Abstract
Biochar (BC) has exhibited a great potential to remove water contaminants due to its wide availability of raw materials, high surface area, developed pore structure, and low cost. However, the application of BC for water remediation has many limitations. Driven by the intense desire of overcoming unfavorable factors, a growing number of researchers have carried out to produce BC-based composite materials, which not only improved the physicochemical properties of BC, but also obtained a new composite material which combined the advantages of BC and other materials. This article reviewed previous researches on BC and BC-based composite materials, and discussed in terms of the preparation methods, the physicochemical properties, the performance of contaminant removal, and underlying adsorption mechanisms. Then the recent research progress in the removal of inorganic and organic contaminants by BC and BC-based materials was also systematically reviewed. Although BC-based composite materials have shown high performance in inorganic or organic pollutants removal, the potential risks (such as stability and biological toxicity) still need to be noticed and further study. At the end of this review, future prospects for the synthesis and application of BC and BC-based materials were proposed. This review will help the new researchers systematically understand the research progress of BC and BC-based composite materials in environmental remediation.
Highlights
Along with the rapid growth of industry and economy, water pollution has seriously endangered the environment and human health
We summarized the physicochemical properties of biochar, the preparation method, the performance, and the mechanisms of BC,and BC-based composite materials for contaminants removal, and reviewed the latest progress of BC-based materials in the removal of inorganic and organic pollutants from water and soil
The results showed that the maximum adsorption capacities of Cu(II) and Zn(II) reached up to 128 μg/g and 107 μg/g, respectively, which indicated that BC was a promising adsorbent to remove of heavy metals from the contaminated water
Summary
Along with the rapid growth of industry and economy, water pollution has seriously endangered the environment and human health. BC-based composite materials can be selectively designed or produced for the target pollutants by adding functional materials, magnetic substances, and nanoparticles. As is known to all, the contaminant’s removal efficiency and mechanisms of BC and BC-based composite materials were related to the mineral content, ionic content, organic functional groups, etc. Other researchers found that under oxidizing conditions, the application of BC in soil remediation increased the concentration of As and Co in the dissolved phase All of these toxic chemicals may transfer into food chains and cause toxic or side effects on human and environmental health (El-Naggar et al 2019b, c; Rinklebe et al 2020). We summarized the physicochemical properties of biochar, the preparation method, the performance, and the mechanisms of BC,and BC-based composite materials for contaminants removal, and reviewed the latest progress of BC-based materials in the removal of inorganic and organic pollutants from water and soil. The potential risks of BC applications and future directions are briefly described
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