Dr. Xuemei Ren, a 29-year-old woman researcher, recently published her recent research progress on Impact of Al2O3 on the Aggregation and Deposition of Graphene Oxide on Environmental Science & Technology (DOI: 10.1021/es404996b). This is one of 11 SCI papers that Ren have authored in the past three years.
To more fully simulate the fate of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets in aquatic-terrestrial transition zones, Ren has conducted systematic studies on the interaction between GO nanosheets and natural solid particles.
With the widespread production and use of GO, it is inevitable that GO may be released into the environment as a contaminant during production, transport, use, and disposal processes. The potential risk of releasing GO into the environment will threaten human health and ecosystems. Therefore, thoroughly investigating the fate and transport of GO in the natural environment is of practical importance to minimize its negative environmental risk, in addition to protecting human health and ecosystems.
By employing batch experiments, Ren investigated the aggregation and deposition of GO on Al2O3 across a wide range of solution chemistry conditions, including the pH, coexisting electrolyte (such as NaCl, MgCl2, CaCl2, Na2SO4 and NaH2PO4) concentrations, and polyacrylic acid (PAA)).
Ren’s work presents interesting results and serves to identify potentially favorable and unfavorable conditions for the transport of GO in aquatic-terrestrial transition zones, where aluminum (hydro)oxides are present. In addition, the dissolution behavior of Al2O3 in the absence and presence of GO were also investigated over a broad range of reaction times, which was expected to provide a brief outline of the potential impact of GO on oxide dissolution processes in the natural environment.
These findings provide critical information for predicting the fate of GO in aquatic-terrestrial transition zones, where aluminum (hydro)oxides are present.
Schematic diagram of our research results
Article links：http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es404996b
