reagents such as chitosan, graphene, and biomass based activated carbons. Nonetheless, there is need to explore the potential of steel waste-based IONPs in removing contaminants of emerging concern, modifying pollutant detection sensors, their techno-economic feasibility in large treatment plants, toxicity of these nanoparticles when ingested into the human body, among other areas.
氧化铁纳米粒子（IONPs）具有优异的磁性、高表面积与体积比以及活性表面官能团等特性。这些特性有助于通过吸附和/或光催化作用从水中去除污染物，这也是在水处理系统中选择 IONPs 的原因。IONPs 通常是由铁盐和亚铁盐等商业化学品以及其他试剂开发而成，这种方法成本高、不环保，限制了其大规模生产。另一方面，钢铁行业会产生固体和液体废物，这些废物在大多数情况下被堆积、排放到溪流中或填埋，作为处理它们的策略。这些做法对环境生态系统有害。鉴于这些废物中含有高含量的铁，因此可以将其用于生成 IONPs。本研究通过选择有关钢铁基废物作为 IONPs 前体制备水处理剂的关键词，综述了已发表的文献。研究结果表明，钢废料衍生的 IONPs 具有比商业盐合成的 IONPs 更高的比表面积、粒径、饱和磁化强度和表面官能团等特性，有时甚至更好。此外，钢废料衍生的 IONPs 对水中重金属和染料的去除效果很高，并且具有再生的可能性。通过用壳聚糖、石墨烯和生物质基活性炭等不同试剂对钢废料衍生的 IONPs 进行功能化，可以提高其性能。然而，仍需要探索基于钢铁废料的 IONPs 在去除新兴关注污染物、修饰污染物检测传感器、在大型处理厂中的技术经济可行性、这些纳米粒子摄入人体时的毒性等方面的潜力。
