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Adsorption of tebuthiuron on hydrochar: structural, kinetic, isothermal, and mechanistic modeling, and ecotoxicological validation of remediative treatment of aqueous system

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Abstract

Tebuthiuron (C9H16N4OS) offers farmers a cost-effective chemical solution to control weeds. Nevertheless, it can manifest as a hazardous organic compound to society and the environment as it escapes from agroecosystems into the surroundings via leaching and running off, polluting surface and underground water bodies. Hence, research was designed to analyze whether hydrochar can develop an adsorbent to remove it from an aqueous solution. Food waste was reacted with subcritical water at a stoichiometric 1:4 ratio (m v−1) and 1.5 M potassium hydroxide (KOH) at 10 g L−1 at 250 °C and 1.5 MPa for 2 h to produce porous hydrochar via simultaneous hydrothermal carbonization and chemical activation. The product at 25, 50, and 100 mg L−1 was tested for its ability to adsorb tebuthiuron (TBT) at 0.5, 1, and 1.5 mg L−1 by spectrophotometry. In addition, kinetic and isothermal models were applied to experimental data to describe the separation of the pollutant from the liquid-phase analytical environment. Equally significant, an ecotoxicological assay was developed to investigate its remediative potential; Lactuca sativa was employed as a testing organism, as it is responsive to TBT at phytotoxic residual quantity. Hydrochar significantly separated TBT from aqueous media. Such honeycomb-structured mesoporous carbonaceous matrix developed approximately 1420.1 m2 g−1 specific surface area and 0.05 cm3 g−1 total pore volume; hence, at the highest concentration, it adsorbed 98.65% of TBT at 1.5 mg L−1 through physical (e.g., pore filling and interparticle diffusion) or chemical (e.g., H-bonding, π-stacking, and metal-adsorbate complex) forces. In addition, it allowed seven adsorption-desorption cycles with 80% efficiency, supporting excellent regenerability. Equally significant, L. sativa germinated 76.6% on plates containing residual solution from sorption testing, validating the hydrochar for environmental bioremediation. Hence, it can advance the field’s prominence in treating TBT by bioadsorption. It can offer stakeholders across agroindustries possibilities to remediate such a compound in aquatic environments, such as water and wastewater.

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Data availability

Experimental data and materials will be available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

BET:

Brunauer-Emmett-Teller

BJH:

Barret-Joyner-Halenda

CBN:

Carbon black nanoparticle

EFM:

Electric force microscopy

FTIR:

Fourier-transform infrared

HTC:

Hydrothermal carbonization

IUPAC:

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

LCA:

Life-cycle assessment

LD50 :

Median lethal dose

MOF:

Metal-organic framework

pHpzc :

Point of zero charge

POF:

Porous organic framework

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

TBT:

Tebuthiuron

TEA:

Techno-economic analysis

XRD:

X-ray diffractometry

ZIF:

Zeolite imidazolate framework

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp scholarship #2021/01884-6) and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES grant #001) for financial support. In addition, we are grateful to the Analytical Center of the Laboratory for Research in Chemistry of Natural Products and New Synthetic Methodologies (CALPQPN) for technical assistance.

Funding

The São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp scholarship #2021/01884-6), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq grant #313530/2021-1), and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES grant #001) financially supported this study.

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Author notes

  1. Bruno Rafael de Almeida Moreira, Victor Hugo Cruz, and Marcelo Rodrigues Barbosa Júnior contributed equally to this work and share the first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, College of Agricultural and Veterinary Science, São Paulo State University, Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil

    Bruno Rafael de Almeida Moreira, Marcelo Rodrigues Barbosa Júnior, Rouverson Pereira da Silva & Paulo Renato Matos Lopes

  2. Department of Plant Production, College of Agricultural and Technological Sciences, São Paulo State University (Unesp), Dracena, São Paulo, Brazil

    Victor Hugo Cruz

  3. Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil

    Leonardo Gomes de Vasconcelos

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Contributions

Bruno Rafael de Almeida Moreira: conceptualization, data curation, methodology, formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing; Victor Hugo Cruz: conceptualization, investigation, methodology; Marcelo Rodrigues Barbosa Júnior: investigation; Leonardo Gomes de Vasconcelos: methodology; Rouverson Pereira da Silva: funding acquisition, supervision; Paulo Renato Matos Lopes: writing—review and editing, funding acquisition, supervision.

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Moreira, B.R.d., Cruz, V.H., Barbosa Júnior, M.R. et al. Adsorption of tebuthiuron on hydrochar: structural, kinetic, isothermal, and mechanistic modeling, and ecotoxicological validation of remediative treatment of aqueous system. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-023-04365-9

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