Functionalized carbon nanomaterials are considered to be an efficient modifier for ultrafiltration membranes with enhanced performance. However, most of the reported carbon nanomaterials are derived from unsustainable fossil fuels, while an extra modification is often essential before incorporating the nanomaterials in membranes, thus inevitably increasing the cost and complexity. In this work, novel functionalized biomass-based carbon nanoparticles were prepared successfully from agricultural wastes of corn stalks through simple one-step acid oxidation method. The obtained particles with the size of ~45 nm have excellent dispersibility in both aqueous and dimethyl formamide solutions with abundant oxygen-containing groups and negative potentials, which can endow the polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes with enhanced surface hydrophilicity, larger pore size, more finger-like pores, and lower surface roughness. Therefore, the separation and anti-fouling performance of membranes are improved simultaneously. Meanwhile, the addition of 0.4 wt% nanoparticles was proved to be the best condition for membrane preparation as excess modifiers may lead to particle aggregation and performance recession. It is expected that these biomass-based carbon nanoparticles are potential modifying materials for improving the separation performance and anti-fouling property of the membranes with great simplicity and renewability, which pave a new avenue for membrane modification and agricultural waste utilization.

Although ball milling is effective for biochar modification with metal oxides for efficient phosphate removal, the recyclability of the adsorbent as well as the precursors for modification, still need to be optimized. Herein, a magnesium-modified biochar was first prepared with the precursor of MgCl₂·6H₂O through the solvent-free ball milling method. After that, recyclable biochar beads were fabricated with the introduction of sodium alginate and Fe₃O_4. The beads were proved to have excellent adsorption performance for phosphate with a saturated capacity of 53.2 mg g⁻¹, which is over 12 times higher than that of pristine biochar beads. Although the particle size reduction, surface area, and O-containing group increments after milling are beneficial for adsorption, the remarkable promotion in performance should mainly result from the appropriate formation of magniferous crystals on biochar, which greatly accelerates the electrostatic interactions as well as precipitation for adsorption. The beads also exhibited excellent magnetism-driven recyclability, which greatly avoids secondary contamination and broadens the application field of the adsorbent.

The development of copper-based materials with a high efficiency and low cost is desirable for use in iodine (I₂) remediation. Herein, Cu⁰-nanoparticles-functionalized, ZIF-8 (Zeolite Imidazole Framework-8)-derived, nitrogen-doped carbon composites (Cu@Zn-NC) were synthesized by ball milling and pyrolysis processes. The as-prepared composites were characterized using SEM, BET, XRD, XPS, and FT-IR analyses. The results showed that the morphology of ZIF-8 changed from a leaf-like structure into an irregular structure after the introduction of a copper salt and carbonization. The copper in the pyrolysis samples was mainly in the form of Cu⁰ particles. The presence of an appropriate amount of Cu⁰ particles could increase the specific surface area of Cu@Zn-NC. The subsequent batch adsorption results demonstrated that the as-fabricated composites showed high I₂ adsorption amounts (1204.9 mg/g) and relatively fast dynamics in an iodine–cyclohexane solution when the Cu content was 30% and the pyrolysis temperature was 600 °C, outperforming the other Cu-based materials. The isothermal adsorption followed both Langmuir and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm models, while the kinetics of I₂ adsorption followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The activation energy (E_α) of the adsorbent was determined to be 47.2 kJ/mol, according to the Arrhenius equation. According to the experimental and DFT analyses, I₂-Zn interactions and I₂-Cu⁰ chemisorption jointly promoted the elimination of iodine. In general, this study provided an operative adsorbent for the highly effective capture of iodine in solution, which might be worth applying on a large scale.

Chlorophenylacetonitriles are known as one of the emerging nitrogenous disinfection byproducts (N-DBPs) in chlorinated drinking water due to their concerned cytotoxicity and genotoxicity compared to regulated carbonaceous DBPs. However, under low-dose exposure, the in vivo pathological consequences of chlorophenylacetonitriles remain largely unresolved. Here, C57BL/6J mice were exposed to 2-chlorophenylacetonitrile (2-CPAN) via drinking water (100 ug/L) for six months, and an integrated histopathological and genome-wide transcriptomic approach was employed to mechanistically characterize its multi-organ toxicological consequences. 2-CPAN ingestion significantly suppressed body weight (35.9 ± 2.0 g vs. 47.6 ± 11.6 g, p < 0.05) and induced severe gastroenteropathy—including gastric lamina propria inflammatory infiltration, intestinal villous blunting, crypt disorganization, transmural mononuclear infiltration, and abrogating epithelial barrier integrity. Intestinal barrier failure drove portal translocation of luminal PAMPs, potentially triggering splenic white pulp atrophy, red/white pulp boundary dissolution, and parenchymal changes consistent with fibrotic remodeling. Splenic RNA sequencing revealed a bipartite transcriptomic reprogramming: upregulated pathways were enriched in the ribosome, MAPK signaling, cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction, and chemokine signaling pathways. A proteotoxic stress module (Hspa1a, 9.4-fold; Hspa1b, 10.2-fold) and a chemokine effector hub (Ccl2, 3.43-fold; Ccl5, 2.9-fold; Ccl19, 2.58-fold; Ccl21a, 2.15-fold) were identified by the STRING network. Downregulated pathways converged on cell cycle suppression, with concurrent loss of Ccne1/Ccne2 and Cdc6 (G1/S block), Ccnb1 and Plk1 (G2/M arrest), and Rrm2/Tars3/TrnM (dNTP and aminoacyl-tRNA starvation), collectively forcing splenic lymphocytes into irreversible proliferative failure. These findings provide the first mechanistically resolved in vivo evidence that chronic 2-CPAN exposure drives a potential gut–spleen toxicological axis, underscoring the urgent need to incorporate organ endpoints by long-term exposure into N-DBP risk assessment.

Various porous polymer materials have been prepared for the separation of CO₂ from mixed gases. However, complex processes, expensive monomers, and costly catalysts are commonly used for their synthesis, making the adsorbents difficult to achieve in industrial applications. Herein, we developed a strategy to fabricate a series of benzene rings containing porous polymer materials (B-PPMs) via a facile condensation reaction of two inexpensive monomers, namely tetraphenylsilane and 1,4-bis(bromomethyl)benzene. The B-PPMs are verified to have accessible surface areas, large pore volumes, and appreciate pore sizes via a series of characterizations. The B-PPM-2 exhibits the best CO₂ adsorption amount of 67 cm³·g⁻¹ at 273 K and 1 bar, while the CO₂/N₂ selectivity can reach 64.5 and 51.9 at 273 K and 298 K, respectively. Furthermore, the adsorbent B-PPM-2 can be completely regenerated after five cycles of breakthrough experiments under mild conditions, which may provide promising candidates for selective capture of CO₂ from mixtures.