Herein green, low energy consuming and inexpensive solvents (polysorbate/H₂O (Tween-80/H₂O)) were developed, which could be readily prepared, instantaneously dissolve lignin without any heating, and hardly disrupt the structure of lignin.

The use of magnetic composites in wastewater treatment has become widespread due to their high flocculating characteristics and ferromagnetism. This review provides an analysis and summary of the preparation and application of magnetic composites through controllable assembly for use in wastewater treatment. The applications of magnetic composites include the treatment of dye wastewater, heavy metal wastewater, microalgae suspensions, and oily wastewater. Additionally, the recycling and regeneration of magnetic composites have been investigated. In the future, further research could be focused on improving the assembly and regeneration stability of magnetic composites, such as utilizing polymers with a multibranched structure. Additionally, it would be beneficial to explore the recycling and regeneration properties of these composites.

Nano-ZnO supported on bentonite was prepared to form composite photocatalyst by sol-gel method. The photocatalyst was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). C.I. Acid Red 35 was used as simulating contaminant to be treated by ultraviolet light synergistic with nano-ZnO/bentonite. The results show that 5.7 nm ZnO particle was acquired and uniformly dispersed on the surface of the bentonite at calcination temperature of 200°C. The removal of C.I. Acid Red 35 could reach 84.9% after 200 min under optimum ZnO/bentonite dosage of 0.6 g L⁻¹. The 60% ZnO content in ZnO/bentonite composite exhibited a great photocatalytic activity to treat C.I. Acid Red 35. The photocatalytic process followed pseudo-first-order kinetics and the best apparent rate constant was 0.00927 min⁻¹with correlation coefficient (R²) of above 0.98.

Recently, binary metal oxides have been proven to be the most investigated semiconductors due to their high activity for the removal of organic pollutants. In this paper, to improve the photocatalytic efficiency of MgFe₂O₄, a MgFe₂O₄/reduced graphene oxide (MFO/rGO) photocatalyst was synthesized by a facile generalized solvothermal method. The morphology, structure, and photocatalytic activities in the degradation of methyl orange (MO) reaction were systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, respectively. The results showed that the MFO/rGO composite exhibited enhanced photocatalytic performance in the photodegradation of MO under visible-light irradiation and reached a maximum degradation rate of 99% within 60 min of irradiation. This excellent photocatalytic performance is attributed to the introduction of rGO in the composite, which can effectively reduce the photoproduction of the electron-hole pair recombination rate. The excellent photocatalytic activity reveals that the MFO/rGO composite photocatalyst is a promising photocatalyst with good visible-light response and has potential applications in the field of water treatment.