Biochar-mediated reduction of m-nitrotoluene: Interaction between reduction of m-nitrotoluene and sequestration of contaminants
Abstract
Biochar is a highly effective adsorbent for nitroaromatic compounds (NACs), and acts as an electron shuttle that mediates the reduction of NACs. Hence, when biochar is used to mediate NAC reduction, adsorption and reduction will occur simultaneously and affect each other. However, the effect of biochar-mediated NAC reduction on sorption remains unknown. Eight biochars with different physicochemical properties were used to adsorb m-nitrotoluene and mediate its reduction. The results showed that the adsorption of m-nitrotoluene onto the various biochars facilitated its reduction, whereas biochar-mediated reduction retarded and weakened contaminant adsorption, which increased the environmental risk posed by m-nitrotoluene. Nevertheless, biochars with a high graphitization degree and developed porosity not only had a great catalytic ability, but also significantly alleviated the negative effect of reduction on adsorption. This was ascribed to the π-π interaction and pore-filling effect, which played more important roles than the hydrophobic effect in adsorbing the reduction product (m-toluidine) onto the studied biochars during reduction. Furthermore, the methanol extraction results indicated that the eight biochars presented significantly stronger sequestration abilities for adsorbed m-toluidine than for adsorbed m-nitrotoluene. This resulted from the hydrogen bonding and the Lewis acid-base effect between m-toluidine and each biochar, which were absent for m-nitrotoluene. These…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The increased graphitization degree and reduced polar functional groups on the biochar surface facilitate hydrophobic interactions and π-π electron donor-acceptor (EDA) interactions between phenol molecules and the biochar surface.
“This process is explained by the increased graphitization degree and reduced polar functional groups on the biochar surface, which facilitate hydrophobic interactions and π-π electron donor-acceptor (EDA) interactions between phenol molecules and the biochar surface [63].”
From Innovative Valorization of Wood Panel Waste into Activated Biochar for Efficient Phenol Adsorption (2025) · cites this paper as [63]
Cites
Lian, F., & Xing, B. (2017) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b02528 · Cited by 641 · see citing works
Fang, G., Zhu, C., Dionysiou, D. D., Gao, J., & Zhou, D. (2015) · Bioresource Technology · doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2014.11.032 · Cited by 379 · see citing works
Yu, J., Sun, L., Berrueco, C., Fidalgo, B., Paterson, N., & Millan, M. (2018) · Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis · doi:10.1016/j.jaap.2018.01.018 · Cited by 155 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Innovative Valorization of Wood Panel Waste into Activated Biochar for Efficient Phenol Adsorption
Bentis, A., Ceron Daza, L. D., Dia, M., Koubaa, A., & Braghiroli, F. L. (2025) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app15158518 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wu, L., Zhang, H., Xu, Z., Wang, C., Chen, W., Ni, J., & Wei, R.
- Affiliations
- Fujian Normal University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Weifeng
- Venue
- Science of The Total Environment
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-06
- Volume
- 773
- Pages
- 145662
- ISSN
- 0048-9697 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3128467905
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 0.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- The Science of The Total Environment (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (21607025, 41671326)
- Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2020J01137)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Environmental remediation with nanomaterials
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Adsorption and biosorption for pollutant removal
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Nanomaterials for catalytic reactions
- Keywords
- biochar, m-nitrotoluene, nitroaromatic compounds, adsorption, m-toluidine, graphitization degree, porosity, π-π stacking, pore filling, Lewis acid-base interactions, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic effect, contaminant remediation
- MeSH terms
- Adsorption, Charcoal, Toluene
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
