Professor Zhai Sheng's team from the School of Geo-Environment of Liaocheng University has published research papers in top international journals

　On January 13, Professor Zhai Sheng's team from the School of Geography and Environment of our university published a book entitled "Adsorption mechanisms for cadmium from aqueous solutions by oxidant-modified" in the journal of Hazardous Materials, a top international journal Biochar derived from Platanus orientalis Linn leaves) research paper. Yin Kaiyue, a graduate student of our university, is the first author of this article, Professor Zhai Sheng and Associate Professor Wang Juyuan are the corresponding authors of this article, and Liaocheng University is the first and corresponding author unit. Journal of Hazardous Materials is a top journal in the field of environmental science and ecology under the JCR division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a 2021 impact factor of 10.588.

　　Biochar is a by-product of the thermal transformation of biomass oxygen-limited pyrolysis, and due to its high pore structure and rich functional groups, biochar shows excellent affinity for heavy metals. Many studies have shown that chemical modification can improve the adsorption capacity of biochar to heavy metals. The effect and mechanism of oxidative modified adsorption of biochar in sycamore leaves to remove heavy metals are not clear, and the application effect of oxidation modified biochar in actual water bodies has not been reported.

　　To this end, this paper selects the organic waste sycamore leaf as the raw material for the preparation of biochar, modifies the original biochar by using a variety of chemical oxidants, and explores the adsorption and removal mechanism of Oxidation Modified Biochar on Cd2+ in water. The results show that under the condition of pH of 6.0, KMnO4 modified biochar (MBC) can remove Cd2+ in water more effectively than H2O, 2O2 and K2Cr2O7 modified biochar (WBC, HBC and PBC), with a removal rate of up to 98.57%. From the perspective of removal mechanism, MnOx complexation is the main mechanism of high adsorption removal rate of MBC; in addition, the complexation, precipitation, cation-π interaction, and ion exchange between Cd2+ and oxygen-containing functional groups are also involved in the adsorption process. The removal effect of WBC, HBC and PBC is not satisfactory, and the stability is poor; this is due to the weakening of ion exchange and precipitation. Through the application of oxidation-modified biochar to in situ water experiments, it was found that MBC still has a high adsorption and removal capacity for Cd2+ in in situ water.

　　This study not only found that MBC has a good removal effect on Cd2+, clarified the main adsorption mechanism, but also provides ideas for the resource utilization of agricultural and forestry wastes, and provides a theoretical basis for the treatment of heavy metal pollution in the environment, which has important theoretical significance and application prospects.

　　The research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2020MC088; ZR2020QE234), the Open Project of Animal Husbandry discipline of Liaocheng University (No. 2020QE234), and the Open Project of Animal Husbandry discipline of Liaocheng University (No. 2020MC088; 319312101-18), Liaocheng University Science and Technology Program (318011704), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41807092, 417012430) and other projects.

　　The resource utilization and ecological security team of the College of Geography and Environment, led by Professor Zhai Sheng, conducted relevant research on the utilization of agricultural resources and ecological environment safety in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and undertook 6 projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 9 provincial and ministerial projects such as the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province and the Science and Technology Program of Shandong Province. In recent years, he has published more than 40 scientific research papers, including nearly 20 SCI papers and nearly 10 patents. The team members guided the graduate students to win more than 10 awards at all levels of shandong provincial excellent master's degree thesis, Shandong provincial postgraduate outstanding achievement award, and Shandong provincial teaching skills competition. The team members won 5 outstanding guidance teachers at the Shandong Provincial College Students Science and Technology Festival.

　　In the next step, the team members will continue to base themselves on the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (including the Yellow River Delta), closely focus on the resource utilization of agricultural waste and ecological environment safety, and carry out in-depth research on waste resource utilization through carbonization modification, compost fermentation, fertilizer utilization and other ways to achieve polluted soil remediation, soil fertility improvement, soil environment friendliness, and contribute to the national ecological security and food security strategy.

　　【Thesis Link】https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389422000498