Mesocage collector cavities as nanopockets for remediation and real assessment of carbamate pesticides in aquatic water

Abstract

Remediation of chemicals such as pesticides in contaminated surface water and ground water is a major global concern because of the increased public awareness of the health risks and environmental risks of such chemicals. For use as a pesticide remediation system, we herein report a scalable, high-yield three-dimensional mesocage collector of micrometric aluminosilica particles with a large cavity of 7.0-nm pocket-like pores and a regular entrance pore. Analysis of the geometrical features of the mesocage collector cavities (MCC) revealed that they had several key characteristics, such as suitable guest accommodation, intermolecular forces, and electrostatic and non-electrostatic interactions. The MCC took up large quantities of pesticides onto the framework surfaces and into the hierarchical pocket-like pores, and the pesticides could subsequently be efficiently recovered from the MCCs, which could then be reused. We used the MCCs to recover pesticides from contaminated tap water and lake water samples, and our results indicate that the MCCs are a potentially effective tool for reducing the environmental burden due to contaminated water.