Rivenbark Kelly J, Lilly Kendall, Wang Meichen, Tamamis Phanourios, Phillips Timothy D
Interdisciplinary Faculty of Toxicology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
J Environ Chem Eng. 2024 Feb;12(1). doi: 10.1016/j.jece.2023.111836. Epub 2023 Dec 28.
Benzene is a carcinogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) that is ubiquitously detected in enclosed spaces due to emissions from cooking activities, building materials, and cleaning products. To remove benzene and other VOCs from indoor air and protect public health, traditional fabric filters have been modified to contain activated carbons to enhance the filtration efficacy. In this study, composites derived from natural clay minerals and activated carbon were individually green-engineered with chlorophylls and were attached to the surface of filter materials. These systems were assessed for their adsorption of benzene from air using in vitro and in silico methods. Isothermal, thermodynamic, and kinetic experiments indicated that all green-engineered composites had improved binding profiles for benzene, as demonstrated by increased binding affinities (K ≥ 900 vs 472) and lower values of Gibbs free energy (ΔG = -16.8 vs -15.2) compared to activated carbon. Adsorption of benzene to all composites was achieved quickly (< 30 min), and the green-engineered composites also showed low levels of desorption (≤ 25%). While free chlorophyll is known to be photosensitive, chlorophylls in the green-engineered composites showed photostability and maintained high binding rates (≥ 70%). Additionally, the in silico simulations demonstrated the significant contribution of chlorophyll for the overall binding of benzene in clay systems and that chlorophyll could contribute to benzene binding in the carbon-based systems. Together, these studies indicated that novel, green-engineered composite materials can be effective filter sorbents to enhance the removal of benzene from air.
苯是一种致癌性挥发性有机化合物（VOC），由于烹饪活动、建筑材料和清洁产品的排放，在封闭空间中普遍可检测到。为了从室内空气中去除苯和其他挥发性有机化合物并保护公众健康，传统的织物过滤器已被改性以包含活性炭，以提高过滤效果。在本研究中，由天然粘土矿物和活性炭衍生的复合材料分别与叶绿素进行绿色工程处理，并附着在过滤材料表面。使用体外和计算机模拟方法评估了这些系统对空气中苯的吸附情况。等温、热力学和动力学实验表明，所有绿色工程复合材料对苯的结合特性均有所改善，与活性炭相比，结合亲和力增加（K≥900对472），吉布斯自由能值降低（ΔG=-16.8对-15.2）。苯对所有复合材料的吸附迅速完成（<30分钟），绿色工程复合材料的解吸水平也较低（≤25%）。虽然已知游离叶绿素具有光敏性，但绿色工程复合材料中的叶绿素表现出光稳定性并保持高结合率（≥70%）。此外，计算机模拟表明叶绿素对粘土体系中苯的整体结合有显著贡献，并且叶绿素可促进碳基体系中苯的结合。总之，这些研究表明，新型绿色工程复合材料可成为有效的过滤吸附剂，以增强空气中苯的去除效果。
